Category Archives for Saving Money & Frugal Living

Building a Professional Wardrobe on a Budget

The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, CJ, who blogs at thesingledollar.com about personal finance, budgeting, frugality, and debt repayment.

When I got my first grown-up job, I was really excited; it was the middle of a recession and professional employment was pretty hard to come by. I wanted to do a good job and make a good impression on my new colleagues. Only problem: it had taken me several months to find the job and I was flat broke. What was I going to wear?

If you’re in a similar situation and your college wardrobe of jeans and tank tops isn’t going to cut it, you can still build a professional wardrobe on a budget. Here are some ideas to help you get started.

Thrift Stores

An oldie, but a goodie. Thrift stores are the basis of many a great budget wardrobe, because you can find quality name brands for only a few dollars. The clothing you buy should be cleaned already, but it can’t hurt to run it through the wash (or dry clean it) for good measure.

The cheapest clothes will be at places like Goodwill and the Salvation Army, but other options worth considering for professional used clothing have sprung up. Check to see if your area has a Clothes Mentor or Plato’s Closet branch. Both buy and sell used professional clothing.

Online Options

If the thrift stores in your area aren’t great, try going online. It can be a little tricky since it’s difficult or impossible to return used clothing that doesn’t fit, but especially if you know what brands you like, it can be really helpful. ThredUp carries high-quality and cheap used clothing, and searching for a brand on Ebay can also turn up some great and very inexpensive stuff.

Clothing Swaps

If you’ve got friends who’ve been in the working world for a while, they will probably already have some decent professional clothes. Organize a clothing swap (if you don’t have much to contribute yourself, you can always provide the snacks!) and you might pick up some great clothing. I’m still wearing a sweater and a pair of pants that I got at a swap ten years ago. And the only thing better than inexpensive professional clothing is free professional clothing!

Wear a Work “Uniform”

A lot’s been written in the last year about the virtues of having a professional “uniform” that you wear to work every day. Steve Jobs’s black turtlenecks are famous (and they were pretty expensive, being designed by Issey Miyake just for him) but you can do it too. Maybe your uniform is a white shirt and a black suit, or maybe it’s a blouse, cardigan, and skirt — it depends on what you like to wear and on your industry. Choose something durable, comfortable, simple, and classic, and then buy multiple versions of it. You never have to worry about what to wear, and since the work uniform cuts way down on impulse shopping, it will also save you a lot of money in the long term, though it does require some investment up front.

Work From Home

If you do that, you will have a very cheap professional wardrobe — because your pajamas will do double duty!

How about you all? How do you keep your costs for ‘work clothes’ down? Do you buy used?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/barkbud/4171183856/

Is Your Addiction to Being Busy Costing You Money?

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Melissa Batai.  Melissa is a freelance writer who covers topics ranging from personal finance to business to organics to food.  She blogs at Mom’s Plans where she shares her family’s journey to healthier living and paying down debt.

My name is Melissa, and I’m addicted to being busy.  There.  I said it out loud.  I have an addiction to being busy, which has only gotten worse in the last three years that I’ve been homeschooling my kids.

There are so many great activities, co-ops, etc., for the kids that saying “no” is hard.  Inevitably, I overbook our schedule one semester, and we limp through, exhausted.  The next semester, I’m wiser, and then I cut our responsibilities down to the bare minimum so we can spend more time at home.  But the semester after that, recharged, I overcommit again.

It’s a bad cycle, but, unfortunately, I’m not alone.

If you’re like most Americans, you’re probably overly busy, too.  According to Dr. Gina Manguno-Mire, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Tulane University Health Sciences Center, “America is an achievement-oriented culture.  Success is defined by accomplishment, and that mindset starts at a very early age.  Today, we see both kids and adults who are so structured that they just don’t seem to know what to do with free time, so they fill it with activities” (Health Fitness Magazine).

Sound familiar?

But it gets worse.  Our addiction to busyness is costing us money in a myriad of ways, both short and long-term.

Short Term

In the short term, busyness costs us money on a daily basis.  We have to pay for the activities we’re involved in, and we spend additional money as we look to save time and we lose track of the items that we already have.

Activity Expense

Being in many different activities costs a lot of money.  Right now, my kids are in archery, photography, and citizenship 4-H groups.  They’re also in two homeschool co-ops.  The expense of all of these activities easily cost us $500 extra this semester.

It’s a bit ironic that to overbook yourself with activities costs money, and then once you’re too busy you spend too much money on the following items:

Convenience foods

When we’re busy, we don’t have as much time to cook, so we rely on restaurants, fast foods, and quick convenience foods.  All of those food sources typically cost much more than if we made a nice, basic meal at home.

Even though my family is very busy right now, I’m still cooking at home, which is good.  However, I am spending more on food because I find myself buying things like already chopped cauliflower for cauliflower “rice” instead of processing it myself or buying more lunch meat for quick lunches instead of eating the from-scratch lunches we usually make.

