Food Experiment: My Trip to Wal-Mart
Check out my original article in this series here. Wal-mart happens to be a fascination of mine. Any business that can start from a small store on the corner of a rural town and grow to practically encompass every small and large town across the U.S. is a topic of interest in my book, regardless [...]
Food Experiment: My Trip to Whole Foods with Coupons
I’ll confess, I typically only shop at Whole Foods a few times a year when I have been on the run and feel like picking up some fresh premade food for dinner. As far as shopping the actual aisles, I was unsure of what I would find in terms of cost. Before heading out the [...]
Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover: Could his Plan have Caused us to Take on More Debt?
Before starting on a “gazelle intensity” towards debt repayment, Dave Ramsey advises you to save up $1,000 for an emergency fund so that when Murphy comes knocking on your door while you are trying to get out of debt, you will not have to go into more debt by charging the emergency to your credit [...]
Saving Money for the Person Who Doesn’t Have Time for Coupons
Author’s Note: This is the second article of a two part series this week on teaching you the skills to become a better shopper, for non-couponers and couponers alike. Check out the first article here. Many of my readers are in the same spot as you; they like the idea of saving money, they think [...]
From Wedding World Back into Reality
Registries, gowns, the best cuts of meat, champagne, and the finest sheets with high thread counts: weddings are a far cry from reality. Everything is delicate, brilliant, and made to be consumed as if it were the last you would ever experience in your entire life. Weddings are so different from weeknights with leftover meals [...]
Using the Psychology of Poverty to Save Money: Have I Gone Too Far?
“We can’t afford that.” I’ve said it. It could be a new flat screen television, or even a half gallon of Blue Bell ice-cream, but it doesn’t matter; this conversation has come up over and over again in the last 9 months that we have lived together. Paul stops me. “Yes, we can afford [...]
2009 Spending: How’d We Do?
One of the services that I love from my credit card company is the annual spending report I receive. I typically use my credit card for all purchases, so this allows me to dissect last year’s spending, categorize it, micro-categorize it, go into my filing cabinet to find the glossy folder entitled “finances” and compare [...]
Wedding Shoes Drama: How Much is a Fair Discount for Imperfect Merchandise?
Most of the planning for our wedding occurred ahead of schedule. Our honeymoon is fully booked, I have my gown, our location, caterer, and photographer, our flowers and cake are picked out, and everything seems to be falling into place. But I found myself four days away from flying up to PA where, among other [...]
Yoga and Money: Focus and Strengthen Your Finances as Preparation for When Opportunity Knocks
My first yoga teacher used to tell the class that if you practice your yoga regularly, you will see changes in your life. Regular practice included an array of postures, some of which were to strengthen our core to help us in every pose thereafter, while other poses were to twist our spleens and detox [...]
Frugal Confessions’ One-Year Anniversary
It has officially been one year today since Frugal Confessions stepped out on the scene at the Houston Chronicle. Spawned from when I was laid off in the summer of 2008 from a marketing research job in Florida and needed to cut my costs, Frugal Confessions and living in frugal decadence has now morphed into [...]
I have Joined the Yakezie Challenge!
