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Live: Walmart Hikes Prices
Walmart has announced it will hike prices for consumers because of the recent tariffs. Essentials are probably soon (if not already) creeping up in cost, and Walmart has decided that will be your problem, not theirs.
Meanwhile Target, Home Depot, and Lowe’s have been weighing hikes or keeping prices flatter than a pancake in the summer heat.
So what?
These price changes hit hard. Whether your doing home improvement or not, many of us shop at these large scale stores and their moves may just be ahead of many others companies making similar hikes.
So whatever purchases you make, they are likely to go up in cost. With regular prices being volatile, it is worth comparing between stores if you are trying to save some cash and also…
Learn: How to Budget (simply)
Budgeting is like flossing: Everybody loves it—too much even. Or rather, it should be done regularly even if it is not glamorous.
So here is how to budget in a way that you can do consistently. Rather than something you can forget about faster than you can say "fiddlesticks!"
Know your income: Absolutely necessary in order to gauge how much you can actually spend. Even if your income is variable you should try to get an average idea of your total from any and all sources.
Track your spend: Try to figure out what you actually are spending on. Best-case scenario you should use objective spending history like a credit or debit card statement to figure out what your typical spend on needs, wants, and savings has been. Using real numbers helps avoid accidentally underestimating.
Create a budget: Figure out how much of your income (a set number or a percentage) you are going to allocate towards different things in your life. A common example allocation is the 50/30/20 rule:
50% Needs (Rent, groceries, Wi-Fi)
30% Wants (Music subscriptions, life-size finding nemo sculpture)
20% Savings (Investing, emergency fund, etc.)
Track it: like a helicopter parent. If you set a budget and then never think about it again, you're not budgeting, you're just posing. And honey it looks great but not for your wallet. So track if you're conforming to your budget and then adjust it so that you can do it consistently if it doesn't work the first time.
Leverage:
You don’t need to build a huge spreadsheet to budget (if you don't like excel).
There are simple ways to budget. But using a tool can make the act more conscious and automated at the same time. So consider using:
Rocket Money
Pros: Connects to bank accounts, tracks subscriptions, shows spending trends all automatically
Cons: Some features behind a paywall, not super customizable, provide data to companyApple Notes
Pros: Simple, mobile, no learning curve, encrypted
Cons: Manual entry, vagueExcel/Google Sheets
Pros: Fully customizable, great for control freaks
Cons: Can be difficult to set up, and large effort to manage
The right tool for the job is the one that you'll use consistently and helps you build towards your goals. Not the most expensive budgeting app or financial advisor (though advisors aren't necessarily bad)!
Also, quick reminder that I am not sponsored by any of the tools I note here. I wish I was! These are just the tools I use.
Launch!
Get a tool and start using it to be more conscious of you spending.
Best-case scenario you start fully budgeting. But at the very least start being more aware of where your money is going. Sometimes it will alarm you!
The point of this is not to eliminate spending on what you enjoy but to make sure that you can afford to do that consistently ;).
Hey!
Thank you so much for being a part of this newsletter. I am grateful to write to you weekly and I hope this helps you feel more confident with your finances.
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I have a goal of helping people learn personal finance. It works better when more people get my emails.
Thank you for helping me (and your friend) out!
—Ben Brosnahan