Gas

Running around town for activity after activity causes you to use more gas.  While gas prices are reasonable now, this expense can really hit your wallet when gas prices are $3 or more per gallon.  Still, I’m easily spending $20 to $30 more per month on gas than I do during quieter semesters.

In addition, because I’m using the car more, I have to have oil changes and tune ups more frequently than I would if we had a quieter, simpler schedule.

Buying more items than you need

Let’s face it.  When you’re too busy, you don’t have as much time to clean.  Clutter may build up, and it’s hard to find the items you need.  You may unknowingly buy one or two of an item that you already have but have forgotten that you own or simply can’t find.

My son has been too busy to really clean his room the last few months.  However, last weekend, he had a little free time, and he found two items he thought he had lost that we were planning to purchase again—his arm guard for archery, and his calligraphy pen for calligraphy.  True, if we had to buy these items again, we would have only spent approximately $20, but that’s $20 we shouldn’t have had to spend because we already owned the items.

When losing items and buying them again because you can’t find them becomes a habit, you could be wasting hundreds of dollars every year.

Long Term

While the short-term expenses can add up, the long-term expenses of being addicted to busyness are really budget busters.

Medical expenses

Your body may be affected by your schedule because you may not be sleeping as well, and you may not be eating as well as you should as evidenced by the many convenience foods you may rely on.  Both lack of sleep and reliance on convenience or fast food can lead to weight gain, which leads to medical conditions like high triglycerides, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.

Busyness causes stress, and stress can lead to a host of health problems if you aren’t already suffering from health problems because of lack of sleep and weight gain.  Being addicted to busyness may result in the need for prescription medication for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.  If the stress is unmitigated, it may eventually lead to heart attacks and strokes years down the road.

Wear and tear on your vehicle

I mentioned the expense of more frequent oil changes and tune ups in the short term effects, but the long term effect is that your vehicle wears out more quickly.  If you weren’t driving to as many locations, your car might last you 15 years, if you choose.  However, an accelerated life styles means you add on the miles more quickly, cutting several years off the time you can keep your car in good working condition.

A perpetual cycle of busyness

Over the last two weeks, my family and I have carved some downtime into our busy schedule.  I noticed that my kids really didn’t know what to do with themselves or their free time.  When kids and adults are always busy, we don’t know how to entertain ourselves or how to lose ourselves in a project or an interest we’d like to pursue.

Children who are being raised this way will naturally crave busyness, and all of the related stress, pressure, and financial burden that goes with it, as they grow older.  This simply perpetuates the cycle of busyness.

According to journalist Tim Kreider, in his 2012 article for The New York Times, The Busy Trap, “‘Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness.’  Some people actively create their hectic lifestyle because they dread ‘what they might have to face in its absence’” (Health Fitness Magazine).

What Should You Do If You Want to Break the Busy Cycle?

My family and I have been in this super busy cycle for just two months, and we have two months to go before it’s over.  We’ve already decided to cut our responsibilities in half for upcoming semesters so we can enjoy our activities and our lives.

However, if you’ve been in a busy cycle for much longer, slowing down isn’t always easy.  Dr. Manguno-Mire says, “It is important to remember that busier does not necessarily mean happier.”  She advises “taking a ‘gut check,’ especially when feeling overwhelmed.  ‘Be present and mindful in your own life.  Ask yourself, what am I doing?  What meaning do I derive from this?  Create support systems, and carve out unstructured time every day, even if it is just half an hour.  Set boundaries with technology.  All these things help counteract the effects of stress.  And ask yourself this—who really needs to be busy and available 24/7?” (Health Fitness Magazine).

How about you all? Are you addicted to busyness?  If so, are you still in the busyness trap?  If not, how did you learn to slow down?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://pixabay.com/en/tired-axhausted-woman-female-377438/

New Personal Finance Apps To Try In 2016

The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, Toi Williams, who is a professional personal finance blogger of Fine Tuned Finances. She has backgrounds in personal finance, sales, and real estate.

Smartphones have made it easier than ever for people to manage their finances anywhere at any time. A number of companies have come up with new apps that make money management even simpler. Many of these app connect to your bank and credit accounts to help you make smarter spending and saving decisions.

Here are some great new personal finance apps to try in 2016.

Nudge

Released in late January, this new personal finance app from HSBC is designed to encourage customers to make small, regular financial decisions that will result in a change to their long-term spending habits. Nudge identifies trends in customers’ spending habits and sends regular, targeted push notifications to make people aware of their expenditure. There are currently 38 different types of nudges, including notifications about the amount spent on groceries in a week and how much customers are spending or saving versus others in the same income bracket. The app is currently in a pilot phase and will be rolled out to a wider audience once all of the kinks have been worked out.

