When you’re looking at your monthly expenses, the first thing you’re going to look at is how much you need to spend each month just to stay afloat, which is to say what you’re spending on keeping the lights on.

The first quarter of the year has blown by and we’re almost a third finished with the second quarter of 2013. (My, how time flies!) Now’s a great time to check your goals, tweak your budget, and get serious about the rest of the year.

For the past three years, I’ve set some simple, yet on-going goals for myself: increase my credit score, ride my bike more, save a set amount and be debt-free. And each year I’m unhappy about not reaching them completely, but pat myself on the back for making some progress.

I don’t consider myself very handy when it comes to fixing things around the house or in general. Thankfully, I married someone who compensates for my inadequacies. Mr. LH can take things apart, oil, tighten, fix parts then put the object back together good as new. It has saved us a lot of money in terms of not having to replace fans, vacuums, and many of our appliances through the years.

One way to pay for little extra treats for yourself or your new home is Swagbucks. Swagbucks is an Internet search engine, much like Google. Simply use it during your day when you search the Internet, and occasionally you will be rewarded with Swagbucks, usually under 50 Swagbucks, but sometimes more than that.