Buying property is never a small investment unless you happen to be a billionaire, but there are many ways to save money in the process. According to Money Under 30, homebuyers should always aim to purchase less home that they can afford to ensure that payments are made regularly and on time. [Read more…]
Do You Celebrate Your Pet’s Birthday?
In the debt-free community, it is frowned upon to spend money on things that aren’t absolutely necessary. However, I tend to think that if you don’t allow yourself any fun you’re more likely to stray away from your debt freedom goals altogether. One fun thing we do every year is celebrate our dog, Enzo. He has been our first “child” for four years now and, even with the arrival of our baby in a few short months, we wanted to continue his birthday celebrations this year. Do you celebrate your pet’s birthday?
What We Do To Celebrate
Now, we don’t do anything too extravagant. We simply make sure our favorite pup in the world has the best day ever. After all, he has brought us so much joy since being a part of our family. This year, we bought him some special treats, a new toy, and made him some homemade whipped cream (which he loves). Altogether, it cost us about $20 to help make a special day for our dog. His reaction, on the other hand, is always priceless, as depicted by the photo of him and his new toy below.
Ways to Celebrate Your Pet
That being said, you don’t necessarily have to spend $20 to celebrate your pet’s birthday. They are simple creatures. Here are a few low-cost (or no-cost) ways we’ve celebrated Enzo in the past.
- Go to the park. This is one of our favorite things to do on Enzo’s birthday. A quick trip to the dog park is absolutely free and they’ll have the time of their lives. If you have a cat that likes to be walked on a harness, consider taking them for a walk.
- Set up a playdate. Our Enzo loves playing with other dogs so setting up a playdate with one of his favorite doggo friends is always a good no-cost way to make his day great.
- Cook something special for them. There are a number of things you can cook that your pet will enjoy. They will love the change in food. Just be sure you are giving them something that is 100% safe and healthy for them to eat.
- Do some of their favorite things. Whatever their favorite things may be, try to take time to do them. Enzo loves a good car ride, trip to the park, and even just a walk. All of these things are 100% free.
- Give them extra attention. Simply giving your pet some extra attention on their birthday can be enough to may their day special. Best of all, it’s free.
Do You Celebrate Your Pet’s Birthday?
With a rise in the number of people who have pets in general and many of those individuals choosing not to have children, celebrating your pets has become more normal than you’d imagine. People truly treat their pets like members of their family, which they should. Every dog (or whatever your pet of choice may be) deserves to have its day and you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to give them a good one.
So, readers, what do you think? Do you celebrate your pet’s birthday too? How do you celebrate?
Read More
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7 of the Best Money Management Tools You Need to Control Your Finances
In 2019, only 29% of people in America considered themselves financially healthy.
The good news is that there are several things you can do that will help you save money and improve your financial situation – and one of those things is using the right money management tools.
If you want to learn how to manage money in the easiest of ways, keep reading and discover more about seven useful apps!
Getting a Loan for a House: How to Qualify for a Mortgage Loan
Buying a home is a huge deal. When you need a mortgage loan to finance your house, the process can be quite stressful. To get approved for a mortgage loan quickly, you need to start thinking like the lender and know the right steps to follow and how to qualify for a mortgage loan first before even applying for one.
The Second Best Time to Make a Change
Here at Our Debt Free Family, our motto is “Commit. Plan. Take action.”
The first step before committing is to decide that a change is necessary.
Maybe you know that you could be smarter with your money. Or perhaps you recognize that if you lose weight, you’ll be able to lead a healthier, more energetic life. Maybe you realize that there should be more to life than counting down to the weekend every day at work. It could be there is a relationship with a loved one that needs some extra TLC.
3 Ways to Hack the 52-Week Money Challenge
Have you ever heard of a money challenge? It is something the internet thought up a few years ago that helps people meet savings goals (usually within a specific period of time). The original challenge, the 52-week money challenge, helps people save right around $1,400 over the span of a year. However, that method and timeframe don’t work for everyone. If that includes you, here’s how you can hack the 52-week money challenge…
About the 52-Week Money Challenge
First, before we talk about hacking the challenge, you should have a good understanding of what the 52-week money challenge actually is. It was created online to help motivate people to increase and track their savings. Along with it came message boards and forums for support with people doing the same thing. Pretty cool, right?
The challenge also introduced free printable tracking sheets where you can record your weekly savings. It also walks you through how much should be saved each week.
With this challenge, you save an additional $1 per week (i.e. $1 on week one, $2 on week two, $3 on week three, and so on). You can see how this adds up in the graphic below (via Saving Advice).
How to Hack the 52-Week Money Challenge
“Hacking” an internet challenge like this is fairly easy. All you need to do is figure out what needs to change for the challenge to better suit your financial needs. Here are three ways you can do it…
- Change the contribution amounts. For instance, if $1,400 over the span of the year is too little for your savings goals, increase the weekly amount you deposit into savings. If the amount is too much, you can also decrease your contributions. Similarly, you can also switch around your contributions. Many people do the 52-week money challenge in reverse to account for holiday spending at the end of the year.
