Archive | Spending Smart

Driving Down the Cost of a Car

When buying a car, the sticker price tells only part of its financial story.  A recent ABCNews.com article about luxury cars noted that at first glance the price of an Infinity EX 35 seems comparable to that of a Mercedes GLK.  The average sticker price of each one is a little south of $34,000.  However, […]

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Keeping Warm for Less

With winter just around the corner (stop laughing all of you who live in the South!), homeowners’ thoughts turn to… heating our homes for less.  Aside from all the obvious ideas (set the thermostat on 50 and wear a parka inside, blah, blah), CNNMoney.com came up with a few new ideas.  First, replace that dinosaur […]

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Is Frugal the New Cool?

In today’s budget-conscious era, frugality is in.  But for singles, how does penny-pitching play on the dating scene? As reported in The New York Times, ING Direct recently asked 1,000 people (presumably single people) what words would come to mind if they were fixed up for a date with someone described as frugal?  The most […]

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Five New Financial Normals

Writing about the “new normals” brought on by the Great Recession has become, well, a new normal for many media outlets.  Adding to the conversation, Fortune magazine has come up with five new normals that it believes really will stick.  Here they are, along with my thoughts. 1. Long-term unemployment.  For those who have jobs, […]

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Where Could Your Vacation Budget Take You?

In good times, people often choose where they want to go on vacation and then look into the cost.  These days, assuming there’s still money in the budget for a vacation, the dollars come first.  And just in time, there’s a helpful new resource from one of my favorite travel sites, Kayak.com.  As reported on […]

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Help for Home Buyers

If you’re in the market to buy a house, there are two resources I came across recently that I recommend.  First, the book Mind Your Own Mortgage has a lot of helpful advice, especially author Robert Bernabé’s recommended process for finding the lowest-cost mortgage.  By that, he isn’t talking about interest rates or monthly payments.  […]

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The Complaint Department is Open

Got a complaint about something you bought?  Or are you thinking about buying something but wondering how well the product worked for previous buyers?  There are numerous complaint Web sites.  However, as with the items criticized on the sites, some of the sites are better than others.  According to a report by the Consumer Federation […]

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Free Workshops for Kids

With another school year coming to a close, you may be looking for free activities for your kids.  For kids who like to build things (what kid doesn’t like to build things?), home improvement stores have some great solutions. Lowe’s Build and Grow Clinics, held Saturday mornings at 10:00, are for “recommended” for first- through […]

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The 80/20 Closet

You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule – that 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes.  There are all sorts of places where this rule is at work.  For example, at many companies 80 percent of their sales come from 20 percent of their customers.  Recently, popular personal finance blogger […]

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