This holiday season did a number on my budget. I mean, just straight killed it. Spent waaaaay more money than I should have and I regret almost every purchase. That’s how bad it was.
So looking forward to 2010, I came up with the “Four Squares” money plan. What does that mean?
It means I’m cutting BACK. I got the name because (bare with me here) I was convinced that we were spending too much money on little things, like toilet paper. Our butts were literally eating toilet paper because every other …

Today I’m featuring tips from my readers! Thanks to Ashley for submitting most of these! Updated with four more tips!
1. “Put ALL spare change in a big bank year round. Break in it only to use for Christmas shopping or a special family occasion like a vacation or something. My mom taught me this. My daughter loves the sound the coins make when they go inside the piggy. That’s a good sign.”
2.  ”Check accounts online everyday. And get credit reports every six months. This is the best way to prevent fraud, or …

Perhaps I live in a really nice area, but I honestly think our local Dollar Store is God’s gift to me. It’s as if He’s saying, “I know this area is expensive as all get out - let me make it up to you.”
It’s beyond words. They have a freezer section! They sell (albeit cheap) floor tiles! They sell everything.
Now we all know that you can’t buy everything at the dollar store. (I’d stay away from the makeup if I were you.) But, I think there are certain things in each store …

I’ve “known” this woman for a while now, when she e-mailed me out the blue saying she liked some of the writings I had done. Turns out, we had gone to the same college, had the same burning desire to be a writer, and both had several kids and a college sweetheart husband.
Two years later, we’re still in touch. She writes the wonderful, popular blog A Woman’$ Worth, a rising influence in the pockets of many! She gives you chic tips on how to live a fabulous life all while …

If you do most of your banking and bill pay online, why not use it to track your spending too? With some of the newer budgeting sites, you can track spending across multiple accounts, giving you a good look at the bigger picture. (Are you saving enough? Spending too much on meals at restaurants? Your monthly gas costs making you rethink that 60-mile commute every day?) Here are the six Kiplinger’s Personal Finance mag thinks you should try.
I used to go with Mint.com, until it was no longer able to …

Follow us this week as we set about saving money!
Today we tackle the kids’ room.
Spending a ton on storage isn’t really in the budget right now, but I do wish I could keep my kids’ toys organized in some way that’s cute and affordable.
But there are some things you can do to get your kids’ room spruced up for little money but a big reward:
1) Reuse the shoe boxes. Little kids don’t need shoe boxes, but don’t throw them out. Instead, get some contact paper and cover them in pretty …

Follow me as we continue our week of saving money!

Today we tackle the grocery store. But first, familiarize yourself with some of the tricks grocery stores use to get you to spend more!
1) Use your freezer. Got a good deal on meat or frozen veggies? Stock up. Got some bread? Stick it in the freezer. I used to think it was so lame when my grandma would pull a loaf of bread out the freezer, but I’ll be darned if her loaves stayed fresher longer than mine do now. So I’m a …

It’s the first day of my “Makes Cents” series and I already have something for you!
Let me know your favorite ways to save money or make money, and you’ll be entered in my first ever giveaway, a $25 BabyGap gift card! (You can use it at Gap, GapKids, BabyGap, Gap Outlets and gap.com) You know you want it so let me know how you’re keeping your pockets fat!
E-mail me at youngmommychronicles@gmail.com by Wednesday, February 18 at 5 p.m. Most creative comments/suggestion will win. (I would have you post it in …

Being green is all the rage these days, but I love the “trend” because it usually means saving money. I’ve implemented a few “green” tips into my life and have seen my savings increase substantially.
1. Unplug that cell phone charger - and other things you’re not using. About 8% of your yearly electric bill could be cut if you simply unplugged chargers and other applicances and gadgets you’re not using.
2. For that matter, turn off your computer at night. I never turned my computer off because it was insane the amount …

Next week I’ll be featuring five days of saving money tips - from organizing your kids’ rooms to saving money on your grocery bill. If you have any tips to be featured during my week of “Making Cents for You,” send them to me at youngmommychronicles@gmail.com.
Like President Obama said last week, “This is not a game.” The economy is probably going to get worse before it gets better. Let’s keep saving!

