Personal Finance Advice

One area that most people try to save money is on food. Many people trying to eat healthy on a budget bemoan the fact that fresh produce doesn’t stay fresh for long. Too much of it goes to waste because it spoils too quickly. However, if you practice smart storage and shopping, you can extend [...]

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 [...]

This time of year there are lots of tips about how to save money on Valentine’s Day. Advice abounds about ways to show your love for free and alternative gift ideas such as coupons for kid-free days and taking over your partner’s chores for a weekend. While all of these are very valid ways to [...]

I rarely get the consumer bug. Anyone that knows me well also know that if you want to take me shopping, chances are you’re going to have to drag me screaming and yelling the entire way. I rarely “lust” after any gadgets. Even my computer which I spend most days on is nothing more than [...]

This past Christmas I gave many gifts. None of them were dramatically expensive, but my family really enjoys the gift exchange and I enjoy finding the perfect gifts for each person. The hunt is almost as much fun as the actual gift exchange. This year, though, one of my recipients stumped me. When I asked, [...]

If you want to get ahead financially, one of the most important questions you can ask yourself is, “What do I need?” It seems like such a simple question, one where the answers should be immediately obvious. You need food, shelter, clothing, and maybe transportation. Everything else is really a want, in some form or [...]

Most of us have brands and products that we prefer over others. Maybe we prefer the taste or we’ve found that Product A works better than Product B. Sometimes our loyalty is rooted in the prestige a brand confers upon us or because it’s what we grew up with. Whatever the reason, we all have [...]

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 [...]

I have a love-hate relationship with CVS. I love that I can get things there for free / nearly free (one of my goals for this minimum wage challenge is to try to get all of my personal care products for free this year, and using the CVS program will be a big part of [...]

Financial gurus often talk about spending on experiences rather than stuff. The idea is that stuff will break, become obsolete, or never get used in the first place, whereas experiences will stay with you for a lifetime. Experiences are said to be more valuable than stuff. To hear some people talk, you should be able [...]

The retail sector and the media love to sell us “stuff” to solve our every problem. They even try to manufacture “problems” just so they can sell us stuff. (I tend to think the no-touch hand wash system falls into this category. It dispenses soap without you having to touch the dispenser so you don’t [...]

When we were first married and broke, I remember one of my mothers’ friends gave us Christmas ornaments for a wedding present. She said, “It’s the one thing no one thinks to give you when you’re just starting out, but it’s something you’ll really want and won’t have any money to buy for yourself.” Given [...]

I reluctantly became a grocery shopping coupon “expert” a few years ago when I made a bet with my sister and told her that I I thought I could eat well only spending $1 a day for food. I managed to succeed doing it through the use of coupons, but I never really enjoyed the [...]

Do you enjoy skiing? Maybe it’s one of your favorite pastimes or maybe it’s something you only indulge in occasionally. Or maybe you’ve always wanted to learn how to ski but were worried about how expensive equipment and lessons could be so opted for less expensive winter fun. There are always ways to save money [...]

On one of the board gaming forums I frequent the term, “Cult of the new” is frequently tossed about by posters. What they’re referring to are all the new games that come out each year. They’re new, hot, and hyped to the max. People pay exorbitant amounts of money to get their hands on the [...]

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 [...]

One of the keys to financial success is learning how to separate wants from needs. It sounds easy. A refrigerator is a need. A car (in most cases) is a need. Housing is a need. Utility usage is a need. This is all true, to a point. However, these things can easily bleed into the [...]

Do you want to know a really simple way to save money? The next time you go to the bank, any money you take out, make sure to ask for brand new bills. That’s it. Once you have the new bills in your wallet, psychology takes over and you will spend less than if you [...]

With Black Friday just around the corner, you might be wondering if you should take a peak at the advertisements and possibly wade into the crowds to try to score a great deal. Don’t! Seriously, it isn’t worth it. You’re only going to end up spending a lot of time and effort to not get [...]

I recently received an email asking me if I could give some pointers on how to get a free turkey for Thanksgiving since I’d managed to buy and cook a full Thanksgiving meal for six people for under one dollar (this is what it looked like). One of the biggest obstacles that I faced with [...]