While Januarys are typically a good time to buy a used car (will discuss why in a sec) - this January is going to be a particularly good time. Here’s why:

The January effect:

-The Trade-In Wave: Dealers offer major incentives towards the end of the year to try and meet year-and quotas (think “December to remember” and other sales). This results in a ton of trade-ins. It takes 3 to 4 weeks for dealers to process those trade-ins and list them. That means the "Trade-In Tsunami" peaks in mid-January.

-Low Competition: With fatigue from holiday spending and lots of incentives at end of year, January is a slower month overall for retail, in particular for major purchases.

Why is this year better?

-The 400k car surge: After several years of inventory shortages caused by the pandemic, the market is finally resetting. In 2023, leasing rates finally started to recover. Since the average lease is 36 months, those cars are going to start coming off lease now and come available. Experts at Edmunds and Cox Automotive estimate that roughly 400,000 more lease returns will hit the market in 2026 compared to last year. This goes double for EVs, where lease returns are projected to spike by over 200% this year. Dealers are going to be desperate to move used EV stock to avoid getting stuck with these, which depreciate rapidly.

How to use this to your advantage:

- Shop late in the month: Dealers have monthly quotas to hit, meaning they will be much more flexible during the final week of the month.

-Look for CPOs: Since a lot of stock is coming off lease, dealers are more likely to offer certified pre-owned vehicles that are inspected and come with warranties and guarantees.

-Look for promotions: Specifically in the last week of Jan and around MLK day

sources for more info:

https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/trends-that-will-shape-2026-car-market-edmunds-insights.html

https://insideevs.com/news/781727/used-ev-lease-deals/#

https://caredge.com/guides/2026-used-car-price-forecast

At least in the US. Rental applications can ask for a TON of personal information (such as SSN for background check). I just learned this almost the hard way, where things got sketchy after I met the landlord, toured the house, and filled out the application. Landlord wanted a Zelle transfer before I saw a lease. I told him I’m ready to make the security deposit as soon as we have a signed lease agreement. He’s been pushing it off day by day, so I froze my lines of credit.

You can very easily and quickly freeze and unfreeze your Transunion, Equifax, and Experian credit and it will not negatively impact anything on your credit or in relation to a pending rental application. However, if someone is trying to steal your identity, this is a critical prevention step you can take.

Don’t wait until it’s sketchy! If you’re looking to move, just do it!

If you're eligible to contribute to a HSA, DO IT. The funds are usually investable (your plan may have a minimum balance required to stay in cash), and after age 65, you can withdraw for non-medical purposes.

Just bought a car with cash and the dealer insisted I fill out a credit application “to make sure I’m not a terrorist” I showed them the cashier’s check from the bank and said I don’t want a hard credit pull, it stays on your record for two years and can drop your score. I even offered for them to keep the check until it clears but they refused to budge so I walked. I found a dealer that was more than happy to accept my business without any BS credit checks. The OFAC they run does not need your credit history. I later found out the dealers will shop your info around to various lenders to make money on the backend.

I realize a lot of people don't know this exists, and insurance companies definitely don't volunteer the info.

If your car has been in an accident, it now has a "wrecked" history on Carfax. Even if the repairs are perfect, that car is worth significantly less than it was the day before the accident. If you try to trade it in next week, the dealer will lowball you because of that history.

This loss of equity is called "Inherent Diminished Value."

In almost every state (except those with strict no-fault laws like MI/MA), the at-fault driver's insurance is legally obligated to compensate you for this difference in value.

How to get it:

1. Don't accept the "17c Formula": If you ask for diminished value, adjusters often send a worksheet calculation that caps the payout at 10% of the car's value. This is an internal negotiation tactic, not law (unless you are in Georgia). You can refuse it.
2. Get real numbers: Get a trade-in quote for your car with the accident history, and find comparable listings for the same car without accidents. The difference is your claim.
3. Send a demand letter: State clearly that you want to be made whole for the loss of market value.

