Personal Finance Advice

The budget talks with my husband have been resolved via a compromise.  As of June 1, we are adding a separate grocery budget of $125 per week (remember we had been taking our grocery money out of the $200 spending) and then each keeping our respective $200.  This effectively increases weekly spending money by about $50-$60.  I still wanted to push for more cut backs but the warning signs of jumpin [...]

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard about the latest social media sensation called Pinterest. It's a big virtual bulletin board where users can post pictures of just about anything and group them into collections like, "Things I love," "Books to Read," and "Things I'm passionate about." While I'm not on Pinterest personally, a friend asked me to check out her board. W [...]

Here come the 0% balance transfers from Discover card. Remember they would do nothing to help me knock down that 18.4% interest rate just a few weeks ago?  I found out about this offer b/c I got an email saying they were going to debit my account for the "minimum due."  Well, with the balance at $0 I hopped onto the website to figure out why there was a minimum payment at all. After sign on, a [...]

I may not have shared in detail just how spreadsheet incompetent I really am---but today's post will solidify me as forever "excel challenged." I checked our bank account this morning and was confused to find a transfer from savings to checking.  We certainly didn't initiate it which, of course, is not good news.  Yep--overdraft protection kicked in--but WHY?  We showed a very positive number o [...]

A friend of mine recently went to the doctor for her annual physical. Her blood pressure was on the high side, so the doctor trotted out the prescription pad and wrote her a prescription for a blood pressure lowering drug. He didn't offer any other suggestions or advice, just the scrip and a push out the door. Fortunately, my friend is smart and she's well-informed on health matters. Before [...]

It should go without saying that you should treat everyone you interact with during the day with respect and consideration even if there weren't any benefit to doing so. It's simply the nice (and right) thing to do. The fact is, however, that being considerate to others can often result in you saving money. Here are some examples of how: Price Negotiations Sometimes being nice can brin [...]

First of all--thank you everyone for the great feedback on last night's post!  We are still digesting info and will report back with our decision.  We do know that we have much work to do on defining our budget items.  As of now we have no defined budget for a lot of the items mentioned.  It was a huge step to just define a lump sum 5 months ago to stop the bleed.  Now it is time to tighten up the [...]

I and other financial writers often tell people to ask for discounts, particularly on large ticket items, because you just never know when a retailer might be willing to cut you a break. Many people are reluctant to try it, however. Some are afraid of being embarrassed and some think it just won't work. The first I can't help you with, although here are some tips for haggling. You just have to [...]

Disclaimer:  My husband IS aware of this post and, as you will see, participated in its drafting.  Fasten your seatbelts--this one is a doozie! I am trying to figure out the best way to convey a lot of information without overwhelming everyone with a lot of information.  Let's start with the upcoming changes that sort of got this discussion started.  Steve has been paying private school tuition [...]

It's an easy trap to fall into. Your friends have cool stuff. You buy cool stuff. Before you realize it, you're surrounded by the latest and greatest model of everything and working 3 jobs to pay for it all. The easiest way to stop the madness is to recognize the signs and break the cycle before it gets too far. Let's look at a few of the possible signs of trying to keep up with the Joneses, a [...]