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 [...]

My husband and I recently added up our student loan and credit card debt, and we were shocked at the figure–$58,000!  What was this debt comprised of?  It is made up of nearly $38,000 in student loans, $6,500 on a business credit card for a business that failed and $13,500 of personal credit card debt [...]

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 [...]

This post is being brought to you through the sponsorship of CouponCodes4U.com I have a small confession to make to you.  Despite the obvious frugal focus of this site, I’m terrible at looking for coupons for things before I buy them.  I’m a calculated buyer.  I’ll price compare for hours before deciding on an item.  [...]

A recent article on CNNMoney.com caught my eye – it’s titled “Many don’t have $2,000 for a rainy day.” Since one of my cardinal rules for retirement planning is that you should have 6 months of spending in the bank (or easily accessible, within 3 days), I read this article with interest. The CNNMoney.com article [...]

Having kids is not cheap.  There are many expenses that are associated with small children that are hard to get around no matter how frugal you are.  For instance, if you are a dual income family, you must pay for daycare and disposable diapers as most daycare centers will not accept cloth diapers.  In our [...]

Being a frugaler means making some sacrifices.  We sacrifice in order to save a few bucks.  Sometimes, it becomes a bit of an addiction.  We get a small high off of the act of saving.  While you can certainly have worse addictions, even an addiction to saving can be a bad thing at times. Taking [...]

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 [...]