• I made changes to my grocery list and let my teens shop, which all led to out-of-control spending.
• When I worked up the courage to tell my kids our grocery bill was over $2,000, they helped us save.
• Together, we saved $750 by being more mindful of our purchases.

When my kids were little, I couponed, planned meals around the weekly specials, and tried to keep a tight rein on our grocery budget. But as they grew, I began working more. We all got busier, and I let some of those habits go.

Slowly, without really realizing it, our grocery costs inched up. A few months ago, I tracked every grocery expenditure for the entire month and discovered our bill totaled $2,300. I about had a heart attack.

I knew it was time for a change, and thankfully, the whole family pitched in.

Small changes in my spending habits led to a larger bill

Some of this spending happened because those previously little kids had become teenagers. And while having teen drivers makes me nervous for their safety, I have to admit there's a huge perk: They can run errands for me.

After years of having to load toddlers and babies into the car for a quick trip to the grocery store, they were finally able to repay the favor. In fact, they enjoyed doing it. I could text them as they got out of after-school practice, and they could grab the few small things I needed for dinner that night.

Except it never ended up being just a few small things. I'd get a text back, asking if they could treat themselves to a drink or a snack … usually both. Of course they could! They'd been working hard at school and practice all day. They were probably starving, and they deserved it.

The month of our horrifying grocery bill was also marked by a family birthday party. We grilled, had snacks, and appetizers. We had cocktails for everyone over 21 and fancy sodas for everyone under 21. It was a great party, but that bill definitely contributed to our out-of-control spending.

The other big problem, I realized, was that I'd started grabbing convenience foods. I got frozen breakfast burritos and breakfast sandwiches, figuring the protein would fill up hungry teens more than cereal. We had some easy, ready-made meals for nights we were too busy to cook. All of these small additions combined to produce one huge bill.

I debated whether to tell my kids

On the one hand, we've always talked about budgeting with them. We have talked about the things we can and can't (or don't want to) afford as a family. They do their own budgeting for Christmas and meals out with friends. One of them bought her own car, which cost less than our grocery bill, so budgeting isn't a foreign concept to them.

On the other hand, it felt weird to tell them we needed to watch our spending on groceries. Those feel essential. We've always been fortunate to be able to provide the basic necessities, and it was a blow to my ego to tell them we needed to cut back on food. I didn't want anyone to worry that we couldn't provide for them.

We had a family discussion to reduce our spending

I finally told everyone that we would have to change our grocery shopping habits. The kids were surprisingly on board, and we set a family challenge to reduce our bill.

We agreed to do two inexpensive meatless meals a week and make things like breakfast burritos at home. They started cooking from scratch, and not asking for quick, convenient snacks. My teenage drivers would pick up my once-a-week grocery order from the store, and we managed to avoid adding any extra trips in between.

All of us have gotten better at using up leftovers and emptying the pantry before we shop. We're wasting less food as a family.

We even had another family party this month. Instead of a big cookout, we did a grilled cheese and soup bar, with a homemade menu full of cheesy puns.

By the end of the month, we'd managed to stick to our challenge and cut $750 off our grocery bill. It was a valuable lesson for all of us on how to be mindful of our spending and waste.

I hope this was also helpful to my teens. In a few years, they'll be buying their own groceries, and they probably won't have a lot of money to start. But now, they have some ideas for how to cut costs when they need to do their own shopping.

• Business Insider spoke to two professional organizers about how to declutter your bedroom.
• Extra bedding, mismatched socks, and old clothing can take up unnecessary space.
• Taking things such as mail, dishes, and empty boxes out of the room helps to reduce clutter.

As tedious as it is, decluttering is a necessary task that can make your space look and feel bigger. However, figuring out where to start can be difficult, especially when the clutter gets overwhelming.

For tips on the process, Business Insider asked two professional organizers who cofounded the organizing service Uncluttered Spaces what people should get rid of in their bedrooms.

