Weddings and Frugality *Note - I am currently working on a book that I have tentatively titled Wed Frugal. I did not want this book to turn into a clone of Bridal Bargains by Denise and Alan Fields. As a result, I no longer have a publisher. Regardless, I will likely finish the book in the fall/winter of this year and eventually try to find a publisher for it. My goal is to finish the book in the manner that I have always wanted to write it. Below, you will find an excerpt of the book: Weddings and Frugality Most people do not associate weddings with frugality. There is a very good reason for this. The two do not seem like they should go together at all. Of course, the reality is that weddings and frugality go together quite well. Most people believe that weddings are supposed to be expensive. After all, it is a very important day in your life. On this day, you will publicly show your commitment to your partner. In many cases, it will happen only once in your lifetime. You can not deny that it is a very special day. Everyone reminds you exactly how special this day is. You and your …show more content…
While this is true in some cases, many frugalists truly enjoy the challenge of trying to live below or within their means. This varies in degrees and it is extremely difficult to put frugalists in any one category or to define them adequately. This is because frugal people are a varied bunch, and they all practice frugality for different reasons. Some pinch every penny they can, while others use a few concepts of frugality to keep costs manageable. You’ll find that many frugalists fit somewhere in between. There are a great number of names that a frugalist may be called by other people. Some frugalists are called thrifty, while others are called cheapskates, tightwads, penny-pinchers, or bargain-hunters. Many of these terms are not looked on favorably by some
Several months ago I began to suspect that a new acquaintance had some unusual ideas about money. Her Facebook posts and conversation starters revolved around living a frugal lifestyle and her approach, at least at the time, seemed quite novel. The Great Recession has certainly forced all of us to reevaluate our spending behaviors and tighten up our proverbial belts a few notches. In fact, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) conducted a poll in January that shows many of us are experiencing “frugal fatigue.” Cunningham, an NFCC spokesperson, says that “…66 percent (of respondents), indicated they were tired of pinching pennies… ,” but, “(t)he interesting finding is that more than 20 percent… had implemented financial lifestyle changes that they found to be positive and intended to keep them in place" ("Majority of Americans Have Frugal Fatigue”). I could not find any estimates about how many Americans have adopted extreme frugality, but the 20 percent of respondents in the NFCC’s poll that believe they will continue their frugal ways suggests the number may be very high indeed. At any rate, my new friend talked about her frugality with the same fervor as a religious convert. The only other person I knew who could rhapsodize so joyfully about reused plastic baggies and thrift store finds was my maternal grandmother. I was intrigued and inspired to research this co-culture, or perhaps counterculture, of extreme frugality.
It appears that as time goes by, people view marriage more romantically, and less economically. Samuell Sewell viewed marriage as a way to advance monetarily. In his diary he writes, "I said 'twould cost L100. per annum: she said twould cost but L40"(63). This is just one example of him carefully calculating the costs of marriage.
The American family can be defined in as many ways as there are families. For a single person, he or she may define his or her family as his or her pet. Others may define family as his or her friends, but for most people, family is traditionally defined as including his or her biological parents, siblings and immediate blood relations. The traditional American family, despite being depicted in television shows, such as Leave It To Beaver or buzzwords for marked political agendas, is a falsehood that truly never existed for the vast majority of Americans. The birth of the women’s liberation movement of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s is often held responsible for the breakdown of the “traditional” family consisting of the working father, stay-at-home
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This research paper will explore primarily the impact of African American single-parent households on the children that live in these environments. This is a very important issue and more awareness is needed. Research has provided evidence that single-parent households are one of many risk factors that can negatively affect a child’s educational outcome, emotional health and social behavior. Although not all single-parent family households have disadvantages, the focus of his study is to shed more light on the issues and offer solutions. For example, more policies are needed to reinforce fathers to pay child support. This alone will provide mothers with more money to help them better raise their children.
Has the value of marriage become obsolete to the up and coming generations? With the decline in respect amongst individuals, increasing divorce rates, a decrease in moral values, infidelity rates, and lack of communication amid people, are we setting our future generations up for marital failure? The generations of today are being shown that marriage is something that they are expected to do rather than what they are meant to treasure. Marriage was once revered as a sacred union between two individuals in which they honored and cherished the vows in which they chose to recite to one another, values our current society may be lacking.
