Money saving tips are something that we care about here at Mint. Learn more with great money saving tips in our blog article index.

Young. In Love. A thin wallet (New: and a small home budget).

Actually, scratch that.

You don’t need to be young, in love, or even have a thin wallet to enjoy cheap, affordable, and fun dates. Here’s a list of money saving tips you can try out for a fun day/night with that special someone.

Let’s See What’s Out there

• Take a walk together.
  A stroll through the neighborhood or local park can be relaxing during the right season. Have a dog? Take the dog for a walk together and bring the Frisbee.
• Fly a kite.
  Strangely a common recommendation for affordable date. When was the last time you flew a kite without having a child with you? Rediscover childhood and have fun making and flying a kite together at the park or at the beach.

Low Cost but High in Culture

• Local high school, community college, musical or plays.
  They aren’t high-cost productions, but they can still be entertaining and especially affordable. Even better, your admission keeps these local programs going.
• Local campus events.
  Unless it’s one of those high-profile universities, many local high school, colleges, or university events can be fun and easy on the wallet. Student fairs, guest speakers, and sports are all things you should keep an eye out for. Check the local campus newspaper for listings of upcoming events.
• Really into this person? Make it a weekly date deal by enrolling in dance lessons together at the local community center or college. Now you’ll have an excuse to call every week without being labeled as needy. Sweet.
• Awesome museums across the country.
  Museums can sometimes be seriously underrated. If you haven’t been to one since your elementary class day trip, consider dropping by again for a quick night out. Many museums have special afternoon or student rates. You can even visit some of the very expensive museums for free on Museum Day.

Nothing Beats the Home Court Advantage

• Game night for a fun night.
  A fun night in with the special someone or even the family might just be what the doctor ordered. Classic board games are timeless for a reason. Spice things up by taking out a deck of card to play a round of high-stake, no-limit Texas Hold’em. Winner gets another date.
• Rent or borrow a DVD/VHS from the library.
  Nothing new here, but sometimes it’s just nice to be able to cuddle in privacy on the couch.
• Dine-in and cook together.
  Can be incredibly fun or incredibly messy. Regardless, you’re spending time and sharing an experience with the person you care about.

Looking for more ideas? Check out more cheap date and family activities ideas at The Dollar Stretcher. (New: They’ll be sure to help you with your financial management.)

Further Reading on Home Budgets

• Household Budget Software
• Online Financial Management Software
• Financial Tools
• Money saving tips, tracking, and tools

I’ve always loved to shop, and I think a lot of women and men can identify with the lure of shiny new things. Unfortuantely, I was never one with strong personal budget management skills. While in college and shortly after, I was with a man who made less money then myself.

He’s generally conservative with money; I’m not. I spend frivolously on parties, weekends, nights out, dinner, lunch, new shoes . . . anything. And I write off credit card debt to “Well, my income will just keep going up, so I can afford it!”

So here I sit. I’ve bought a condo and while the market was hot, I took out $28,000 in equity to ‘remodel’ — and, well, I’ve remodeled the bathroom and done some minor fix ups, and I paid down (but not off) my credit card debt.

And I keep spending.

The market has gone flat and my condo is worth about $15,000 less than I owe to my mortgage and equity loan — maybe $11,000 if I’m lucky. I can hardly afford to make my mortgage and association payments. And so I use credit to keep bringing more shiny, new things home.

Things I don’t need have accumulated into another $14,000 in credit card debt. And a $17,000 car loan. And I’m in graduate school, so I have to pay tuition too.

I’m single now and the two of us could hardly afford our lifestyle. Now I’m saddled with debt but hesitant to change my lifestyle drastically to make it better. I like my life. But I don’t sleep many nights because of the stress.

I am a train wreck and I need to find a way out. I struggle, struggle, struggle to pay bills and am now paying off one credit card with another — a sure sign of disaster.

The thing is, I’m making enough money to afford my lifestyle — if only I hadn’t already spent that money before I was making it. Hopefully with Mint’s financial management software, I’ll be able to change and get to a point where I can live a much less stressful life.

Train Wreck Tuesdays are a weekly post of horrible financial mistakes. They are posted anonymously. Submit your story; if you’re selected, you get a free personal finance book. The best comment gets the same prize! Check out past Train Wreck stories here.

Further Reading on Budgeting

• Personal Budget Management
• Household Budget Software
• Personal Expense Management & Software
• Create a Personal Budget Online

Creating a family budget is something that we care about here at Mint. Learn more tips to build a family budget in our blog article index.

If you’re lucky enough to be a parent, no doubt you’ve already planned out the first eighteen years of your child’s life. True to your dreams, they should have all of the positive experiences they can soak up, with none of the pitfalls and traumas that are out there. Sound familiar? While those plans are admirable (and hey, who wouldn’t want their kid to avoid the lunch-money bully in second grade), be wary: Sometimes you can accidentally shield your child from important life lessons in the process.

Take this article to heart, then: We’ve put together four big mistakes we may make with our kids when it comes to finances. (New: Hint: Managing the family budget is one of them). Not a parent? Take notes anyway, so you know exactly what your not-so-favorite cousin is doing wrong with their son.

