Posts

How I Replaced Lunches With Meal Replacement Shakes To Save Money

/4 Comments/in , /by
Looking to save some money on food? Andrew checked out the meal replacement shakes by Huel. Read his review to see what he thought. #savemoney #personalfinance #healthyeating

We’re all about trying new ways to save money (and time) on Wallet Squirrel. Here is one of my latest attempts to save both during my regular lunchtime meals. In short, this my story on how I replaced my lunches with a $2.36 Huel meal replacement shake for a week for a Huel Review.

First – What Is A Meal Replacement Shake?

These are shakes that contain all the nutrients you need in a meal. Everything we’re supposed to eat as humans to be healthy, but all contained in a shake. No more worrying if your meal is healthy or balanced, you have scientifically measured powder you mix with water and that is the meal of the future.

These really started to become more and more popular lately thanks to Gamers who didn’t want to waste time cooking. They wanted a fast and easy method to eat so they could get back to gaming with little effort. Plus if it was healthy, they would have more mental capacity and energy to continue gaming.

This movement resonated with a lot of people of today’s generation that also wanted an easy, ready-to-go meal replacement shake so they could continue their busy lives.

Are Meal Replacement Shakes Good?

Does it matter? If you’re drinking a nutritionally complete meal and for far cheaper ($2.36 per meal with Huel) than a regular meal. Does taste matter?

For most people, it’s still an issue. To these people, no it does not taste good! These meal replacement shakes are far from tasting good. At best you get bland and yes, that is best!

What Type Of Meal Replacement Shakes Are Available?

For this, I had to do some research. Normally I’m all about Hot Pockets, Pizza Rolls, and Ramen Noodles, so basically anything else on the planet is more nutritious for me than these. However, if I was going to go all in with a meal replacement shake, I wanted the best. During my research, I looked at 2 different meal replacement shakes that came highly recommended.

Huel & Soylent

Each of them had a loyal fan base and both fairly nutritional shakes, but I leaned towards Huel because it had a bit more protein per meal. Here is my one week Huel Review.

Huel Review: Here’s My Story Trying It For A Week

Pre-Huel Review – I spent about a week and a half researching Huel, reading reviews and listening to YouTube testimonials. I finally decided on Huel (located in the UK) and ordered off their website. I ordered 2 bags (28 meals) of their vanilla flavor. This is their recommended amount to buy your first time. Since it was my first time ordering, they gave me a free shaker and t-shirt. In total, it was $66.00.

I receive them in the mail about 2-3 days later, it was really fast delivery! I assume they have a distribution center in the US somewhere, otherwise, that was very quickly delivered from the UK.

I read on many of the reviews that people went to the extreme and replaced all of their meals with Huel for a week. That’s intense! In doing this, it took some time for their body to adjust to the alternate food source. They described some very embarassing gassy situations.

Sorry guys, I’m not doing that. I’m only replacing my lunches. I walk home for lunch every day with limited time to eat. I thought I’d substitute my lunches for this meal replacement shake to save both money and importantly time (also dishes).

Day 1 (it was rough) – It was the weekend so I tried I decided to try Huel early. I read the brochure that says 3 scoops is equal to 1 meal. So I throw 3 scoops into one of the shaker containers I already have and fill it with water. I didn’t think it mattered. The shakers I’m talking about have a metal wire ball that sits in the bottom and bounces around when shaken to additionally stir more of the protein mix in the water. I shake for about 2 minutes and take a drink.

AHHHHHHH, it was the weirdest taste of my life!

My face scrunched into a ball, shrinking as small as possible to hid from the strange taste of the Huel. I sat there motionless hoping it would all go away. In doing so, I tried to realize what was so off about it.

It didn’t have ANY flavor, it was the blandest thing I ever tasted! However it was the chunks of congealed powder that was the grossest thing ever. The powder clumped together in the water forming dry chunks of grit that caused my throat to revolt.

I just couldn’t deal with the chunks. It was the texture that got to me, texture wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I was determined to finish it though, it was only Day 1. I kept taking drink after drink while working on something else to take my mind off it. In the end, it took me 4 hours to finish my first shake because my sub conscience wanted to delay the inevitable as long as possible. I seriously considered quitting this entire Huel review.

Day 2 – (it got better) – The next day was a Monday, so I came home from work and knew I had to try again. This time I had to do something about the chunks, I couldn’t take them anymore (YUCK)! So I threw the 3 scoops of powder, added water and dumped ice into a blender. I read ice helped in some other reviews. Then I let that concoction blend for a full minute. I’m sure 15 seconds would have been fine, but I wanted revenge at this point.

I poured the blended goo into the shaker they gave me. This shaker didn’t have a metal mixing ball like my others, but it did have a plastic mesh to help capture the large chunks of the powder from being drank. I appreciated this….

It actually wasn’t bad at this point. There wasn’t much favor but a complete lack of chunks really won me over. At this point, I realized maybe I could make it.

Day 3-7 (easy peezy) – The following days were easy and time-saving. I came home, set up the blender, added ice/water/powder, and poured it into my Huel shaker to drink. I began to finish the drink under 30 minutes (while doing something else). It wasn’t too bad and I eventually got used to the odd taste.

It’s not the worst thing in the world.

Moving Forward

I will probably continue to use Huel as my backup lunch option, like Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, when I have nothing else in my fridge after this Huel review, but it’s such a good option that’s quick and cheap. My only hang up is I regularly have to wash the blender and single Huel shaker after every use. My goal was to have zero dishes for the ultimate meal replacement.

Would you try this to save money?

18 Lies Making You Broke

/12 Comments/in /by

Do you always feel like you have no money. Here are 18 lies that are making you broke. Are you falling for these? If so, let's fix it and save you lots of money! #personalfinance #savemoney #budgeting

Many of us have been there asking ourselves, “Why do I never have any extra money?” Sometimes this is just a notion we have but other times this is the truth. This truth usually comes from being lied to by our culture. We feel like we need to follow the norms and stick with the crowd.

Today’s article is intended to help you break away from the crowd and stop listening to the lies.

Now, I am not saying you listen to all of the lies below. Hopefully, it is just one or two. Either way, if this article can wake you up from one lie and save you tons of money, I will consider it a win.

Clever marketing has made these lies into cultural norms. We are here to see through those lies that make us broke and get back onto the path to financial freedom.

1. You need to make car payments

My wife and I paid off our car loan last summer and our finances have never looked better! This freed up $405 per month allowing us to be more aggressive with our student loans.

Yes, you need a car to get to work and to run errands on the other side of town. Instead, try to make the current car last longer. If it cannot, try to purchase cheap and with cash only.