A single parent household is a house with only one parent and one or multiple children. Single parent households are becoming very common in all racial and ethnic groups because it is no longer required for people to be married before they have children. Most households only have one parent because of divorce, never being married, separated, widowed, or because of business. The most common are, separation, divorce and just simply never being married. In these cases it is usually the mother who is the single parent. It is not too often that you see a father taking care of their child by themselves. This is usually because they do not know how, or they simply do not want to take care of their child. Statistics show that family structure has a big impact on certain characteristics of a child such as their attitude and level of respect. Children tend to be less respectful to people because they do not respect the parent who is not around. In many cases a child may become depressed living with only one parent causing them to get out of control and do things that they shouldn’t. Sometimes the child may feel like they are incomplete leaving them to do crazy things to find what they feel like they are missing. often times the child feels that they are the reason their parents are not together.
The unit of a family is the most prominent essential for all of us. As social human beings, we seek social support in order to thrive, and that is where family comes into play. A family is where you receive love, support, encouragement, and many other social benefits. The total number of households in the United States increased from 63 million in 1970 to 113 million in 2008 (Weeks, 2012). The family has influenced multitudes of people in many ways. The traditional family in the United States consists two-married individuals providing care and stability for their biological offspring also know as the nuclear family. However, the term of a true family has ultimately changed over the last 50 years especially for African Americans.
After one month of tracking my income, I have learned a little more about my spending habits. I am already aware of most of my spending habits, and where I most often slip up. A little on the background of my spending, I rarely use cash. There are two reasons why I do this; the first reason is so that I am not tempted to spend bits of money here and there on snacks and small things. The other reason is that so I can more effectively track my spending with less effort. I have two checking accounts to keep this balanced since on the statements it does not say what the money is specifically spent on. I use one card on essentials and school needs, and the other account is more of a lifestyle account. Although I have done this financial tracking in the past, I was able to reaffirm that I still have some areas of weakness in my spending.
Life as a single parent can be rough sometimes. Before having children, most people may picture a family with two parents, but to some, the reality is there is only one. It takes a village to raise a child right?! But, what if that village is one person? Although raising a child as a single parent can be challenging, it can also be rewarding! You may be a single parent, but you’re not alone especially when you have God! A single parent instinct is to feel like they need to do it all, however, that’s not realistic or rational. If only some people knew how hard it gets sometimes as a single mother on a low to no income, they would think twice about how they judge and treat them. Motherhood
Personal Finance is a class I’ve wanted to take for a while now. My major is Finance not because I want a career in finance but more to learn about finance for my own personal situation. This class taught me so much! During this class I was able to evaluate my financial situation and set financial goals for myself. The four topics that helped me the most were emergency savings, buying a car, purchasing a home, retirement, and estate planning. After completing this class I have a better understanding of these topics and how to achieve my financial goals.
Budgeting is a multi-phased process. For the overall budgeting procedure to be successful, each phase of the process must be executed in the proper manner. Therefore, stringent administrative controls are imperative in the process. If a budget is prepared but no follow-up assessments and evaluations are carried out to establish effectiveness of its implementation, the whole process may go awry and negate the entire purpose of putting the budget in place (Cogan, Timothy, & Allen, 1994). Various types of controls are necessary for a budget to achieve its objectives; these include preventive controls, variance analyses, feedback controls, and internal controls. All these controls must be factored in for the administration and execution of the budget to be effective. Proficient personnel who can identify and mitigate sources of variances in the budget execution process are needed to oversee the process. Allowing the formulated budget to run itself would plunge an organization into a budget crisis. To prevent any such crisis from arising, this paper will look into the features of budget administration/execution that make an organizational budget successful (Lee & Ronald, 1998).
The public can every now and again use some of the money set aside to purchase luxury items, or enjoy a family vacation. Depending on one’s income experts the amount they are able to indulge in “fun spending.” Budgeting is key when saving to spend on this type of occasion because going overboard can push you to start the whole saving process all over again. Saving is important for all aspects, and it also helps one to enjoy the quality of life when spending for fun.
In today’s society, a majority of young couples are taking the opposite route when it comes to preparing for marriage. Instead of waiting till their newlyweds to move in together, many couples have decided to move in together. They believe that by living together, the divorce rate is decreased significantly. This idea of living together before marriage baffles a lot of people who are pro and against the idea. Yet, when you think about it for a moment, it does kind of make sense. Compared to previous generations, millennials would rather live together to decide whether marriage is in their future. There have been arguments for and against this idea of couples moving in together.
Yes, I was being honest when I was charting my spending habits because I haven’t done a budget that lasted a week before, and I wanted to get an estimate of how much I spend in a week. It was an interesting task to be aware of how much I was actually spending by having real numbers to look at in an organized spreadsheet. The spreadsheet itself was very simple and direct which made it easier to analyze. By lying about my spending habits, this assignment would have been counterproductive since I would have been avoiding facing the truth about how much I spent that week. Instead of being dishonest and trying to avoid that amount of money I spent, I was honest when I was charting my expenses since I wanted to get an actual estimate, even if this