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How We Plan to Help Our Kids with College

January 23, 2023 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

How We Plan to Help Our Kids with College

My husband and I have been on a tight budget for most of our married life. Luckily, one of us has always worked at a college, so we planned to send our kids to college where ever we worked so that the kids would get a tuition discount. Since our budget was so tight, we didn’t have the money to save for college (we still drive an 18-year-old vehicle!), so this plan worked perfectly. . .until it didn’t. My husband couldn’t pass up an excellent job opportunity last year—our oldest’s senior year in high school—so he left his job at the university. While staying at his old job for the tuition discount was tempting, the new job offered a better position, more money, and more opportunities for advancement. However, we then had to work out how we plan to help our kids with college.

Since we had zero saved, we knew we’d have to take a non-traditional track to get our kids through college.

How We Plan to Help Our Kids with College

We had our kids in our mid-to-late 30s, so we are focused on retirement savings now that my husband has a better job. Still, we plan to help our kids with college as we can. Here is the plan. (We have one in college and two more who will be in college in the next four to five years.)

Pay for Community College

Our oldest currently attends a community college. He received a scholarship that pays half of his tuition. We cover the other half.

Likewise, we homeschool our younger two, so we plan to have them take dual credit classes at our local community college when they’re in high school. We will pay for those classes.

Pay for Some Living Expenses

Our oldest lives with a family relative out-of-state while attending community college. We pay for all of his groceries every month. We also pay for any medicine he needs, haircuts, and his college books.

He does not currently have a car, but if he gets one, he will be responsible for the gas and car insurance. (We’re hoping he waits as long as possible to get a car so he doesn’t have any added expenses.)

Give Them a Set Amount

When our oldest transfers from the community college to a four-year university, we have told him we have a set amount we can contribute to his education. He knows what that amount is. To pay the difference, he will need to take out loans and/or get a job. We’re hoping he chooses the most economical option, so he doesn’t saddle himself with student loans.

When our younger two go to college, we will also let them know the set amount we can pay each year.

Encourage Applying for Scholarships

We have encouraged all of our children to apply for college scholarships. The more scholarship money they can earn, the less they will hopefully have to pay in student loans.

Final Thoughts

College is costly. Unfortunately, our plan to get 50 percent off tuition at the university my husband was employed did not work because he left the job. While that was unexpected, we have found ways to help our kids pay for college.

Read More

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Filed Under: Children, Married Money Tagged With: college, college expenses, higher education, parenting

Why You Should Allow Teens to Have Natural Consequences

January 9, 2023 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Allow Teens to Have Natural Consequences

As parents, we often don’t want to allow teens to have natural consequences. However, that’s the worst thing we can do for them. Every decision a human being makes has consequences—either good or bad or a mixture of both. We learn from these consequences and hopefully make better decisions next time if the results are negative or the same type of decisions if the outcomes are positive. If parents don’t allow teens to have natural consequences, we enable them and deny them essential learning experiences.

Why You Should Allow Teens to Have Natural Consequences

Older teenagers are navigating the adult world and learning what is acceptable and what isn’t. In addition, they realize that they can now make their own decisions and live with the consequences.

How My Mom Allowed Me to Have Natural Consequences

The summer I was 17, my friend and I booked a flight for January from our homes in Michigan to my grandparents’ winter home in Florida. We thought flying to Florida in the middle of winter would be a relaxing way to start the new year. I paid for the ticket myself with money from my summer job.

What neither of us knew was that my friend’s life was about to go off the rails. She started using drugs heavily, and by the fall, we were no longer friends. I dreaded the upcoming trip to Florida. I didn’t even talk to my friend anymore. How could I stay with her at my grandparents’ home for ten days?

I asked my mom if I should call our doctor and see if he would write a medical excuse for why I could not go on the trip so I could get my money back for the ticket. She said I could try. When I called the doctor’s office, the receptionist chastised me for asking the doctor to lie. I was embarrassed and learned my lesson. I flew to Florida with my friend. The trip didn’t go as badly as I worried it might, and that turned out to be the last time we spent together.

How My Friend Is Allowing Her Daughter Natural Consequences

I was reminded of my own natural consequences story while watching my friend, Sandy, interact with her daughter, Julia. Sandy doesn’t have much money to pay for Julia’s college, so throughout Julia’s high school career, Sandy advised her to apply for scholarships. She told Julia how those scholarships could be used for tuition and living expenses. In addition, she talked to Julia about the harmful effects of student loans. However, Julia steadfastly refused to apply for scholarships. She also refused to get a job.

In addition, Sandy wanted Julia to learn to drive because the community college Julia planned to attend was 30 minutes from home. Julia attempted to learn to drive, but she quit after a few tries.

Allow Teens to Have Natural Consequences

Julia decided to take the bus to go to college, but she hated it. Now, she wants a car, but she has no money. She has pestered Sandy to help her get a car and pay for gas and insurance, but Sandy refuses. So instead, she’s asking Julia to find a way to pay for this herself since Julia previously refused to apply for scholarships or get a job. Meanwhile, she can take the bus even if she doesn’t like it.

Final Thoughts

Watching your child struggle is difficult. However, if parents allow teens to have natural consequences, they learn far more than having parents lecture them.

