Articles on Frugal Living

Foreign exchange class action settlement

Did you travel overseas between 1996 and 2006? Or, did you charge anything on a credit or debit card in a foreign currency? If so, be sure to claim your share of a class action s

Ten Tenets for "Arranging Your Rich" - Part 1: Rich is Relative

There are some guiding principles to arranging your own wealth. Ten, in fact. Ten important "tenets" to keep you grounded and on track as you begin the "arranging your rich" proces

Do not buy something just because you can afford it

Since I got married people have been constantly asking me two questions. One is, "are you pregnant yet?", and the other is "are you going to buy a house?" One

So you bought an HD DVD player. Now what?

It’s gone. HD DVD lost the war, Blu-Ray is the winner. Toshiba has admitted defeat and will discontinue all of its HD DVD products. No more players, no more recorders, no more disc

Longtime Mac Users Punished for Loyalty

I've watched other Mac lovers fall away from the True Faith, one-by-one, but I never thought it would happen to me. However, yesterday when we brought home the newest addition

Vision Boards: Dream Big, Play with Pictures, and Watch your Life Change

Here's a fun exercise the whole family can enjoy in creating your future by playing with pictures.

Keeping The Budget In Budget Travel

To save money for your vacation you crafted a detailed budget and stuck to it. Now, with your bags packed and ticket in hand, you are ready to put all the of preparation and planni

Manage your fixed expenses

When you think of people ruining their lives with foolish spending, it's easy to focus on the little things that add up--the meals out, the hefty bar tab, the daily Starbucks habit

Killin 'em Out There: The School Clothes Conundrum

How do you break the cycle when social engineering and personal spending habits that are as unique as your genetic coding, are emptying your pockets?

What Can You Do With Unwanted Gift Cards?

In my house we try to spend gift cards as soon as possible because the longer they are held the less purchasing power they have. Sometimes there are just cards you are not interest

5 Perfectly Respectable Uses for Instant Mashed Potatoes

Like most people, I can tell the difference between authentic mashed potatoes, made from fresh spuds, and the dehydrated “flakes” that come in a box. This doesn’t mean that you can

Papa Murphy’s update: nice save.

As some of you are aware, I experienced the wait of all waits at Papa Murphy’s recently. Over one hour for a phone order, which left me fuming (partly at my own politeness for not

Introducing an Amazing Suite of Web Tools for Creative People

Are you an artist at heart and love to dabble with photography and videos? Do you find that Photoshop and video editing tools are too expensive and cumbersome to use? Well, now t

Take back St. Valentine’s Day from Hallmark and Hershey’s.

Today is St. Valentine’s Day. Delivery vans filled with flowers are passing each other on the highways; the supermarket aisles filled with pink and red cards are chock full of men

Stretching Meals for Unexpected Guests

I think I’ve lucked out — plenty of my friends live in my immediate vicinity. One even lives in the next apartment building over. This does mean, however, that people are in the ha

Doing without is often better than making do

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

Is Six Figures Really That Much?

Nowadays, six figures is still above average, but its buying power in terms of lifestyle may have eroded even more than the value of a dollar, as those of us within striking distan

Wisdom from My Favorite Frugal TV Character - Julius Rock

My favorite cheap TV character is Julius Rock from Everybody Hate Chris. Julius is a character based on Chris Rock's father and in almost every episode of the show his fruga

Growing My Own Food...In My Apartment

I'm planning out a garden for this spring. I don't have any access to a yard to plant my garden in, but I have a balcony on my apartment that gets plenty of sun.

How I Grocery Shop

First, I will commit heresy by saying that I no longer write a full weekly menu.