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Posted
Sep 29 2009, 10:48 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We're all for dollar stores. They can provide savings, many people agree. At last count, 55% of about 423,000 people who have participated in an MSN Money online poll said they sometimes shop at dollar stores, and 36% said they frequently do. (Another 3% chose "I'd never set foot in one.")
But there are some products "rutgerskevin" of The Red Stapler Chronicles recommends you avoid, via his post called "The 10 dumbest things to buy at a dollar store." First on his list are home pregnancy tests.
Find on Bing: Dollar stores thriving in recession
Pregnancy test from the dollar store? That's a product you'd want to spend more on for a result you can trust. "I almost bought this just to see what it looked like, but the girlfriend vetoed this idea in disgust," Kevin said.
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Posted
Sep 25 2009, 10:33 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Inside a neighborhood newspaper recently I found a coupon section with the headline, "Frugal is hip. It's OK to clip."
Hip? Suddenly I'm hip? For years people debated my sanity, sometimes openly, because I shopped thrift stores, used coupons, made soup stock from chicken bones. Turns out I was just a bit early to a party that others have finally deemed cool enough to attend.
At various times in recent history it has also been hip to wear shoulder pads, cook with oat bran and turn rocks into pets. I don't want frugality to be hip. I want it to last.
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Posted
Sep 18 2009, 09:14 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
I know I'm late to the dance here, but I finally understand why people love The Freecycle Network so much. You can give or get, de-cluttering your life or filling some basic needs at no cost.
No matter how odd the item, you can probably unload it. Earlier this week I gave away a half-pint of keys.
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Posted
Sep 11 2009, 01:06 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
A few weeks ago I went out to gather blackberries. Something told me to leave by the back door rather than the front. I've learned to listen to these impulses, so into the alley I went.
Half a block away, I found the reason why.
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Posted
Aug 18 2009, 12:38 PM
by
Teresa Mears
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Ikea, the Swedish furniture retailer, is doing its part for the recession by lowering prices, at least on some items. The just published 2010 catalog has the new, lower prices noted throughout. The price of the Karlstad loveseat, for example, has been cut from $579 to $479. The simple, square Lack side table is now $7.99, down from $12.99.
Like most furniture retailers, Ikea is competing for customers during the recession and has experienced slower growth and been forced to lay off workers.
One way Ikea keeps prices low is by requiring customers to assemble most of the furniture themselves, which has spawned a cottage industry of people you can hire to put it together for you, notes Courtney Iseman at Yodle Local.
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Posted
Aug 13 2009, 02:43 PM
by
Teresa Mears
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The debate over which warehouse club is the best and which warehouse club is the cheapest is never-ending. If you're going to join just one, will you get better deals at Costco, Sam's Club or B.J.'s Wholesale Club?
We wish we could help, but we don't live anywhere near Sam's or B.J.'s, and we let our Costco membership expire when we moved into the house with no basement and a total of two tiny closets. Plus, the checkout lines were always way too long to make a visit worthwhile unless you needed to buy a lot of stuff -- and we don't have room to store a lot of stuff.
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Posted
Aug 11 2009, 06:17 PM
by
Teresa Mears
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Want to be the first to hear about airfare sales and hotel deals? You might want to join the microblogging service Twitter.
Twitter has become the latest place for airlines, hotels, tour operators and attractions to "tweet" their top deals. Twitter can take you deep into the Internet to find the latest information about hotels, restaurants and airfares, Everett Potter wrote in his Twitter primer for travelers in Travel + Leisure magazine.
JetBlueCheeps tweeted some $9 Boston-to-New York fares last month. United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines also are on Twitter, as are hotels, tourist offices and numerous travel writers and sites that gather travel deals and information. BestTravelDeals.net, for example, has just expanded its services to include travel deals from Twitter. You can see them to the right on the website or follow the company's Mary Song on Twitter.
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Posted
Jul 29 2009, 07:56 AM
by
Teresa Mears
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We really like Starbucks' Java Chip Frappuccino ice cream. But at $3.79 a pint, it's not usually on our grocery list. The pint we tried was particularly delicious because it was free, thanks to a Starbucks promotion (alas, now over) on Facebook.
Social networking is today's business buzz phrase, and more and more businesses are opting in, creating business pages on Facebook through which they offer deals to their "fans."
Companies are increasing communicating with their customers via Facebook and Twitter, notes Kimberly Palmer, who writes the Alpha Consumer blog for U.S. News and World Report. For some companies, that means offering deals and coupons, sometimes only for Facebook fans. Unlike many national deal sites, Facebook also offers pages and deals for small local businesses. If you run a small business, it's a cheap and easy marketing tool.
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Posted
Jul 28 2009, 09:33 AM
by
Teresa Mears
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The first back-to-school tax-free holidays start this weekend, enabling residents of participating states to buy school clothing, supplies, books, and other goods free of local and state sales taxes. That's a savings of roughly 6% to 9% in most areas. Some states set a cap on how much individual items can cost to be included. Some states even allow computer purchases tax-free during the holiday.
But the economic hard times for state and local governments mean that several states, including Florida and Maryland as well as the District of Columbia, aren't having the tax-free days this year. Massachusetts, which also decided not to do a sales tax holiday this year, estimated the state lost $14.9 million in revenue last year, The Associated Press reported.
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Posted
Jul 22 2009, 04:36 PM
by
Teresa Mears
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
As consumers eat out less, competition is getting fierce among the sit-down casual restaurant chains, which have been offering deals and discounts in the hope of luring more customers.
While the deep discounts haven't made franchise owners happy, they are providing more opportunities for diners to eat out for less.
The latest deals are from Chili's, which is offering 10 entrée choices for only $7, and T.G.I. Friday's, which is offering $5 off the entrée of each friend you bring in for BYOB (Bring Your Own Buddies) Summer.
These deals join discounts unveiled in recent months by the Cheesecake Factory, Outback Steakhouse, Applebee's and Ruby Tuesday, among others.
Here's a rundown of some current promotions:
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