values - Surviving and Thriving

The importance of midnight movies.

March 20, 2015June 8, 2012 by Donna Freedman

I went to a 12:02 a.m. screening of “Prometheus,” one of the most unsettling films I’ve seen in a long time. Not horror-movie scary, sci-fi-movie creepy. It left me so jittery that when we got home at about 2:45 a.m. I couldn’t go right to sleep.

Instead I added video codes to today’s MSN Money post, cleaned up my e-mail inbox and finished tidying the scene of an earlier kitchen mishap involving overboiled blueberries (apparently I have something against my friend’s stove).

It was 4 a.m. before I finally went to bed, which probably isn’t the healthiest sleep habit. The kettle corn consumed at the theater wasn’t so smart, either, no matter how much I try to convince myself that popcorn = corn = daily vegetable intake.

But damn, it was fun. My friend’s got me hooked on midnight screenings. We’ve seen five since I got here.

How much is the senior prom worth?

January 28, 2014April 26, 2012 by Donna Freedman

Would you spend 6% (or more) of your gross annual income to send your teen to the prom? A survey by Visa Inc. indicated that families earning less than $20,000 per year planned to shell out $1,200 for the annual school dance.

I don’t know what’s scarier: The fact that parents are willing to do this or the fact that kids think it’s necessary.

An Earth Day giveaway.

April 29, 2012April 22, 2012 by Donna Freedman

An easy way to reduce your carbon footprint is to bring your own shopping bags. Let me make it easier still.

Here’s what the winner will receive:

Quarreling with blessings.

April 22, 2012 by Donna Freedman

I am at war with my body. That was the thought that came to me toward the end of the massage I had on Friday. Sometimes the oddest things come to me when I’m not focusing on a dozen things at once.

Oddest, and usually the most apt. When my defenses are down, the truth sneaks up.

Hey! I didn’t win the Mega Millions!

April 29, 2012March 31, 2012 by Donna Freedman

You probably didn’t, either. Although winning tickets were sold in several states, odds are they weren’t yours.

The odds really do stink, you know. That’s why some wags call the lottery “a tax on people who are bad at math.”

Going out on a fiscal limb here, but…I don’t think the lottery is so bad.

It’s not that I think the lottery is “good,” i.e., an important part of a balanced financial portfolio. I just think it’s not-so-bad in the way that potato chips are not-so-bad. An occasional handful won’t kill you. If you focus on chips to the exclusion of anything healthy, then you’ve got a problem.

A loan repaid.

January 24, 2016March 29, 2012 by Donna Freedman

I got a big surprise in the mail the other day: a check for $850. That’s the amount of the loan I made to a friend 15 months ago, plus the Western Union fee to get it to her.

In fact, it’s $6 more than I sent. I guess I should consider that interest, or maybe bus fare and aspirin.

The life I once led.

November 26, 2018March 12, 2012 by Donna Freedman

Eight years ago today I headed west. I had no idea what I might do, no idea that I was about to be reborn. In fact, I couldn’t see any kind of future for myself. The only thing I knew for sure was that the life I’d lived up until that moment was no longer bearable.

I left while my then-husband, also a writer, was covering an event several states away. The day before I’d flattened a rear tire in my Chevy Cavalier to keep him from driving it instead of his own vehicle. (Mine got better mileage.)

After getting the tire repaired, I packed what would fit into the little sedan, put Liz Phair’s “The Divorce Song” on the CD player and peeled out.

In less than three days I drove from Chicago to Seattle, a trip made notable by the fact that I somehow managed to get a speeding ticket in Montana.

A handbook for better living.

February 24, 2012 by Donna Freedman

John Robbins was born into wealth and, as an heir of the Baskin-Robbins fortune, could have stayed there. He walked away, though, and focused on a planet-friendly and sustainable lifestyle.

The money he did have was lost to Bernie Madoff’s antics. But Robbins, already an author, focused his writer’s eye on a potential silver lining: “Curtailed consumerism could lead us to reassess our lives and values.”

The result was “The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less,” which I’m giving away this week.

I’ve got a new day job. Come over and visit.

January 24, 2016February 23, 2012 by Donna Freedman

My biweekly personal finance column at MSN Money has morphed into a daily frugality blog. Since life never happens quite as you wish, the new gig was poised to launch right when I got sick last week.

My mental picture is of the Fates passing a joint and cackling with laughter as they watched me struggle with computer connection woes six or seven hours after what was later determined to be a gall bladder attack.

Eventually everything was resolved and Tuesday was the debut for Frugal Cool. Despite the semi-preachiness of the inaugural headline (“Frugality: The right life choice”), this is not an eat-your-vegetables kind of site.

What will love cost you?

February 11, 2015February 9, 2012 by Donna Freedman

Cupid wears a diaper, with no place to put a wallet – but if you’re looking for love there better be pockets on your garments. Deep ones: U.S. residents spent $928 million last year just on dating services.

Love is not only grand, but fiscally prudent. Cohabitation and marriage generally mean two incomes but only one rent/mortgage, fewer nights out on the town, less emphasis on recreational shopping and more focus on shared financial goals.

“There is a real benefit – I call it a financial inoculation against poverty – in being coupled up. You’re better able to withstand tough times,” says Carmen Wong Ulrich, author of “The Real Cost of Living: Making the Best Choices for You, Your Life and Your Money.”

Oh, but the cost of getting to couplehood. Prices for makeup, “manscaping,” marriage vows and mortgages really add up.