If you are looking to eat healthier this year, and save time, and money, this offer will help with all three!
Yasukochi Family Farms is offering a deal on all of their CSA box sizes through January 4, 2025.
They have deals on subscriptions from 1 month, all the way to 9 months!
To learn more, and see pricing, visit their website here.
We’ve been receiving their boxes for 4 years and it’s an amazing value.
Financial literacy is near and dear to my heart. I’ve spent much of my adult life working hard to save money, pay bills on time, and live within my means. It is a lot of effort and work, but, it’s made my life less stressful.
In 2020, I wrote a three-part series about making a practical budget that a family can adhere to and how to get some extra help if you need it. This was written during the pandemic, so there is a lot of information and resources, especially for those feeling the financial panic that many felt during the height of the pandemic.
If you already have a budget or feel that your spending is out of control and you aren’t to the point yet where you feel that you need a budget, I did a series of posts in late 2019 about how to reign in the out-of-control spending.
A big part of financial literacy is tracking where you stand financially. With identity theft happening to 22% of Americans (per a 2022 Bureau of Justice Statistics study), knowing what’s on your credit is important. Obtaining your free annual credit report is easy. Free Annual Credit Report is the site that I use.
Once you receive it, go over and verify all of the open accounts are yours. Contact the credit bureaus immediately if there are any incorrect names, addresses, or accounts.
If you are saving for your future, or your kid’s future, here are two great savings opportunities:
Savings bonds- Savings Bonds: The gift that keeps on giving!
529’s/ Educational Savings Accounts- September Is College Savings Month!
If you are looking to eat healthier this year, save time, and money, this offer will help with all three!
Yasukochi Family Farms is offering a deal on all of their CSA box sizes, now through January 4, 2024.
They have deals on subscriptions from 1 month, all the way to 9 months!
To learn more, and see pricing, visit their website here.
We’ve been receiving their boxes for 3 years and it’s an amazing value.
Mother’s Day is around the corner and if your mom is like mine, the gift of fresh fruit and veggies (and a bouquet of flowers) is the perfect way to say I love you!
Yasukochi Family Farms has two great options this Mother’s Day:
a 1-month (4 weeks) subscription of regular boxes of farm fresh fruits and veggies with 1 small bouquet of flowers (1st week only) for $108
OR
A 1-month (4 weeks) subscription of jumbo boxes of farm fresh fruits and veggies with 1 small bouquet of flowers (1st week only) for $130.
The first delivery will occur between 5/8-5/12 (depending on which day your mom’s area receives deliveries). To order or learn more, click here.
Black Friday shopping is not my jam, nor has it ever been. I know a lot of people love getting up at the crack of dawn to save money, but I’d rather snuggle with my cat.
Some Retailers have already started their Black Friday Deals: JCPenney, Walmart, and Target have deals up on their sites and in-store now. Here are my top five tips to help you save a little more on Black Friday (and beyond):
And finally, remember that the winter holidays are not about gifts. They are about coming together with friends and family to celebrate. If you having a difficult time making the magic happen for your family this year, check out my 2022 Holiday Resources post here. In December I’ll be hosting an Amazon Gift Card giveaway as well.
With my work year coming to an end, I need to trim my budget. It looks like my monthly income is about to be cut in half. I applied for a summer school job, but I haven’t heard back one way or another, so I’m guessing I didn’t get the job and I need to prepare for that.
There are fun activities that the kids want to do this summer, and they all cost money, so I need to trim a bit more so we have the opportunity to have some fun.
Here are a few ways that you (and I) can save some money and free up room in our budget this summer.
Start by looking over your family budget. Is there anything you can dump? Streaming services you no longer use, monthly subscriptions that no longer serve you? For us, we are dumping Netflix next month. We no longer use it enough to justify the $20/month. Feel like you are overpaying for your cellphone or other services, look into switching carriers or plans. If you don’t have a family budget, here is an easy way to put one together.
Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, or Do Without. This is an oldie, but a goodie. And by this statement, I mean that use what you have on hand. Eat the food in your kitchen (meal planning can help with that), wear the clothes you’ve got, and repair them as needed. Don’t forget that there are groups like Buy Nothing, where you can share and receive goods and services from those in your neighborhood. It’s hard to not want to keep up with the Joneses, especially in our society where it seems like everything is based on presentation and showing off what you’ve got on social media.
Take advantage of programs in your community. There are so many free and low-cost programs meant to help families during this time of unprecedented inflation, low wages, and other social issues that contribute to financial instability. Here in San Diego County, there are resources for free food and free clothing.
If you have someone in your family who requires electricity for their medical devices or if you are low income, check out your local power companies website to learn about discounts you may be eligible for. This post has details and more tips.
