Money Tips Network

Since the very beginning of The Simple Dollar, I’ve talked about what I consider be the fundamental rule of personal finance: spend less than you earn and do something financially sensible with the difference. If you can do that over every pay period, every month, and every year of your life, no financial hurdle will be too difficult to cross.

How do you do that, though? It’s easy to say, but much harder to implement, especially when you’re turning your attention to personal finance for the first time.

One of my favorite eye opening and useful strategies for migrating to a natural pattern of spending less than you earn is to keep track of every dollar you spend and review the spending regularly.

Why do this? There are three big reasons for it.

Financial experts have long advocated for the emergency fund: savings set aside to pay for life's unexpected emergencies. This financial cushion can also help cover your daily living expenses should you lose your job.

Have you ever noticed that we look at most of our expenses in terms of monthly payments? We often justify these expenses by saying, "It's just a few dollars a month." Sometimes, we even break costs down into weeks or days.

There are good managers and there are bad managers. Sadly, the people who would make really great managers often don't realize their potential to lead. These subtle signs — ones that you have either overlooked or never noticed — signal that you could be a fantastic boss.

Jenny writes in:

How do you shop for groceries? I mean, I tried following your general plan of making a grocery list first but I’m still spending $300 a week on groceries for me and my husband and two kids. You’ve said you can get by on $400 a month for 5 people. How? What do you do at the store that’s so different?

I like questions like these. They come in every once in a while from people who aren’t afraid of frugality but just don’t know how to approach situations from a frugal mindset.

Jenny’s question came in a month ago and since then I’ve been actually taking careful notes on as many details as I could about my grocery store trips. In particular, I’ve been trying to focus on the little details of my practice.

So, let’s go deep into my grocery shopping routine.

Leasing a vehicle is still a popular way to finance a new car. According to Experian, nearly 30 percent of all new vehicles were leased rather than purchased during the fourth quarter of 2017.

Pumping on the go is hard enough when you're a nursing mom, but how do you keep up your milk supply when you have to travel for work or for an event and can't bring the baby along? These essentials will make traveling without your precious babe a whole lot easier.

Recently, I came close to falling for an Airbnb scam in which I would've lost $3,300 on an apartment booking in Lisbon. Fortunately, I realized something wasn't quite right and backed out at the last minute, but there are many people who haven't been as lucky.

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This week's topic: Building Wealth!