Category: Frugality
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Upgrading to Vista? Make Sure it’s Worth It
I recently purchased a copy of Microsoft Vista Home Premium edition. After some initial frustrations I am up and running successfully. My version of Vista runs about $240 retail or $150 if you’re upgrading from XP, so you might want to think twice if upgrading is worth the cost and effort. Here are some…
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Rethinking Necessities: Refusing to Replace a Microwave
It was November 2007, and I was making an afternoon snack. I pop some veggie Buffalo wings into the microwave. I’m hungry and impatient, and I stare at my food as though doing that will make it cook faster. I see sparks of blue flash, or at least I think I do, and then there’s…
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How to Go Shopping with Kids… Without Blowing Your Budget (or Losing Your Mind)
‘œBut Mommy, I WANT it!’ What parent hasn’t given in to that plea, when you know a tantrum will follow if you say no? Shopping with kids can be challenging. They’re bombarded with materialistic messages; they aren’t developmentally capable of understanding the concept of delayed gratification; and they want, need, have to have the latest…
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Extend a Life. Extend your Life. A Frugal Life.
Sometimes frugal living is just a decision away, a slight change in attitude, or a different view on the way we look at life around us. Right before you throw something in the trash or the recycle bin, can you let your mind wander and find another use for the item instead of buying something…
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TV & Telephone: Two Things You Won’t Find in My Home
Did you know? The typical American home has more Televisions (2.7) than people (2.5). When I tell people that there’s no television or phone in my apartment, they sometimes wonder if I’m part of some strange religious cult. No, I’m just a wacky minimalist doing what we love to do: get rid of stuff. Although…
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Money Saving Tips in the Laundry Room
Saving money in the laundry room, tips that I know you are “drying” to know about; at least file them away in the back of your mind for later. Try to wait until you have a full load before running your washer or dryer. To improve the energy efficiency of your dryer, frequently clean out…
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Frugal Living w/out Hardship
Getting rid of unused items. Clearly, using garage sales, classifies, online selling forums, etc. Raise useful cash. Less obvious is how much we lose in depreciation on many items (especially computer stuff and electronics), as well as the amount of money and time that must be spent storing everything. Donating to charity avoids the effort…
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Inexpensive Regional Travel Options
UPDATE: In the comments a discussion about rail in California and Europe develops. This holiday season I documented some of my cost-savings methods related to travel which is a favorite topic of mine. Now that the holiday season is finally drawing to a close here is an article about one of my very inexpensive holiday…
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Pink & Green Parenting: Lost in the Plastic Rainforest: Greening Your Home
I knew that having a baby would change my life in unforseen ways, but there’s one aspect of modern parenting that I was totally unprepared for. Like Mr. Robinson in The Graduate, I have one word for you, potential parents: Plastics. Plastic toys. Plastic bouncers. Plastic bottles. And of course, plastic diapers. If you don’t…
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Pink & Green Parenting: How to REALLY Reduce the Expense and Environmental Impact of Parenting
Parenting is expensive. (Duh!) Over the course of a lifetime, it costs about a million per kid’”four million if you do it the fancy shmancy way. And it’s wasteful: I’m not just talking about those evil plastic diapers, but the mountains of plastic toys, soccer fields of onesies, and carloads full of sundries that come…
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