Search Results for: blog ways to save money living on one income

How to Live on One Income

Is your goal to live on one income so you or your spouse can be a stay-at-home parent, pursue schooling, keep house, or another establish another endeavor? Take the following steps to make sure that you are well prepared for your lifestyle change. Get a New Attitude If you are currently living on two incomes, you may need to make some changes, both drastic and non-drastic in order to make the one income work for your family. Embrace money-saving ideas, such as shopping at yard sales or thrift stores, cooking at home, and bargain hunting. Look at these practices as … Continue reading →

The Best Way to Pay Off Credit Cards

Credit card debt is at an all-time crisis. With compounded interested levels of up to 20 percent, it can quickly spiral out of control. Getting the credit cards paid off should be every family’s number one financial goal. It is the first step in living debt free. The are right ways and wrong ways to pay off your credit cards. Taking out a second mortgage or home equity loan is probably not the best idea, although some others may advise such actions. The same goes for borrowing from your life insurance policy or from friends and family. The key is … Continue reading →

Living on Less

Lately I have had money on the brain…mostly the lack there of. If you are a single parent, you know what I’m talking about. It seems like there is never enough money to go around and just when you start feeling like you might actually make it this month, mother nature throws in some kind of catastrophe to keep you in check. This month naturally was a tight one for me. Logan’s birthday is coming up on Saturday. I usually start getting presents fairly early so that I’m only spending a little at a time, but even then it starts … Continue reading →

My Three Favorite Finance Websites

The internet can be a great source for information about financial matters, if you know where to look. Whether you are looking for ways to save more and spend less or you need advice on a particular topic such as retirement planning or business finance you can find the information you need online. Choosing a finance themed blog or two to read on a regular basis can be a great way to boost your financial literacy, too. Here are a few resources that I have found helpful for various financial topics: Kiplinger’s Personal Finance – A very well established personal … Continue reading →

Elderly Women and Retirement

Whenever I think about elderly women, of course my grandmother comes to mind. She and I were very close. I remember going up to stay with her from time to time, often for five days or a week, and enjoyed her simple, laid-back lifestyle. She canned, she gardened, she did crossword puzzles, she wrote in her journal—and she always had a cookie jar full of various home-baked treats for her grandchildren. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-teens that I realized something: Grandma didn’t have a lot of money. It wasn’t something that had ever been an issue, so … Continue reading →

Can You Afford to Save?

Financial experts, from Suze Orman to Maria Bartiromo often suggest putting away a set amount of cash each month to cover emergencies. The advice looks great on paper, but when you’re pinching pennies saving money can be next to impossible. After all, how can you save what you don’t have? According to experts, in cases where your budget is stretched to the limit, you should still put aside a few dollars per month. Even if you are only able to sock away $250 to $500 in a year’s time that money can help offset unexpected expenses, such as vehicle repairs … Continue reading →

School Pictures

Sometimes it seems like my child’s school is a money pit. From school clothes and supplies to pictures and field trips, there is always something that will dent your budget. I am always looking for ways to stretch my dollar just a little bit farther, living on one income can mean lots of sacrifices but you don’t have to sacrifice everything, you just have to get a little creative. Take school pictures, those packages are such a waste of money. You always wind up with more pictures than you need in sizes you don’t want, and to make matters worse, … Continue reading →

A Change of Job – A Change of Paychecks

Any time you move from one job to another, you can expect a little blip in the flow of your paychecks. Even if you end one job on Friday and start the new one on Monday, you’ve created a glitch in the time/space continuum, and you’ll find that your last paycheck from the old job will be a little smaller, while the check from the new job won’t come in for a little bit. This does cause problems. Theoretically, you changed jobs to move to a better place in your career financially, and this lag between the two checks can … Continue reading →

Start Saving Now

I love shopping. One of my favorite book series is the Shopaholic books by Sophie Kinsella. When I worked as the senior community moderator for iVillage’s Money Channel, one of the more popular message boards was for compulsive shoppers. I have lists in Amazon for myself and each of the girls filled with things I want to buy. Saving is better. We should have three to six months’ salary in savings in case of an emergency. There is nothing quite as satisfying as looking at a large bank balance. Saving isn’t always easy. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck and … Continue reading →

Cut the Criticism

On TV here there has been a show called four weddings. I haven’t watched it as I am not into reality TV but the premise seems to be each bride passes judgment on the other three weddings for what they consider works and what doesn’t. To me is doesn’t sound at all like compulsive viewing watching people criticize the others. Yet it happens all the time. Those married young, as Mick and I both were, are criticized by others. Those with a big age difference or who marry later in life or delay having children till they are financially secure … Continue reading →