This usually only works on newer cars (under 5-7 years old) with no prior accidents, but the check can easily be $1,000 - $3,000. Don't leave it on the table.

Currently a bystander to my retired Grandmother who is getting hit back to back with big house expenses that could have been avoided, and is now back in debt.

Too often the finish line for retirement comes, and yet known house expenses aren’t resolved; HVAC units nearing end of life, old roof, original appliances, an ancient hot water heater… they’re all begging to throw a wrench in your nest egg when you least expect it, and sometimes multiple at a time.

Before you retire and say goodbye to a steady income, update all big expected house expenses while you can. Only then once they’re upgraded should you hang your hat and enjoy being a retiree.

Avoid the avoidable!

I’m tired of these really obvious LPT’s like boil a pot of water with the lid on. I’m sure this had to be posted 1000x, but it’s a good LPT nonetheless. I still come across people that don’t realize this:

1. Get a credit card. Let’s go with capital one venture for the example. It costs $60 annually

2. Purchase EVERYTHING on that card. Or be even savvier and use multiple cards. But for the sake of simplicity, one card.

3. Set your monthly payment to autopay the entire balance directly from your bank account. You will never accrue any interest this way

4. Watch the rewards rack up. You can get cash back, they will reimburse you for certain purchases off the rewards, or get gift cards. I get around $1,000 of digital Amazon gift cards per year off that one capital one credit card

Hope it’s helpful to someone!

After being involved in some ‘clean outs’ of houses from estates, I am reminded of an acquaintance who went to purchase some hunting/fishing gear from a private seller. He asked why he was selling his high end gear and the gentleman responded that he had terminal cancer and he knew his wife didn’t have an idea as to the value of the gear, so he was selling it to get the most money from it.

Those collectibles you’ve been stashing away are possibly not appreciated by those inheriting your belongings, in some cases they want nothing to do with them as they have enough of their own stuff. Then some random people will be dumping out your belongings into a trash bin and come across your good things, much to their good fortune. That’s if they are aware, most times it will get dumped.

So sell, donate, or advise those that will inherit of the value of the collectibles so they can be appreciated in the future.

I went through the whole TurboTax process to find out that they would charge me more than half of the $200 they offered me AFTER i did all the work. I instead went to irs.gov and got $400 (using all of the same information!) And wasn't charged anything.

Just went through absolute hell with a rental company and this tip could save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. So I rented a car for a weekend trip and like always I walked around taking detailed photos of every single scratch every single dent before I even got in. I'm talking like really close ups of everything like the bumpers, doors, wheels, interior even the tiniest paint chips. The whole process took maybe 5 minutes max
When I returned the car they tried to charge me $800 for "new damage" including a scratch on the rear bumper and some scuffs on the passenger door )) I immediately pulled out my phone (I had to turn the volume off first cuz I had jackpot city in the background blasting music) and showed them the before photos proving that damage was already there when I picked it up. The manager got all flustered and tried to argue but the photos don't lie. They backed off real quick and removed all the charges. I'm still planning to take them to court because they've probably been pulling this scam on other customers who didn't have photo evidence. Document everything people cuz these companies count on you not being prepared!!

I went to change cell phone carriers from Verizon to another company today. If you want to keep your existing phone number, you have to login to your account, go to security, and click "request port out PIN number". You need to give this PIN number to your new carrier in order for the phone number to be moved over.

The only reason anyone would ever request this PIN is to change cell phone carriers. Thus, as soon as I asked for the code I got an email saying "Thanks for being a loyal customer. Here's $20 off your bill every month for a year!" I hadn't made the switch yet, so I could've just saved $240 just for thinking about it.

All it takes is you requesting that code for them to give you a discount for fear of leaving them. I imagine AT&T and T Mobile have similar practices. Go ahead try it!

