saving-money

You might be doing well with your expenses as a married couple but making poor investment decisions, causing your financial situation to worsen even though your day-to-day money management has improved.

A new study says that 26% of US consumers "have no plans to return to their free-spending ways," which probably doesn't sound like good news to retailers. Even worse (for retailers), about a third say they've become less loyal.  More »

Shoppers are getting online coupon code crazy, with searches for promo codes up 55% from last year. But why waste your time Googling when you could be watching thewebsiteisdown.com and an armada of Twitter agents are searching for coupons on your behalf?   More »

For those of you looking to take advantage of this year's tax deductions for buying a new car, Smart Money has a few tips to save you even more money. They list five suggestions for getting the best deal on a new car as follows:  More »

Could a text message make you save more?   More »

Yesterday I grabbed a notebook app for my smartphone and spent a couple of hours organizing the various content folders—ideas for Consumerist, gift lists for Christmas, things to look up later on a computer—so that I could capture information more efficiently. Wait, why s ths n Cnsmrst? Because The Simple Dollar argues that by keeping a notebook and using it all the time (Lifehacker calls it "ubiquitous capture"), you can end up saving money.  More »

Mobile homes have a less-than-stellar reputation, deservedly or not. I know my own mom always warned me against them by saying they were just tornado bait, which was enough to make me leery of even stepping foot inside a friend's mobile home growing up. But if you're not irrationally afraid of tornadoes, a mobile home might be a great housing option if you're on a tight budget or looking to save money, writes Michigan Telephone.  More »

Do you want to save money by making your own meals at home, but aren't sure where to start? Let the blog Budget Bytes help you. It contains not only frugal but delicious recipes (including vegetarian ones) broken down by total cost and cost per serving, but a guide to stocking your pantry when you first live on your own or learn to cook.  More »

The Champagne Bureau, a trade organization representing "the grape growers and houses of Champagne, France," just sent us a nonsensical press release warning consumers to be on the lookout for imposter champagne. WATCH OUT! You're pouring sparkling wine into your mouth, you jerk! The thing is, the only real reason "champagne" is unique is because wine houses in that region of France managed to get laws passed to prevent anyone else from using the word on their own sparkling wines. They're all sparkling wines; how they're made is what determines quality.  More »

The personal finance blog Moolanomy posted a list of 25 cheap Halloween costumes, including ones that make no sense (see "Soup and crackers") and ones that sound borderline dirty (see "Facebook wall"). The list made us realize that our readers probably have a lot of equally cheap, and equally-or-more creative, costume ideas of their own.  More »