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According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal “Stocking up on food may… may make a sensible home for some of your shorter-term cash. ”  Reading (and forwarding) this article provided me with a measure of vindication because some members of my family have implied that I am a bit on the crazy side after seeing my full pantry.  It also made me very glad that I have been building a stock pile of food for almost a year, so we not as impacted by the price of groceries as many others are in these tough economic times.  However, while the Wall Street Journal Article touched on the idea of buying in bulk, it fell short of explaining the how of buying and organizing your stock pile.  Here is a basic step-by-step introduction for Stockpiling.   (more…)

Laundry detergent is another one of those products that is expensive and not necessarily the healthiest in the world (all those dyes and scents- yuk!)  Here are a few healthy and organic alternatives you can make at home. (more…)

I, for one, hate taking commercial medicines.  After all, with all the commercials advertising class action suits stemming from the horrors of various F.D.A. approved drugs, who wants to take one of these potentially deadly products unless they have to.  Plus, they are expensive (unless of course you get them free at CVS) So, here are some homemade and healthy alternatives to over-the-counter cures. (more…)

This post over at Frugal Dad discussed why he wants to be debt free and asked if we had identified our why.  I thought this was a great question, on a topic I have thought a fair amount about.  There are quite a few people in my life who just don’t understand this desire.  They say I’m crazy to want to pay off my mortgage (you’ll lose the tax deduction!!) or even to want to pay off my massive student loans (but its such a low interest rate!)

In some ways, they are right.  The tax deduction from mortgage interest is nice, and the student loans are at a relatively low rate and I could probably invest that money elsewhere and make more.  So, why do I want to pay off this debt (and all other debt, and have no new debt).  Frugal Dad covers most of my reasons pretty well… the desire to have options and simplify my finances and have financial security.  But I did want to emphasize one more key point to my “Why.”

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An article at Five Cent Nickel  asked readers to mention their biggest financial vices.  The author and several readers mentioned eating out.  I don’t have too much of a problem with this, I’m such a picky eater I rarely go to restaurants (except for Sushi… yum!)
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I’m working on customizing the Blog a bit more, and adding a new look.  I like Wordpress a lot, but I want to try to make it more personal and add some of my own touches.  I’m a bit rusty with writing code (although I did take some computer science courses in college) so bear with me as the site changes and evolves slowly as I learn more.  If anyone has any comments or suggestions for things they’d like to see on the site, please let me know!

Having a pet does many wonderful things for you.  It gives you a sense of unconditional love.  It encourages responsibility and makes you accountable to someone else.  It is a fulfilling and rewarding experience which teaches many important lessons.  I have learned countless things from watching my pups in action, and  a few of these lessons can be applied to personal finance

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It wasn’t all that long ago that people’s only monthly bills were mortgage, electricity, water and other real necessities.  A few hundred years ago, there was no TV, no car payment, no cell phones, no long distance, no gym memberships, no high speed internet.  Now, all of these things are considered not privileges, but necessities that suck up our monthly paycheck before we’ve even begun to pay for food.  Many of these bills are auto-deducted from our checking accounts so we don’t even have to pause to consider whether we should really be paying them.  Here, I look at a few of these monthly bills and consider whether, and how, they can be eliminated. (more…)

Check Out “Great Finds in Carnivals” at www.thesimplewealth.com.  My Article, Frugal Habits that Have Improved my Life, is mentioned there, along with a great roundup of other Frugal Articles.  The blog is also a great one and one of my favorites, so I am especially excited to be mentioned there! I’ve been reading it for a while to get tips on finances, and what I love about it is that it is quite focused on family and finances, including a few great articles on money and marriage.  

Extrabucks, the free “cash” you get for buying certain products at CVS, have a 1 month expiration date.  So, there are a few different ways people handle these.  Some people (no one reading frugal websites I hope!) forget about them and let them go to waste.  Others turn around and spend them on the first thing they need from the drugstore.  Still others will refuse to spend extracare bucks on anything that doesn’t net them more than they spend, so they end up with a glut of expiring extracare bucks and managing cards begins to feel more like a job than a fun and frugal activity.   (more…)