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  • Frugal (and green) tips for expectant moms

    Posted Mar 03 2008, 12:29 PM by Karen Datko
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    Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money

    Pregnant ladies, don't rush out and buy a bunch of new stuff for the bundle of joy. "They don't need expensive little outfits -- babies can't read the tag to know whether the outfit came from Gymboree or whether it was purchased at babyGap," writes Tiffany at Nature Moms Blog.

    Hand-me-down clothes and other baby items are easier on the budget and the environment, she says. Other ways to save money: Clip coupons and look for coupon codes in new-mother magazine classifieds and at Web sites, make your own cloth diapers, and ***-feed your newborn. If you can't, choose glass or nontoxic plastic bottles.   Read More...

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  • Your past influences your spending

    Posted Feb 29 2008, 09:17 AM by Karen Datko
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    Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money

    This guest post comes from Lynnae at Being Frugal.

    When I was a kid, my family didn't have a lot of money. In most areas, I never felt deprived. I have three younger brothers, so I was always busy playing outside with them. Or picking on them, but we won't talk about that.

    One thing I did notice was that, with four kids and not a lot of money, we didn't have a lot of clothes. My brothers and I each had three school outfits. We wore two of the outfits on Monday and Tuesday, the third on Wednesday, when my mom did the laundry, and the first two outfits on Thursday and Friday. Every week.

    I even remember my mom commenting that one of my friend's moms had mentioned that her child had enough clothes to last a week without doing laundry. My mom didn't know how they could afford it. 

    I remember being jealous.

    Now that I'm an adult, surprisingly, I'm not tempted to overbuy clothes for myself. I hate shopping for myself, and my relatively small wardrobe shows it. However, I do have a tendency to overbuy for the kids. I think that somewhere in the deep recesses of my memory, I'm afraid that they won’t have enough clothes.   Read More...

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  • The friend who is always broke

    Posted Nov 12 2007, 05:54 AM by Karen Datko
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    Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
    We all know someone like "S," a friend of Vixen on a Budget . S waitresses and lives with her parents (her older brother and his fiance also live at home). Her only bills are car insurance and her cell phone. Yet she complains that she never has any money. To fill in the picture, we might add that S often is late for work, and calls in sick when she's not. She parties with friends three times a week and always has money for new clothes. Get the picture here? Does her behavior (and that of her parents) irritate you? What's the problem here? asks Vixen, who waitresses at the same restaurant, has her own place, a car payment and goes to school full time. "We are different people because of the way our parent's have raised us," Vixen writes, encouraging parents to teach their children the value of money. Vixen has tried to school her friend about ways to budget and save . It's not working so far. S showed up for work with a new purse and jacket she bought for $55, about half price, she gushed   Read More...
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  • The hidden savings of having another child

    Posted Sep 26 2007, 09:57 AM by Karen Datko
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    Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money

    You'll eat out less often, if at all, when you add a fussy newborn to the family. And you can reuse toys, clothes and other items no longer age-appropriate for your first child. The father of a newborn explains these and other savings.   Read More...

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