Master your money. Get organized. Take back your time.
Pricey jewelry that’s too nice for almost every occasion and expensive brunches at crowded restaurants aren’t the things that make Mother’s Day great. Sometimes less really is more. In planning to celebrate that special woman in your home, consider these low-cost (or no-cost) ideas for brightening her day: [Read more…]
I didn’t get laser eye surgery to save money . . . I chose to spend almost $4,000 on a surgery I didn’t really need to enhance the quality of my life, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Still, I kept my Penny Hoarding wits about me. Here are six ways I saved on the procedure . . .
Read the rest of my recently-published blog post on The Penny Hoarder, the world’s largest personal finance blog with more than 8 million readers!
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.
Granola makes for a delicious breakfast, a great snack, and an excellent and crunchy topping to yogurt. However, it is seriously pricey to buy (and sometimes the store-bought stuff is still tragically dry and crumbly). Making your own fresh, amazing granola is easier than you think and insanely inexpensive. Here’s the cost breakdown:
Cost comparison of granola:
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.
Just as there can be easily-forgotten activities that suck up our time, there are some expenses that are frequently overlooked but can really add up. Sometimes we neglect them because they’re infrequent and sometimes because they’re small costs that we pay mindlessly over and over.
Have you remembered to include these 21 expense items in your budget? [Read more…]
Can you smell the sweet, chocolatey scent of candy savings coming around the bend? If you are a fool for chocolate bunnies, coconut eggs, or jelly beans, you’re in luck! Stores everywhere will be practically giving away their Easter candy soon. [Read more…]
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.
It’s easier than you think . . . and it can save so much money!
Here’s the breakdown on savings when I look at the cost of a single serving (typically a 5.3-oz. container) of Greek yogurt:
If you use yogurt as a snack, ingredient in your meals and desserts, or baby food, making your own is such a great way to save a serious amount of cash. [Read more…]
You know when you visit a fancy restaurant or even a Panera and you’re eating the real thing — freshly-made croutons. They are nothing like the tiny, dry, artificial-tasting cubes you pick up in the supermarket. They are also incredibly easy to make at home — no frying or flipping tiny pieces of bread. Plus, these croutons are so much cheaper than those grocery-store salad toppers!
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.
The new mom is faced with a dizzying array of “must-have” baby products. Before that first little guy or girl makes an appearance, you’ve likely accumulated mountains of baby swag — new stuff gifted to you, random secondhand stuff that everyone you know is happy to throw at you, and the stuff you buy on your own.
Here are seven things that I thought I needed (or that everyone else thought I did) before my son’s birth that are now off to a new life at Goodwill . . . [Read more…]
If you’re a frequent Amazon shopper, you may have noticed that item prices fluctuate often and sometimes by a bundle of money. If you want to nab the best price for an item, try an Amazon price tracking site. [Read more…]
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Baby products come with major sticker shock. Of the many hefty baby expenses out there, one that really adds up over time is baby food.
When my son started solid foods at four months of age, I was baffled by the fact that a minuscule jar of mashed bananas — on sale! — cost more than a full-sized banana from the produce department. For standard Gerber fare, my supermarket wanted to charge me, on a good day, $0.50 per portion of Stage 1 foods, $0.60 per portion of Stage 2 foods, and $0.75 per portion of Stage Stage 3 foods. The Beech-Nut foods usually hovered around twice that price!
There was no way I was willing tho shell out that much money for groceries when a simple solution would allow me to have high-quality baby food for so much less — making my own baby food. [Read more…]