One of the first steps toward getting a handle on personal finances is to develop a budget. Over the years, I’ve tracked household expenses in everything from simple Excel budget templates that print on one sheet to elaborate income and expense worksheets with many tabs. One of the best monthly budget templates I've ever seen can be downloaded for free from Vertex42.com. Free Sample Monthly Budget Template This worksheet can be used with Open Office, Google Docs, or Microsoft Excel versions 2002 (XP) or later. This simple budgeting template is visually appealing and easy to Keep Reading
How You Can Feed a Hungry Child By Using Online Coupon Codes…Seriously!
Learn how you can use Save1 to feed a hungry child! Good friends and long-time readers of my blog know that I have a soft spot for charities that feed hungry children. I love volunteering with a local charity, Backpack Buddies, that sends home food-filled backpacks every Friday with children who might not otherwise eat over the weekend when school’s out. And you only have to take one glance at my blog to know that I’m a big fan of money-saving strategies. Sometimes I even combine those interests, such as in the post 7 Things You Don’t Need But Buy Anyway. Keep Reading
How to Be Frugal – Advice from an Expert
In need of tips to be frugal in life? Read on to discover nine helpful hints from an expert herself! Expert Advice on Frugality Amy Dunn, frugal newspaper blogger, shared her advice on how to be thrifty with me years ago. The online magazine that published this interview no longer has this posted, so I wanted to raise this post from the ashes to share with my WhatMommyDoes readers Read below for Amy's best penny-pinching tips and sound advice for saving money on purchases. How to Be Frugal - Saving Money Way of Life When asked what it means to be conservative with money, Amy Keep Reading
Peanut Free Snack Ideas for Preschoolers
This week I have to buy snacks for my daughter's preschool class. Every time I go to the store for this, I don't have a plan because I can't seem to remember which items have peanuts in them and which ones don't. I'm fortunate that none of my kids have peanut allergies. For the sake of the ones who do at school, I definitely don't want to violate the peanut free rule. So this time I planned ahead and came up with a list of preschooler friendly snacks that don't have peanuts in them based on past experience and recommendations from the preschool. Of course, I am going to check Keep Reading
Beginner’s Guide to Couponing
Learn how to save money with coupons with this beginner's guide! Clipping and using coupons (otherwise known as "couponing") is a great way to save money on everyday expenses. It takes dedication, but is well worth the effort and time. I get tons of questions from friends and family about couponing (I can get a bit obsessed with it, and they know it!), so I'm starting a resource section on WhatMommyDoes, beginning with this Beginner's Guide to Couponing. I will expand on different parts of this guide as I have time. List of Supplies Needed to Start Saving Money with Keep Reading
77 Days of Saving Challenge ~ Spend Less, Save More, Enjoy Life & Possibly Win $100 Cash!!
Today I am joining several other personal finance bloggers in a $100 cash giveaway! The giveaway entry form appears at the bottom of this post. You may enter multiple times for many different chances at winning! **If you don't mind, please make the WhatMommyDoes Twitter entry option your first stopping point!** The giveaway's theme is "Finances in the New Year." To kick off the new year, I am going to challenge myself and YOU to be better about saving money. If you are interested in joining me, please read on for more information, comment below, and enter the contest afterwards. You just Keep Reading
Do We Really Need Cable TV? What Are Our Alternatives?
