There is a happy medium. We had a small house that had a really small kitchen. There wasn't much we could do to redesign the kitchen. We also had a big house and regretted it for the big payment and big bills as Derek said. The house that I am 100% content with is one that had a big enough kitchen and the rooms are as small as they can be while having an active family. Our house that we currently live in was built in the 50's. We do a lot of the upgrades ourselves. We hire some and finish some if we are not up to the task. We live on a frugal budget and love our house that fits our needs.
Checking my email is the biggest time waster for me in the morning. I always tell myself I'll only check and reply when I get to the office. Twi minutes later, I find myself replying to just one... and then just another. Before I know it, I've wasted 15 minutes.
I just purchased a piece of property and have the blueprints to build my "forever" home - single story, ranch style, 1,200 sq ft. for two people and four "four footed kids". I'm purposely building for ageing in place with a shower with no sill, a front entrance with no stairs, the bedroom nearest the entrance with double doors, etc. in case I have mobility issues in the future. People are looking at me at first like I'm crazy when I tell them that I'm taking these things into consideration, then think it over and concede it's good planning.
I love gardening and home maintenance, but dealing with a second story/vaulted ceilings is a waste of time and resources (what a waste to heat and cool all that airspace!), as well as exterior maintenance issues. There's room enough for small parties for entertaining, for family members from the Midwest to stay when the come to visit, but not so much floor space that I'll hate cleaning it. Lots of area for a vegetable garden and fruit trees, which will be laid out with reduced water usage in mind. There's really no reason for anything larger, I just don't understand the mentality that a home must be a palace.
I have to agree. I've tried several but I love SparkPeople. I have my Fitbit One sync'd up so my exercise is automatically added and I'm able to add the foods I eat and track weight, the water I drink, etc. They even have specialized diet plans such as Heart-healthy and Diabetic, and will even give you meal plans. They recently changed their food tracking so your "allowed" calories can now be based on your lifestyle (active vs sedentary) and on your daily activity. The more you move, the more you're allowed to eat. The website is free but the apps have a small charge
I don't have a consistent side income. However I'm always looking for ways to use my skills and knowledge base to make some extra money where I can. I'd love to start my own business but just haven't found the right opportunity yet.
I sell handmade jewelry online. It helps me feel secure in case my day job lays me off I have something I could build on while looking for more work. It's nice to have that extra money to buy xmas gifts or to help pay some bills.
This is a great article. There are all very good tips. I think the most important one is to have that emergency fund. You never know what surprises could hit when you get that new house! I've heard you should budget ~5% of the value of the house each year for repairs. If something major hasn't hit yet, just wait!
I would strongly consider folks to err on the side of smaller. We got a house that was a little too big for us, and we're regretting it now with the higher utility bills, tax bills, mortgage bills, etc.
The risk tolerance quiz is generally useful on a one-time or infrequent basis (when your needs and goals change) but sites like Yahoo Finance can be great for research on an ongoing basis. For history or an analyst's take on a stock, you can get tons of info. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Ooh, you missed Sparkpeople.com! They are mostly web based, but have apps to supplement the site while you're away from the computer. Their food and fitness trackers are easy to use and most fitness monitors can be set to sync to their trackers. They also have tons of articles, recipes, meal plans, message boards and groups to find support and advice on nearly anything you might want. The web site and some apps are free, others have nominal fees associated.
Good ideas, except for No. 6! Brushing teeth in the shower won't save much time at all, but it will most surely use more water. Unless you can soap yourself with one hand and brush your teeth with the other, you'll send 2 gallons--or more--of extra water down the drain. That is unless you turn off the shower while you brush, and who wants to stand dripping cold when you could be dry and warm brushing at the sink with the water running only when you rinse the brush.
We sold our home in four hours! Thank God! I placed two ads in our local paper. I got a form for an offer from our realtor. We decided we would sell it "as is". I put tons of stuff into garbage bags and stored it at my in-laws home. I arranged my purses on the top shelf of my closet, the current home owner commented about it looking good. Lit candles, scrubbed everything, bought flowers and turned on light music. I had my husband touch up paint on corners that my kids had chipped off and we stained a few tiles of parquet flooring. He also acted as realtor by staying with the house during an open house. I asked a friend to do the lettering on for sale signs and placed them around the neighborhood. The house smelled good and looked good. It was a two bedroom, one bath in a good school district. We saved about 8K doing it ourselves.
