Jeff Yeager, aka “The Ultimate Cheapskate,” has written two books about tightwaddery. This week you can enter to win both.
Month: July 2011
How to stop getting credit-card applications. (Insurance ones, too.)
It’s always fun to go through the mail after you return from a long trip. True, a lot of what’s piled up is junk mail and charitable solicitations, but you always hope for some good stuff.
Two months’ worth of envelopes were waiting when I got back from Alaska in mid-July. I did find a $39 check from Mr. Rebates (yay, cash-back shopping!) and a couple of paychecks from my Get Rich Slowly gig. But the haul was mostly, well, junk mail and charitable solicitations.
And credit card applications. Ten of them.
Back-to-school sales: What, already?
Kids all over the country are in mourning, having seen “back to school” signs and adverts since early July. Today’s circulars included deals like 1-cent manual pencil sharpeners (Office Depot), 25-cent crayons (Kmart), free-after-rebate yellow highlighters (Staples) and $9 backpacks (Target).
It’s not time to buy yet, though.
Blog roundup: Cartesian dualism edition.
You’ve got to love a blogger who can work the phrase “Cartesian dualism” into a post. In this case the blogger is my daughter, Abigail Perry, and the article is about us both. (But mostly her.)
Don’t let the title “Glorifying my mom (who’s glorifying me)” fool you. It’s not an exercise in mutual admiration, although I do admire the hell out of her. The post is about her re-reading “You can’t even tell perfect bodies apart,” a post I wrote about Abby’s near-fatal illness, and then reflecting on who she was then and who she is now.
Giveaway: “Debt-Free For Life”
“Getting out of debt fast is the most important financial move you can make in today’s economy,” according to author/PF guru David Bach.
He wrote the book on it, so to speak. This week I’m giving that book away.
Are you your parents’ ATM?
Often we hear about boomerang kids, or middle-aged “children” who keep asking their parents to subsidize them. But what happens when Mom and Dad hit you up for a loan?
Goal-oriented groceries.
Yesterday I filmed my first “Ask A Money Expert” video for MSN Money. I’d done several videos for MSN in the past, but this is a different format: Readers post questions on Facebook, to be answered by people like Jim Jubak and Liz Pulliam Weston. And now by me too, also (as the cat from Mutts would say).
The challenge was giving good information succinctly, since I had just 3½ minutes to answer a trio of questions. I’ll post the link once the finished product is available. In the meantime, I want to talk about one of the responses I gave.
A frugal egg-speriment.
When I was about to leave for my house-sitting/visiting trip to Alaska in mid-May, I had part of a carton of eggs in the fridge. Since I would be gone for two months, I decided to try something I’d only read about: freezing eggs.
Today I sampled the results.
Dumpster wading.
While house-sitting here in Anchorage I took my friend’s recyclables over to the transfer station. It’s a small way for me to help her out.
Turns out it’s a good way to shop, too.
Racing in the Tour de Personal Finance.
Jacob over at My Personal Finance Journey is running something called the Tour de Personal Finance. I’m one of four “racers” in Stage 4, hoping to move on to the next leg.
That’s where you come in.