Finance

Are You Crunching Your Spending?

I know a lot of people who have had to take furloughs at work and are cutting back on their spending. One of my friends recently sent me a great web site and I wanted to share it. It’s  got good budgeting tips, recipes, coupons, and gift ideas with mixes for all kinds of recipes. I found homemade marshmallows, nutri-grain bars and granola bars...

March 17, 2009
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What’s Your Food Budget?

Glue 4 Families had a great post on grocery budgeting and what the US spends compared to other countries. It’s really interesting…check it out real quick! I commented that I spend about $80 for food a week, not including miscellaneous stuff, like paper towels, pet food, tp, etc. A couple other commenters were surprised. So I thought I’d do a quick demo on how...

March 1, 2009
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What’s Smart Spending?

With all the talk about recession and stimulus packages, I thought I’d look up what’s recommended spending by professional money managers.  If we all stick to something like this, we won’t have to worry about losing house, cars, etc. 35% of income should go to housing (mortgage, taxes, repairs, improvements, insurance & utilities) 20% transportation (payments, gas, insurance) 20% other expenses (food, insurance, medical,...

February 15, 2009
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So Thankful.

Lately we’ve decided to cut back on our spending. We’ve cut Rhapsody, Starz movie channels, groceries (splurges/unnecessary stuff), and this week car payments. How? We traded in Paul’s ’02 Altima to a ’04 Corolla S. Trading cut not only car payments, but gas (yay!) as well. On our way home from the dealership, we stopped and got milk.  I remarked to Paul, “You realize...

September 28, 2008
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Economic Scare(y).

The rumor is Washington Mutual went under because of a run on the bank yesterday. Word on the ‘net is that there have been a few other runs around the country. Sound familiar? The government is trying not to say the word “depression”…instead they’re saying “recession.” Recession as in bald guy or just receding hair line? We learned about the Great Depression in the...

September 27, 2008
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I’m Cheap.

We decided to par down our grocery bill lately. This can be difficult for me, since I like to make a wide variety of foods and they’re not usually boring or repetitive. I like the challenge of cooking complexly. So I came up with a menu for the week and thought I’d share, just in case anyone needs some ideas. And if you have...

September 23, 2008
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Am I a SuperMom?

I saw this post today and was thinking about the term SuperMom. I talked to my husband about it and he of course said that I was a supermom, but that’s beside the point. To me the definition of a supermom is a mom that can do it all and not just do it all but be happy doing it all. You have to...

August 16, 2008
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Natural Gas in East Coast

This could really be big to the local communities if drillers find enough natural gas. It is one of the three largest potential onshore resources of natural gas in the United States, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Marcellus shale, named after the town in New York where it was found, is mostly in western New York and Pennsylvania and much of West Virginia....

August 15, 2008
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Fragility of Situation

I called one of my sisters today to catch up on life. She began telling me about work-related stresses they had last week. She and her husband own their own business and, therefore, have the occasional up-and-downs associated with doing so. Well, last week “Jane”, an employee for a competitor, sent out libelous letters to business and potential businesses who would employ my sister’s...

July 22, 2008
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