“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost?” Luke 14:28 First off, Happy Independence Day to my American readers. Happy July 4th to others. 😉 Gary North’s Tip of the Week (subscribe for free in the upper right of this page) was on outsourcing. He … Read more
Making it through tougher times may mean cutting out or cutting back, but if coffee is your thing, then you can make decent or even great coffee on a budget! I’m not a “coffee snob” so these tips are a trade-off between taste, cost, and time. There are the kinds of things I do to … Read more
The writers of Wise Bread have put out an important resource for weathering the recession in style with their new book: 10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget. There’s something for everybody: from someone just getting acquainted with the frugal lifestyle to someone who was born with a coupon in their mouth. The … Read more
There is a silver lining to the recession: gas is about half as expensive as it was just a year ago. (It’s just north of $2 per gallon around here.) It didn’t seem to get high enough for people to change their driving habits drastically — people were still sitting in the parking lot idling … Read more
My wife is very clever. She put together a very functional corner desk for our third bedroom, which functions as her sewing room and our office. It’s easy to take down if we need the extra space, and cost us nothing. And no, it’s not made out of FedEx boxes. We spend a lot of … Read more
I was browsing the Bargaineering Forums and came across a question from Green Panda about Ramit’s new venture, The Scrooge Strategy. I doubt I’ll sign up for it — $2 or so per e-mail is a bit pricey for this kind of thing — but the selling page had some gems. He has two screenshots … Read more
It shouldn’t be the only way you’re improving your bottom line, but it does give results, fast. Frugal Dad is concerned that frugal people spend too much time being frugal. And that may well be true: For someone who already has their finances under good control, some money-saving activities are simply too little payback for … Read more
I’m just about done with Peter Schiff’s new book The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets and the title of Chapter 11 is “A Decade of Frugality.” This kind of horizon for hard times was even longer than I had thought it would be, and some of my blogging colleagues quip that I can … Read more