Money Tips Network

Editor's Note: Congratulations to Suzanne, Avigale, and John for winning this week's contest!

You hadn't planned for it, but suddenly, out of nowhere, you are engulfed by the urge...the urge to go to a Halloween event!

Yesterday, I spent $80 on a pair of pajama bottoms. (Or, as the company calls them, Alaskan guide lounge bottoms.)

On the one hand, this feels like an insane amount to spend on sleepwear. On the other hand, my last two pairs of pajamas — both $20 specials from Costco — have lasted no longer than a year because they've quickly fallen apart. They were cheap garments cheaply made.

Herein lies a question I frequently face: When does it make sense to pay more for quality?

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Divorce mediation difficulties
2. Importance of credit score?
3. Fearing money stolen from accounts?
4. Move to city or not?
5. GnuCash
6. “Bang for the buck” coat
7. Paid off student loans, then…?
8. Inflation linked treasury notes

Major technology manufacturers have been making it increasingly difficult for the average person to repair the items they produce. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, it’s us consumers who demand every new generation of smartphone be faster and lighter than the last. That doesn’t happen by magic. It takes fancy screws, special adhesives, and hundreds of impossibly tiny parts fitting together just right. The fact that we buy these devices by the millions every year shows we appreciate the craftsmanship.

What many people don’t appreciate, and what is starting to become a national issue, is the way in which big tech companies are piling on additional challenges to the would-be repairer. Manufacturers are restricting access to the tools, documentation, and software necessary to make even basic repairs, forcing consumers to either scrap their items when something goes wrong or spend the time and money to have the manufacturer fix it.

Back when I was at the peak of my foolish spending days, I had a set of three good friends that I will call Manny, Moe, and Jack. The four of us got into a routine of going golfing after work at least once a week and golfing together each weekend. We were also part of an informal “young professionals” group in town, where a bunch of people in similar professions under the age of 35 or so would meet for drinks after work most nights, where people would meet up, talk about their careers, and show off their latest possessions (for example, smartphones were a new thing then and people were constantly one-upping each other with the latest gear because device innovation seemed to be happening on a weekly basis, but people also showed off the clothes and jewelry they wore, their watches, their cars, and so on).

Over the past few months, Sarah and I have cut several expenses out of our lives. We eliminated our cable bill. We switched auto insurance after doing a bit of shopping around, cutting our premium nearly in half with no change in coverage. We cut out a couple of subscriptions that we weren’t getting any value out of. During the late spring and summer, we did a ton of bulk buying and meal prepping, filling up cupboards with a number of things that have cut our average monthly grocery bill this year by a surprising amount (about 20% a month). I’ve also found a nice balance with my own personal spending, with the total going down drastically. We’ve planned our 2019 and 2020 family summer vacations, both of which are really inexpensive.

Have you ever gone grocery shopping on an empty stomach?

Join our Tweetchat Thursday 10/18 at 12pm PST/ 3pm EST for lively conversation and a chance to win a $200 gift card or one of two $50 gift cards! Use #WBChat and #HowAmericaPays to participate.

This week's topic: How America Pays for College!

The credit world is full of myths and misconceptions: Credit scores are used by employers. You only have one credit score. Closing credit card accounts can help your scores.

All of these are demonstrably false, yet they seem to have a life of their own in the blogosphere.

Another myth that has sprouted up recently has to do with charge-offs and collections. The myth is that they’re the same thing. This post will serve to dispel that myth. Although both charge-offs and collection accounts can potentially cause credit score damage, they’re not actually the same.