Every summer, since I have gotten divorced, I have taken my two children on a summer vacation. We always try to go the last week of June, because it happens to be in between all 3 of our birthdays. Therefore, we call it our Summer Birthday trip. This may sound extravagant, but I have always done it on the cheap, since I didn’t have much money for years.
This year we vowed to track our budget and post everything here so that we are being held even more accountable. I wasn’t sure how this month was going to go, primarily because of taxes. So now it is time to check out how we ultimately did with our April budget.
Saving money can be really hard sometimes, especially when you are trying to get out of debt. One of the biggest places that we spend our money is on groceries (which is not surprising with a family of 7). However, since the beginning of the year we have been working very diligently to cut our expenses to get closer to financial independence. One of the most difficult budget categories for us is groceries. But we have found a few ways to help us save a bundle on groceries, which has really helped!
I don’t know about you, but we are thrilled that Spring is almost here! But with the new season, comes Spring Break for our kids. Of course, they all want to know where we will be taking them. The kicker is that just because they have the week off, doesn’t mean that we do. Sadly, that is not always how “adult” life works. Even though we won’t be taking them anywhere for Spring Break, we still have some fun plans in store for them. The bonus is that these ideas won’t kill our budget either!
Here we go again! Yes, that’s right. Valentine’s Day is here again and it is time to show off our plumage to keep the fire burning with our partner. But what is the best way to do that without breaking the bank? That is a very good question!
With the beginning of the New Year, comes the standard desire for change. At least for the majority of us. Well, we happen to be no different in that we know that we can do better. Therefore, when we had our end of the year budget meeting to go over all of the numbers, we decided to make a big change with our budget.
We all want to start the New Year out right and change some things that aren’t working for us. For a lot of us, that means changing the way we eat and spend our money. So what if we tackle both of those topics in one fail swoop? Let’s dive into how to save money and eat right in the New Year to create some balance.
I was reading another personal finance blog the other day and the writer was telling about how he had saved a LOT of money in a little bit of time. Several hundred thousand dollars in just five years.
It was a cool and inspiring post, but as I read deeper into his techniques for increasing his saving I realized via some photos he had shared that he had definitely crossed the line from “frugal” to “cheap” in his pursuit of wealth. Read more
I don’t know about you, but as our family keeps getting larger so does the cost of our holiday gifts. Due to this, we keep coming up with more and more creative ways to pile more presents under the tree for less. Sometimes, this can be tricky, since all of the kids want everything they see, plus we have family to buy for. And this doesn’t even include the food! But this year, we found yet another way to save money and keep below our budget.
This is the time of year where everything gets a little bit crazier and we all get a bit stressed out. The holiday’s can creep up on us, just like the end of the year, and when that happens we have a hard time deciding which way to turn. On top of the holiday madness, there is something even more important to think about. Our retirement accounts.
