This past Saturday, Jake and I ventured to The Gloucester Premium Outlets in search of a suit. We have a bunch of weddings coming up in the next year (including our own!) so I thought it would be a good time to add a nice suit to his wardrobe. Not to mention we could still take advantage of some great Black Friday deals. A brief history […]
In this third installment of the “How to Build a Budget” series we are going to explore how to fine tune your budget in order to make it both easier to adjust and more useful. If you are reading this post and wondering what the other two posts were about you can view those by following these links: How to Build a Budget 101 and […]
It’s hard to believe it’s that time of year again. With Thanksgiving in less than a week and Christmas a little over a month away, it’s time to start thinking about gifts for friends and family. I haven’t started shopping yet and I’m curious where I can really get the most bang for my buck. Here is a list of products that are good to […]
I think at some point we all have the choice of whether we want to lease or buy a car. I recently bought my car that I had leased for the past 3 years and can see the benefits and downfalls of both. While at this point in my life I’m more a fan of owning a car, here is what I learned from leasing. […]
If you have followed my previous post: How to Build a Budget 101, then congratulations! You are already more well off than 2/3 of Americans! It’s great to have a balanced budget but there is still some further tweaking needed to give it even more value and usefulness. The new task is to weight your categories which will help you distribute your income more evenly […]
Throughout the years, I’ve gotten a lot of financial advice from different people. While much of it was helpful, here are a few tips that stayed with me. Sleep on It With small and large purchases alike, I typically don’t buy the product that I’m interested in that day. Instead, I’ll wait a day or two, and if I’m still thinking about that specific item, […]
Here are a few steps that I take to save money while food shopping 1. Meal Plan Before I go grocery shopping, I always brainstorm what meals I want to have that week. I typically cook a stew-like dish that I can get 3-4 meals out of (some of which I’ll freeze for a later date) and meals that I can make quickly. By doing […]
Perhaps the single most important thing anyone can do to improve their financial well-being is to start and keep a budget. What makes that so important? Wouldn’t opening an emergency fund or a retirement fund be more effective? While those things are also very important, without a budget they wouldn’t have nearly as much impact. In a previous post we defined the purpose of a […]