After poor examples of money management from my parents, foolish choices/early independence in life on my end, and finally a chronic health condition I have come to hate debt with everything in me. I met my husband a year or two after I really began a debt elimination program, and we have been steadily been paying things down while paying cash for school, cars, travel, etc. in the meantime.
I have seen a slow but steady transformation in how I see money... the way we manage it has the power to put us in bondage for years on end, or to enjoy life to the fullest. Freedom is what it's all about for us at this point! Learning to say no and live within my means have been some of the best skills I've gleaned from the whole process. Painful but I'm a better person for it!
You need to be strategic and think about your travel goals. Opening a few travel rewards credit cards has enabled us to plan regular cross-country visits to see family. It's true that the low-cost award seats are hard to come by, but since we got the miles for free in the first place, we don't mind spending 50K miles for a round-trip domestic ticket.
This is an old post, but if an HM could answer this question it will be awesome. I have read about graphical CVs and I think they're pretty nifty. I just want to know how effective they are, such as those that can be created via SHINE app (http://goo.gl/vhZ2q), from the point of view of a hiring manager.
I don't know how old this thread is (couldn't see the date), but you could consider donating them to the church. I once attended a church that displayed flags of many nations in order to demonstrate their multiculturism.
That's a negative on the pure vanilla extract. It *may have worked for the first 5 min., but apparently the mosquitoes in SE Tennessee acquire a taste for vanilla rather quickly.
I have a little blog - a few paid posts here and there but mostly I receive items for review (which saves me $$) and host giveaways :) www.madebyrenee.blogspot.com
One thing I have learned over the years is that pets get more expensive the longer you have them.
Bringing leftovers for lunch is my favorite! Quick, easy, and usually healthy.
There is a happy medium. We had a small house that had a really small kitchen. There wasn't much we could do to redesign the kitchen. We also had a big house and regretted it for the big payment and big bills as Derek said. The house that I am 100% content with is one that had a big enough kitchen and the rooms are as small as they can be while having an active family. Our house that we currently live in was built in the 50's. We do a lot of the upgrades ourselves. We hire some and finish some if we are not up to the task. We live on a frugal budget and love our house that fits our needs.
Love #12!
Checking my email is the biggest time waster for me in the morning. I always tell myself I'll only check and reply when I get to the office. Twi minutes later, I find myself replying to just one... and then just another. Before I know it, I've wasted 15 minutes.
I just purchased a piece of property and have the blueprints to build my "forever" home - single story, ranch style, 1,200 sq ft. for two people and four "four footed kids". I'm purposely building for ageing in place with a shower with no sill, a front entrance with no stairs, the bedroom nearest the entrance with double doors, etc. in case I have mobility issues in the future. People are looking at me at first like I'm crazy when I tell them that I'm taking these things into consideration, then think it over and concede it's good planning.
I love gardening and home maintenance, but dealing with a second story/vaulted ceilings is a waste of time and resources (what a waste to heat and cool all that airspace!), as well as exterior maintenance issues. There's room enough for small parties for entertaining, for family members from the Midwest to stay when the come to visit, but not so much floor space that I'll hate cleaning it. Lots of area for a vegetable garden and fruit trees, which will be laid out with reduced water usage in mind. There's really no reason for anything larger, I just don't understand the mentality that a home must be a palace.
Not sure how much it costs to have a cat. However, if I were to pull out my credit card bills, I could tell you how much it costs to have five cats!
You might also want to review the USAA Secured Credit Card for Military Members and their families.
Uh, I can't even feed my family of 1 (i.e., myself) on $100 a week. Clearly I am doing something wrong!!!! Help!!!
Great list - thank you for posting! I particularly like #4 - sleep in your workout gear!