Here's what the experts said.

Exercise equipment should be kept outside the bedroom.

Although home workouts are popular, Uncluttered Spaces' Tina Horan said having equipment in your bedroom could create more clutter and make you feel less relaxed.

She recommended moving the equipment to a designated area for working out in order to make the bedroom feel more organized, relaxed, and spacious.

Dishes should either be kept out of the room or cleaned up right away.

Sometimes a snack in bed is comforting — but Horan advised against letting a pile of dirty dishes build up in your bedroom.

"I'm sure we're all guilty of bringing dishes into our room, but don't wait too long to declutter and remove it to ensure a constantly clean room," Horan said.

Mismatched socks can take up valuable drawer space.

Uncluttered Spaces' Nancy Yerkes told BI that having a graveyard of mismatched socks takes up a lot of useful drawer space.

"It's time to buy a new pack of matching socks — let go of the misfit ones and reclaim that drawer space," Yerkes said.

Collecting old clothes minimizes useful closet storage.

Keeping items in your closet that no longer fit you is one of the easiest ways for clutter to accumulate.

"Instead of collecting clothes, keep a good routine of trying your pieces on so you know what to keep and get rid of," Horan said.

By routinely trying clothes on, you can stay on top of organizing and maximizing your closet space, she added.

Mismatched hangers are a no-no.

For a better-looking, more put-together closet, Yerkes suggested getting rid of mismatched hangers.

"If possible, buy uniform and sturdy hangers. It's the secret to a visually satisfying closet," Yerkes said.

Keeping bills, mail, and other documents in the bedroom can make your space look messy.

Horan advised against opening mail and keeping documents inside your bedroom.

"Having a buildup of mail can cause stress, but it's also messy to have a pile of documents laying around your room," she said.

Instead, she recommended designating a drawer or basket for your mail to keep the collection nice and tidy.

You don’t need a huge collection of extra bedding.

Having extra bedding sets with different designs is a nice way to decorate, but having too many takes up an annoying amount of space, Yerkes said.

"Two sets of everything is all you need — one to use while you wash the other and to switch out when necessary," she added.

Move empty boxes and storage containers outside your bedroom.

Horan said breaking down extra boxes is a tedious but necessary step in decluttering your room. This includes old appliance boxes, packaging, and storage bins.

"The boxes might look important, but they also are an eyesore and waste of space you could be using for something else," Horan said.

Instead of keeping them in your room, she recommended stacking and packing them away in a storage closet, crawl space, or basement.

She also suggested throwing away smaller boxes, such as packaging from phones or computers, because they don't offer much storage space.

This story was originally published on August 13, 2024, and most recently updated on November 20, 2025.

• I'm spending my first fall in New York City after recently moving from Florida.
• The cold, rainy weather and fast-changing foliage surprised me the most.
• Next year, I'll make seasonal plans in advance to avoid missing the peak views.

I've spent my entire life not experiencing the seasons.

Growing up in a beach town in the Caribbean located only 730 miles away from the equator, and then spending my teenage and college years in sunny Florida, seasons are foreign to me.

Beyond seeing a single palm leaf on the ground on a mildly chilly Florida day — that is, somewhere in the mid-60s — or cozying up during the occasional cold fronts, I had never really experienced a colder season.

That changed after I made the move to New York City this summer.

As we near the end of the fall season and see the last leaves drop, here are eight things that have surprised me the most about fall.

It is way colder than I expected.

Movies and other media had made fall seem like a light breeze, only requiring a jacket and maybe a fashionable scarf.

Perhaps it's because I'm used to tropical climates, but the reality has been much colder than I imagined.

Before the end of October, when temperatures in New York City had an average low of 51 degrees Fahrenheit, I found myself needing to layer thermal long-sleeve shirts and leggings underneath every outfit. I began relying heavily on my newly acquired puffer coat, scarves, and gloves to leave the house every day — all before the leaves could even finish turning from yellow to orange.

