We bought a used riding lawn mower at an auction shortly after we got married (Spring 2002). A Yard Man with a 46″ cutting deck, hydrostatic drive, and a 20-HP Kohler engine. We paid $800, which was about a third of a comparable new one. Once we got the thing running pretty regularly, it’s been … Read more
Frugal for Life had this post today on Being Poor from Scalzi.com’s “Whatever” blog. This post has taken a life of its own over the past few days. So much so, that comments were capped on the original post and started up again in a fresh post here. Hundreds of comments were posted in response … Read more
Did you get a raise? Congratulations! I’d like to call your attention to a trick you can use to boost your savings if you are fortunate enough to get a bonus or a raise. Save Money Games has several posts about different games (tricks, really) that you can use to save up money. Living a … Read more
Coffee is a food group for me. (Yeah! That’s it! It’s a food group, not an addiction! ;)) I have a few “discount mugs” that mostly have “paid for themselves” in that the discounts on the refills have paid for the mugs. However, the coffee is still a lot more expensive than if you brew … Read more
This isn’t financially related (off-topic). Friends of ours recently had a daughter, and the infant is in the NICU. The mother (Becca) has already written on her blog about it. How, I have no idea. It’s very rough for them now. Her post is here — I’m sure you’ll see what I mean. I’m also … Read more
When you buy stocks, someone involved has to pay a commission, unless you work on the floor of the stock exchange as a trader. Licensed brokers must initiate the trade, and they get a cut. How much commission you pay for your stock purchases, however, varies widely. I’ll talk a little about four ways to … Read more
Dental expenses can be pretty minimal for years. A cleaning here, a filling there. Then, if you get hit with a crown and/or a root canal, it can run over $1,000 per tooth! Ouch! That hurts more than the dentist’s drill for me! One set of visits to my dentist cost me more than I … Read more
Around 100 people (myself included) are currently in the process of moving to another building at work. Because the new place has less storage space than the old, out of necessity we cleaned out and purged our files and “excessed” a lot of stuff. 30-year-old computer printouts, software on 5 1/4″ floppy disks (remember those?), … Read more