I am a sustainable shopper and I’m a budget lover. Now you might think: Kara, those two things are opposites! Sustainability is expensive and boujee! There’s no way to shop ethically on a budget. Au contraire my friends. Sustainability can be affordable and accessible. Don’t let the fancy TikTok accounts fool you! You absolutely do […] The post Your 11 Step Easy Guide to Shop Sustainably on a Budget appeared first on Bravely Go.

Mike and I are coming up on our 20th wedding anniversary this year, so I decided to plan a surprise trip to celebrate! Mike knew that I was taking him on a trip, but he didn’t know where we going or what we were doing. He didn’t have a clue until we got our boarding passes at the airport. It was so hard to keep the secret, but so worth it! Nearly twenty-five years ago, […]

Hi, it’s me: the crazy person who made a 2+ hour-long video reviewing grocery stores! Did you think I was done? Never! I’m the Saiyan warrior of personal finance writers. If a topic brings me to the brink of total annihilation, it only makes me more powerful. The positive response to that video was the senzu bean I needed to bounce back with even more cheap grocery shopping wisdom. To our new readers: welcome. To our new Patreon donors: thank you. Many readers lamented that they live far away from the stores featured in my investigation. With them in mind, I challenged myself to come up with some really juicy, delicious advice that could apply to everyone who shops for food. And I think I’ve managed to do just that. Today’s advice is universal. These are *cosmic truths* about grocery shopping. They will save you money on food, no matter what you buy or where you shop. If rising food prices are a source of stress in your life—as they are in mine!—I promise you’ll learn something helpful. [embed]https://youtube.com/watch?v=wAxywsdl7CE&feature=oembed[/embed] 1st Cosmic Truth of Cheap Grocery Shopping: Where you shop matters as much as what you buy. I already did a deep dive into grocery store price comparisons in To Hell And Back for Cheap Groceries. And when I say “a deep dive” I mean Active-Lava-Zone-deep. Sea-Dragon-Leviathans-Working-Loss-Prevention-deep. Any deeper and we’re just inside the mantle! The tl;dr of that investigation is this: an average shopping list costs $157 at one store and $82 at another. Which means that where you choose to shop has an enormous impact on how much money you’ll spend on groceries throughout your lifetime. A lot of people shop based on convenience: which store is closest to home or work, which stocks everything in one place, which are least crowded… and that’s completely understandable! But if saving money is your top priority, you should know that a few extra minutes in the car or checkout line could lower your bill—realistically by 10-20%, but potentially by as much as 50%. The cost savings at the cheapest stores may justify added expenses like grocery delivery, curbside pickup, or a bus ride or ride share to get to the store. At the very least, you can save money doing big, infrequent trips to the cheaper store for shelf-stable and freezable foods. To paraphrase Jess, “cheat on your grocery store—it’s not your girlfriend.” That’s my only repeat! Everything that follows is brand advice you’ve never heard from us before. 2nd Cosmic Truth of Cheap Grocery Shopping: Look up and look down. Here is a photo of the granola section at one grocery store. And here is the same photo, with a heat map of its unit prices. Highest prices are in red, lowest prices are in blue.

We’re officially back from Hawaii! And what an amazing trip it was! Please excuse the picture of the girls’ backs to the camera. They’re teenagers now (13!) and are getting picker about what they do and don’t want shared on the internet! I’m also feeling more protective as they are growing, thus the back-of-the-head image. It was a doozy of a trip! Even more expensive than I had imagined (and I’d expected expensive but – yikes!) We ended up about $1,000 over budget, which puts us into the “red” for our travel spending this year. We had enough in our travel savings to cover it, but we’ll need to increase savings to cover the over-spending. Or, alternatively, I had about $1,000 earmarked for some type of fun experience over Labor Day and/or Fall Break and I could cancel that to cover the overage. Budgeting To back up for those who may be newer readers, in my monthly budget, I have a line item specifically for travel savings. I save monthly toward travel. Then when we go on vacation, we spend from our savings. It’s great to have trips essentially “paid for” before they happen and not have to worry about going into credit card debt, which is something that definitely would have happened to the me of 10 years ago! At the beginning of a year (or, sometimes even further out than that), I create a  draft travel itinerary for the following year. I fill it in with things I know we will definitely do, like an annual trip to Austin to see family, along with estimated costs (usually about $1500 for an Austin trip). I also leave room for little mini weekend trips or staycations. Think $500 or less. And then for just the past couple of years, we’ve had one bigger vacation. This year was Hawaii. Last year was Italy. I’m a planner, so I plan this all out in advance so I have an estimated annual travel budget ahead of time, and I break that down into monthly savings. Over time, I’ve gotten pretty good at estimating costs. I know exactly how much a weekend in Sedona costs, and how much cheaper it is to go camping in the mountains than it is to do a staycation at a resort in Scottsdale. All this to say, I’m usually pretty spot-on with planning out prices for our travels. Hawaii Costs Hawaii threw a wrench in things. And to be fair, I did pretty good with estimating most of our costs. I knew how much to expect for lodging, transportation, and activities/excursions. The thing that really got me…..the food! Food was much, much higher than I’d anticipated. I am sure it can be done cheaper if staying in an Air B&B and cooking at home. We stayed at resorts, however. And while I loved the experience of walking outside and being on the beach and having all the amenities at our fingertips, I did not love the

Taxes are not only determined by how much income you receive but also by the type of income generated. Some income is taxed at ordinary rates, while other sources qualify for lower, preferential rates. Understanding how these different forms of income interact can open up valuable planning opportunities.   The U.S. tax code is progressive, meaning taxes are assessed at increasingly higher rates on increasingly higher incomes. It also treats ordinary income and preferential income differently. […]

Missed Payments in a Debt Management Plan: Here’s What Happens Enrolling in a debt management plan (DMP) can be a smart way to regain control of your finances. It offers structure, reduced interest rates, and a clear path to becoming debt-free. But what happens if life gets in the way, and you make a missed […] The post Missed Payments in a Debt Management Plan: Here’s What Happens appeared first on CuraDebt.

Many of us think that retirement means packing up and moving to Hawaii, where we can wear funky polo shirts and live the island dream. While that sounds amazing, it’s also not the only route for seniors after gracefully exiting the workforce! Life after working all these years is about letting loose and living more,… Read More The post 20 Frugal Living Tips Every Senior Needs Right Now: Stop Wasting Money appeared first on FinSavvy […]

Your budget isn’t supposed to be perfect—it’s supposed to reflect your real life. If this month didn’t go as planned, you’re not failing—you’re learning. In this article, I’ll walk you through what to do when life throws off your budget and how to bounce back with confidence. The post What to Do When Your Budget Doesn’t Go As Planned appeared first on The Budget Mom.