On February 14, 2019, Mac’s Money Centre and the Student Success Centre partnered with McMaster’s Hospitality Services to bring students together by creating healthy and budget friendly meals. Throughout the event, our money coaches, award winning chefs, and certified nutritionist provided helpful tips on grocery shopping, meal-prep, creating “planned-overs”, and nutrition facts. In this free interactive cooking event, students learned how to cook Pad Thai and Spring Rolls while staying on a student-friendly budget.

Did we forget to mention that the meals we prepared was vegan, gluten-free, and delicious?

For more events like this, check OSCARplus and follow Mac’s Money Centre on Twitter. 

Thank you to McMaster Hospitality Services, Mac’s Money Centre, and the Student Success Centre for a wonderful event. For those interested in the recipe, see below:

One litre of Gluten free Pad Thai Sauce

1/2            cup                       Peanut butter

1/4            cup                       Coconut milk

1/2            cup                       Sweet chili sauce or tamarind

1/4            cup                       Tamari or soya sauce

1/8           cup                        Rice vinegar

2               cups                      H20

1               Tbls                       Garlic puree

1               Tbls                       Ginger puree

Mix all these ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to a light boil.

As soon as sauce is hot add your choice of ingredients to it and top with a lime wedge and (optional) chopped peanuts.

Enjoy!

We’ve launched a new series with Mac’s Money Centre called the Mac’s Money Show, happening twice a month. Check out our second episode, where our three special guests talk about Money and Food. ????

Guests include Chef Leigh Laidlaw and Liana Bontempo from McMaster University Hospitality Services, and Jennifer Chan, a Mac student and #HamOnt food Instagrammer (@jenlovesham). #mactalksmoney

Meet Mac’s Money Coach, Terry Bennett and Director of the Student Success Centre, Gina Robinson as they talk to students about the importance of budgeting and creating financial goals.

As it turns out, most are not very successful. Only about 10% of people meeting their new year’s goals. Also interesting, the overwhelming majority of resolutions are about health/fitness or personal finance. In order to help you beat the odds financially Tyler Welch, the host of Common Cents on Monday’s at 1:30 p.m. is giving some resolutions worth making and tips for success. Check out the info below or click the Mixcloud link to listen to the whole New Year’s episode of Common Cents.

Before getting started

Most people’s resolutions fail because they are not specific enough or your will power is not strong enough. Keep these in mind before setting up your goals for the year:

1) Don’t make fluffy, vague resolutions
A resolution like ” I want to save more” or “I’d like to spend less”. It too wishy-washy and you’ll likely fail. Instead make your goals specific. Say something like “I’ll put away $5000 by the end of the year”. Then create your monthly plan to make that goal possible.

2) Take willpower out of it: automate your habits
If you’ve got a savings or debt-based resolution, it can be difficult to be diligent every month. Don’t less a potential lack of will power ruin your strategy. Automate your paycheck or bank account to put your savings into the right account every month. It will do it without you even thinking about it and won’t give you a chance to spend the money.

Now, some great resolutions to think about

1) Set up an emergency fund
This is one of the most crucial things you can do to set on the path to financial success. Get yourself a savings account with $1000 dollars or one month’s expenses (whichever is higher). This way, when something happens, it’s only one emergency and not one emergency plus a financial one. Having an E-fund frees you up to pay down tons of debt, saving junkloads of money for the future, or spend on things like travel and degrees.

2) Draw up a budget
Do it! A monthly budget is the plan for everything you do with your money. Do you like debt-free life? Enjoy houses, cars or boats? Like travelling, retiring early or give to charities? All of these great things come from a monthly plan. Get on it.

3) Leave the credit card at home 
Make the choice to migrate your credit card from your wallet/purse to dusty drawer somewhere at home. Keeping the credit card out of reach when you’re out shopping will curb your impulse, out-of-budget purchases and could grow you to a place where you can just cut it up. Goodbye high-interest debt! \

4) Start thinking about (and saving for) retirement
I know, you’re young. Life is breezy, full of possibilities and lacking in worries. What business does 22-year-old you have worrying about 67-year-old you? Right? Wrong. Most experts estimate that you need to amass about 20 times what you’d hope to live off of annually as a retiree. If you’re hoping to live off of $75,000 a year, you’ll need to save up $1.5 million before you can retire. That going to take a while. Start early, save the headaches later.

Click here for a link to the CFMU podcast. 

Originally posted on January 6, 2015 by CFMU

Click here to view the original article.