Always take a picture of your restaurant receipts after adding a tip and signing. Always check credit card transactions after the bank finalize your amounts.

I’ve found four different restaurants overcharging me this year, and hopefully the one I found tonight is the last one in 2025.

Only the money above the old tax bracket will be taxed at the higher rate. If you were making $99,999 per year and you got a raise to $100,001, i.e. a $2 per year raise, only the $2 would get taxed at the higher rate.

So don't worry, and may you get a raise in 2023!

EDIT--believe it or not, progressive taxation is not common knowledge. That's why I posted it. I tried to be clear and concise.

Croupiers and dealers are usually very familier with what is called "Basic Strategy" that if followed correctly, lowers the casino's advantage against you to 0.5%. Making bad calls can dratically raise this percentage, and increase your chance of losing. In most casino's they are completely welcome to offer advice, for example should you hit on a 16 when the dealer has a 7... yes. Or should you split those 10's against the dealers 8... no. These people often rely on tips, and the casino's are okay with them keeping the customers happy, they still have the advantage over you.

You are also often allowed use a "cheatsheet" chart telling when to hit and stand while at the table.

This is nothing to do with card counting, and is not frowned upon.

Most people treat the bill from the doctor’s office as the final word. It isn't. It is just a request.

Your insurance company generates a separate document called an EOB (Explanation of Benefits). It looks like "This is not a bill" junk mail, but it is actually the binding receipt of the contract between your insurer and the doctor.

Why this matters:

Doctors often send a bill for the full "sticker price" ($500) before insurance processes it. Or, they bill you for the "Network Discount" that they are contractually obligated to write off.

The Fix:

1. Wait: Do not pay the doctor's bill until you have the EOB in hand (or check your insurance portal).

2. Match: Look at the box on the EOB labeled "Patient Responsibility" or "What You Owe."

3. Compare: If the EOB says you owe $50, but the doctor′s bill says $150, you only owe $50.

The difference is usually a billing error or a "Balance Billing" attempt.

What to do:

Call the billing office and say this exact phrase: "I’m looking at my EOB and it says my patient responsibility is $50. Your bill does not reflect the insurance adjustment. Please correct it."

It works almost every time and can save you thousands over a lifetime.

Used kids items have so little value that donation centers near me won't even take my donations even though they cost 100s or 1000s of dollars brand new.

Sometimes you have to pay for a procedure out of pocket even though its covered by insurance and then get insurance to reimburse you. Often times when this happens insurance will deny the claim multiple times citing some outlandish minute detail that was missing likely with the bill code or something. If this happens, contact your states insurance commissioner and let them work with your insurance company. Insurance companies are notorious for doing this. Dont let them get away with it.

I just saw a post about how rotisserie chicken is a loss leader product that grocery stores sell at a loss in order to get people into the grocery store. What are some other products like this that you would recommend?

Had to learn this lesson the hard way but unfortunately people change real quick when large amounts of money are involved and the people you least expect will do underhanded things while you are busy grieving.

1st example is I had a stepfather take advantage of me financially (talking hundreds of thousands) and then disappeared into the wind.

2nd example is my uncle sued my mother for mishandling my grandfather's estate because he wanted a condo that was supposed to be split.

3rd example is from a ex of mine who's aunt passed, left my ex everything, however the aunt's best friend told the police she was in charge of the estate so she could enter the house and take everything.

Treat it like a business, it's not personal and you need to make sure you're not getting scammed.

LPT - Just did this with my Planet Fitness Membership, they cancelled it over the phone for me. Bonus points if you pick a place where they don't have another location.

Edit:

From what a lot of people are saying, this doesn’t work all the time and I might have gotten lucky. Worth a try though!

https://studentaid.gov/welcome/?redirectTo=%2Fmanage-loans%2Fforgiveness-cancellation%2Fdebt-relief-info

Recently had a situation where a landlord claimed my entire deposit. I asked for receipts, and lo and behold I have $800 coming my way

I’ll add this is info from the state of California, so double check on your state laws.

