How to Start Saving For College When You’re On a Budget

How to Start Saving For College When You’re On a Budget

Almost every parent has dreams and hopes that their children will attend college. And while every child may not do this, it’s still something that we can hope for. Following in the footsteps, somewhat, of family members; I have at least obtained my associates degree. Eventually I’d like to get my Bachelor’s degree and possibly my Master’s degree. In the meantime, we also want to start saving for college on a budget so Squeaker has something to help her out. With thanks to NY529 Direct for sponsoring this conversation, we’re sharing a few tips. While we may encourage her to pursue all forms of scholarship and grant money, we are also going to do whatever we can to help. And that includes starting a college…

How to Save Money During a Recession

How to Save Money During a Recession

There is speculation that our country is headed for an economic recession, but what exactly does that mean? In my lifetime, the United States has had four major recessions: July 1981 – November 1982 July 1990 – March 1991 March 2001 – November 2001 December 2007 – June 2009 I wasn’t the one financially in charge during the first two, and during the third, I was still trying to find my way in life.  However, if another recession occurs in the near future? I want to be prepared. During the fourth recession, I cannot say that I was financially ready. But this time around, I know that I need to have a plan in place. And that includes learning how to save money during a…

5 Tips for Teaching Your Kids to Save Money

5 Tips for Teaching Your Kids to Save Money

Saving money is an acquired skill. For some of us it may just come naturally and for some of us, it needs to become a mindful habit. If you’ve been here before, then you know that I advocate for teaching kids how to be money savvy. This is an important life skill (how to manage their money), that is often overlooked. But why touch on this more? Why the need for sharing five tips for teaching your kids to save money? For that matter, why bother repeating some of the previous tips found on this blog? Because one of the easiest ways to learn is through repetition. That and if this is your first time here, this is your first time seeing a post about…

How Having Healthy Kids Will Help You Save Money

How Having Healthy Kids Will Help You Save Money

Raising kids can be expensive. And we may look for any number of ways to save money. For our family that means living a more frugal lifestyle and learning to let go of things here and there. It means living within a budget and making smarter financial decisions. It also means looking for ways to save money whenever possible. Sometimes that’s with our grocery budget or it might be with household bills. For us, it also meant that I would stay at home to cut back on daycare expenses. And while it may work for us, for other families it may make more sense to have both parents working outside of the home. Or, in the case of single parent families, the option just may…

How to Save Money and Still Eat Healthy

How to Save Money and Still Eat Healthy

It’s a commonly believed myth that in order to eat healthy food, you need to spend a lot of money. Believe me, I bought into this too. And it’s not difficult to buy into that when you walk down the aisles of a grocery store and compare prices. But, it is possible to save money and still eat healthy. You just need to know where to shop. Thank you to Whole Foods for sponsoring this conversation. While I was compensated for this post, that does not change my opinion. Going back to school can be a pricey time of the year as a parent. School supply lists that are seemingly never ending come pouring in and then there’s a matter of lunches if your child…

3 Fun and Easy Piggy Bank Ideas for Kids

3 Fun and Easy Piggy Bank Ideas for Kids

In our Raising Money Savvy Kids series, we talked a little bit about how to teach kids to save money. This is a good skill to have and certainly one that I could use a little help with too. Not that I don’t save money, I do. Just that I could be doing better with it or putting it towards something practical like a retirement fund. I also want to set up a special needs trust fund for Sweet B. But how can we teach kids to save money? Money may be given as a gift for a birthday, holiday, or other special occasion. Maybe your child receives an allowance or they could be old enough to have their first job. For older kids, you…