Saving and investing go together like milk and cookies, sweet and sour, and Elvis and banana peanut butter sandwiches, right?  Right.  Well, almost right.  It’s easy for us to say that saving and investing are important parts of a personal finance plan.  It’s easy for us to say that and then move on.  After all, [...]

I had my first baby last June, and I probably bought one or two small purchases new. The rest was all second hand. I’ll also let you in on a secret, but please, don’t tell anyone I know. I returned about 90% of my baby gifts and bought stuff for our new home instead. I [...]

As you can probably imagine, as a personal finance writer, I think about personal finance quite a bit.  Often enough that I write several articles a week on the subject.  I don’t consider myself an expert, but I do think that I know a great deal about it.  And I’m beginning to wonder if we [...]

Americans love their stuff.  We can’t get enough of the latest doodad, the latest hot new product on the market. We love stuff so much, research has been conducted on our behavior.  According to Boston.com, a team of archealogists spent 4 years studying 32 middle class Los Angeles families for their new book, Life at [...]

Super Bowl 2013 is on February 3, only a week away.  If you’re a football fan, you’re probably counting down the days and planning your Super Bowl party.  Your whole day, indeed your whole weekend, may revolve around the Super Bowl. However, if you’re like me, you aren’t a big football fan.  In fact, I [...]

Conventional wisdom, at least in frugal personal finance circles says you should wait several days (or even weeks) before making most purchases.  Especially large purchases. Personally, I’m usually a pretty patient purchaser.  I hate paying retail for most things. When I decide I need something (or even want it), I usually start my search on [...]

Take a look at your past grocery receipt. Do you like the total of it? Chances are you may have been a little mortified once the cashier told you the final total of your groceries. You are not alone! Many individuals and families struggle with keeping their grocery bills down. It can be disheartening to [...]

The last few months have not been kind to my family.  As Dave Ramsey says, “Murphy came to visit.”  Within the last few months, I have had several medical tests run, my computer broke so I had to buy a new one, my husband’s pay was docked $750 for two months in a row because [...]

Read just about any personal finance article on saving and you’re likely to also read something about certificates of deposit.  Heck, I’ve covered what a certificate of deposit is, how to create a CD ladder, and mentioned CDs several other times.  But, as much of a mainstay as they are in the typical savings mantras, [...]

As you know, I’m a big fan of SwagBucks.  For me, it’s an easy way to accumulate points for doing things that I already do (search and coupons) and cash those points in for gift cards to places, like Amazon, where I shop regularly.  In fact, I just used my latest $5 Amazon card from [...]