Up today in the cooking-on-a-budget series, a Q&A with a blogger-cook-cinematographer-jester who puts together recipes using ingredients that cost $1 or under. It’s not quite as difficult as sticking to $1 a day for your entire food budget. But it’s certainly interesting, and you’ve got to be creative to pull off a meal using only …
Budgeting
Toy Store Showdown: The Battle for Christmas Shoppers Is Already On
Today, Toys R Us is announcing that it is opening 80 new temporary toy stores and 260 mini-toy shops within Babies R U locations to gear up for holiday-season shopping. Retailers like Sears, Wal-Mart, and Target are also ramping up efforts to get toys moving off of their shelves in what’s expected to be a wild, super-competitive, …
Compete for the Energy Efficiency Crown (and Save Money While You’re at It)
People don’t get all that excited by the idea of saving a couple bucks—or even by the noble-but-intangible ideas of conservation or saving the environment. So what will get folks motivated to become more energy-efficient? Make it a competition and give out cash prizes. Because people love to win, and they really love to win money.
My Big Fat 99¢ Wedding
“Clean-up in aisle seven! There are happy bridal tears all over the place.” Nine couples won a promotion from 99¢ Only Stores—and the prize was a wedding ceremony that cost (yep) just 99¢, held among aisles of canned vegetables, cookies, and party favors in the discount chain’s Hollywood location.
Debit Cards vs. Credit Cards: Do You Prefer Debt, Fees, or Both?
Debit cards have been presented as the safer alternative to credit cards. A credit card is something of a temporary loan operation, allowing you to buy things with money you may or may not have, creating a situation in which it’s easy to get into debt. A debit card, by contrast, allows you to buy things using the funds sitting in your …
Labor Day Money-Saving Party Planning Committee, at Your Service
Here’s a last-minute round-up of ideas to save on food and drink at barbecues, picnics, and any other sort of gathering this holiday weekend. One easy way to save: Go for store brands.
Strictly Business: How Emotions Screw Up Your Investments
Why do many competent, smart people make mistakes with their investments? It turns out that their feelings have been hurt, or they’re trying to save face, or they’re cocky enough to think they’re faster and smarter than the masses. Basically, they get emotional.
Credit Card Reform: While One Hand Gives, the Other Adds Fees
Significant parts of the new credit card law go into effect today that in theory will make it easier for cardholders to pay their bills without incurring fees, and to avoid digging themselves further into debt. Balancing out this good news is an onslaught of new fees and higher rates that nearly all cardholders can expect coming down the pike.
Ten Cheap Dates
Besides the diamond industry, who says romance has to cost a bundle? A cheap date can be a great date.
How to Eat on a Dollar a Day
The next post in the continuing frugal gastronomy series features a pair of schoolteacher-writers who gave themselves the toughest of all restrictions: All their food had to cost no more than $1 per day per person. Amazingly, if they invited guests over to eat, the guests’ food had to be covered by the $1 allotment. You’d have to really …
Bidding on Something You’ll Probably Never Win-and Paying for the Privilege
There seem to be endless new ways of acquiring goods. Instead of heading into a store and plunking down cash, consumers are buying online, or bartering via sites like Swaptree, or joining clubs that share cars or other goods rather than purchase them outright. They are also bidding for goods in online auctions—and many consumers are so …
Is Renting Smarter Than Buying a Home?
For as long as I can remember, the assumption has always been: It is better to own than to rent a home. But for quite some time now, what that meant to a lot of people was that it was better to speculate than to play it safe.