When my wife and I first meet some of our good friends they had never paid over $2,000 for a car. They only paid cash and got along just fine.

Sure they were not driving the latest new fancy car but that does not matter. They were still able to get from point A to point B.

Be like my friends.

2. You need a bigger house

Simply put, no you do not. Sure, it would be nice to have a 4,000 square foot home that backs up to a trail system but do you really need that? Do you really need that mortgage payment?

Instead really analyze the size of home that your family needs and really be honest with yourself.

You probably do not need 7 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and 3 living rooms. Just saying.

My wife and I could have afforded a larger home when we purchased a couple years ago but that really would have stressed our budget. There was no need for that. We planned ahead and found a nice 1,400 square foot home that fit our growing family perfectly.

Because of this, our budget is solid and we have a surplus of money every month to tackle our debt.

3. You need a lot of stuff to be happy

What’s better than to fill up your 4,000 square foot home with A LOT of stuff? EVERYTHING!

I stress a lot that you do not need random stuff to make you happy. That happiness just fades away after a short period of time.

Instead, put your money in places that will give you longterm happiness such as retirement savings, investments, and experiences.

4. Everything will be better once you get a raise

Here is the scenario. You live paycheck to paycheck. Spending every dollar with each new paycheck. You keep thinking that only if you get a raise your budget will improve.

WRONG!

You have developed some really bad spending habits that will continue on with each raise.

Instead of worrying about a raise, you need to start changing your spending habits. It is only then you will truly start seeing the benefits of your up and coming raise.

5. Your kids will be emotionally harmed if they do not have all of the cool gadgets like their friends

I grew up as the “rich” kid in my town of 2,500 because my Dad was the doctor. Even though we were well off, my sister and I never had the latest gadgets growing up. There was no Nintendo 64 to be played or high-speed internet to hop on or even cell phones to text friends (got my first cell phone when I turned 18) at our house.

Even though I did not have all of those fun gadgets while my friends did, I turned out alright. We learned to enjoy the outdoors better and to spend our money on experiences instead.

6. Leftovers in the fridge suck

Those telling us that leftovers are gross and should just be tossed in the trash are lying.

Leftovers are an amazing way to save money.

Every week I try to make one cheap recipe that provides massive amounts of food. I put aside have of that meal for now and freeze the other half for another week. This allows us to save money on our grocery bill for that future week because we have one less meal to buy for.

7. You need to buy only expensive organic foods or else you will be unhealthy

This is untrue. As the organic market has become more competitive many cheap organic options have become available. This means you do not have to sacrifice your budget by going to Whole Foods anymore.

My wife and I enjoy Simple Truth Organic at our local King Soopers store. We know these products are top quality and cheap. Also, Sprouts tends to have some amazing organic items that do not bust your grocery budget.

8. You need to eat out once a week

For a while, I was under the impression that we needed to eat out to save time. This is not true.

There are plenty of recipes out there that take less than 30 minutes to cook.

Every week when creating our meal plan I try to pick 3-4 recipes that take less than 30 minutes to make. This also usually includes a frozen meal that I mentioned in #6.

Try it for yourself. You will then start to notice savings right away.

9. Monthly subscription services are cheap

These services such as Spotify or Netflix are marketed to users as only $10 a month. That seems really cheap and to be honest, it is. The issue is when you start subscribing to several of these services. Soon you are spending over $50 a month on different subscriptions. That is over $500 a year!

Be realistic with yourself and try to subscribe to only 2 or 3 at a time.

10. You are stuck with your current financial situation

You are never stuck with your current financial situation. It might seem like it but you can escape.

How do you do this?

  • Change your spending habits like I mentioned in #4.
  • Budget – we will talk more about this later.
  • Never stop learning so you can continue to move forward in your career.

It is not that hard but will take time, focus, and persistence. You can do it!

11. Your job sucks

We all have to start somewhere in our careers even though that first, second, or third job might not be the most glamorous. With a lot of hard work, we will eventually get where we want to be.

In the meantime, there is no reason to sabotage yourself with a poor attitude towards your current job. Stay positive, enjoy the opportunity you have been given, and have fun! This will only increase your chances of moving up.

12. There is no point to budgeting when you do not make much money

I believed this for the longest time when my wife and I were just getting started professionally. We did not have much money so I did not think we needed to worry about our money. Then I started to see our savings dip. This is because I had no idea what we were spending and did not have a plan for our money.

With no budget, there is no roadmap for your money.

Many people believe that a budget is constraining. This is another lie. A budget frees you financially because it allows you to responsibly spend money without sabotaging your future.

13. Do not worry about saving for retirement until later

This is horrible advice. You should start saving for your retirement as soon as you get your first job out of college. Even if you are only able to put $50 into it every month, that money will grow a lot over the 35 years!

You are literally throwing away thousands of dollars from your retirement if you do not start right now.

14. You cannot invest

Investing has never been easier.

If still believe that you need a lot of money and a CFA to invest, think again.

Today there are so many services that allow you to invest for free or even do the investing for you with very little money. This takes all of the stress out of the whole process.

If you just want to have someone take care of the investing for you, check out Betterment. I use this service and love it!

If you want to do the investing yourself and do not want to pay trading fees, check out Robinhood. Andrew uses this service and has saved a lot of money in trading fees.

15. You cannot afford to give to charity

I know, money is tight so how are you supposed to give to charity?

I have learned that even though my wife’s and my finances are not great, we still have it a lot better than most. This is why we make sure we donate every month to help those who need it more than us.

Why do we make a point to give? Well, giving really feels great. It does things to your attitude that nothing else can do. This positivity starts to bleed over into and improving other parts of your life making you wealthy in other ways that finances cannot.

16. You need fancy coffee to wake up every morning

This goes along the same lines as #3. You do not need that fancy coffee to wake you up in the morning. It will only be a temporary fix.

Instead, you should make a simple coffee at home before you leave for work. Or even better, work provides coffee for you. This will save you tons of money every year!

As I mentioned in 9 Bad Spending Habits That are Killing Your Budget, my wife asks for Starbucks gift cards for every birthday and Christmas. These cards allow her to treat herself every now and again.

17. Your primary home is a good investment

I do not think you should think of your main home as an investment. This place is your base camp for you and your family.

Because your home is essential to your everyday life, it should not be held to the financial standards as an investment. It should be a foundation to be there no matter what.

This is different if you own two or more homes though. Those additional purchases should be there to make you money in the long run.

18. If it is on sale you should buy it

I know someone who buys a lot of random stuff. His usual reasoning for buying it, “Because it was on sale!”

I am very fortunate this person is in my life because he made me realize I was doing the same thing. Remember, you do not have to buy something just because it is on sale. That is not how you should purchase things.

