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Posted
Jul 03 2008, 02:14 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
"Story Girl" at the My Money and My Life personal finance blog wondered if community supported agriculture were a frugal choice. She'd be paying $25 a week for an ever-changing variety of fresh, local produce. But $25 is "nearly half my weekly grocery budget," Story Girl notes.
Now she's really glad she did it. In an item called "Why I love CSA," she explained that there was more to the decision than simple frugality. "There are a lot of reasons why I consider this to be a good choice for me," she writes, "and why it may even save money in the long term."
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Posted
Jul 02 2008, 09:06 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Last July, I was in debt. This year I don't owe a thing. That's the kind of independence I'll be celebrating this Friday: freedom from obligation. And to paraphrase Franklin D. Roosevelt, I'll also be celebrating freedom from wants.
"Freedom from want," according to FDR's famous Four Freedoms speech, means "economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants." I'd like to define that further. To me, a "healthy peacetime life" means having my needs met and my wants under control.
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Posted
Jun 30 2008, 09:37 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Lately I've been feeling better about things financial. The bottom line could be healthier, but I'm trying to concentrate on what I have rather than what I don't have. To wit: retirement monies from my previous career, an emergency fund, a university scholarship, a part-time writing job, a well-stocked pantry and cheap rent due to my gig as apartment house manager. I also have the useful life skill of being easily amused: long walks, yard sales, meals at home, writing to friends, going to the library and doing The New York Times crossword puzzle all make me happy.
Still, I sometimes get jumpy about the lucre. This tends to happen after I've read the newspaper or online news sites with stories predicting doom, gloom and recession. It also occurs whenever I pay attention to grocery prices for very long. The anxiety is vague and free-floating, but the hypervigilance it inspires is very focused indeed.
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Posted
Jun 25 2008, 10:09 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Feeling pain at the supermarket checkout? Don't expect relief anytime soon. According to an Associated Press article, the Midwestern floods that destroyed soybean and corn crops will send the price of beef, pork, poultry, eggs, cheese and milk higher this fall.
Anybody want to join me while I shop for flour and beans and a small freezer?
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Posted
Jun 20 2008, 09:16 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Scared that your money won't keep pace with rising food and energy costs? You may be tempted to cut to the barest of bones, buying nothing nonessential and pinching every penny twice before putting it under your mattress.
I have a better idea. Spend a little money. And spend it on something that isn't strictly necessary.
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Posted
Jun 18 2008, 08:35 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
A recent Wall Street Journal article noted that the Cold Stone Creamery franchise is in trouble. More than 100 stores closed last year, and just over 300 shops -- 20% of total Cold Stone outlets -- are for sale. The article quotes franchisees as claiming that the parent company provided misleading information and made unreasonable demands that ate into profits.
I have a theory of my own: Their ice cream is really expensive.
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Posted
Jun 16 2008, 08:57 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
A year ago, a regular reader who calls herself "SC CDF" really wanted an ice-cream maker. These days she can barely remember having wanted it. She proposed that we write down what we want and then check back later to see if we still want it. That's why in April I started a Smart Spending message board thread called "What do you want? Will you still want it a year from now?"
Readers posted their burning desires: a great camera and printer, electronic gadgets, new cookware, computers, automobiles, furniture. Most of those who reported back later on the updated thread said they did not get what they wanted. But all of them were OK with that.
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Posted
Jun 10 2008, 10:15 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
One morning, personal-finance blogger "Blunt Money" got out of bed and stepped right into a puddle of cat barf. How many of us would have let that ruin our entire day?
Not her. "I chose to just get it cleaned up and move on. After all, the day was bound to get better from there, right?" Blunt Money wrote in a blog essay called "Attitude matters."
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Posted
Jun 06 2008, 09:04 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Emily, a personal-finance blogger at Remodeling This Life, was recently asked something all you frugalists have probably heard before: Don't you ever get tired of living this way? Don't you ever want to stop being deprived?
(Haven't heard these questions? Don't worry. You will.)
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Posted
May 14 2008, 09:17 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
I was intrigued by the "What busts your budget?" item that Karen Datko posted at Smart Spending last week. In it, a number of personal-finance bloggers described some costs that hurt: gasoline, haircuts, dentist appointments, new shoes for the kids, (unnecessary) new shoes for the moms, soft drinks, veterinary care and the like.
A guy calling himself "Caja del Oro" left a comment describing his own budget buster: all those "deal of the day" Web sites. It's not that the deals are particularly expensive -- it's that they're too darned cheap, and therefore irresistible. "Most of the time I don't even know I 'want' something until one of these sites offers it at a discount," Caja laments.
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