We had a good July (knock on wood) and have seen some improvements on performance on a few of the satellite sites that hadn’t been performing as well as we had hoped in the past. In fact, we have reached the stage where the decision has been made that come next January, Nate will also […]

For anyone that has medical conditions that require prescription drugs, you know that they can take a large amount out of your budget. What a lot of people don’t realize is that there are a number of ways to save that they may not have ever considered when it comes to prescription drugs.
The fact […]

I’ve made a couple of entries about a company that will pay you to receive letters. I received my latest notice a couple of days ago saying that the program will begin next month:
On Monday, 31 July, the first test letters will be dispatched to you!
To confirm the receipt of your incoming test letters please […]

I’m making a trip to meet with Nate in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks. One of the recommendations to save money was to “outside in” our hotel. The basic strategy is as such. Hotels at the center of cities and close to the main attractions are more expensive that those on the outside […]

I wrote a bit yesterday about the day at the Blogher conference. One of the little tidbits I collected from the conference was a tool that you have if people are stealing your content. This is always a problem I have had where I find my articles on the Internet without any acknowledgement that I […]

5:45 The workshops are over and I was finally able to meet another pfblogger out here (believe me, there are not very many at this conference) who was Nina from Queer Cents / Sitting Pretty who was actually leading one of the discussions (transforming your life with blogging). It was nice to actually meet one […]

One of the most difficult and frustrating aspects of beginning a blog is finding an audience. Unless you actively seek others to trade links with, comment on ones that are popular and put a lot of effort into promoting what you’re writing, you just aren’t going to get a lot of readers and it’s always […]

While I think that drinking water is a great way to save money that can make you over $1000 richer each year, this only works if you are not purchasing the water. As I have written before, there really is no reason to purchase bottled water since it’s a waste of money for the vast […]

One of the most important aspects of personal finance is discovering the best way to spend your money. This is yet another one of those things that at first appears to be so simplistic that as you read this, you’re probably wondering why I’m even bothering to talk about it. You’re probably saying to yourself […]

Some interesting comments about having your credit card can get flagged if you make a small purchase at a convenience outlet and then go on to make a big purchase several hours later. From a comment Cliff left:
When I worked at MBNA (now Bank Of America) the fraud department used a lot of different algorithms […]

I always laugh (more like shake my head) when I come across retail specials like this. I have been looking for a desktop computer for my mom who currently doesn’t have a computer. All she needs is something basic as it will almost always be used for email and rarely anything else. That being said, […]

My dad received a call the other day from his credit card company asking him about purchases he made with his credit card. It seems there had been some strange activity with his card and they wanted to verify that all were his purchases.
He immediately did the correct thing and asked if they could call […]

I got a call from a friend that I had to watch a show on the A&E network called “Intervention.” If you aren’t familiar with this show (which I wasn’t until the call), the show follows people who have addictive and destructive habits and then have the families confront the person (intervene) to try and […]

I have a list of about 100 things I want to do and places I want to go that I look at every so often and add new things to it when I hear about things that interest me. My latest addition is to go digging for diamonds! Apparently there is a State Park in […]

I wrote a few weeks back about filing a complaint to Speedstick because of some deodorant that left a rash when I used it. I decided to file the complaint in three different ways to see if there was any difference: by email, by phone and by regular mail. I received the last response this […]

It’s hot here (107 degrees today) so we decided that we would take the afternoon to see a movie and to stay cool (you have to love the air conditioning in the movie theater on a day like today!) We used our $2 movie tickets we got through a Sunny D campaign which probably ended […]

I mentioned in my last post that I went to San Francisco to see a baseball game with my dad. We went to the game because we were given free tickets to it and this got me thinking that “free” can often be quite expensive. The truth is that if we had not been given […]

I went to a San Francisco Giants Game baseball game today and while walking from BART to the stadium, there were several harbors with a large number of sailboats docked there. My dad loves sailboats, so of course we had to go and take a closer look at some of the betters ones. That’s when […]

One of the best investments that you can make is to get a set of basic tools for around the home. I spent a good 4 hours yesterday helping my father put in a new fence in their yard. Esimates from others to put it in were from $3000 - $5000, but we managed […]

I was talking with a friend over dinner about what I’m currently doing. His response?
“Oh, personal finance guru (sarcasm dripping in buckets), what is the best money advice you can give to me?”
I sat there thinking for a few minutes about all the money related topics I discuss on a daily basis here and on […]