Savings Coach

This stand-alone app, launched by USAA in July of last year, tries a new method to get its customers on track to increase their savings. Built with voice recognition and text-to-speech technology provider Nuance Communications, the app analyzes your financial transaction data to recommend daily amounts of money to put into savings. Savings Coach also deploys a number of gaming techniques to encourage saving, including rewarding points and badges to members and allowing them to reach new levels within the app. The app is available to all USAA members that have checking and savings accounts.

Hip Money

This new financial app links to consumers’ checking and savings accounts to help users make smart financial decisions throughout the day. The first lo-fi prototype of the app was released in September of last year, and the full app will be available some time later this year. The company behind Hip Money, Hip Pocket, plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign in March to fund the development and roll-out of the app. Donors to the Kickstarter campaign will be the first people to get the app, as well as be the recipients of cool merchandise from the company, according to Mark Zmarzly of Hip Pocket.

Qapital

This app applies theorems from behavioral science to the world of financial management. Users of the app can assign financial rewards to daily goals, including reducing spending in specific categories or reaching specific savings goals. This is supposed to keep users interested in money management and on track to reach their financial goals. Initially available only for iOS when it launched last year, the service is now available for Android customers.

Fam-ess

This app is geared towards helping kids learn money-management skills. Fam-ess is an acronym for Family First, Earn Always, Save Often and Spend Wisely. The app helps determine whether if a wanted item is really worth the effort it will take to earn it. Users spend about 4 minutes per session with the app and typically use the app every day to every few days. A free public Beta has been launched for iPhone in the App Store and GooglePlay for Android.

Even

The app from Even aims to solve the problem of income volatility by providing hourly workers with the steady cash flow of a simulated salary. On the weeks when users outearn their Even salary, the company banks the surplus into a separate, Even-managed savings account. On the weeks when the users earn less, they will still receive the full salary amount, with the difference made up from past surpluses or interest-free credit from Even. The app was released to all customers in January and the company is reportedly seeking partnerships with large employers who might offer Even to their part-time employees as “a subsidized benefit, akin to health insurance or financial wellness programs.”

Penny

This new personal finance app gives users personalized financial advice using a simple chat interface. Nearly everything done with the app is done through chatting with Penny through pre-written prompts. Users can see graphs showing income vs spending, see how much they spent in certain categories like groceries, or see their account activity. Penny can be downloaded from the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.

Trim

This app scans your monthly credit card transaction history to find recurring payments that could be eliminated for more savings. When subscriptions are located by Trim, the app sends you a notification and with a simple text to Trim, you can have the subscription canceled. This is great for those who tend to sign up for free trials, but forget to cancel before the company begins to charge you fees.

Wealthee

Wealthee is an all new personal finance management app for Android users. The Wealthee app allows you to manage all of your personal finances, including expenses, income, investments and bill payments with a click of a button. It also provides advance alerts and notifications of low balance situations. No transaction and banking information is collected by the company as everything is saved on your phone.

iBudgetix

iBudgetix was designed to help users create a monthly budget, optimize their cash flow, and increase savings. The app calculates and shows how much money is still available, how much has been saved or overspent, and displays largest spending categories. The iBudgetix beta is now available in the Google Play store for free. The beta test will run for approximately four weeks to gather feedback from real users before the official launch. After Android, the company is planning to add iPhone, iPad and Blackberry support.

How about you all? Do you have a favorite personal finance app? What do you use your personal finance apps to track?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4017/4328628491_dffe3856c2_b.jpg

Affordable Ways to Take Care of your Health While being a Workaholic

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Chonce. You can read more articles by Chonce over at her personal blog, My Debt Epiphany. Enjoy! 

I’ve always been known to be a workaholic like most other Americans who dream of seeing better days for their finances. Getting into debt during college prompted me to start hustling on the side of my full-time job more and luckily, work has picked up tremendously. I work an average of 60 hours per week spread across each day.

Not having any official off days can take its’ toll on anyone, but I know I’m not the only one embracing the hustle. According to Fortune.com, American employers offer the least amount of paid time off compared to European companies. Yet and still, U.S. employees typically leave about 429 million paid vacation days on the table every year.

Last year I had an unexpected minor surgery that woke me up by telling me I need to put more time and energy into my health as opposed to all the hours I was putting into work. Taking time off for yourself and focusing on your health is so important because without your health, you can’t work and bring in an income anyway.

Here are 5 affordable ways to take care of your health when you’re a goal-drive workaholic.

Go for a 10-Minute Walk or Run

Sitting at a desk all day can be extremely damaging to your health. According to Diabetes.org, 67 percent of Americans hate sitting, yet 86% of Americans sit all day at work. Sitting for long periods of time can reduce your metabolism while excessive sitting has been identified as a key factor in heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and obesity.

