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 Keep Reading
5 Reasons to Pay Off Your Mortgage – Why & How I’m Aiming for Early Mortgage Payoff
As I announced recently, I've challenged myself to pay off my mortgage way sooner than the standard 30 years everyone seems to prescribe to. The more I think about it, though, the more I wonder if I am just being ridiculus. So I asked a fellow personal writer to come up with several reasons why someone might want to pay off their mortgage early. Enter Jonny Pean. He tends to believe that debt of any kind is not good for your finances. He says you should shake off debt as fast as possible and live a comfortable, debt-free life. Below are his top five reasons for paying off your Keep Reading
Can I Pay Off My House Early? My Mortgage Free Dream
Learn why I plan to pay off my mortgage early! My husband thinks I'm crazy. My friends think I'm crazy. But I'm not crazy. What's crazy is accepting that it should take 30 YEARS to buy a house. Who ever came up with that idea? 30 years is way too long. I think about paying off our mortgage ALL the time. The Main Reason I Want to Pay Off My Mortgage Early: Peace of Mind I know too many people who suddenly find themselves out of work or facing tremendous medical bills who constantly worry about losing their homes (okay, I really only know three people like Keep Reading
How You Can Save Money by Impulse Saving
Learn more about ImpulseSave to fatten your savings! Every day, we’re faced with spending decisions. Out for lunch…“Should I order the daily special or what I really want – the pricey crab cakes?” On the way home after a long day…”Should we get Chinese takeout or grill hamburgers like we planned? In the checkout line…”Mmmmm – Rachael Ray’s 30 no-fuss meals in under 30 minutes look delicious and easy! I need this magazine!” Sound familiar? I face spending decisions all day long every day, and I’m sure you do, too. A long time ago, I tried to implement a system where I Keep Reading
How to Get the Best Deals at Garage Sales – Savvy Negotiation Tips
Yard saling has to be one of my all-time favorite past-times. I’ve been hitting yard sales with my mom since I was a little girl. She’s the ultimate yard sale queen. My mom taught me the best way to negotiate prices, from seeing her do it hundreds of times to watching her work with customers as we held sales in our own yard. I learned that, as a rule of thumb, you can expect to get garage sale items for at least 50% off retail price. But, if you employ savvy negotiating tactics, you can easily save 75% to 90% discount off retail. Getting good deals at yard sales is easy; Keep Reading
How to Save Money on Food – 8 Ways To Make Family Meals Less Expensive
Learn 8 great ways to save money on food! Eating meals at home, on the whole, saves you tons of money over eating out. For starters, you avoid restaurant markups, server tips, commuting costs, and meal extras that add up (like getting dessert when you normally wouldn't eat one). Beyond the obvious savings, there are many changes you can make to the way you prepare food, shop for groceries, and plan your meals to enhance your savings even more. Ways to Save Money on Food When You Make Family Meals at Home The tactics I use to save money on the cost of homemade meals fall Keep Reading
Do the Pros Outweigh the Cons of Buying in Bulk?
For years, I had a membership to BJ's wholesale club. It cost $40 a year, and I always felt like I was getting my money's worth because I could find good deals on bulk packages of everyday household items and food. Pros and Cons of Buying in Bulk As a new mom, the pros of buying in bulk at BJ's Wholesale Club seemed to outweigh the cons. When my first daughter was born, I got hooked on Pamper's brand diapers, and I found that buying them at BJ's saved us money (because I could stack a club coupon with a manufacturer's coupon on top of already decent prices). BJ's also Keep Reading
11 Ways to Save Money on Christmas Presents
When my first child was born, I was still trying to figure out how we would be able to live on one income. Even though we had been fairly successful at doing so in the year-and-a-half long trial run leading up to her birth (we started pretending like we didn't have my income well before we needed to), I went a little nuts with saving strategies after our daughter arrived. Only then did it seem real that I wouldn’t be bringing in any money going forward, and I was so afraid we wouldn’t be able to do it. Our 1-Present Christmas – The Year We Only Spent $10 on Christmas One thing I did was Keep Reading
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