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.
Table of Contents
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.
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. Of course, a lot of things depend on which of the income tax brackets 2022 you fall into as well.
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.