Mighty Bargain Hunter offers some advice on what to do with your next windfall—it doesn’t have to be a lot of money, just a little more than you planned for in your budget, leaving you happily able to pick and choose how to spend or invest it.
savings
Start A Coupon Train
By 9.13.07
A nifty idea for increasing the benefits of coupons is to start or join a coupon train.
Top 10 Most Frugal New Cars
By 9.10.07
Forbes magazine has released a list of the top 10 least expensive cars to own. The list is interesting because it takes into account things like depreciation and maintenance costs, rather than just listing some cheap-ass cars.
10 Stupid Ways That Smart People Waste Money
By 8.30.07
Some people are bad with money and they waste it constantly on stupid crap that they can’t afford and they are sad all the time and have no friends… That’s not you.
Now Actually Is A Good Time To Buy A New Car
By 8.29.07
You never really see any car commercials that say “Now is a crappy time to buy a new car. You’re not going to save any money at all. Ha, ha, ha.” The reason for this is obvious, but leaves us wondering… When exactly is a good time to buy a new car?
Cheap Textbooks And Other Discounts For College Students
By 8.12.07
That first trip to the college bookstore for textbooks is a transformative, and possibly scarring, event–for many people, it may be the first time you really understand the phrase “sticker shock.” But today’s students at least have some alternatives, the most popular of which (based on reader comments, articles, and personal recommendations) is abebooks.com. Our cousin, a junior this year, writes, “One book I’m buying this semester is 70 on Amazon, but like 25 or 35 on Abe.”
Retributive Airlines "Tweak" Each Other, Offer Great Fares To Consumers
By 8.12.07
Rick Seaney has a great post about the “tweak,” a move used by airlines to piss off competitors by offering discount airfares from their rival’s hubs. The spurned airline will often retaliate by tweaking the offender back in return. Rick Seany explains:
Unusual Ways To Save On Back-To-School
By 8.6.07
Ahh, kids: nature’s little moneypits. The back-to-school season is a particularly appalling time, when parents everywhere struggle to stock up on all the goods they’ll need in the coming months. At Bankrate.com, professional parent and advice-giver Peter J. Sander suggests that you make saving money on back-to-school purchases a family project, by giving your kids budgets, helping them figure out how to save for big ticket items by scrimping on less important ones, and — our personal favorite — “deprogramming” them before you leave your house:
How will you get your child the name-brand items he wants while staying under budget? You won’t. Sander says that to avoid having your child fall into a I-can’t-possibly-wear-this-if-it-isn’t-Nike meltdown at the store, you need to de-program him from commercials. “We teach our kids the ‘disvalue’ of brands. We point out commercials and say, ‘They are trying to get you to buy that. You can either buy it or think for yourself,'” he says.
6 Ways To Save On Groceries
By 8.3.07
Okay, so you’ve cut canned vegetables from your grocery list and now your food budget has exploded like a can of green beans. How can you cut corners and save a little money without resorting to Breathairianism? Consumer Reports offers six suggestions, and while many of them may seem like common sense if you already practice them, the list is still helpful enough to be worth checking out. Tip number one:
Choose cheap stores. Not all stores are created equal. After doing a price comparison, Consumer Reports found that the following stores offered the best bargains: Aldi, Costco, Market Basket, Slater Bros., Shoppers Food Warehouse, Trader Joe’s and Wal-Mart.
Consumerist's 10 Tips That Will Make Sure You'll Stay Broke
By 7.31.07
We know you don’t really like having money. That’s why we’ve put together these 10 tips that will help ensure you never will:
Save On Airline Tickets, Shop On Saturday Morning
By 7.21.07
Saturday morning is the best time to find a deal on airline tickets, according to CNN Money. Most airfare sales are released to the Airline Traffic Publishing Company on Friday evening, and then forwarded to travel sites and agencies. With 200 million fares in circulation at any given moment, CNN has a novel solution for ferreting out the best deal:
Professor Says Textbooks Are Too Expensive, Quits Using Them
By 7.20.07
Ron Hammond, Phd, professor at Utah Valley State College, has quit using textbooks in his classes. Why? They’re too expensive.
Four Accounts You Need, Four Accounts You Don't
By 7.15.07
It’s easy to manage your finances when you close unnecessary bank accounts and credit lines and chisel down to the bare essentials. Blueprint For Financial Prosperity has compiled an excellent list of accounts that you need, and accounts you should avoid.
Earn A Lot More Interest By Opening A High-Yield Online Savings Account
By 7.5.07
Your savings can earn upwards of 4 more percentage points of interest, if you put it one of these high-yield online savings accounts. Here’s seven to check out.
By 7.4.07
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The Richest Man In Babylon is an excellent personal finance primer told through a series of easy-to-understand parables.
Save On Utilities By Spending More On Your Home
By 6.30.07
Saving by spending is not as counterintuitive as it sounds when it comes to home improvements. Though energy-saving improvements can cost more upfront, savings are eventually realized as lower utility bills. Kiplinger put together a nifty list to help determine how long it takes to recoup the extra amount spent on energy-efficient improvements:
Automakers Offer Unadvertised Incentives To Recent Graduates
By 6.23.07
Recent graduates shopping for a new car may be eligible for incentives offered by several automakers. The incentives are rarely advertised, unknown even to most dealers.
Stop Overdrafting!
By 6.19.07
Our tip box is organized by complaint category. In the “banks” section, email after email starts roughly the same way, “I overdrafted my account and then a series of horrible events ensued.”
