Surprising Return Policies

I once knew a serial returner. She would come to work several days a week with several bags of merchandise from several different stores. I asked her about it one day and she smiled, saying that she returns about 60% of everything that she buys. 60 percent. The only thing I could think of was [...]

Article Round-Up

Hello Everyone! I wanted to highlight some articles from fellow personal finance blogs from the past several weeks. Hope you enjoy these articles! Wealth Informatics has a great resource for finding unclaimed money. Mom’s Plans asks, “Are You Frugal at the Expense of Enjoying Life?” Squirrelers looks at Workplace Trends that Impact Us Little House [...]

How Much are Financial Reality TV Stars Paid, and Does it Interfere with Reality?

I sat down to watch the first episode of the new season of Downsized. My eyes widened when the father, Todd, decided that it was time to start looking for a home to purchase. Not only did they just have a foreclosure 18 months earlier on top of a bankruptcy, but his argument to purchase [...]

Frugal Confessions Friday – Frugal Living

Hello Frugal Confessions Readers! Here is my frugal confession of the week: About two months ago we purchased four indoor houseplants at 50% off (two large ones for our library, and two hanging baskets for the bay window in our living room). The elephant plant in the library took a nosedive, and one by one [...]

Paying Cash Makes Purchasing Large Items Hard to Do

Since paying off our non-mortgage debt with a Dave-Suze hybrid approach and vowing to only pay cash for all purchases going forward (we do use credit cards for the reward points and then pay them off completely before the grace period is up), we have had a few big-ticket items come up that have rattled [...]

Cost of Kids’ Birthday Parties and Ideas to Save Big

I remember the week leading up to my birthday party in third grade. My second grade teacher’s son had come into school to visit his mother (he went to a different school) during the last week of the previous school year, and I had a secret crush on him. My mother gave me invitations to [...]

I’m a “Bang for Your Buck” Consumer

This post was written by me on behalf of Money Experts. I use a credit card, which may sound counterintuitive for someone who is committed to a frugal and debt-free lifestyle. After all, when you have high credit limits that represent several months’ worth of salary for you, it makes one question the responsibility in [...]

Frugal Confessions Friday – Frugal Living

Hello Frugal Confessions Readers!! Here is my frugal confession of the week: My husband Paul recently had a birthday. I wanted to do something special for him, and decided to go all-out sixth grade style and throw him a bowling party. We invited all of his brothers, sisters, and their significant others/children, and had a [...]

Class Action Lawsuits: My Experience and Examples of Other Settlements

About a year and a half ago I received two notices from courts for class action lawsuits. One was for Lifelock and one was for H&R Block. In both cases the reason for the class action lawsuit was because these companies had failed to disclose all of the fees involved in the services I had [...]

Yakezie Carnival – The Dow Jones Industrial Average Edition

Hello Everyone! Welcome to the Dow Jones Industrial Average Edition of the Yakezie Carnival. I am honored to be able to host the Yakezie Carnival on Personal Finance this week. If you are new to the blogging world, a blog carnival is a way for individual blogs to highlight other blog’s articles, to get to know [...]

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