From the category archives:

Saving Money

Using “Walk Away” Power When Negotiating

April 17, 2011

Negotiating can be hard, but it can also be a lot of fun. My wife and I have been working hard for a long time now getting out of debt and saving up 3-6 months of emergency fund, so we’ve cut back as much spending as we could. One of the things we decided we [...]

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Are Online Coupon Sites Really Good Deals?

March 31, 2011

Yahoo has an interesting article on 6 questions you should ask before buying buying the latest Groupon or Living Social deal. These online daily deals sites have become really popular recently, and I’ve seen some of the good and bad that go with them. Here are the 6 questions and my thoughts on each. 1. [...]

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Sacrifice Now or Sacrifice Later, You Choose

March 8, 2011

I’ve heard people say Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps are nice in theory, but he just doesn’t want me to have fun. “That’s fine for you, but I want to have fun now.” I’ve also heard, “That’s probably a good idea, but I’ve never been cheated along the way.” Well, they may have some valid points, [...]

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Ways to Waste Your Money

March 3, 2011

I saw this piece on Yahoo today about 25 ways to waste your money. I thought I’d share the more interesting ones and my thoughts on each of them. 1. Carrying a balance. Debt is a shackle that holds you back. For instance, if you have a $1,000 balance on a credit card that charges [...]

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Should I Invest or Prepay the Mortgage?

February 16, 2011

Many people get to the point after Baby Step 3 of having a nice sized emergency fund and they wonder what to do next. Should we start investing our extra money, or should we use it to pay off our mortgage. This is where I find myself currently, and I’ve been debating myself back and [...]

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8 Pros and Cons of Renting a House

January 9, 2011

The other day I asked the question, “Should you rent or buy a house?” Today I thought I’d go over the pros and cons of renting. There are plenty of good reasons to rent, and several reasons not to. 1. Pro – You aren’t tied down to an area. If you need to move for [...]

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Rent or Buy a House?

January 2, 2011

Rent or buy, that is the question. It is a tough one for many people. If you asked me that question a few years ago I would have replied buy without hesitation for most people. After thinking about it a lot over the last few years, and with the experience I’ve personally had it is [...]

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Saving Money on Groceries with Loss Leaders

December 13, 2010

What is a loss leader? Essentially it is something that a store will sell either close to or even below cost to get you in the door. For example, a tech company will advertise a Blu-ray player at cost, and then hope to make up the money on all the Blu-rays and HDMI cables it [...]

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Sustainable everything- Remodel your life

November 30, 2010

The idea of sustainability can be applied to anything. It can be applied to your shopping list, your home and your car in any situation where you need to obtain resources reliably. It can even be applied to your home insurance in the sense of “How to make your home insurance consistently affordable”. Usually, the [...]

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Be Content With What You Have

November 27, 2010

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. -Philippians 4:12 This is a major problem in our society in my [...]

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