Financial and Lifestyle Resources for Vermont

It’s hard to get through the holidays without hearing about Black Friday or Small Business Saturday, but in an increasingly online age, it’s Cyber Monday that offers the best deals (and you don’t have to wait in line). We rounded up some of our favorite Cyber Monday deals so you can save this holiday season!

Each year, millions of individuals flood the stores on Thanksgiving night, and into what we now refer to as Black Friday, to score awesome deals. The phrase "Black Friday" has a long history that hasn’t always been focused on commerce, and it is now followed by two other shopping-related holidays that encourage people to buy in different ways. How have these holidays evolved and how should you navigate them? Here’s a little advice.

The holiday season is heralded as a time of joy … and a time to buy. For those who have the means, it’s exciting to think about the new things you may get and the gifts you can give. For those who can’t afford holiday costs, it can be a time of anxiety and loneliness. For those who don’t have family or are going through their first holiday season without a loved one, it can be devastating.

If an image of your credit card immediately comes to mind when you hear the words “holiday shopping,” you aren’t alone. Some people do it the right way—saving throughout the year so they don’t need to buy on credit. The rest of us mere mortals start thinking about the holidays when they’re a couple months away and do the best we can to cover costs. If you’re a mere mortal, like myself, here are some holiday credit card habits that will help you make it through the season with your finances intact.

My wife and I are new homeowners and in preparing for winter, we've begun the yearly process of budgeting for our heating bill. In auditing how our house deals with heating over the past few chilly weeknights, we realized we wanted a better way to control the heat, while also saving on fuel oil!

Starting July 1, 2020, Vermonters are no longer permitted to put food scraps in the trash. This is the final phase of Vermont’s food waste landfill ban—part of the Universal Recycling Law which passed in 2012. The goal of the law is to reduce the state’s trash and increase recycling and composting of food waste. Why does this matter? We want to reduce dependence on landfilling, conserve valuable resources like aluminum and oil, and reduce greenhouse gases created from landfilled food scraps and other organic matter.

Home energy efficiency projects offer many benefits, including health and safety, comfort, structural durability, and energy savings. The money you save by making energy efficiency upgrades can help cover the costs of financing the improvements, making these a great investment from day one. To sweeten the deal, there are multiple programs, rebates, and discounts designed to make energy efficiency possible for people of most income levels. Here are some of the biggies:

August 14 is National Financial Awareness Day—a good reminder to take personal stock of your financial awareness. What does it mean to be financially aware? Financial awareness is akin to financial literacy and both refer to the knowledge and skill sets that support solid financial decisions and overall financial health.