I remember feeling stuck in various financial situations in life that required me to get creative with my finances. It's never easy to admit you need to quit spending, start saving and adding some financial responsibility to my weekly routines. The hardest part of that journey is just getting started sometimes. Do you need to plan your way to smarter spending and saving? Here are some tips that can help you get control of your … [Read more...]
What Can You Gain From A No-Restaurant Challenge?
What can you gain from taking a no-restaurant challenge? That may seem pretty obvious in the age of COVID-19 and the coronavirus, but one day the current lockdown will end, restaurants will re-open for dine-in visits, and the age of all-carryout / all-delivery restrictions will end. In the meantime, plenty of people are relying heavily on delivery and take-out orders. When you think about going restaurant-free to take this challenge, it’s easy … [Read more...]
Spring Cleaning Time!
I don’t know about where you live, but where I live, over the past week, the weather has been gorgeous. Temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s, and maybe even peeking into the 80’s. It’s a sign that winter has finally ended and spring is on its way. And you know what spring means? Spring Cleaning! Oh, and we just hit time change weekend, so if you didn’t already, use this as a reminder to go change the battery in your smoke detectors. And if … [Read more...]
What is it worth?
As I have mentioned, I've been doing the Konmari method of decluttering my home. I made it through my clothes and accessories, and am working through books and paper right now. It's overwhelming how much stuff I've been able to get rid of. I took 9 bags of clothes to Goodwill and have a huge box of books for our library donation. And the shredding, oh, the shredding. I've come across a few things that I wasn't so sure about donating, … [Read more...]
Waste Not, Want Not
John Oliver recently did a segment on food waste in the United States, and the statistics were sobering. 40% of the food produced in the United States goes to waste, and American households throw out 15-20% of the food they purchase. Some of this has to do with arbitrary "sell by," "use by," "best by" dates. How are we as consumers supposed to know what these mean? Admittedly, I tend to ignore them when it comes to a lot of products. This … [Read more...]