There are a lot of people out there who are anti-the current unemployment system. They were especially against the recent constant extending of unemployment benefits. I can understand the reasons why, however, I believe that there are times when the government needs to participate in deficit spending, and this was one of the cases. (Would I have preferred it if the government had been smart enough to save for a rainy day when times were good?read more…
The best advice I can give about credit cards is not to carry a balance – pay it off every month, and then you never pay interest. But I know for some people, that’s not an option, at least for now. They’re already overloaded with credit card debt, and they’re just trying to find a way out of the mess. Credit card companies know this, too, and they are more than happy to prey on yourread more…
A little over two months ago, when I started this blog, I talked about how a budget wasn’t the first thing you needed. Instead, I said the first thing you had to do was to start tracking all of your expenses. Then, in late May I talked about how a budget was not the second thing you needed. Instead, I said, you needed to know your money goals. A couple days later I talked about theread more…
Once you get in to the habit of saving money, spending can be hard, especially spending large sums of money, even if you’re spending it on exactly what it was saved for. Am I making sense? We paid for the hubby’s summer school courses this last week- on the bank card. It was almost as much as a mortgage payment, and we’ll be spending even more in September. It kind of freaks me out, even thoughread more…
I forgot to post last night as I was too busy playing Rock Band and watching old television shows via Netflix with my family.Its the best type of quality time: in the comfort of home, home made dinner (arroz con pollo), the ability to pause, puppies curled up in your lap, and FREE.
Does a broken mail box count as an emergency? I mean, not being able to get my mail seems like a pretty big deal to me. This last week has been filled with little things, and the reason we have not just an emergency fund, but a small amount of savings set aside for the little things that come up. First, the Xbox 360 broke. It is $20 less to repair than to buy a “new”read more…
The point of budgeting is not to save every single penny or even to pay off debt, though those are both options. The point of budgeting is to give yourself control- control over where you spend your money. Placing yourself on a budget does not mean that you can never buy brand name again, or even that you have to clip coupons and only shop the sales. It means that you have determined your priorities andread more…
Eating out is often one of the biggest budget killers, one of the places we spend our money without even thinking about it. If you’ve been tracking your spending, add up how much you’ve spent to eat out in the last month. Our budget is $150/month, though we grossly went over that in May (for various budgeted reasons).We used to spend $400/month on eating out, though, so our normal $150 a month was a pretty majorread more…
This came up in conversation with a friend who’s very good at budgeting, is totally on top of her savings, etc – cash flow is different than a budget. And it really is pretty important that you track them both. In the sense of not getting overdrawn, cash flow is more important that a budget. A budget is simply a goal- a desired amount that you want to spend on certain activities for the week/month/year- howeverread more…
You’ve been tracking your spending now for over a month. Have you recorded all of it? Even the credit card spending? Yes, you need to pay attention to that too. After all, you’re still paying for it. In fact, if you’re carrying a balance on your card, your paying more for it that you otherwise would. Still, you’re not ready for a budget yet. Now, you need to know your goals- and not just your moneyread more…
