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Posted
Oct 10 2008, 06:44 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Most people are familiar with the status quo bias. In simple terms, it means that people prefer things to stay relatively the same. We talk to the same people, follow the same path to work, go through the same daily routine. We enjoy little changes like reading a different book, going on a different trip in the summer, or watching a different movie. But radical changes? Not so much. The only problem is that the status quo bias costs us money all the time. Because we prefer to stick with the familiar, we often choose to stick with things that are less cost-effective than the alternative. Here are nine common ways the status quo bias can cost an average person money.
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Posted
Oct 07 2008, 01:44 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you've just saved $8.57 on your grocery bill because you're a member of the store's shopping club, are you really saving that money if you blow it on something else? Ron Haynes at The Wisdom Journal emphasizes that point in a post called "17 sneaky savings strategies." He writes: "Too many times I have personally started doing frugal activities and later noticed that somehow the savings vanished. ... I've had to 'start saving my savings' to really make a difference." For instance, when you get home from the store, put aside your grocery savings for deposit in your savings account.
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Posted
Oct 07 2008, 12:28 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Leigh at Cheap Healthy Good asks a good question: If we can watch Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Channel eat insects and even stranger things, why won't more Americans eat tofu? Leigh offers one possible explanation. She writes: Most people have a tofu horror story. They were served a dish with bland, soft, slimy tofu that squished through their teeth and slithered down their throats (if it made it that far), and they vowed to never eat the stuff again. It really doesn't have to be that way, she says in a complete guide to tofu called "Don't fear the bean curd."
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Posted
Oct 06 2008, 03:59 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The $25 Challenge is over in Illinois, and we're sure the participants are thrilled about that. They agreed to spend no more than $25 on food for a week -- that's about $3.50 a day -- and blog about what they learned during the experience. It was a real eye-opener for most. When you have so little money for food, you realize that "there is food all around you, all the time, but you can't eat it," wrote Frank Finnegan, who was planning yet another dinner of ham and beans. He added, "Forget nutrition. When shopping, the only thing that matters is price."
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Posted
Sep 26 2008, 01:58 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you're eating at home more often to save money, you know that nothing can throw a wrench in your food budget like having to buy bottles of spice. How on earth can a tiny bottle of crushed this or dried that cost so darn much? Daniel Koontz of Casual Kitchen tackles that question in Part One of his Spice Series. Part Two is the one we really liked. He explains how to save substantial money when you need more cayenne pepper, paprika and the like. First, we'll start with a tip that flies in the face of what you've likely been told: "Don't worry about 'spice fade.'"
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Posted
Sep 18 2008, 01:37 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
It's early fall, and a gardener's thoughts turn to zucchini, lots and lots of zucchini. What can you do with this abundance, besides give it to co-workers and make lots and lots of zucchini bread? Thanks to Kris at Cheap Healthy Good, you can make zucchini boats on the grill, layered zucchini, zucchini parmesan crisps -- and, yes -- chocolate chip zucchini bread, and our girl is just getting started. If you're lucky enough to have eggplant in your garden, you can make even better use of her post, "Cheap, healthy zucchini and eggplant: 134 recipes." For the zucchini-burdened among us, this post is a godsend.
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Posted
Sep 03 2008, 06:02 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Carrie Kirby at partner blog Wise Bread. I used to consider myself a frugal shopper, without following the cardinal rule of setting and sticking to a grocery budget. Inspired by Wise Bread and other personal-finance blogs, a few months ago I finally took the plunge and set an $80-a-week budget. I know that some people manage to spend as little as half that to feed a family of four (the two kids are little enough that they don't eat much), but for us $80 has been a challenge.
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Posted
Aug 28 2008, 03:52 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Here's a Web site that is probably many college students' friend but may be under the radar of other folks: Ramenlicious. It asks "How will you eat your ramen noodles today?" and then lists more possibilities than you've ever considered (or possibly want to know about). Ramen noodles with chocolate cake? Hopefully you're leaving out the flavor packet. (More on that later.) And here's a reader-submitted recipe for the ages -- ramen Spam doodles, ready in 15 minutes or less. Thank you, Pam Howle of Summerville (no state given) for this splendid combination. But, actually, Ramenlicious has lots of interesting information, and many of the recipes sound good.
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Posted
Aug 25 2008, 05:43 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Here's more bad news for grocery shoppers: Some supermarket chains are cutting back on their double-coupon offers. Think that doesn't matter? Aryn at Sound Money Matters recently spent $10 more than she had intended during a recent shopping trip because of new restrictions on double-coupon redemption. Not only that, but "I've noticed that the coupon circulars have shrunk, and the coupons themselves have become less generous," she writes.
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Posted
Aug 25 2008, 11:05 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If the "on sale" sign says you saved 50% on the new shirt you bought at the mall, did you really get a great deal? Not necessarily, says Kevin at The Red Stapler Chronicles, in a post called "'Sale' can sometimes be just another 4-letter word." Kevin's day job is manager in the retail world.
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