To get on your feet more during the day, you need to squeeze in time to stand, do something active, or simply go for a walk or jog around the block. Getting a routine established will help improve your health over time and possibly even help you obtain that extra energy boost you need throughout the day.

Meditate When You Wake Up

Meditation is great for calming the mind and body along with being a great stress reliever. Stress and anxiety can cause health problems long-term. Whether you tend to stress out about work, money, or your kids, start your day off on the right foot by meditating for a few minutes and thinking about positive aspects of your life.

You can even keep a gratitude journal and spend a few minutes each day writing in it.

Take a Random Vacation Day or Plan a Rest Day

Don’t be one of those people who don’t take their vacation days. Employers understand that workers need rest which is why they make those days available to you. If you don’t have any relaxing trips planned, take a staycation and just stay at home, relax, catch up on your rest and recharge.

If you don’t have any vacation days available, schedule down time on one of your off days and commit to doing something relaxing.

Eat Whole Foods

What you eat can affect your body, health, and even your attitude so it’s important to make sure you’re putting the right things in your body. Eating a diet filled with whole foods, fruits and vegetables doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, it can cost significantly less than expensive processed foods.

Start your day off with a nutritious breakfast and meal plan during the weekend so you won’t be tempted to buy quick and unhealthy foods due to the convenience and being short on time. You can also try smoothies by blending your favorite fruit with a bland vegetable like spinach or kale to work more whole and healthy foods into your diet to give your body the fuel it needs.

Make Time for Annual Health Exams

It’s Important to schedule time for regular physical exams with a healthcare professional each year. Preventative screenings and check-ups can help identify any problems that could occur later down the road and keep your body at its’ absolute healthiest state.

Plus, as long as you have insurance, most annual checkups should be covered so you won’t have to spend much.

Getting a check-up last year was one of the best things I could have done to maintain my health because it let me know that I needed to have a preventative surgery to eliminate developing cancer when I got older. It’s a scary thought for a young person in their twenties, but it’s better to be aware of what’s going on in your body and be committed to keeping it healthy.

No matter what your work or financial goals are (as I know they can seem overwhelming at times), it’s always best to prioritize your health and make time to improve it.

How about you all? Do you consider yourself a workaholic? How do you make time and put forth the effort to maintain your health without spending lots of money?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/tashmahal/2731681028/

Tips for Paying Off Credit Cards

The following is a guest post. Enjoy! 

Getting control of your finances seems to be something on most people’s priority lists. After all, when you’re in control of your finances, you can have a better safety net and stop worrying about living paycheck to paycheck.

This year, you should turn your finances around and be more responsible. One way to do this is to start paying off old debt. Sometimes finding extra money is hard, but thankfully, the following tips will help you find ways that you can do that.

Make a budget.

The first thing you should do to pay off credit card debt is to make a budget. This will show you exactly when money comes in and when it goes out. You can then use this to determine how much extra money each month you can set aside toward your bill. Even if it’s only $20 extra per month, it’s still enough to make a successful dent.

Pay more than the minimum.

If you only pay the minimum amount due, you’ll end up spending so much more money in fees and interest, and you’ll feel like you never catch up. Instead of paying the minimum, always try to pay more. Even a few extra dollars a month can take a significant amount off the interest, so do what you can to go above and beyond the minimum.

Pay smaller cards first.

If you have more than one card, a good rule of thumb is to pay off the smaller balance first. This will be easier to do. Once it’s paid off, take that monthly payment you used to apply toward that card and put it toward the next smallest credit card bill. This is known as the snowball effect, and it’s a great way to pay off debt successfully.

Transfer funds.

Most credit cards will allow you to do a balance transfer from other cards. If you have a card with a very high interest rate, consider transferring that balance to a card with a lower interest rate. You’ll still need to work toward paying it off, but you’ll find that you don’t have to deal with losing money to a high rate.

Put any extra cash toward your cards.

Everyone struggles with finding extra money, but if you ever come across anything extra, whether from a bonus or a tax return, put it toward your debt. This will help you to pay it off more quickly, and you’ll find yourself free from the burden of credit cards more quickly.

Paying off credit card debt is important. Not only does it help you get a higher credit score, but it can also help you stay out of filing for bankruptcy or losing all your assets to debt collectors.

The One Money Management Tip That Changed Our Lives

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Laurie Blank.  Laurie is a wife, mother to 4 and homesteader who blogs about personal finance, self-sufficiency and life in general over at The Frugal Farmer. Part witty, part introspective and part silly, her goal in blogging is to help others find their way to financial freedom and to a simpler, more peaceful life.

When we decided at the end of 2012 that it was time to get our financial life together, we really had no idea of where to start.

On a whim, we started searching the Net with terms like “How to get out of debt” and discovered the immensely helpful world of personal finance blogs. One piece of advice we saw over and over was, “You need to start tracking your spending.”

