Personal Finance Advice

I got a rude surprise when I recently asked for some CorningWare as a gift. You probably know the bakeware that I’m talking about. CorningWare was famous for their bakeware with the blue cornflowers on it. It came in other patterns, but that blue cornflower was an icon. My grandmother had it, my mother and [...]

After following sales and coupons religiously for several months, I’ve started to get a sense of the best prices for various items.
The best way to get these prices is to use the Coupon Mom method of combining a store’s loyalty card discount with sales and coupons. However, over the last several months, it [...]

I live about two miles away from “Restaurant Row,” a road that has an amazingly high concentration of restaurants from Mickey D’s to fine dining. I generally do not visit any of them, with only a few exceptions. Nestled among all of the high end chains (Roy’s, Morton’s, Ruth’s Chris, etc.) there are [...]

The only thing I used to do to save money on groceries was to make a list before each shopping trip and stick to a monthly grocery budget. I didn’t use coupons because I figured I saved more money by purchasing store brands (preferably store brands on sale) and shopping at discount stores and farmers [...]

One of the things that saves us the most money is our well-stocked pantry and freezer. Like many people, I used to shop once a week or more for the food we needed just for that week. It was annoying because I hate grocery shopping. As far as I’m concerned, the less time I spend [...]

Interest in gardening is on the rise as people, fed up with rising prices and declining safety and quality standards, seek to produce more of their own food. Even the President has started a garden at the White House. While there is little argument that a properly tended garden raised without a lot of pesticides [...]

The other day my son managed to lose a pair of pants from his school uniform. How he did this, I am not sure, since he was wearing them at school that day. Nevertheless, somehow between the end of the school day and the end of his bus ride home, he managed to [...]

Over the past several months, I have noticed that several of my acquaintances have stopped buying coffee when they are out. Indeed, I’ve read several articles about that phenomenon and Starbuck’s financial performance of late has supported my observations. When I think back on all of the money that I spent on coffee, [...]

One piece of financial advice that I often see offered is this: If you are part of a couple, give each other a measure of freedom with the money you earn but consult each other on any purchases over $100. In some variations the consultation amount is $50 or even $20. Whatever the amount, the [...]

If you watch the news or read many magazines or newspapers, you’ve probably heard about “lifestyle diseases.” These are diseases and ailments that we get because our lifestyle and/or environment are unhealthy. Some examples:

Obesity
Alcoholism
Diseases associated with smoking such as lung cancer, asthma or emphysema
Drug abuse
Depression/anxiety
Some forms of cancer related [...]

We had a rare spring-like day this week – sunny and warm enough to shed the winter jacket for a bit. It was also the same day my favorite seed catalog arrived in the mail. Coincidence? I think not! Garden season is close.
Gardening has always seemed to me like a thrifty three-fer: exercise, time outside, [...]

The first time I went to the 99-cent store was about four years ago. I went primarily out of curiosity, and I was pretty creeped out. I was mostly interested in looking at the food, and it seemed like everything they sold was one letter off from the brand name item: Rice Krispis, Milk-e-way, you [...]

My wife is a creature of habit – in a good way. She gets up at 5:30 am every day except Saturday so that she can enjoy a healthy breakfast of oatmeal (always from scratch — never instant!) and walnuts, along with a cup or two of her favorite coffee. For at least [...]

I’ve never been much of a follower. Even as a youngster, I had to find my own way to do things, even if they didn’t measure up to what everyone else was doing. As a single parent for many years, I learned a few things the hard way. I learned not to follow common financial [...]

Eating out used to be one of my favorite things to do. I loved to relax and be served great food with a minimum of effort on my part.
This was before my husband and I implemented a budget, tracked our spending and were shocked at what we spent on restaurants. We didn’t even remember [...]

In my youth, I liked to live life well and, admittedly, to excess. My friends and I ate out often and we did not limit ourselves to salad and sparkling water. We enjoyed fine meals that we could not afford and the full range of alcoholic beverages that the world’s distilleries, wineries and [...]

A neighbor recently confided that she had just paid off the last of her substantial debt.
“I can’t tell you what a relief it is,” she said. “It’s like having my life back again. All that time I was living under the crushing pressure, and now I’m free. I don’t know how things got so [...]

I thought since the holidays are fast approaching that I would share a few, very easy recipes that are also cost effective. My favorite quick and easy cookie recipe is especially suited to letting the kids help.
As a person with several years of baking experience, I want to first recommend using good quality ingredients. Use [...]

My husband is on the verge of a life-changing diagnosis: type 2 diabetes. I’m proud to say that he is looking this impending diagnosis in the face and calling its bluff.
Besides the symptoms is the sheer expense of diabetes: insulin, blood meters and co-pays for the doctors’ appointments, to name a few. In our quest [...]

It’s over. We did it. We made it through No Spend Month, where we had only $400 to spend on gas, groceries, and entertainment, with money to spare. We spent $339.54.
The last week was both challenging and liberating.
We hosted Thanksgiving for the family, and we managed to buy the turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries, [...]