I have to agree. I've tried several but I love SparkPeople. I have my Fitbit One sync'd up so my exercise is automatically added and I'm able to add the foods I eat and track weight, the water I drink, etc. They even have specialized diet plans such as Heart-healthy and Diabetic, and will even give you meal plans. They recently changed their food tracking so your "allowed" calories can now be based on your lifestyle (active vs sedentary) and on your daily activity. The more you move, the more you're allowed to eat. The website is free but the apps have a small charge
I don't have a consistent side income. However I'm always looking for ways to use my skills and knowledge base to make some extra money where I can. I'd love to start my own business but just haven't found the right opportunity yet.
I sell handmade jewelry online. It helps me feel secure in case my day job lays me off I have something I could build on while looking for more work. It's nice to have that extra money to buy xmas gifts or to help pay some bills.
This is a great article. There are all very good tips. I think the most important one is to have that emergency fund. You never know what surprises could hit when you get that new house! I've heard you should budget ~5% of the value of the house each year for repairs. If something major hasn't hit yet, just wait!
I would strongly consider folks to err on the side of smaller. We got a house that was a little too big for us, and we're regretting it now with the higher utility bills, tax bills, mortgage bills, etc.
The risk tolerance quiz is generally useful on a one-time or infrequent basis (when your needs and goals change) but sites like Yahoo Finance can be great for research on an ongoing basis. For history or an analyst's take on a stock, you can get tons of info. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Ooh, you missed Sparkpeople.com! They are mostly web based, but have apps to supplement the site while you're away from the computer. Their food and fitness trackers are easy to use and most fitness monitors can be set to sync to their trackers. They also have tons of articles, recipes, meal plans, message boards and groups to find support and advice on nearly anything you might want. The web site and some apps are free, others have nominal fees associated.
Good ideas, except for No. 6! Brushing teeth in the shower won't save much time at all, but it will most surely use more water. Unless you can soap yourself with one hand and brush your teeth with the other, you'll send 2 gallons--or more--of extra water down the drain. That is unless you turn off the shower while you brush, and who wants to stand dripping cold when you could be dry and warm brushing at the sink with the water running only when you rinse the brush.
We sold our home in four hours! Thank God! I placed two ads in our local paper. I got a form for an offer from our realtor. We decided we would sell it "as is". I put tons of stuff into garbage bags and stored it at my in-laws home. I arranged my purses on the top shelf of my closet, the current home owner commented about it looking good. Lit candles, scrubbed everything, bought flowers and turned on light music. I had my husband touch up paint on corners that my kids had chipped off and we stained a few tiles of parquet flooring. He also acted as realtor by staying with the house during an open house. I asked a friend to do the lettering on for sale signs and placed them around the neighborhood. The house smelled good and looked good. It was a two bedroom, one bath in a good school district. We saved about 8K doing it ourselves.
After poor examples of money management from my parents, foolish choices/early independence in life on my end, and finally a chronic health condition I have come to hate debt with everything in me. I met my husband a year or two after I really began a debt elimination program, and we have been steadily been paying things down while paying cash for school, cars, travel, etc. in the meantime.
I have seen a slow but steady transformation in how I see money... the way we manage it has the power to put us in bondage for years on end, or to enjoy life to the fullest. Freedom is what it's all about for us at this point! Learning to say no and live within my means have been some of the best skills I've gleaned from the whole process. Painful but I'm a better person for it!
You need to be strategic and think about your travel goals. Opening a few travel rewards credit cards has enabled us to plan regular cross-country visits to see family. It's true that the low-cost award seats are hard to come by, but since we got the miles for free in the first place, we don't mind spending 50K miles for a round-trip domestic ticket.
This is an old post, but if an HM could answer this question it will be awesome. I have read about graphical CVs and I think they're pretty nifty. I just want to know how effective they are, such as those that can be created via SHINE app (http://goo.gl/vhZ2q), from the point of view of a hiring manager.
Hi MARIA
I don't know how old this thread is (couldn't see the date), but you could consider donating them to the church. I once attended a church that displayed flags of many nations in order to demonstrate their multiculturism.
Yes I have a side income, not as much as I'd like though! I do mystery shopping and merchandising, but it's been really sporadic lately
That's a negative on the pure vanilla extract. It *may have worked for the first 5 min., but apparently the mosquitoes in SE Tennessee acquire a taste for vanilla rather quickly.
I have a little blog - a few paid posts here and there but mostly I receive items for review (which saves me $$) and host giveaways :) www.madebyrenee.blogspot.com