Counting today, we move in 17 days. While I am incredibly excited, I am also a nervous wreck. Moving stresses me out. Ignoring all of the psychological reasons and sheer amount of work, moving is expensive. I received our first quote the other day from a major moving company, $4000.00. Yikes! Way more than I anticipated. We have two other “local” moving companies coming out this week to provide offers. I’m hoping they will be far less expensive.
After writing my article on teen money mistakes and talking about my discussion with my oldest son about his long shower and how much water costs it made a difference. I’ve noticed him taking shorter showers. Still not as short as I would like, but shorter. Unfortunately, my 2nd son seems to now be the guilty of the long shower syndrome as well.
I don’t believe they take long showers intentionally. After some talks with them, they don’t really realize how long they’re in there, especially in the morning when they are half asleep. I decided I needed some type of timer or solution to help remind them when a reasonable amount of time was up. So off to Google I went.
The talk of the country over the past few months has been about when people would receive their economic stimulus check. Now the Obama campaign is talking about the possibility of a second economic stimulus check. I’m not exactly sure why, but I was thinking about these stimulus packages over the weekend. Instead of the government bailing out the economy, why couldn’t Americans create their own economic stimulus checks?
Economic stimulus checks are at the very least $600.00. How could the average American earn $600.00? Here are just a few of the many ideas:
While driving down the road the other day, I was behind a car that had a license plate frame that said “Brand Spankin Used from [Name of Dealership]“. I thought it was great little saying. I am a huge advocate of buying “Brand Spankin used”. The main reason is to save money.
Here are just a few things I like to buy “brand spankin used”:
This article is part of an ongoing series called Money Saving Monday. Each Monday, I share tips and techniques you can use to start saving money.
There are of course many ways to save money. I also firmly believe that saving is the foundation for building wealth. Â I’ve written about using points, kids eat free days, using SmartyPig, and even about how to buy an engagement ring online. In this article I wanted to get back to the basics of saving money and review the more traditional ways of saving money.
My wife and I found a another home we really liked while doing our house hunting trip over the weekend. The house is big enough and based on the limited research I did, the price looks right as well. The problem is that it’s above what we had planned to spend for a home.
We spent the evening discussing the house and whether it was something we really wanted or not. Most of our conversation centered on one topic: Can we afford it? This is an easy question to answer, but far more difficult to answer in many cases, especially for higher priced items like cars, homes, etc. This is also a question is a topic that comes up in our household frequently. We even had this same conversation concerning our trip.
We received a call from my oldest son’s football coach last week who informed us the first football practice of the season starts tonight. Tonight? Wait, it’s not even…oh wait, it is August already. Whoa, school starts in 3 weeks. That also means Christmas is only 5 months away.
I wrote about starting a Christmas savings fund last year. I strongly advised that in order avoid using credit cards during the Christmas season that you should begin automatically setting aside some money in a special account (I use ING Direct). I suggested that you should determine what your Christmas budget would be for the year, divide that amount by 12 and set-up an automatic savings withdrawl in that amount.
Each and every Monday, I share with you some tip I practice or have heard about in an ongoing series I have called Money Saving Monday. Back in December, I was a bit busy and put together a quick round-up of my money saving Monday posts. As it turns out, the round-up was pretty popular. So I thought I would once again gather together all of my money saving Monday articles since the last round-up. While I might be a bit partial, I think there are some really great tips here.
Each Monday here on Gather Little by Little I write about topics and techniques for saving money. This article is part of that ongoing series called Money Saving Monday Tips.
I know, I know not another article on gas prices, MPGs, or hypermiling right? Well, bear with me as this is an idea that will not only reduce your gas costs but might even be fun!
Photo by: Zesmerelda
Each Monday here on Gather Little by Little I write about topics and techniques for saving money. This article is part of that ongoing series called Money Saving Monday Tips.
With 6 children in our house, it seems like we’re always on the run. Whether it be sports practice, Tae Kwon Do, school activities or church activities, most nights seem to busy. Trying to get dinner made and make it to the various activities on time can be a bit challenging. As a result, we use a few different dinner ideas that are not only quick and easy to fix, but inexpensive as well.
