Having a baby is such an exciting time, but the to-do list before baby comes can be overwhelming. With so many products on the market, it is hard to know exactly what you need for pregnancy and when baby arrives. Here are my 10 tips to save money during pregnancy.
Don’t Spend Full Price on Maternity clothes
Maternity clothes are needed, but it is hard to justify and expensive price tag when they are only worn for a short amount of time. There are a few ways to avoid spending retail price. Check out the best ways to find inexpensive maternity clothes.
There are so many things about money I wish I would have known when I was in college. At 20 years old, I was newly married and starting my third year at community college. While my college experience wasn’t “traditional” in the sense, we did have to be resourceful with the money we had and learn how to save money.
1. Avoid debt if possible
Student loan debt is no joke and it feels like it is going to take forever to pay off. When I graduated college, I accepted a teaching job right away and went on an income repayment plan to start repaying my student loans. I started off paying about $275 a month on my loans, which ended up going mostly towards interest. My total balance on my loans wasn’t going to go down unless I started paying more on them each month, which was tricky on a new teacher salary. To avoid taking out student loans, start looking for scholarships and grants when you are still in high school if possible.
2. Apply for scholarships
Scholarships are basically free money to use towards your degree. You can apply for scholarships through websites like Scholarships.com. Also check you colleges website to see if they have a list. Sometimes scholarships from local donors are listed or scholarships for certain programs are available.
3. If loans are unavoidable, only take the minimum amount needed
With things in upheaval around the world, now more than ever you should be preparing and looking ahead to the future. Your goals may be changing, but your drive should remain the same. Check out some of the best way to reach your financial goals!
Define your financial goals
Where do you want to be with your finances? Are you working towards becoming debt-free? Do you want to go on a paid for vacation? Do you want to build your savings?
When setting a goal, make sure it is realistic and specific. Instead of saying I want to pay off debt, be specific and say “I want to pay off my car loan ($8,000) by the end of the year. This will help you break it down to see how much a month you will have to pay on your car to pay it off. For example, you will have to put about $690 on your car each month (depending on your interest rate) to have it completely paid off by the end of the year.
Its best to focus on one goal at a time to prevent stretching your finances too thin and burning out.
Create a budget
This is the plan for how you will reach your goals. Make a list of all of your expenses and compare it to your income. After all of your bills and expenses are paid, how much income do you have left to put towards your goal? If you are over-budget
I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer! I can’t believe how fast it is flying by. Today I wanted to share with you how to find inexpensive books. Whether you are looking for books for your own personal collection, or if you are a teacher wanting to build your classroom library. It can get pricey, but it is possible to build a library on a budget.
1. Garage Sales
Garage sales are a wonderful way to find books for about .50 to $1 each. Keep your eye out for retiring teacher garage sales too.
2. Facebook Marketplace and Garage Sale Groups
I have found large bundles of books on Facebook Market Place that people were selling for cheap, although these can be a bit of a hit or miss. Because these books are sold as a lot, they are often much cheaper than purchasing individually.
3. Library Sales
Check to see if your local library has any book sales. Both of our local libraries have large sales a few times a year where they sell old library books and books from the community. The larger library in our city has a permanent bookstore that is open a few days each week. I have found a nice variety of adult and children’s books for $1 each.
The debt avalanche and the debt snowball are both approaches to pay off debt with the goal of being consumer debt-free. In this post, I want to share with you what each method is to help you decide which approach you want to take to pay off your debt.
What is the Debt Avalanche Method?
The debt avalanche method is simply paying off your loans starting with the highest interest rate first. Any extra money you are applying to debt would go towards the loan with the highest interest rate, while making minimum payments on the rest of your loans. As you pay off one loan, you focus your extra payments on the next highest interest rate, and so on.
Since you are paying off the loans with the highest interest rate first, you will be paying less interest overall. If you work at the same momentum, is likely that you will pay off debt quicker than the snowball method. The downside is if your loan balances are large, it is easy to loose motivation.