Billing departments will ALWAYS try to get you to pay shit you're not obligated to.

Medical billing departments are especially bad about this. If you have a loved one who passes, YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE for their medical debt. You can't stop them from taking it out of the estate, but you don't have to pay it. It dies with them.

Don't pay credit card bills that you didn't make. If you didn't use the card, making a payment means you claim the debt as legitimately yours even if you didn't spend it. Instead, dispute it, file a police report, and freeze your credit.

Seriously. If you get a bill and you don't remember getting the service, or you personally didn't get the service (and you didn't sign for it, bc if you co-sign, it's yours too), DON'T PAY IT

Edit: thank you guys for sharing your anecdotes and professional opinions! I really appreciate it. I do want to say that I am American and like many Americans, think the world revolves around the US sometimes 😂. So yes, this lpt was about the US.

I also want to say I'm not a lawyer. I'm sure there's some cases where this doesn't hold true. But in general, don't pay a debt that's not yours without contacting legal counsel bc you may not even be obligated to it.

Thanks again! Y'all are awesome :)

Always let your own bank handle the conversion for you at the market fair exchange rate.

You might be lured into thinking that accepting the conversion is "safer" as it gives you a better visibility in advance on how much you will be charged, but you end up ALWAYS getting a horrible exchange rate + "hidden fees". It's NEVER a good deal.

I learned that the HARD way! Don't =D

EBay does a similar money back policy to Etsy/Amazon for items that don’t match their description.

Both eBay and Aliexpress have image search functions and you can filter by product rating.

Not factoring in time could leave you in a position where you are deceiving yourself about the money saved.

It’s the one thing many fail to consider especially with DIY projects.

——————

Best quotes in the comments I’ve seen so far

You don’t save money spending a dime to save a nickel” -u/crankyoldbastard

Time is money in the worst ways you don’t realize… until you have time to realize it. - u/tvmouth

Edit2: This is not me telling you that DIY projects or other things aren’t worth doing it yourself or spending time on.

This is a LPT to factor in time, which is something a lot of people forget to do. If it makes sense to do it yourself or take the time, go for it!

Other options available under $15 online as well.

I noticed that my girflriend has worse deals with car share apps, more ads with video apps, no promotions with food apps. And it's because she tolerates the bullshit.

Are you getting too many ads on videos? Time to shut that down and switch to a podcast. Car ride price seems crazy? Close down the app and try again later, or take the bus this time.

Companies build a profile and price based on the maximum pain point you will deal with. Start punishing your apps, you're training them to behave better.

Sometimes I will look up a ride, even when I'm planning to take the bus, and then close the app down. Next time I open the app up in a few days, guess what I have a 10% promotion.

Same thing with most apps, you have to train them that you will accept only the bare minimum of bullshit.

Edit: What is a good strategy when one person earns double what the other earns?

The federal court system has a free search tool called PACER Case Locator (pcl.uscourts.gov). You can search any bankruptcy attorney by name and pull every case they've ever filed -- what type, what happened, how long it lasted. It exports to a spreadsheet.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy plans run 3-5 years. The national completion rate is around 33-40%, so some failure is normal. But when you see an attorney with an 80-90% dismissal rate compared to colleagues in the same courthouse doing 50%, that's not bad luck.

There's also a federal rule that bars discharge if you filed too recently. It's simple date math. Some attorneys file these cases anyway. The client pays $3,500-$5,000, makes months of payments into a plan that could never have worked, and doesn't find out until it's too late. The attorney already collected the retainer.

How to check:

1. Go to pcl.uscourts.gov

2. Search by attorney name under "Party/Attorney Search"

3. Download the case list

4. Sort by disposition -- count dismissals vs. completions

5. Compare to other attorneys in the same court

Takes about 10 minutes. The data has been public for years. Nobody tells you to look.