Instead, make a list of things you need, not want, and prioritize them. Then budget a savings plan for said needs. Once you have saved up you can go the extra mile by being patient and wait for the need to go on sale.

Since we need to treat ourselves every once in awhile, do the same thing for wants as well.

Are there other lies?

Did I miss any other financial lies out there? Please share with us by commenting below. I would love to get a conversation started!

If you are looking to increase your monthly income to help you escape your financial situation you should check out our Ways to Earn More Money page. Here Andrew and I personally review as many different ways to earn extra money as we can to help you decide if it is right for you.

The Ultimate Reason Why You Should Buy Used Instead of New

/6 Comments/in , /by

Always buying new? Instead you should buy used items! Here is why. #frugalliving #savemoney #frugal #personalfinance

It is always tempting to buy the newest and latest. It makes total sense, we are constantly bombarded with fancy marketing that is scientifically engineered to entice us to go out and purchase the newest cars, electronics, clothes, bikes, furniture, and so on.

Frankly, the only thing in my house I would not buy second-hand is a mattress. Well, I guess there are other obvious things such as a toothbrush, bike shorts, and a toilet seat.

So Why Buy Used Instead of New?

The answer is pretty obvious here, to save money!

Here is an example of the money you can save by buying used.

A few years ago, my wife and I moved to Colorado with only one car. We needed another one as our jobs were too far apart to carpool. When making a big purchase like this I wanted to buy a brand that lasts a long time. This left us with either Toyota or Honda (personal preferences). As you might know, both brands are not cheap.

To be able to make the purchase happen, we bought a Toyota that just came off of two-year lease with only 40,000 miles on it. This saved us $10,000 compared to if we bought brand new!

I have been able to save big chunks of cash like this because I purchased second-hand time and time again. I bought my camera used, saved me $800. My computer monitor was a display model, saved me $100. Our washer and dryer were used, saved us $1,000.

Instead of buying new, we should be breaking the habits of buying new and buy used instead. If the previous owner took care of them, a lot of the items listed above can easily last many more years resulting in major savings for your checking account.

Where to Buy Used?

There are plenty of resources to help you buy second-hand. These range from actual physical stores to online stores to mobile applications.

Physical Stores

  • Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, and so on: Yes, all of these are places you would typically buy first-hand but you can find items that were returned by people who just did not want the item. The items are perfectly good and are usually marked down 10%.
  • Goodwill: A great place to find used clothes, furniture, and other small household items.
  • ReStore: I love Habitat for Humanity ReStore. You can find used cabinets, tools, furniture, flooring, and so on. Not all of the items are second-hand but you get the second-hand pricing! In these cases, the items were donated brand new.

Online

  • Craigslist: If you do not know what Craigslist is, you have been living under a rock. But just in case that is you, Craigslist allows you to buy used items directly from other people in your city. They post, you contact, then go meet at a neutral meeting area and make the purchase. You can even sell the stuff you do not want anymore on the site.
  • eBay: Buy basically anything you wish from anyone around the world. Just like Craigslist, you can also sell unwanted items on the site.
  • Nextdoor: Very similar to Craigslist but a little more personable.

Mobile Apps

  • Letgo: Letgo also has an online web application as well but mainly markets its mobile application. The application is basically Craigslist but updated and more modern. Personally, I have never used this service but I have heard it is a nice service.

Conclusion

As we have learned, we should buy used instead of new (unless you are buying underwear) to help purchase needed items. This will help us buy those items while not breaking the bank.

If you are looking to increase your monthly income to help purchase necessities you should check out our Ways to Earn More Money page. Here Andrew and I personally review as many different ways to earn extra money as we can to help you decide if it is right for you.

I Just Got A Library Card and Quit Buying Amazon Audiobooks

/2 Comments/in /by

If you’re anything like me, you forgot entirely that libraries exist in our world of Amazon and Apple Books. These companies have made it so easy for us to instantly buy books & audiobooks that traveling to our local library doesn’t even cross our mind as an option.

I’m totally one of those people that bought books/audiobooks from Amazon and other stores. Honestly, it was fantastic and I would continue to do it if I had an infinite supply of money. However, like you, I don’t. Thinking about it, here are all the reasons I bought books/audiobooks in the past.

Reasons Why People Buy Books/Audiobooks

  • Owning a book is special – When you read a book that has a significant impact on you, it’s comforting knowing it’s always on hand to revisit again.
  • Never have to return a book you own – No late fees, ever.
  • You can lend it to others – Ever have a book that you want to share with others? Sharing books is a great feeling, letting others experience what you did.
  • Availability – Especially digital copies of books are always available for sale, you never have to wait till someone returns a book. The instant access to a book is very convenient.
  • Convenience – There are bookstores everywhere and online, they outnumber libraries. Although apps like “Overdrive” make it easier to borrow books from the library online, we’ll talk about that later.
  • Libraries are sometimes gross – I live downtown Denver, many of the city’s homeless utilize the library as shelter during the day. I think many libraries do around the country. People unfortunately often feel uncomfortable around these disadvantaged individuals and refuse to go to libraries for this reason.

Reasons Why People Borrow Books at the Library

  • It’s FREE to borrow books – This is a big freaking reason! People, like me, who want to save money should consider this reason as to why to give libraries a second look.

How Easy It Was To Get A Library Card Now-A-Days

I haven’t had a library card in years, I wasn’t even sure how hard it would be. Yet when I walked into our downtown library there was a large “Get A Library Card” sign, so I followed it.

I literally handed them my driver’s license, they copied the info and gave me a library card. The whole process took less than 5 minutes and I was told I could borrow up to 100 books at a time. 100 books seemed a bit much, I just needed one.

You Can Borrow Library Books/Audiobooks Online Now (It’s Called Overdrive)

The main reason I got a library card, and the reason you should too is the app “Overdrive”. Overdrive is an app on both the Apple App Store and Google Playstore that lets you connect you with your library’s online book collection. It allows you to borrow books & audiobooks online so you never have to visit a library. You’re just utilizing their online collection of books.

So Overdrive becomes a free Amazon where you can download books and audiobooks for free!

The only drawback is each library has a limited selection of books (still fairly big) and limited copies of those book licenses available. So your local library may have “Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone” but they may have only 5 copies. If those 5 copies are already “borrowed” you can be added to a waitlist and notified by email when it’s ready. Otherwise, if it’s available, you can download and listen immediately.

Cost Savings Over A Year

This is a significant re-discovery for me because I’ve been going through audiobooks like crazy lately at work. I put my headphones on and listen to some awesome books while working.

