Picking Out a Cell Phone Plan for My Grandparents

Author’s Note: The prices here reflect what was presented on each cell phone carrier’s website on November 5, 2011, as well as in the zipcode my grandparents live (Pennsylvania). I have been tasked with something I take very seriously: finding my grandparents a new cell phone plan to fit their needs and budget. While this [...]

Thinking about the Holidays in September?

This is not a gimmick by the stores in order to get you to go shopping months and months ahead of time due to a lag in quarterly sales (have you noticed that holiday advertisements just get earlier and earlier every year?). Rather, this is a reminder that Christmas is four months away, and instead [...]

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 [...]

Fighting Reward Inflation: Reward Your Childhood Self

A long time ago I figured out that I am one of those workhorses with a carrot in front of their faces or a gerbil on a wheel frantically racing towards a pinned-up piece of lettuce. You might think this sort of revelation had me second guessing myself—seeing how it makes me out to be [...]

My Experience with Social Buying Sites and How to Get in On the Deals You Missed

Author’s Note: This article contains no referral links, only links to the homepage of these websites as resources for you. I remember when a coworker of mine came up to me to describe this new social buying concept she had heard about on the news. This was just two years ago; since this time, social [...]

Examples of People Who Took a Machete to Their Finances

Two weeks ago I wrote a post about taking a machete to your finances in order to get ahead. I wanted to talk about tough (and unpopular) choices that are on the table for almost everyone. I’d like to highlight stories from others where they have chosen to take drastic measures in order to free [...]

Can’t Get Ahead? It May Be Time to Take Out the Machete

A lot of articles I write here are about fine-tuning your frugal habits, budget, and spending. It’s as if I ask you to take a scalpel and slit open the tiniest of holes in your finances in order to reap that extra little efficiency. But what if that is not enough? What if after obliterating [...]

An Experiment: Using Walmart’s New Price Match Policy

In a world tipped in the favor of retailers and manufacturers due to the  recent uptick in media attention on consumer dishonesty and fraud, Walmart has chosen to not only simplify its price matching policy, but to choose to trust consumers on their word with their new price match policy.  Granted, this was not a [...]

Frugal Decadence at Its Best: Our $19 Out-of-Pocket for Custom-Fit Plantation Shutters

My life philosophy and blog manifesto are displayed in the upper right hand corner of my website. I call it Frugal Decadence, and describe it like this “The art of enjoying the many pleasures and luxuries of life at a fraction of the cost others will pay. Life is too short to deny yourself, and [...]

What Will $5 Buy You on a Flight?

Ever since I boarded a plane for the first time as a sixteen year old foreign exchange student headed to Burgos, Spain I have been in love with flying. Perhaps it is because there is nothing else to do once you board the cabin but to sleep, read, write, or relax. I get to turn [...]

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