1. Money? What’s that?

One of the biggest mistakes a parent can make is to avoid the subject of money altogether. This ranges from the money-doesn’t-exist approach (avoiding the subject altogether), to the I-can’t-hear-you method (dodging direct questions from your kids when the subject comes up). It doesn’t matter. It all comes down to the same concept.

“How much do you make?” — “How much does that cost?” — “Where does money go and where does it come from?” Do these sound familiar? If your child has ever piped up with questions like these, seize them: they’re the perfect opportunity to expose them to the values and concepts of money. If you brush your child’s question off, you are neglecting the very opportunity to educate them when they’re expressing interest!

If your child asks how much you make, you can use this as a chance to explain the family budget and income to your child. Write down an estimate of how much you make, how much is taken away by tax, and how much is left. With this, you can give your child a glimpse of the workings of money, why your family may have a certain budget, and where the money goes when it’s being spent.

Even if your child is too young to understand completely, you are at the very least imparting some glimmer of financial knowledge onto your child — plus, you’re teaching them at the very moment when they want to learn! Imagine trying to teach your children about the same values when they’re 14 and stomping up to their room because you wouldn’t pay their $150 cell phone text bill. Hopefully, you can understand which path is easier.

Bottom line: If your child is curious about money, talk to them about it. Avoiding the conversation while they’re young will make the conversations that much more difficult and awkward when the time comes to cut the strings. Remember, it all starts with the home budget.

2. Okay, okay. You can have it. Just this once though!

Whether it be giving your kids what other kids have, or giving them what they want simply because they saw it in a commercial, every parent has most likely done it at least once, or twice (or a few hundred times) — giving a handout to their kid, or giving in to their kid’s demands.

It’s understandably a tough situation: You want to provide the very best for your child, because every parent would want their child to have better opportunities or a better life than what the parents themselves had. The problem begins when you give too much, and your child may develop a sense of entitlement as a result.

We all know what happens if we try to keep up with the Joneses. What will happen if our children try to keep up with other children?

So before you buy something for your child, ask these questions to yourself (and maybe even to your child): Why am I buying this for my kid? Will it help them in their school work? Will it teach them the skills they need? Will it enrich their life culturally? Or will my kid grab this and run off to show it to their friends, only to drop it for something else two days later?

Certainly, your kids deserve nice things. But if you’re not careful with your balance, besides the sense of entitlement, your kids may not develop the ability to delay satisfaction. Worse, if you give too much to your child, they may disassociate themselves from the true cost of things.

3. Oh, let’s just help Johnny out this time.

Saving your child from financial blunder may be in every parent’s impulsive nature; But before you come swooping in to rescue your child from their financial mishap, consider the consequences carefully!

Did your child accidentally spend all their allowance for the week on candy and toys? Resist the urge to give them more money just so they’ll make the same mistake. Let them understand the consequences of unplanned spending or bad purchase decisions. Consider this: Would it be better if your 10-year-old impulsively purchased a crummy $20 toy car, or if your 21-year-old child impulsively financed a crummy $20,000 car? Letting your child make financial mistakes will enable them to learn from those same hazards.

If you aren’t careful with how you help your child financially, you may find yourselves becoming the Bank of Mom and Dad. The last thing any parent would want is for their adult child to call them in the middle of the night, asking to borrow money because they blew $15,000 at the slots in Vegas. You have the power when they’re young to form the correct habits… and sometimes that can even mean letting go enough for them to learn, themselves.

When you do help your child financially, plan it out ahead of time. Give meaning and purpose to your aid, and make certain your child understands why you wish to help them — as well as the extent of that help. A great example is always helping your child pay for their higher education. Open a dialog with your child and discuss with them how you’ll be able to help them out financially. This way, your child knows what to expect, and understands how far your financial lifeline may stretch.

4. Mommy and daddy can do this… because we just can.

Not being consistent in your financial teaching impacts your child in a very negative way. If you tell your kids they can’t buy a pack of baseball cards, and then turn around to splurge on season tickets to the Giants for yourself — you may be sending a mixed signal to your child. In order to teach your child a sound financial lifestyle, you have to teach by being a living example and explaining about the home budget.

Keeping your teaching consistent is an important key in reinforcing certain ideas to your children, especially while they’re young. When you give out mixed signals, kids can easily dismiss previous financial lessons from you. After all, if mommy and daddy can do it, why can’t I?

If you’re ever in a situation where you do something different than the values you’ve been imposing on your child, explain to them clearly why your actions may be different. Even if your child doesn’t understand your reasoning fully, you’ll at least impart on your child the sense that there is a reason behind the action.

Money Mistakes with Our Child: A Check List

1. Not discussing money entirely.
2. Avoiding teaching opportunities when your child expresses interest.
3. Giving to your child without a balance.
4. Not letting your child learn from their financial mistakes.
5. Helping your child financially without a mutual understanding about the situation.
6. Not being consistent in what you teach.
7. Giving mixed signals or creating double standards.
8. (Back to #1:) Avoiding a dialog for any of the situations above.

