Angela loves learning and discussing personal finances and money. Not in the greedy sense, but in constant pursuit of financial peace. Financial freedom if you will. Her passion for this started in her early 30s, when she started paying for younger years’ financial mistakes. She’s now spent nearly a decade trying to learn how to correct those mistakes and, at the same time, has learnt to love the process. While she still has a long way to go to get to financial freedom, she hopes that by writing about her journey she keeps the momentum going, and, hopefully, also inspires others towards financial independence.
Our family is on a strict budget to make progress with our debt reduction plan—this includes sticking to our grocery budget, of course. We decide on a set amount to spend for groceries each month, withdraw the cash on the first day of the month, and that is the exact amount we spend for food… Read more »
A few months back, I began experimenting with the concept of “money-free entertainment”. Since embarking on our “debt-free journey”, one of my biggest realizations is that many activities we used to do regularly and take for granted were really bogging down our budget. They had to be put on pause for a while if we… Read more »
Gas prices across Canada are not going down anytime soon. Just this past April, prices went up in all of our provinces as the federal carbon tax kicked in. According to Global News, in late April, the price of gas in British Columbia almost reached $2 a litre, with some unsuspecting vehicle owners waking up… Read more »
Now that summer is here, spending time outside in the sunshine can have significant and wide-ranging health benefits. Exposure to green space reduces stress, and all the ailments that go along with it (“University of East Anglia: It’s official – spending time outside is good for you.”, 2018). We don’t have to go on a… Read more »
Spring is in the air, summer is just around the corner, traditional students are nearing the end of their semesters (not us AU die-hards, obviously), and everyone is dreaming about warm, lazy sunsets and BBQs. But for those of us at AU who were not lucky enough to have escaped this past winter, wanderlust is… Read more »
Marie Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant whose popularity has taken off in recent years in North America, by instructing consumers and hoarders alike to rediscover joy by decluttering and throwing away stuff (Green, 2014). At 19 years old, Ms. Kondo started working as a professional tidier in Japan when she founded her organizing consulting business… Read more »
Whether you’re saving for a large purchase, planning a big trip, trying to pay down those ugly student loans, or saving for your next AU courses, who couldn’t use a little bit more cash? Starting a side-hustle gives you the chance to make more money. According to Merriam-Webster, the precise definition of side-hustle is still… Read more »
Remember your very first paycheque? The one from that paper route you had in minus-thirty-degree weather? Or from the babysitting gig for the neighbour’s little angels who turned into Damien when their parents walked out the door? Did that paycheque come with “how-to” instructions? Unlikely. I know I blew my first paycheque getting pink fuzzy… Read more »
The past few months, in the prairies and eastern Canada, it seems like Mother Nature is binge-watching Frozen and trying to imitate Elsa. I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but spring is just around the corner, and will, hopefully, bring warmer days. There are those who say they prefer the winter season… Read more »
Many online behavioural blogs claim that how we deal with finances is directly related to our first memory of “money” or what it symbolizes. Digging deep into our money memories helps us gain awareness about how we think and feel about money and about how we handle our finances—whether we perform these actions consciously or… Read more »