While the level of layering might look fashionable, it is about survival for me. Anything below 45 degrees feels like a blizzard, and I'm not sure how ready I am for the real winter.

It makes the passage of time very noticeable.

Walking past the same trees every day and witnessing their gradual transformation made me think more about the passage of time than I usually do.

I grew up in an area where the average temperature doesn't vary by more than 10 degrees throughout the year, and trees remain in a state of perpetual greenness. While we experience dry and rainy seasons throughout the year, it is nearly impossible to determine the time of year just by going outside.

As such, in a year-round tropical climate, where the sun always rises and sets at the same time, it's easy to forget time is passing by.

My first true fall has felt like a nonstop reminder that not only is summer over, but winter is coming — and it's getting closer each day.

It's made me more introspective and has even encouraged me to get out more, as long as the weather allowed.

"This might be the last time in the next six months that I get to do this," is a thought I've had many times.

Even with the lower temperatures, it's a great time to be outdoors.

As much as it feels good to be inside, cozying up with a warm blanket and a cup of hot chocolate, it's also been a great time to go outside to explore — without overheating.

I've been enjoying every walk I can take, from wandering around neighborhoods near to my apartment to visiting expansive green spaces like Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

While it might require an extra layer, it's great to take long walks without sweating or craving air conditioning, as is the case in Florida.

It makes even the most ordinary daily walks so much more picturesque.

While I used to dread my 15-minute walk to the subway in the summer, where my hair would get puffy and my makeup would be all sweaty before I even got to the office, I now look forward to it.

Starting every morning by surveying the changing leaves around my neighborhood makes even small daily errands feel much more scenic and eventful.

I've even found myself chronicling the same colorful trees on my walks every morning.

Rainy days don't mix well with the falling leaves.

The end of summer comes with some raging storms — which, it turns out, don't mix well with falling leaves.

On a particularly rainy day, I went on social media only to see pictures of cars floating in my neighborhood, which had been flooded.

Falling leaves covering storm drains can make parts of the city, like my neighborhood, particularly susceptible to flooding, officials told CBS News.

Other photos and videos showed subway stations flooding as well, and water even getting inside subway cars.

Thankfully, the water had drained by the time I got home from work. Storms like this don't happen often, but the city has seen its worst-ever four rainstorms in the past four years, suggesting they're becoming more frequent, per CBS News. It was a reminder of just how destructive the rain can be this time of year.

The days get short very quickly.

Nothing signaled the end of the summer more aggressively than the time changes. Even before daylight-saving time ends, as it did at the start of November, the sun begins setting earlier.

Having grown up with consistent 6 a.m. sunrises and 6 p.m. sunsets, getting used to it being dark outside at 4:30 p.m. has been a challenge, especially during the week, where it feels like daylight vanishes during work hours.

The schedule change has turned me into an early morning person for the first time. All I want to do once I get home — in what looks like the dead of night — is go to bed, so I've started making the most out of my days with an early morning routine.

Now, I get to see the sun rising nearly every day to make up for the missing daylight hours at the end of the day.

Soups, teas, and warming foods are a must.

I love soup, but it's never been as present in my life as it is now.

As the weather cools, I've become a huge fan of all kinds of warming and comforting hearty soups. Recently, I've been having red lentil soup for dinner almost every night.

It's also become a staple in my mornings as well. I've started to opt for warm bone broth, oatmeal, and teas first thing in the morning instead of my usual yogurt bowl, fruits, or other cold foods I was used to enjoying even during the winter months in Florida.

It doesn't last long enough!

It took me a minute to get into the fall flow, from knowing how to properly layer to really noticing the rate at which leaves changed their colors.

By the time I began enjoying it, it was over.

I now understand why people make fall plans — from pumpkin patches to taking foliage trains and hikes — months in advance. I might just do the same next year.

