Personal Finance Advice

Conventional wisdom has long held that the best deals come close to the holidays. Another bit of conventional wisdom is that the best time to buy is when the economy is in recession and retailers need the money. These age old rules of shopping may not be as rigid as they once were. They still [...]

How does using cash or a debit card influence our spending? About a month ago, I watched a video on Yahoo about an ordinary couple who were challenged to use cash for everything they bought for one week. The idea was to find out if they would spend less when using actual paper money. How [...]

I went grocery shopping today. I went to Publix, where I do all of my shopping. The store was well stocked. The produce was fresh. The employees were helpful and friendly. As I walked the aisles, I thought to myself, “this is fun.” Upon checking out, I was pleased with my savings (about 20%, despite [...]

Christmas and Chanukah and Kwanzaa are coming! That means that if you are a prudent shopper, you have been doing your holiday shopping for many months now. I am sure that all are doing a fine job of controlling their spending while they shop for holiday gifts but I wonder whether we are all spending [...]

Kids often view cash and gift cards as things that need to be used immediately. I recall how my now grown son spent all of his birthday money within two days after he had received it, often wasting it on things that he never used. When I voiced concern or suggested that he might want [...]

Now that back to school season is upon us, my state and many others are promoting their upcoming tax free weekends. These are the weekends where you can buy items from certain categories and escape the state and/or local sales taxes on those items. The rules vary by state, but typically the items you can [...]

It seems that many businesses and stores these days are willing to fight hard for your patronage. I’ve noticed a lot more stores lately that now offer price matching on equal items from a different store. You simply show the ad or online printout showing the item that is less expensive at the rival store, [...]

The question to get your morning rolling today is, What tricks help you from spending money? I was talking with a friend who is super frugal except when it comes to traveling. It seems that he spends virtually all his extra money on traveling either to new countries or to visit friends. I asked him [...]

The question to get your morning rolling today is, Is more a better deal? This is one of the questions that I truly struggle with on a daily basis. I will give a classic example. I was at a fast food restaurant the other day and made my #3 set order which included a regular [...]

The other day my husband and I went to a specific grocery store that we don’t normally shop at to pick up some ice-cream that was on sale. Normally this particular kind of ice-cream (my husband’s absolute favorite) is at least $4 for a half gallon — and that’s on sale. But this particular week [...]

“No interest and no payments for an entire year!” This statement can stop people in their tracks when shopping and often times is the deciding factor on a particular purchase. But this statement can be a dangerous one if you aren’t careful. No interest = no worries, right? Not exactly. I personally have taken advantage [...]

It seems everything is taxable — even coupons! I never questioned the small print on the coupons I use, at least not the part about the customer paying sales tax. (I don’t understand why a manufacturer can say a coupon shouldn’t be doubled when it’s the retailer that makes a doubling offer, but that’s not [...]

The boxes were gone. My three-year-old was crestfallen. He had looked forward to his regular job of returning the plastic bags from last week’s grocery shopping trip to the recycling boxes just inside the store. But the boxes are no longer there; an employee told us that the store had discontinued its recycling. “You know [...]

I went to the grocery store this morning. My list included four items. I returned with ten. It would seem I had a problem with the impulse buy. That’s not, however, the case. Four of the things I returned with were on sale, so maybe it was sale-blindness. That’s not the case either. I rarely [...]

I am a sucker for sales. I’m the kind of person that will buy something that is deeply discounted even though I don’t really need it. I’ve come to realize that no matter how good of a deal it is, it’s not a deal for me if I don’t need it. However, that knowledge does [...]

Every saver knows the internal struggle with the “gimmie monster.” By sticking to our chosen saving strategies, most of us can win most of our bouts with him. But sometimes, the monster wins out too often. For some of us, spending is an addiction, and the gimmie monster devours all of our savings. If you [...]

I’m usually very good at shopping with a list, knowing exactly what I’m going to a store to get, and coming out with only those items. But every now and then, like this weekend, I’m assaulted by the “I want it now monster” and I’m forced to fight my way through the impulse. I have [...]

What I am about to say may be shocking to some in financially responsible circles: I use my credit cards more and more each year. Now, to make a disclaimer, I have never been tempted to rack up credit card debt and have only once failed to pay off the balance in full (a mistake [...]

The other day someone mentioned to my husband something about the fact that I always find the best deals and I always have a coupon for something. That’s actually a pretty true statement. I can sniff out a coupon a mile away. It’s almost like a game for me — to see if I can [...]

You can save a lot of money just by reading the fine print that retailers post on their websites and in their store polices. I’m embarrassed to admit that, as careful as I am with money, I didn’t really tune in to this fact until about a year ago. You usually have to look for [...]