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Welcome back!

My post, a A Law Students Lament, a debt poem about my law school debt, was an editors pick at the Carnival of Debt Reduction… oh well, at least my debt was good for something right!  Visit Gather Little By Little to check it out..

And for those of you finding my little site for the first time, I encourage you to subscribe, and to browse around here and see what I’m all about  (here are a few of my favorite posts to get you started)

Step By Step Guide to Grocery Savings

Why Its So Important To Track Your Expenses

My Comment on a Discover Card Commercial With a Terrible Lesson

Lessons My Parents Taught Me About Money

How to Save Energy and Impress Your Friends Using X10 Home Automation

Ways to Pay Down Your Mortgage Faster

10 Fun and Quirky Ways to Save Money

The 12 Frugal Days of Christmas

The New Year is quickly approaching.  It is a time for making New Years Resolutions, and evaluating the resolutions we made last year to see how successful we were.  Although it is somewhat arbitrary to pick this date in January to do it, setting goals is always a good thing, and so once again this year I will be making my mental list of things to accomplish over the next twelve months.   (more…)

Here are some great carnivals that included my posts this week.  Please check them out, and read some of the many great personal finance stories floating around the web:

The Festival of Frugality

The Money Hacks Carnival

The Carnival of Money Stories

Being frugal really doesn’t have to be hard, or time consuming.  It is about changing small habits, making little lasting differences that save you money now and in the future.  So, here is a suggestion for 15 minutes a day of frugal activities that can save you quite a bit of cash in the long haul if you do them consistently.   (more…)

Almost everyone has a dream, or a goal in the back of their minds of something they want to accomplish.  For me, it was starting my own tutoring business and trying to become a part time (maybe someday full time) writer.  This is different for everyone, of course- some people may want to write the Great American Novel while others may dream of becoming a Scuba Instructor or opening a bed and breakfast.  But, a lot of people have the same excuses for why they can’t accomplish their goals.  For me, one of my big excuses was time- I just have to much to do.   (more…)

Although frugality is becoming a bit more common, what with the Economic Collapse of the entire U.S., there is still a large camp of people who think that it is strange to be extremely frugal.  There are people who look down on coupon-cutters (my most hated CVS cashier included) and those who will make comments about driving really old cars or shopping at thrift stores, or some of the other tactics that allow us to cut our budget.  Even one of my own relatives has come right out and said that he thinks me and DF are ‘weird’ about money.  And, quite frankly, I am very proud to be weird! (more…)

Yesterday, I made homemade pasta from scratch.  It was delicious and I used an extremely simple recipe from All Recipes that had four ingredients in it.  It did not take me very long, and it got me to thinking about how many simple things in life we don’t do, that cost us money.  Our society has become very focused on ‘convenience’.  We have Campbells Soup at Hand cups and bagged cookie mixes and drive-thru’s, and instant oven cleaners, and all sorts of products designed to ’simplify’ our lives.  But, are these things really making our lives better or are they costing us money and possibly making us less healthy and happy overall?   (more…)

What would you spend on, and what would you continue to be frugal on?  Would you invest it all and keep living just as you do, or would you earmark a small portion to buy that thing you always wanted?  Unfortunately, a million dollars doesn’t go quite as far as it used to, but it definitely is still an astronomical sum of funds and it sure is fun to think about what would happen if I suddenly won Deal or No Deal and had the big wad of cash lying around. (more…)

The Twelve Days of Christmas have gotten pretty expensive this year.  So, I’ve compiled my own list of the twelve days of Christmas- twelve things you can and should do this Christmas season to save yourself a little green at what tends to be a time of year when a lot of peoples budgets go into the red.   (more…)

My name is Coupon Artist and I am a deal-a-holic.  I am addicted to getting a good deal.  Sometimes, I lose sight of a bit of common sense, when it comes to getting things cheap or free.  Do you suffer from the same affliction?  Here are ten signs that you do: (more…)