My wife is designing, and making, a quilt for a competition. A couple of days ago she did a wholesale change of the design. When I asked her if it what she had planned to do was just too difficult, she told me, “Pretty much everything I did, the quilt was laughing at me.” She’s … 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
I got some nice comments on my post a week ago where I outlined my personal experience with having the door slammed in my face by businesses. Five comments with five different ways that businesses diss their customers: “Run out” of advertised sale items. Reader MrsPost shared this one: “… Several stores I frequent (specialty … Read more
Businesses need to do everything in their power to weather this downturn. It should be a great time for customers to get great deals because of this: they need to keep the cash flowing in. Customers should expect deals, and they should be treated with respect, because customers can go to a competitor. Some businesses … Read more
And if you bid on Swoopo.com, please stop. Even if you’ve won an auction. I can just about guarantee you’ll pay back every cent you saved on that one auction win, plus a lot more. Swoopo bills itself as an auction site, but the auctions are little more than giant, real-time, horribly-addicting raffles: one winner, … 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 and my mother-in-law spent this week totally rearranging and repurposing our office. Once it gets back in order I’ll post pictures. The extra space we have in there now is way better than even the clever frugal corner desk brought. The new office is more open and less claustrophobic. Granted, we still have … Read more