- Switch up your goals. You can also hack the 52-week money challenge by changing its objective. For example, most people use the challenge to save money. Instead, you could use the challenge to pay off debt. So, instead of saving $1 the first week, you’d add $1 to your current debt payments.
- Hustle. Lastly, you can “hack” the challenge by creating money to save. Let’s say you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck and there’s absolutely no way you are saving $1,400 this year. To hack that problem, you just need to find a hustle or sell things to create the cash to save.
Other Challenges to Try
Throughout the article, I’ve been referring to the 52-week money challenge, but that is far from the only internet challenge out there to try. No matter what your goals are, financial or otherwise, there is probably a challenge out there for you. Take a look at these other money challenges you may want to try…
- Save $1,000 With the 12-Week Money Challenge
- Every Penny Counts With the 365 Day Money Challenge
- Pay Off Debt With This Money Challenge
- Earn More Every Week With This Challenge
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Reviewing Our Family Finances
There is just a little more than a month left until we get to meet our new addition! While we have most of what we need for our little girl material-wise, we still have a bit of planning to do. There are a lot of things we now need to take into consideration with our little one. Here is a quick review of what we’ve been looking at.
Upcoming Expenses
Of course, having a baby costs quite a bit of money. In the first year alone, parents can spend up to $2,000 on diapers. Just diapers! However, that isn’t the only thing you’ll be spending money on. So, we’ve been trying to plan for some of the following upcoming expenses…
- Delivery hospital bill: Around $5,000 out of pocket
- Health insurance for the baby: Around $300/month
- Clothing (new monthly budget item): $100/month
- Car registration and taxes: $500
- New computers for home office: $3,000 total for two
- Life insurance: $70 per month
- Dental work: TBD
- Rental renewal: TBD
Looking at the rest of the year, we have some hefty expenses coming up. First, my insurance has a maximum out-of-pocket cost per year of $6,000. I have already paid a little over $1,000 out-of-pocket for prenatal care, so when the bill comes for the hospital stay for delivery I expect to pay around $5,000. We will likely make payments on this.
We also need to renew the car’s registration and pay taxes in North Carolina in August. This will likely cost around $500 total. We will want to prep for this cost annually. Another one-time expense we are prepping for is the cost of two new computers for our home office. Because we are both working from home, it is important that we have reliable machines to work on. Right now, we both work on rather spotty laptops. Better performing machines will open more opportunities for us.
Two more one-time costs will be dental work (I desperately need some teeth removed and a deep clean) and our rental renewal. The exact cost of these has yet to be seen.
Lastly, we have some new budget line items to add to our monthly expenses. We will be getting life insurance for ourselves. Now that we have a child, it is important to us that we be prepared in case anything happens to either of us. We also need to get our child health insurance, which will likely cost around $300 per month. As you know, kids grow fast, so we are going to add clothing to our monthly expenses as well.
Planning for the Future
There are a few other financial things we’ve discussed in preparation for the baby as well. Both of us would like to send her to a private school. The public schools in our area aren’t the best and we want her to have a good education. This will cost around $6,000 per year in elementary and climb through middle and high school. We’ve been looking at educational savings plans to help us mitigate some tax liability for paying for her education.
Both of us are looking into starting other savings accounts and opening IRAs for the future as well. Something about having a baby has put us into full preparation mode for retirement and savings. We will start a family vacation fund, Roth IRA, first home fund, and savings account for our little one too.
Main Debt Focuses
Now, let’s shift our focus to our remaining debts. The biggest thing we will be focused on paying off now is our car. The monthly payment on our vehicle is $488. If we were able to eliminate that monthly payment, we will be able to have a lot more wiggle room in our budget and improve our finances significantly. Once that is paid off, we can focus on some of our other smaller debts and begin saving for a down payment on a home.
That’s a lot to think about at once and, sometimes, it feels a little overwhelming. However, both of us are looking forward to a bright future for our family.
Readers, how did you financially prepare for your firstborn?
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Stop the Penny Pinching; DIY Credit Repair in Just 10 Easy Steps
If you have bad credit, your future may feel pretty bleak. This is understandable, as poor credit comes with a number of side-effects including high insurance premiums and problems getting approved for loans. A negative score can even affect your ability to get a good job.
Getting Ready For Tax Day
I’ve talked about tax season on the blog before. As you know, the closer to Tax Day we get, the more anxious I become. However, this year looks a bit different for our family. Thankfully, I’m not feeling very anxious about filing this year and we should have all of our paperwork soon to get things done.
Anxiety Around Tax Season
If you’re like me and feel anxious around tax time every year, we are not alone! In fact, surveys have shown that at least 69% of Americans feel anxious around this time of year. The pressure differs from generation to generation too.
