Had I been asked which state hands the biggest salary to its head honcho, I’d have assumed California or New York.

In which case I’d have been wrong, as I learned while researching “What the governor gets paid in every state,” my latest piece on Money Talks News.

Learned some other interesting stuff, too, such as the fact that one governor’s wife worked as a summertime waitress to save up for a car and that another governor credits his mad budget-balancing abilities to his super-frugal mother, a widow who washed and re-used not just aluminum foil but also wax paper and plastic wrap.

And nope, I’m not going to say which governor earns top dollar. You’ll have to go read the article to find out.

 

Also up at Money Talks News:

“From DVDs to baby shoes: 43 things you should never buy.” This was a lot of fun to research and, as usual, the MTN editor let me act out a bit in print. Bless her heart.

“Save thousands of dollars on cleaning each year.” – If you clean your own place you’re already saving a bundle, since a service costs $20 to $80 per week (or more, depending on where you live). But these tips can cut costs even further.

 

Movies, singles, cleaning, shopping and the flu

Ready for the holiday movie season? Before you visit the box office, check out the tactics in my recent NextAvenue.org post. “12 ways to save big bucks on movie tickets” can help you pay less – or maybe nothing at all – for your silver screen entertainment.

 

According to a new survey from TD Ameritrade, some single people over the age of 37 are decidedly jittery about finances. And why shouldn’t they be? They earn less than married people (on a per-person basis, not as the couple’s total income), don’t have the “married/filing jointly” option, and are more like than couples to invest less, be unable to buy homes and live paycheck to paycheck.

My article at The Simple Dollar, “13 ways to beat the single-person penalty,” can help you cut through the chatter and take charge of your cash. (Hint: The tactics can also help couples, married or not, get the most from every dollar.)

We’re just off National Preparedness Month in this country, and continuing to view some very sobering disaster footage. That’s why I wrote “Armageddon on a shoestring: Prepare for disasters without destroying your budget,” also at The Simple Dollar. We can’t be 100 percent protected from winter storms, earthquakes, hurricanes and the like, but we can take our best shot at preparedness – and, as the title suggests, we don’t have to go broke doing it.

My guess is that a lot of this blog’s readers are already finished with their holiday shopping, and that some of it happened during last year’s post-holiday clearance sales. Not everyone is that organized, so I wrote “Start a holiday gift closet now she you can avoid Black Friday.” It’s full of ways to get gifts without spending much, or even spending at all.

The flu is nothing to sneeze at. (Sorry.) It’s a serious and potentially fatal disease that can put a hurt on your budget as well as your body. “Frugal flu fighting: Affordable ways to avoid influenza” addresses tactics to keep the virus at bay, only some of which involve vaccination.

Also: Say “frugal flu fighting” five times, fast.

Readers: Were you surprised how much your governor earns?