Kathy Peel
Kathy Peel is the founder of Family Manager Coaching and author of "The Busy Mom's Guide to a Happy, Organized Home: Fast Solutions to Hundreds of Everyday Dilemmas" (2008).
Kathy Peel appears in the following:
Monday, November 24, 2008
By
Kathy Peel
Despite glum financial forecasts, many families are taking the challenge head on — making sacrifices and implementing cost-saving strategies. Melissa Tarun, mother of two from Helotes, Texas, painlessly whacked around $1,700 from her family's annual budget. Cuts included:
- Cancel seven magazine subscriptions: save $84.
- Cancel unlimited access video rental plan: save $156.
- Cancel premium cable channel: save $120
- Don't renew season passes to area amusement parks: $300
- Fewer haircuts for the two girls and fewer highlighting sessions for moms: save $452.
- Sack lunches instead of buying lunch at school. $277.
Melissa says, "Our 'sacrifices' really aren't that at all. I mean, we gave up a "premium" channel! And a redundant satellite radio system." ...(continue reading)
Monday, November 24, 2008
Why do so many otherwise rational individuals make irrational decisions when it comes to money? Why do shoppers overspend when using credit cards, but manage to stay in a budget when they use cash? And why would a person walk five blocks to save $10 on a $20 purchase, but not on a $1,000 suit?
"Our brains evolved to make decisions on the savannah or in a jungle. And a lot of the decisions we have to make as adults in a modern world aren't necessarily applicable to what we might have made 10,000 years ago. The decisions aren't crazy; they are simply obsolete."
--Gary Belsky on irrational spending behaviors
