It’s the Holiday shopping season and savvy shoppers everywhere know the best deals of the year can be found in the few days immediately after Thanksgiving. The bravest of us get up at the crack of dawn on Black Friday to stand in ridiculously long lines and fight (sometimes literally) crowds of people for the hottest toys or gadgets at rock bottom prices. Some of us who may be less concerned about buying cheap than about...
According to data collected by The College Board for the 2014-15 school year, the average cost of room and board ranges from $9,804 at four-year public colleges and universities to $11,188 at private ones. With total expenses at in-state public institutions averaging $18,943 and those at private schools hovering around $42,419, that means room and board can take up anywhere from 26% to 52% of your total education budget. Ouch! How would you like to hang...
This time of year, if you’re a parent of school-age kids, you might relate to that old commercial with the dad skipping merrily down the aisles of the office supply store as he tosses school supplies in his cart to a celebratory chorus of “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” Or, perhaps, you dread the imminent return to harried mornings packing lunches and shuttling kids off to school followed by evenings fraught with homework...
First impressions matter, especially when it comes to your home. Curb appeal--or lack thereof--significantly impacts property value. Investing in a nicely designed landscape can increase your home’s overall value by up to 20 percent. But, like many home improvement projects, landscaping expenses can easily get out of control. Below are a handful of tips that can help you stay within your budget and get the best return on your landscape investment.Plan your work and work your...
It’s Earth Day. Well, on the day this article gets published it will be officially, but no matter what day of the year it is as you read this its message will have relevance. What was once a single day annual event that appealed mainly to tree hugging hippies has evolved into a mainstream effort to take better care of our planet. Now, more than ever, “every day is earth day” as the movement to “go...
Well, friends, the time has come. The curtain is about to close on the literary reality show known as “Nickel and Dime Yourself to Life”--at least, for now. Regular NDYL readers might remember my original plan was to try this little experiment for 6 months. My, time sure flies when you’re--um, I’m not sure “having fun” accurately describes this experience. Still, I can hardly believe over six months have passed since I began chronicling the budgeting...
This year I’m going to spend less on food by eating more. Nutritious foods, that is. Eating mostly minimally processed homemade nutrient-rich food, rather than a lot of convenience foods will save my family at least $#222222. Unlike last month, when I included some hypothetical savings, this time my figures reflect only actual budget dollars. Most of those dollars we’ll re-allocate toward paying down our debt. Last month I began discussing a set of behaviors I...
Yep. I’m not exaggerating. If all goes according to plan we really will have saved over $33,000 by the end of the year. Admittedly, numbers aren’t my forte, so you’d be right to question that figure, but I guarantee my math’s not fuzzy and $33,000 is only the tip of the iceberg. That amount only speaks to the items on which I have hard data right now or don’t need the help of an expert economist...
“The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.” True dat, Robert Burns. True dat. I don’t know anything about Mr. Burns, the poet who penned those wise words, but I suspect he must have had children. If all had gone according to plan I would have finished this half of the “Relapse Recovery” column weeks ago and the holiday shopping tips I was going to share would still have relevance for most of...
I’m on stage, speaking to a huge crowd of people I’ve never met before about a subject far outside my comfort zone, and I’m naked. I cannot see my audience members’ faces or hear their voices, so I can’t read their reactions. I can’t tell if they’ve even heard a single word I’ve said . . .I’ve just described a dream most of us have had (or some variation of it) at some time in our...
