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Posted
Sep 30 2008, 05:20 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
"Paidtwice" resents that school districts are "trying to turn our kids into little salespeople" by holding so many fundraisers. She made that remark after her preschooler came home with a fundraising packet, which she promptly tossed in the trash. Her husband gave a neighbor's kid $15 for popcorn she could have bought at a store for much less. She's not upset about the purchase, but "I hate feeling obligated to buy stuff I don't want to be neighborly or nice or just to make the kid not feel bad," she wrote in a post at I've Paid For This Twice Already. We know what she means. Schools seem so strapped for funds that students must peddle goods door-to-door to pay for basic things. But has it gotten out of hand? And is there an alternative?
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Posted
Sep 29 2008, 04:42 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly. My mother recently was hospitalized for three weeks. During her stay, my wife and I spent  several afternoons cleaning her house, digging through piles and piles of stuff. Since Mom's been home, the three of us have spent a couple Sundays continuing to sort through the stuff. "Do you still want this?" I've asked Mom again and again, holding up an old computer printer, a plaque with a pithy saying, or a calendar from 1998. "No," she'll say, and sometimes we'll laugh. Who still needs their calendar from 1998? But not everything is funny. "It seems a shame to get rid of some of this," she said as she sorted through her clothes. "They're all still good."
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Posted
Sep 12 2008, 06:26 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Yep, you read that right. Luck. To me, luck occurs when a positive and fairly unexpected event happens in your life, whether it be financial or otherwise. Thus, improving your luck means increasing the chances of such positive events happening -- and also increasing the chances that you'll be able to take advantage of them. In other words, there's nothing supernatural about it. No hoping, no holding four-leaf clovers in your pocket, no rabbit's foot or lucky coin. No "think and it will happen" secret nonsense. Just preparation -- nothing more, nothing less. Here are 10 things you can do to make yourself lucky.
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Posted
Jul 23 2008, 06:27 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. Did you ever receive a gift card for a store where you never shop? Or have you ever had a gift card for a store that filed for bankruptcy? When a retailer files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, gift cardholders get in line with every other unsecured creditor. What does that mean? It means you can kiss the value of your gift card goodbye. One solution is to run out and spend the gift card if you hear the retailer is in financial turmoil. But there is another solution.
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Posted
Jun 11 2008, 05:20 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. Recently, I took my son, Gavin, to the Coinstar machine to turn the random coins he's been getting into paper money. Added to the last two years of birthday money, his total was right around $150. As he stared at that money (and lamented the fact that now all he had was paper instead of a huge jar of coins), I realized that it was time to start teaching Gavin about money.
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Posted
May 30 2008, 04:07 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Shannon Christman isn't poor, but she is frugal, and sometimes other people confuse the two. On occasion, salespeople have snubbed her -- and missed out on making a sale. Sometimes generous people offer help when it's not needed. Her thought-provoking post at Saving Advice should raise questions in any thinking person's mind about how quickly we make judgments about others. She also says, "The assumptions others make about my frugality -- usually that I have much less money than I actually do -- can be a benefit to me."
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Posted
Mar 25 2008, 08:16 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
"Fox" at Squawkfox isn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but this time she can't help it. Her brother-in-law and his wife gave her a Sirius satellite radio receiver and four months of free service for the holidays. Now she's got to pay $12 a month if she wants that gift to keep on giving. "I'm just wondering, should we give gifts that keep costing the recipient?" she asks. "Here are reasons to Sirius(ly) reconsider giving gifts like satellite radio, and to start looking certain gift horses in the mouth."
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Posted
Mar 25 2008, 02:00 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Are you one of those folks who aren't interested in getting more stuff when they get married or have a baby? Would you be happy to get a "gently used" book or baby crib rather than a brand-new version? Penny Nickel at Money and Values tells readers about the Alternative Gift Registry run by the Center for a New American Dream, whose motto is "More fun, less stuff." You can create a gift registry that emphasizes nontraditional gifts, whether your concern is the environment or you want to ease the financial burden on those who will be giving you gifts. If you'd rather have someone give you a casserole or mow your lawn after the baby is born, you can say so. To see a sample registry, click here.
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Posted
Jan 23 2008, 01:05 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Every workplace has a busybody whose self-appointed mission is to collect money for gifts for other employees who are having birthdays or babies or surgery. Steve at brip blap has given at the office, and he resents it. "Sometimes the reason for the gift is trivial -- someone is having a birthday. What, are we 12?" he asks. Sometimes he doesn't like the recipient. Sometimes the system is unfair: Higher-ups or popular people get more expensive gifts. "If the busybody is encouraged, soon you are shelling out $10 to $20 a week for 'voluntary' gifts," he observes.
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Posted
Jan 17 2008, 11:29 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Paul Navone is one of those quiet millionaires next door. His friends had no idea he had money until he started giving it away -- $1 million to a college and another $1 million to a prep school. The 78-year-old retiree never made more than $11 an hour while working in the New Jersey mills, according to a story by Joe Logan in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and to this day Navone buys his clothing at thrift stores, and doesn't have a TV or a phone.
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