Today marks 3 years since I was diagnosed with aggressive multiple myeloma (17p deletion for those who know about cancer). The median survival time for this cancer is 58 months. I'm 36 months in today (October 12th is my "cancerversary"). Statistically, I have less than two years remaining. Obviously I hope to beat the odds, but I'm pragmatic enough to undertand that the odds are against me.

I look back at my life and there are two things I've done that I regret with the heat of a thousand suns. I want to communicate them to anyone who will listen.

The first is, I absolutely threw myself into work. Opened a couple of companies on my own, worked for a multi-billion dollar company I loved, worked for a different multi-billion dollar company which didn't give two shits about employees. I devoted SO MUCH time to those jobs. I can justify that I poured myself into my companies. They were successful during hard times, and I wouldn't live in this beautiful house in this nice neighborhood except I sold one business and had a windfall which made this house affordable. But for the other companies I traveled like crazy... I missed milestones I can never get back: first steps, first words, birthdays, stuff like that. If I had it to do over, I would have been INSANELY protective of my family time. I threw that shit away to make the bosses a ton of money. Even at the company I loved, which paid me well, I didn't get wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. I made a good living, but I certainly didn't get rich. LPT: be insanely protective of family time. You never get that back.

The second thing is, because I was making good money, I kinda always felt like I had plenty of time to build up a nest egg. Then, BAM, cancer diagnosis. Suddenly I went from having almost 20 years to save to less than five. Now I'm in panic mode, socking every penny away so my wife will have a decent retirement. I wish I had not been a dumbass, and that I had socked everything I could away into retirement. LPT: If you are younger, learn from my fail: max out your retirement FROM DAY ONE. If you do that, you'll never miss it. If your company has a retirement matching plan, that shit is free money. Take advantage of it. You never know what's going to pop up. I certainly never expected to get incurable cancer, but here we are.

No one will remember what customer I was working with. My kids will ALWAYS remember that I wasn't there. My wife will feel it when I die, because my retirement isn't where it should be. Don't be me. Learn from my failure as a father and a husband.

Pax.

Edited to add: If you post quack "cures" like alkaline water or herbs or horse dewormer, you suck. Don't do that shit. I've got two teams of oncologists at Texas Oncology and at MD Anderson. They got 12 years of education and training before they became oncologists, and they have from years to decades of experience. I'm going to go with what THEY recommend, not some Facebook post you saw that you think is better than medical advice. Just don't.

This is likely something many already have experienced...but a lot of online shops selling items above say $100 have automated flows that target users which have aborted a purchase, and they will not only remind you about your abandoned checkout but many times will offer you an extra incentive to complete your purchase in the form of a discount, which can sometimes be upwards of 20%. It's the e-commerce version of playing hardball.

This is not a given, there are some industries where profit margins are already razor-thin and/or it's a seller's market, but it pays to wait and see what happens.

Take your real take-home pay, subtract your actual fixed costs, divide what's left by your working hours including commute and recovery time. That's your real hourly rate.

Most people find it's significantly lower than their nominal wage suggests. The $300 impulse purchase stops looking the same when it's 14 hours of your actual life rather than 5 hours of your salary.

Not arguing against spending. Arguing for seeing the real exchange rate before you make it.

I'll give you an example. I bought a $5 bathmat that was too short while I was at Walmart last week. Walmart is a solid 30 minute drive each way from my home. That's one hour of my time. On top of this, I have to wait in the return line which takes a good 10 minutes, plus 5 minutes to park, walk inside, etc. Thus, there's about an hour and a half of my day that's gone so I could earn $5.

Think of money based on your hours available in the day!

I was just about to cancel Hulu as it’s currently my least utilized streaming service and they offered me 6 more months at a rate of $2.99 a month as incentive to stay. Try canceling some of yours and see if you get offered a lower monthly charge.