If there’s one thing you’ll notice from the four mistakes above, it’s is that there is a common solution to all of them — open a dialog and communicate with your child.

When you discuss with your child money subject, you not only impart knowledge to your child, but you’re also giving them a chance to voice their concerns or questions. The real gem in all of this is that, even if the financial discussion doesn’t go well, you’re still giving your kid your time and love — and at the end, that is what’s truly important.

Further Reading on Family Budgets

• Household Budget Software
• Money saving tips, tracking, and tools
• Personal Budget Management

Mint’s note: Below is the follow-up we received from the Tuesday Train Wreck posted two weeks ago, entitled The Pastor’s House. In this story, the submitter purchased a house from their pastor, who exploited their trust in him to sell them a house that required major improvements, under an unfavorable contract. It looked like it would lead to a home budget nightmare. Although the Tuesday Train Wreck series usually involves uh-oh stories, we are supremely glad to share a more-than-happy ending to our readers.

My wife and I have some news worth sharing. This Saturday we moved out of our Train Wreck House and into our new house as first-time home buyers (complete with mortgage). I subscribe to the mint blog — and other personal finance weblogs — because our resolution for 2007 was to get out of that house and “take back our wallet.”

As part of our resolution, earlier this year we reviewed our Land Lease Contract and noticed something very interesting: an expiration date. The contract was only good for two years, which meant it was no longer valid. Our status was horizontally shifted to renters and we hadn’t noticed. This gave us a great deal of freedom and piece of mind.

We started searching for the house we wanted in mid-February and we found it by March. Six weeks later and we’re tired, sore, and “in.” As for the Train Wreck House, we’ve returned it to the owner. Because we moved so quickly we felt it was right to give one extra month of rent to the owner, our former Pastor, and just move on.

This time we did our research. We found a great FSBO right in the middle of our target area. I read many books, blogs, and statistics, and was prepared for presenting the sales agreement and negotiating specifics. Often the worst situations are the ones we learn from and, in the end, we couldn’t be happier.

Thanks for posting my story. It was cathartic to write. I feel like I could let it go. Buying “the home of our dreams” and having it fall into the home budget helps a lot, too.

Mint: We’re glad posting the story helps you (if just a bit) in burying the past. Thanks for sharing!

Train Wreck Tuesdays are a weekly post of horrible financial mistakes. They are posted anonymously. Submit your story; if you’re selected, you get a free personal finance book. The best comment gets the same prize!

Further Reading

• Personal Budget Management
• Expense Tracking and Planner
• Household Budget Software

We found out our Pastor was selling his house. He was working on buying a new house, contingent upon unloading his former home right away. We’ve been to his house many times, and it was dated but large. Big enough to raise a family. We wanted it. This is in December 2000, and the housing market was booming.

We lived in a depressed area and house prices hadn’t inflated. He wanted $70,000 for his 2500 square-foot Victorian. The appraisal came in at $62,000. In order to buy his new home, our Pastor needed to sell at $69,000. He was a good friend, and we were sure he wouldn’t set us up for a bad deal. After all, he’s our Pastor, right?

He needed everything right away, and didn’t have time for us to get a loan. We had very little credit and weren’t sure if we could get a loan, anyway. Our Pastor suggested a Land Lease Contract. The terms were simple: We pay $700/month and $9,000 down. This sounded fine. In a few months we could get a loan and buy the house. That night we signed the deal and gave him a $9,000 check.

Boy, were we taken for a ride. We have been in this house for over six years. The contract for the Land Lease was so vague that no lender could figure out how to support us. The $9,000 we paid our Pastor initially wasn’t good as a down payment on a loan, months — even years — later. Lenders wanted us to start over and make another down payment. In effect, we had given away $9,000. What a shame. Since then we’ve never been able to save $9,000.

Within six years we’d paid over $11,000 for improvements and repairs. We found out quickly that this house was falling apart. It’s over 125 years old and has seen very little maintanence. As brand-new home buyers, we didn’t realize that we should have had an inspection done, even when a friend — a Pastor — was selling us his house. If we had had an inspection, the “sale” would never have happened.

Two years after we moved in, the “rent” was lowered to $500/month. We’ve paid about $40,000 in “rent” on the land lease. Now the housing market has seen a downturn and this area is even more depressed. Most homes in town have been on the market well over two years.

By the numbers we’ve sunk $60,000 into a home that appraised at $62,000. We should own this house by now. But we don’t. If we buy this house we’ll have to finance an additional $60,000. If we finance that money at 6% for 15 years we’ll still be paying $500/month. At the end of the loan we’ll have paid $90,000 with interest. That brings the total price of this house to $150,000! How is that for a poor home budget.

Friends don’t set up friends with a bad deal.

Train Wreck Tuesdays are a weekly post of horrible financial mistakes. They are posted anonymously. Submit your story; if you’re selected, you get a free personal finance book. The best comment gets the same prize!

Further Reading

• Budget Software and Tracking
• Expense Tracking and Planner
• Personal Expense Management & Software