choices

Would You Accept $200,000 If You Didn't Know Where It Came From?

Posted July 7, 2009 - 12:52 by Paul Michael

Frugal Living, Consumer Affairs

Button Button

You know, I hear a lot of people say that frugal people would do anything for dime. Personally, I think that applies more to greedy people, but it got me thinking of a question that combines morals with money. Would you accept $200,000, no strings attached, if you did not know where it came from.

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Lucky trade-offs

Posted December 31, 2008 - 05:08 by Philip Brewer

Lifestyle

My lucky workstation, anywhere I want to be

I view frugal living as essentially hedonistic: I don't deny myself things. Rather, I spend less on the things I don't care about in order to be able to spend more on the things that matter to me. Anybody who does this, though, sooner or later (as soon as friends, relatives, coworkers, or neighbors notice some of that spending on things that matter more) is going to hear, "You're so lucky to be able to afford that!"

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Sound advice for winning on a game show

Posted February 25, 2008 - 10:23 by Paul Michael

Life Hacks, Consumer Affairs

Which door?

I've been a closet fan of game shows for years; most likely because I love the idea of getting something for nothing (hey, this is a frugal writer after all). I recently stumbled across something called "The Monty Hall Paradox" and it's opened my eyes to the laws of probability in the seemingly innocent world of game shows. And armed with this knowledge, you've got a much better chance of winning something.

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Doing without is often better than making do

Posted February 14, 2008 - 01:10 by Philip Brewer

Frugal Living

Canon at Gettysburg

For anything you might buy there are almost limitless choices. For purposes of argument, I'd like to group them into three categories: You can buy the best; you can buy some crappy imitation of the best; or you can buy nothing at all. People argue a lot about the parameters of the first two choices. I don't think the third gets the attention it deserves.

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Common Currency: A Primer

Posted January 2, 2008 - 09:50 by Jabulani Leffall

Frugal Living

These postings will pertain to the economy of life, which is all about personal alternatives that shape our financial world. Common Currency isn't your father's pesonal finance blog. This is mostly because when your father came of age, Al Gore hadn't invented the Internet yet but in practice this means that you won’t get me to lying or falsely waxing about the latest, greatest mutual fund.

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Live like royalty on $20,000 a year

Posted December 8, 2007 - 07:00 by Philip Brewer

Frugal Living

Town hall in Paisley

I'm stealing the title for this post from the cover of a magazine that I saw back in the early 1980s. It caught my eye especially, because at the time I had just gotten a raise and was, in fact, making $20,000 a year. I was intrigued enough to pick up the magazine and glance through the article, only to be terribly disappointed. The author had a very different notion of how royalty live than I did.

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