Recently I’ve been going through 2-3 books a month via audiobooks while working. Considering most Audiobooks on Amazon are around $25 (usually cost more than reading), those costs add up. If I were to listen to 3 books a month for a year, that would be $75 per month or $900 for the year. That’s crazy!

So now I use my library card and “overdrive” to listen for free. Sometimes they don’t have the books I’m craving at the moment, but I’m happy to find new ones in their collection. It makes me a bit more creative with my audiobook selections but I’m happy to be flexible in order to save money. Wouldn’t you? =)

Question: How Do You Get Your Books?

How the $88,000 debt payoff journey helped me to transform

/1 Comment/in /by

How the $88,000 debt payoff journey helped me to transform

Today’s post is contributed by Amy Nickson, a passionate writer on finance. Amy is a professional blogger who has started her own blog and also works as a contributor for the Oak View Law Group. Please share your opinions by commenting below.

The debt payoff journey was the turning point of my life. Once I was a reckless spender; the debt payoff journey helped me to become a financially responsible person.

Read my story to know my debt journey

The year 2011 wash ruthless; my mom was diagnosed with liver cancer, which took her life after 6 months of struggling. In addition to this, I started getting creditors’ calls that made me realize about my high credit card debt, which was a double shock for me.

Being a single mom, my mother earned our bread, showered love and compassion on me and treated me as a most delicate possession.

She never wanted me to see hurt or sad. She had given me a credit card and told me to use for convenience. I started living a lavish life (planning trips, visiting Starbucks, partying, shopping, and hanging around with friends) with my boyfriend.

My boyfriend wanted me to buy a good car. I soon took out an auto loan to buy a costly car without giving it a second thought.

After college, I started working and earning. But, most of the money went out on leading extravagant lifestyle. As a result, I fell into costly credit card debts.

How I paid $51000 credit card debts that I mostly incurred during my college days

I had no clue where to start; what to do with $88,000 debts including $51,000 credit card debt and $37000 student loan debt, and a car loan.

I was not in a normal state of mind; my mom wasn’t there to support me, not even my boyfriend who influenced me to live a lavish life.

The settlement story

A few weeks later, I called John, my friend and a financial advisor.

After knowing all the issues, he advised me to settle the debts, especially the highest interest rate debt. A few months later, I got rid of the higher interest credit card debt ($16000).

The cost of the debt settlement was too high for me. I decided to pay the rest of the credit card debts on my own.

How debt snowball method worked as a savior

I contacted John for the second time to know how to pay off the debts on my own. He explained me the debt snowball method and suggested me to consider a side hustle to save quite a bit so that I can make some extra debt payments.

As per the guidance, I started paying some extra to the smallest amount of debt while paying the minimum to the rest of the debts. Since I had to manage the living cost on my own, I thought this could be the easiest way for me to get out of debt. Following the same method (debt snowball), I paid off the $35000 credit card debts within 3.5 years.

How I started freelance blogging

I had interest in writing projects. So, I tried to search online to find out blogging related freelance jobs. Soon, I started getting small to big projects. Freelance jobs are well paying. For instance, Wallet Squirrel makes $35 per article on Seeking Alpha.

Honestly, the side income helped me quite a bit to make extra payments on my credit card debts.

After paying off the debts on my own and earning extra, I felt a sense of accomplishment and started working on the other debts enthusiastically.

How I paid $37000 student loan debt

The student loan debt payoff journey was relatively smooth, because the credit card debt journey had taught me to live a frugal lifestyle. I started following the extreme money-saving strategies to pay off my student loan. I paid a little extra than the minimum payments. I followed the same until I paid off the entire loan. After 3 years, I was also free from my student loan.

Financial lessons I learned from my debt-ridden past

To be very honest, the intense financial situation helped me to become financially disciplined. I have learned to live life staying within my means. Since I grew up in a lavish way, I never realized the importance of living a disciplined financial life.

However, thankfully, the bad time helped me to learn how to set aside money and advantages of living a debt free life.

Here are some useful tips that will help you to avoid debts and get rid of them fast:

1. Budgeting is the key to avoid

I realized that without following a budget, it is impossible to keep finance in order. I had no idea how to manage monthly bills along with those credit card payments.

John told me to follow a budget where I include debt payments as the main expenses including other necessary expenses like grocery, utility, transport, etc.

By doing so, I noticed an improvement in my money managing skills. Dealing with bills became easier. And trust me, you never experience financial difficulties if you honestly follow a budget.

2. Cut down junk expenses to set aside money

I truly felt restless and unprotected when the situation needed to save every dollar. But, you have to set aside money if you want to get rid of debts.

To do so, you need to cut down unnecessary expenses like eating out, partying, clubbing, subscribing to unwanted things, etc.

I did the same and was able to save some extra dollar so that I could make extra debt payments.

3. Live within your means

Living a lavish life leads to debts. If you spend more than you earn, you will soon fall into debts.

After college, I started earning but I went overindulged and used to spend more than I earned. Most of the time, I used credit cards randomly, which was enough to accumulate huge credit card debts. Extravagant lifestyle only welcomes debt; so, you need to live within your means.

How can you do so?

  • Eat homemade food as much as possible. Try a PBJ.
  • Carry a water bottle and lunch from home.
  • Skip expensive morning latte from Starbucks. You can make your own coffee that tastes same as Starbucks at home.
  • Plan short trips instead of long and expensive gateways.
  • Practice home exercise and yoga instead of paying a big amount for a gym.
  • Shop grocery when you need and also reduce wasting food.

4. Make your credit card bill payments on time

You should deal with your credit cards responsibly. You shouldn’t buy an item, using a credit card, that you can’t afford; because making credit card bill payment within the stipulated time is very important.

If you avoid paying credit card bills on time, you will shorty fall into costly credit card debts.

5. Save money as much as possible

I took out an auto loan and bought an expensive car, which was a fatal mistake. To pay off the auto loan, I sold the car. Later, I bought a small car with cash. It took quite a bit of time to save money for the car, but buying a car with cash is actually a win-win deal.

6. Consider a side hustle

You should boost your income to get rid of debts fast. Earning some extra, like these extra ways to make money, will allow you to make extra debt payments. You can also be able to save a certain amount, which is a good way to avoid falling into further debts. I started part-time blogging to earn some extra. I had a full-time job, but the income was not upto the mark; the extra income helped me to pay off the credit card debt fast.

7. Get rid of junks to get out of debts

You should remove all the junks. Try to remove junk expenses and junk goods. By doing so, you can easily save money that you can use for debt payments.

