Personal Finance Advice

The Tightwad Gazette was a newsletter, published in the early 90′s, by Amy Dacyczyn. It was published in the days before email and the Internet. If you wanted to subscribe, you received your copies through the Postal Service. Eventually those newsletters were compiled into three books and, finally, into The Complete Tightwad Gazette which contains [...]

When I discuss frugality and money saving strategies with those who are just starting down the frugal road, one of the things they always want to know is, “What can I buy that will help me become more frugal?” I always have to swallow a chuckle because buying things to become frugal is oxymoronic. You [...]

The other day I went to lunch with a friend who is working on becoming debt free and simplifying her life overall. I asked her how it was going. “Ugh,” she said. “Well, I told you that Herman took a sabbatical so he could teach for six months, right?” Teaching was, her husband believed, his [...]

I’ve mentioned before that I really like saving money. To me it’s like a game to find new ways to reduce my spending. Constantly finding new ways to lower spending keeps me on my toes and protects me from slipping into careless patterns that could lead to debt. It also frees up more cash that [...]