Saving Pennies or Dollars is a new semi-regular series on The Simple Dollar, inspired by a great discussion on The Simple Dollar’s Facebook page concerning frugal tactics that might not really save that much money. I’m going to take some of the scenarios described by the readers there and try to break down the numbers
Drinking a glass of cold water when you’re thirsty. Tossing a Frisbee back and forth with your children. Holding your wife’s hand while you’re both enjoying watching a movie. Getting into bed after a long day. Many of the best pleasures in life are very simple ones. My Kid Flooded Our Home. What’s the Worst
Almost every day, I’ll get an email or two from a reader wanting me to evaluate a particular credit card with a rewards program associated with it. “Is the Chase Amazon card a good deal?” “Does that Target Visa really pay off?” “Is the points program on this card better than the points program on
Sarah and I have a pretty solid arrangement with regards to discretionary spending that tends to work well for us. Simply put, we talk about our goals so often that we basically trust each other when it comes to discretionary spending. It works for us because we’re on the same page when it comes to
Saving Pennies or Dollars is a new semi-regular series on The Simple Dollar, inspired by a great discussion on The Simple Dollar’s Facebook page concerning frugal tactics that might not really save that much money. I’m going to take some of the scenarios described by the readers there and try to break down the numbers
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Saving for future dream home 2. Setting a budget 3. Forgiving loans to stimulate economy 4. Should we buy a house? 5. Best book of 2011
Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance or other book of interest. Also available is a complete list of the hundreds of book reviews that have appeared on The Simple Dollar over the years. One of the most interesting realizations I’ve ever made about my money-spending habits is that, when I was spending
A few months ago, I was reading an older personal finance article at the library which discussed a very specific method for getting tremendous deals at CVS (a pharmacy chain). All you had to do was follow a sequence of steps and you’d find yourself with piles of items for free! I decided to give
My youngest child has had an intestinal illness that’s lasted for several days now. It’s involved a lot of upkeep and maintenance and attention, including lots of clothes and diaper changes and baths and sessions spent in the rocking chair, gently rocking back and forth. One of the best parts of my own childhood was
Each week, I highlight ten things each week that inspired me to greater financial, personal, and professional success. Hopefully, they will inspire you as well. I spent a lot of time looking at photos of autumn to help my kids with an art project. Several of them deeply impressed me with their artistry and capture
Each week, I’ll present a low-cost meal (or a meal that demonstrates a lot of options for cutting costs) that my family eats for dinner and enjoys. Many of the recipes will be vegan or vegetarian, with options to add other ingredients for non-vegetarians. As I’ve mentioned several times, Sarah and I are making a
Saving Pennies or Dollars is a new semi-regular series on The Simple Dollar, inspired by a great discussion on The Simple Dollar’s Facebook page concerning frugal tactics that might not really save that much money. I’m going to take some of the scenarios described by the readers there and try to break down the numbers
One wouldn’t have to have read this website for very long to know that Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple and Pixar, is one of the people in this world I admire (in fact, I even mentioned him in the reader mailbag this morning). Earlier today, when I learned that he had passed away
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Switching jobs and retirement plans 2. Family corporations 3. Student loan question 4. Savings targets for singles 5. Television 6. Job switch 7. Finding speaking gigs
Saving Pennies or Dollars is a new semi-regular series on The Simple Dollar, inspired by a great discussion on The Simple Dollar’s Facebook page concerning frugal tactics that might not really save that much money. I’m going to take some of the scenarios described by the readers there and try to break down the numbers
As I write this, I’m in a quiet room with all the lights off. I’ve been rocking my youngest child for more than an hour to get him to take a much-needed nap. He’s had an intestinal bug for the last three days and hasn’t slept comfortably during any of it. The room is so
I have, right here at my side, a list of several big projects that I’d love to take on. It’s all stored in a document on my computer. I have a video series that I’m collaborating on with a few people. I have a few standalone websites I’d like to design. I have two different
Given that an article entitled “Improving Your Score” appears on The Simple Dollar, most readers might assume that the tips that follow are going to deal with improving their credit score. They would be right – at least in part. However, most of the principles one would use in dealing with a credit score are
Saving Pennies or Dollars is a new semi-regular series on The Simple Dollar, inspired by a great discussion on The Simple Dollar’s Facebook page concerning frugal tactics that might not really save that much money. I’m going to take some of the scenarios described by the readers there and try to break down the numbers