8. Choose the right debt payoff strategy

I have mentioned earlier that I couldn’t continue with the debt settlement program due to its high cost. I didn’t have a well-paid job; so, I gave up. But enrolling in a debt settlement program helped me to pay off the highest interest debt fast.

Though a settlement program is a good debt repayment option, it is a costly one. It will also impact your credit score since you are not paying the total debt.

On the other hand, DIY debt repayment options are also effective. You can choose either debt snowball or debt avalanche to get rid of the debt on your own. You don’t need to pay money to a third party debt relief company.

Lastly, I should agree that living a debt free life is amazing. At least you can sleep peacefully without worrying about creditors’ calls. The debt payoff journey made me more mature and complete. Thank you for reading my debt payoff journey patiently.

What Is Estate Tax – How does it work & does it affect you?

/4 Comments/in /by

What Is Estate Tax – How does it work & does it affect you?

The estate tax is a big issue lately because of the current US administration’s plan to remove it in their current their tax overhaul. While I won’t go into the politics, I do want to touch on “What is estate tax” because most of us don’t know what it is or don’t have enough money for it to be a concern.

In fact, only 0.2 percent of Americans will owe any federal estate taxes in 2017, but it’s consumed 70% of the media lately. So let’s dive into what is estate tax.

What is Estate Tax

Estate Tax is a federal tax you pay when you die. So when someone dies and leaves their children their estate, it’s taxed before your children get your wealth. When I say “estate” we’re not talking about your mansion (although it could be), I’m talking about all your assets combined including cash, real estate, houses, stocks, etc. Everything you owned makes up your “estate”. I explain “estate” in the article what happens to debt when you die.

The Estate Tax is a tax on your “Estate”, but it only taxes your estate after a certain amount.

The federal estate tax exempts the first $5.49 million of your estate but taxes anything over that $5.49 million at a 40% rate, that’s what you pay in estate taxes. However if you’re married, you’re allowed to exempt the first $10.98 million and taxed anything over that.

What is the Estate Tax Formula

It helped me a lot understand the Estate Tax once I visually saw how it worked.

(Your Estate – $5.49 million) * 0.4 tax rate = How much you pay in Estate Taxes

So if you died with $10 million in assets to leave to your children ($10 million is my goal). You would subtract 10 million from the $5.49 million federal exemption which is 4.51 million. That 4.51 million would be taxed at a 40% rate, so in the end , ou would pay $1.804 million in taxes to the federal government.

So the rich are taxed 40% when they die? Well no

When we talk about the federal estate tax, we’re talking about taxing those assets over $5.49 million at the 40% rate. Not your entire estate.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a table on the average amount of wealth people paid in estate taxes in 2017.

So the average person who paid estate taxes in 2017 paid the federal government 17% of their entire wealth because of the estate tax. This is lower than 40% because of two reasons.

  1. You have such a large exception, the first 5.49 million is tax free. So in my example of a $10 million dollar estate, the entire estate is only taxed 18% in total. Because the 1.804 million I pay is 18% of the overall 10 million portfolio.
  2. There are several ways shield your money from estate taxes including donating to charity, gifting money (you can gift an individual up to $14,000 per year), set up a trust and other loop holes that help lower your estate tax bill.

How much money does the estate tax make?

In 2014, according to the Tax Foundation, the estate tax raised $19.3 billion or 0.6 percent of the total federal revenue ($3 trillion). In the past, it used make up 1% of the federal revenue. Because in 1990 the federal estate tax exception was a lot lower and more people had to pay the estate tax.

Does the estate tax affect you?

Likely not unless you’re bundled up with a large amount of wealth, or more than $5.49 million.

Keep in mind this is your total wealth as your “estate”, so farmers who don’t necessarily make a lot, but own large amounts of land. That land could be valued at a high rate, bringing your “estate” higher than that $5.49 and causing you to pay the estate tax before passing it down to your heirs.

However most people, 99.8% of Americans, don’t have to worry about paying the estate tax.

9 Bad Spending Habits That are Killing Your Budget

/8 Comments/in , /by

Alright, it is time to get our budgets back on track and get rid of bad spending habits.

Getting rid of these horrible spending habits could possibly save you thousands of dollars a year. It has for my wife and I.

We all have been guilty of bad spending habits at one point or another in our life. In fact, a lot of us might still be guilty of these bad spending habits, I know I am.

Let’s take a look at these 9 bad spending habits that are killing your budget and save you some money!

1. Not Paying Attention

We all need to pay attention to our bad spending habits. This is something that really turned around my wife’s and my finances. We now track our spending on an almost daily basis by using the Mint application.

Tracking your spending allows you to see how quickly frivolous spending can really add up. Until then you really do not realize how those horrible spending habits are really killing your budget. My eyes were blown wide open after the first week of tracking.

Here is what we did. We downloaded the Mint application and set up our budget within the application. Checking the application almost daily I am able to monitor our transactions and see how we are doing in each budget category. I am also always trying to see new ways as to where we can save money.

I love Mint. It is clean. Simple to use. But very powerful. If you do not know Mint you should check out our Mint App Review. Here Andrew walks you through as to what the application is and what it can do for you.

via GIPHY

2. Making Excuses

It is so easy to make excuses to enable bad spending habits. It is so easy to skew the purchase from a ‘Want’ to a ‘Need’.

But do you really ‘Need’ it? My guess is probably no!

Instead of focusing on materialistic items, focus on your final goal. Remember that you want to pay off your car by next year. Or that you want your student loan payments to disappear three years from now.

It might be tough in the beginning to let that item go but guess what. Something better will be out once you pay off your debt. Treat yourself then!

3. Eating Out

I talked about this a few weeks ago but eating out is the toughest on this list for me. I love food and I live in a foodie city, Denver. Surrounded by so much good food and having a 1-year old that wears you out on a nightly basis makes it very tempting to eat out a lot!

One solution would be the PBJ Theory that Andrew came up with a few weeks back. If you have not read it, I suggest you do. It is very cleverly written.

While I think think the PBJ Theory is a good emergency fall back, I do not think you should always rely on it (Andrew agrees with this). Instead, plan that you will be too tired to cook an intense meal (an hour or more cooking time) a few times a week.

There are plenty of healthy recipes out there that can be put together within 20 minutes. Just the other night I made us these very yummy black bean quesadillas for dinner. The meal took about 15 minutes to cook and we were very satisfied for under $8.00.

The best part of this meal is that all of the ingredients could be frozen if you do not get to the meal right away.

Comic Courtesy of: http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add.php?iid=162132

4. Not Eating What You Have

We have all been here. We find some awesome food that we plan on eating in the coming days. Then those days pass, then weeks pass, and then a couple months. One night you are hungry for a snack and remember that awesome food you found a while back. So you run to the fridge to only find it growing a tree out of it (mold).