I happen to fall in the category of millennials. Seventy-eight percent of this demographic reports feeling anxious around tax time. Additionally, 82% of Gen Zers, 69% of Gen Xers, and 50% of baby boomers report some kind of anxiety about filing.
This year, it seems the top concern for most people is that they will not get a refund that will make a difference in today’s economy. Many people are reporting refunds of only a few hundred dollars when they may have been expecting thousands. The average refund so far in the 2023 tax season has been about $1,997. That’s a startling 14% lower than last year. For some families, this makes a huge difference.
On top of that, there are worries about refunds being delayed for an extended period of time. Of course, everyone is concerned about getting audited because who wants to go through that?
How To Ease Your Tax Time Anxiety
I’ve been able to relieve some of my tax time anxiety this year by doing a few things to better prepare myself, mentally and otherwise, for Tax Day. First, we’ve been slowly gathering our paperwork since January 1. We both worked at a few different places last year, so there are a few things to sort through.
Next, give yourself time to file. The government is going to take its time getting you your refund either way. So, make sure you leave yourself room to go over your return a few times before submitting it to the IRS. Remember, if you need more time, you can file an extension as long as you do so before April 18.
Don’t ignore the IRS or the fact that you have to file. It’s part of life. Accept it. Grab some snacks and file your taxes! When you are done you can sigh a breath of relief and treat yourself to a nice meal. It can be stressful, but Tax Day doesn’t have to rule your life at this time of year.
Readers, do you have Tax Day anxiety? How do you cope?
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Creating A Personal Finance Calendar
I’ve come to the blog to talk about how we manage our money month-to-month before. I manage most of the money for our family, paying the bills and making sure we have cash where we need it when we need it. It’s not an easy task all the time, but it is well worth being able to live without scrounging paycheck to paycheck. However, I wouldn’t be able to do any of it without our personal finance calendar.
When I started talking about my financial calendar to some of my friends, I realized I’m the only one taking this approach to money these days. For the most part, the people I talk to are plugged into some kind of app or tech solution that helps them keep an eye on their finances. While I’d love for that to be my life (so much less paper involved), it just doesn’t work for me. So, if you’re wondering about how you can create your own personal finance calendar, here’s how I organize mine.
What is a Personal Finance Calendar For?
A personal finance calendar will help you organize your financial life. Initially, I started using my PF calendar to get my budget down on paper. I marked down the days I’d go grocery shopping + the budgeted amount for the said shopping trip. I also jotted down the bills and what days they are due, plus the amount. Additionally, I added in the days we were getting paid and how much. Seeing everything written down on paper helped a lot.
That didn’t give me a full-picture view of my finances though. While it helped me pay my bills on time and stick to a budget, bigger expenses and other things tended to creep up on me. So, I decided to make some changes by adding bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-annual, and annual expenses to the calendar as well. This included things like car maintenance, property taxes, registration fees for the car, doctor’s bills, birthdays, holidays, vacations, celebrations, etc.
Going through and adding all of those things really made my financial calendar more well-rounded. It gave a full view of what we had going on, where our money is going, what we have planned, and what we are saving for.
Creating Your Own PF Calendar to Use
If you’re interested in creating your own personal finance calendar, it’s fairly easy. First, you need to gather a few things…
- Get a planner or a calendar to write down the necessary financial information . This doesn’t need to be fancy. You can get one at the Dollar Tree or Family Dollar!
- Scrap paper for lists, etc. is also a good idea. You will want to list out monthly expenses as well as other costs throughout the year before they go into your personal finance calendar.
- Buying a nice pen to write with might make a difference. I just love writing with a good pen. It makes me feel organized.
- Stickers and fun items can make the process more fun. You may even find some that correlate to your bills. For instance, we have “payday” stickers for the days we get paid.
Once you have what you need, it is time to start organizing your calendar. The first thing you want to write down is all of your expenses that remain the same month-to-month. For instance, we pay $1,767.50 in rent every month. That will not change until the end of the year when we renew our lease or move. The number $1,767.50 is written down along with “RENT” on the 1st day of every month. Similarly, our car payment of $698 is written down on the 14th of every month. Until we get it refinanced, this is the static monthly cost.
Once that is complete, start listing the expenses that may vary in cost each month. For example, you have to pay utilities on a monthly basis. However, our electric bill goes up in the summer due to running the air conditioning. In the winter, the gas bill is higher. Make an estimate for how much you’ll spend on these items (it’s a good idea to round up).
Following the addition of those costs, you can start adding in the less frequent expenses. For us, this includes our annual registration fees for our car, property tax on the vehicle, car maintenance, paying our taxes, renewing annual subscriptions, celebrating birthdays, holidays and vacations, and ensuring we have enough money to pay for annual check-ups.
That’s it – once you’ve jotted down all of the financial “things,” you have a reference point for managing your money throughout the rest of the year.
Readers, how do you stay on top of your finances? Do you use a personal finance calendar or other methods of organization?
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