MONEY
Send your “Broke Teacher” packing. Build your dreams.
8 Things Teachers Buy That’ll Suck Money Away
"Any teacher that won't give a kid a pencil shouldn't be teacher." The pencil is a symbol of everything that sucks your paycheck away. I came to hate pencils like I hated the credit card debt I racked up buying them--and everything else for my class. (This is the...
Silly & Expensive School Supplies Teachers Require (are you one of “those teachers?”)
Are you one of "those teachers?" The one who requires students to have a thousand specialty school supplies? If you're a teacher-parent you know what I'm talking about. If you don't have kids yet and do in the future, you will soon. You'll get a back to school supply...
Bob Cratchit’s Guide to Budget Holiday Dinner (Save some cash, eat well)
Holiday dinner should be a time of sharing, not going into debt over dinner. There’s a magic day in March or April where the average American pays off Christmas debt. Don’t let holiday dinner be part of it. We host holiday dinner. I’m a vegetarian. I’m happy to give...
How to Survive on $350,000 a Year
I keep seeing versions of this MarketWatch article come across my feed. Take a quick look. It shows how difficult it is for this "middle class" family to live on $350K/year. $350,000 is approximately 4-10 years of the average teacher salary (depending on your job,...
“Help! I can’t stop spending!” These 5 baby steps will help…
The teacher spending struggle is real. Since we've gone turkey with the No-Spend Summer Challenge, that's the number one thing I hear. "I can't." We must defeat the "I can'ts" with this challenge. But, not everyone can go cold turkey. You'd never let a student say "I...
5 Ways to Avoid Hoarding for School
Are you buying or hoarding? Teachers often say we're buying when we're not "buying" so much as "hoarding." Teacher spending is an affliction, but some of us sprint right over that line into hoarding. Here's how to tell if you're in danger of being on a Discovery...
5 Types of Teacher Spending That’ll Make You Broke: What Type Are YOU?
Do you know how much money you spent on your classroom last year, or is school a financial vortex? A black hole that sucks away your paycheck and leaves you scrambling to pay your bills? Teachers don't make a lot but we sure know how to spend. Sometimes, it borders on...
Challenge: Resisting Target’s Back to School Sales
You can--and must--resist the Target back-to-school sale. It's July 1 as I write this. I walk into Target with one mission: dish towels. Mine are clean, but stained with god-knows-what and tons of holes but who cares because they still work, right? Teacher towels....
Movie Food Smuggling
Why would anyone in their right mind pay $20 for a small box of candy and a few kernels fake-butter popcorn after paying a million dollars a ticket to go to a movie--that starts with a half-hour of commercials? That's insane. Theatre food isn't what I want anyway--a...
What Kind of Computer Do I Get My Kid?
Right now my son has The Peach Salsa Computer, and it's going to die. It's time to start computer shopping for middle school. But with a birthday around the corner, I'd like to kill two birds with one stone--get him something that looks like a gift but is really for...