If you are familiar with how to create a budget, you probably know the three components: fixed expenses which are the same every month and do not change, variable expenses that may change some from month to month and are often bought from a store, and savings or financial goals! Today I’d like to discuss a basic guideline for budgeting, the 50/30/20 rule. The...
One of the hardest places to trim your budget has to be in the grocery section. Eating is a necessity, and it’s possible to spend an exorbitant amount of money at the grocery store. But it certainly doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re looking for a way to save a bit of money without sacrificing too much, then check out these 11 tips: 1. Stop...
Making your own salad dressing takes only about as long as it would to open your store bought dressing, and with the possibilities of saving your hard earned money, there really is no reason to get store-bought dressing ever again! Here are 5 easy salad dressing recipes that you can make at home to save some money! 1) French 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/4 cup...
While it’s important to have an emergency fund, one of the biggest mistakes that I see people making (and believe me, I have done this myself at one point) is using a credit card for emergencies. I think most people have this mentality, but if you’re serious about getting your finances under control and preparing for the worst, then a credit card is the...
Before we can dive in to ways to simplify your finances, we should probably go over some ways that your finances are getting, well, complicated. Here are a few ways that can happen: Too many bank accounts and credit cards Multiple outstanding debts Too many transactions— some regular, some irregular Too much paperwork It’s probably not going to be something...
Photo by Jacob Edward, Senior Planning Being frugal is hard. There is constant pressure to spend money and more and more things in our consumerist society, and it can be easy for people to quickly lose track of where their money is actually going. I’ve been there, and I’m sure you have too. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you are conscious...
One of the biggest parts of living a frugal life is creating a budget and then sticking to it. We have already gone through a step-by-step process of how to create your budget and even how to stretch your budget, so as a continuation today I would like to talk about how to budget for irregular expenses. When I say “irregular expenses” I’m talking...
And undeniable part of being frugal is the ability to sometimes make the most out of less. Whether that means getting crafty, simply recycling, or even reusing things, you’d be surprised how much you can save simply by being careful about what you throw away and what you repurpose. Here is a list of 10 things you should never throw away, as there are always...
The average American drinks two cups of coffee every day, and I am no different. I’m a coffee lover through and through, and apparently the rest of the country is too. Two cups every day will make a lot of old coffee grounds, right? A big part of being frugal is not wasting things. If we can use every part of something or create new uses for old things,...
As far as I know, there isn’t any get-rich-quick scheme just waiting around to make you debt free. As unfortunate as that is, plenty of hustle and hard work will eventually help you get to your goal. It might take months, it could take years, but the work is worth it in order to be able to focus on the present and the future instead of your old bills! It’s...