Lately, when I decide to get up on time, I have been privileged to enjoy the amazingness that is riding the bus. Standing out on the corner in the rain while the bus running 5 minutes late reminds me that being frugal is sometimes a bummer. Saving $5 a day on gas looks like me spending almost an extra hour on travel per day and bearing the elements. The nice thing is, I am able to do some blogging … [Read more...] about Winning the Lottery: What Would YOU Buy?
Budget Fridays
Caution: Budgets Ahead! (Photo credit: 401K)Here on iHearBudgets, my goal is to help people see how awesome budgets really are and how they provide freedom to tell you money where to go. This site was born out of a passion of mine to help people get out of the day-to-day stress of living paycheck to paycheck and not seeing any progress in their finances. I love to talk personal finance and … [Read more...] about Budget Fridays
Broke vs. Poor
To say that I have made poor choices with my money is an understatement. When I look back at all the stupid things I decided to do with money it sometimes hurts. By the time I turned age 21 I had wasted over $100,000 in three short years. SICK! If you missed that, let me write that again for emphasis. I WASTED OVER $100,000 IN LESS THAN 3 YEARS BY THE TIME I TURNED 21 YEARS OLD! Now, I won't get … [Read more...] about Broke vs. Poor
Budgeting Basics (Part 2): Tracking Your Income and Expenses
Welcome back to the budgeting basics series! Last week, we talked about creating a priorities list to use as a filter for where your money should go. I ended the post by suggesting that you should write down your income and expenses to see where you money is going and to compare that with your priorities. I realize that this is no small task, especially for someone who has not ever put together a … [Read more...] about Budgeting Basics (Part 2): Tracking Your Income and Expenses
Budgeting Basics (Part 3): Setting Up Your Budget and Reverse Engineering Your Goals
Welcome back to the budgeting basics series. Today we are going to get your budget set up.We will set goals by starting at the end and reverse engineering them to make them attainable. So far, you have put together a priorities list to help guide where your money should go and you have tracked your income and expenses so you can see where your money has been going. Now we can start putting the two … [Read more...] about Budgeting Basics (Part 3): Setting Up Your Budget and Reverse Engineering Your Goals
EMERGENCY! Or Just Minor Inconvenience?
What a wonderful weekend we had. Sun was out, birds were singing and our water heater stopped working….wait. WHAT?! Yup, it finally happened. Owning a home had finally caught up to us and we were about to fork out some serious dough to get our precious hot water back. People had warned us about the "true" cost of home ownership. Many people said homes are a burden compared to renting … [Read more...] about EMERGENCY! Or Just Minor Inconvenience?