saving money Archives - the frugal millionaire

How to Save Money on Food without Sacrificing Quality

We all want to save money on food, right? I’ve been experimenting with our food budget lately and have discovered a few tips that have been saving us a decent amount of money each month. We are a family of five – my husband, myself and our three little girls (ages 5, 4 and 1). You would think little ones would be easy to feed but my goodness – my kids are all very picky (aren’t they all?) and go through snacks like there’s no tomorrow.

I’ve also always wondered if what we spend on food is “normal” compared to other families. While doing some research, I came across this chart that details monthly grocery budgets based on family size. As a family of five, we could be spending anywhere from $621 to $1660 according to the chart. And yup – we fall exactly in that range. Our total food spending each month (this includes groceries, restaurants, coffee shops, and some household supplies) ranges from $1,100 to $1,500. Whether we seem to eat out often or spend the entire month cooking at home, we always seem to fall right in that range.

Prior to wanting to save money on food, we spent closer to $1,800 per month. Since cutting back, we haven’t sacrificed one bit on quality and, since I’m more aware, dare I say we’ve been eating better?

Here are 12 ways to save money on food without sacrificing quality.

How to Start Managing Your Money

This is a sponsored post for PSECU, a not-for-profit credit union. All opinions are my own.

Managing your money is a necessary life skill and really should be taught in schools right alongside math and English. Usually, we make mistakes in our 20s and learn our lessons the hard way. We get into auto loan debt, student loan debt and credit card debt, then are left wondering how the heck we’re going to pay all this off.

If you’re just starting out with learning to manage your money, or if you’re knee-deep in debt and are trying to dig yourself out of a seemingly endless hole, this post is for you. Here is how to start managing your money in an easy-to-understand, step-by-step format.

15 Ways to Save Money in Everyday Life

I don’t budget. Instead, I am acutely aware of my spending every single day. Whether I’m grocery shopping, out with my family or hanging out at home, I try my best to make choices that will save money. And by doing that every single day, you absolutely will see your bank account grow. Here are 15 ways to save money in everyday life.

4 Reasons to Refinance Your Student Loans

Average student loan debt is over $30,000 per borrower (you can see your specific state’s student loan debt here). With most interest rates being between 4-7%, that can make for quite the large monthly payment. And, with a high monthly payment, it can be tough to pay extra each month toward your student loans in order to pay them off faster.

If you are looking to pay off your student loans fast and get rid of them once and for all, consider a student loan refinance. Here are four reasons to refinance your student loans.

5 Ways to Make an Extra $500 a Month

What would you do with an extra $500 every month? I personally would save half of it ($250), go out to eat a few extra times each month ($100), and put the remaining amount ($150) towards debt.

Below are five ways you can make an extra $500 a month. Combine all of them for an extra $2,500!

How to Spoil Your Husband without Spending Money

If there’s one person who deserves to be spoiled, that would be my husband. He is truly the most incredible dad to our three little girls. They love him so much that they cry when he leaves and ask for him all day long (aren’t kids supposed to be more attached to their moms?!). He spends quality time with them, reads to them before bed, wakes up with them in the middle of the night, changes diapers and more. I am incredibly thankful to have him by my side.

Today, I wanted to share a list of ways I spoil my husband without spending any money. If you’re looking for free gift ideas or just want to say “thanks” to your man, you’ll want to keep reading!!

Top 10 Unfrugal Confessions (of a Personal Finance Blogger)

I’m naturally frugal and naturally a saver. However, I am absolutely not extreme. Today I’m confessing all of the things I spend money on, even as a frugal person.

Some of you might not think I’m that frugal after reading this 😉 But, I should preface this by saying that my husband and I work hard at side hustles so we can live a little more freely. Just in the past year, we purchased our dream house (that we thought at the time we were “over buying”), paid extra toward new said mortgage every single month, paid off $16K on our auto loan (this will be gone next month, woot!), contributed 10-15% of our checks to retirement, and added thousands to our personal savings.

ALL of that was possible because of side hustles!

My two side hustles are freelance writing and blogging. Blogging is my main one now, as I also have a FT job. I am averaging over $1,000/month from my blog and I spend about 10 hours a month on it.

You can view my latest income report here!

Also, if you’re interested in starting a blog, you can use my “How to Start a Profitable Blog” tutorial. With it, you’ll receive my book, The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging, for free; in addition to a special discount from Bluehost to my readers only! Get started now!

