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…
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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.
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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:
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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.
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Whether you choose to get organic food because you believe in more sustainable methods of agriculture, have heard that organic foods are more nutrient dense or because of medical concerns, there are many reasons that lead people to go organic. But even if you consider organic food to be an investment in the planet’s future or in your health, you surely want to save where you can because the prices can shock you. There are several well-recognized ways to cut your organic food bill. Here are a few.
Cooperative Ventures
While other groups of people support cooperative lifestyles, for some reason, those interested in organic foods seem to have a real advantage. Purchasing your dry goods with a food co-op will often save you 30-40% right off the bat. One of the reasons you save so much is that you eliminate the middleman.
My co-op ordered monthly, and each of us had a booklet that listed everything the distributor carried. We would e-mail each other our list of the month and see who wanted to share cases of a certain product. The order would be sent in and each month someone else would drive down to the warehouse, about an hour away, and pick up everything.
Once the driver got home we all met to parcel out the goods. An additional benefit was advance knowledge regarding which items would be on sale so we could stock up for the season.
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A home costs a lot of money over the years, whether you rent an apartment or buy a house. But the costs go up by a lot if you find yourself having to do major repairs — the bill a plumber or an electrician can send may quickly translate into a heart attack.
But an ounce of prevention really can be worth a pound of cure, just like Ben Franklin said. Putting time and effort into maintenance means that even if there is a problem, you’ll see it coming. At the very least, it means you can save up for the repair work you know you’ll need to do. Here are 10 tips.
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