Recent comments

  • Homemade Peanut Butter: Recipe and Cost Comparison   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Can homemade peanut butter be stored at room temperature, like regular peanut butter?

  • Homemade Peanut Butter: Recipe and Cost Comparison   16 years 20 weeks ago

    I love homemade jelly. You know the fruit is good to start with, and when you use sugar insted of corn syrup it is much sweeter and fresher tasting.

    Another is tomato sauce. With two boys of a certain age at home we go through a lot. I grow the tomatoes, so it's considerably less expensive and doesn't have all that sugar and stuff in it.

    The third is apple sauce. We like it chunky and cinnamony with a bit of tartness to the sweet. This way it's customised to our preferences and if we buy apples by the bushel, much less costly.

  • Beyond Tuition: Helping Out With College Expenses   16 years 20 weeks ago

    If you add yourself to a Upromise account for a neice or grandchild, specific purchases "kick back" a percentage into their account. We've found if the student can't accumulate the necessary monthly threshhold amount to open a 529, the money is still theirs to use for school expenses. It just not bearing interest. Recently we opened a Upromise credit card account. All purchses add something to our son's college account. Every bit helps.

  • Homemade Peanut Butter: Recipe and Cost Comparison   16 years 20 weeks ago

    I think you can make peabutter cheaper than if you get a good deal on the peanuts and take into consideration that most peanutputter does not contain a 100 % peanuts.

  • America Is the No Vacation Nation   16 years 20 weeks ago

    I live in Australia. I, like the majority of salaried workers, have 4 weeks leave a year. I can save them for two years and take up to 8 weeks off (work priorities permitting), but lose it if I don't take the time off.

    And this is the norm, if you're lucky, unless you are working for a small business like the vast majority of the workforce (where it is harder).

    So - where does the 7/8 weeks of leave a year mentioned previously come from? It's is not the norm.

    We actually have fewer public holidays a year than you do in the US.

    I always thought that the US were workaholics (not necessarily by choice - more by what was required to keep your job). But I have come to realise that we are similar to you (heaven forbid, since I'm a former Brit). What we care about is doing a good job. Being there when we are needed. Even if it means 12+ hours a day. Even if we burn out.

    But, sometimes, we just need to compensate. Spend time alone. Regenerate.

    Let's take our leave and be replenished!

  • The Pros and Cons of Paying Cash for a House   16 years 20 weeks ago

    I agree that cash is the best option. Afterall, look at how many homeowners got burned recently by banks that went flop. They put them in the outrageous mortgages which they both knew they could not afford, interest rates went through the roof an now we have tons of forclosures sitting on our local blocks. My local paper had over 100 Sheriff sales on forclosures this past month. That is like 25 times higher than normal literally.

    I know unemployment has something to do with that also. But figure this, if we take out what we know we can afford even in a crisis, we would not be in these situations.

    I prefer the pleasure of not owing anybody. I am 34 years old and have 2 children. About to have 3. I am a very private person and now a dog lover for the past 1 1/2 years. Nobody wants me to have my dog in their property so I have to hide her or take her to somebody else's house. Landlords can just be simply put, too damn demanding when you are paying them to live there. I did the calculations on Hud.gov. The savings on buying vs renting are very great. in like 10 years you could save over $30,000 depending on the price of the home, even more in other cases. I am just tired of slum lords and control freaks for the most part. I would rather deal with repairs and coming up with the money for it when it happens than someone continuously telling me what to do.

    This is the main reason why I don't want to owe the bank. I don't need anyone coming to take my house back after I have invested so much. If I can't get the water heater fixed until next month, I just have to struggle a little bit. If I can't pay the mortgage until next month, I could end up in forclosure and even worse with bad credit. Not worth it to me. Things happen to all of us and I just want a house that is mine, mine, mine. For all of the reasons I just listed, I will be paying cash for a house by June 2010. I am looking to buy a hud home to get the extra savings. I am not a wealthy person and have not saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. But I have a nice amount to get me a cute starter house for my new baby and my two sons.

    Having children is all the more reason to buy your own house. Landlords give you a harder time when renting when you have more than a kid or two. Its not fair but it is true.

  • 5 Tips for Easy College Savings   16 years 20 weeks ago

    You should check out upromise.com. My son is 4 and I've already earned about $2200 for him for college from this site. It cost me nothing and if you are wise in how you use it you can earn a lot.

  • How to Shop Online Safely   16 years 20 weeks ago

    I had my card compromised just a couple of weeks ago. I was looking at my bank statement, and I noticed a $1 ITunes charge. I don't use them. I read somewhere that when someone steals your card info that they will run $1 and $2 charges through to see if they are noticed and then hit you for the big bucks. I called the bank's fraud protection immediately and canceled the card. THE VERY NEXT DAY, fraud protection called me to ask about a $104 charge to a baby store. Haven't shopped one of those stores in a long time. I got really lucky.