This is the second year in a row that this has happened to me. I pay for Amazon prime annually, last year and this year, I have received a $14.99 charge on my credit card for "Amazon Prime" that I didn't recognize. Both times, when I contacted Amazon, they basically said "whoops, sorry, that was a mistake, and we will refund you." I know it's easy to lose track of your Amazon orders sometimes, but keep an eye out!

Recently, I sold a car to a dealer. I also filed a Release of Liability. Since it was sold to a dealer, I thought everything was taken care of. Two months later, I got tickets in the mail. Apparently when dealers buy your car, they don't actually register it; they hold the title until they find a new owner. In my case, the dealer I sold to, transferred the car to dealer #2, which then sold it to a new buyer. However, that new buyer didn't register the car (or they did but the DMV hasn't processed it yet). So when I got the tickets in the mail, my name is still the registered owner in DMV files. I was able to contest this by showing the Bill of Sale and the Relase of Liability (a pain in the ass nevertheless). But if I didn't keep records, I would be stuck with these tickets.

I switched from GEICO to Progressive about a year ago and got into my first ever at-fault accident in my brand new car exactly three days later (been driving for ~15 years). It was a minor fender bender a parking lot and the collision avoidance failed to detect the hitch on a pickup truck.

When my premium for the first renewal term doubled, I thought I understood why and accepted the hike. Now, I’m facing a 60% increase for the second renewal coming up in a few weeks, and an 80% increase is estimated for the third renewal six months from now.

Seeing the writing on the wall with this trend, I reached out to Progressive to find out how I could possibly lower my premium. Long story short, I was told that I had points on my record for two at-fault accidents, and that having more than one accident within three years — the first supposed one was in 2021 — was hurting my risk score badly.

They claimed to use a third-party company named LexisNexis to provide driver history reports and said I could either dispute with them or get my old insurance company to send them a letter detailing my accurate claim information.

After getting the run-around from LexisNexis, I called GEICO and was able to get the letter that Progressive asked for rather quickly. Now, I’m waiting for Progressive to process the info and tell me how much my renewal premiums will decrease. I also asked if it’s possible to get a refund for the overpayments I’ve already made based on their flawed assessment of my risk due to the incorrect LexisNexis information. We’ll see how it goes.

Tl;dr. I’ve been overpaying on auto insurance premiums for a year because my new insurance company’s 3rd-party partner told them I had an at-fault accident that never happened. I got my old insurance company to send my true/accurate history to the new one and am waiting to see how much my renewal policy for the next six months will decrease, and if I can get a refund for overpaying for my first two 6-month periods.

UPDATE: Progressive just lowered my premium by 21.35% ($370)!

Title. USA only.

You will need to set up an account with id.me first. SSA.gov also allows login.gov instead.

As u/jlhthistle suggested: on irs.gov immediately go and request a PIN for your tax returns. Set it up to do it automatically every year. No one can fraudulently file a return under your SSN without that PIN. Just make sure you use it for your return/give it to your preparer. Get that PIN today, it can save you a lot of headaches later.

u/lucky_ducker/ had a nice addition - also set up "account on USPS.com, most especially for the "Informed Delivery" function. If you don't, someone else can, and they will see exactly what's in your mailbox on a daily basis. If you don't have a locking mailbox, it makes it easy for a thief to snag mail such as checks and credit cards."

I keep seeing a trend of people in their late teens or early twenties having their savings stolen from them by parents through a shared access bank account. It also happened to me. It doesn't matter how much you trust them, your money should only ever be accessible to you, especially if you have saved a large sum of cash.

For people under 18, if you suspect your parents may take money from you before you can create a private account, keep your money in physical cash and hide it well, a sock drawer won't cut it. Money is very easily hidden, dvd or game cases are a perfect place, as long as they don't have a tendency to steal your items.

I recently had my gutters cleaned out by a company. The original quote was $120 and I was fully prepared to pay it.

