What if there’s an expense in your family budget that you are just stuck with?
Perhaps you’ve looked into alternative products or service and they won’t meet your needs. Perhaps you’ve already cut back to the minimum use on that product or service. Perhaps there are only a few providers in the first place for that [...]

The USA Weekend magazine has this piece today: Set a sane holiday budget.
A snippet:
After you’ve set your bottom-line figure, go to about.com and type in “holiday gift spending budget worksheet” and “holiday spending worksheet.” Use the gift worksheet to list each recipient and a spending limit. Keep the list with you when you shop. If [...]

I haven’t created my Christmas budget spreadsheet yet, but I do have my archived records from the past few years.
Did you remember all the extra expenses that come up that time of year?
Life Off the Shelf has a good list at A Simple, Frugal Christmas Part III.

Detroit News personal finance columnist Brian J. O’Connor is putting out The Grand Experiment.
He’s attempting to cut $1,000 a month from his family’s budget.
Here’s the news story.
Here’s his twitter feed.
This could be fun to watch.

Many families pretty much run on autopilot when it comes to their finances.
The money comes in. The money goes out. Basic needs are always taken care of. There’s enough to take on enough “extras” that nobody feels deprived. Nobody knows exactly how the cash flow works, but somehow it does, and so that’s the extent [...]

This notice is for my readers in Monroe, Mich. and is on page 7A of today’s print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News:
“Money Matters,” a free program for the public that discusses budgeting and tips for cutting costs and saving money, is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 28 at the Ellis Reference & [...]

This is a good time of year to start bookkeeping or budgetkeeping, if you are not in the habit of either approach. You’ve already got a lot of the financial records at hand as you prepare your tax returns.
No Credit Needed has this post How to create a zero-based budget.
A snippet:
Your goal is to create [...]

The Money Life Network bloggers are working on a Jumpstart Your Economy Series.
Bible Money Matters’ contribution was Doing your first budget.
A snippet:
A lot of people don’t ever get started on a budget because they don’t think they’ll be able to get it right, or that they won’t like what they find.  The truth is you [...]

I usually don’t repeat information that I’ve already posted, but now I have a few more details than when I first made this announcement a couple of weeks ago.
Monroe Church of the Nazarene, 3401 S. Monroe St., will host Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class for 13 Thursdays starting 7 p.m. Jan. 22.
Details and contact [...]

Monroe County Community College has announced its winter / spring session of LifeLong Learning courses. These are short-term courses, open to the public.
MCCC’s schedule skews more to the career skills and small business owner than the typical community education programs, but there is also a variety of fitness, music and art classes.
Announcements of interest include [...]