CNN had this post on the Association behind the popular lottery game, Powerball, announcing that, starting January 15, 2012, the price of a ticket to play Powerball would be doubling, to $2 a ticket.  If you read the article, you’ll notice several things. The starting jackpot will also double, from $20 Million to $40 Million [...]

We’re only a few days into the new year, and chances are that several of you have already broken at least one of your new years’ resolutions.  You’ve eaten way too much food.  You’ve skipped a day at the gym.  You’ve overspent on some key category.  Partially, it’s not your fault.  You probably made resolutions [...]

Despite the best of intentions and the clearest of budgets, sometimes holiday spending can snowball out of control. It can start with an innocent extra box of ornaments or a gift for someone not on your list, and before you know it, you’ve charged the entire month of December on your credit cards and you’re [...]

With Christmas less than two weeks away, you may be feeling the crunch to get the perfect gift in time. Or perhaps, your gift budget is running low, yet you still have quite a few people on your list to give gifts to. Here are easy last minute solutions to earn free or cheap gifts [...]

My family and friends can’t stand going shopping with me. I used to be easily influenced into buying anything. Now I simply don’t want to buy anything. I’m the worst person to go shopping with now. I second guess every purchase. If I do end up buying something, I ask myself, “what will I get [...]

With the recent changes in my employment, it’s become pretty darn important for us to not only keep to our budget, but to reduce our budget as much as we can in order to keep from sending our finances into the whirlpool of red ink that is broke. One of the ways that we’ve got [...]

If you’re like almost every other American, after you’ve gorged yourself on all the Thanksgiving day feasts, you’ll be headed out to do a little gorging of a consumer variety.  Black Friday is well known as one of the largest shopping days of the year.  Most every retail store has some huge deals for the [...]

Every day, I hear people say that they don’t use coupons because they don’t have the time to go through the papers and mailers and clip the coupons. “It just takes too much time” they say. Those same people, will spend hours budgeting and finding ways to save themselves money, but they don’t see couponing [...]

The stores are already starting to advertise for the holidays, and several major retails are pushing the option of layaway as an option to finance your gift giving.  While layaway was not offered in stores for years, it is making a comeback due to the current economy.  You can choose to use layaway or not this [...]

Have you ever watched your family open up Christmas gifts while mentally calculating how much each gift cost and comparing that against the amount you have in your checking?  Have you dreaded opening the bills in January because you know the credit card statement from holiday shopping will be coming soon and you do not [...]