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The idea behind DIY is that you can save money on various projects and tasks if you take care of it on your own, without paying someone else to do it.
While this can be an effective way to save a little money on everything from home improvement to yard care to car care, the reality is that sometimes it’s just not a good idea to do it on your own.
Before you DIY, ask yourself the following questions:
Do I Have the Right Skills?
In some cases, it’s possible to learn the right DIY skills with a little help from the book or the Internet. There are many things, like cleaning, changing the oil, and simple home renovation projects that can be learned. You won’t mess something up in a major way if you learn something new before tackling the DIY project.
However, some specialized projects require you to have particular skills and expertise. Plumbing and electrical come to mind. Even pouring concrete can, to some degree, require specialization, depending on what you are attempting to do. [ continue reading… ]
Being frugal is generally praised. Your grandparents tell you how smart it is to be frugal. Your uncle boasts about how his refrigerator is older than you are. You read that if you save $5 each day for a year, you’ll have tens of thousands extra at the time you retire.
Now, I’m really frugal so please don’t look at this post as being an attack on the lifestyle. I drive the same make/model of car I drove 10 years ago although this one is a whopping one year newer. My laptop is so old it’s embarrassing to pull open in Starbucks (though it looks on at Dunkin’). And I sometimes pretend a month is actually five or six weeks when it comes to replacing my monthly contact lenses. So again, this post is not an attack on the lifestyle.
I would say though that some of the things we do fall into the ‘too frugal’ category. Right now in my life, I’m correcting course a little bit. If you’d like to as well, keep reading. [ continue reading… ]
I’ve been working on my BBQ skills for several years now, using my friends and family as taste testers. They’re always impressed with how the food turns out and frequently tells me to start a BBQ catering business. Making great BBQ is something I enjoy doing, and I could make money doing it. Through a bit of investigation, and talking to someone that has gone through the process, I compiled the key steps I would need to follow to start my own BBQ catering business.
Become A Certified Food Manager
First, I will need to take a class to learn how to safely handle food and become a certified food manager (CFM). Classes are offered around the state throughout the year. The cost varies by the service offering the class, but they are about $150 on average. Upon completion of the full-day class, I will submit an application to the state for my CFM certificate along with another $45. [ continue reading… ]
College has become something of a Catch-22 for students. It’s impossible to secure even a mediocre job without a college degree, but the constantly spiraling costs of education make it nearly impossible to pay for that necessary degree.
For parents of students, it can be tempting to try to help out – by cosigning a loan, taking out a Parent PLUS loan, or even paying off a child’s individual student loan. However, as reasonable as it may be to want to help your child fulfill their academic potential, taking on their student debt in any way can seriously affect your bottom line.
Here are three reasons why it’s okay to let your child navigate the student debt issue on her own:
1. Co-signing a loan could leave you saddled with debt.
While federal student loans don’t need a co-signer, private student loans will often require one. That can be a huge burden for families. Federal loans offer many repayment options, but private loans are not required to help in any way.
This means that if your child has trouble finding steady or lucrative employment after college, you’ll be on the hook for any payments owed to the co-signed private loan. [ continue reading… ]
Even though my wife and I otherwise fall into fairly traditional roles when it comes to our finances – I’m the breadwinner while she mainly takes care of our family’s daily needs – we always had separate checking accounts.
What we do is that I send her a fixed amount at the beginning of each month and she uses the money as she pleases. If she spends too much one month, then she’ll have to be more frugal the next. If she saved a bit, then she can splurge a bit more. I take care of the family finances and mechanics of saving for the future, so she’s “living paycheck-to-paycheck” sort of speak. It’s a lovely arrangement for her though because the paychecks are dependable and she doesn’t worry at all about running out of money in the future. It works for me too because we avoid bickering about every little spending decision by keeping the focus on the big picture.
While some marriage and finance experts recommend sharing a joint checking account to ensure good marital communication about money, I find that we are far from the only ones who benefit from having separate checking accounts. I know a few other couples who use separate checking accounts to keep the family finances humming along. Here are five reasons why this works: [ continue reading… ]
Minimalism has a lot in common with frugality. The goal of both philosophies is to reduce waste so you can live and consume with intention. Frugal minimalists can happily incorporate ideas from each school of thought to create the lovely home and life they want while saving money.
However, there are places where minimalism parts ways with frugality — which can sometimes mean costly mistakes. Have you fallen victim to any of these three hidden costs to minimalism?
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