A Penny CloserA Penny CloserA Penny Closer is for those of us who want to improve how we spend, save, and invest. We want to be able to manage our money so that we can use it to enjoy our lives today while still saving to reach our dreams tomorrow. Articles
Invasion Of The Ants!
2007-10-10 17:59:00 Last night our home got overtaken by ants. Seriously. We have had some ants in the kitchen before but you expect to have them in the kitchen, especially since we leave out cat food for our kitties. We would vacuum them up and treat with repellant and the problem would go away for a while. It ... More About: Household , Ants , Invasion
Renting vs. Selling - What Makes More Sense?
2007-10-10 04:06:00 Our move is coming ever closer and we’re in a unique position where there is the possibility we could keep our current house and rent it out. The typical price a tenant will have to pay to rent a home in our area tends to be higher than our current mortgage costs. Even ... More About: Sense , Selling , Insurance , Renting
Avoiding The Block: Get The Knives You Really Need
2007-10-09 00:55:00 You don’t need a big block of knives. I would bet that you won’t even use half of them more than a few times. My old knife block sits gathering dust in a corner and I suspect it’s in good company. As someone who cooks A LOT and has worked in commercial kitchens I ... More About: Kitchen , Block , Ally , Knives
My Mortgage Dilemma - Prepay or Invest
2007-10-08 14:00:00 It’s not quite so easy as it sounds. To some folks, they can immediately answer one way or another. If your interest rate is below 8.5% (I learned this by reading Pinyo’s analysis of prepaying your loan vs. investing at Moolanomy), depending on things like inflation and how well the stock market ... More About: Mortgage , Invest , Dilemma , Dile , Mort
The Roundup - Buying In Bulk Edition
2007-10-08 04:19:00 We drove into town this weekend to run a whole slew of errands. This was our weekend to go to Sam’s and to buy some of our toiletries and necessities in bulk to save costs. We came prepared this time to actually calculate the real savings (or lack thereof) with buying bulk. ... More About: Buying , Roundup , Edition , Bulk
Our Plan To Remain Debt Free
2007-10-07 03:09:00 At the beginning of the year, we were able to declare ourselves “debt free”. This was no easy task I can tell you. We still have our mortgage, but we don’t consider it debt exactly. Certainly, it is debt, but it’s at a decent interest rate, we get a tax deduction for ... More About: Credit Cards , Free , Mortgage , Debt , Frugality
Reducipe - The ?Weeknight? Taco
2007-10-06 19:46:00 Reducipe Pronunciation: ri-doos-uh-pee Function: noun 1 : a recipe that can help lower your food costs in a variety of ways a : by scaling back an expensive recipe to be less pricey but still just as tasty b : by turning an already inexpensive meal into something special c : by using leftovers in ... More About: Food
Finding Missing Money
2007-10-06 03:51:00 You know it’s a good when you stumble across money that you completely forgot about. The biggest case for me was once when I went to the bank, got $60, went home, and couldn’t find the money. It wasn’t in my pocket where I could have sworn I had put it. I ... More About: Money , Missing , Missi
Face To Face With Temptation: The iPhone
2007-10-05 19:55:00 A friend of mine stopped by to visit the other day. While we were talking she remembered that she had gotten an iPhone and she wanted to show me. Both her and husband just got them and were thrilled with them. As she handed me the phone I saw my husband watching intently. As I was ... More About: Iphone , Face , Reflection , Temptation , Temp
7 Random Things About Me
2007-10-05 00:36:00 I got tagged! I’ve been asked to reveal 7 random things about myself by paidtwice at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already. Thanks! I think this is great, especially since I’m pretty new to blogging and haven’t really shared much info about myself yet. I tried to think of some of really weird factoids for this one. Hopefully ... More About: Random , Things
The Carnival Review
2007-10-04 18:13:00 Well the Carnival is back in town and that is always a good thing! Make sure to go check out these collections of articles when you have a chance! 107th Carnival of Debt Reduction was hosted by Moolanomy. He did a great job with the NYC theme. I’ve never been there but I hope to go ... More About: Carnivals , Review , The Car
Tightwad Wednesday - Twice-Used Grounds And Homemade Granola
2007-10-04 02:17:00 Each week, I will test out two tips from the The Complete Tightwad Gazette, and on the following Wednesday I’ll review how they went and evaluate if it is worth my time/effort/money to continue with it. Well, we had two winners this round! It’s about time! Reusing Coffee Grounds A reader in The Complete Tightwad Gazette suggested ... More About: Rounds
Defensive Driving: My First Ticket
2007-10-03 21:42:00 I got my very first speeding ticket this week. I simply didn’t realize I was in an active school zone. It was the furthest thing from my mind at that time. I saw the sign as I drove in but 30 minutes and a vet appointment later I forgot about it. With no schools/children in sight it never ... More About: Driving , Automobile , Ticket , Tick
Couponing Strategies - ?Separate And Save For Sales?
