Money Tips Network

We're already well into the New Year, and maybe your diets have already slipped. Your dinner plates are going from green to progressively more light brown. Your crispers are emptying as the pantries are filling. You don't need to slip back into the same old routine as the last year, though. There are endless ways to bring you fulfillment that don't cost money or make you feel defeated if you're not perfect. Here are 25 ways to be a better person. Many of these you may already do, and others you might not have considered as ways that could greatly shape you and your daily experience with others. (See also: Get Back on Track With Mid-Year Resolutions)

My husband is a bit of a gear-head. In addition to our two practical commuter cars, he is the proud owner of a 1976 BMW 2002 (which is euphemistically known as a "project car") and a vintage 1975 Honda 400 motorcycle (which does run). (See also: Guide to Buying a Used Car)

Despite the fact that we have more vehicles than space to house them, my husband recently told me that he would love to buy a newer, larger, and more comfortable motorcycle so that he could take a big cross-country trip with his friends.

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some stellar articles on reducing your water bill, cutting wedding costs when you are the guest, and keys to success.

Top 5 Articles

10 Ways to Reduce Your Water Bill — Lower your water bill by replacing your toilet with a low flow model or watering your lawn early in the morning. [Canadian Finance Blog]

How to Cut Wedding Costs When You're the Guest — Splitting the cost of the gift with someone else can help you save on wedding expenses when you are a guest. [PopSugar Smart Living]

Most of the time, when I’m evaluating the usefulness of a frugal tactic, I convert that tactic into dollars per hour. I’ll figure out how much I save, how long it takes me to complete that tactic, and then use a bit of basic math to convert it to that standard unit.

For example, let’s say you want to figure out the dollar per hour rate of emptying out a tube of toothpaste (which happens to be something I looked at about a week ago and that I’ve received a few questions on regarding the math, so I’m using it again). Your tube of toothpaste costs $3. You use it each morning and you find that the tube is almost empty after 45 days. You also find that if you spend a minute tightly wrapping the tube up from the bottom, you can get enough toothpaste out of the tube to last for another five days.

Evernote is a software package I use several times each day. I use it for quick note keeping and some simple project organization.

However, before I switched to using Evernote, I was a big user of Microsoft OneNote. I actually used that package for casual notes as well as organizing tons of different projects.

Why did I switch? The cost was a big issue, as OneNote was part of Microsoft Office. Another big issue was portability, as I couldn’t use OneNote on my phone.

Over the last few years, Microsoft has released portable versions of OneNote for almost every kind of phone for free, solving one of the problems. Now, it appears the other problem is about to be solved, as Microsoft has released desktop versions of OneNote for free for both Mac and Windows.

I like to think I take criticism pretty well. Unless it comes from my husband. If he complains about my cooking, well, let's just say that we won't be sharing polite conversation over dinner. (See also: How to Stay Married for 20+ Years)

The truth is that criticism is very hard for just about anyone to deal with, never mind accept it gracefully or actually, you know, learn something from it. But despite my tendency to get my hackles up in the kitchen, I'm actually pretty good at accepting comments and criticisms in my professional life. In fact, for the most part, hearing the negative things people have to say about me has helped me get a lot better at what I do.

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some amazing articles on things successful people do before bed, principles of a marriage without money fights, and ways to lower your tax bill.

Top 5 Articles

9 Things Successful People Do Right Before Bed — Successful people tend to meditate right before they go to bed. [PopSugar Smart Living]

Tick, tick, tick – March 31 is the new deadline to get health insurance coverage. This time, the government is digging in its heels. There will be no extension. Some say the government will cave in (again) and move the deadline, but that’s by no means a certainty. The April Fool’s joke might be on you if you don’t have a qualified health insurance plan locked up the night before, and the deadline ends up staying in place.

For about 80 percent of you, that’s a non-event, because you’re covered already either through work, Medicare, or with private policies you bought. For the rest, Obamacare is something you will need to come to grips with, like it or not. This is the first of a two-part look at the new medical insurance landscape, and your best options.

The deadline

This article first appeared at US News and World Report Money.

A friend or a family member is struggling with a financial problem. That person comes to you and asks you to lend money to help them through their crisis. What do you do?

This situation comes up quite often in tightly-knit families where there are different levels of financial success. A struggling person will often look to close family members for help in a crisis.

My solution is a hardline one. I don’t lend money to family or friends, no matter what. For many people, however, this is an undesirable solution. Perhaps they do want to help, or perhaps they have difficulty saying no.

Here are four important steps to consider if you are considering lending money to a family member or friend (or have recently done so).