Recently we went through a few household budget changes and finding cable television alternatives became essential. We added a new baby to the mix, restarting all of the baby-related expenses from hospital bills to diapers and feeding. With the addition if our third child and a simultaneous big increase in my husband's travel schedule, I also found myself using a house cleaner and babysitters more than I'd like to. We now also have two kids in preschool for the time being. Unfortunately all of this extra spending didn't come with an offsetting income increase. :=/ So lately I've Keep Reading
7 Things You Don’t Really Need But Buy Anyway
Recently, as I was shopping at Target and buying yet another round of products to keep our household running, it occurred to me that I could easily stop spending money on things that we don't really need but are simply conditioned to buy. What first got me thinking about this were the dryer sheets I paid $4.99 for. Really? Do we really need little sheets of fabric softener to make our clothes smell and feel nice? I grew up hanging my family's clothes on the clothes line in the back yard. The clothes often ended up smelling like grass, fresh air, or even mildew if I accidentally Keep Reading
How to Find Money in Your Pantry or Fridge
Recently, I unveiled my Ultimate List of Ways to Save Money. It's a growing list of all the ways I talk about saving money around the house. Next up, doing a pantry challenge! #9 on the list: Do a pantry challenge every so often Soon after posting this, I received a comment that made me realize not everyone is familiar with the term "pantry challenge." I'm not sure where I first heard that term. It's highly possible I made it up, although I believe I heard about it in a local online deals forum. Basically, it's a simple tactic that I use to save our family $40 per month on groceries. It's Keep Reading
Ultimate List of Ways to Save Money
Use these 100 Ways to Save Money to reduce your expenses! At WhatMommyDoes, you'll find lots of posts about saving money. If you've been here since the beginning, it's possible you've seen every single post and remember every single way to save. Realistically, you only know about the savings tips we wrote about in our latest blog posts featured on the home page. I want one place to corral all the ways to save money that have ever been discussed or ever will be discussed on WhatMommyDoes. So below is my awesome ultimate list of ways to save money with links to related blog Keep Reading
Quick Breakfast Ideas for School Days
Check out these easy and quick breakfast ideas for busy school mornings! This year, I have two little ones in preschool and keep the baby at home with me. We do this three mornings a week. So far, my husband has taken them to school more than I have simply because it's only 1 mile out of his way to work, and preschool starts around the time that he'd normally be leaving anyway. My Time Management Issues He's much better at getting them to school on time than I am. For some reason, no matter what time I start, I never seem to make it there on time. I think I'm Keep Reading
Sample Monthly Expenses Spreadsheet
When I first decided to start budgeting before the birth of our first child, I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t know how much money we spent, and I am ashamed to say that I also did not know exactly how much money we had at our disposal each month after taxes and retirement contributions. Needless to say, I was paralyzed by the thought of analyzing everything! What I did know was that a proper budget worksheet could help our situation. Determining Monthly Expense Categories & Creating a Basic Household Expenses Worksheet Because I was used to using Microsoft Excel Keep Reading
List of Monthly Household Expenses {Perfect for Family Budgets!}
Anyone who’s ever tried to put together a family budget knows that it’s no easy task. Every family is so different, it’s difficult to give a standard example of expense categories for a monthly budget. What one family considers important might not be on another’s radar, and everyone makes different amounts of income, adding to the differences. Keep in mind that low income and high income households have vastly different budgeting techniques. A large percentage of a low income household’s income is spent on necessities, and a high income household may have additional expenses Keep Reading
5 Super Cheap & Easy Meal Ideas for College Students!
Just the other day my college aged babysitter asked me to send her several inexpensive, easy recipe ideas. She said she missed my cooking, but wanted to replicate it cheaply. :=) Do I have any cheap meal ideas for her to use at school??!! Boy, do I ever! I didn’t have to rack my brain very long for recipes that fit her request – most of the meals I make can be stretched a long way! What I did have to consider was her access to cooking utensils, pots and pans, etc. I think I came up with several go-to recipes for her to try out. Quick & Easy Meals for Busy Keep Reading
How Our Life Insurance Needs Have Changed Over the Years
Today I want to talk about a serious subject: life insurance needs. Jeff Rose over at GoodFinancialCents has challenged personal finance bloggers, or anyone else with a passion about life insurance, for that matter, to write about the topic. The official LifeAware movement occurred on August 22nd, but I’m late writing this because I’ve been caught up in life with three kids. Go figure. ;=) Life Insurance Needs Over the Years Life insurance is what I would consider a necessary evil. Nobody wants to pay for it, but nobody wants to leave this world knowing their affairs won’t be taken Keep Reading
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