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Posted
Sep 04 2008, 12:35 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
A lot has been written lately about kids' extracurricular or so-called enrichment activities, but the story that takes the cake is this one told by "Mighty Bargain Hunter": Parents bought a Steinway grand piano for their child "and built an addition on to their house to display it properly." You guessed it. The kid quit piano lessons in two years. How do you provide your child with fulfilling structured time without going overboard on commitments and cost?
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Posted
Aug 07 2008, 02:39 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Someone asked Jennifer Derrick the other day why she doesn't make more money so she can have the "finer things in life" -- jewelry, fancy cars, big house, expensive vacations. She's talented enough. Doesn't she want these things? Nope. But that person said: "Everyone wants those things and if you think you don't, you're living in denial. You only say that to make yourself feel better because you can't afford them."
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Posted
Jul 08 2008, 07:37 PM
by
Karen Datko
If you've lived in Florida, you know about flea infestations, dive-bombing palmetto bugs, tarantula-size spiders, and other creepy-crawlies you wish would go belly up in the night. Whether you're facing super-sized bugs or standard household invaders, you'll welcome some pet- and child-safe frugal pest-control measures. Two posts on the subject were featured in this week's Festival of Frugality.
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Posted
May 03 2008, 11:33 AM
by
Karen Datko
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We're not sure we're willing to totally give up TV, as our partner blogger Donna Freedman has. We have gone without before, but we want our CNN, our "Real Time with Bill Maher" and "The Sopranos" reruns, and our Steelers football in the fall. (We have DirecTV.) But if we needed to cut back to a basic package or do without, "Frugal Dad" assures us that there is life with minimal TV service. He's been without expanded cable service for four months, and he and the family are very happy with the decision. Here's why.
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Posted
Apr 29 2008, 05:42 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Spring marks the return of that favorite American pastime -- the yard sale. If you're thinking about de-cluttering, the always practical and thorough Lynnae at Being Frugal offers 10 tips for having a "wildly successful" sale. You want to make money, folks, so you have to advertise, she says. Word of mouth goes only so far. Craigslist is an option. Also, we know that many newspapers offer handy kits if you buy a garage sale ad.
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Posted
Apr 24 2008, 06:46 PM
by
Karen Datko
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"Frugal Babe" is thinking about quitting her part-time job at the library when her baby is born. That would decrease the family income by $20,000. But through hard work and good planning, she and her husband will continue to run their insurance business, put money in retirement and emergency accounts, pay for health and life insurance, make extra payments on their home, and will set up a college education fund for their child -- all after the baby arrives. "Life is all about choices," she says in this excellent post. "Lucky people tend to make their own luck by the choices they make."
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Posted
Apr 09 2008, 05:13 PM
by
Karen Datko
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When we read about Amy's plans for her wedding at My Daily Dollars, we wanted to be invited. This excellent post explains how you can celebrate in an incredible setting with fabulous food for less than $5,000. First of all, decide what your wedding means to you. "When I imagined my wedding day, what always got me the most excited was the fact that it will be one of the few times in my life that many of the people I love will be in one place at the same time," Amy writes. "Once I had that in mind, other things started to fall into place." Base the theme on the location, not the other way around. It takes a lot of money to transform a boring social hall into a special place. Her wedding and a "scrumptious picnic reception" will be at a lodge in the state park where she and her fiance had one of their first dates. She adds, "I'm planning for a hike down to the river in my wedding dress."
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Posted
Apr 03 2008, 12:53 PM
by
Karen Datko
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We have to admire anyone who can come up with a list of 90 tips about anything, let alone ways to keep kids occupied in productive ways. Debbie Dragon's list at Destroy Debt is incredibly creative and amazingly simple. In fact, we want to try some of these because they sound like so much fun. There's "target squirting." Put plastic cups on a fence post or a person's head and squirt them off with a water gun or simple plastic water bottle. She also suggests a fun game to play with water balloons. (We're in!) A lot of these ideas are great for summer when kids are out of school. There's "dirt restaurant." Send them outside with some plastic dishes. "They can make salads from leaves and flower petals, mud pies, and tree-bark chicken," Debbie writes. (Just make sure they don't eat it.)
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Posted
Mar 27 2008, 12:46 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Guest poster Emily Starbuck Gerson at Sense to Save had a revelation not uncommon  among new pet owners: "I love my pets, but I had no idea they would be so costly."
The cost of pet ownership has been discussed by many personal-finance bloggers lately, and we'll share a lot of their ideas here, starting with one of the most expensive and emotionally difficult issues. My Money Blog asks how much you would pay to treat a pet with a serious illness or injury.
He writes: "For us, we would give up just about all of our luxuries before withholding health care for our dog." But, he adds, if treatment will merely extend your pet's misery, "there is a time that palliative care is the most humane choice."
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Posted
Mar 19 2008, 05:10 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Mrs. Micah clearly touched a nerve when she opened a discussion about how to save money to leave -- and ultimately divorce -- an abusive spouse. She and her readers -- including social workers, and former victims and their children -- provided lots of ideas to consider, as well as personal stories of successfully leaving or being found out. We'll summarize some of their suggestions here, but we recommend you read the entire series. Set up a P.O. box and get a bank account and safe deposit box using that address. Do not check your bank statements on your home computer. Readers left stories about tech-savvy abusers who installed programs to track their spouse's keystrokes. Stash a bag of clothing, cash and copies of important documents at the home of a trusted friend. Be extremely careful about sharing your plans; word can leak out. The daughter of an abused woman offered another perspective: Don't wait until you've saved money.
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