GUEST BLOGGER: LIZ VANCE

If you are a big Black Friday shopper, you KNOW it takes more than just showing up at a store to make the most of it. Preparation is a big part of finding the best deals. The same is true about your budget. Make a plan so you can end your day feeling like you've conquered Black Friday rather than it's conquered you!  Check out this step-by-step guide on how to prepare financially for Black Friday.

GUEST BLOGGER: MELANIE JEWKES

​Many of us are experiencing the hot-hot-hot heat of Summertime! I want to shout “hallelujah” from the rooftops for this season...until the awful heat falls upon me and I THEN want to melt away to winter again. During this time, I avoid turning on my oven at all costs and am always looking for no-cook meal options, like green salads and sandwiches. Thankfully there is a huge variety of each beyond PB&J and chef salad. 
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GUEST BLOGGER: LIZ VANCE

Budgeting is one of the first things we talk about in the world of finance. But for most people it is not a pleasant or easy task. Luckily, we live in the day and age of technology! Technology is a great way to make budgeting easier and more enjoyable (or for some people maybe just more bearable). I have definitely heard a lot about the budgeting website, Mint, but I’d never tried it. So for today’s post I am going to let you know my first impressions after using Mint for the first time.

GUEST BLOGGER: TASHA KILLIAN

Grease is my favorite movie. I love the 1950’s feeling, the music, and the way the songs just make you want to get up and dance. My favorite song is “Summer Nights.” There is one line in the song that says “summer lovin’ had me a blast.” Every time I’ve heard that song in the past few weeks, I’ve thought to myself, “you mean, summer spending, had me a blast.”
As a single person, I get told all the time, that I am so lucky because no one else tells me how to spend my money. In fact, I get told ALL the time to travel now because one day I won’t be able to. I don’t know if that’s the truth, but I do know that they are right about one thing, I am the one in charge of my finances.
I am especially aware of that fact as summertime begins. Summertime is the best. It is warm, sunny, and a wonderful time for traveling and having fun. I want to go on all the road trips! The only downside, summertime can get expensive. So, what do you do? How do you keep yourself in check when there isn’t anyone else to check on your spending? Here’s some quick things I’ve learned to do, along with a few tips from the experts to keep your spending on track, even when the sun is calling. 

​I often think that maybe, just maybe, the “manna” in Moses’ time was really potatoes. At least I hope it was something like a potato, because if I had to choose just one food to eat every day for 40 years the ingenuity of a potato is wonderful. There are so many ways to cook and prepare potatoes that I hardly grow tired of them. In addition to the thousand and one ways to eat potatoes, I also love them because they are healthy budget-stretchers. Wait! Did I just say a potato is healthy? I know, I know...those poor little tubers have a bad reputation, but most of the time we can blame that on the butter, salt and sour cream commonly associated with potatoes.