If you are looking for some free summer fun for the kids, there are events like Kids night out, and summer reading programs. And in California, there will be free breakfasts and lunches for kids under 18 throughout the summer through schools and local parks and rec. As soon as I have more details on those, it will be a separate post.
My final tip- Don’t be embarrassed to ask for help. There are so many programs and resources out there to help. Even if you feel like there are people and families out there who “have it worse”, you deserve help. This isn’t a “who has it worse” situation. Everyone deserves to live a good life. Take advantage of opportunities that come your way.
Talk Back- If you have tips or tricks to help with lowering your Out of Pocket, I’d love to hear it!
I was a renter for years, and each month it pained me to write a rent check and wave the money goodbye. Enter Piñata! Piñata is the world’s first and only rent rewards platform that gives you rewards for paying rent and is free.
Every rent day, get Piñata Cash, redeemable for gift cards and free goodies from top brands.
Even when it’s not rent day, Piñata gives renters exclusive deals and discounts to help you save on everyday expenses from CVS and Costco to Best Buy and Sprint to Papa John’s and Disney World. You get an average of $4,000 in yearly savings. You can also get cashback on special deals from your favorite brands.
You’ll get a $30 gift card just for creating your account.
Get Pinata Cash for referring friends & family and helping them earn as well!
Talk Back: If you sign up for Pinata, please let me know what you think!
Soo, the potato is crazy in the photo, but it made me laugh, so I included it.
As I mentioned in this post, we’ve got 7 posts coming through the end of the year to help you start 2022 off on a good foot.
I’ve talked a lot about budgeting before and not much has changed except that the cost of stuff keeps going up. Inflation is a bitch, y’all. And with wages not keeping up with the inflation, we’ve got to do what we can. We need to control the factors that we have to ability to control.
Setting up a budget takes time. You can do it all at once, but be prepared to spend a few hours working on it.
You’ll need:
Access to your bank account or bank statements for three months.
A Google Sheet page, or an Excel Spreadsheet
List of your monthly financial obligations. Here are just a few of those:
Of all of these categories, the only ones that have any difference per month are the ones I indicated with an asterisk (*). For Gas/Electric and the water bill, I averaged the cost over three months and used that amount for the budget.
The categories I included above are what is in my budget, you may have other items that my family does not. Some of the expenses such as Health Insurance and retirement savings come out of paychecks, so for our family, they are not included in our budget. You may wish to add them to your budget if you pay them directly.
Cash for some Budget Line Items: For items such as groceries, fun money, and gasoline I visit the ATM each week and take out cash. I paperclip the money for each budget line item together and keep them separate in my wallet. When the money is gone, no more spending.
Doing cash for those line items really helps me take a hard look at shopping for groceries (this is when cash back apps, couponing, and price per unit knowledge all come in handy), and making sure that I am getting the best deal on gas (I have the GasBuddy app, it’s very useful). Any unspent money gets rolled over to the next week.
If you are discovering that you have too many bills and not enough money (and hey, it happens), trim where you can ( this article has some helpful suggestions), and if that’s still not enough, here are some Southern CA/San Diego based resources to help you.
Please do not be embarrassed to seek help. Resources are available to help you. If in the future you are able to give back, please do, but in the meantime, accept the help that is offered.
Next up, we’ll be talking about ways to save money on groceries and beyond. The beyond is going to be how to get toothpaste and health and beauty items for free (or really cheap) without turning into the stereotypical crazy coupon lady. Because clipping coupons out of ten plus newspapers each week is sooooo 2008. Seriously. I love to save money, but I don’t clip Sunday papers these days.
Greenlight is all about financial education for kids. They help them learn about money management through a safe, secure app where parents manage every dollar and see every transaction.
Today I learned that April is Financial Literacy Month. Which is just in time for tax day (which has been extended this year, but it traditionally April 15th).
One of my favorite topics for this blog is how to save money. So I thought I’d put together a post with links to some of my best ways to save money and throw out some tips and tricks that work for me.
Last year I wrote a three-part series about making a practical budget that a family can adhere to and how to get some extra help if you need it. This was written during the pandemic, so there is a lot of information and resources especially for those feeling the financial panic that many felt during the height of the pandemic last year.
If you already have a budget or feel that your spending is out of control and you aren’t to the point yet where you feel that you need a budget, I did a series of posts in late 2019 about how to reign in the out-of-control spending.
Keeping an eye on your Credit Score is another great way to be financially literate. I wrote this morning about Credit Sesame, which I personally have used for at least 9 years.
And finally, if you feel like you need a little more help than the posts above to get a handle on your finances, check out Simplifi by Quicken. To celebrate Financial Literacy Month, Simplifi is offering a 30-day FREE Trial of Simplifi by Quicken.
Talkback: What are your tips and tricks to saving money and staying on budget?
Hewes Family Fun 