Category: Frugality

Learn about a variety of ways to save money

Entertainment, Food, Shopping

How to Score 24 Birthday Freebies

For today’s guest post on birthday freebies, please welcome Marjolein from Radical FIRE.

They say it’s your birthday? It’s my birthday, too! Let’s Celebrate!

Celebrating your birthday should be a fun and exciting day each year. An opportunity to indulge, to let time slow down, and to receive gifts and affection. It’s one of the days of the year where you need to feel special and loved. One thing birthdays should not be? Expensive!

Woman blowing out candles on a birthday cake and thinking about birthday freebies

Spending money on your birthday isn’t necessary to have a good time. In fact, wouldn’t the ideal birthday be one in which you spend no money at all? We definitely think so. That’s why we investigated some of the best birthday freebies. With some planning, you can have a fantastic birthday filled with free treats, gifts, free perfume samples, and some major discounts. Now, this is something that is worth reading, isn’t it?

Keep reading to find out the 24 best birthday freebies that we found for you!

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Shopping

Saving Money With a Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday

It’s not too early to get ready for back-to-school time across the USA. The majority of schools across the country are planning on reopening for full-time, in-person instruction in the fall. Yes, some will also offer remote learning options for families who wish to keep students home, but for a huge number, returning to a regular classroom is a big part of restoring life to normal once again.

Teacher with student at laptop bought during back-to-school sales tax holiday

That return means shopping around to get the clothing and supplies that your children will need for the upcoming school year. It’s always a big expense to get kids ready, especially if you have more than one. So knowing what, when, and where to shop for what you need is definitely necessary and that actually begins right now! Especially if you can take advantage of a back-to-school sales tax holiday.

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Frugality, Saving & Investing

17 Ways on How to Save $10,000 in a Year

Earning a salary is just one way to get money and if it’s the only way you get it, you probably don’t have enough of it. Why do I say that? Because finding new ways to get money—including alternate streams of income—are essential now and even more so when you retire and stop getting a weekly paycheck. That’s why you need to think outside the box now, figure out how to increase your financial cache, learn how to save $10,000 in a year, and save as much as you can for your future self.

Puzzle to put together a $100 bill on your way to figuring out how to save $10,000 in a year

You start with the money you earn at your everyday job and build from there. It won’t be easy, but when you get serious about it, it will fall into place in a short period of time. When should you start? Yesterday! But since you can’t start then, start now with these 17 ways to save. You can save $10,000 by saving extra money or simply not spending extra money this year! Here’s how…

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Frugality, Home

How to Save Money on Laundry: Washing and Drying Your Clothes

I often say about things I write about that “I learned it from my mother”. Well, truer words were never spoken when it comes to the subject of washing my clothes. It may sound like a nothing burger, but really, washing your clothes is so basic and important that if you don’t do it with care and thought, it will wind up causing you real money pain and even embarrassment. (I’ll get to my most embarrassing washing moment in just a bit!) But it’s actually pretty easy to save money on laundry.

Family washing clothes to save money on laundry

Laundry is something that we have to do at the very least on a weekly basis. Since it’s one of those chores that needs to be done week in and week out, making just a few changes in your habits now on how you wash clothes can end up saving you a ton of money over the course of the year.

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Shopping

Can You Negotiate Your Way to a Shopping Bargain?

I spent most of my adult life working in and around the retail world. Over the years, I have seen many changes such as the consolidation of many of the department store names of the 1970’s through the 2000’s, and all of the technology that helps to control inventory, track sales, and speed services. The changes are numerous and have benefited both the retailer and us, the consumers.

Man opening wallet to pay after negotiate prices

But one thing hasn’t ever changed in all my years in the business: the desire that all shoppers have to get a great deal on whatever they buy! When we go into a store, we are all bargain hunters and that is our goal. One big way to get that bargain is to try to negotiate prices and deals. But can you really do that in 2021?

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Home

Is This the Best Time to Buy a New Home?

Buying a new home can be a necessity, a dream come true, a financial investment, or a combination of any or all of those reasons. Despite the groups of people out there that don’t want to own any home for any reason, home ownership is still a big part of the American dream, as it has been since the days of the pioneers.

Exterior of a beautiful house, what you might look for to buy a new home

Think about it for a second. Have you ever seen any of those old movies where the wagon trains rumbled across the country and hundreds of folks loaded up a covered wagon, risked their life and limb, and tried to start a new life out west somewhere? Part of that new start always involved building a future with a new home at its core. I still believe that rings true today, minus the wagon train part of course. So now that the pandemic is winding down and life is beginning to resemble what it was way back in the beginning of 2020, is this the right time to buy a new home that you have been waiting for?

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Family & Relationships, Shopping

What Dad Really Wants for Father’s Day

If I tried to write a new post for Father’s Day, I wouldn’t really be able to say it better than this one which I first published years ago. It’s how I felt then and it’s how I feel now. It may not be my best work, but it comes from the heart.

In 2016, I wrote a post about my thoughts on Father’s Day and I haven’t changed my mind yet. It really did come from my heart. I think the message in it says what every dad (and mom too) thinks and feels about a day like this. Even though the environment we live in makes us feel like honoring our dads and moms is all about buying gifts and making a big deal out of just the one single day a year, I can tell you from personal experience, that’s not what dads (and moms) really want from their kids.

Father's Day is coming on June 20th. I'll share with you the secret of what Dad really wants for his special day and you won't need to spend the big bucks.

I hope you won’t mind if I repeat my real feelings today about Father’s Day, in anticipation of this Sunday, June 20, 2021. I am republishing this old post so if you didn’t see it then, I hope you will read it now. I also hope that it says what you are feeling the same way it does for me. Here’s hoping all the “kids” of any age out there read and get the message I am conveying. Have a great Father’s Day and make it last all year long!

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Travel

The Soaring Cost of Post-Pandemic Life and Vacation Travel

It’s starting to look like we can make some kind of real plans again to get away from home and enjoy traveling as we always did before COVID-19. But when you do go back to life as you knew it, how are you going to feel? If you haven’t yet ventured out of your home, or even more daringly gone away on a vacation yet, you are not alone. For most of us, just getting back to work or any kind of “normal” routine is still the adventure we are experiencing. There are lots of questions about what we should know and do when it comes to “post-pandemic” life and vacation travel. But as you do it, beware.

The number of people getting out and traveling is on the rise and so are all of the prices!

Family checking in to resort despite high cost of vacation travel

Caution Has Been My Middle Name

Just yesterday, I went shopping in an actual store for the first time since March of 2020 (yes, I am a highly at-risk person for COVID-19) and I still found myself being very wary despite now being fully vaccinated.

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