I've been so worried about paying for college for my daughter next year. She wants to attend a private Christian college which is quite a bit more than what a state school will cost. We got great news in the mail today! She has received a scholarship AND a grant! If she takes out a small loan (which she won't have to pay back until she graduates) we have reduced the cost to about what a state school will cost. I am beyond excited! And so proud!
Now we just have to get her to Jamaica for her mission trip.
I've Slept Since Then
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Monday, June 02, 2008
5 Money Saving Ideas
Becca at Becca's Buzz hosts the meme Give-Me-Five Monday. It's a way to share a list of five things based on the topic she gives us. Today she says, "Give Me Five tips and tricks to save money or cut corners to stretch your budget."
1. Grocery Shopping - Before you leave the house to get those groceries, plan your menu for the week (at least tentatively) and make a list of what you need for the week. My husband is the worst in this area. I find that if I have a weekly list, and I stick to it, I save money. I can check the pantry and the frig before I go so I don’t unnecessarily duplicate items. Clip coupons, too, but only for items that you are going to buy whether you have a coupon or not. And don’t go to the grocery store when you are feeling hungry. You’ll buy more.
2. Go Wireless – We are considering getting rid of our land line completely. Everyone in the family has a cell phone, and we have a great rate for our plan, so this will be an easy way we can save $50 a month. No one we want to talk to ever calls us on the land line, so it’s purposeless.
3. Movies – Try checking out a DVD from your local library instead of paying the national chains to rent a movie for a night. The library lets you keep a DVD for one week, and it’s free! You may not get the first-run movies right when they come out, but if you are patient, they will come in. You can also reserve books and movies online so that you don’t have to make the trip to the library until you’re sure your movie is there.
4. Carpool – This is an obvious choice for someone like me. On my block alone, we have 9 kids who attend the same intermediate school, not to mention dozens of others in our neighborhood. We don’t get bus service from the school district, but it’s not a pleasant stroll, either, so we take turns getting the kids to and from school each day.
5. Energy Savings – Turning down your hot water heater from 140 to 120 degrees can save you 6-10% on your water heating costs.
2. Go Wireless – We are considering getting rid of our land line completely. Everyone in the family has a cell phone, and we have a great rate for our plan, so this will be an easy way we can save $50 a month. No one we want to talk to ever calls us on the land line, so it’s purposeless.
3. Movies – Try checking out a DVD from your local library instead of paying the national chains to rent a movie for a night. The library lets you keep a DVD for one week, and it’s free! You may not get the first-run movies right when they come out, but if you are patient, they will come in. You can also reserve books and movies online so that you don’t have to make the trip to the library until you’re sure your movie is there.
4. Carpool – This is an obvious choice for someone like me. On my block alone, we have 9 kids who attend the same intermediate school, not to mention dozens of others in our neighborhood. We don’t get bus service from the school district, but it’s not a pleasant stroll, either, so we take turns getting the kids to and from school each day.
5. Energy Savings – Turning down your hot water heater from 140 to 120 degrees can save you 6-10% on your water heating costs.
Every little bit helps!
If you're interested in paying down debt, staying on a budget, or saving money for the long term, I highly recommend Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace.
Monday, March 31, 2008
A Fool and His Money...
Heads or Tails - Today’s Topic: Heads - Fool! In honor of April fool’s day.
“A fool and his money are soon parted.”
--Thomas Tusser, English farmer and writer, 1524-1580
There are so many excellent quotes about fools and foolishness, but this one is most appropriate for me right now. My husband and I have been having a tiff about money for over a week now that all started with this incident.
Hubby recently lost his personal debit card. Actually, he didn’t lose it; he let his daughters use it, one who can’t keep up with her driver’s license, and another who loses gift cards all the time and can’t remember to get her lunch out of the refrigerator in the morning, neither daughter extremely responsible, and guess what? They lost it.
He (in his foolishness), parted with his money (to the daughters) in the form of a debit card, now lost. The problem for me? He’s also parted with MY money! Since his card has been lost, all of his little charges keep adding up on OUR account (we keep an "ours" account and our separate personal accounts). He acrues several debits per day, making it impossible for me to keep an accurate balance, causing me to look like the bad guy when I question whether he’s paid back the expenses which are clearly designated to be paid from our personal accounts so that we will be able cover the general budget issues (such as house note, insurance, electricity) with our account, the way it’s supposed to be. It's just aggravating!
“A fool and his money are soon parted.”
--Thomas Tusser, English farmer and writer, 1524-1580
There are so many excellent quotes about fools and foolishness, but this one is most appropriate for me right now. My husband and I have been having a tiff about money for over a week now that all started with this incident.
Hubby recently lost his personal debit card. Actually, he didn’t lose it; he let his daughters use it, one who can’t keep up with her driver’s license, and another who loses gift cards all the time and can’t remember to get her lunch out of the refrigerator in the morning, neither daughter extremely responsible, and guess what? They lost it.
He (in his foolishness), parted with his money (to the daughters) in the form of a debit card, now lost. The problem for me? He’s also parted with MY money! Since his card has been lost, all of his little charges keep adding up on OUR account (we keep an "ours" account and our separate personal accounts). He acrues several debits per day, making it impossible for me to keep an accurate balance, causing me to look like the bad guy when I question whether he’s paid back the expenses which are clearly designated to be paid from our personal accounts so that we will be able cover the general budget issues (such as house note, insurance, electricity) with our account, the way it’s supposed to be. It's just aggravating!
Update: The card was replaced, and he has no charges to pay in regards to that one. But I'm still dealing with figuring out our situation since he used our joint account while his card was lost. And he gets angry at me for questioning his debits.
Here’s hoping no one plays any April fool’s day jokes on you!
Here’s hoping no one plays any April fool’s day jokes on you!
Click HERE to visit other Heads or Tails posts.
And thank you, Skittles, for hosting this great meme!
Friday, February 01, 2008
Scrolling Saturdays
I think this is my third Scrolling Saturdays. Have you checked out the link? Join the fun! Choose one of your archived posts, post it again, and bring on the bloggy love! This is a post I wrote on November 14, 2007 for Sunday Scribblings. Obviously, the topic was MONEY!
Money is not the root of all evil. The LOVE of money is the root of all evil. So says my beloved Bible.
But face it. We must have money to exist in our world. And I am sure not made of money. Nor does it grow on trees (whether they use the tree to make paper or not). Don’t we wish it did? That’s the $64,000 question!
Money can’t buy happiness, but with all the stuff money could buy me, I promise I’d be happy!
Money can’t buy love. Who needs love when I have all this stuff?! (just kidding).
A fool and his money are soon parted. Sure were lots of fools in the mall today!
Money isn’t everything. But it’s something! And if I put my money where my mouth is, won’t I look kinda funny? And won’t it taste kinda funny, too? You can bet your bottom dollar on that.
I’d like to start a new business, maybe buy a franchise and hire people to run it for me. I’d be raking in the money, but it takes money to make money. Instead I just go to work each day. Another day, another dollar. Or is it less than that now? On the flip side, there are people like Bill Gates who have money coming out the wazoo.
Have you ever noticed how your homeowner’s association keeps raising the amount of blood money they get from you each year (homeowner’s association dues), but nothing ever changes in the neighborhood? What are they doing with all that money?
And if time is money, is that why I’m so broke? And if you think that I had a hard time trying to think of something to say for this topic, you are right on the money!
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