GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: EMMA PARKHURST, CHES, USU EXTENSION ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Do you know where all of your money is going each month? There have been times in my life where I think to myself that I should have more money remaining after paying my monthly fixed expenses (like mortgage and student loans). Whenever this occurred, I knew it was time to go over my expenses and review my budget. In other words, time to do a little digging and trim unnecessary costs! Have you ever had a similar thought? To celebrate National Weed Your Garden Day in a different way this year, here’s a fun challenge: think of unidentified costs as weeds, and your budget as the garden. Time to get weeding! Here are three tips to get started: 

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: MELANIE DABB, USU EXTENSION ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Receiving a windfall of cash (money that you were not planning on or expecting) can be really exciting! The temptation is probably to go on a spending spree. But, taking the time to explore other alternatives may just turn that windfall into an opportunity to build your wealth or get ahead. If you don’t need your unexpected cash influx to pay your bills, here are two important questions to ask yourself: 

GUEST BLOGGER: EMMA PARKHURST, CHES, USU EXTENSION ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

I consider myself to be a frugal consumer, although this hasn’t always been the case. When I was younger, I thought I was frugal...but the honest truth? I was obsessed with making cheap purchases. I would try to make the least expensive purchase no matter what the item was, which typically meant purchasing lower quality items. As a result, I would have to replace these cheaper products more often, which meant spending more money in the long-run. Yikes! I finally had enough of the cycle when I realized I would spend less over time by purchasing a more expensive and higher quality item that would last longer. Who else can relate? If this experience sounds familiar to you, here are some tips to get out of this cheap-purchase cycle that helped me make smarter purchases:

Now that we're a few weeks into the year, is your New Year's budget sticking? Here's an awesome tip that may help you keep that goal rolling through the whole year! Having a personal allowance helps you have the freedom to spend money on yourself but the control to not over do it. Have you established a personal allowed? If so, how has having a personal allowance helped you?