Do not be this guy. This is literally just throwing money into the garbage.

My wife and I keep a pretty tight weekly menu throughout the week. I make our meals to feed four people so we will have leftovers for lunch the next day. Then that is it. Those leftovers are done. If there are more, like from a crock-pot meal, I will freeze for a meal later on down the road.

We also do not buy that many perishable snacks for home. Most of the snacks we have are healthy non-perishables. We do not buy any more until those initial snacks are gone.

For more information on how we save money on groceries check out my 7 Ways on How to Save Money Groceries article.

via GIPHY

5. Worrying About What Others Have

As humans, we tend to compare ourselves to others. This comparison could include lifestyle, looks, or what the other has that you do not. Do not fall into this trap as it can lead into a dark spiral that creates bad spending habits.

You might feel the urge to go buy that sweet new phone because your buddy has it. Or you might want to upgrade your car because it looks like a junker and not like the sweet new SUV your neighbor just got.

Sure, it would be awesome to have that new shiny toy but is it really worth it? Not long after the joy it brings will wear off resulting in your wanting a new shiny toy to bring that joy back. See how this turns into a nasty spiraling circle of bad spending habits?

Instead, I propose you do not buy that new shiny toy. It is a temporary band-aid. A distraction to what you really want. Financial freedom.

You should work on paying off that debt you have. My wife and I were very aggressive over the summer to get our car paid off (see how we paid off $7,000 in 3 months). Even though it has been a couple months, I am still finding joy because I now know I never will have that payment again. That liberation never goes away.

6. Monthly Subscriptions

Man, it can be so easy to spend money on these monthly subscriptions that we have available to us now. They are set up by the companies so brilliantly as well. We purchase them, set up the monthly charge, and forget about them.

We spend $198.19 a month on subscriptions.

  • Spotify – $9.99
  • Netflix – $9.99
  • Amazon Prime – $8.25
  • Dollar Shave Club – $3
  • Cell Phone – $116.20
  • Internet – $50.76

Surprisingly, we were able to cut these back by a significant amount. Our cell phone bill was just under $170 a month. The internet bill was just over $100 a month before we cut out the cable and switched to an antenna for the local channels.

Also, since I can barely grow any facial hair, the Dollar Shave Club subscription was cut back to only come every other month.

Keep an eye on these subscriptions as they can easily be forgotten about and turn into bad spending habits. Overall, we have saved about $1,300 a year with our most recent changes.

7. That Fancy Coffee

I do not drink coffee so this one really is not applicable to me. But I do know enough people who spend WAY too much money by stopping by their favorite coffee shop to grab a $10 latte on the way into work every morning.

Even if a person grabs their latte three times a week, that is costing them over $1,500 a year. Just in coffee!

Now my wife loves her coffee and loves that $10 latte but she has made a rule that she cannot get one unless she has a gift certificate. She will ask for a gift certificate to Starbucks for Christmas and her birthday to crave her want. In between those times, she will just brew her own at home every morning.

via GIPHY

8. Shopping Convenience

My wife and I have a rule that if we did not buy it on our weekly grocery trip, then we do not get it until next week. There is one exception to this rule, if the item is an essential ingredient to a recipe then we can go grab that ingredient.

When we do need to run to the store during the week we make sure that we do not shop at a convenience store. We will take the extra few minutes that it takes to drive to a grocery store to grab the item.

Convenience stores up-charge their merchandise because of the convenience it is to shop at them. Shopping here instead of going the extra two minutes out of your way is pure laziness and just throwing money away.

Just stay away from these stores. There is no real reason to shop at them.

9. Buying Unnecessary Items

Don’t get me wrong. I am guilty of this all the time and just recently started to learn how to control the urge to spend because I want that new shiny toy like everyone else has.

We recently just paid off our RAV4 14 months early. Our other car, an Accord, is really beaten up, I mean really beat up. I’m now the guy that no one wants to park next too. Because of this, I had the urge to trade in the Accord for a new 4Runner, which I love.

When those thoughts started running through my head I needed to stop everything and refocus that my wife’s and my next goal is student loans. We could not do that by adding on a $600 monthly car payment.

Plus, even though it looks horrible, the Accord is mechanically sound. There is no reason to get a new car right now.

The next time you want to get that new shiny toy, I suggest you stop everything you are doing and refocus on what your real goals are. Those are what will bring you true happiness in the long run.

via GIPHY

Now Go Break Those Bad Spending Habits

Just like me, I am sure you are a work in progress. It takes a lot of time and effort to break bad habits. I do not expect you to go out and change all of your bad spending habits within 24 hours.

That would just be crazy.

Pick one bad habit and start changing that one first. Then add on another one to change. Keep this positive cycle going until you feel like you have everything under control.

Changing your bad spending habits will get you on the right path to financial freedom.

How to Pay Off Your Car Loan Faster – How I paid off $7K in 3 Months

/4 Comments/in , /by

Still have a car loan? Let's get that paid off faster! Here is how my wife and I paid off the last $7,000 of our car loan in 3 months. #savemoney #personalfinance #moneytips

Today it is your turn to learn how to pay off your car loan faster.  Over the last three months (May to August), my wife and I have worked really hard to pay off our car loan.

I can now say, as of the end of August we finally did it! What an amazing feeling it is to free up $405 a month to tackle other debt we have. Ugh….student loans…

We took a multi-faceted approach to tackling this debt so we could start focusing on our combined $90,000 student loan debt.

Where to Start

To start off with how to pay off your car loan faster, you need to create a roadmap. Do not just jump into the process without a plan on how you will tackle debt so aggressively.

This roadmap should look to answer three questions. When? How? What? You should look at when do you want to pay it off by. Then look at how and what you can do that will help pay that car loan off faster.

You will want to make sure that you choose items that are feasible for you to achieve. I want you to be successful in paying off your car loan faster!

It is a good thing I have a list of easy ideas for you to use. Let’s get started!

Refine that Budget

One of the first things we did was take a serious look at our budget to find where we could cut down costs. We decided to cut our weekly grocery bill by 25%. We also cut our entertainment budget along with our utilities.

Take a look at your budget to determine what categories can be trimmed down in costs. Some easy categories to start looking at first are entertainment, eating out, groceries, or utilities. I use Mint to help organize our budget and see where we are actually spending.

One sneaky way we adjusted our budget was during the summer. We were able to temporarily remove our son’s daycare expenses. As a teacher, my wife has the summer off so we were able to pull him out of daycare for 10 weeks. This ended up saving us $3,000!

mint can be a great tool to help refine your budget so you can pay off your car loan faster

Cutting Excess Spending

Cutting excess spending goes along the same lines with refining our budget. I look at refining your budget as a high overview and cutting excess spending as working on the nitty-gritty details.

