Tracking home improvement projects can be a risky adventure if you are not managing the details of the project process and the budgets throughout the improvement process. These details include the items necessary for the project, the labor if any…
Category: Housing
Allergens and Germs Make Healthier Babies: A Dirty House Can Save $50,000
If you want to help your child have a healthy immune system, you may want to leave your house a little dirtier than you have been. A new study from the June 6 edition of the Journal of Allergy and…
12 Ways to Save Money at Home Depot
Home Depot is a popular place for people who enjoy DIY projects, or are in the middle of renovating or building a house. It’s easy to get lost in their stores, wandering up and down the aisles, and filling your…
Most Expensive Home in US Sells for $120 Million
It’s certainly not your average home. Situated on 51 acres on the Greenwich waterfront, the Copper Beech Farm sold to The Conservation Institute, LLC for a cool $120 million according to the Greenwich Time. That would make it the most…
How to Naturally Get Rid of Fleas
Fleas are a nuisance regardless of whether they’re in your home or on your pet. Getting rid of fleas and keeping fleas out of your home can be a tiresome and annoying process. There are many different methods or products…
February 28 Day Declutter Challenge
If spending 52 weeks decluttering your house seems like much too long of a period, you might want to try to fast-track the clean-up process. You can do this by taking the February 28 declutter challenge. Focusing on getting your…
The 52 Week Declutter Challenge
You have too much junk. I feel pretty confident making that statement because I have far less stuff than most people, and I have way too much junk. This became apparent as I was going through stuff as part of…
25 Things That Hold Your Money and Your Dreams Hostage
We all have things that we’d like to do in life. Have kids, travel, get married, buy a new home, start our own business, or simply retire well (and maybe early). You probably have your own dreams that aren’t on…
21 Reasons Dave Ramsey Sucks at Giving Credit Score Advice
There are huge disadvantages of having no credit score. I actually know this better than most. After living over ten years in Japan, I came back to the US naively assuming that the credit history I had built over there…
Let Your Kids Suffer. They’ll Be Better Off.
When I left home to go to college (many years ago), my parents made it very clear that I was on my own. While they would help with expenses as long as I was in school, those expenses were going…
10 Life Choices That Will Hurt Your Finances
Sometimes people make life choices that end up negatively affecting them in their future. Life doesn’t always make things easy and when things get difficult, it can be difficult to make a good choice. Unfortunately, we live in a society…
10 Cleaning Gadgets That Save Money & Time
If you still haven’t started your spring cleaning, there’s a good chance that it’s because you simply don’t like to clean. This is nothing to be ashamed of. There are a lot of us who simply look upon cleaning as…
10 Lifestyle Investments to Avoid
One of the selling tactics that I have been hearing more and more these days is to make purchases as a “lifestyle investment.” The entire term bothers me in a number of ways, but the worst part is be bringing…
Reflections on a Purge
This winter I have focused on purging my house of excess stuff. I’ve never thought of myself as having a lot of stuff (and compared to some I don’t), but a real dig in to the deepest recesses of my…
Housesitting In Arizona: Minimum Wage Challenge
It appears that the first week of the minimum wage challenge will begin on the right foot. I just got word from the parents of a friend that they would like me to house sit for them for a week…
Renting or Homeless? Minimum Wage Challenge
One of the biggest decisions I need to make that will determine whether this living well on minimum wage challenge will be successful or not is my living conditions. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this and there…
12 Inexpensive Ways to Improve Your Home’s Air Quality
People spend a fortune trying to “improve” the air quality in their homes. They buy fabric sprays, air fresheners, candles, special vacuum cleaners, and expensive purification machines. Unfortunately, most of the candles, plug-ins, and sprays just make things worse. They…
Don’t Skimp on Safety
I recently wrote a piece about backing up your computer’s hard drive. At the end, I mentioned that if you don’t have the money to afford a backup mechanism you shouldn’t get the computer because the risk of data loss…
Don’t Be A Doormat
I recently wrote a piece about not being embarrassed to walk away from a bad deal. It’s better to deal with the embarrassment than to get stuck with something you hate. Deal making is a tricky business. You don’t want…
How A Good Credit Score Can Save You Money
By Bethy Hardeman for Credit Karma You’ve heard it before: You should improve your credit. But do you know just why you should focus on your credit health? It’s not just because you can qualify for credit cards with great…