Maximizing Your Purim Budget: Tips for Mishloach Manot, Costumes, and Festive Fun As Purim approaches, it’s time to plan your holiday preparations. From making Mishloach Manot to finding the perfect costume, here are some savvy tips to help you save money while still enjoying the festivities to the fullest. Mishloach Manot: Stay organized by creating a list of people who you want to send mishloach manot to and sorting them into categories like family, friends, and neighbours. This will ensure you don’t forget anyone and avoid unnecessary leftovers. Perhaps limit your list, sometimes it is quality and not quantity that...
Last week, amidst all the chaos that engulfed our small country, numerous questions were raised about employment: There is a war on; do I have to go to work? I want to stay with my children; will I be fired if I do so? I am frightened to travel to work; what do I do? My employer wants me to take enforced vacation; what are my rights? Due to the multitude of questions raised, the Ministry of Employment has broadcasted a webinar in which they tried to answer all the above questions. THERE IS A WAR ON! DO I HAVE...
The last year has been one of the most challenging ones that I have experienced ever since I divorced and my parents passed away in the same year. Most of the year was taken up with my medical issue of having to deal with advanced glaucoma, I had lost 95% of my sight in my left eye. How that happened is another story. I had to undergo an eye operation to alleviate the pressure in my eye that was damaging my eyesight. However, the most challenging aspect of this new situation was taking medication to lower the pressure in my...
Last year, I travelled to Holland for 10 days during the winter with a carry on weighing just 8 kg, of which 4kg were presents for my hosts. After giving a lot of thought to what clothes I would need, it amazed me how careful planning enabled me to really cut down on the quantity I took. Now, I have just returned from a lovely 5-day vacation in Crete. While preparing, I decided that if I could manage with very little clothing in the winter, the rule would hold even more true for the summer. The cost of sending a suitcase...
Soon thousands of Israelis will be traveling abroad for their annual vacation and will need to buy foreign currency. Most of us look for the nearest exchange to buy foreign currency abroad or to convert the foreign currency to shekels and receive it on the spot. Some of us will still go to the bank even though most surveys prove that the currency exchange in banks is the most expensive in the country and there are also those who will prefer the mail which is considered attractive. The question of buying foreign currency usually arises mainly before the planned trip abroad. Although...
The public transportation reform, which was implemented on August 1, 2022, affects all employers who reimburse their employees for travel expenses according to public transportation rates. The reform also affects people who use public transport but not necessarily for work. Since the transportation reform program (“Derech Shaveh”) changed both the single trip rate and the “monthly free” חופשי חודשי subscription rate, it directly affects the amounts that employers will pay to employees as travel expense reimbursements. There are two main relevant changes: The first change is in the “monthly free” tickets חופשי חודשי. From now on, there are only 2...
It’s August, and in addition to all your household’s regular expenses, you also have to deal with the expense of purchases for the return to school. So, how do you do it smartly? Here are some tips that will help. First of all, check out what’s left from last year Each of us has a drawer or box with school supplies, notebooks, erasers, sharpeners and so on. And while there’s nothing more exciting than buying everything new for the next school year, when you check what you already have at home, you’ll most likely discover that you already have a...
Israel is celebrating its 74th Anniversary, it has been a very challenging year. We had an election and managed to form a government. Managing the Coronavirus was a major challenge for the new Government. It also made us re-evaluate our family values, friendships, the work environment completely changed, and of course how we spend our money. HERE ARE SOME STATISTICS ABOUT LIVING IN ISRAEL 2022 The population of Israel as of 2022 is 9,449 million and growing.6,982 million – Jews1,995 million – Arabs472j thousand – Other The median age group in Israel is 30.5 years of age.The largest age group is currently 0-4 years and the...
Purim is one of my most favorite chag, full of festivities. We all meet up to hear the megilah, gather together with family and friends for the Purim seudah, and give mishloachei manot to our family, friends and neighbours – a lovely way of connecting with the community. Talking about the community, giving donations is also a Purim mitzvah. We all dress up in costumes, from babies to grandparents, Purim is the festival when everybody has a good time.Yet. with the recent sharp rise in prices, Purim can be financially challenging for some of us. In this newsletter, I will...
In the midst of a pandemic, the work market becomes very volatile. What happens when suddenly one of the breadwinners is made redundant? What do you do? For those of you who work with a budget, you make adjustments until employment is found again therefore the family is not put under financial stress and does not spiral into debt.So how does one streamline expenses as quickly as possible? STEP ONE – It is imperative to know what your spending habits are before the change. If you do not have a budget, take the bank and credit card statements from before the...
