Jerevie Canlas, Ph.D, CFLE
Empowering Financial Wellness Program Coordinator

As a certified family life educator, I’ve been asked one too many times about how to best parent children. And here’s my answer – there is no one answer to that question. Parenting is like cooking a dish using a recipe. The recipe guides you through the steps of cooking a specific dish. If a recipe tells you to braise the meat, you don’t stir it – you leave it alone in the pot. Sure, you can choose to keep peeking and stir. That’s ok – but you might not get the dish the recipe described. The same is true with parenting styles. You can parent however you see fit, and each parenting style will have a variety of behavioral outcomes.

Andrea Schmutz, USU Extension Assistant Professor

Parenting, personal finance, and children. Do you tremble when you hear all three of those topics in the same conversation? It’s okay if your answer is “yes”, in fact you might be part of a large club who feels the same way. Think about it for a second and it makes sense: a) Parenting often receives the description of “hardest job in the world”; b) Personal finance regularly holds a top spot on “the most challenging topic to discuss with others” list; and c) Children make up a complicated audience requiring engaging, creative tactics to keep their attention.  What happens when you combine all three? You end up with the hardest job in the world trying to teach the most challenging topic to a complicated audience.

By Bryn Ramjoue’, Utah my529 Marketing Director

​You’re paying for braces, sports and dance lessons. With as much as it costs to raise a child today, putting money away for college may be the last thing on a parent’s mind. 
my529, Utah’s official 529 educational savings plan, may be able to help. 

Guys, it is WRESTLING SEASON at our house!! Wrestling was always big in my high school and with my family, and now with a son that loves it, the tradition continues. Like many sports or extracurriculars, wrestling has some cost associated with it: Registration / Team Fees, Uniform and Gear Costs, Tournament Registration, Travel, Concessions or food (This one is a HUGE cost!), Team Swag for the participant and the family support, Fundraisers (every parents favorite). These add up fast and so do the collection of team t-shirts too! (TIP: For a cheap and fun way to save your t-shirts here is a step by step guide for a t-shirt quilt.) As a parent, I can see the benefits of any kind of extracurriculars for my kids, physically, socially, and emotionally and make sure to plan for them each month within our budget. Researching how to save on this cost, I have come up with some tips to get you through the season: 

Guest Contributor: Andrea Schmutz, USU Extension Assistant Professor

Amid the current COVID craziness, there are a few things that remain certain: summer is winding down, our kids continue to grow up, and they’re probably going to need some new clothes for school. As the start of school rapidly approaches, are you asking yourself, “Do I really have to spend a lot of money on clothes when they are just going to outgrow them before they wear them out?” Guess what? You don’t! Here are five simple ways to clothe your kids without breaking the budget: