Author Archives: femmefrugality

Myth Busting Women’s Banking for Women’s History Month

Pair of blue Aldo high heeled shoes with floral print. One is resting on a large white block. The other is hovering above against a light blue wall.

I keep seeing articles and some allusions on big financial sites that say something along the lines of, “It was illegal for women to have bank accounts in their own name before the 1960s.”

And this just isn’t accurate.

While I’m all about pointing out the financial barriers women face — and banking was and is one of them — I’m fairly certain this one isn’t true.

Let’s talk about what really happened in the 20th century and prior to get a better look at women’s banking history.

Not all women

Let’s be perfectly clear with something upfront: Discourse around women’s rights in American history most often revolves around white women’s rights. Some of the laws we’ll cover today date back to a time when slavery was still legal. Some of them were influenced by people who used blatantly racist arguments to prop up the rights of white women.

And we can see the residual effect of that racism even to this day. Black individuals and other marginalized populations are still being denied credit or being given access to less credit than white individuals in 2023. Some offenders over the past 10 years include:

  • Wells Fargo
  • Hudson City Bank
  • Associated Bank
  • Bank of America

On top of limited credit, systemic poverty enforced by redlining and a million other racially-charged laws means that you’re more likely to be unbanked if you’re not white.

If you’re unbanked because you’re in Chexsystem, you might have ended up there because of the predatory fees banks are allowed to charge on low-income client accounts. If you’re in Chexsystem that effectively means you still can’t open a bank account at most financial institutions to this day.

Further reading: Kassandra Dasent’s review of The Black Tax

Colonial America & Post-Revolutionary America

Women could participate in the economy — including banking —  in Colonial America. To be fair, the percentage of women that did participate in banking in particular was minuscule compared to total populace because there were still so many societal obstacles. Though a much larger portion of the population did engage in small business endeavors.

It was a little more complicated for married women. When you got married, you were typically subject to coverture laws, which essentially means you merge into the same legal being as your husband. In most colonies, that meant your husband could conduct business relative to your shared estate without your consent, but you could not do the same without his consent.

You could, if you were monied and powerful enough, become a feme sole trader, which was a legal allowance that let you evade coverture. In this way you could get married and still maintain your own legal estate as if you were single.

While things got marginally less good after the Revolution that established our new country in terms of banking and property rights, as pressure to raise the first generation of American men fell on mothers, by and large these same rules applied to women in the early days of America. Things were particularly favorable to women (at least in the context of the times) in the Northeast, and New York state in particular had some progressive laws in this rite.

The Constitution did disbar women from voting. So while you could theoretically hold economic power if you were among the privileged few, you couldn’t wield political power directly.

FUN FACT: Wanna know something that was widely accepted in early America? Abortion.

When things started to change course

Things started to change for women in the Victorian age leading up to and including the Industrial Revolution.

Why did they change?

Ironically enough, because of the rise of one specific woman to power.

Queen Victoria of England is purported to have some pretty strong views on women’s roles in society, which included unpaid domestic labor and motherhood as a divine calling. ‘Proper’ women weren’t meant to work outside the home. Her philosophies spread to the States.

This was also the era when women were considered to be morally superior, and had to take on the burden of amending men’s iniquities while being discouraged from building their own independence.

In many ways, this was a rebellion against the relative gains women’s rights had experienced in England in the 1700s.

How much of these popular thoughts of the time can actually be ascribed to Victoria’s opinions is a little cloudy. While she is on record saying women shouldn’t pursue certain professions, and after her death some comments she made casting the women’s rights movement  in a negative light surfaced and circulated, she was also used as a foil by both sides of women’s rights movements simply because she was a woman in power.

A lot of women who weren’t rich still did work. Things weren’t equal towards them, and there was a lot of workplace harassment. (Arguably while things have gotten better, these circumstances still exist in 2023.)

Rich women often passed from being an attachment on their father’s estate to merging into their husband’s estate, without building up any assets or savings they could truly call their own.

Early laws for women’s property and banking

It’s interesting that the number of laws protecting women’s financial rights rise exactly when those rights were effectively being further restricted because of shifting societal norms.

Most of these laws applied to married women because, again, if you were single or widowed or  divorced, you were still allowed to hold property or open a bank account. At many, though not all, banks, you might need a male family member’s consent, but this was  a bit less common than if you were married.

Just because you were allowed to manage your finances independently if you weren’t married didn’t mean you didn’t face discrimination. A bank might refuse to lend to you or allow you to open a bank account based on your gender, though a lot of the culture around those laws varied in different states.

There were often ‘Ladies Waiting Rooms‘ at banks that were friendly to women. Depending on the state and the individual bank, these rooms were meant for you to wait while your husband conducted business, or for you to wait while someone in the ‘Ladies Department’ prepared for the meeting concerning your own, independent finances.

1839: Married women can hold property in their own name in Mississippi. But like…

Mississippi is often credited as the first state that passed laws allowing married women to hold their own property. But the story is messy.

Remember how I said women’s rights were often advocated for in a racially-charged way?

This story is no exception.

Both legal cases that culminated in the passage of the Married Women’s Property Act of 1839 centered around a woman’s right to own a slave as her own property.

The other aspect of this story is that while Mississippi was the first state to feel the need to pass this type of law, Louisiana Civil Code may have had some modicum of influence on the case. And Louisiana Civil Code already allowed married women to maintain their own property.

Please note that I do not condone the language used in the following piece, but you can take a deeper dive on the history of this specific law here.

1848: Married Women’s Property Act in New York State

In 1848, New York State passed a law that gave married women the right to own their own property. It should be noted that despite being a Northern state, slavery did still happen in New York. So it’s not like that element was taken out of the equation.

This law gave married women the right to:

  • Not be automatically liable for her husband’s debts.
  • Enter contracts independently.
  • Collect rents in her own name.
  • Receive inheritances in her own name.
  • File a lawsuit on her own.

Every single other state followed suit over the next 52 years, with similar laws on the books across the country by 1900.

1862: First state allows women to open bank accounts regardless of marital status.

That’s right. Alllll the way back in 1862, California became the first state to pass a law that explicitly allowed women to open a bank account in their own names — regardless of marital status. So even married women could participate independently.

Something to note, both with New York and California, is that these laws were impacted by people involved in the Suffragist movement. Many in the Suffragist movement were notably racist, using the rights that Black men technically but not always effectively gained after the Civil War as an argument for why white women should be granted political power and the right to vote.

Banker of Note: Maggie Lena Walker

1862: Homestead Act

In 1862, Abe Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. There’s a lot to say about the Homestead Act, but there are two pertinent points in today’s context.

The first is that it pushed cultural norms by not requiring a male cosigner for single women to participate in homesteading in their own name. While it wasn’t a banking regulation, the fact that this policy was included was of influential note.

The other thing to note with the Homestead Act is that, once again, systemic obstacles made it difficult for Black people to participate regardless of gender. Kassandra keyed us into the fact that while former slaves were eligible, the application fees were high enough to be prohibitive to an already economically disenfranchised people, resulting in 99% of the beneficiaries of the Homestead Act being white.

So, what happened in the 1960s, then?

To be real with you, I’m not 100% sure what people are referring to when they say something in the 1960s happened to make it legal for women to hold a bank account. All I can find are unsourced declarations parroted across finance sites over the past couple of years.

There were laws passed that protected women against (certain types of) pay discrimination when it came to the minimum wage, and against certain cases of employment discrimination. White women did piggyback their way into the Civil Rights Act of 1964, too, though this law didn’t apply to banks.

What I can tell you is what happened in the 1970s.

RBG and credit

Okay, so we know that at least since the mid-1800s if not prior, women could open a bank account in their own name. Whether they could do it as a single woman or a married woman varied by state. And even in states that allowed it, there were cultural practices that effectively ended in discrimination.

Credit was even more of a problem, and it was becoming an increasing concern as Americans started relying more heavily on credit in the 20th century. In these instances, married women were often still considered to be one legal body with their husbands, and banks often required the husband’s signature and assets to be considered on the application.

In this space, single women also faced discrimination, especially if they were younger and of marrying age. The assumption was that once they got married, they’d no longer work or have an income, and therefore they’d be bad accounts to take on.

