May is a busy month. If you have young children you're scrambling to find camps and daycare to fill the summer months. If you have older students it is a time for proms, final exams and graduations. We fall into the latter category. Our oldest is getting an apartment in her college town and has an internship in her field that is located in nearby city. Our youngest is graduating from our local performing arts high school. May has been filled with two proms, final dance concerts, AP exams, our oldest moving home and moving out. All this and we're only 9 days in!
Thank goodness there are so many helpful tips and secrets for saving time and money offered up by excellent bloggers in the personal finance community. Here are some of our favorties from this week.
Eric over at Dollarversity outlines marketing techniques to help you make your new business a success. There are some great ideas in the lot but probably the most important point he makes is that marketing any business takes a lot of consistent hard work and you won't succeed without it.
At Engineer Your Finances Renee offers ways to save money by avoiding spending on things like lottery tickets and gym memberships. You can also get tips on buying a car on a budget.
The Penny Frugalista warns us of new charges arriving at Frontier Airline for carry on bags stored in overhead bins. My husband and I are in Italy now (I'm writing from Livorno) and I must admit there are quite a few people who take much larger carry on bags than will fit in the overhead bins. They also carry their heavy items onboard with them to avoid charges. Airlines will either have to start measuring bags or charge for them and it will be much faster to charge for them.
Retire by 40 asks if the Social Security Disability Program is a path for early retirement. It is an interesting question, but one that I think has an obvious answer. It is extremely difficult to qualify for disability benefits and I don't know too many people who would consider $13,000 (or a fraction of their annual income) per year plus medical a desireable retirement program.
Sustainable Life Blog gives step by step instructions for installing a low flow shower head. Seriously, if you haven't done this, you should. There are many that offer great water pressure while conserving water.
