Prioritized Living

Master your money. Get organized. Take back your time.

Save Time and Money with a Supermarket Pick-Up Service

Save Time and Money with a Supermarket Pick-Up Service

Having someone else do your grocery shopping?  It sounds like a major luxury . . . right?

Instead of spending time alone or with small children in the supermarket, a friendly person takes care of your whole order and even packs it neatly into your car when you arrive to pick it up.

Even if the idea is appealing, you may be reluctant to try out a service that sounds pricey. However, our family actually saves time and money by occasionally using our supermarket’s pick-up service.

Read the rest of my recently-published blog post on Money Saving Mom, one of the largest personal finance blogs and one I’ve been reading for years!

Make It From Scratch: Greeting Cards (For Non-Crafty People)

Make It From Scratch Greeting Cards

Photo courtesy of Nova Development

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  Read my policy here.

My artistic skill development stopped somewhere around age five.  In kindergarten, I made perfectly-acceptable, childlike drawings, but my 7-year-old niece’s artwork far outpaces anything I’ve created since.  Handmade greeting cards can be beautiful and cost-effective, but what if you’re a non-crafty person like me?  You can still make high-quality, printed and personalized greeting cards . . . using your computer.

Here’s how the costs work out for me:

  • Store price:                             $0.99 for a cheap card up to $4.99 for a standard card
  • Price of computer-made:  $0.55 for a personalized card
  • Savings:                                     44% – 89%

[Read more…]

Want to Save Money on Your Kid’s College Tuition? Don’t Pay It

Want to Save Money on Your Kids College Tuition? Dont Pay It

“Have you started saving for college?” a co-worker whispered apprehensively when I announced my first pregnancy at the office.  The question wasn’t unreasonable — even though my kid will be in the graduating class of 2037 . . .

Do you wonder how you’ll ever foot the bill?  Try this concept on for size:

Don’t pay for college.

Grab your smelling salts.  You can absolutely do it.

My parents were educated beyond college and wholeheartedly believe in the importance of higher education.  Still, while they offered to pay for room and board for their five kids, they gave us the responsibility of handling the rest of the bill.

At the end of the day, we all managed to enter excellent college and graduate programs, land great jobs and do it all with little or no debt.

Here’s how you can help your kids do the same . . .

Read the rest of my recently-published blog post on The Penny Hoarder, the world’s largest personal finance blog with more than 8 million readers!

Why I Spent $3,975 on Laser Eye Surgery

Why I Spent 3975 on Laser Eye Surgery

I didn’t get laser eye surgery to save money . . .  I chose to spend almost $4,000 on a surgery I didn’t really need to enhance the quality of my life, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Still, I kept my Penny Hoarding wits about me.  Here are six ways I saved on the procedure . . .

Read the rest of my recently-published blog post on The Penny Hoarder, the world’s largest personal finance blog with more than 8 million readers!

Make It From Scratch: Fancy Granola

Make It From Scratch - Fancy Granola

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  Read my policy here.

Granola makes for a delicious breakfast, a great snack, and an excellent and crunchy topping to yogurt.  However, it is seriously pricey to buy (and sometimes the store-bought stuff is still tragically dry and crumbly).  Making your own fresh, amazing granola is easier than you think and insanely inexpensive.  Here’s the cost breakdown:

Cost comparison of granola:

  • Store price:                   $0.19/oz. for the generic stuff up to $0.55/oz. for the premium stuff
  • Price of homemade:  $0.11/oz.
  • Savings:                           41% – 80%

[Read more…]

Don’t Forget These 21 Expenses in Your Budget

Dont Forget These 21 Expenses in Your Budget

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  Read my policy here.

Just as there can be easily-forgotten activities that suck up our time, there are some expenses that are frequently overlooked but can really add up.  Sometimes we neglect them because they’re infrequent and sometimes because they’re small costs that we pay mindlessly over and over.

Have you remembered to include these 21 expense items in your budget? [Read more…]

Stop Drowning In Your Inbox: How to Organize Your Gmail

This entry is part 1 of 7 in the series How to Organize It

Stop Drowning In Your Inbox: How to Organize Your Gmail

True story:  The other day, I had to show my tech-savvy husband how to delete a message in Gmail.  It wasn’t because he asked either;  I had suggested deleting some junk that had cropped up.

Gmail’s whopping 15 GB of  E-mail storage space is a hoarder’s playground.  With capacity like that and the constant flood of electronic communication, it’s so incredibly easy to find yourself drowning under thousands of E-mails in your inbox.  There are perhaps some special people in the world who like filing E-mails or papers, but the rest of us would rather enjoy life.

However . . . how often have you missed out on paying a bill because the E-mail notification got lost in your inbox?  When was the last time you left a message in your inbox as a reminder to do something, but you might as well have thrown it into a bottomless pit?

With Gmail’s abundant features and a little know-how, you can conquer your existing inbox without sifting mind-numbingly through each individual E-mail . . . and you can set yourself up for future success with some quick automation.  Here are 10 tips to get you on your way. [Read more…]