Perceived fertility wasn’t the end all and be all, though — we were still holding onto some Victorian values that women were the weaker sex, more emotional and incapable of handling practical, logical matters on their own. Like money, and more specifically, credit.

In 1974, after a lot of great work from RBG while at the ACLU, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed, which, among other things, required banks to consider credit applications in a woman’s own name regardless of marital status, and only allowed banks to require the consideration of a husband’s finances if it was a joint application.

My understanding (I am not a lawyer) is that these regulations applied to anyone who issued credit, and because banks and financial institutions are the ones that tend to offer credit, they also could no longer make these requirements of those applying for deposit accounts, either.

Though, again, depending on where you lived, you may have already been protected from that discrimination by state law for deposit accounts in technicality if not practice.

Why is this important?

Were things harder for women in regards to banking prior to the 1970s?

Absolutely.

But it was not illegal for a woman to hold a bank account prior to the 1960s. Some women did, and some women also held mortgages and other financial products in their own names. Some women were independently wealthy of their spouse or lack thereof.

A lot the women who did hold bank accounts were single — whether they be single mothers, never married, or widowed. Overall, they faced a lot of financial obstacles particularly when it came to workplace and employment discrimination. But when they were allowed to earn money, some were allowed to manage it, and many of them deserve some props for doing so.

It’s not just the erasure of women’s contributions that’s important. When we pretend like nothing was allowed for women in the financial sector prior to the 1970s, we also erase the systemic racism built into our legal history. Many of these laws were passed in favor of white women’s whiteness, sometimes in direct and vocal opposition to the rights of Black citizens and other marginalized citizens.

We continue to see the remnants of these ideologies passed on through our laws and the practice thereof today.

All this said, I do not have a PhD in History. I am not a lawyer. If I’m missing nuance, if I’m missing laws, let me know in the comments. This conversation is open to discourse.

Money News: 2023 Edition

It’s 2023 and we’re all very busy pretending the sky isn’t falling.

I hope that so far this year has been a little easier on your finances. Today, I wanted to take a minute to provide you with updates on some of the topics we’ve discussed on Femme Frugality in the past.

Some of the updates are great news or good hacks you can use to make your money better.

Some of them are straight bummers.

But if we’re aware of the negatives, we can plan better for them and ultimately make our financial lives a little less rocky.

Getting Grants for Disabled Family Members

Today is launch day for Season 3 of Mom Autism Money!

Joyce and I were super psyched to sit down with Sheletta Brundidge to learn about how her family secured over $200,000 in grant funding for her Autistic children’s needs.

Not only has Sheletta gotten the money, but she now teaches workshops to parents who want to do the same. She shares tips and tricks for the grant search and application process in this episode.

Even if you don’t need this episode, I promise there’s someone in your life who does. Insurance hardly covers the cost of disability, and grants can help individuals and families fill in the gaps. Please share it with the people in your life it could help.

ABLE Age Adjustment Act passed!

In December 2022, SECURE 2.0 passed. Inside of SECURE 2.0 was the ABLE Age Adjustment Act, which pushes the eligible age of onset of disability from 26 to 46, opening up the accounts to 6 million new Americans effective in 2026.

Here’s where you can get all the details on the changes and implications of this bill’s passage into law.

If you don’t care about ABLE accounts, you need to look into SECURE 2.0 period. Especially if you’re not Daddy Warbucks. There are massive changes to retirement plans in there, and most of them apply to low- or middle-income Americans. For once, the changes can tip things in our favor if we’re paying attention.

Your tax refund is prolly gonna be a whole lot smaller.

I know. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you haven’t filed your taxes yet, you need to be prepared for the fact that your 2022 refund is likely to be a whole lot smaller this year. Here’s why.

You might even owe!

Inflation isn’t done with the grocery stores yet.

Overall, inflation is on its way down. It’s still incredibly too high, but at least it’s headed in the right direction.

One place where it’s NOT headed in the right direction?

The aisle of your grocery store. The USDA is predicting an overall hike of 8%, though prices may go up way higher than that depending on item, and some products are actually predicted to have a price decrease.

Here are some of the things you can expect to spend more money on in 2023. The piece is specific to Costco, but aside from the bit about membership fees, the same general idea can be applied to any store.