Up until that point, we’d always been afraid of budgeting and spend tracking. Due to perspectives we learned about money in our childhoods, my husband and I realized we were subconsciously afraid of not having enough. Therefore, when we would start a budget or spend tracking system, guilt would set in immediately when we’d spend on something that wasn’t a necessity and we’d stop budgeting altogether.

As we began to assess our very unhealthy financial situation at the end of 2012, we realized that we had to overcome this fear of budgeting if we really wanted to dump our debt. And the one key that helped us most when it came to taking control of our money was this:

Track all Spending

It sounds simple enough, but what we learned about spend tracking truly has changed our financial lives exponentially. Spend tracking has helped us to:

• Be sure we are staying in line with our planned budget
• Have a clear, one-minute view of where our money is going
• Keep us accountable for whether or not we’re spending in line with our values and goals

Why Budgeting Without Spend Tracking Didn’t Work for Us

When we tried to set a budget without tracking our spending, we continually fell into money management failure. As we looked over our non-tracking expenditures, we found that we spent:

• 50% more on groceries than we had budgeted for
• 100%+ more on entertainment expenses that we thought we were spending
• Much more money than we had coming in

Hence the tens of thousands in credit card debt that we are now digging out of. Spend tracking and looking at your total monthly expenditures as a whole – both during and at the end of each month – helps ensure you are truly spending your money on what you want to spend it on.

For instance, when I look at our entertainment expenses on the 15^th of the month and see that we’ve already reached our spending limit, I can say “Ok, guys, no more entertainment costs this month. We’ll be doing free fun stuff only for the next two weeks.”

And the family is okay with that because we’ve established our goals together and we know that keeping within our entertainment and other budgets means we stay on track to reach our financial goals.

How to Overcome Fears About Spend Tracking

If, like we did, you have some reservations about tracking all of your spending, never fear. Here are some quick tips that will help you overcome your fears and reap the benefits of a solid spend tracking system:

1. Choose to spend-track for just one month. That way there’s no pressure to do it forever and you’ll be able to assess the benefits without the pressure of having to stick with the program.
2. Make your spend tracking system user-friendly. We use a simple Excel spreadsheet. There are also great programs through companies like Mint and Personal Capital that can help you track your spending.
3. Write down your expenditures at the end of each day. Recording your expenditures daily will keep the task simple and help you avoid missing anything.
4. Remember that you’re doing this for the greater good. It’s easy to get caught up into guilt over spending habits when you start spend tracking. Remind yourself that spend tracking is not a punishment, but a way of helping you to achieve your financial goals faster.

Learning to live off of a real-life budget and to track your daily spending can drastically accelerate achievement of your financial goals. Make a commitment to try it for just 30 days, and see if it helps you to save more money toward your financial dreams.

How about you all? Do you track your spending? If so, how has it changed your financial picture?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/59937401@N07/5474825330

Alternative Ways to Fund your Child’s College Education without a 529 Plan

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Chonce. You can read more articles by Chonce over at her personal blog, My Debt Epiphany. Enjoy! 

Paying for college for a child is a long-term expense and goal a lot of parents strive to achieve to reduce the amount of student loans their son or daughter has to take out. Student loan debt is a big issue in today’s society and it’s no secret that without it, young adults can get further ahead financially during their mid and late twenties.

When I was ready to attend college, my parents didn’t have any money set aside to help me pay for my education, but as a first generation college student of a low-income household, I took advantage of many scholarships and financial aid options to lower my out-of-pocket costs and loan amounts. Even though I accumulated some student loans during college, it’s nowhere near what I could have taken out.

Now that I’m a parent, I know my son will not have the same government benefits that I had when it’s time for him to attend college and with inflation, tuition will most likely increase over the next 10-15 years.

While a state 529 savings plan is always a superb option when it comes to saving up to fund your child’s college education, not everyone can take advantage of this option for various different reasons. Here are a few alternative ways to save for college.

Coverdell Education Savings Account

While 529 plans are a great way to build your investment portfolio and provide some nice tax benefits while allowing you to set aside money for your child’s college education, they have limited investment options and promote high-cost mutual funds.

On the other hand, Coverdell Education Saving Accounts have very little restrictions on what type of investments you can make and they allow the same tax-free educational benefits that 529 plans provide. Even though Coverdell accounts have a lower limit on contributions, it could be ideal for parents who don’t have a lot of extra money to contribute but still want to set aside something for their child.

Roth IRA

Roth IRAs are popular tax-advantaged retirement savings vehicles that can also be used as a college savings account. The money you contribute to a Roth-IRA gets taxed so that you can withdraw it tax-free. While there are income and contribution limits, you don’t have to wait until you are 59 ½ to withdraw funds. You can withdraw funds for educational expenses in as early as five years after you begin contributing. With a Roth IRA, it’s best to start setting aside money early and maxing out contributions each year.

