If you aren’t careful, you could wind spending a lot of extra money on unexpected kids expenses. For most families, a good portion of disposable income (or even not so disposable) goes missing this way. You can get the situation under control by putting your kids on a budget. Okay, let us face it, it is really you who are on a budget, but you’ll be glad. Determine how you should budget per child. You might be surprised how quickly the expenses add up when it comes to kids. Establish a mini budget per child, since you may have different … Continue reading →

Now is the time to start thinking about energy efficiency. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, certain energy prices will rise in 2011. Be prepared by taking these steps to increase efficiency. The increases are said to be specifically in the areas of electricity and natural gas, so it is these areas that you can concentrate most upon in your energy savings strategy. Cooking with an oven can use lots of energy, whether it is with natural gas or electricity. Therefore you want to minimize wasteful sue of the oven. It takes a good amount of energy to heat … Continue reading →

It looks like there will be no new postage increase for 2011. Regulators have rejected the proposed postage price increase as of September 30th. Back in July, the Postal Service met to discuss an increase in the postal rate hike. For most of us, we are concerned with the regular first class stamp. The proposal would have raised the cost of that first class stamp from 44 cents to 46 cents. When I reported on the possible rate increase, I suggested that you keep an eye out for the increase and purchase forever stamps. Forever stamps can be used, well, … Continue reading →

Do you have a stash of Forever stamps? I hope so because another postal rate increase is in the works. Yes, it is true, the cost of first class stamps and other postage will probably go up again, even though it seems as though we just had a rate hike. In actuality, prices went up in May 2009, more than a year ago. It only seems like it just happened, I think, because we have been so used to rate hikes coming few and far between for the longest time. And now that is changing. I do have to say … Continue reading →

It is bad enough when you have to spend money on the things that you need and want, but doesn’t it make you made when you find out that you are spending money on things that you wouldn’t choose? For example, there are so many areas in your finances and your home that drain money from your wallet. Most of these money drains are hidden and others we take for granted in our day and age. Try to eliminate as many money drains as you possibly can, and you’ll have extra cash left over at the end of each month. … Continue reading →

Social lending using the Internet is a relatively new phenomena that may save you a lot of money. But, like any lending, there are pros and cons. What is social lending all about, and is it really frugal? Basically, social lending consists of networks, some small, others a bit larger, that facilitate small loans, usually lent by private individuals. The interest rates on these social loans is usually much lower than what is offered by a bank. Plus, there are usually no restrictions on the minimum you can borrow. So, for example, if you needed to borrow $200 for a … Continue reading →

Give me one good reason why we should keep this car. Actually, give me at least three. I’m ready to call it done. On Monday, my husband called from work to tell me that the brakes on one of our cars went out. Fortunately, this occurred when he was pulling into the parking lot, so the problem didn’t cause an accident. It is a scary thing of course, and I wonder why our regular maintenance checks didn’t catch a potential problem. We expected the repair bill to be reasonable, about $100 or so. So, we were floored when the shop … Continue reading →

When it comes to spending, what are the basics? What things do you need to purchase each month? These are the things that you should concentrate your saving efforts for right away. Why am I advocating concentrating on knocking down the costs of the basics instead of knocking down the costs of the largest expenses or even of the luxury expenses? Simply because when it comes down to it, all other things can be eliminated in a crisis, while the basics have to remain. Everyone is going to have a different set of basic needs, with some obvious categories that … Continue reading →

Today I received my e-bill from the electric company. Each month I’ve been trying to reduce spending. I now make my own cleaning products, and eat less prepackaged foods. When I get my electric bill I like to check the handy graph on my statement to see how much I spent this month last year compared to the current year. Since our house is almost all electric, it’s always my biggest bill. Imagine my surprise when I went onto the Tucson Electric Power website and saw that I had gone from using 1240 kWh in March of last year to … Continue reading →

These past few months, our spending has been out of control. Part of the reason for this is a major family crisis that had us all focusing on other things and spending money out of necessity. Now that things are starting to get back to normal, I want to make sure that we curb that spending, and not fall into the trap of doing things the way were had been doing them before. One thing that will be really helpful to us is to be able to see exactly where our money is going each month. And all of that … Continue reading →