How to Score High-End Perfume for a Whole Lot Less

This post is brought to you and written in part by an outside writer.

Picture of pink and white flowers arranged around a perfume bottle on a marble table. Black text reads 'pay less for luxe scents femmefrugality.com'
Friends, you know we have been all about fighting inflation around here lately.

That means looking for extra ways to make money.

It means negotiating and reducing your recurring bills in any way possible.

And, of course, it means shaving back the costs of the consumer goods you purchase.

Today, I want to show you a way I recently found to get the quality of luxury perfume without getting hit with a massive sticker price.

Luxury-adjacent perfume for less

Those who know me know that perfume is not something I’m likely to shell out full price for. It’s just not important enough for me to have luxury in this portion of my life on a regular basis.

So you know when I do buy luxe, there’s gotta be some kind of sale or deal involved.

I think I might have found the biggest deal of all when it comes to perfume. Dossier is a perfume company that offers scents that mimic the original luxury lines. The name on the bottle is different, but the scents are nearly identical and high-quality to boot.

Think brands like Versace, Dior, and YSL, except in a simpler bottle and at a fraction of the price.

For example, you could pick up a bottle of 50 mL bottle of Floral Honeysuckle, engineered to mimic Gucci’s Bloom, for just $29.

Bloom comes in 100 mL bottles for $155. If you really needed the whole 100 mL, you could purchase two bottles of Dossier’s Floral Honeysuckle for just $58 – or 63% less.

Eco-conscious perfume

One of the biggest benefits of Dossier perfumes is that the company tries to conduct business ethically. Their products are 100% Vegan and Cruelty-free. This means that the fragrances are made without using animal-derived ingredients, and that the brand does not conduct any animal testing.

The company goes further with its environmental consciousness by making their bottles out of 100% recycled glass, and their boxes out of 100% recycled cardboard.

Perfume etiquette for time and place

Okay, so I’m not gonna lie. I didn’t know there was such a thing as perfume etiquette or best practices – other than don’t ever wear AXE and try not to lay anything on too thick.

But someone wiser than me cued me in to the things you should consider before wearing perfume on a trip, so I guess it’s important to think about before you buy!

Here are the tips. Lemme know what you think:

  • Climate and weather: The climate and weather conditions of your destination can greatly impact your perfume choice. For example, a heavy, musky scent may not be suitable for a hot and humid climate, whereas a light and fresh fragrance would be more appropriate. Similarly, a floral scent may be more suitable for a spring or summer destination, whereas a warm and spicy scent may be more appropriate for a fall or winter destination.

 

  • Cultural and social norms: The cultural and social norms of your destination should also be taken into consideration when choosing the right perfume. Some cultures may have different attitudes towards fragrance, with some preferring more subtle scents, while others may embrace stronger, more pungent fragrances. It’s important to be mindful of the social etiquette and customs in different destinations, such as avoiding strong fragrances in religious spaces or in public transportation.

 

  • Personal preferences and comfort level: Your personal preferences and comfort level should play a significant role in your perfume choice. The fragrance you wear should make you feel confident and comfortable, and should reflect your personal style and preferences. Take the time to experiment with different scents to find what works best for you, and don’t be afraid to try new fragrances and explore new scents while traveling.

And if you’re a newb to this whole perfume etiquette thing like me, you might be surprised to learn there are rules depending on the time of day you’re wearing perfume:

  • Daytime activities: For daytime activities, it’s best to choose light and fresh scents. Citrus, floral, and green scents are all great options for daytime wear, as they are bright, energizing, and not too overpowering. Look for fragrances with notes of lemon, bergamot, jasmine, or rose, which are all light and fresh scents that are well-suited for daytime wear.

 

  • Nighttime events: For nighttime events, you might want to consider choosing a warmer and more intense fragrance. Spicy scents are great options for nighttime wear, as they are rich and warm. Look for fragrances with notes of cinnamon, vanilla, patchouli, or musk, which are all warm and intense scents that are well-suited for nighttime wear.

 

  • Special occasions: For special occasions, you might want to choose a fragrance that is elegant and sophisticated. Floral and woody scents are both great options for special occasions, as they are refined and sophisticated. Look for fragrances with notes of rose, jasmine, sandalwood, or cedarwood, which are all elegant and sophisticated scents that are well-suited for special occasions.

