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Rising utility bills can squeeze household budgets and may have longer-term financial consequences if unpaid balances reach collections. Tracking costs and seeking help early can protect both essential services and financial stability. (Pexels). A utility bill usually gets one job in the household budget: get paid. Electricity, gas, water, internet, and other essential services sit among the expenses that have to leave the bank account whether the month feels financially comfortable or not. But a […]
Most major grocery chains offer a free loyalty app with personalized digital coupons loaded before you shop. Standalone cash back apps add rebates on specific products at checkout. Stack store coupons with a cash back app and a rewards credit card on the same grocery run and you’re routinely cutting 15-25% off a bill you’d pay regardless. Source
An email hit your inbox sometime after July 1, 2026, telling you the SAVE student loan plan is dead and you have three months to deal with it. If you’re one of the more than 7.5 million people who were enrolled, that email wasn’t spam. Federal loan servicers started sending out that exact notice this […] The post Your SAVE student loan plan is gone. You have 90 days to pick a new one appeared […]
I want to be really intentional with our grocery budget in September. We have a lot going on financially, so I want to keep our grocery spending to a minimum this month. Planning out a menu is a great way to minimize spending because you can control the cost of the meals you choose, you can prioritize meals that use ingredients that you already have, and you don’t waste food. All of that is easier […]
It may still be warm outside and Christmas might feel a long way off, but if you want to make the holidays a little easier on your budget, now is actually the perfect time to start. And I’m not talking about buying Christmas gifts in the summer or putting yourself on a strict no-spend challenge. I’m talking about taking a good look at the things to stop buying before the holidays so you can free up some […]
People have always preferred stories over statistics. But I do find it interesting that, in a world awash in data and information, narratives still seem to shape how people feel about the economy. I understand why this is the case. Your personal economy has a far greater bearing on your feelings and financial well-being than government data and aggregate averages. The one narrative that seems to make the most sense right …
Your grocery bill jumped again this month. So did your car insurance, your kid’s daycare bill, and the interest charge on the credit card balance you keep meaning to pay off. None of that is in your head. Household debt across the country just climbed to one of the highest levels ever recorded, and the pattern behind it looks a lot like your own budget: not one big purchase, just everyday costs outrunning what people […]
Whenever someone asks how much it costs to homeschool, I never quite know how to answer. Because technically? You could homeschool for very little. There are free resources online, libraries full of books, used curriculum sales, hand-me-down materials, and approximately 47 pencils hiding somewhere in my house at any given moment. For years, we’ve used the free curriculum from The Good and The Beautiful (highly recommend it). But that’s not really how I think about […]
My Sweet Retirement Delfi share price: is it worth buying after 1H 2026 results? Delfi Share Price has become a topic of renewed interest among investors following the release of the Delfi 1H 2026 Financial Results. As someone who holds Delfi as 2.5% of my stock portfolio, I always … Delfi share price: is it worth buying after 1H 2026 results? My Sweet Retirement
After a rough summer, I’m glad to be back to sharing our budget updates. I’m also proud of getting August’s budget update posted so promptly!;) If you’re new here, I have been sharing our family’s transparent finances since 2013 when we were in six figures of student loan debt. I realized that most people have never looked at someone else’s real budget numbers before. If you’ve never been taught how to budget, you’re not alone. […]
Last year, I took an official Certified Financial Planner (CFP) course, which satisfies the “Education” requirement of becoming an official Certified Financial Planner (CFP). Mine was online and self-paced at the University of Georgia with a net cost of around $3,000. I did not take the official CFP Exam ($925), nor did I satisfy the “Experience” requirement of 6,000 hours of “professional experience related to the financial planning process”. I don’t want the actual certification […]
It’s hard to believe that September is almost here! Here’s your friendly reminder to get your September budget ready pronto – and don’t forget to include these potential expenses in your September budget! The post THREE IMPORTANT EXPENSES TO INCLUDE IN YOUR SEPTEMBER BUDGET appeared first on a life on a dime.
Fifty years ago today (August 31, 1976), Jack Bogle and Vanguard launched the first index mutual fund: First Index Investment Trust, which tracked the S&P 500 index (and which is now known as the Vanguard 500 Index Fund). It’s hard to overstate the significance of that event, in terms of its impact on individual investors. Today, using low-cost, index-tracking funds is largely the default way to invest. The success of Vanguard’s index-tracking funds — and […]