Nobody wants to be in an auto accident. What is even worse is being in an accident where you are seriously injured through no fault of your own, and the other driver is uninsured. If you live in a no fault state, or have uninsured motorist coverage on your insurance policy, you might think you don’t have to worry about being compensated for your medical bills and lost wages. Think again. The goal of many insurance companies and the adjusters they train is to find any way possible to devalue or deny claims. They have specific strategies and tactics to accomplish this goal that everybody needs to know about.
9 Side Hustle Jobs Which Will Make You $1000 a Month
Everyone wants to get ahead, right? That means saving money, making smart investments, and working harder than those around you. It also means you need to have a side hustle.
Side hustle jobs are a great way to generate extra money. There are many lucrative side hustles, and some are so fun that they don’t even feel like work.
Financial Spring Cleaning: How to Clean Up Your Budget
Most people think about clearing out their closets when “spring cleaning” comes to mind. While I suggest everybody do that a couple of times a year, your spring cleaning routine should also apply to your finances. Here are some ways that you can spruce up your budget this season.
Make Sure It’s Working
First and foremost, you need to make sure that your current budget is working for you. If it has been a while since you’ve done any financial spring cleaning, then it is likely you need to make some significant changes to your budget. You want to make sure it works for your current lifestyle. It also needs to help contribute to your larger financial goals – whatever they may be.
If your budget isn’t working for you anymore, don’t be afraid to scrap it and start from scratch! There is nothing better than a clean, blank slate to help you get back on track.
Consider Additional Budget Items
After you’ve considered whether or not your current budget is working for you, start thinking about things that you’d add to make your life easier. I know this isn’t necessarily what people think of when they think “spring cleaning.” Normally, you think about purging items from your home and decluttering. However, you should also consider what might make it easier to keep clean and organized throughout the rest of the year.
For instance, we added some organization products to our closet and it stays more tidy throughout the year. Similarly, with your budget, if you plan for things like vacation or allocate money to areas that make your life easier, it will work in your favor.
Get Rid of Things You Don’t Need
You shouldn’t only be adding things to your budget though. Just like cleaning out your closet, you need to get rid of things you don’t need too. Chances are, you probably don’t need all of those streaming services. You probably also don’t need a $6 coffee every single day. Look for areas where you might be able to cut/trim costs and make those changes.
Don’t Forget to Save
If you’re like me, you get a little too excited about that last step (getting rid of things). I’m addicted to throwing things out (seriously). Oftentimes, I’ll wind up tossing things I could have used or things I shouldn’t have thrown away at all. Saving is important too. It deserves a line on your budget.
Organize in a Way That Works for You
At the end of the day, your budget will look different than someone else’s. This is because it is designed to work for you. The same way you organize the pantry after cleaning it out applies to your finances. You want to make sure the things you use the most are accessible. More than that, you want to make sure it is functional. After a bit of financial spring cleaning, you should have a clear idea of your goals and budget.
Readers, how often do you review your budget and do a bit of financial spring cleaning?
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Now Is The Time To Prepare A Summer Spending Plan
It may seem a bit early to you, but I’m ready to start prepping our family’s summer spending plan. Generally speaking, the warmer months tend to be more expensive for us. We go out more. This year, we may even get to take a day trip or two to the beach. Not to mention, the cost of cooling our home in the South can be shocking at times.
So, now that spring is officially here and warmer weather is on its way (it’s 85 degrees and sunny today), I’m ready to start plotting out some of our plans for the summer.
How Does Summer Impact Spending?
As I briefly mentioned above, the summertime tends to bring along some additional expenses for my family. Nobody wants to stay inside when it’s a beautiful warm day. So, there are often additional expenses that pop up.
Namely, our electric bill usually goes up to about $200/month from $100 or less during the winter months (we have gas heat). On top of that, it is generally a time of year when we take more trips, have more day adventures, and living is easy. We simply don’t always pay as close attention to our finances as we should from June to September.
That being said, we started tackling a summer spending plan a few years ago that helps us map out necessary expenses as well as things we’d like to do during the warmer months.
Our Summer Spending Plan
I haven’t written out our summer spending plan in its entirety yet, but I know we are planning to do a few things…
- We would really love to take our daughter to the beach. She hasn’t been yet and both of us would love to be able to do that this summer. We live within a 3-hour drive of several great beaches here, so that is doable on a budget. If necessary, we wouldn’t even have to stay overnight.
- Another small pool needs to be purchased for the backyard. Last year, we bought a baby pool for the backyard and, even though it cost about $10, it provided our little one with countless hours of fun!
- We need to adjust our monthly budget to account for the increased electricity and water costs for our home during the summer months.
- Our little one is also going to need new clothes. We don’t have any spring or summer clothes that fit her currently.
Right now, we are working on nailing down what our budget for the summer needs to be and how much money we will need to save for certain holidays, trips, etc. For instance, Father’s Day falls in June, we will budget a little extra money for the holiday and find something my husband would like to do.
