In my review of Jeff Yeager’s The Cheapskate Next Door, one of the points in that book that hit me squarely in the eyes was his distinction between “cheapskate” (meaning someone who’s frugal, and proud of it) with “bargain hunter” (people who enjoy ferreting out deals and buying for less). He claims that there’s a … Read more
Valentine’s Day is one of those holidays that brings out the procrastinator in guys. And boy — any place that sells flowers knows this. The prices double at our local grocery store for flowers on Valentine’s Day. But I’ll admit I don’t get soaked for flowers on Valentine’s Day for a couple of reasons, and … Read more
My wife’s laptop is showing signs of getting ready to fail, so I’ve been looking around for the past couple of days for replacement options. Since “buy used when it makes sense” is one of the very best money-saving tips I can give, part of my research involved looking for quality used options. We’ve bought “open-box” … Read more
I like McDonald’s. It’s not a staple in my diet, but in a pinch it serves a predictable meal that tastes pretty good at a reasonable price. I also have fond memories of it from childhood. We didn’t go there often (maybe once every few months), but we usually made it there for lunch on … Read more
My daughter isn’t quite old enough to start reading my blog yet, so I can let you in on a little secret. My wife and I just ordered a bunch of stuff online from The Disney Store for Christmas and her birthday. She’s really into princesses. 🙂 Anyway, after my wife picked out the items, … Read more
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has become a bit of a Roman circus of consumerism. Retailers competing for customers’ wallets with “leaked” ads coming out weeks before the big day, crazy traffic jams, all manners of people fighting tryptophan-induced sloth to get up for bunker-buster deals and full-contact shopping. Retailers aren’t stupid, though. They … Read more
As of right now we’re looking at about 30 hours before Hurricane Earl blows past our latitude. It reminds me of something that happened during the aftermath of previous hurricanes: price gouging. Price gouging is a disparaging term given to the practice of hiking prices of demand items after some disruption has occurred that would … Read more
Fresh after posting on whether small credit card charges are shameful or otherwise to be avoided, I got a comment on that post. “Paul” asks: “Wasn’t a provision of the financial reform bill that passed this July that store owners are now legally allowed to not accept a credit card charge for less than $10? … Read more