So how did we cut out our excess spending? Easy. Start by looking at each expense you have and ask yourself, “Is this a need or a want?” If it is a need, then keep it. If it is a want, then it needs to be cut out. Do you really need to pick up a pop every day on your way to work (Personal example)? Probably not.

We made the cut with our cable bill. We didn’t need it anymore so I canceled it, just leaving us with our internet. This saved us 50% a month on our cable/internet bill.

Couponing on Necessary Spending

Of course, there are plenty of items that are necessary. These include groceries, cell phone, gas, and so on.

In today’s digital world it is so easy to find coupons to help us save money. I recommend grabbing the Honey extension for your internet browser to help you with necessary online shopping (see review here). Then for in-store shopping, I would download the Ibotta app on your cell phone (see review here).

These apps help my wife and I save money each and every week which in turn can be used to pay off our car loan faster.

use the Ibotta app to pay of your car loan faster

Selling Unnecessary Items

If you read my How to Get Rid of Distractions article, you know I was trying to sell items around the house that I did not need in my life anymore. Well, I did sell most of the items on my list. This money helped us shave off nearly $1,000 from the car loan. Pretty awesome right!?!?

Your assignment is to look at the items you barely use around your house. Ask yourself, “Do I really need this? Does it help me towards my goals or does it distract me from them?” If you do not need the item or it is a distraction, it is time to sell it. You can either sell the item on Craig’s list or eBay to help you earn some extra cash to pay off your car loan faster.

Side Hustling

I could write a whole book about side hustling, in fact, some people have. So this will be a 30,000-foot level overview about earning extra money so you can pay off your car loan faster.

Side hustling consists of extra gigs you do to earn extra money on top of your full-time job. These gigs could be selling photography, driving for Uber, delivering for Amazon, freelance writing, and so on.

I have used any income that has come from Wallet Squirrel or my photography sales to help my wife and I widdle down our car loan.

For more ideas, check out our list of side hustles that Andrew and I have actually tried out.

Remove Temptation

Advertisements are everywhere to tempt us with the latest coolest gadgets for purchase. Giving in to these temptations is a weakness of mine because I am such a materialistic person. So I had to find a way to minimize these temptations so I did not want to go out and buy things I did not need.

For me, the biggest culprit was all of those emails from retailers that I love such as REI. To help reduce these, I started using Unroll.Me to unsubscribe me from all of those pesky emails.

Whatever might be tempting you, try to find a way to remove that trigger to spend excessively.

Staying Focused

The last item on this list is the centerpiece that brings all of this together. You need to stay focused on your final goal.

I like to have my overarching goal written down with every subgoal that is going to get me to the final goal underneath it. Then I look at these goals on a weekly basis deciding on which subgoal I am going to accomplish. It feels so good to check those subgoals off knowing that I am one notch closer to completing that overarching goal.

Now Go Save!

Now it is your turn to go out and save to pay off your car loan faster.

How do you plan on tackling this debt?

DIY Backyard Games – Know How You Can Save Money on Fun!

/3 Comments/in , /by

DIY Backyard Games – Know How You Can Save Money on Fun!

Recently, I had the experience to try to purchase some backyard games for an upcoming party in celebration of our new backyard.

You are probably asking yourself, “Why a party for your backyard?”

Well, a few months ago my wife and I (with the help of friends) redid our back yard. The remodel consisted of us completely clearing out the backyard to a blank slate then putting in a sprinkler system, garden, planter beds, and seeding. Yay!

Read about our home remodel savings here.

Now that the seed has sprouted to create a fairly lush lawn, we wanted to host a party in celebration. Kinda, like a house warming party. I know, I am weird.

Anyways, we decided that we needed some backyard games for the party. My wife wanted bags (or cornhole, I hate that name). I wanted Spikeball.

Why is everything so expensive!?!?

When looking to purchase, I couldn’t believe how expensive these game sets are. For bags, the finished product was $200 or more! Spikeball was $60 itself.

I even looked at other backyard games to see if something was cheaper. Nope. All were super expensive!

I thought to myself, there has to be a better way!

Buying off Brand

So, my journey started off by looking for a cheaper version of Spikeball. I knew I could not make this game on more own based on the custom net and the balls that you needed to play the game.

My thought was to maybe look for a knockoff brand. Usually, I am very skeptical and picky buying an off brand because I have been burned way too many times. Most of the time you save $10 bucks but the item only lasts a fraction of the time.

I decided to see what I could find. As always, I started off on Amazon. I like to start there because most items have so many helpful reviews. You can easily check if the item is going to last or not by the user reviews.

 

Luckily for me, it did not take long to find Slammo.

Its reviews were awesome. But just to be sure. I went to Google and looked up Slammo reviews. Sure enough, all came back with positive ratings! So I ordered Slammo instead.

What was the damage? Well, remember that Spikeball was $60 for the net, frame, 3 balls, and carrying case. Slammo is $40 for the net, frame, carrying case, 2 regulation balls, and a training ball. Plus, I saved an extra $3 using the Honey app on Amazon.

So far we have been very happy with the purchase. It just shows you that a little research and trust in a different brand can really save you some money.

DIY – Making your own

The next item to tackle was finding a bags set on the cheap. Like before, I checked out Amazon first. I was able to find cheaper sets but they looked like they were made for Oompa Loompas. The materials and the sizing were all off!

So, I thought to myself that I could make my own DIY backyard game bags set. I started by looking at the ACA website (yes, there is a professional cornhole association) for the regulation specs on how the boards should be made. From here, I put together a shopping list which was actually fairly short.

  1. 4 – 8 foot long 2×4’s
  2. 2 – pre-cut 2′ x 4′ plywood or any other piece of sheet wood (I used birch)
  3. 4 – 3 1/2 inch carriage bolts
  4. 4 – carriage bolt wing nuts
  5. Wood Screws
  6. Other items include paint or vinyl stickers

Next, I went to the nearest hardware store to buy all of the supplies for our new backyard game. Once home, I started measuring, sawing, cutting, and putting together the two boards (for the full instructions check here).

Oh! I forgot to mention that I did not make the bean bags myself. That would be a horrible idea! Instead, I went on Etsy and found these amazingly made Broncos bags for $30.

When everything was complete we took them out into the backyard and started playing. It was actually really easy to make the boards, only taking two hours.

All that is left to-do is to paint the set. My wife and I are trying to decide what general design we are going to use. We do know it will be Broncos colors with a vinyl logo.