• Verizon said Thursday that it will lay off more than 13,000 employees.
• The company started 2025 with about 100,000 employees.
• New CEO Dan Schulman said the cuts will make Verizon "faster and more focused."

Verizon plans to lay off 13,000 employees, its new CEO said Thursday.

The job cuts will make Verizon "faster and more focused," Verizon's CEO Dan Schulman said in a message to employees. Bloomberg earlier reported the news.

Schulman's message said the cuts are meant to reduce costs and focus Verizon on "delighting our customers."

"The actions we're taking are designed to make us faster and more focused, positioning our company to deliver for our customers while continuing to capture new growth opportunities," Schulman said.

Schulman became Verizon's chief executive last month and has said he wants to create a "simpler, leaner, and scrappier" company.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Do you work for Verizon and have a story idea to share? Contact Dominick Reuter via email at dreuter@businessinsider.com or call/text/Signal at 646.768.4750. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• I regularly travel by plane from New York to Sarasota, Florida, to visit my in-laws.
• Packing stressed me out until I realized I could store essentials at my mother-in-law's place.
• Now, my husband and I travel light, and I worry less about packing and checking bags.

A few years ago, my husband's brother and his family moved from our hometown in New York to Sarasota, Florida. Some time later, my mother-in-law and aunt-in-law followed.

Now, my husband, our two daughters, and I travel to Sarasota at least once a year, sometimes more.

I'm always excited for my kids to see their grandmother and spend time with their cousins, and I enjoy hanging out with my in-laws in the warm weather, catching up on each other's lives. We shop, laugh, eat, and laugh again.

I love these trips — but I used to hate packing for them.

Packing required too many lists and too much time

Over and over again, I'd pack a full suitcase filled with everything I could need: summer clothes, hoodies for the chilly air-conditioned Florida restaurants, bathing suits, shoes, a dressier outfit that I never wore but always brought just in case.

And, of course, I'd have my least favorite thing to pack: an abundance of toiletries for my hair, skin, and body. My Type-A, list-making personality didn't allow me to just throw these items in my bag.

Instead, I'd start with a list, then take an inventory of what I had and shop for anything I still needed.

From there, I'd write down what could go in my carry-on versus what needed to be in my checked luggage and organize everything into packing cubes and zip-up bags.

This process usually took up to three days to complete. It was madness.

Then, my husband put me onto a life-changing travel trick

One year, my husband had the brilliant idea to stop packing for these trips altogether.

As soon as we arrived in Sarasota, he headed to Walmart, where he purchased a few pairs of shorts, underwear, undershirts, and some T-shirts and button-downs.

Because his mom has the space to spare, when we left to go back home to New York, his clothes stayed in Florida.

The next time we visited, after I'd spent days packing and organizing, he simply put his iPad, a book, and some good ol' New York bagels in a bag and off he went to the airport. It was awe-inspiring.

Before our visit last Christmas, I took a page out of his book. I packed clothes and shoes, but only clothes and shoes.

While there, I visited that same Florida Walmart and bought everything else I needed: a toothbrush, floss, face wash, shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, deodorant, and more.

Once our trip came to an end, I left it all there at my mother-in-law's, tucked away in a closet. When we went down the next summer, I again only had to pack clothes. It was so much easier.

This hack has eliminated all the stress of packing for these trips

I love that I can get ready for these trips so quickly now and that I'll never have to go through the headache of packing toiletries to visit family again.

Next time, I won't even be bringing clothes.

Our time in Florida is incredibly laid-back — we mostly stay in and visit casual restaurants. We go to the movies and sometimes to the beach. I don't need my favorite shorts, go-to T-shirts, or that just-in-case dressy outfit. I just need something to wear, anything.

For the next trip, I'm packing only my devices and medicine, buying some essentials after we land, and leaving them there when we depart. When our daughters stop growing, I'll do the same for them.

One day, traveling there will be the easiest thing I do all year. We'll throw a few items in our little carry-on bags, make a quick stop at the bagel store, and be on our way.

