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Posted
Jun 06 2008, 09:04 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
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
Nov 02 2007, 03:33 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The Dough Roller 's financial assets weren't inherited. What he got from his upbringing was an appreciation for a dollar and what life is like without a sufficient supply of them. His candid account his stepfather's bad financial decisions (DR lived with his mother and stepfather) and their impact on the family contains many stark lessons about money and life . We'll share this detail from his post: The death of his father in a car crash entitled DR to Social Security benefits, which were used to pay his stepfather's bills and avoid bankruptcy. The post ends with DR's summary of insights he gained. Among them: "We are the sum of our circumstances multiplied by our choices. Each of our circumstances differs but they almost always involve struggles. From those struggles, we can learn and we can choose."
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Posted
Sep 30 2009, 10:03 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Has a charity ever pushed and annoyed you to the point that you've cut them off?
When do you draw the line at giving? When they've hired a telemarketing company that pesters you, or if they send you too much mail?
"FMF" of Free Money Finance raised the question in a recent post called "Off my giving list." He stopped giving to a group he had generously supported because a telemarketer who called his house wouldn't take no for an answer.
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Posted
Apr 22 2008, 03:18 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
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
Sep 01 2009, 01:55 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Are there office clichés that you find overused, tiresome and extremely annoying? Take "outside the box." "Outside the bun" is clever; "outside the box" is not. Thankfully, that phrase is no longer around -- after a long and painful death.
You can compare your most hated phrases with those selected by a variety of executives, reports Marlys Harris, The Consumer Reporter at CBS MoneyWatch.com. Marlys shares results from Accountemps, which did the survey, in a post called "Words you should never use at the office unless you have to." She also offers her own often hilarious translations.
For example, Marlys wrote: "Value-add. A gain, usually financial. Example: "She refuses to donate to charity unless she sees some value-add, say, eternal salvation." Read More...
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Posted
Oct 10 2007, 09:23 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Seattle is loaded with blackberry vines. The sight of all that free fruit makes me want to forage each summer. My arms get so thorn-raked it looks like I’ve tried to exorcise a cat, but I fill the freezer, make jam, and eat blackberries almost every day for weeks.
On my way to pick berries one end-of-summer day, I saw a dark-purple blob in the dust. A plum had fallen from a tree in a nearby yard. I broke open the windfall and took a tentative nibble from its golden interior. Sweet as the memory of first love.
Peeking through the fence, I could see the tree was loaded. I asked the homeowners if I could trade them a jar of jam for the fruit I’d need to make some. They told me to help myself: “We’re glad someone wants it.”
Two batches of jam later, I posted a thread on the Smart Spending message board: Who else out there “puts food by” each year? Do you grow it? Buy it from a farm? Scrounge and scavenge like me?
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Posted
Jan 16 2008, 08:40 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Madison at My Dollar Plan is so disgusted with the illogical way contestants play "Deal or No Deal" that she's thinking about not watching it anymore. It's all mathematics, people, specifically a concept called "expected value," she says. Madison contends that if you apply the equation, you won't walk away like the lady who turned down a $5,500 offer from the "Banker" and became the first contestant to end the game with a penny. She'd earlier rejected higher offers, including one for $207,000.
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Posted
Sep 23 2009, 07:19 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Nora Dunn at partner blog Wise Bread.
How many friendships have you lost (or almost lost) because of money? If money matters are a touchy subject to begin with, then how are we expected to navigate the murky waters of borrowing from friends?
We've all been there (on either side of the spectrum) before: A buddy asks you to spot him $20, but never seems to have the cash available to pay you back, or he continues to forget when he sees you. And when, months later, he buys a fourth round of beer in front of you without handing over the $20 that has been slowly eroding away at your sanity, you pop.
Your buddy has probably forgotten that he even owed you anything and immediately hands you the cash, but the damage has been done. Your friendship now faces trust and communication issues that may or may not be overcome.
Now, $20 is a fairly easy loan amount to forgive or forget about. But what if that $20 is $200, or even $2,000 or beyond? What tension will exist in the friendship as a result of an outstanding loan?
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Posted
Oct 22 2007, 09:31 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
When life hands you flank steak, make hamburgers. At least that was the tip offered recently by Mary Hunt of Debt-Proof Living: Pick up loss-leader cuts of beef and ask the store butcher to grind them.
Hunt found, and ground, London broil for $1.47. When was the last time you saw ground beef for $1.47 a pound?
But I wondered whether she just had a particularly friendly butcher. So I went shopping.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that all four supermarkets I visited were willing to do special meat orders. Chop meat as a special order -- yep, it made me laugh, too.
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Posted
Dec 11 2007, 02:54 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We've noticed from personal experience that finding solid tips on mattress shopping can be difficult. The standard advice to spend 15 minutes on a showroom mattress seems somewhat unsanitary and extremely time-consuming, particularly if you fall asleep. So we were grateful to read Saving Freak's post called "Mattress Myths." The myth he busts is that you need to spend $2,500 to get a good night's sleep. "Now I have searched and searched and found no real scientific evidence that one of these mattresses actually helps you sleep better," said Freak, who sleeps happily on a $400 clearance set. He also offers some shopping rules, topped by: "Never let a pregnant woman pick out your mattress." It will be too firm over the long haul, and you'll spend more than you'd planned.
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