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Posted
Jun 09 2009, 06:27 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Recently I opened a new checking account to get free money from the bank. Since I had the option to give the account a name I called it "Home," as in "a home of my own."
Did that really make a difference?
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Posted
Nov 18 2008, 06:45 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Here's a money-saving tip for football fans: Bet yourself that your team will win. If it loses, your wager goes into savings. (This might not be a productive idea for Tennessee Titans (10-0) fans, and if you love the Detroit Lions (0-10), your bet had better be small.) It's one of the "10 fun and quirky ways to save money" from "Coupon Artist" at Art of the Coupon. They are fun and creative. Another good example is a game she calls "Pick a State."
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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 03 2008, 07:20 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. After my article about how to deal with a partner who hides money problems, several readers made the point that these situations are often the result of people lying to themselves about money, whether directly (by telling yourself false conclusions about the facts you already know) or indirectly (avoiding the facts). I used to lie to myself about money. I'd buy things on the credit card without checking balances or considering the consequences, telling myself it wasn't that big of a deal or that I could easily afford it later. Sometimes, I'd figure out my complete financial state, know on some level that it was atrocious, but tell myself that it wasn't bad and that I had things under control. Here are some of the tactics I used to overcome that tendency to deceive myself about my financial state. Without these tactics, it would have been much more difficult to turn my financial life around.
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Posted
Sep 29 2008, 01:19 PM
by
Des Toups
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Utterly panicked by the Dow, bank failures and, well, just about everything else?
At times, so are we. Even confirmed market stalwarts are headed for the exits, looking for safe havens. Look at the yield on Treasury bills: At 1.32%, buyers are effectively paying the government to keep their money safe. But you don’t have to.
Rates on certificates of deposit have been rising steadily, with yields on 12-month CDs now topping 4% at some banks. They’re insured up to $100,000 per depositor at each institution, so you’re covered, at least until the government fails.
And now there’s an intriguing way to shop for yield: Put your money up for auction
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Posted
Sep 22 2008, 09:04 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Starting in January, Smart Spending message board reader "Pepperdoo" vowed to save all her singles. Thus far, her "Dollar Bill Challenge" has netted her $615. The money will probably pay for vehicle insurance or a new front door, but she might also just bank it for any unforeseen expense.
Pepperdoo isn't alone. Some readers have been doing this for months, some just started, and all have progress to report. "Shadow2103" has almost $800, even after buying her daughter's college textbooks, and is dreaming of a cash-only Christmas. "Yoopergramma," age 67, is $161 closer to a trip to next year's motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D.
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Posted
Sep 10 2008, 10:23 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Sarah Winfrey at partner blog Wise Bread. "Pa-doink" is the sound you hear when something small and heavy hits water. Think about a child throwing a coin into the fountain at a shopping mall: A toss and a pa-doink later, there's one more wish waiting to be granted and one more coin at the bottom of the pool. I heard a story once about a man whose job it was to clean those coins out of the fountain. None of his supervisors wanted the money. "It's not enough to bother about," they said, and "It's not worth our while," so the man shrugged and took the coins home. He didn't know what to do with them, but he put them in an extra jar his wife had given him and set them aside for later.
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Posted
Sep 09 2008, 09:34 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. Successfully managing your money comes down to one thing -- control. For all the things we talk about here at The Dough Roller -- from retirement to investing and taxes to credit cards -- financial freedom and sound money management come down to whether you control your money, or whether it controls you. The good news is that sound, wealth-building money management is simple. The reality check, however, is that managing your money, while simple, is not always so easy.
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Posted
Aug 11 2008, 05:23 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
What do you have to show for your last few pay raises (assuming you've been getting some)? Not sure, eh? Todd at Harvesting Dollars has a plan for getting real value from those raises while amassing retirement savings and preventing the insidious, invisible creep of lifestyle inflation. He calls it the Save Your Raise finance game.
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Posted
Jun 09 2008, 02:53 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Those who are serious about paying down debt have crafted their own little devices and mind games. For instance, we use the money we earn from our pet-sitting business to make extra payments on our mortgage principal. FloridaChic was born with a shopping gene, but she's learned to channel that impulse to pay off credit card debt. She explains her mind game in a post at Debt Smack called "The lazy girl's guide to snowflaking." This blogger might think she's lazy, but she has serious mind control.
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