• The US added 119,000 jobs in September, exceeding the expected 53,000.
• Unemployment unexpectedly ticked up.
• The data release was delayed due to the government shutdown.

The US added 119,000 jobs in September, far more than the 53,000 economists expected, and unemployment unexpectedly increased to 4.4% from 4.3%.

August's job growth was revised from a gain of 22,000 to a loss of 4,000, and July's growth was revised from a gain of 79,000 to 72,000. "With these revisions, employment in July and August combined is 33,000 lower than previously reported," BLS said.

Economists expected the unemployment rate to remain steady after two consecutive months of 0.1 percentage point increases. Unemployment has been at least 4% since May 2024.

The longest government shutdown in US history delayed the release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' jobs report, originally scheduled for October 3.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday there won't be an October jobs report, which would have been released at the start of November barring the shutdown. Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said recently that payroll estimates for last month can still be calculated, but "we will never know what the unemployment rate was in October."

While payrolls are based on a survey of businesses and government agencies that likely still have their October employment records and can report those to the BLS, unemployment is based on a survey of households, which wasn't collected during the shutdown. The agency said it will extend the data collection period for November and will publish that report on a delay, but still in December.

Private data providers like ADP, Revelio Labs, and others were able to partially fill the gap for September and October hiring changes, but economists and market watchers have been eagerly awaiting the delayed official figures.

The Federal Open Market Committee's December meeting is scheduled to be the last one of the year. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points in September and October. CME FedWatch, which showed the chances of the Fed changing rates, indicated before the jobs report a roughly 70% chance that rates would be held steady. That was up from a virtual coin toss before the BLS announcement that the November jobs report would be delayed until after the meeting.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

• Advertiser spending on creators is expected to hit $37 billion in 2025, according to a new IAB report.
• The category's growth comes as legacy formats like linear TV lose audience.
• More marketers consider creators a "must buy" than other emerging categories, such as commerce apps.

Marketers are racing to work with creators this year, with US ad spending in the category estimated to hit $37 billion by year's end, according to a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

That's up 26% year-over-year.

The vertical is growing four times as fast as the overall media industry, per IAB's analysis.

For context, the largest digital ad segment tracked by the IAB last year was search, at $102.9 billion.

The 2025 spending estimate on creators is nearly triple the amount from 2021, when social-media consumption was booming amid the pandemic lockdown.

There are three things driving the spike in interest in creators among brands, said Zoe Soon, an IAB VP who focuses on emerging advertising channels like the creator economy and gaming.

First, influencers have a "built-in distribution" network to serve ads across social channels. Second, they have proven cultural relevance among young people. And third, they have the ability to connect with "ad-avoidant" Gen Z consumers at a time when there are "diminishing places that you can reach them," Soon said.

Creators are now considered more of a "must-buy" than other emerging ad categories like connected TV and commerce media among the roughly 450 US ad spending decision-makers who responded to the IAB's survey between July and August.

IAB earlier projected connected TV ad spending would hit $26.6 billion in 2025.

"Creator content is outperforming brand-led content across almost all metrics," Dontae Mears, an SVP of influencer marketing at Weber Shandwick, told Business Insider.

Here are three key takeaways from IAB's report:

1. The creator ads business is eating up spending from legacy channels

A few years ago, it was tough to get a brand advertiser to put more than an experimental budget behind influencer campaigns. That's not true today. Marketers know they have to invest in creator content if they want to reach some audiences, even if it's harder to scale than a campaign run on Facebook or Google.

As legacy formats like linear TV lose audience share each year, marketers have to adapt.

If creators are "driving the cultural zeitgeist," and you have other channels that advertisers are not seeing as effective anymore, "it makes sense that they start moving those dollars over," said Chris Bruderle, IAB's VP of industry insights and content strategy.

