Share Your Inexpensive but Delicious Lunch Ideas

Monday, May 21, 2012 by Kathy Murdock

  It’s that time again. Every year, around the beginning of summer, our family hosts a huge Summerpalooza for our family. We invite up 7 additional members of our family for three days of swimming, eating and laughing. Feeding a large group of people can be a costly endeavor. However, since we’ve done this for the past three ye... Read More

Bad Food from the Grocery Store: Do You Return or Toss?

Friday, May 18, 2012 by Kathy Murdock

  This hasn’t been a great shopping week for me.  First, we got overcharged several times at different stores. Then my ‘sale’ items didn’t ring up correctly as I went through self-checkout, and you know what that means: the computer voice telling me to wait, I need help; the helper assisting someone who real... Read More

Budgeting for Back-Up Childcare

Wednesday, May 16, 2012 by Kathy Murdock

If you are already a parent, you may know this situation: It’s five o'clock in the morning, and you’re preparing to get up to get ready for work when your child complains of a headache. One touch to the forehead and you know she has a slight fever, but both you and your husband have used up your allotted sick days so lost time at work m... Read More

How Much Would You Pay for a Gym Membership?

Monday, May 14, 2012 by Kathy Murdock

I have a love – hate relationship with my gym membership. I love the gym itself. It’s clean. There isn’t a bunch of hair in the showers, people wipe down machines when they finish, and childcare offers actual classes like Zumba for Kids and Music and Motion for parents with kids throughout the day. It’s a drive, but once ... Read More

Are You a Coupon Super Saver Who Shops with Her Kids?

Friday, May 11, 2012 by Kathy Murdock

Last week and this week I saved a bit more on my grocery bill than I have been saving, and I changed only one element: I shopped alone. (In George Thoroughgood's voice, all by myself.) I believe it was key, because by shopping on my own I was able to spend a bit of extra time really considering what I needed to purchase and what I didn't need, an... Read More

Cutting Back on the Cost of Meat at the Grocery Store

Wednesday, May 09, 2012 by Kathy Murdock

  Meat constitutes one of the highest ticket items at the store. For our family of four, we eat around one pound of meat per seating. If I purchase a pound of hamburger meat, for instance, we’ll eat most of it in the form of burgers and have just one meal leftover if I make something else, like meatballs and spaghetti.  I always... Read More

How Do You Teach Your Child(ren) the Value of Money?

Monday, May 07, 2012 by Kathy Murdock

During a trip to Winn Dixie yesterday (in which I spent about half a week’s budget in groceries and then kicked myself all the way home, but that's another post altogether) my daughter found something she wanted in the aisles. It was a toy, and when she held it up to me I, at first, said no way. Then I asked the cost. “Three dollars,... Read More

Check Your Receipts, Friends!

Saturday, May 05, 2012 by Kathy Murdock

I’ve come to learn the hard way over the last few days that one of the best ways to lose money is to assume the products you’ve just purchased have been rung up correctly and you are paying what the sign stated they were worth. Wrong. In the last week alone, my husband and I have run into two instances when the register rang up or... Read More

Making Children Earn Their Keep

Friday, May 04, 2012 by Kathy Murdock

In my last post, I commented about chores and allowances, and I asked if you felt the two should be tied together or if they should remain separate. I have been reading through a book Earn It, Learn It: Teach Your Child the Value of Money, Work, and Time Well Spent by Alisa T. Weinstein, founder of Earn My Keep. Weinstein begins the book with her ... Read More

Chores and Allowance: Tie them Together or Split Them Apart?

Wednesday, May 02, 2012 by Kathy Murdock

  One decision most parents of children aged 5 or so and up will need to make will be that of giving an allowance and assigning chores. For some parents, the idea of paying a child to do a chore makes complete sense. You ask the child to make his bed each morning, much like you are required to get up and go to work each day, and at the end o... Read More