We are still hashing out the details, but these are the four things impacting our summer spending plan right now. Readers, do you construct a different budget or spending plan for different seasons? I’d love to hear about how you manage it.
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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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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.
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
- Homemade Dog Food
- The Real Cost of Having a Puppy
- What Are the Best Online Registries?
- How to Plan a Virtual Baby Shower
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.
I’m Ditching The ‘Dream’ Wedding and Moving 4 Hours Away
This update has been a couple of weeks in the making but we wanted to make sure everything was final before announcing. In some of my most recent blog posts, I talked about planning a debt-free wedding. That will definitely still be happening but in a different timeframe and manner than we’d originally planned.
I’m ditching the dream wedding. We are having a courthouse ceremony next Monday. Then we are moving four hours South to Atlanta!
Why The Move?
My (very soon) hubby-to-be has gotten his dream job offer down in Atlanta. He’ll be running a Porsche shop there. This is a huge career move for him and it comes with a ton of perks for us as well.
Of course, I work from home so there is nothing keeping me rooted here work-wise. In addition to the “dream job,” he will be getting a decent pay raise and we will also have a rental house to live in “rent-free.” I say “rent-free” because it will be considered a portion of his initial salary.
The house is only four miles from the shop he’ll be managing. Not to mention, we will finally have a yard for Enzo!
What This Means For Our Debt Free Journey
All those small perks aside, what has really driven our decision to move forward with this move has been the financial aspect. Yes, of course, this is an absolute dream come true and this could be where my other half spends most of his career.
On the financial side of things, we have the opportunity to finally pad our emergency savings the way we’ve needed to. We will have the money to pay off debt (and way faster than we’d initially planned). In fact, if everything goes to plan, we could find ourselves being debt-free in a year and on our way to buying a home.
Considering All Things
Since my husband-to-be received the offer, we have been over-the-moon excited. It almost seemed to good to be true and I am thrilled to get to start our married lives together in a city neither of us has spent any time in before. It will be a fantastic adventure and will put us on the right track financially for the rest of our lives together.
That isn’t to say we won’t miss being close to family and friends. Of course, we will. We will also miss out on the big “shebang” of a wedding we were planning later this year. But, we can always throw a celebration down the road and will celebrate with the immediate family able to make it this week.
Incidentally, you probably shouldn’t move without a job waiting for you. However, if you are in the situation, my friend Kelan over at Moneyminiblog has a good article on things should think about if do find yourself forced to move, here.
All in all, I can’t wait to see what this next move does for our family, our relationship, and our finances. And, I can’t wait to keep you updated about it here!
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Get Faster Broadband For Your Family
Having trouble with your broadband? You’re not alone. These days, having a good internet connection is as important as having running water. Even though tons of different internet service providers SAY they’re the best – they can’t all be, can they?
If you’re looking to switch broadband providers and get the best value high-speed internet possible, then you’re in the right place.
In this article, we’re going to look at how to find the fastest broadband – so that whether you’re considering the best satellite internet options in your area or settling with the greatest wireline internet services you can find, your family can download, game, and stream to their heart’s content.
Put a stop to arguments over slow download speed
So many different things rely on a fast internet connection these days. Gone are the times when you’d fire up your dial up connection just to read a few pages of text.
Now you can stream TV shows, play high-spec games, shop and more. And often, in a family household all of this is happening at once. Fed up of the complaints from your son about the lag time on his games? And fights over slow Netflix streaming?
You need faster broadband.
It’s understandable so much demand on the service you need a better internet connection at home. While one PC might have been hooked up to the web in the past, now you’ve got multiple laptops, smart TV and phones all accessing the internet simultaneously.
That’s why considering speed when looking for a broadband supplier is so important.
Mbit per second, Ping & Contention Rates
When you have a look at switching broadband providers from your current provider to spectrum internet, for example, look at overall speed. This is normally represented in mbit per second. While it’s a hugely important factor in choosing a good broadband provider – it’s not the only one.
Those speeds generally refer to how quickly you can download data. Whether it’s something quick (loading a page), or something slower (downloading a film).
However, that’s not the only measure of speed that’s useful.
If you play a lot of online games, you’ll also want a low ping. That’s the speed it takes for a signal to bounce back to you, and it has a huge impact on how smoothly most online games perform.
You’ll also need to consider contention rates. If lots of people in your area use the same broadband provider, will this slow down your activity?
How to find the best broadband supplier for you
Thankfully, it’s easy to find good deals for broadband in your area. You can start with price comparison sites online and have a look at reviews. You might also want to consider how good the customer service ratings are and look at any other issues people might have had with a particular ISP.
The right broadband comparison service could save you a lot of money.
Some broadband suppliers use the same line
Just because you switch broadband providers, that doesn’t mean you’re getting a new line put in. Many of these ISPs (internet service providers) will use the same telephone network but simply package and charge differently.
If you want to take things to the next step, you can consider getting fiber installed to make your connection even faster.
How hard is it to switch suppliers?
Switching is easy these days. All you have to do is phone up. You shouldn’t notice any downtime and should be able to start using your new connection straight away.
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