2. Mid-tier creators reign supreme

Mid-tier influencers with between 50,000 and 500,000 followers were the most commonly hired by respondents to IAB's survey.

Sixty-one percent of respondents said they hired mid-tier influencers, followed by 55% who said they worked with either macro influencers (500,000 to 1 million followers) or micro creators (10,000 to 50,000 followers).

VIPs and celebrities were the least popular, with 30% of respondents saying they worked with the cohort.

The IAB's Soon attributed the popularity of mid-tier creators to their ability to drive sales for brands while also having enough scale to generate some broad brand awareness.

3. AI is top of mind for marketers

While creators can offer authenticity to marketers, AI is still very much in play among those who responded to the IAB's survey.

According to the IAB, about three in four brands are either already using or planning to use AI tools. A bulk of that use is going toward tasks like editing content, writing creator partnership briefs, and A/B testing. Lower on the list: working with "synthetic creators" — otherwise referred to as virtual or AI influencers.

"AI is really helping us develop the right strategy," Mears said. "Being able to analyze a lot more of that initial input data of who's the consumer that we're going after, what are the kind of messages that resonate with them, what are the trending topics, what are the cultural sparks?"

That work then helps guide partnership briefs and planning, he said.

• A passenger dropped a laptop down the side of a seat while flying over the Atlantic Ocean.
• This posed a fire risk, so the plane had to turn around and divert to Dublin.
• United Airlines Flight 925 ultimately reached Washington, DC, five hours later than planned.

A United Airlines plane was forced to turn around over the Atlantic Ocean when a passenger dropped a laptop down the side of a business-class seat.

Wednesday's Flight 925 took off from London and was supposed to land at Washington Dulles International Airport about eight hours later.

However, two hours into the journey, the Boeing 767 turned around while flying over the Atlantic Ocean. It was over 250 miles from Ireland's west coast.

Data from Flightradar24 shows it diverted to Dublin, touching down shortly after 8 p.m. local time — more than three hours after takeoff.

United Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside US working hours.

Online aviation enthusiasts picked up a message sent from the plane's Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS). It said a passenger dropped a laptop between the side wall and armrest of a business-class seat, and that it appeared to be stuck.

This would pose a safety risk due to the laptop's lithium battery. If overcharged or damaged, it can result in thermal runaway, leading to rapid temperature increase.

Since the laptop was inaccessible, the crew might not know if it had caught fire until it was too late. That's the same reason many airlines have tightened their rules on power banks this year.

The United plane spent nearly three hours on the ground in the Irish capital, departing at 11 p.m. Passengers ultimately reached Washington, DC, five hours later than planned, at 1:14 a.m.

This isn't the first time a passenger's lost device has forced a diversion.

Five weeks ago, a similar incident occurred on another United Airlines flight, en route from Washington, DC, to Rome.

The pilots told air traffic control that a passenger dropped their laptop, which fell into the plane's cargo hold.

"We don't know the status of it, we can't access it, we can't see it," he added. "So our decision is to return to Dulles and find this laptop before we can continue over the ocean."

Inside Business stories reveal the inner workings of companies from Silicon Valley to Wall Street that are shaping our world today.

• Walmart posts strong sales growth for Q3.
• The retailer is gaining market share by attracting both low and high-income shoppers.
• Outgoing CEO Doug McMillon will be succeeded by John Furner in January.

Even in challenging times, Walmart continues to deliver solid results.

The retail giant posted strong sales for the third quarter, with a 4.5% increase in same-store sales, beating analysts' expectations. Its e-commerce division saw a 27% increase during the quarter.

"We're gaining market share, improving delivery speed, and managing inventory well. We're well-positioned for a strong finish to the year and beyond that, thanks to our associates," outgoing CEO Doug McMillon said.

McMillon is set to retire in January and be succeeded by John Furner, who heads-up the company's US division.

Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, and more than one in four grocery dollars in the US is spent at one of Walmart stores. That scale gives the company a unique lens into the financial health of American households.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.