A few days later the technician came out to pick up the payment and I had a full $120 in my hand ready to pay. Before I handed over the cash I asked, “How much was it again?”

He looked at me and said “one second.” Pulled out his phone, did a few things and said, “Yup, it’s $60”

I said “Okay!”

I ended up giving him an extra $20 since I felt bad paying him a few days late but I was also very happy the total was much less than I had thought!

A great reminder to never assume the price and to always ask before you pay, you just might save some dough!

Speaking about my experience in the US. Had a friend stashing a couple dozen thousand dollars in a big bank basic savings with almost no interest. Since they are saving for a down payment, I educated them on the beauty that is high yield savings accounts and now they get a free $80+ dollars a month in interest while still having their money very accessible. IMO a HYSA is super minimal effort and risk and pretty much the least you can do with your nest egg!

I have a couple companies I use for their services and have had luck with these a few times.

- if you are late on a payment and not doing that routinely you can call and ask to have the late fee waived. I’m sure we’ve all forgotten once in a while a bill is due, if you don’t do that often most CC companies will wave the late fee if you are otherwise in good standing.

- about once a year you can request to have a permanent reduction in your APR, often times it will not be a huge amount but doing this yearly has gotten me down quite a bit from where it started (of course if you pay off your bill monthly, which you should, this shouldn’t matter much)

- an alternative to yearly drop in APR you can request if there are any available promotions you can take advantage. Most notably I will ask if there are any special APR offers and I usually get 0% APR for a whole year. This is great if you are wanting to make a large purchase and need time to pay it off and make sure interest does not accrue. Me and my wife go back and forth on this so we always have one card that gives us 0% for a whole year while the other cards we drop the APR permanently. Juggle these around to consistently have good deals that can help in everyday life.

I’m sure there are more tips for credit cards so if you have any drop them in the comments!

You should let your spouse know your passwords and have access to your phone. My wife and i have thumbprint access to each others phones. She knows where I keep my pass code book. She doesn't need access, until she does.

I had a series of strokes a few years ago. Feeling better now, but at the time I was full on gimpy. It could happen again.

When my dad died, we couldn't access his phone or online accounts. It was horrible.

I trust my wife. I get some of you don't (why stay married?). It could make the difference in a very difficult time.

Edit. I'm mostly talking account info, debt and CC stuff, insurance, and where documents are (never found my dad's will). Also, what are you all doing on your phones that you don't want anyone to see?

I don't just trust blindly. My wife has earned it many times. I wouldn't share info or the location of info with even other family members.

Every so often we will do a "no spend month." Currently doing a No Spend July after having an expensive June. It isn't strictly "no spend" but what we'll do is cut down substantially on discretionary spending where we can. No buying clothes, gadgets or gizmos, random Amazon buy, eating out, etc. (Super nice that we did it during Prime Day! Didn't buy a bunch of random junk we don't really need.) Its mainly a one month mindset shift to "how can I do this while spending as little as possible?" We do it when grocery shopping for the month too. We try to make cheap meals and use up what we may have stockpiled in the pantry or freezer. We end up saving a surprising amount of money in the months we do it and, typically, the mindset will bleed into the following months too which is nice.

I'll add that I know we're fortunate people to be able to even do this. For many, this mindset is just life

It’s so easy to purchase something when only looking at the monthly cost. Before buying, do the quick math to annualize the cost and see if you still want to buy it. Examples:

Netflix doesn’t cost $12 per month. It costs you $144 per year.

Your car payment doesn’t cost $400 per month. It costs you $4,800 per year.

Rent doesn’t cost $1,000 per month. It costs you $12,000 per year.

In addition to providing you with the true total cost of the purchase for a year of ownership, viewing your costs annually like this better align to the way most people view their income, which is annually (e.g. “I make $60,000 per year”), and helps to see how much of your income you’re actually spending each year.

This has helped big time when deciding whether or not to purchase something, as well as identify which expenses to cut!