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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks
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How We Saved More Than $1,000 on Vacation with Credit Card Rewards

Eric and I went on a Mexican getaway to the Riviera Maya earlier this month, staying at Tulum and Playa del Carmen for a few days each, and happily we were able to use credit card rewards to pay for vacation (or at least a large chunk of it!). We had a wonderful time and it was so great to celebrate Eric finishing his year of work probation, which means no more studying, test-taking, or being the rookie firefighter anymore, he is officially official! It was also wonderful to get away from the stress of new home ownership. While it has definitely been a dream of ours, I also have to admit that we can get overwhelmed by the amount of projects we want to

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks
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How I Started Getting More Freelance Jobs

I recently learned that I may be losing a major freelancing client of mine, through no fault of my own. For the past two years, I’ve had to really limit my freelancing. Between working full-time and going to school full-time for my MPA, I just didn’t have much spare time to devote to my side hustle business. So I kept the work that I had and took leads that came to me, but when it came to actually going out there and pursuing business? I pretty much took a break from that. And still, I managed to earn $20K a year from my side hustle income for the past two years in a row.  I consider that a success. Now that my master’s program

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks
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Two Months as Homeowners: Update

Eric and I have been homeowners for two months now and I thought I would give an update on the reality of it. For us, it has absolutely been a dream come true. We live in an expensive housing market. In fact, the third priciest housing market in the United States, behind only San Francisco and San Jose. Almost 5 years ago, when we first got married, we were earning less than half the income we make now. At that time, prices were the cheapest they had been in a decade, and it hurt so much to not be able to afford our own place. We had to pay off our debt first, work on our careers, and save up for a down payment. That we were able

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks
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How far would you go for a price adjustment?

I have to tell you a story that made me feel really dumb. Its the kind of incident that leaves you reeling because you feel pretty stupid even though you know you’re right. And the kind of moment that you can’t shake off your head–so I decided rather than to continue to feel stupid about it, I would blog about it, because somehow I know you guys will all understand. After suffering through a cold and hardly getting any sleep, I went to CVS to get some Nyquil. I specifically chose the CVS brand over the name brand because it was on sale–a two-pack for $10.99. There was only one cashier on this lonely Saturday night, and there were three people in

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks
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How Our New Mortgage Will Affect Our Budget

So now that I’ve talked about the cost of buying a home in Southern California, it’s time we talk about the real important stuff, like how this new jumbo mortgage payment is going to affect our budget. Before I give you some financials, I want to present to you some numbers about salaries in Orange County, CA and the cost of housing–because let’s face it. You can’t compare the cost of living in southern California to the cost of living in the mid-west. And before I start getting all those comments about how we should just move to Kansas–it’s not happening. People choose to live where they live for a variety of reasons. For some, cost may be the

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks
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Who Do You Trust For Money Advice?

For many of us, it’s difficult to know what to do when it comes to our finances. There are so many decisions to make. While the basic “live within your means” advice can apply, the reality is that there is more to money management than making sure that your expenses are smaller than your income. What do you do to save for retirement? What’s the best course of action when trying to pay down debt? There’s a lot to think about, and it makes sense to carefully consider who you will trust for money advice. Who Can You Turn To? One of the more interesting bits of information I read recently is the fact that millennials trust their parents for financial advice. A

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks
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How Much It Cost to Buy Our First Home in Southern California

I know whenever I read about other bloggers buying homes, I want to know the financials. It helps me better understand and see how much different the home buying landscape is in other states. I will say that our area–Southern California– is still a very strong sellers’ market. I wish that Eric and I had been able to buy back in 2010 when the prices dipped for the first time in like 20 years, but alas, we had just gotten married and were $45K in debt. Even now, it is completely crazy to me that Eric and I decided to buy a home. It was not our plan at all to buy right now, but when do things ever go according to plan? Originally, we thought we

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks
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Super Savers: Talkin’ on TV about the cost of raising kids

Having trouble viewing this? CLICK HERE <!– Content Layout –> Super Savers: Talkin’ on TV about the cost of raising kids Babies & Kids A round-up of my top TV clips and posts helpful to young families looking for financial relief. Read More… <!– Footer copyright and linkage –> The Squawkfox Blog is by Kerry K. Taylor www.squawkfox.com Copyright © 2015 Squawkfox.com. All rights reserved.

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks
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How Our Marriage Survived Escrow

Putting the tree up in our new home! I alluded in my last post that the escrow process can be stressful. I think this is partly largely due to my Type A personality, especially when it comes to finances. I also have a really hard time with change and uncertainty. Even if it’s change that I’m looking forward to (like buying a house!), it makes me very uneasy to not have any control over when things happen, like having no control over when escrow closes. I also felt like I was cut out of the process because the realtor communicated mostly through Eric, which was largely our fault because I had Eric act as my messenger and asked any questions through him. This was really bad

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks
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A Beginner’s Guide to Real Estate Investment

Venturing into the world of property rental can lead to a fulfilling, rewarding experience. Before you hit that sweet success point, however, you need to be prepared for what lies ahead. Contrary to most reality real estate TV shows, where houses are flipped or rehabbed in an incredibly short period of time, filling the owner’s pockets just as rapidly, it takes a lot of hard work — and often failure — to become a successful real estate investor.Knowing what to anticipate, and potential pitfalls you might encounter along the way, can help you successfully navigate the world of real estate investment. According to landlordstation.com, 89 percent of Americans are non-investors. Of the remaining population, 3 percent (7 million) of Americans think of themselves as real

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