Personal Finance Advice

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Be careful what you read in blogs. You just may end up with a hair-brained idea like this one.
My husband and I have declared November a no-spend month. Okay, so it’s not really a no spend month. It’s more like a month-long crash diet.
We have budgeted $400 for the month of November. That’s all [...]

When traveling outside the United States, there’s a good chance you’ll need certain vaccinations in order to fully protect yourself from illnesses that are more common in other countries than they are here. These vaccinations may be ones that you would probably never need if you didn’t leave the United States (like typhoid and yellow [...]

This past weekend the battery in my cordless phone died. I thought, “No problem. I’ll just run out and get a new battery.” When I got to the store I was disgusted to find that a new battery cost $18.99. My disgust grew when I turned around and looked at the phone display. I could [...]

I love saving money. Ask my wife, she’d be the first to tell you. She thinks I’m a tightwad and that I wrote the book on skinning a flint. I like to think she is maybe a bit facetious. Maybe.
But then again, I am mature enough to see the grain of truth in such [...]

There have been many articles published which address ways to save money at the grocery store. For the most part, I believe that most of us already know how to save money at the grocery store.
There are even more articles and books published on our relationship with food. Whether you want to lose weight [...]

If you value saving money more than keeping friends, I have the perfect article for you. Follow these 10 simple steps and you will not only save money, but also drive away those pesky friends.
Depending on how close the friends are, you may have to complete all 10 items on the checklist and possibly [...]

Not long ago I wrote about low hanging financial fruit. These are the easy things you can do to save money that don’t require a lot of time, effort, specialized knowledge, or lifestyle alterations. Now I’d like to move on to the high hanging financial fruit.
Once you’ve gotten into the habit of saving money and [...]

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. [...]

What Do You Call a Bus Full of Lawyers Going Over a Cliff? A Good Start…
America has an interesting love affair with lawyers. On the one hand, television shows about lawyers capture our interest year after year. On the other hand, in daily life I cannot think of any profession that is criticized [...]

This weekend I read a book called 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth by John Javna. As the title indicates, it’s a book about living a greener lifestyle. In the book the author talks about “picking the low hanging fruit” when greening your lifestyle. By “low hanging fruit,” he means those [...]

One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is, “How did you learn so much about finance?” The subtext to the question is usually along the lines of, “I know you aren’t a genius or good with numbers, so how come you have a handle on this stuff and I don’t? How come I’m broke [...]

What do you usually have for a snack? Do you choose something healthy like fruit or veggies? Or is it more like a bag of chips or your favorite candy bar? How about dinner? Do you make dinner from scratch, or do you heat up something that is premade?
If [...]

Hello, my name is Joe and my computer is 10 years old.
I work in the IT field in my day job, so an admission like that is often greeted as though I am admitting to suffering from alcoholism or some terminal illness. Many of my coworkers habitually upgrade their PCs every 2 years or so.
I [...]

I am a frugal shopper. I clip coupons, look for sales and comparison shop. Whether I am shopping for groceries or furniture or a car, I want to get the best deal I can get. I enjoy being a smart shopper and I take pride in it. If you are reading [...]

Your grocery bill is likely one of the largest parts of your living expenses. If you were to rank them from largest to smallest, it would probably fall just after mortgage (or rent), energy and car payments. You can’t do much to lower a mortgage payment or car payment, so trimming as much as you [...]