Personal Finance Advice

It's one of my weekends off from the cab company and I have been enjoying it to its fullest. Yesterday my hubby and I spent most of the morning cleaning since we were having friends over that afternoon ... even though it's a pain at the time, it's nice to only have to pick up this morning and not feel guilty about sitting around and blogging instead of being upstairs and cleaning. :) My Saturday [...]

I live in Florida. Until recently, I would have said that I live in "sunny" Florida to distinguish my state from the cold places to the north. This year, however, cold weather came south for the winter along with all of the snowbirds who flock to Florida just after Christmas. Indeed, from about December 26, 2009 until early the first week in march when I wrote this, it was miserably cold in muc [...]

I am an avowed consumer of generic and store-brands when it comes to my grocery shopping, however there are some things we don't skimp on - my husband loves Jif peanut butter and in my forays into freezing leftovers, I have found that nothing works better than Ziploc bags. So the other day I found a 50-cent coupon off of Ziploc and realized that I had another 75-cent one lying around somewhere an [...]

This is a series of posts about what you will find in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University course. This is week four (week one -- week two and week three) This week's lesson focused on getting out of debt. We're getting to the meat of the plan now, and I was eager to hear Dave's ideas for paying off debt. The lesson began with Dave debunking some common money myths, such as playing the lott [...]

Have you ever thought about how much control over your financial life you give to companies when you sign up for things like cable, cell phone contracts, Internet access, loans, or credit cards? When you engage in most financial transactions, you are letting someone else have a little bit of control over your financial life. The cable company can drop channels and raise rates. The cell phone compa [...]

Today is a gloomy day here in Minnesota, but I cannot complain because the light and intermittent rain that has been falling over the past few days is washing away our snow. Sure, the grass underneath is dead and our yard is going to turn into a muddy mess, but I am optimistic thinking of future days of sunshine and warmth. Today is the last day of my unofficial vacation - I've been spending t [...]

One of the ways we've managed to avoid debt is very simple: We take care of all of our possessions so that they will last. Making things last longer means we don't have to replace them as often, saving us large amounts of money. This sounds like a no brainer, but I'm always surprised by the number of people who treat their things poorly. Then, when their possessions break or get lost, they head of [...]

A shopping list sounds like such a simple thing to do, but how many times have you arrived at the store with no list and no idea what you really need? It leads to frustration and overspending, doesn't it? I hear you now: "A list takes too long to get together. When I need to go to the store, I don't have time to rummage through everything and make a list. I'll know what I need when I see it in the [...]

It is hard for me to believe that I have been writing here at Saving Advice for close to two years now. After about 150 columns, I am pleased to count many of you among my new friends! I've also developed a sense of how readers are likely to react to anything that I write. Sometimes, comments will be generally favorable. Sometimes people will agree with my thoughts. Sometimes people will disa [...]

I figure the best way to do this is to be truthful ... you know how I've been talking about my job search and all that fun stuff? Well, the reality of my life is this: My last day of my former full-time job was last Friday. I took a leap of faith gave my three-week notice shortly before Valentine's Day and intended to do some freelance work writing grants while picking up more hours at the cab [...]