Personal Finance Advice

Sometimes, when the weather isn’t pretty, it’s tempting to go out and do something that’s going to cost you money. The movies, a restaurant, a bar, a trip to the mall or the bookstore. All of these offer some relief from being trapped inside your house. But if you’re trying to save money, you need [...]

With summer just around the corner, one of the top priorities for a lot of people will be to take off to the beach for a day, or for an extended vacation, when the opportunity permits. One of great things about going to the beach is that it can be a relatively low-cost, day-log activity. [...]

Are you tired of paying an outrageously high cable bill each month? Do you have a cable package for hundreds of channels, but only watch about a dozen? Do you just not want to deal with the cable company anymore? Cable TV isn’t the only choice, and there are plenty of alternatives that you should [...]

It appears that we have found the culprit to my fuzzy head. All my blood tests came back within the normal range except for my vitamin D test which came in well below what it was supposed to be (for those familiar, it came in at 11). This actually surprised me quite a bit because [...]

I’ve heard plenty of people bemoan the fact that they don’t have a hobby. Some even post to some of the message boards I frequent, asking for help choosing a hobby. This isn’t a position to which I can personally relate. I’m the opposite. I don’t need another hobby, I need more hours in the [...]

My team didn’t win on Super Bowl Sunday, but that wasn’t the biggest controversy. In hindsight, I guess I should have seen something like this coming when it comes to my sister. I spent the day with my dad at his house as he threw a Super Bowl party for a bunch of his friends. [...]

If you’re looking for a way to get a new perspective on how you spend money, one of the best ways to do this is to do some type of “no spend” challenge. While there are a number of things that a no spend challenge can help improve, probably the main benefit is that it’ll [...]

Well, I knew this day was bound to happen. I just wish that it would have been a little later into the year. Having it come so quickly into the new year only confirms that I will likely have to make a lot of these choices in the months to come. I had to make [...]

I’ve written before about my issues with concentration and productivity. One of my biggest problems is with the Internet. It’s a fabulous resource, but it’s also a huge time suck. If you’re a very disciplined person you may not find it to be a problem, but if you’re easily distracted it’s hard to “quickly” check [...]

While it’s estimated that some 147 million people will participate in Black Friday, this is not the only choice that people had on how to celebrate. The day after Thanksgiving is also Buy Nothing Day, the biggest no spend day of them all. If you decided to shop on Black Friday, you made a conscious [...]

Fall and spring are big times for festivals, state fairs, and carnivals. Many people assume that these offerings are cheaper than visiting a major theme park. That’s not always the case. Most theme park admissions are all inclusive. You pay at the gate and then all of the rides and shows are included (except for [...]

A couple of years ago, I wrote a piece about how to prevent kids from getting bored. The point was that when kids get bored, they get expensive. It’s tempting to give into the whining and take them to the movies, buy them a new toy, or take them to a paid play space. Well, [...]

September 29, 2012 is National Public Lands Day which celebrates the many unique and beautiful public lands across the US. There is a huge effort for volunteers to help improve the public lands around them through clean-up and improvement, and this volunteerism comes with a host of benefits. From getting outdoors and improving the environment [...]

Going out on a regular basis with friends to the local bar can get expensive quite fast (see the beer calculator to just see how much). While there are some expenses that can’t be avoided when hitting the bar, there are quite a few things that you can do which will reduce the overall cost [...]

Many people fail to realize that almost all aspects of our lives are intricately weaved together with our finances, but it’s crucially important to understand that even things that don’t initially seem to have anything to do with finances or money management can have a great impact on these areas. By understanding that almost every [...]

We had some guests in town a couple of weeks ago. When it came time to deciding what to do for entertainment, they wanted to see the tourist attractions. Well, where I live isn’t a big tourist town. Or so I thought. In looking around, though, I discovered that we have a lot of museums [...]

Whether it is for a birthday, Christmas or any other gift giving event, there are a lot of great money management and personal finance educational gifts that you can purchase. Everyone knows that kids love money, but often they don’t learn how money management and personal finance works. By giving a gift that can help [...]

With the 4th of July just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about the fireworks that you’re going to be buying to celebrate. Depending on how extravagant you want to go, the cost of a home display can get quite expensive. With a little bit of planning and organization, however, you can create [...]

Chances are, especially if you have kids, that you have some old sporting equipment cluttering up your garage or kids’ rooms. There are a few ways to get rid of that stuff without consigning it to the dump. You could sell it to a place like Play It Again Sports or you could have a [...]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the latest social media sensation called Pinterest. It’s a big virtual bulletin board where users can post pictures of just about anything and group them into collections like, “Things I love,” “Books to Read,” and “Things I’m passionate about.” While I’m not on Pinterest [...]