Budgeting Strategies

Financial Education at Home As a personal financial coach, I work one-on-one with my clients teaching them how to create a unique budget for their future goals. Currently, only 44% of Americans have $1,000 saved for an emergency. That is the highest percentage since 2014.  Recent...

Lessons From Having a Roommate I loved college.  I was a student at Western Michigan University from 2002-2007. Yes, I was there for five years, and I graduated with a bachelor's degree. During my freshmen year, I lived in the dorms. The next four years, I...

[2022] [Author-Colleen Salchow] All Rights Reserved Average Cost of Not Cooking At Home Why cook at home with so many restaurants? According to recent studies, Americans spend about $3,000 a year eating at restaurants. Even during the shutdowns that occurred across the country in 2020 Americans would...

Moving Budget As a college student I moved four times within my five years as an under grad.  I lived in the dorms my freshmen year, and off campus in two different town homes and one apartment. After college, I lived in two different apartments before...

Fraudulent $334.00 Charge In December of 2016, we were stationed in Okinawa, Japan. My husband and I had been saving receipts to check against our checking account for five years. It was one of the safety strategies for holiday shopping we learned through experience. The holiday...

$60,000 In Debt My husband, Richard, and I were married in 2011. Shortly after our wedding we realized that we had $9 in our checking account, $100 in our savings account, and we owed $60,000 in debt. We took a personal budgeting class at Marine Corps...

Holiday Shopping It’s the middle of September, and I have started Christmas shopping. We have set aside money this month in a sinking fund for holiday gifts. A sinking fund is an area on your budget when you can gradually add money to for a larger...