I buy what I can used. I don’t usually buy used shoes. I never buy used socks or underwear. I seldom buy used computers. Other than that, it’s all fair game.
I have a good relationship with a little children’s consignment shop down the street—a great source for kids’ clothes/toys.
My all-time favorite sources are Craigs’ List [...]

I don’t know about you, but medical bills have been hitting our house like no body’s business! I honestly can’t believe the rate they’re flocking in right now despite our relatively good health, and decent health insurance.
An ear infection here, a broken tooth there, and routine prescriptions are a truly massive part of our [...]

I don’t know if you’ve seen the art exhibit about e-waste recently, but it’s shocking how many electronic gadgets we “consume” worldwide in the form of mobile phones, batteries, cameras, etc. Some of these have lived beyond their usefulness. I have on my desk, and old mobile phone/PDA and a digital camera that no [...]

I posted a few weeks ago about making your own laundry detergent. Now I’ve been after dishwasher detergent. There’s a great web site called “Dollar Stretcher” and they have some recipes for home-made dishwasher detergent.
You just put one tablespoon Borax and one tablespoon baking soda in the detergent compartment. For “add rinse agent” [...]

I’ve been listening to the Audiobook “Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey. This is available from Audible.com, and I highly recommend it. If you want to download the book, I’ve attached a coupon here for two free books.
One tip that Mr. Ramsey offers that I find especially interesting is that to know [...]

Ok, this catches us up to Monday, and we’re almost back on financial-literacy track.

For those of you who are brave, empowered and socially-fearless, you might like to try the “twitter of budgets” (As I’m so-dubbing it). Geezeo.com is a frightfully-social way of playing with your budget. I do think this could make budgeting fun [...]

This is day 4 in a series for the month of April: Financial Literacy Month.I stumbled upon The Motley Fool a long time ago. I remember learning about stock-trading via a game they had (way back when E*Trade first launched). I have since kept using Motley Fool occasionally whenever I want to learn something [...]

We’ve now reached the point (just a few months in) where I’ve completely replaced my previous work-outside-the-home income with my mobile notary business and my freelance writing. By implementing the tips I’ve been outlining here–even post-layoff our family is coming out ahead of where we were six months ago financially, as well as in peace [...]

Lending Club announced today a new self-directed IRA product.
This is great news for folks like myself who are both self-employed and fans of P2P lending.
If you want to start an account for the 2008 tax year, you need to be enrolled and have funded your account by April 15th. The account goes [...]

Today Rob and I checked out SmartHippo.com again and decided how to approach our refinancing project. We had our first mortgage, as well as a home equity loan of $15,000. Our first mortgage was at something like 5.5% and the HELOC at 8%. We were able to refinance both into 4.5% with [...]