Getting Higher Quality Perfume on a Budget

When I shop for perfume, $25 — $50 is my maximum range. So the fact that I can now score a much higher quality product that’s so close to luxury brands, all while still staying on budget? That’s pretty thrilling.

Have you ever tried Dossier? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

Free Entrance to National Parks in 2023

This is incredibly useful and is going to save me some money! It tells you how to get into national parks for free--in the US and Canada.

Over four hundred of America’s national parks are free everyday.  But nearly 125 of them aren’t.  Luckily, the park system does offer free days, so you can go enjoy our beautiful country while remaining completely and totally frugal.

National Park Free Entrance Days for 2019

Prior to 2018, there were weeks-worth of free National Park Days. But in the years since, the number has been cut down to just five days.  If you want to visit on a free entrance day, you’re going to have to plan a little more carefully.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Fees will be waived on January 16, 2023 in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

First Day of National Park Week

Before 2018, there were five free days in the month of April recognizing National Park Week. Ever since, though, you only get in for free on the first day of the celebration. This year, that date is April 22, 2023.

Great American Outdoors Act Day

To celebrate the 2020 passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, you’ll be able to gain free admission to parks on August 4, 2023.

National Public Lands Day

Admission will be free on September 23, 2023 in honor of National Public Lands Day.

Veterans Day

You can get into national parks for free in celebration of Veterans Day on November 11, 2023.

Which National Parks require an entrance fee?

I’ve been lucky to travel a good bit in my time. National parks always bring such a sense of awe and wonder. It’s one thing to wander around in the woods in your backyard. It’s a completely different thing to spend time in pristine, protected wilderness.

Some of my favorite national parks that will be waiving their fees on free days are:

There’s a ton of others, too. I was surprised to find the ones in my own back yard that I never knew existed. To find some near you, you can check out the National Park Service’s website.

Free Entry to National Parks Year Round

If you fall into any of the following demographics, you can get a free national park pass. You only need one per vehicle to get into the park, so if anyone in your family falls into one of these categories, you could theoretically get the entire clan in for free.

  • You are a US citizen with a documented disability.
  • You are a 4th grader. Eligibility starts on your first day of fourth grade and ends on your first day of fifth grade.
  • You are a member of the military or a military dependent.
  • You are a federal lands volunteer with at least 250 hours under your belt.

You can learn more about each of these programs here.

Not-Free Annual Pass

Depending on how often you visit national parks, it might make sense to invest in an annual pass. there are different prices for different parts of the population.

Annual Pass – $80

This is the pass for the vast majority of the populace. You’ll have to pay an $80 annual fee, and you can get it if you are:

  • An American citizen between the ages of 16 — 62.
  • An international visitor.

If you’re just visiting one park that has a per-car fee, this pass might not save you money. But if you’re doing multiple entries or visiting multiple parks, it might keep some cash in your wallet.

Senior Annual Pass – $20

If you’re age 62 or over, you can get the annual pass for just $20 — which is far more likely to save you money over the $80/year option.

Senior Lifetime Pass – $80

Want the senior pass to last beyond this year? You can pay $80 once and hold it for the rest of your life, which is a pretty great deal. You can only get this pass if you’re age 62 or older.

Getting into Canadian National Parks for Free

The first way to get into Canadian national parks for free is via a Canoo mobile app. This method is reserved for those who have become Canadian citizens in the past year, or immigrated to Canada in the past year.

The second way to get into Canadian National Parks for free is to be young! Anyone under 17 years of age can get into national parks for free all the time. Find out more about the youth program here.

We’d love to hear about your national park experiences! Tell us about them in the comments section.

How I’m Fighting Inflation

As of writing, the latest inflation numbers put us at 7.1%.

That’s down from the pandemic peak of 9.1% in June of 2022.

When I first started this blog, we were three-and-a-half years out from the initial start of the Great Recession.

Frugality was all the rage. A lot of the Millennial ‘influencers’ you see around got their start writing about how the heck to scrimp by under the adverse circumstances of our youth.

I’m not thrilled that we’re here again. It was always inevitable that we would end up back here eventually, but the circumstances this time are pretty frustrating.

