A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks
Extreme couponing has become quite the craze and there’s no denying there can be significant savings to be had; but at what cost?
This sounds like an oxymoron – but depending on the circumstances, couponing can come with a hefty price tag. There are some great deals to be had out there and there is no debate that coupons can save you a bit of money but let’s closely examination this activity. [Read more…] about Extreme Couponing: Do You Really Save or is it a Waste of Time?
Although I live outside Chicago, our winters in recent years have been decidedly mild.
For example, in the 2012-2013 winter, by January 31st, we had only received 3.5 inches of snow TOTAL. This year, winter was back with a vengeance. By January 31st, 2014, we had received 48.5 inches total of snow for the winter.
Add in many days of sub-zero temperatures, and well, it’s been a rough winter.
When we had a 50 hour stretch of sub-zero temperatures (one of those days had a high of -16 degrees), I knew that we should let the water drip to avoid having our pipes freeze. However, when I went to take a shower, the water continued to just drip even though it was turned to full strength. I called a friend who told me the pipes were likely frozen. My husband set up space heaters in the basement where the pipes are, and within 5 hours, our water was flowing again.
That night, I saw on the news that we weren’t alone.
Many, many people had burst pipes or pipes like ours. I was surprised to see that some homeowners paid good money to have someone else come out to their houses and run a heater by their pipes to thaw them.
This situation just illustrates how far we’ve come from the do-it-yourself roots our grandparents and even parents had. Now, we work hard at our jobs and call someone else to do everything for us.
[Read more…] about Do This: Save Money With a DIY Self-Reliance Mindset
Just a month into our relationship, my husband and I took a trip to New Orleans.
Later, we went to Memphis. Then we flew to Japan.
We did all of this travel the first year we were together. Simply put, we love to travel.
However, we don’t have the money to travel now as we did when we were first dating. Since travel now usually includes bringing along our 3 kids, expenses can add up fast. But we didn’t want to give up travel all together.
Instead, we found frugal ways to travel.
Gone are the days of staying at a bed and breakfast and eating out every meal when we vacation. Instead, we travel in a much more practical manner, but we still get to explore places we’ve never been before, which makes scrimping all worthwhile. Because we want our kids to travel and see the world, we’re glad to cut corners to do so.
We’ve learned many strategies for saving on travel.
[Read more…] about Tips to Save Big When Traveling on a Tight Budget
New York City. The city so nice they named it twice!
Before I show you frugal, cheap, and free things to do and see in New York City let’s look at the first paragraph from Wikipedia:
New York City (officially The City of New York) is the largest city in the United States, with its metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world. Founded as a commercial trading post by the Dutch in 1625, it served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790, and has been the nation’s largest city since 1790. Located on one of the world’s finest natural harbors, New York is one of the world’s major centers of commerce and finance. New York also exerts global influence in media, education, entertainment, arts, fashion and advertising. The city is also a major center for international affairs, hosting the headquarters of the United Nations.
Pretty cool, huh?
First off I think we need to put some borders on NYC.
Most people think of NYC as Manhattan but you’d be doing a disservice to yourself if you only looked to Manhattan for things to do.
NYC is made up of five boroughs – Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island. All but the Bronx are islands. I tried to spread the love around the entire city as much as I could but don’t be offended if I don’t give every borough equal weight.
[Read more…] about Frugal And Free Things To Do And See In New York City
Some years back we needed to figure out where we wanted to go on vacation.
It was my wife, our 7-year-old daughter, our 7-month-old son, and myself. Since our son was so young we wanted to keep the flights short. (Back then there were four of us, now there’s six if you’re trying to keep track.)
We decided now would be a great time to go to Disney world!
Read on and you’ll find out why Disney World was a great destination at the time and how I went about researching the best prices and activities. This is valuable stuff you’ll want to bookmark if you think you’ll ever go to Disney World.
[Read more…] about How We Saved Money On Our Disney World Vacation (and Had a Great Time As Well)