Our living room….
…kitchen…
…and family room.
There it is! (Well, not the exterior of the house, because I don’t need any stalkers showing up at my house asking for Young Mommy. I don’t think the Young Daddy and the Young Kids will like that very much.)
But we did it! We bought a house.
Turns out, third time was the charm for us, after putting in an offer on a house that was cute and spacious but needed a lot of repairs and then an updated home that was very much overpriced. There …

So…after falling in love with a house that seemed to be perfect for our family, we had to back out of the contract after the horrendous home inspection. 
Here’s the old house:
 Cute, right? Man, I loved everything about this house. It just felt so…right.
But we kept looking and I’ve fallen in love with another house. Even more than the first one. I’m beginning to feel like a house slut.
We just put in an offer on house #2, so keep your fingers crossed that the sellers accept! Perhaps by the time you …

We put in an offer on a house. (House #4 if you remember.)
They countered with a higher offer. We countered back.
We had a price everyone could agree on. They agreed to pay closing costs and for the home warranty.
Everything was going along fine.
Then yesterday we had the home inspection.
*insert screeching brakes sound here*
To say I’m sad right now is an understatement. I came from the inspection, crawled in the bed with some raw cookie dough, polished that off and then took a nap because I was so upset.
In short: The foundation walls (basically …

Like most of you all, I’m still new to this whole “tax” thing. I don’t really know what I need to keep, what’s safe to toss, what I can deduct, and how to change my allowances.
I found this cute financial organizer from See Jane Work that will help me keep all papers I need for the year. It’s only $12 so I’ll have plenty of money left over to actually pay someone to do my taxes. ‘Cause I have no idea what I’m doing.

I think I’m just now beginning to thaw from our house-hunting expedition on Saturday.
I live in Ohio, where we got about a foot and a half of snow dumped on us in a matter of hours. We asked our Realtor if she wanted to go out (we could hear in her voice that she would prefer to stay nice and warm) but she kept insisting that it was fine, that she would just take her husband’s Explorer and meet us at 2 p.m, like we had agreed the day before.
So we slowly …

If you want to read the previous entries: Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6
We viewed five houses Saturday during our open house with the Realtor. In short:
House #1 = Had a bad case of the Stuck-in-1955-and-don’t-know-how-to-get-up. Nice elderly couple lived there (maybe since it was built?) and everything was just incredibly dated. (”Dated,” I’m learning, is the polite way to say, “This is ugly as hell.”) Cost around $160,000, which was too much to be so ugly.
House #2 = Slightly more spacious, but we didn’t …

If you want to read the previous entries: Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.
I fell in love with this house, y’all.
The outside isn’t much to look at (gravel driveway and all), but the inside (based on the pics from the listing agent) was goregous.
Beautiful paint colors, elegant trim, built-in bookshelves, beyond fabulous kitchen with granite countertops and an island (my personal dream!).
But.
(Why is there always a but?)
When we told our realtor that we liked the house and wanted to see it in person, she mentioned that she had shown …

Tomorrow is a brand new beginning, and is usually the time everyone makes New Year’s resolutions, pledging to be thinner, more spiritual, kinder, less controling, etc, by the time the ball drops in 2010.
But if there’s one thing you need to focused on, it’s your money. 2008 was a doozy. There didn’t seem to be a safe place other than under the mattress to put your money.
This article, by the good folks over at Million Dollar Journey, tells how they went from -$40,000 to $285,000 in five years. Mostly, the …

We met with the lender yesterday after work. I was a bit nervous, because while I’m cool with the whole “house hunting” aspect, sitting down to figure out how we were going to pay for it was a bit daunting.
We’re not talking about buying some rinky-dink house. We’re trying to buy a nice house, a house that we can grow in and make a home. A house that quite honestly, I didn’t know we could afford. But when the lender broke it down to us, our mortgage would only be $100 more …

If you’d like to catch up: read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
We meet with our lender on Tuesday to hand over our financial statements (W-2s, pay stubs, bank statements on ALL accounts in your name, etc.) so we can offically be pre-approved for a loan, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Because the lender we’re working with has an underwriter in-house (meaning they don’t have to wait for someone in Columbus or Pittsburgh to fill out the paperwork), they assured us that we could be pre-approved within a week. Whoo-hoo!
So….that means …

I’ve got a monkey on my back, y’all and his name is Mega Millions.
You know how every 17-about-to-be-18 year old says, “Oh, as soon as I turn 18, I’m going to go buy some cigarettes, visit a strip club, (register to vote, hopefully), and buy some lottery tickets.” Well, that was me five years ago.
I didn’t do any of that except register to vote. (What can I say? It’s my civic duty.)
Mega Millions
I bought my first Mega Millions ticket earlier this year when I was pregnant with my second kid …

I’m so giddy! Soon, I will be free from apartment living and will no longer have to endure the nightly thumps and bumps from the upstairs neighbors (seriously - what are they doing up there?).
We met with the realtor yesterday and I can honestly say I haven’t been this excited since….oh, I don’t know when.
We talked a bit about what we wanted in a house - 2,000 square feet (if we can swing it),  at least 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, decent sized yard, etc. She talked about the process …