5 Reasons I’ll Never Use Grocery Pickup Services

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People are loving grocery pickup services. Many major grocery retailers offer it, each giving it their own name, but the concept is the same. Customers pick the grocery products they want online and with a click of a button someone at the store rolls out a cart and collects the items for you. You can pick it up usually for free, or for a small price have it delivered to your house. People adore it. I have friends that say they will never go back to doing the grocery shopping themselves. I just shake my head. I’ll never, ever have […] Read more »

Teens And Money: Bills My High School Daughter Pays

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  Teaching children financial skills is crucial to their success with money as an adult. However, it’s also a parent’s responsibility to provide necessities of life and opportunities to participate in activities that will create well rounded individuals ready to take on the real world. Parents have to find a balance between providing their children with a comfortable life and teaching financial responsibility. Below I share the major categories of what my wife and I expect our daughter, who is a high school senior, to pay for using income from her of her part-time job, and what we supply for […] Read more »

Budget Pro Tip: Oversave Your Purchases

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Don’t buy something unless you have the money in your pocket. That simple sentence is great advice, meant to keep a person from overspending. But having the money to buy something after sacrificing and saving, even after all your bills are paid, may not be sufficient. Personally, I like to oversave large purchases. My wife wanted to order some products online that amounted to a significant amount of money. Knowing we have more discretionary funds in the second half of the month, she asked if it would be better to wait until our middle of the month paycheck. She was […] Read more »

3 Reasons You Should Review Your Checking Account Regularly

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  I know people that roll through life, never reconciling their checking account. Many younger people fall into this category, and for the most part it works because they don’t write checks, so the current balance is up to date. Others keep close tabs on their account, verifying every transaction. I fall into the second category because you just never know when you might notice something out of the ordinary. I was looking at my checking account online over the weekend when I noticed a $6.95 charge from an online gaming site. I recognized it something my son had been […] Read more »

5 Things I Don’t Mind Spending Money On

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Achieving your ultimate financial goals requires you to be selective in how you spend your hard earned money. Being a wasteful or frivolous spender leaves less money in your pocket to put towards eventual financial freedom. But being wise with your money doesn’t mean living in a cardboard box and subsisting on bread and water – it simply means executing selective spending. Spend your hard earned cash on things that matter to you. Here’s a list of 5 things I don’t mind pulling my wallet out for: Expensive Groceries USDA Prime rated steak, lobster tail, crab legs and beef tenderloin […] Read more »

I Can’t Believe I Almost Did This….

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Lack of impulse control can get you a house full of stuff you don’t need. Pair that lack of impulse control with a credit card and you’re just asking to end up neck deep in debt. Add to the mix the ease of online shopping and the road to debt ends up a slippery slope that’s easy to slide down. For those of us with weak impulse control, we have to understand that we can and will live without the things we want so desperately in the heat of the moment. Let me show you what I mean. All of […] Read more »

5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Ignore your Finances This Holiday Season

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Names on gift lists are being checked off, plans for holiday gatherings are coming together, and cash registers are signing their song. We’re right in the middle of the holiday season, and it’s easy to put blinders on, forget the budget and plow through the next few weeks. You just want it to be over, and figure you’ll just deal with the repercussions in January. It’s easy to do, but it’s a bad idea for many reasons. Here’s just a few of them: Can’t Pay Your Bills If you’re not paying attention to your budget, and spend freely on holiday […] Read more »

3 Things You Can Do With $1000 Instead of Buying a new iPhone

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Apple announced the newest generation of their iPhone last week. The iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X (named for the 10th anniversary of the launch of the original iPhone) come with varying price tags, some reaching the $1000 mark. Working in the technology industry, I know that there are times when businesses are eagerly waiting for a new generation of system to hit the market because they are performance starved or need a specific new capability. I’ve never, ever heard of someone whose iPhone is critical for their daily life, and they are barely making it because they desperately need […] Read more »

I Lost $500 for 3 Months OR 3 Reasons To Reconcile Your Checking Account Often

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One thing that a person absolutely has to do to successfully manage their finances is to simply pay attention. It’s common sense, but it’s surprising how many people just don’t. I know people that never reconcile their checking account, occasionally checking their balance claiming they know approximately how much should be in there. I like to reconcile my checking account almost on a daily basis, but every now and then life gets away from me. I got a very hard reminder of the consequences which could result from not keeping an eye on your finances. A few years ago I […] Read more »

Using The Envelope Budgeting System On Vacation

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Vacation can be a dangerous financial proposition, even for the most dedicated budget savvy family. One might be diligent in planning out their spending in day to day life, but going into vacation mode can lower a person’s guard. It’s easy to justify not wanting to put in the effort, to just want to relax, not worry about money, and believe everything is going to OK. This kind of lapse in financial judgment is exactly what I’m hoping to avoid. My family and I are headed out on a cross country road trip to Florida later this week. We’ll travel […] Read more »

Are You Wasting Money By Changing Your Oil Too Often?

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For my entire adult life, I’ve had the oil changed in my vehicles every 3,000 miles (or relatively close to that) just as my father had taught me when I was a teenager. In recent years, I had read articles online that suggested this paradigm was out of date but didn’t think much of it. I assumed since the employees at the oil change service stations kept slapping the sticker on my windshield reminding me to change my oil every 3000 miles, I’d better do it. That all changed when we bought our current mini-van a few years ago, and […] Read more »

Insurance Enrollment for 2017 is OPEN!

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That special time of year is upon us again, my friends. I’m not talking about the holidays, the change in season, or even the start of the NFL season. Enrollment is open for next year’s insurance selection. Millions of Americans are pouring over plan benefit sheets and plan price comparisons trying to make the most cost effective selection for themselves or their family. Many will simply take the option to renew whatever they had last year, leaving the only interesting action to find out how much their bill will go up when January rolls around. That may end up being […] Read more »

What Is Amazon Prime, and Is It Worth The Cost?

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I noticed a $99 purchase during my weekly review of my son’s checking account. Being a secondary on my son’s account allows me to periodically review his spending to ensure he’s being smart with his money. By the description of the purchase I knew that he had had paid for a yearly subscription to Amazon Prime. I didn’t know much about the service, so I did a little research to find out what he would get for his $99.   Here are the major services that come with an Amazon Prime Membership: Free Shipping Amazon Prime members enjoy free 2 […] Read more »

5 Things That Happen When You Spend Only Cash

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In Friday’s roundup post, I mentioned that my wife and I were restarting our methodology of spending cash only for our day to day expenditures.   Here’s a brief look at how it works: Monthly bills are paid online out of our checking account Each Friday, cash for our personal spending is withdrawn from the ATM. Personal spending includes gas, groceries, allowance for the kids, and entertainment funds With this system we had been extremely successful managing our finances and staying within our budget.  As happens in life, we got lazy and began to let our structure slide in favor of […] Read more »