Eating less meat isn’t just good for your health; it’s great for your budget. If you want to stretch your dollar farther at the grocery store incorporate these easy meatless meals into your week. With the release of multiple food documentaries on Netflix like Forks Over Knives, Food Inc., and What the Health, more people are looking to eat less meat and more nutrient rich foods. And for this frugal vegetarian of almost a decade, that’s a movement I can get behind. Because meat can break a grocery budget faster than a late night pizza delivery. I won’t try to…
Asking yourself “Should I pay off my mortgage early?” We did the same thing! Here’s what we’re doing and how we came to our decision. When you own a home and have a mortgage to pay every month for years (or decades!), it’s natural to want to pay it off as soon as possible so you don’t have that debt looming over you. But, what is the best course of action when it comes to paying off your mortgage? You have several potential options, and it’s important to weigh them out so you can make the most sound decision when…
Buying discounted gift cards is one of my favorite ways to save money and stay on budget. You can hack your way into saving hundreds of dollars a year by buying cheap gift cards. Discounted gift cards are gift cards that are sold for less than whatever the value on the card is. Most people have gift cards they’ll never use sitting around their house just collecting dust. I mean, we all have that grandparent who thinks we love Applebees or an out of state friend who assumes every city has a Publix, right? This means billions of dollars worth…
Afterpay is one of the better buy now pay later websites out there, but does that mean you should use it? I’m sharing the real consequences of using Afterpay & other buy now pay later sites as well as the ONLY reason you should ever use one. I get an email once a week with trending topics on the internet and they’re not all financial so when I see one that is finance-related I get really excited and that’s what happened when this company Afterpay showed up on this list. That’s because since mid-2016 the number of customers using buy…
Today we have a guest post from Lindsey Ralston of Big House in the Woods. She’s sharing her personal story of how she paid off her mortgage early and had fun while doing it. Hope you enjoy it! We paid off our first and only mortgage in 13 months. That made us debt-free and mortgage-free by 25. Some might say that saving intensely and being frugal must be a drag, but we employed 5 thrifty-frugal fun hacks that made paying off our mortgage a blast! 5 Thrifty-Frugal Fun Hacks to Make Saving Money Fun! 1. Make it a game We…
The financial camps are divided between paying off your smallest first vs. your highest interest student loan. So who’s right? Finance people can agree on a few things. Some debts like payday loans and IRS back taxes are worse than others and ideally, you should get rid of all debt that keeps you from having a positive net worth. But how do you decide what goes first? This is something I stressed over when we started out. I had a large high-interest student and a small low-interest car loan while my husband had a moderate student loan with moderate interest.…
I had a great talk with Millennial Money Man yesterday and my favorite piece of advice he gave me was to “write what you’re passionate about.” It took me literally five seconds to think of the one thing I’m really passionate about right now: Getting out of debt. A lot of people don’t understand why we’re doing this. They’re living great lives with money in the bank, shiny cars in the driveway, all with a six-figure negative net worth. So why would I deprive myself in my 20’s, the “best” years of my life, to sacrifice 60% percent of our monthly…
You may find yourself in a place where buying a car while in debt is a necessity. Here are some important things to remember when making your decision. In 2014 I had over $50,000 in student loan debt, a job that would never make me more than $50,000 in a year and a busted car. I hadn’t planned on needing a new car for a few more years so my savings were not enough to pay cash and I was stressed from having to find rides and knowing how much this new car was going to cost me. I cringe…