Real Estate

Can’t set aside much now but still want to help your child cover expenses? If you are interested in real estate, you can attempt to rent out a property to help cover your child’s educational expenses in rapid amounts.

I’ve heard of some parents who deliberately purchase an investment property with the intent of paying off the mortgage in time for their child to attend college so they can rent out the property and receive passive income to contribute each month. If you have extra space in your home, you can also rent out a spare room as well for extra money.

Prepaid College Tuition Plans

If you are sure without a shadow of a doubt that your child will attend college, you may want to look into prepaid tuition plans. Prepaid tuition plans is a type of 529 plan that allows you to lock in tuition rates from state colleges now to avoid having to pay increased tuition rates in the future.

Prepaid college tuition plans are only available in a select number of states and vary from state to state with their own pros and cons depending on where you live, but if you are willing to save money on your child’s education now by locking in a payment and tuition rate, you just need to have your child attend a specific state school that participates in the program to reap the benefits.

Gerber Life College Plan

The Gerber Life College Plan is like a high-yield savings account for your child with a guaranteed positive growth rate. Parents can choose to contribute anywhere from $10,000 to $150,000 and contribute monthly until their child is ready to attend college. When you open an account, Gerber Life discloses how much money it will have at the maturity date.

The one downside of this option is that once the balance in your account grows, the income it generates can become taxable. On the flip side, what’s nice about this option is that your child doesn’t have to use the money for educational expenses if they choose not to go to college and start their own business or choose another path. Nothing is worse than sacrificing to set money aside for your child to attend college only to find out that they have a different opinion on what they’d like to do.

Start Small and Contribute What You Can

Saving for college takes a lot of time and persistence. It may be difficult at first to squeeze extra money out of your budget to contribute to investing in your child’s future but getting them off to a good start upon adulthood should always be the end goal.

Consider which option will allow your money to grow safely and generate a nice return. Then, start making small contributions and gradually increase them overtime. If your child receives monetary gifts or allowance from time-to-time, take a portion of their earnings and contribute it to college savings. Every little bit counts and what you save now will allow your entire family to carry less of a financial burden in the future.

How about you all? Have you started saving for college for your child(ren) yet? What are some of the ways you are saving?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6629054127/

Are You Frugal or Just Strange?

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Melissa Batai.  Melissa is a freelance writer who covers topics ranging from personal finance to business to organics to food.  She blogs at Mom’s Plans where she shares her family’s journey to healthier living and paying down debt.

Frugality is a much revered and time honored trait. Search the Internet and you’ll find quotes about frugality from greats such as Plato—“The greatest wealth is to live content with little,” or Warren Buffet—“Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving,” or Thomas Jefferson—“We make ourselves rich by making our wants few.”

Yet, if we’re to look at ourselves and our generation honestly, we aren’t not nearly as frugal as previous generations. I’m thinking of women during the Great Depression and earlier who used the material from feed sacks to make dresses, or the pioneers who threw nothing out and always found a use for everything. Use it up, was their motto.

Now, many of us struggle to implement frugality because we just don’t know how. We’re so used to our disposable society that many of the frugal skills of previous generations have slowly disappeared.

However, thanks to the recession a decade ago, frugality has made a comeback. It was during the recession that my husband and I learned many frugal techniques that we still use today.

My family and I do a lot to live a frugal lifestyle, including:

• rewashing sandwich and freezer baggies,
• hanging up clothes to dry on our indoor drying racks (yes, that we asked for as gifts for Christmas one year),
• cooking at home from scratch,
• owning just one car,
• using that car until it dies (our current vehicle is 11.5 years old and has 163,000 miles on it),
• keeping our heat on 63 and our air conditioning on 81,
• shopping for clothes at thrift stores and garage sales,
• making minor fixes to clothes such as replacing elastic waistbands and sewing knee patches so we can continue to wear them,
• making some homemade Christmas presents,
• buying discounted or clearance food at the grocery store,
• cutting our own hair,
• gardening,
• collecting rain water in buckets to use in the garden, etc.

A search for frugal living strategies on the Internet and Pinterest reveals that we’re doing most of the things people recommend. However, when I dig deeper into frugality, I find another frugal segment that doesn’t get much attention—the uberfrugal.

When I read about the uberfrugal and their techniques, I find myself wondering, are they clever and smart stewards of their money, or are they just. . .strange?

Many people believe that those who are uberfrugal are instead just cheap. But sometimes they’re also just called weird or gross. Consider these practices:

Using Family Cloth

Family cloth is a polite, albeit it misleading name, for using cloth, reusable toilet paper. People simply sew flannel squares of cloth (or recycle old t-shirts), use them, and then wash them in the laundry. The squeamish are grossed out just by the description, but the people who use family cloth insist it’s really no different than using cloth diapers and cloth wipes for babies.   In fact, they argue that family cloth is much gentler and better for your nether regions.

