10 Of My Favorite Store Brand Products at Walmart

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My wife occasionally gives me a hard time for buying store brand products. They are perceived as being cheaper because they are inferior in quality. Sometimes that’s true, but not all. Below is a list of ten Walmart Great Value store brand products I purchase on a regular basis, that I can’t differentiate from their name brand counterparts. Note: All prices stated were observed at Walmart in Rochester, MN. Hot Dog or Hamburger Buns Great Value: $0.88 BallPark: $1.98 Savings: $1.10 White Bread Great Value: $0.88 White Whole Grain: $2.48 Savings: $1.60 Dill Pickle Spears Great Value: $1.54 Gedney: $2.28 […] Read more »

Fist Pump Friday: I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 9/25/20

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This weekend I’m firing up my smoker to make brisket.  At one point during the pandemic beef brisket was super expensive due to closure of beef processing facilities.  The price seems to have come down a bit, but a local bbq restaurant is still selling their brisket meals at “market price.”   Even before all this COVID-19 stuff started, BBQ places would sell smoked brisket for $20 a pound.  So buying it at $3.29 a pound (whole brisket) and making it myself is well worth it, and quite frankly better than most bbq places! Fist pump for smoked brisket and […] Read more »

Inexpensive But Romantic Meal At Home

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Nothing about our Friday night was successful. My wife and I had agreed we would have a low profile weekend since we spent the majority of our discretionary funds on a new snow blower last week. We had pizza for dinner, but for whatever reason it just didn’t hit the spot for my wife. For dessert she asked for vanilla ice cream and two chocolate chip cookies we had made a few days before. However, the ice cream tasted funky, probably from being in the freezer too long. I didn’t know how at the time, but I told her I […] Read more »

Fist Pump Friday: I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 9/18/20

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It’s the weekend, friends! My wife and I are looking for low cost activities the next few weekends because last weekend we bought a snow blower.  It was a great deal, but it was unplanned. We consciously decided to spend the money out of our discretionary funds for the second half of September.  After laying down a big chunk of cash my new winter toy, we have to be very selective as to what do for fun the next two weekends.  The good news is, this weekend I’ll be occupied tidying up the landscaping on the front of our house, […] Read more »

How to Have Fun Without Breaking the Bank

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    When you want to break the usual routine and try something new, finances can be the first obstacle on the way. Whether the issue is distance or simply the fee associated with a certain activity, many hobbies simply don’t seem feasible. Nowadays, social media has brought us closer to a curated version of the lives of our friends and colleagues. Whether real or imagined, it’s easy to feel left out—especially as others post pictures on boats from a tropical vacation or behind the wheel of a fancy car. The responsibilities of our day-to-day lives prevent us from blowing a paycheck on an […] Read more »

25 Best Side Hustles for Teachers to Make Extra Money

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side hustles for teachers

Teachers are massively important to a well-functioning society. Unfortunately, the vast majority of our educators aren’t paid as well as they should be. Because of that, I know plenty of teachers that are constantly on the lookout to make extra money with a side hustle. I have a soft spot for teachers. In fact, I’m pretty much the only person in my family who has never been in the teaching profession. My grandmother, mom, dad, sister, brother, and wife have all taught or are currently teaching. It’s a profession that runs deep in my family. Because I know so many […] Read more »

I Got the Deal of a Lifetime on a Snow Blower – You Can Too!

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  I made an unexpected purchase over the weekend. I was presented a deal I just couldn’t pass up. At the age of 46, this lifetime Minnesota resident purchased his first snow blower. For years I vehemently stated I would never have a snow blower. I thought I could clear my driveway with a shovel faster for the average snowfall. I poked fun at people spending all their time unclogging snow blowers while I kept making progress with a shovel. Those snowfalls for which a snow blower would actually be useful were too few and far in between to justify […] Read more »

Fist Pump Friday: I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 9/11/20

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The NFL season kicked off last night and my Minnesota Vikings play their first game on Sunday. We’re planning on having people over to watch the game in our garage (big space, open air, pandemic friendly).  It’s a potluck, and our contribution is homemade pastrami sandwiches.  That also means I get to fire up my smoker.  The cost of the brisket for the pastrami was $35, and I needed another $15 in supplies for the spices and things needed for the sandwiches.  That’s a total of about $50 for what will be our weekend’s main event. Fist pump for firing […] Read more »

Life Changes Cause Budget Changes

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  Major life changes requires changes to your budget. My wife and I are getting used to being empty nesters as both our kids are now away at college. Since it’s just the two of us, our needs have changed so we’re reevaluating all our spending and adjusting our budget accordingly. Below are four expenditures in our budget that I believe are going to change now that neither of our kids are living at home. Groceries Food is the obvious one. The grocery cart differs not only in how much but also what food I purchase during a typical shopping […] Read more »

Fist Pump Friday: I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 9/5/20

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I was looking forward to a three day Labor Day holiday weekend, but then I received an email from my management giving me Friday off as well.  Four day weekend! I’m going to relax, fire up the grill, and work on staining my deck.  Looking forward to NFL football starting next weekend! Fist pump for long, relaxing, productive weekends, and my favorite posts of the week! Posts That Make Me Fist Pump What Is a Credit Union? from Club Thrifty Do Waiters Always Deserve the Tip? from Money Ning 23 Ways to Make Money as a Teen from Debt Discipline […] Read more »

How My Wife and I Communicate About Finances

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How do you and your significant other stay on the same page with your finances? How often do you talk about finances? There’s no right or wrong answers unless they are “we don’t,” and “never.” My wife and I recently revamped our financial handling plan, and committed to tackling our finances together. I wrote a post about it a few months ago, however we’ve honed our skills since then and have added some new aspects to our discussions such that I thought it warranted a new post. Paying Bills Our budget cycle is bimonthly since my wife and I are […] Read more »

Fist Pump Friday: I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 8/28/20

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In Monday’s post, I declared my wife and I were on a spending freeze. We have an activity this weekend, and we wanted all the discretionary funds in our checking account available.  Therefore, the goal was to not spend any money during this week. I promised I would provide an update in today’s post, so let’s see how we did. Did we touch our checking account?  Nope, no money was spent from our checking account. That means we didn’t spend any money, right?  Not exactly….let me clarify. The goal that started as a complete spending freeze, was redefined as a […] Read more »

We’re on a Spending Freeze!

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I’m about to do something I’ve never done before. In fact, I’ve often wondered about the reasoning behind why people do these. I’m about to find out for myself, as I’ve declared this week a no spend week. I’ve read about people who have gone long periods of time without spending any money except for necessities, but for my purposes the period will last about 6 days. Why Am I Doing A No Spend Week? We have an activity this weekend, and we need to make sure we have the funds for it. Our budget cycle is on a bimonthly […] Read more »

4 Basic Things You Should Know About Car Insurance

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Experts often tell you that getting car insurance is vital if you are a car owner. Where car insurance is no doubt as important as getting life insurance, there are some things that you need to know to make sure that you don’t entangle yourself into a mess. If you don’t know the basics of car insurance and how it works, it is going to become very hard for you to get a favorable term for your insurance. So, in this article, I am going to highlight four basic things that you must know before you go out to buy […] Read more »