For the better part of a year I’ve been blogging about frugality and finances. As a side-benefit of blogging about money, we’ve ended up paying pretty close attention to our family budget. Because of our planning and attention to detail we’re doing pretty well now. But it hasn’t always been that way. A couple of […]
Obama 2009 Stimulus Plan Could Exceed $775 Billion Dollars
As the new year gets closer the President-elect and his team are making plans for the new year, and his first term in office. One of the first things on the table, a stimulus package that could reach or exceed $775 billion dollars. Regarding the new administration’s stimulus plan, Mr. Axelrod also said that the […]
Subscriber Swap Monday: No Debt Plan
Today I’m trying out something kinda new. It’s called “Subscriber Swap Saturday” (although this is posted on a Monday – call it Holiday procrastination). What is it? Today I’ll be interviewing another up and coming personal finance blogger, asking them some questions about their financial philosophies, and then asking you to give them a try. […]
My Frugal Shopping Trip – The Day Before Christmas Eve
Last week I announced my contest to give away two $25 gift cards, one to Marshalls and one to TJ Maxx. Today I was finally able to get out and use one of my own $25 gift cards over lunch at a TJ Maxx here in Bloomington, Minnesota. My mission was to use the $25 […]
Motivate Yourself By Setting Goals And Rewarding Yourself When You Meet Them
My wife and I have been seriously paying attention to our finances since earlier this year when we took Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. We’ve never been in bad financial shape, but we’d never really been getting ahead either. That all started to change when we realized that in order to get ahead, we had […]
Greed. It Never Ends Well.
If you’ve been watching the news lately you’ve probably seen the rash of bad news that we’ve had surrounding large companies and CEOs keeping cooked books, running Ponzi schemes and just defrauding people in all sorts of ways. It hasn’t been one isolated incident, but multiple incidents. The one thing they all have in common? […]
Success Is Made By Changing Your Habits And Behaviors Gradually
The past year I’ve been learning a lot about money, how it is made and how it is often squandered. I’ve had to change the way I think about our finances, and make corrections in the way we’ve been living so that we can be successful down the road. Making these changes hasn’t been easy. […]
November Site Numbers And Recap
November 2008 was a banner month! November 2008 was by far the best month that this site has ever had. We had our most visits and page views ever, as well as going over 300,000 page views for the life of the site. Who could have imagined that we would see this much traffic on […]
What Are You Grateful For This Thanksgiving?
What are you thankful for this thanksgiving? Since I’m asking the question, I’ll start us off. This year I’m thankful for my beautiful wife, that she has survived a serious blood clot, a 3 week hospital stay and is now on the road to recovery. It was touch and go for quite a while, and […]
Obama Considers $500 Billion Stimulus Package For Early 2009
credit: Tony the Misfit Sounds like a stimulus plan is in the works, to be signed by President elect Obama once he is sworn in. From the Wall Street Journal: Aides to President-elect Barack Obama and President George W. Bush are rushing to craft measures to shore up financial markets and prevent a policy vacuum […]
Christmas Budgeting Tips: Avoid Overspending At This Expensive Time Of Year
The holidays are almost here, and if you haven’t already, it’s time to start thinking about buying Christmas gifts for family friends and neighbors! Will you be heading out to wait in line at one of the Black Friday sales? Christmas is one of those times of year that we normally throw caution to the […]
5 Keys To Overcoming The Urge To Splurge
Christmas Is For Debt? Christmas will soon be upon us with all of the good cheer, family get-togethers and presents! All of the big department stores are already in full-on Christmas mode, with aisles upon aisles of decorations in the front of the store and Christmas music pumping over the PA systems. It’s hard not […]
Unintended Consequences Of Doing A Budget
Doing a budget has decreased our spending Within the past few months my wife and I have started doing a zero based budget where every dollar is allocated before it comes in. When the paychecks are deposited each and every dollar is assigned a job, whether it be paying bills, groceries, personal spending money or […]
First A Stimulus Check. Is A $1000 Emergency Energy Rebate Next?
More government aid? After reading an article about the possibility of the Obama administration pushing for a $1000 Emergency Energy Rebate, I had to check it out for myself. I found that while talk of an “energy rebate” isn’t recent news, the Obama campaign did talk on the campaign trail about giving a check to […]