Only Flushing the Toilet Once a Day

I visited a family that had a pretty sign posted to the wall above the toilet bowl tank, which read, “Please, if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.” And that’s just what they did. The toilet was flushed only once at night if it was just full of, um, shall we say, liquid excrement.

Sure, they saved on their water bill, but I have to wonder how sanitary the routine was. And besides, by the end of the day, the bathroom smelled pretty ripe.

Canceling Garbage Service

Honestly, I didn’t even know this was possible until I read that one of my favorite bloggers is doing this. Her goal is to shave off extra expenses so she can pay down her house quicker, which is an admirable goal. She plans to reduce her garbage load by repurposing and reducing her waste creation—i.e. using recyclable bags at the grocery store, composting produce scraps, etc.

Still, she must be generating a small amount of garbage, and she hasn’t addressed what she plans to do with that. Use a neighbor’s garbage? Bring it to a public garbage can?

Eating Food Passed the Expiration Date

We all know that food that is marked “sold by” does not necessarily have to be eaten by that date. However, how loose are you willing to go with the “use by” date? Some frugal people will pay no heed to use by dates. Other people will eat leftovers that are over a week old, way passed what is generally considered safe to eat.

These people often remark, “I’ve never gotten sick eating food this old before. Why should I start now?”

Or, if they see a spot of mold, they’ll just cut it off or pluck it out and go on eating the food.

While I’m generally pretty frugal, I’m also very cautious about eating old food. The freezer is my friend, so if leftovers have been in the fridge for a few days, I put them in the freezer with a note to eat them the first day I thaw them just to be safe.

Dumpster Diving

People who dumpster dive target apartment, restaurant, or grocery store garbage bins, and, as the name implies, go into the dumpster looking for treasures. Those who dumpster dive claim that, for those who are brave enough to try, there is a bounty of goodies including unopened boxes and cans of food as well as other items that are still in their wrappers.

However, many others are grossed out completely by the idea of entering or even going near a dumpster with the idea of removing an item to use rather than putting something in the garbage. There is also a real concern that you could be threatening your own safety either due to sharp objects like broken glass or animals that may be in the dumpster looking for their own treasure, not to mention consuming food that has been in the dumpster.

Furnish Your Home with Curbside Treasures

Reportedly, if you live near a college campus and cruise by near the end of the semester, especially near the end of the academic year, you can find all sorts of furniture. Apparently, many college students who go home for the summer have to empty out their dorm rooms or apartments, and the quickest way is to toss everything to the curb.

Also, if a neighborhood is having a large trash pickup day, you can frequently find furniture and other home goods.

But would you take those items and bring them into your home? Many people do and claim that they are getting very high quality furniture for free.

Those who aren’t so frugal, including myself, worry about the sanitary issues. What if the furniture is infested with fleas, cockroaches, or bed bugs? True, you may be saving yourself a lot of money by not having to buy the furniture, but what if you bring home some nasty creature that you have to spend weeks trying to eradicate?

How about you all?  If you’re frugal, where is your line in the sand? What practices are too frugal for you and instead, just seem unsafe or unsanitary?

Share your experiences by commenting below.

***Photo courtesy https://pixabay.com/en/dumpster-trash-bin-garbage-trashcan-100909/

How We Nickel and Dimed Ourselves into Massive Credit Card Debt

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Laurie Blank.  Laurie is a wife, mother to 4 and homesteader who blogs about personal finance, self-sufficiency and life in general over at The Frugal Farmer. Part witty, part introspective and part silly, her goal in blogging is to help others find their way to financial freedom and to a simpler, more peaceful life.

Many people who’ve gotten themselves into massive amounts of debt have a pivotal moment when they made a decision to take on a lot of debt. Maybe they went back to school for their Master’s degree. Or maybe there were medical expenses from a surgery or other incident.

Our case was different: we literally nickel and dimed ourselves into huge amounts of debt to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.

How it Happened

I can honestly say looking back that we’d never really been concerned with managing money properly during the first fifteen years or so of our marriage. We’d get into debt, get out of debt, not really ever having a plan for our money.

Instead, we spent as we wished and when things got too tight we’d panic and pay off the debt in one way or another, usually by cashing in an investment or a retirement account.

In 2010 my husband got laid off due to the recession and our one-income family of six officially became a no-income family. As usual, we didn’t panic; after all there was a three-month severance package and unemployment to help us along after that.

Seven months later Rick got a job offer that left us with a tough decision: the job was with a major company that he’d always wanted to work for, however the pay they offered was 20 percent less than what he’d been making at his old job.

In our “wisdom”, we decided that he should take the job and that we’d simply use credit cards to cover the salary difference until he worked up to the salary he’d been paid at his old job. Looking back, I’m amazed that we talked very little of cutting expenses or changing our lifestyle. In our uneducated opinion, we “really didn’t spend that much money.”

