Personal Finance Advice

For a store where everything’s a dollar, I’m surprised I don’t shop there more often. I guess I’m a creature of habit so I’m more likely to go to a store that I know will have a particular item in stock. But recently I took a trip to my local dollar store to see what [...]

I find that usually the weekends are the only time I have to do any sort of shopping, whether it be for groceries, clothes, stuff for the house, or pretty much anything we need (or sometimes don’t need). But the majority of our most recent Saturday was spend lying around the house and watching tv, [...]

I am a sucker for sales. I’m the kind of person that will buy something that is deeply discounted even though I don’t really need it. I’ve come to realize that no matter how good of a deal it is, it’s not a deal for me if I don’t need it. However, that knowledge does [...]

In October, I wrote an article entitled “25 Ways to Avoid Turning on Your Heat This Winter.” I included some helpful advice and some silly ones just for laughs. Well, springtime is here and I can say that we actually avoided turning our heat on this winter. Our lowest temperature this winter was 2 degrees, [...]

When my interest in personal finance began to grow, I began to seek out knowledge from sources such as books, the Internet and personal advice, as well as various other sources. But if you’ve ever read more than one finance book, or read more than one personal finance blog, you realize there can be conflicting [...]

I’ve personally never seen this game show, but recently I saw a parody of it that was done at my church when they were talking about finances. It was actually very interesting how they laid it out and made the correlation and it made a lot of sense. They had a “contestant” come up (he [...]

The most common question my husband and I have been asked since we got married a couple of years ago is “When are you guys going to have kids?” Each time, we give the same answer — that were not ready for a baby yet. We’ve often received the following response: “If you try and [...]

Since I landed my first job at age 15, I have been with the same bank. It is a credit union open only to residents of Washington State and I love the perks it gives us. When my husband and I got married, we decided to go with my bank for our checking and savings [...]

The most expensive day of your week completely depends on your individual circumstances and spending habits, but I think for a lot of people, that day is Friday. There are many different factors that can influence why your spending would be more on Friday than on any other day of the week and here are [...]

The football season is over now, and while that makes my husband very sad, it actually makes me pretty happy since I don’t particularly enjoy football. While I can’t get too interested in watching the game itself, I know there are some things to learn from the game. For instance, it’s better to be on [...]

The other day someone mentioned to my husband something about the fact that I always find the best deals and I always have a coupon for something. That’s actually a pretty true statement. I can sniff out a coupon a mile away. It’s almost like a game for me — to see if I can [...]

Just recently my husband and I have decided to tighten up our spending a little more than we have been doing in the past. We currently have an amount budgeted for extra spending (entertainment, fun things, clothes, etc.) and in the past, this has been more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule. [...]

Do you ever find that it is difficult to remember things? A weak memory is often hard to fix, but there are some things you can do to help yourself remember things. I’ve actually found that having a budget helps me remember certain things. How is that? Well my budget is a spreadsheet where I [...]

“Falling housing market.” “Possible recession.” “Troubled economy.” These phrases have been buzzing around lately in the media. Real estate prices were going up and many people decided to buy more house than they could afford with unconventional mortgage terms. Now the house prices are falling in many areas and people can’t keep up with their [...]

My husband and I recently celebrated our 2 year anniversary at the end of January. As it happened, it coincided with the aftermath of a bit too much spending at Christmas time — the dreaded credit card bills. Granted we pay our credit card bills in full each month, so when the ones from Christmas [...]

I think all of us have been guilty of financial envy at one time or another. “I wish I could afford a car like that” or “I wish we could live in a house like theirs.” It’s not as much of “Keeping up the Joneses” as it is simply envying the Joneses. If I see [...]

I recently came across an article on The Simple Dollar website entitled “Dealing With A Bad Day Without Spending Money.” The author, Trent Hamm, listed 6 things that help him to chill out after a bad day and don’t cost a thing. I was inspired by the suggestions he listed and came up with 13 [...]

I would be willing to bet that most of the people who read these blogs are pretty financial savvy — or at least are trying to be. But everyone once in a while people can get duped into spending money on something that is either a scam or simply a waste of money. I admit [...]

This morning it was 2 degrees outside when I woke up. When it’s that cold outside, most people tend to want a hot cup of coffee or hot chocolate to warm them up. However, I made myself an iced latte this morning. Most people think I’m crazy for drinking iced coffee when it’s hardly holding [...]

We recently had our first snow of the winter and now my city is under a blanket of white. Snow sure makes everything more beautiful (except the roads and my car). Many people take advantage of winter sports like skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling, but these activities can come with quite a hefty price tag. If [...]