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Filed Under: Children, Married Money Tagged With: money management, natural consequences, teen finance, teens

Start the New Year by Finding Money

December 26, 2022 By MelissaB 1 Comment

Start the New Year by Finding Money

The last few years have been difficult for most people. First, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the country, causing many people to lose their incomes and livelihoods. Then, when the country opened up again, inflation took hold. The United States, and much of the world, battled inflation in 2022. As a result, money is tight for most people. If this is the case for you, I invite you to join me; I plan to start the new year by finding money.

Why Find Money in the New Year?

Like many Americans, I am struggling to stay within our grocery budget. Looking at the USDA’s cost of food, I see why I’m struggling. Grocery prices increased sharply in 2022.

In addition, fuel costs and interest rates on loans are up. Everything is expensive.

To give our family a little breathing room, I plan to start the new year by finding money.

How to Find Money?

You can find or reclaim money in your budget in various ways. For example, I found money in these ways:

Cell Phone Expenses

My husband and I use Ting to keep our cell phone expenses down. The monthly bill for the two of us combined averaged $40 to $45. Then we added our teenage son to the plan, and suddenly our bill shot up to $100 to $120 a month. After some sleuthing, I discovered I could limit how much data he uses a month. Once I added that limit, our bill dropped to our average amount, saving us $50 to $75 a month.

Cutting Streaming Services

We have several streaming services including Hulu, Paramount+, Disney+, Netflix, Peacock, and Discovery+. I have ended or paused them all except Netflix and Hulu, which I’m temporarily keeping to watch Kindred. When we finish that, I’m pausing it again. With this action, I save $35 a month.

In the new year, we’ll only have one streaming service at a time. So, after we watch every show we want on Netflix, we’ll end the subscription and subscribe to a different one for a few weeks or months. By rotating streaming services, we’ll pay no more than $6 to $18 a month.

Pausing Services

I have a monthly Audible subscription that costs $14.99. I have several books I haven’t listened to yet, and I have nine credits. Therefore, I’m going to redeem my credits and pause my subscription. I have plenty to listen to for the next few months, so why keep paying? I can pause the subscription for at least six months before I run out of new audiobooks to listen to, so I’ll save myself $90.

I also have a $26 monthly fee to Ancestry.com. Genealogy is one of my hobbies, but there are some months, especially in the summer and fall, when I don’t have time to warrant the expense. So, my plan going forward is to gift myself a six-month subscription in November when they go on sale. Then, at the end of the six months, I’ll cancel my membership until next November. That gives me the winter and spring months to do my research. Using this technique, I’ll save approximately $150 a year.

Evaluating Memberships

Likewise, I’m evaluating memberships to see if we should keep them or let them go, including the following:

Amazon Prime

Start the New Year by Finding Money

We’ve been Amazon Prime members for years, but the price increases each year. We’ll need to pay $139 in February to renew our subscription. We’ve been members for so long I’m not sure what perks we’re benefiting from. In the new year, I will spend some time researching how much we spent on Prime, what savings we reaped (especially from Whole Foods as Prime members), and what we would miss if we let the membership go.

Life360

Life360 costs $20 per month. I like this because it’s on all of our phones, so if someone needs help, we know exactly where they are. In addition, Life360 offers emergency roadside service. I’ll likely keep this service for now.

Other Places to Find Money

There are two other places to look to find money. One applies to us, and one doesn’t:

Refinancing Our Home

I don’t know if 2023 will be the year for this, but as soon as interest rates drop, we’re refinancing our home. We bought our new home in September, and our interest rate is 5.375 percent. However, I’m not sure if 2023 will be the year. We might have to wait until 2024 to do this.

Negotiating with Credit Card Companies

My husband and I don’t have credit card debt, but if we did, I would call up the credit card company and make two requests:

Can They Drop the Annual Fee?

When I did have credit card debt, they couldn’t drop my annual fee, but they did offer to give me enough points that I could redeem them to pay the annual fee. This essentially made the annual fee free. It’s worth asking if they can waive the fee or make you a similar offer.

Can They Reduce the Interest Rate?

Start the New Year by Finding Money

Interest rates are so high now that paying down the balance is difficult because so much money goes to interest. If you call the credit card company t*o ask to reduce the interest rate, remind them what a loyal customer you’ve been. They may say no, but if they say yes and drop your interest rate a few percentage points, you have more money to apply to the balance or to add to your budget.

Using Cash Back Sites

Another way to save money that a lot of people don’t consider is using cash back sites.  Cash back sites are older, web 2.0 technology, but they work reliably to save money.  How they work is you open an account with the site, and click through the site when you’re shopping online.  If you buy something, the retailer send a commission to the site, who splits it with you.  Its a reliable way to slash 1% to 3% off your budget.   Good sites to check out are: www.rebatefanatic.com and www.swagbucks.com.

Refinancing Our Home

I don’t know if 2023 will be the year for this, but as soon as interest rates drop, we’re refinancing our home. We bought our new home in September, and our interest rate is 5.375 percent. However, I’m not sure if 2023 will be the year. We might have to wait until 2024 to do this.

Final Thoughts

Inflation is hitting most Americans. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do about the high grocery prices besides altering your diet to eat cheaper foods. However, you can start the new year by finding money and eliminating services and subscriptions you no longer need or use. Doing so will give you extra cash to increase the grocery budget, pay down debt, or give yourself extra wiggle room.

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Filed Under: budget Tagged With: budget, frugal, grocery budget, saving money, tight budget

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