Personal Finance Advice

Making your own things, sewing your own clothes, or making gifts are often touted as ways to save money. After all, the thought goes, you can make something for less than it would cost to buy the item. Unfortunately, while making your own items can bring you many rewards, saving money isn’t always (or even [...]

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 [...]

One of the best ways to save money is to Do It Yourself. Whether it’s home or car maintenance, repairs, cleaning, or crafting usable items out of trash, the more you can do yourself, the more money you can save. It is almost always cheaper to buy materials and do the labor yourself than to [...]

I’m a cheapskate at heart. I do my own mechanic work, maintain my own computer, do my own home repairs and will do just about anything I can manage on my own, to save money. So, it might seem strange that I’m writing this article about paying for services. Well, I’m a cheapskate who’s learned [...]

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 [...]

My neighbor’s refrigerator died a couple of weeks ago. It was running, but hardly putting out any cold air. Since it was in the middle of a heat wave, she felt that she had little choice but to just go get a new one. So she went out and spent $2,000 on a new fridge. [...]

Now that I pay most of my bills online, have email, a cell phone, and a million other ways to stay in touch, I have very little need for envelopes. I rarely have envelopes in the house anymore and, on the rare occasion I need an envelope, I hate having to go to the store [...]

Many people are tightening their belts in these uncertain economic times. One of the first places we often look to save money is finding projects around the home that we can do ourselves rather than calling the professionals. All do-it yourself projects are not created equal, though, and there are times when you are better [...]

Last week I was out walking my dog on trash day. As I was walking past my neighbor’s trash heap (I say heap because they always have more trash than will fit in the trash can and they just pile it up on the road), I noticed a cute wire basket that was decorated with [...]

If you own a home, you probably already know that maintaining it costs a lot more than you expected it would when you bought it. Even if you are not living in the first home that you bought, every house I have known has cost me more time and money than I anticipated. Every time [...]

My home improvement project list never seems to get any shorter. Unfortunately, my budget doesn’t get any bigger. I’ve had to be pretty creative and really look for ways to save money while personalizing and renovating my house. Fortunately there are a lot of resources available to renovators with grand plans but tiny budgets. Buy [...]

My husband and I are do-it-yourselfers when it comes to home improvement. This is mostly because my husband’s dad is a contractor and he often guides and helps us when we need it. That being said, we’re barely a year into owning our first home and are still newbies. We recently took on a larger-than-we-thought [...]

With the prices of everything skyrocketing, making your own cleaning products can be an easy way to save money. In addition to saving money, most are non-toxic, environmentally friendly, and safe for use around pets and children. They take very little time to make, so they don’t add to the workload. I am frequently asked [...]

This week I attended the funeral of an old family friend. This man was a member of the “Greatest Generation,” growing up during the Great Depression and coming of age during WWII. Aside from his stories, the thing that always amazed me about this man was his ability to construct the most useful items from [...]

With the economy slowing, everyone is looking to cut back in many ways. Some people are eliminating their daily coffee, others are combining trips to save on gas. These and similar strategies are great and will help you save money. However, there is more money to be saved by learning how to do some simple [...]