2007-10-03 01:58:00 If you already read Couponing Successes posted earlier today you will be familiar with the examples used in this post. If you haven’t read it yet, make sure to check it out. The reason most of the coupons I used this weekend were about to expire (literally, they expired that day) was because I was ... More About: Sales , Strategies , Coupons , Groceries , Save
Couponing Successes
2007-10-02 18:17:00 This weekend I got my biggest coupon savings total ever - a whopping $40.05 or almost 30% on the bill. I’ve had much higher percentages before but only on targeted trips where I only bought specific sale items and didn’t buy fresh food for the week. Although I was thrilled, I was a little embarrassed ... More About: Shopping , Coupons , Groceries
How We Chose Our Credit Card
2007-10-01 15:00:00 Recently, my wife and I were looking at our credit cards. We got to thinking about credit cards after reading a post over at The Simple Dollar, and decided to consider changing our card. At the time, we had no idea we’d wind up with the same card that was discussed there. I’ve had ... More About: Credit Cards , Card , Credit , Credit Card
The Roundup - Busy Weekend Edition
2007-10-01 02:08:00 This was a really busy weekend for us. We had several friends and some family over to the house the last couple of days. One of our friends came over and we helped her with her wedding album and to look for her first house. I think she’s really excited about searching ... More About: Roundup , Weekend , Edition , Busy
Investing In My Roth IRA
2007-09-30 15:52:00 Recently, I talked about how I have switched my Roth IRA from the insurance company to my brokerage account. I started doing some research on where I was going to invest things, and came to the conclusion that I would be investing all of it in Vanguard Exchange Traded Funds after doing some math. ... More About: Retirement , Investing
Investing In My Roth IRA
2007-09-30 15:52:00 Recently, I talked about how I have switched my Roth IRA from the insurance company to my brokerage account. I started doing some research on where I was going to invest things, and came to the conclusion that I would be investing all of it in Vanguard Exchange Traded Funds after doing some math. ... More About: Retirement , Investing
Reducipe - Chicken Divan
2007-09-29 18:49:00 Reducipe Pronunciation: ri-doos-uh-pee Function: noun 1 : a recipe that can help lower your food costs in a variety of ways a : by scaling back an expensive recipe to be less pricey but still just as tasty b : by turning an already inexpensive meal into something special c : by using leftovers in ... More About: Food , Chicken , Ivan , Divan
Is Total Debt Avoidance Really Best?
2007-09-28 22:36:00 “All debt should be avoided”, “We should all try to live completely debt free”, “Don’t pay interest for anything”. I feel like I’ve been hearing this debt-free mantra everywhere lately. Living debt-free is a fantastic goal to strive for. Debt , as a general concept, is a negative thing to have. Having no financial ... More About: Total , Ally
Smooth AND Solvent: Make The Moisturizer Switch
2007-09-28 15:00:00 Now that we know some ways companies try to artificially inflate the value of their products, how do we decide if we can happily switch to a cheaper brand? Everybody sees the value of things differently. Some people might even tie their confidence in their looks to a using a specific product. That ... More About: Shopping , Switch , Make , Moisturizer , Smooth
Are Luxury Moisturizers Worth The Price?
2007-09-28 01:56:00 Cosmetics and beauty products were a hobby of mine. An extremely expensive hobby that helped get me into debt. I have tried many of the expensive face moisturizers out there. As recently as just last year I was using up the last of my Crème de la Mer moisturizer ($125 for 1oz). ... More About: Shopping , Luxury , Price , Worth , Wort
Finding a New VoIP Provider
2007-09-27 15:00:00 It sounds like Vonage is going through some rough times right now. We’ve been using Vonage for, I think, a couple of years now. We’ve been really happy with the service, and have two lines with them. One is our normal home line, and the other line Melissa uses for some of her charity work. Some ... More About: Household , Voip , Provider , Ovid
Tightwad Wednesday - Flushing Less Water & Dry Milk
2007-09-27 02:55:00 Each week, I will test out two tips from the The Complete Tightwad Gazette, and on the following Wednesday I’ll review how they went and evaluate if it is worth my time/effort/money to continue with it. Well, again we have mixed results. I suppose that is to be expected though - it wouldn?t be a challenge ... More About: Milk , Water
The Surprise Rebate!
2007-09-26 17:34:00 Rebates can be a fickle mistress. Sometimes it seems like a gamble on whether or not you will actually get that rebate you so painstakingly prepared. You might get it in the mail or you could get rejected for something small or for seemingly no reason at all. A while back I saw a $10 rebate ... More About: Shopping , Groceries , Rebate
The Roundup - Stone vs Brick Accents Edition
2007-09-25 23:01:00 Everyone tells us that building a home is extremely frustrating. I’m starting to see what they were all talking about. The builder just called to inform us that it is standard to get stone accents on the exterior instead of the brick we had chosen. That’s news to us because we were told we had to choose a brick ... More About: Roundup , Stone , Brick , Edition , Tone
The Lost Arts?
2007-09-25 17:10:00 Sometimes I wonder if I should have taken Home Economics in high school. For me, it was a choice between that and computer science and I chose the latter. Although computer science helped prepare me for a career in the tech industry I feel like I missed out on learning some of the essentials for ... More About: Lost , Food , Household , Arts , Frugality
The Downside to Debt Consolidation Loans
2007-09-24 13:30:00 When I started my first job after college, I didn’t own much. I had my car, some hand-me-down furniture, some clothes, a TV and VCR, a computer, some books, and a variety of other small things. I didn’t have much in the way of assets, and the furniture I had was really starting to show ... More About: Debt Consolidation , Credit Cards , Loans , Debt , Dati
Top 6 Things I?m Looking Forward To In The New House
More articles from this author:2007-09-24 02:02:00 Today we went and looked at the new house and it’s really coming along. We’ve had some delays but they have progressed to the electrical stage now. We can begin to get a real feel for what the house will look like even though it is just the framing, roof, and plumbing. I’m starting to ... More About: House , Household , New House , Things , Reflection 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
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