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Posted
Jul 03 2008, 12:45 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
The old saying "When you buy cheap, you get cheap" isn't always true. I've gotten some terrific products cheaply at thrift stores and yard sales. And you may not have to pay top dollar for certain products -- a mop bucket from the dollar store does the job as handily as one from a more upscale retailer.
But you need to pick your spots, as evidenced by a recent item on the Five Cent Nickel personal finance blog. Owner-operator "Nickel" has a 10-year-old son who loves wearing a watch. Thus far, that's been a "kid" timepiece that costs between $10 and $12. Why spend good money on something for a 10-year-old, right?
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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 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 13 2008, 09:09 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Years ago, my dad taught elementary school all day and then went to his second job of teaching adolescents deemed too unruly for regular high school. One evening, a student flipped a penny at him. Dad picked it up and put it in his pocket. The teens laughed, and another one flipped a penny. Then another one.
When my father had 12 cents in his pocket, he said, "Guys, I want to thank you. All I need is 38 more of these and I'm going over to the Fairfield and have a draft beer -- on you."
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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 28 2008, 08:37 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
A good time doesn't have to cost a good piece of your paycheck. Some readers of the Smart Spending message board listed scores of ways to enjoy life on the cheap -- specifically, for $1 or less.
Although some of the pleasures on this thread are best enjoyed by families with young children, many will also translate to singles or couples. Unleash your inner kid by flying a kite. Invite your significant other to a picnic in the town park when there's a free evening concert. Walk your new girlfriend from gallery opening to gallery opening -- you get props for having an artistic soul, and the two of you can enjoy the free snacks that many galleries offer.
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Posted
May 07 2008, 10:51 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
How to be a one-income family, pay off debts and still save for retirement? There's no magic formula for reader "Steph041401" -- just a bunch of coping strategies. Among them:
Drinking mostly water. Baking at home. Cutting out most processed foods. Shopping with cash only. Trading magazines with friends. Making single-serve snack packs with dollar store ingredients.
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Posted
Apr 23 2008, 09:08 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
I had to laugh when I read a recent Seattle Times article, "The crunch of rising food prices." There's nothing funny about its subject: Americans are paying a lot more for groceries. It was the newspaper's choice of real-life examples that caused my sardonic chuckle.
One was a woman who spends a total of $700 a month at three different supermarkets to feed her family, which includes two small children. Presumably she's a stay-at-home mom; her husband is a technical analyst for an engineering firm. The article noted that she's "disappointed that she can't afford to buy organic milk and produce as often anymore."
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Posted
Apr 21 2008, 09:33 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Just kidding! Wow, you TV people are scary when you're mad.
I don't really think you should kill your television. But how about turning it off? Say, for most of the time.
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Posted
Mar 14 2008, 08:40 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Yesterday would have been the 73rd birthday of the person who probably should be writing this column: my mother, Geneva Burgess Hanes.
She was the youngest of 10 kids born to an uneducated Tennessee couple who eventually pulled up stakes and moved north for opportunity -- that is, for the chance to work in South Jersey factories and vegetable fields.
Despite hunger, poverty and violence, my mother became the first in her family to finish high school. She owned two dresses ("one on, one off") and never had a square meal or a bath in a real tub until she married my dad right after graduation.
They had four kids in five years, which sounds impossibly grim by today's standards. But we didn't seem to notice that we were poor. Everyone we knew pinched pennies. Nobody did it like my mom, though.
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