Category Archive

money

7 ways we’re saving money for daycare

I’d heard all of these rumors about children being expensive, but I didn’t really believe them. We’d been parents for nearly a year and managed just fine with a limited amount of penny squeezing thanks to the extra money I’d saved while we were pregnant to allow for extra cash during my maternity leave — and then the sucker punch came. We realized just how much daycare is going to cost us for infant category twins, and I’ll just say this: it’s a LOT.

How to split costs with roommates

We’re buying our first home and have offered to let a friend and her son move in with us and “pay rent” (part of the mortage + utilities). He thinks our friend should be paying more than half because she’s taking more space, my suggestion was that all of the adults pay an equal amount. So, homies, how have you worked out splitting the costs between roommates in such a situation before?

How to budget, save, and still have a life

If life trips you up, will you be ready? These days you never know when a job loss, medical emergency, or even a cavity will suck your bank account dry and shriveled. You know how important it is to build up an emergency fund, but you need extra money before you can save any money, right? You might be surprised about the answer.

Why we chose to become parents when it doesn’t make financial sense

Many people who surround us are strong supporters of the “wait until…” theology of having children. Wait until you have a steady job. Wait until you own a house. Wait until you feel like you are older. While these are responsible ideals, our desire to “wait until” basically died when my dad landed in hospital.

How to make money off decluttering your house: a video question from Dootsiebug

THANK YOU GUYS for your help on my question about rooting out plastics in my home. I’m going to sit down this weekend and use your advice to come up with some strategies to reduce the plastics I buy in food packaging.

Today Dootsie has a question. If you follow along with comments on Offbeat Home’s posts, you’ve probably run into her. AND NOW WE GET TO SEE YOUR FACE, DOOTSIE!

You owe me a dollar! A self-improving way to save for big goals.

My beloved and I are not the neatest people on earth. We try, and we spend quite a bit of time each week cleaning up our humble little home, but ultimately the place is usually a little messy.

That being said, he has a habit of leaving his shoes smack in the middle of the front door, and I trip over them every day when I get home from work. This shit drives me INSANE.

One day I snapped. I told him every time he leaves his shoes in front of the door he owes me a dollar. The habit persisted, and every dollar he gives me goes straight into our wedding bank.

Choosing a charity to support this December

Every year our family chooses a charity to donate to instead of giving each other more “stuff.”

This year it is my turn to choose, and I am having a hard time finding a useful legitimate charity to donate to. I am interested in a group that is involved on local fronts as well as global, I want the money to go towards what they say it will and I would love for it to be less widely known (not Salvation Army or Toys for Tots — while they are great I would love to donate towards a smaller charity).

Do you have any ideas or a good place to start looking?

If your bank’s too big to fail, make it smaller: what to know about switching from banks to credit unions

Since I had three business and personal accounts at two different crappy banks who definitely cheated their way to prosperity, last month I closed my accounts on Bank Transfer Day.