Check out this Pinterest Board. Let me know what you think is your favorite is in the comments below!

Other DIY backyard games you could build

There are so many different DIY backyard games you could build for yourself. Below you will find a list of what comes to my mind.

Do you have any other backyard game ideas?

Conclusion

All in all, I feel very proud of the money we saved. It is also scary though. Why? Well, because I want to keep building more games! I think next on the to-build list will either be ladders or giant Jenga.

Between buying an off-brand and building my own DIY backyard game, I will save about $120 after I get the bag boards painted. I still cannot believe how expensive they are to purchase.

What would you build first?

Cheers!
-Adam

How to Travel Cheap – 5 Tips From This Pro

/0 Comments/in /by

Have travel plans? Here are 5 tips you can save money on your next vacation. I have used these tips on my travels. #traveltips #traveling #savemoney

How to Travel Cheap – 5 Tips From This Pro

How to travel cheap can be a challenge for a lot of people (including me). We all want to stay in the fancy hotels, eat the best foods that the city has to provide, and conquer all of those expensive activities around. I do not blame you if you are one of those people, there is a lot of temptation out there! Unfortunately, going out on a spending frenzy during vacation can really affect our budgets and financial goals. Once home we might hate our past selves because those goals have been pushed farther and farther away. Plus, we will all want to go on another trip someday. So how do we stay in line to travel cheap so we can have awesome vacations now and for the future?

Here is a little background on my travels. Growing up I was so fortunate to be able to travel a lot because of my parents. These travels took us all over the United States, hitting up 40 out of the 50 states, as well around the world. Now that I am all grown up, married, and with a kid, it is tougher to travel with our limited funds. So we have become a lot more creative to afford our travels.

Plan Ahead

Before we get into all of my tips on how to travel cheap, I wanted to start with off with this piece of advice. This is something that I have personally been bad at but my wife and I are getting better at. Since most of us do not have big pools of money laying around to spontaneously buy plane tickets with (and if you do and want to share, contact me here :P), we all need to plan out ahead with our travels.

Personally, my wife and I have started to plan out our trips a year or two (depending on costs) ahead of time. This allows us to set up a savings plan to make the vacation happen.

How do you plan ahead for your vacations?

1. Don’t travel during the holiday’s

We just recently made this massive mistake so hopefully, you can learn from us. Traveling to Maine should have been fairly cheap on a normal week but we decided to travel over the Fourth of July week. This raised our plane tickets by $350 compared to when our friend traveled from Maine to Colorado to see us this past May. This is not how to travel cheap!

If you are looking to travel cheap, be sure to check for holidays around you. It is also better to travel during odd times in the week. These days include Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday.

We traveled over the holiday because we had a day off from our work, but if you factor all the increased traveling fees, it could have actually been better just using a bit extra of our vacation time.

Pro Tip: When searching for cheap tickets remember to take into account all of the taxes and fees. Upfront it might look like one airline has the lowest ticket prices but they might have the highest fees for baggage, seating, and so on.

How to travel cheap: Avoid traveling over the holidays!

How to travel cheap: Avoid traveling over the holidays!

 

2. Don’t eat out for every meal

My second tip on how to travel cheap involves my favorite part of any vacation, food! When my wife and I did our honeymoon we found a hotel that had a little kitchenette. After we dropped our stuff off we headed to the grocery store to gather some breakfast and lunch supplies. We would eat breakfast and some lunches in the room saving us tons of money! We were able to save enough to splurge a couple times on dinner while still saving money overall. I personally like to use Kayak or Southwest Airlines for finding plane tickets.

Pro Tip: Splurging on a couple meals during the trip is okay but remember do not let the foodie inside of you get in the way of your budget. Stay focused to keep within your budget, your future self will thank you for your discipline! For me at least, food can easily unravel my travel cheap plans!

3. Stay at accommodations that are off the beaten path

There are three major expenses while traveling: transportation, food, and a place to stay. Being able to cut costs on all three of these expenses is really how anyone can learn how to travel cheap. It is always tempting to stay in the hotel right on the beach or in the middle of downtown or has its front doors on the Vegas strip. In most cases, we can save tons of money while traveling if we get a hotel or Airbnb just a few blocks away from these main attractions.

This is a challenge for me because I want to be in the heart of the action our destination has to offer. So what I do is find accommodations that are off the beaten path but are close to a cheap mode of transportation that can get us there easily. Sometimes we are able to find something so close that we can walk there with ease.

How to travel cheap: Find a nice spot to stay off the main trail, like this guy did!

How to travel cheap: Find a nice spot to stay off the main trail, like this guy did!

4. Travel with friends or extended family (if you dare)

Now you cannot do this for every trip because it would just get tiring. Plus, it is just nice to enjoy time just with your own immediate family. But when you are looking to have a good time with some friends or family while saving money you can do just that!

Here’s how to travel cheap with your friends or family. First off, everyone can rent a home or condo splitting the overall costs. This usually turns out being cheaper than every party getting their own hotel room. Plus, a home or condo will come with a kitchen which I mentioned before is a huge cost saver.

Everyone can also share costs on that breakfast and lunch food I mentioned above. I remember growing up and going to family reunions where each family would take turns cooking a meal on a particular day. This was always an awesome experience because you got to enjoy different family recipes!

Pro Tip: Choose who you travel with very carefully. You want to enjoy your vacation! Plus, you do not all want to come back hating each other.

5. Don’t always go to the touristy spots

This how to travel cheap tip is one of my favorites. I cannot tell you how many awesome and amazing adventures I have had when I did not follow the crowd. One of my best friends, Tristan, is the person I should be thanking for pushing me out of my comfort zone while we traveled through Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, and Germany together.

I am not saying don’t to touristy spots. All I am saying is do not hang out at those spots all of the time during your trip. This is because most items, food, and services have had their prices increased significantly. When you go away from those places you will find that things will drop in price because there is less supply of tourists. Plus, you never know what awesome unknown place you might find.

Pro Tip: Use common sense when you venture off from the touristy areas. Cities and other countries can have very dangerous areas outside of those walled off tourist attractions. Be sure you know where you are going and be safe!

How to travel cheap: Find attractions off the beaten path.

How to travel cheap: Find attractions off the beaten path.

Now go have some fun!

Planning a vacation can be a daunting task in itself let alone adding on how to travel cheap on top of that. This is why I wanted to put together a list of tips just on how to travel cheap for you and your family.

Have any more tips you use to travel cheap that I might have missed? Let us know below in the comment section!

Want to earn some extra income so you can travel more? You can! Check out our Ways to Make Money for ideas on how to make some extra income. We personally try out as many as possible so you know which method to make more money is right for you or not.