Blog
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Stretch Your Food Dollar: Romantic Dinner for Two
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, many of us are looking for ways to cook up a little romance. Going out to eat on Valentine’s Day can be a challenge – getting a reservation at your favorite restaurant can be tough because so many people go out to eat. You might have to settle for a…
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Kitchen Renovation: 5 Lessons Learned
Nearly there ‘“ after a week of final plans and last-minute changes, our kitchen is nearly complete! Here is how the week has played out so far: Sunday ‘“ We were able to trade the ancient oven in our kitchen with another guy in the building. Our stove, though old, was working fine ‘“ his…
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My Dog Ate My Coupons – or Some Days Being Frugal is Harder Than Others
The grocery store closes at 9 PM. I zip through the red light and into the parking lot. I have a full schedule tomorrow, nothing without blue fuzzies on it in the refrigerator, and two hungry dogs at home circling their empty dog food bowls like vultures. They’re not happy. I’m late with din-din. Imagining…
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Experiments in DIY: A Simple Sugar Scrub
While browsing a bookstore a few months back, I discovered an interesting looking book called The Big-Ass Craft Book, filled, not surprisingly, with all sorts of craft ideas. Flipping through it piqued my interest so I decided to request the book on interlibrary loan. After I got it (a month later), I discovered that not…
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Be Your Own Trainer – Will Power
Get There There is a large multitude of factors necessary needed in order to be your own personal trainer. During this economic downward spiral, it’s best to cut costs where you can and most times it’s the fitness industry to take the bigger hits. Honestly, if you want to cut down your money, it’s probably…
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Wedding on a Budget: Setting a Budget for Your Big Day
So you’ve got wedding bells in your future. Let me be the first to congratulate you and offer you and your partner best wishes for a happy future together. Since you’re reading this article, I assume you’ve gotten past the initial excitement over the nebulous idea of your wedding and are starting to plan the…
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How to buy shares directly from companies and avoid commission fees
Giveaway Alert: We have two copies to give away of The Moneypaper’s Guide to Direct Investment Plans (a $27 value). Comment at the end of this post for your chance to win a copy. Anyone remember my epiphany earlier this year about how I learned the difference between Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and Mutual Funds? Here’s…
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My Financial Implosion: Living in an RV
‘œHe is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home’ ‘“ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe On Sunday, November 30, 1997, I officially became homeless. I’d filed bankruptcy, my house had foreclosed, and I’d put all my possessions in storage. I didn’t have anywhere lined up to stay, so I loaded…
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Joys and Perils of a Luxe Life: Giving Back
Being a gay homemaker has given me the time and opportunity to peer into a lot of different worlds. A few years ago a friend asked if I would help her with a charity benefit for a non-profit children’s educational organization. I had the time, so I said, ‘œWhy not?’ Besides, I’ve been very…
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Do You Practice Wabi-Sabi?
I’m sure you do if you are a Frugal person. For those of you who don’t know what it means Wabi-Sabi is one of the mainstays (if not the main underpinning) of Japanese Culture. It roughly translates into finding beauty in the imperfect, the ordinary, and the simple and bowing to the knowledge that nothing…
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