Many of us were hopeful that our spending was going to decrease due to stay-at-home orders, but we’ve been surprised to see that’s not always the case. Many of us are now spending more.
How can this be? Yes, we’re spending much more on groceries - stockpiling shelf-stabilized goods or paying extreme markups for toilet paper, but the main culprit for most is online shopping.
Have you ever walked into a store just to “look around” and ended up needing something you didn’t know existed five minutes earlier? Or opened up your email to get some work done and got completely side-tracked by a sales email from one of your favorite brands? Yeah, me too. Companies are getting better and better at separating us from our money, and sales are one of their favorite tactics because they combine two great marketing strategies - scarcity (time is running out!) and a great deal.
So how do we decide what to do? How do we evaluate a purchase to make sure it’s worth it? With the holidays and the biggest shopping weekend upon us, it’s the perfect time to arm ourselves with a checklist to consult before buying something on sale.
Each year we showcase incredible BIPOC and women-owned businesses to support while doing your holiday shopping (and all year round). Why? Because what we buy matters! How we spend money is a way to vote for more of what we want to see in the world.
Plus, the pandemic, inflation and supply-chain issues have made the last few years really challenging for small businesses. Our support can make a big difference. We’ve compiled a list of your (and our) favorite brands. Thank you for sending in all of your new favorites this year. This list just gets better and better. And we plan to continue to add to it!
Credit cards can make our spending feel really murky. It’s hard to know if we’re spending more than we have because we don’t feel the pain of spending more (or the reward of spending less) until it’s time to make our credit card payment at the end of a cycle. This can make it hard to pay off our credit card each month, and it can also make us feel really guilty in our everyday spending since we’re not quite sure whether or not we can afford the things we’re purchasing. How can we make sure we’re using our credit cards in the most responsible way?
We don’t typically associate money with parties but I’m telling you, it’s a worthwhile association to make.
One of the reasons we don’t make the progress we want in our financial lives is because our financial to-do list continues to get put on the back burner. We have busy lives so when we don’t create the time for something (like dealing with our finances), the calendar fills up and we continue to not have time. It’s a vicious cycle.
Dating and early relationships can be stressful. Then add in money and it gets even more complicated.
Not only is dating expensive (hello inflation!), it can also be confusing. I always had questions like… Who should pay? Do we split? When should we talk about money? How do we split expenses? Is that a financial red flag? What are my financial green flags?
For many of us, money is a taboo topic that we don’t even talk about with our closest friends and family. This might not seem like a big deal, but it has some major repercussions. One is that it makes it a lot more difficult to reach our goals.
When the people who love us the most don’t know about our goals, they can’t support us. They might even unknowingly sabotage us!
And we’re back with part #2 of the results from the Fiscal Femme Anonymous Money Survey. If you missed it, here’s part #1. This time we’re talking about your systems and accounts.
While many of you shared your favorite apps (I’ll give you a rundown below), a great deal of you were also looking for recommendations. Stay tuned!
Secondhand Shopping 101: How I Saved $4,500 Buying Secondhand Furniture
Shopping secondhand can be a tremendous win-win and way to align our spending with our values. We save money because buying secondhand is often much cheaper, it’s better for the planet, and we’re not supporting companies and industries that exploit women. For some, the process can also be really exciting when you search and find something great.
