Sharing insights since 2007 on carefully saving money, investing, frugal living, coupons, promo codes because the little things matter in achieving financial freedom!
Poor spendthrifts don’t get a lot of love on personal finance blogs and websites. We tsk-tsk at their irresponsibility and try to show them the joys of being prudent and frugal but maybe there are lessons that we can learn from our more free spending cousins.
Of course, it’s all about balance and if the scales are too tilted towards wild abandon it can end in disaster but I’m a firm believer that there are positive ways to express almost any personality trait. And in the interest of complete disclosure, I have a spendthrift streak in me a mile wide and have found that it gives me a few advantages over my friends that come by their frugality naturally. [ continue reading… ]
Prescription drugs are one of those items that we know are necessary, but the cost can make them a real budget buster. Some medications cost in excess of $100 each month, and for those people who take several drugs at once, the price tag quickly exceeds their ability to pay.
Before you opt out of taking medications you need, let’s look at some ways you can reduce your expense. [ continue reading… ]
How does one get from saying, I really should start to budget to Yes, I regularly keep a budget? Like many such changes and transitions, there is a catalyst that provides the necessary motivation to start budgeting. But what was is it?
The Consumer Reports Money Book says that the two most common reasons people start a budget are the birth of a child and a move to a new home. The next three catalytic events are a major medical expense, divorce, and retirement. This certainly suggests that people start budgeting in response to one of three significant events in life. Here are a few more… [ continue reading… ]
We’re getting close to the start of the new school year. With that comes shopping lists of school supplies, new clothes and school fees. Whether you have a child starting kindergarten or one in college, keeping back to school costs under control can be a problem. There are plenty of ads out there based on exactly that premise: how many television spots have you seen in the past few weeks where some parent is stressing out about the cost of getting her child ready to go back to school, only to be saved by the low, low prices of some specific store?
Unfortunately, there isn’t one individual store that can automatically drop the price of all your back to school purchases. But the spending can be controlled, with a little planning and a willingness to consider options beyond the obvious. [ continue reading… ]
It’s that time of year again: Thousands of college students are returning to campus, looking for another year of education. Of course, college tuition is expensive, and there are other costs associated with attending university. No matter the costs, though, there are ways to save money. Here are 5 ways you can save money as a college student: [ continue reading… ]
It’s that time of year again when children come home from school with brightly colored fliers promising them cool prizes if they sell so much wrapping paper or x number of entertainment books. Often, they’ve just come from a pep rally of sorts to get them pumped up and excited about the notion of raising money for their school and earning those cool prizes.
Even if you don’t have school aged children, you’ll probably get handed an order form or two at work or a social event and find it awkward to buy nothing. After all, you’d like to help out your friend’s children but you really have no need for a 3lb bucket of cookie dough, especially not at fund-raiser prices.
Of course, almost all of us want to help our local schools and give the children wonderful educational activities but participating in fundraisers might not be the best way to make this happen. Schools only receive a small portion of each sale and the dedicated members of parent’s organization have to spend many hours to put it all together. I think all of us appreciate that PTOs and PTAs are in between a rock and a hard place when it comes to fund raisers.
That said, you have to put yourself and your family first so here are a few thoughts on declining to participate in fund raisers in a graceful way. [ continue reading… ]
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