photo credit: KitAy

Blogger and organic eater Ginger at the Girls Just Wanna Have Funds blog has been complaining about the rises in grocery prices over the last year - in fact, she says that between January and September this year, her grocery bill more than doubled.

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They’re not just artists, they’re impresarios. Hip hop’s highest earners own record labels, restaurants and million dollar clothing lines. And when they’re not topping the charts, they’re hawking everything from booze to books. Here’s a look.

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One of the best things you can do for your kids is teach them good money habits, and a great list was recently posted over at the Simple Marriage Project. Here’s a summary of their best pieces of advice:

• Give children some control of money, for example by having them do some weekly chores in exchange for pocket money
• Teach them to save up to buy something that they want
• Help them to invest their money as they get older, and teach them about the various kinds of investments
• When children have a savings goal, demonstrate to them how cutting back on some expenditure will help them reach their goal faster
• Get them used to the physical action of paying bills (even if they aren’t paying with their own money)
• Explain how various kinds of debt work and as they get older, let them use a credit card with a small limit and encourage them to pay it off in full each month (and if they don’t, let them learn the consequences)
• Discuss materialism and impulse buying with your children
• Above all: practice what you preach. Children will learn the most from your example, so learn as much as you can about managing your own money well and set a good example.

photo credit: Fabio Aro

Buying a new car is a big investment and one where a bit of bargaining and preparation can save you quite a bit of money. That means the key to car bargain hunting is to be prepared, as per these tips from Girls Just Wanna Have Funds: (more…)

photo credit: Jeff Keen

Paying off credit card debt, buying a house or investing in the sharemarket are all well and good but the very first step to financial security is to save money - and the best way to save money is by having a budget and sticking to it. A recent how-to guide has some good reminders about the basics of planning a budget and starting to save money, using these main steps: (more…)

We see articles full of tips for saving money being published every other day, but a recent article at Yahoo Finance actually included a few tips we rarely think of. Our favorites include:

• Save money on software - once you have Windows then many other kinds of software you need have a free version available - such as OpenOffice.org for word processing, spreadsheets, and so on, and there are a bunch of free (but good) anti-virus software programs to download.
• Don’t buy plants - heaps of plants grow just as well from cuttings, so check the gardens of your friends and family for what you’re after and take a small cutting to grow your own.
• Don’t drink bottled water. Apart from the production of all those bottles being very environmentally unfriendly, buying them is wallet unfriendly. Either drink tap water or buy an inexpensive filter system to filter your tap water.
• Check grocery prices for some unusual surprises - the writer of the Yahoo article found that the local gas station in a New York suburb had the cheapest price for eggs and milk compared to supermarkets and other shops nearby, which is definitely not what you’d expect.
• Do your own mechanic work - a lot of small jobs that you pay a mechanic for can be done yourself with a small investment in tools and time.

photo credit: orangeacid

The NY Times has an interesting take on one way to help make your marriage last: marry someone who’s financially compatible to you. Or try and become financially compatible by following these tips:

• Talk openly about a savings philosophy and agree (or make a compromise) on it. Then get serious about your family approach to money - some recommend holding a weekly meeting to check on the finance situation
• Support your partner’s career so that both partners can be earning when the stage in life is appropriate
• Rotate responsibility for different aspects of your finances - don’t have one person responsible for everything, all the time
• Agree on how much money you can spend for enjoyment and luxuries and still be financially sustainable
• If things get rough, use a mediator (who might be a financial planner) to agree on a new money philosophy
• Make sure each partner still has some money that is slightly “independent” - that they can spend for themselves, how they want
• “Invest in your marriage” by going on dates and planning holidays - this investment in your relationship might cost a little money, but it’s worth it in the long run. Apart from the obvious distress of a relationship break-up, divorce is also an expensive business and it can quite often be avoided with a little more care earlier on.

photo credit: TheTruthAboutMortgage.com

Credit unions don’t have the same big money feel as a bank, but there are definitely those who think you might get a better deal from a credit union over a large bank. And right now this is particularly the case because credit unions were unlikely to be involved in sub prime dramas. (more…)

Many retail foods, from breakfast cereal to juice jugs, are growing smaller by the day, as companies fight to maintain profits without losing customers. With the rise in raw ingredient and fuel prices, though, something’s got to give, and most retailers have decided that a product’s cost to consumers won’t be that something. Therefore, retail products will see a small rise in price and small reduction in size, maximizing profits while keeping consumers in the relative dark. (more…)

photo credit: dominiekth

For couples without children, sharing one car instead of having two is often practical and a great way to save money. Statistics suggest that you can save from $8,000 to $12,000 a year, even when you include the extra costs of public transport.

If you’re a couple who both use your own cars, considering saving this big sum of money by giving up one of the cars, here are some tips to help you decide if it’s right for you:

• Can at least one partner easily use public transportation to get to work?
• If not, do you work in a similar part of town, and at similar times? Will it be practical for one partner to drop the other at work and pick them up?
• Are you good at planning your week in advance - for example, if particular errands need to be run using the car, can they be scheduled in to the time when you have access to it?

Remember, if you can make this work you won’t just be saving on car loan repayments, but also on car insurance, fuel costs and maintenance costs, plus the added bonus is you’ll probably get a bit more incidental exercise by walking places - or at least to the bus stop. And you’ll be helping the environment too.