According to the National Retail Federation, parents of school-aged children estimated they spent nearly $600 on back-to-school purchases last year. How can you cut back this year without cutting corners?

One step toward controlling your costs is to understand and classify them.
Compulsory costs are required – you must pay them, and pay them on time. Compulsory costs include things like health insurance, car insurance, property taxes, car payments, mortgage payments, and income taxes. Discretionary costs are ones that you could delay for a month or [...]

Budgeting is the only practical way to consciously control your spending and to make sure your money is being used the way you really want it to be used.
There are three basic elements to every household budget; Total Income, Total Expenses, and Cash Surplus (or deficit).
If your result is negative then you must either increase [...]

It’s time to put a bright bow on your budget!
Are you ready for the upcoming holidays? Although November 28th is the traditional kick off of the holiday season, decorations of all kinds are already flooding the retail stores and catalogues of gift ideas are being delivered by the truckload to our mailboxes encouraging us to [...]

Up until a few years ago my husband and I really struggled to keep our finances in order. Every month I would make a budget, but the money on paper never seemed to go as far as the money in my bank account.
My first step in understanding why I was always broke was to list [...]

Despite the current credit crisis, now is a good time to be a first time homebuyer if you are mortgage ready and a good money manager. There is a glut of houses for sale across the nation and sellers are very motivated. An article on CNNMoney.com recently stated that “For the first time in years, [...]