It seems like holiday decorations make it into the stores a little earlier every year…it may not have reached the point where we start seeing Christmas items in July, but it doesn’t seem that far off. It can seem ridiculous to think about the holidays so early, but there may be a method to the madness, at least from the personal finance point of view.

People always need to find clever ways to stretch their food dollars. I’m not talking about hunters and gatherers – they obviously had a hard time staying well-fed. But even as humans learned how to farm, grow and manufacture their own food, families were still large and resources weren’t necessarily plentiful.

When was the last time you attempted to repair instead of buying a new replacement?

Please welcome Vered, who will be posting here regularly on financial matters with a mom’s perspective. Let her know what you think of her first article by leaving a comment below!