Woman punching towards the camera with pink hand wraps on. Fist is in focus. Woman's face isn't.

How I’ve Been Combating Inflation

As inflation has risen, I’ve changed up the ways I do things to try to assert power over what could very quickly spiral into budgetary devastation.

So here’s what I’ve been doing. I hope it inspires you to pursue creative ways to give yourself some wiggle room, too.

 

Went the Summer with no AC in my car: $750

Right in time for summer, the AC went out in my car.

I was hoping it would be a simple fix. But after taking it to the mechanic, I learned it wasn’t.

There were cracks and canisters and labor — the price of which had recently gone up thanks to rising inflation.

Going through with the fix would cost me $750.

I decided to keep that money in my bank account instead.

My hair resented me for it.

But I didn’t really care.

IT WAS $750.

 

Took advantage of checking account bonuses: $700

I had a few payments come in from new clients this year. Before I got those initial ACH deposits, I researched bank account bonuses.

Good checking account bonuses are a few to several hundred dollars. The requirements to earn the bonus tend to come with:

  • ACH deposit requirements. Occasionally you’ll run into one that lets you do transfers to qualify, but it’s not as common for checking accounts.
  • Debit card transaction requirements. Not all bonuses comes with these, but when they do, you’re usually getting something like $2 for each debit card transaction.
  • Time requirements. Usually these deposits or transactions have to happen within 30, 60, or 90 days of opening the account.

I also did one savings account this way. Even with Fed rate hikes, I’m still likely to earn more money through a high savings account signup bonus than I am through interest — even with rates above 3%. I ended up getting the high rates and the bonus, so that was a win.

This worked with the way I have my money allocated. Yours may look different.

 

Lowered my internet bill: $360/year

I filled out the super easy application for the Affordable Connectivity Program and started saving $30/month on my internet bill.

Legit! It took less than 48 hours to apply — and that was over a weekend.

You can qualify for this program based on income. And income limits are higher than you may think.

But income is not the only way to qualify. Check out all the ways you can qualify to start getting $30+ off your internet bill, too, with the Affordable Connectivity Program.

PRO TIP: On top of the ACP, make sure you’re negotiating your internet bill every time your contract renews. It’ll save you even more money.

 

Went through my online subscriptions with a fine-tooth comb: $360/year (so far)

It is super important to go through your checking account and credit card statements every month for so many reasons.

One of those reasons is to make sure you’re cancelling any auto-renew subscriptions you’re not actually actively using.

A lot of times we forget about these subscriptions while the company keeps billing us in the background. But staying aware of all your charges is a great way to remind yourself where you can cut expenses.

This was especially important to me since the pandemic started. In 2020 and 2021, I had allowed myself to spend a little bit more on these subscriptions. After all, we weren’t really spending money on entertainment elsewhere.

 

Taken advantage of free Covid tests through insurance: At least $800

We still take COVID-19 seriously in our house, so we go through a lot of tests. Especially on those occasions where we decide it is safe to socialize with others.

We get our Covid tests free through insurance. I have no idea if or for how long this will continue. But for now, you can get up to 8 tests per month for free through private insurance, and 2 through Medicaid.

 

Booked Travel on Points: $1,000+

2022 was the first time I had traveled since before the pandemic. I had a lot of travel credits through various programs. Some of them could be renewed by making a purchase I was going to anyways through the reward program’s shopping portal.

Others were expiring for various reasons. So I used them. On work trips. On family trips.

And they saved me oodles of money. I got far more than $1,000-worth of accommodations for $0.

 

I am almost winning this battle against inflation.

If I take the numbers I was paying before the pandemic and account for inflation, it costs about $4,250 more to run my household on a bare-bones budget than it did back then.

The math is imperfect here. But that’s a very rough, probably underestimate.

My inflation-fighting measures saved me at least $4,000 last year. Though there is one trip I might not have taken if I hadn’t had expiring travel points on hand. So take that for what it’s worth.

Overall, I got pretty darn close to neutralizing inflation in 2022.

But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel like I’m getting KO’d by it every single day.

 

How are you fighting inflation?

Let me know in the comments! Or, join me in the discussion on Instagram under #inflationchallenge.