Personal Finance Advice

I recently mentioned Martha, my trash-exploring next door neighbor when I was a child. Martha always found creative ways to make money, whether it was through her yard sales, plant sales or barn-based general store. She made money on her crafts and her preserves. If she touched it, she found a way [...]

When I was a boy, tipping in a restaurant was always a discretionary expense. As a general rule, one was expected to tip 15% of the pre-tax bill as long as good service and good food was delivered. I lived in a state with a 5% meals tax so calculating the tip for [...]

I’m sure you’ve heard that if you want to be successful in getting or staying out of debt, you should craft a budget and stick to it. Does this really work? I suppose for some people it does, but it’s really never worked for me. That is until I stopped caring so much.
The problem for [...]

In my house we’ve had a tough couple of months with deaths, health scares, and general work-related stress. We’ve been tired, sad, and angry. There’s been a definite need in this house to feel better. We’ve needed some cheering up and calming down. In our spendier days we would have gone out to eat, gone [...]

I grew up in a small town to the North of Boston, Massachusetts. When I was very young, it was the epitome of a quiet New England town with hundreds of years of history. My family lived next door to Martha and Dick T., a delightful couple who were somewhat older than [...]

Baking Soda is a versatile, environmentally friendly and inexpensive product that belongs not only with your baking ingredients but in a lot of places throughout your house. Baking soda – sodium bicarbonate if you are a chemist – is a leavening agent, hence its use in baking, but it is also useful as [...]

We must understand the word, wealth. The dictionary defines the word, wealth, as the state of having plenty of money or possessions. Ok, what does plenty mean? An adequate or more than adequate amount. Would you say that you are wealthy? Probably not. Would you say that you have an adequate amount to get by [...]

Weekend reading is a round-up of personal finance and money related stories that caught the eye of our forum members this week:

The Economy: Hundreds Line Up For Jobs At New In-N-Out
GM failure: The shockwave
Homeowner denial: My home is gaining value
Whitehead sees slump worse than Depression
Banks raising fees–again!
American buying binge [...]

AC/DC released their first album in 8 years on October 20th, 2008 and within a week, Black Ice hit number one on the Billboard Hard Rock chart. They have sold over 200 million albums worldwide. They were ranked number 4 in the “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock” list from VH1 and 7th on MTV’s [...]

I am not brand loyal, save for a very few specific products that, through trial and error, I have determined that only one brand best suits my needs. Generally I could care less who makes something as long as the quality, features, taste and/or price suit my needs. However, I have discovered that I am [...]

I’ve always enjoyed shopping at Amazon.com. Their prices have always been very competitive and the free shipping and no sales tax are excellent perks. The one negative about Amazon has always been that their prices fluctuate wildly, sometimes day to day (especially during the holidays). If you shop with them regularly, I know you’ve experienced [...]

John and Jane Doe desperately want to be debt-free. They’ve sliced and diced their credit cards and cut their expenses until they’re living on next to nothing but macaroni and mooched meals off relatives. They recycle and reuse. They never go out like in the good old days and a night of fun is a [...]

I try to read a lot of newspapers. I read the New York Times and several other papers online and I subscribe to the print versions of the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and our local paper, The Orlando Sentinel. Of course, life often intervenes and prevents me from getting through all of [...]

I recently spoke with a friend who is heading to Walt Disney World soon. She was so excited because she has managed to amass $1,200 in cash and Disney gift cards by participating in several “Get Paid To” (GPT) programs and survey websites. This money will pay for the majority of her family’s spending while [...]

In my lifetime, I’ve had the pleasure of living in several different sized towns. I grew up 10 miles from the big city of Fresno, California. I’ve lived in several other big cities since then; Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas and Nashville, to name a few. I’ve lived in medium sized cities and small towns. Now, [...]

Last week, I outlined our plan to make November a spending crash diet. We have only $400 to pay for gas, groceries, entertainment, etc. — everything that isn’t a monthly recurring bill — for the entire month.
By day four, hubby began pouting.
“This sucks. Everything costs money. It’s so depressing,” he said, as he unloaded [...]

Have you ever noticed that if you are going to feel guilty about a purchase, you will usually feel guilty about making the purchase? You know how it is. You wander into a store and see something that you really want but do not really need. It may cost $1 or $10 [...]

The other day I found myself considering the purchase of another filing cabinet. Yes, not quite a monumental decision, but one that takes careful consideration because my family lives in a 1000-square-foot home. Where will that filing cabinet take away precious space? There just aren’t many options.
The size of my home isn’t much smaller than [...]

Weekend reading is a round-up of personal finance and money related stories that caught the eye of our forum members this week:

People having trouble paying their utility bills
In this economy, even sex doesn’t sell
Food storage makes a come back
Do you save too much?
Do you believe in ILLUMINATI?
How I beat [...]

Once upon a time, we did not have giant landfills full of refuse from all of our disposable conveniences. We relied on reusable items to fulfill our daily needs and we found ways to prolong the utility and longevity of what we owned. Americans were frugal by nature. After WWII, however, our [...]