Money Tips Network

Gift giving can be awkward and the etiquette tricky to navigate. Close friends and family who are possibly gift-worthy don't tend to ask for gifts outright on the invite, and many times, you don't want to ask if you need to bring a gift, either!

There is a huge difference between being frugal, and being cheap. But sometimes, the line gets blurred, and you can damage your good reputation without even saving any money.

This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle.

A few months ago, I shared about my health insurance alternative. As a recap, I belong to a healthcare sharing ministry (HSM) called Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM), just one of several ministries that are ACA-approved alternatives to health insurance. What we belong to is not health insurance; therefore, we don’t pay a premium (although we pay a “gift” each month or what amounts to a deductible, except it’s called a “personal responsibilty”). We chose this option because neither my husband nor I have access to an employer-sponsored plan. The most important consideration for us was cost, followed by coverage options. We opted for the most expensive level, which means that we have a $500 personal responsibility for each medical event that each of our family members experience on an annual basis.

Your first job teaches a lot of important lessons. For example, you learn how to be punctual, how to get along with others, and how to develop a thick skin. But these aren't the only lessons you learn. A first job teaches several lessons specifically devoted to money, too.

Tis’ time for the spookiest holiday of the year and a record number of Americans are planning to participate in the scare festival. According to the National Retail Federation, more than two-thirds (67.4 percent) of celebrants will buy Halloween costumes for the holiday, the most in the survey’s 11-year history. The average person will spend $77.52 this Halloween and the total spending on Halloween this year will reach $7.4 billion. That is a lot of money. Here are some tips on how to stretch the budget for everyone so there’s more fun for everyone on All Hallows’ Eve.

Costumes

Some reader stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These stories feature folks with all levels of financial maturity and income. Want to submit your own reader story?

Mark Ferguson has been a Realtor since 2001 after graduating from the University of Colorado with a business finance degree. He runs a real estate team of 10 that sells over 200 homes a year, fix and flips 10 to 15 homes a year and owns 11 rental properties. Mark also runs www.investfourmore.com, a blog that discusses Mark’s fix and flips, rental properties, becoming a real estate agent and everything real estate related.

A trio of sociologists from North Carolina State University studied the eating habits of 200 low and middle income families and discovered what Wise Bread's short-on-time-and-energy readers already know: dinner time is hard.

While most moms in the study expressed a desire to prepare wholesome,...

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In lots of cases, especially in high-cost-of-living areas, having a family with both parents working is a necessity.

But along with the extra income come extra stress, financial and otherwise.  On the financial side, there is child care, and a host of other services that get done what needs getting done.  On the non-financial side, it’s just more hectic: more fitting in errands, more eating out or fast food, more running around.

My wife of twelve years has been stay-at-home for the entire time we’ve been married.  A couple of nights ago she forwarded this article and asked me what I thought about it. I encourage you to check it out. The premise that I took away was not only should stay-at-home spouses not feel guilty for being stay-at-home, they should recognize that their staying at home is a gift for the working spouse.