I’m getting caught up. I took November off to work on my NaNoWriMo project (a one-month challenge to write a novel in 30 days). I had to stop at 12,000 words of my 50,000 because I added three new clients to my small business. Now I’m back up to a regular income and a [...]

I expect I’ll post a few times this month, but my progress is being seriously hampered by a grand project I’ve undertaken–National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo).
Most of you know I’m a freelance writer, but until now, I’ve only written nonfiction. This month I’m joining hundereds of thousands of writers worldwide in an attempt [...]

Dear Readers:  I’d like to turn to you for some thoughts and advice on this.
Here’s the situation.  We live in a lovely condo in a planned community alongside a river. We’ve been here without difficulty for six years.  Last year, a large rain storm  flooded the river, and damaged an earthen dam upriver from us critically.
So here’s where [...]

I’d learned about using a Price Book first from The Tightwad Gazette, but also found this great post on the topic at another great blog, No Credit Needed. 
I’m going to refer you to NCN’s template for this as I think it’s as good as you’ll find.  You may also consider keeping your price-book on a [...]

Just got this coupon in my email today. I thought I’d pass it along in case any readers wear contacts.

Do you ever have a hard time finding babysitters? We needed a part time nanny for a couple of years and had a really hard time finding someone willing to work from 5:30 am until 9:30 am every day, but we found SitterCity and found a great part-time nanny who helped us for a [...]

Hello all! No, this isn’t an announcement of a new kid in the family–but a new partnership on the Penny-Wi$e Blog.  You might have noticed, the new button on the black navbar above. It reads “coupons.”  This is due to a new partnership with Alex’s Coupons. 
Alex’s Coupons formed in 1999, when proud papa, Todd Martini’s [...]

1st. I’m putting out a call for submissions. I’m planning to do a week of $1 dinners. If I get really ambitious, I may do an entire week of menus for $1 per person. Would love your submission. I’ll gladly include your name, and blog. Please include menu, recipe and cost breakdown.
2nd. If you’re really [...]

I was at a liquidator store a while back looking for some kids t-shirts for a girl-scout project and ran across a hefty grocery section. Normally, I’m not one to buy expired food, but I recently found a great web site www.stilltasty.com and can figure out the actual “spoilage” date versus the pull dates. [...]