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Posted
Jul 10 2008, 08:00 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from Myscha Theriault at partner blog Wise Bread. How little luggage can you take and how low can you go on the budget end when you travel? Space With all the talk about airlines starting to charge for the very first bag you check, one-bag travel is going to become a larger priority for many. This is easier to achieve on some trips than others. My personal indicators? The length, diversity and independence level of the trip. The longer my husband and I are traveling, the more climates, cultures and regions we're trying to see, or the more independent we are trying to be in order to maximize our travel bucks, the harder it is to eliminate items like the corkscrew, multipurpose tool, and other miscellaneous gear like mosquito nets, sleep sacks or hammocks.
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Posted
Jun 14 2008, 08:22 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Here's a concept we can wrap our mind around: A Bankrate article talks about 12 "new necessities" of modern living that are actually "entitlements" we can do without. The article quotes psychotherapist Olivia Mellan by way of explanation: A lot of us in wealthy, overspending America are either born or raised with a tremendous sense of entitlement. We say to ourselves,"I work hard or, I work at a job I hate -- at least I should be able to have a Starbucks coffee every day or eat out for lunch." But of course, those are not needs, they're wants. They're pleasures.
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Posted
Jun 13 2008, 09:07 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Michael Nolan begins a recent post at Frugal Mania with this excellent question: "Have you ever noticed how many aspects of frugal living used to be considered just plain common sense?" Yes, we have. And we also suspect that the adjustment to higher prices for food and fuel would be less jarring if we all applied some of that old-fashioned thinking. For those who want to give it a try, Michael offers a crash course in the form of the 30-day frugal challenge.
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Posted
May 16 2008, 03:33 PM
by
Karen Datko
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If you want The Frugal Duchess' business, you'd better listen up. In an open letter to consumer-product companies, she says she's fed up with those that mislead, poison, overcharge or downright insult customers. "Stop filling magazine pages, cyberspace and television airwaves with advertisements designed to make me feel needy, greedy and inadequate," she writes in a guest post at Frugal For Life. For instance: "What's wrong with fine lines around my eyes? I've laughed a lot. I've cried plenty."
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Posted
May 08 2008, 04:40 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Pinyo's wife thinks he's cheap. In his mind, he's frugal. Who's right? He scored a 20 on the cheap vs. frugal test he devised and posted at Moolanomy. That score indicates that he's neither, but that he "appears to be reasonable" with his spending. Take the test. It's fun. For example, here's Question No. 6. You have some old clothes. Do you ...? - What are you talking about? I don't have old clothes.
- I donate them when they get a little older.
- I turn them into rags.
- I am still wearing them.
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Posted
Apr 22 2008, 03:18 PM
by
Karen Datko
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An article at MSN Money about things you should buy only when they're new prompted Mrs. Nespy at Mrs. Nespy's World to come up with her own top 10 list. Among her items: child car seats, helmets, mattresses, children's shoes, makeup, hot tubs and many car parts. She also offers an action plan if you really can't afford to buy these things new.
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Posted
Apr 16 2008, 02:35 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
It goes without saying that you shouldn't chew gum, drop bad-word bombs or wear your gym clothes when you're at a job interview. Or does it? Based on the experience of "Gibble" and that of his readers, job candidates sometimes violate these basic rules and a bunch of others. As a guide for job applicants, Gibble offers "10 things not to do during an interview" at Gather Little by Little. Gibble, who interviews a lot of candidates in his job as an IT manager, said those 10 violations "pretty much make me cut the interview short and walk out."
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Posted
Apr 02 2008, 09:04 AM
by
Donna Freedman
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I have a new theory about retail. Auto races have pace cars that determine how fast the drivers can go. Shopping centers hire pace walkers -- folks who shuffle along four or five abreast at maddeningly slow rates of speed.
I'm not talking about people who walk malls for exercise, but rather the ones who saunter through retail meccas with their friends, talking about Facebook and how cute Emma's new shoes are and whether they should split a cinnamon roll.
Whenever you try to pass these groups, you're thwarted by cell phone kiosks or by crowds surging from the other direction. It's all part of an insidious plan: The slower you walk, the more likely you are to look into shop windows and think, "A pink spaniel with white spots? I should get one of those."
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Posted
Mar 29 2008, 03:34 PM
by
Karen Datko
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"FMF" at Free Money Finance worked one summer years ago as a management intern at Kmart, so he has an insider's perspective on the chain's decline. In his new series of store reviews, he gives his former employer an "F." When he worked there, "Kmart was the king of mass merchants, but my particular store was panicked because a new competitor was headed into their region, some company by the name of Wal-Mart," he says. "... they were bracing for an invasion that they expected to be about as terrible as the Huns coming to ransack their city." The ransacking apparently has taken its toll. By the way, FMF gave Wal-Mart a "B+" rating.
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Posted
Feb 29 2008, 09:17 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
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.
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