    Also another good reason to use your card as a credit card is that warranties are usually doubled if you use it to purchase the item.

  • 20 Money-Saving Ways to Reuse Old Pantyhose   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Tie one to the end of the washing machine hose. Thread, lint, & any foreign items, such as tissues left in pockets, get caught in the stocking. This keeps that junk from going down the drain preventing clogs.

  • Passport Pictures for Under a Dollar   16 years 20 weeks ago

    You can create valid passport photos with http://idphoto4you.com website.
    It knows numerous passport standards and print sizes.
    It uses face detection so very easy to use.

  • Hobo Living Made Easy   16 years 20 weeks ago

    @Jane - Good for you on taking those mini sabbaticals! Indeed, never give up on a dream or a desire for change....there's a reason we desire change to begin with.

  • Cheap Passport Pictures (Part Two): Online Ordering   16 years 20 weeks ago

    @Guest (above) - Thanks for the link to idphoto4u. Looks good! Cheers.

  • Alice.com: How to Save on Toilet Paper and Diapers Without Working Hard   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Very cool tip as diapers do seem to be just ridiculously expensive!

  • The Guaranteed Easiest Way to Make Your Own Pickles   16 years 20 weeks ago

    How many cucumbers should I use with this recipe? I'm really excited to try this as my first time pickling experience.

  • Cheap Passport Pictures (Part Two): Online Ordering   16 years 20 weeks ago

    You can use http://idphoto4you.com website to create valid passport photos.
    It knows numerous passport standards and print sizes.
    It uses face detection so very easy to use.

  • Is It Better to Specialize or Generalize?   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Nora: I love this topic! I wrote something similar a few months ago using a hammer and swiss-army knife analogy. And now that some time has passed I think it's crucial to have a little bit of both in your toolbox. Like you said, balance is key and diversifying your talents in the workplace is essential.

    If you put a gun to my head, however, I'd go with the swiss-army knife.

     

    The Writer's Coin  |  Follow me on Twitter

  • Best Money Tips: Does Your Investment Strategy Need to be on Ritalin?   16 years 20 weeks ago

    This was a fun read thank you!

  • Alice.com: How to Save on Toilet Paper and Diapers Without Working Hard   16 years 20 weeks ago

    I was able to purchase 10 boxes of Kotex pantiliners (2 boxes each of 5 different varieties) plus 1 box of Lipton tea for $5.32. After I subtracted the $5 gift card I got from Swagbucks, it cost me a whopping $ .32 out of my checking account. Woohoo! More details here: http://luv2bfrugal.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-tried-something-new-today-and-it-was.html

  • Make Your DVD Player Region-Free in Seconds   16 years 20 weeks ago

    how do I get the code for toshiba SD-K531???????
    I WANNA WATCH MY MOOMIN DVDS!

    Please please help...
    email nyatta11@hotmail.com :c

  • Alice.com: How to Save on Toilet Paper and Diapers Without Working Hard   16 years 20 weeks ago

    I recently looked at Alice.com for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I hate doing all that math to figure out the best deal...and I don't need diapers. But, I do believe they have great deals when you take advantage of their discounts and coupons. I also like the fact that they don't charge a shipping fee.

  • netSpend: The Story of the Visa Debit Card We Did Not Apply For   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Seriously, who gives a crap that your husband got a card in the mail he didn't sign up for? Welcome to America dork. Even worse were your feelings of shock and disgust. Were you born the the 30's? You sound like some crabby elderly woman with nothing better to do with her life than complain about junk mail. Once you realize that being a housewife is no longer an occupation and quit freeloading off your husband, maybe you'll have something in your pointless life to write about.

    Do not publish anymore articles, we don't want more people like you to be encouraged to take up writing crap about junk mail.

  • Alice.com: How to Save on Toilet Paper and Diapers Without Working Hard   16 years 20 weeks ago

    This beats my personal best on diaper prices by $.001, take that thanksgiving day shopping.

  • Make Your DVD Player Region-Free in Seconds   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Does anyone have the procedure and codes for making this player region free?

  • netSpend: The Story of the Visa Debit Card We Did Not Apply For   16 years 20 weeks ago

    I have a netspend card. I got it specifically to make online purchases. I beleive this protects my bank account. I have not had a problem as I understood the fees when I got it. The only problem I have now is that they are no longer accessible. Not everyone has good credit. This was help to people like those and people like me who dont want to use their real credit and debit cards online.

  • How to Buy Personal Carbon Credits That Count   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Huh, we don't hear about the hole in the ozone layer because the ozone layer is recovering, because most of the chemicals that were causing it to thin were banned in the Montreal Protocol - 'way back in 1987.

    See, when you see a problem and you change your behavior to address it, it gets better - the reversal of ozone loss is an argument for acting against climate change, not for pretending it will just go away.