There are good ideas for homemade Christmas gifts, and then there are bad ideas. Good ideas can be inexpensive, but they shouldn’t look cheap (unless they’re being given by kids.) Bad ideas can be expensive, and yet somehow look cheap or miss the mark by a wide margin. If you’re planning to make gifts, you have …
My husband and I didn’t have time to buy a dining room table before hosting Thanksgiving this year. Fortunately, we found a creative solution for this conundrum: the patio table. Had we had the 11 people we originally expected, rather than the 6 we had, we would have used the patio table plus our kitchen …
In case you haven’t heard, you need an emergency fund, and you need it yesterday. In the good times, we could rely on home equity loans and credit cards to tide us through the bad times. Now, HELOCs are gone or shrinking and credit card issuers are reducing credit limits. Unless you want to borrow against …
Try saying that fast three times! This weekend we went to buy a sofa bed for our guest room. I’d researched possible stores and narrowed it down to two options. We decided to go with one from Jennifer Convertibles. The price was $599, which was within our budget. We liked the color it came in, …
Leap day comes but once every four years. In honor of this rare occasion, I propose 29 financial leaps to take. Here they are, in no particular order: Prepare your taxes now. Spend an hour preparing your taxes online. If you don’t owe, file them now and receive your rebate now. If you owe, now you’ll …
Halloween is just a few days away. Have you finished your costume yet? Have you decorated your house yet? If not, here are five last minute Halloween costumes and five last-minute decorations to get you by. Last-Minute Halloween Costumes Just in case you haven’t looked at a calendar, or you got invited to a party …
5 Last-Minute Halloween Costumes and Decorations Read More »
Now that we’ve lived in our house for several months, problems are starting to crop up. Some will require a handyman or even a major replacement, but others are things I’m learning to fix myself. My husband’s first response to most issues is to suggest calling the handyman, which is weird because his dad was …
A couple months ago I blogged that my husband and I are saving nearly 25% of our income every month, and have been doing so for several months. We were able to reach that rather astounding figure because we significantly paid down our debt and spend carefully.Then something even more astounding happened. Yesterday I asked my husband …
Any woman who’s had a facial knows how wonderful and luxurious they are. The comfy robes, the smooth treatments, the neck, hand, and leg massages. It’s so relaxing. But in this economy, most of us have to say no to such extravagances. While you can’t fully reproduce the spa experience, you can give yourself a …
My husband and I have been debating what to do with our emergency fund. Should we keep it all liquid in an online savings account currently earning about 1.22% interest or put some it in a CD ladder? There are pros and cons of both options, so really it comes down the size of your fund …
Pros and Cons of Liquid Emergency Funds vs. CD Ladders Read More »
