I had a Mary Kay party last week and in preparation, I went to the grocery store the day of the party. I was feeling stressed about getting everything done and a little guilty that I hadn’t gotten any of my Christmas decorations up. I got everything on my list and was ready to check [...]
Continue reading about Emotional Spending: The Great Poinsettia Purchase
1) If I spend my emergency fund on Christmas, my car is guaranteed to break down before New Years. 2) Christmas should be about celebrating the birth of Christ. 3) It comes around every 365 days. 4) Life will not stop if everyone I know doesn’t get a present. 5) Old Fashioned Christmases are nice. [...]
Continue reading about Top 10 Reasons Why Christmas is NOT an Emergency.
Budget This is what they used to call a spending plan. Rather like the word diet, it conjures up horrible pictures of eating beans and hot dogs. In today’s gentler world, a budget is called a spending plan and you simply plan out how you want to spend your money. Like any plan, it is [...]
Continue reading about One Financial Fool’s Guide to Personal Finance Terms, Part One
Sometimes in my web meanderings, it’s nice to read success stories. Leo at Zen Habits has been there and done that! In The 10 Key Actions That Finally Got Me Out of Debt; or, Why Living Frugally is Only Part of the Solution he says “But frugal living is only one component. You have to [...]
Almost every article you read about debt reduction advises you to put a minimum of $1000 into an emergency fund. Many articles even offer advice on how this can be accomplished by cutting expenses and saving change. This is about how to put money into an emergency fund when expenses are already cut to the [...]
Continue reading about Broke? How To Start An Emergency Fund
If you are tempted by Dave Ramsey’s Envelope System but don’t want to carry your cash around in envelopes, try this spreadsheet. Michael at It’s Your Money has designed a really nifty Envelope System checkbook register. It does everything but smack you around for spending too much. It’s one of those smart spreadsheets that has [...]
Continue reading about IYM’s Envelope System Checkbook Register
It’s been a week and my eBay activities have been somewhat successful. The amount in my emergency fund is now $130 plus the $60 or so dollars I have in the change jar. I have accomplished two things; I have increased my emergency fund by over $100 and I have cleared some of the clutter [...]
Frugal Upstate: 25 Things I Do To Save Money Dawn at Frugal for Life started a list of 25 things to do to save money. This is a link to Frugal Upstates list. Some interesting ways that I had not thought about. I am starting my own list and trying to think outside the box.
Continue reading about Frugal Upstate: 25 Things I Do To Save Money
Not having a lot of money to save makes trying to start and fund my emergency fund interesting. Everyone talks about keeping 10 % or 20 % every month and saving it but when you are in the hole, that’s pretty hard. Right now, my savings consist of $55 in change in a jar. Hey, [...]
There are several ways to attack debt. There is Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball or Mary Hunt’s Rapid Debt Repayment Plan. The Snowball plan is to pay off your smallest debt first so that you gain a feeling of accomplishment. This method has worked for me before and it may be the one I go with [...]
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