At the time we lived in an affluent suburb, and since we spent “much less than most people” we knew and lived by, we accepted our expenses as reasonable, even though we had very little idea what those expenses actually were.

Our Financial Wake-Up Call

Two years after Rick started his new job, we sold our home in the suburbs and moved to a small hobby farm, eager for a more quiet life with our children. The move to the country was a real eye-opener for us. We felt as if we were viewing “normal” life from the outside looking in. In the country, no one cared about what we drove, what we wore or what activities the kids were in.

They simply cared about the content of our character, to quote MLK Jr. As we pondered this new way of living where the Joneses didn’t matter, we sat down to take a real look at our finances. When we added up all of our credit card debt, we were dumbfounded at the astronomically high numbers.

Searching for answers, we went back and looked at our bank statements for 2012, writing down all that we spent on groceries, entertainment, clothing and the like. The numbers were shocking. Even though we thought we “never” went out to eat, we were spending nearly $300 a month on drive-thru runs, occasional restaurant meals and trips to the snack bar at the local big box store.

The grocery numbers brought similar shock. In our vague attempt at budgeting, we’d set our grocery budget for our family of six at a reasonable $600 a month. In reality, we were spending $900 a month on groceries due to a lack of good menu planning and runs to pick up random “stuff” here and there at the grocery store.

Suddenly, it became all too clear why we were in so much debt. In a panic, I began googling terms like “how to get out of debt” and found the wonderful world of personal finance blogs. I’d never read a blog before, but I was soaking them up now as I read about dozens of others who had found themselves in massive debt but worked their way to debt freedom.

For the first time in our lives, we began living off of a real budget and tracking all of our spending starting in January of 2013. While budgeting had always seemed invasive and restrictive to us in the past, we decided to give a real go at it and fell in love with being in control of our money. For the first time in our marriage, we knew where our money was going and we had a plan for what we wanted to do with it.

There have been many ups and downs for us financially in the three years since we first began living with a plan for our money and working to pay off debt. Major home repair expenses and other unexpected costs, combined with a super high debt-to-income ratio (we started at 65%), have made our journey to debt freedom a “one step forward, two steps back” kind of a journey.

But we are winning our battle to dump debt. If all goes as planned, our tens of thousands in consumer debt will be paid off by the end of 2016.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your debt, or wondering how you got in debt in the first place, don’t give up hope. With a solid plan and a commitment to persevere, you too can become debt free.

How about you all? Have you ever struggled with debt? Have you ever had a financial “wake-up” call?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/armydre2008/2969764323/

Five Ways to Warm Up Without Breaking the Bank

The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, CJ, who blogs at thesingledollar.com about personal finance, budgeting, frugality, and debt repayment.

So, the weather outside is frightful! But since our electric heat is expensive, we’re trying to keep the house between 60 and 65, depending on what time of day it is. This is…chilly, at least if you’re me. If I had the money and didn’t care about the environment, I would totally keep the place at 72 all winter. What can I say: I’m old before my time. Besides the ol’ “put on another sweater” trick, here’s what I do about it:

1) I use a rubber hot water bottle.

I’ve had it for several years and it shows no signs of slowing down, cracking, etc. I fill it up with the hottest tap water we get and rest my feet on it under the covers. Delicious. In fact, I’m doing that right now as I write. It’s often still even warm when I wake up in the morning.

2) I get the oven going.

Typically, what I do is bake bread. Granted, this also uses electricity (for the oven), but at the end of the process, I’ve heated up the kitchen and I have fresh bread, so I think I come out ahead overall. As a bonus, I have to move around and knead dough and whatnot, and it gets the blood flowing and seems to warm me up a little! You could make a casserole or something else that requires long baking if you don’t want to do bread.
3) As long as we’re on a domestic track: try taking frequent breaks to clean as well as to cook.

Anything to get you up and moving around! Before you sit back down to work or watch TV or whatever, make a cup of hot tea and breathe the steam in.

4) We make sure to close vents in any room we won’t use for a while (like the office over the weekend) and to keep closet doors closed.

In November, we also did some basic weatherproofing — putting the storm windows down, most notably — but our primary effort here is to try to keep unused areas of the house from sucking up extra heat. That leaves more for the bedrooms and living room and kitchen!

5) OK, fine, I put on another sweater. Actually, a really really dorky fleece-lined hoodie. It’s pepto-bismol pink and I can’t wear it out of the house because it’s just embarrassing. However, there are certainly classier options available (try LL Bean, REI, Patagonia, or other outdoor-oriented retailers for gear like this).

How about you all? What’s your best tip for handling a cold house?

Share your experiences by commenting below! 

***Photo courtesy of https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Modern_Masonry_Fireplace.jpeg