Budgeting | 365 Magical Days of Travel

29 Dec 2018

Increase Your Giving, Lower Your Tax

Budgeting, Saving Money

93/365 It's that time of year to evaluate your charitable giving for 2018 in order to reap the benefits on your taxes come April (or February if you're not a procrastinator). It seems counterintuitive, but you can actually save money in the long run by increasing your giving now. Standard Deduction Let me explain. The IRS has an allowance for…

09 Dec 2018

By Debra Baca

0 Comments

Open Enrollment

Budgeting

73/365 Open Enrollment for healthcare insurance is from now until December 15, which is less than a week away. If you need to sign up for health insurance, or make any changes to your current policy, now is the time to do it. Even if you're not making any changes, you'll likely still have to turn in some sort of…

25 Nov 2018

By Debra Baca

0 Comments

ting

Budgeting, Saving Money

59/365 Ting is a relatively new carrier that offers pay-as-you-go service. You can either buy a new device or bring your own. They don't roll the price of the device into the service like other carriers. You can choose from either the GSM or CDMA networks, depending on your area's coverage or your device's preference. Shared Blocks One aspect that…

24 Nov 2018

By Debra Baca

3 Comments

Ladder Tree—Cut Back on the Holiday Madness

Budgeting, Saving Money

58/365 I decided to make Cut Back on the Holiday Madness a series, so here is the second installment. When we first got married, I introduced Bryan to the idea of getting a living Christmas tree. You know, one in a pot that you could plant after Christmas. In our hot and dry desert climate, there's really only one pine…

23 Nov 2018

By Debra Baca

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Cut Back on the Holiday Madness

Budgeting

57/365 When I was a teenager, my mom looked around after present opening one Christmas and was dismayed by the sheer amount of STUFF we had accumulated in one night. She decided then and there that something had to change. By the next year, we had decided as a family to focus more on experiences than presents, so we put…

24 Oct 2018

By Debra Baca

0 Comments

Ease Your Budget and Your Relationship with Personal Allowances

Budgeting

27/365 When you are beginning to put together a budget with your family, it might be a good idea to think about incorporating personal allowances into your plan. No Judgement Spending Personal allowances are a way to give each member of your family their own pool of discretionary money without judgement from other family members. I have a hard time…

20 Oct 2018

By Debra Baca

0 Comments

Money In, Money Out

Budgeting

Day 23/365 2018-2019 So now that you've begun to look at your finances, we're going to look at something very basic to any budget plan: Money In, Money Out. And we're going to go old school on this one. So get out a notebook or pad of paper and settle in with a cup of your favorite drink, this might…

28 Sep 2018

By Debra Baca

0 Comments

Get Your Family on a Budget

Budgeting, Feature Articles

Day 1/365 2018-2019 The first thing you need to do when dealing with any kind of financial goal is to look at your finances. Seems simple, right? Well, I imagine there are a lot of people out there who don't really know where their money is going at any given moment. They simply spend until the bank account is empty,…