Articles on Frugal Living

Go Golf Cart Go: The Battery-Powered Solution?

Spotted moving along on the roads in my city just last week was a golf cart. Is this solution to high gas prices (a bare-bones battery-powered vehicle) wise or even legal? I’ll tel

Book Review: Living On An Acre, A Practical Guide to the Self-Reliant Life

Ever since I left the city and crept my way back into my childhood farm house, I have been slowly adjusting to a simpler lifestyle. Living On An Acre has been a steady and dependa

50 Ways To Squeeze Value From Your Healthcare Dollar Without Killing Yourself

Healthcare will most likely be my family's largest expense in a couple of years, when we've finished paying our home mortgage. We're not heavy users of the healthcare system, so wh

Tips For Eating Out Cheaply

My husband and I eat out quite often because we just do not have the time and energy to cook on most weekdays. Even though we go out three times a week or more, we do not really s

Emergency Preparedness For Your Freezer

We’ve been weathering tornado season with your typical emergency planning and assortment of supplies. Candles, radios, and a clean basement shelter are ready to go at a moment's n

Book review: Happier

Here are two ideas you already know: You won't achieve maximum happiness by always doing the most pleasurable thing you can think of at each moment, but neither will you find it b

Strategic Thriftstore Shopping

True confessions? I'm a girl and a depression shopper (as in shopping, not unlike cheesecake, makes me momentarily happy like millions of other Sex and the City watching gals). But

How Much Should Your Kids Know About Your Finances?

I know of parents who don’t ever discuss money with their kids. “They should be carefree at this age,” they claim. Money isn’t an appropriate topic for family conversation at the

Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is

Do your normal financial routines feel blah? Does saving not give you the same rush that it used to? Does investing feel overwhelming, dull, or uninteresting? Then maybe you're man

The Ultimate "Green" Workout

Recently our own Xin Lu wrote a post on a motivating way to lose weight (a very interesting piece.) Imagine my surprise when a commenter spoke my mind by sharing the ultimate in “

Making Change Count

I brought a bag filled with quarters to pay for my meal at an Italian restaurant recently. I’ve been taking an informal survey of merchants to see who welcomes my coins. Having rec

3 Ways to Travel Free (Or At Least Really Darned Cheap!)

How would you like to get out and "see the world"? Visit the Carthage Ruins or spend a week just hiking across Europe. Paris, Italy or maybe the Bahamas... there's really just no e

Do You Really Need “Soft” Water?

Water is a necessity. Soft water may not be. Depending on where you live and how you use water, the cost of processing your water may not be worth it.

Is the Wii Fit a cheap workout?

I’ll be honest, I’m not a fitness nut. I don’t like exercising, it always seems like a chore. But what if it wasn’t? What if it were, dare I say it, almost a game? That’s what Wii

Travel on Amtrak

With each move by the airlines to claw back a bit of the profit that has vanished into the twin maws of competition and higher fuel prices, and with each move by the government to

The Benefits of a Walkable Neighborhood

Are you able to walk to your daily necessities from where you live? Or do you drive everywhere? Discover how walkable your neighborhood is and see if you can use your car less.

“Make your own Twinkies” and other secret recipes by the Food Cloner Dude.

Todd Wilbur is a name you may well have heard before. For lack of a better word, he’s a copycat…and a cool one at that. From homemade Twinkies to homecooked Big Macs, Todd can recr

Why "Buy One Get One Free" Is Usually A Bad Deal

Recently, I read about a promotion from a home builder in San Diego where consumers could buy a 4000 square foot house for $1.6 million and get a smaller home by the developer valu

Fill your tank

Last week I saw several reports about a sharp jump in people running out of gas on the highway. The stories attributed the increase to high gas prices, suggesting that people who

Miss the Big Sale? Claim Your Savings Anyway

Use these techniques to haggle your way to savings, even if you miss a sale.