Giving Money to Friends and Family without Exchanging Cash

If you’re like me, you don’t carry around cash. Any spare change I find or accumulate in my wallet from the sporadic cash purchase immediately goes into this cute cow bank we bought in Salzburg, Austria on our honeymoon. Our paychecks are automatically deposited into our checking account, and we use credit cards almost exclusively [...]

An Argument for Holding Out On Purchasing the Latest and Greatest Gadgets

Have you ever met someone who chases after electronics? They seem to survive in a whirlwind of batteries, plugs, beeps, vibrations, and the occasional sidewalk wrap-around product debut line. This is not a financial sin by any means—so long as that person has the money to do so—but you could certainly save money and some [...]

Frugal Confessions Friday – Frugal Living

Hello Frugal Confessions Readers! I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful. Here is my frugal confession of the week: I am a big fan of off-season shopping. I even start to purchase holiday gifts and holiday decorations the day after for the following year. Over this past summer I had two “scores” on holiday items that [...]

Are We United in Buying Things, or Are We United in Thanks on Thanksgiving Day?

Paul has wanted to purchase a flat screen television for two years now. I have to admit that I have no real desire for one. There are two things that I like about flat screen televisions: the amazing definition and vibrancy of colors on Planet Earth, Blue Earth, and other neat shows, and being able [...]

Can You Still Get Free Music Online, Legally?

I was in college when Napster was in its heyday and sharing music among peers was all the rage. When shopping for my first computer for freshman year, I remember how important it was to me that it could burn CDs because back then (not that long ago—2001) CD burners were not standard equipment in [...]

Frugal Confessions – Frugal Living

Hello Frugal Confessions Readers! Here is my frugal confession of the week: When I was traveling to Austin for work two weeks ago, I got a flat tire. My friend Helen had signed us onto her Triple AAA membership for this year, so I was able to call them to put my spare tire on [...]

Laundromat Economics: Our Broken Washer

It started in late September during the final load of “my-mom’s-coming-to-visit-better-get-things-clean-including-rugs” laundry. I put the last load of wash in and headed into the shower. When I came out I was met with a pile of drenched, semi-cleaned rugs and an inch of water on the laundry room floor. By rerunning the load I immediately [...]

Who Has the Cheapest Turkey this Year?

Author’s Note: Prices are for the Houston area; also please make a note of the date these prices expire. It’s the week before Thanksgiving, and all of the circulars are touting “unbelievable” prices on turkeys. If you haven’t purchased yours yet you might be wondering where to go. To be quite honest, even though I [...]

Frugal Confessions – Frugal Living

Hello Frugal Confessions Readers! Here is my frugal confession of the week: When my family came to visit in late September we toured the George Ranch Historical Park. My grandmother was unable to climb the stairs to the top of the buildings, so I promised her to take photos and send them to her. Walgreens [...]

How Much Risk Are You Willing to Take?

This is a sponsored post written by me. I have always carried insurance because of my answer to the question in this title: in general, I am not willing to take a lot of financial risk. I began to save for retirement almost as soon as I started my first full-time job in the fall [...]

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