Here are my unfrugal confessions (please be nice, and remember I am pregnant!):

2 Guaranteed Ways to Stop Stressing About Money

We’ve all been there: bills are due, things around the house keep breaking, a child gets sick, we of course need to eat, and basically the expenses just don’t stop rolling in.

I would say our “low” point was right after our first daughter was born (this was about four years ago). I had quit my full-time job when she was born and was just starting to break into freelancing. My husband was working for himself in construction and remodeling. We had just gotten back from a week-long family reunion (that my parents so graciously paid for or else we would not have been there) which meant my husband missed an entire week of work. We had savings, but for a few months, we were forced to make so many withdrawals that we were practically down to nothing.

I hated that feeling. Every day I woke up with a pit in my stomach. We lived in a very, very modest house (we purchased our first home for less than $150K), we ate pasta with sauteed onions for dinner multiple times per week, we didn’t go out to eat, and we by no means went shopping for fun. We were on a super tight budget, and even then we were still just scraping by.

Can anyone else relate to this?

Stressing about money sucks, period. And heck, I’ll say it, being on a tight budget sucks, too!

Fast-forward four years later (now), and we’ve completely changed our situation. I can honestly say that I haven’t been stressed about money (in that sense) in a while, and it feels incredible. I’m sleeping better, I’m happier and have a healthier outlook on life, my relationship with my husband is better than ever, and I’m truly enjoying life.

Want to know what I did to stop stressing about money? Grab a cup of coffee, this one’s a long one…

Six Smart Financial Moves for Future Millionaires

Whether your goal is to become a millionaire by a certain age or to save a set amount of money so that you can retire early, the way to get there is deceptively simple. Save more, spend less. It sounds easy, but if it were easy then everyone would do it. Here are a few tips on how to build your wealth.

1. Clearly Define Your Goals

When you decide to start getting serious about saving money, it is a good idea to have a set of goals in mind as well as a plan for how to reach them. Think about writing down a business plan of sorts, with a timeline, goals, and small clearly defined actions that will allow you to reach those goals. It is very important to be clear about what you are trying to accomplish, whether it is retiring early with a set amount of money in the bank, saving money for your children’s future, or something else.

2. Pay Yourself First

With any income you receive, whether from your full-time job or a side hustle, pay yourself before spending money on anything else. This means to put money towards savings before you start spending your income. Some people put a set amount into savings every month, and those that have a more variable income will sometimes save a set percentage of their income towards retirement, other investments, emergency fund savings, or college savings funds.

3. Have a Side Hustle or Two

Frugal Millionaires know that while having a full-time job is a great source of income, you are not limited by your FT salary. You can always start working on the side to increase your income, and if you’ve already been living on your full-time salary alone then you can devote your side hustle income entirely to meeting your financial goals faster.

My side hustle is blogging (learn how to start your own profitable blog here!). This month, I’m on track to make close to $700, and I spent maybe 8 hours this month blogging! It took some time to build up an audience and create posts, but now my income is steady and dare I say…passive? Which leads to the next point…

4. Set Up Passive Income Streams

Passive income is money that you earn without having to do very much for it after an initial output of effort. Something like writing an eBook and self-publishing through Amazon, designing and selling a course on Udemy, or even simply selling t-shirts and stickers with a logo you designed are all ways to earn passive income.

5. Always Have Insurance

Frugal millionaires like to cut costs in order to put more money towards their financial goals, but having proper insurance will save you money if you are ever in the position of needing to use it, and is not a smart way to cut costs. Renter’s or homeowner’s insurance, good car insurance, life insurance, and health insurance are all important and well worth the cost. Visit this link to learn more.

6. Maximize Your Tax Breaks

Never pay more in taxes than you are legally required to. This means fully funding your IRA and any other pre-tax retirement accounts you have, investigating whether you should itemize your deductions or take the standard deduction, and following any other advice your accountant provides you.

Through setting clear goals, increasing your earning and saving while minimizing your effort, and protecting yourself from financial catastrophe, you should be able to meet your savings goals. With common sense and determination, you can be a millionaire.

How to Spend Your Tax Refund

It’s tax time! Hopefully, you are getting some money back from Uncle Sam. I am happy to report that we are getting a nice chunk of change back. However, this coming year we will be in a different tax bracket and most likely will owe, so this is probably one of the last refunds we will see in a while.

According to the IRS, the average tax refund is $3,120. While it may sound fun to go on a tropical vacation or upgrade your furniture, it’s a better idea to invest that money back into yourself, save or pay off debt.

Here are four ideas on how to spend your tax refund.