Coupons, Freebies, and Tips to Save Money Every Day
My boyfriend, Derrick, just got a huge raise at work so you think he’d be excited, but that’s not the case. He’ll be able to pay off more of his $150,000 college debt and enjoy extra spending money, but he is still frantically applying to jobs and here’s why. Derrick took the first job he was offered out of college because he was so worried about his
If you are part of the 54 percent of Americans who are making financial resolutions in 2014, you are in good company. We start off with good intentions but before we know it, it’s April Fool’s Day, you just blew $20 on saran wrap for “the most epic prank ever” and your goals are long forgotten. Not this year, my people. We here at Bargain
Awhile back my husband and I redid our monthly budget, updating it with his salary raise, our new life insurance policy, and the money we’re putting into our various savings and retirement accounts. We discovered we were saving 26% of our take home income! Are we saving too much?
This Christmas I was on a very tight budget as I’ve been trying to save $5,000 for a 35-day trip to Europe. Saving for my trip has proven much harder than I had anticipated because of the holidays. By this point, I wanted to have saved $4,500, but I’ve only saved $3,000. I managed to save $3,000 by REALLY limiting my Christmas budget. Here are
January always brings a chance to make better choices and since this blog has nothing to do with tipsy texting your high school sweetheart, I thought we’d talk about what I’m doing differently financially in 2014. We already chatted about five financial new year’s resolutions, and most of those I already have in place in my life. It’s time to step it up. It’s time
The great part of winter break is that you have tons of free time. You should use this time to enjoy the holidays and visit friends and family, but you can also take advantage of this break to make your time back at school less stressful. By mixing equal parts work and fun, you can make the most of winter break without feeling like you
I’m scared to think about how much we spent on Christmas this year. I’ve avoided looking at our credit card bill, which we’ve been capping at $2,000 each month, because I knew we were going to go over. Way over. I tried to save money on Christmas gifts this year – but with a new baby in tow, and a lot of family coming to
I thought I was being such a bargain babe by shopping for an ugly Christmas sweater party at a thrift store, where clothing prices top out at $5 per item. But I ended up overspending by 130%!!!! Egads, as my grandmother used to say. Here’s how I overspent at the thrift store.
Every year my best friend’s Mom has a huge party the Saturday following Thanksgiving. Not only does she make some of a huge amount of food (there were 15 different appetizers this year!) but she also sets up a holiday craft table that I end up showcasing on my tree or in my living room. The best part is that all of these holiday crafts
My extended family has always given gift cards and cash as presents – gifts that were much more valuable to me than even a beautiful piece of jewelry or outfit would have been. I have used this money to fund my frugal travels. I never thought the gift cards weren’t thoughtful gifts. The relatives who gave me general purpose cards would normally write me cards
I recently read the article “Should You Buy a Holiday Gift for Your Boss” on TheBillfold.com. Before reading this article, I had no idea that buying your boss a Christmas gift was uncommon. My Dad owns a small auto parts store in Rhode Island and has always been very close with the staff. Every year my Dad holds a holiday party and the staff get
Throughout college I worked many different jobs, from internships to part-time jobs, to pay for part of my college costs. I was also on my school’s gymnastics team. My friends joked that I hardly had time to sleep and they were right. Even though I worked often, I graduated with honors. Still, I can’t help but wonder if my grades may have been even higher
Do you shred all receipts – or do you toss them into the trash in once piece? For a long time I’ve shredded anything that has part of my credit card number on it OR anything that has me my full name and address. Which is just about every receipt and piece of mail I receive. It’s time consuming to save all my receipts and
One of my fantasies for saving money is to live off the grid. No electrical bills, no gas bill, no heating oil bill, no water bill! I day dream about collecting gray water, composting toilets, and harvesting rain water. What self-sufficient bliss! The problem is, I have no idea how to turn this money saving fantasy into reality. Have you lived off the grid? How did
This post is brought to you by BlackFri.com, where you can see all of the Black Friday Ads before they come out in the Thanksgiving Day paper. “8% interest is good, right?” I asked my Dad. “Well, it’s good for the bank,” he said. “Better than a higher rate though, so it could be worse.” I don’t know much about interest rates and loan payments,
