Sharing insights since 2007 on carefully saving money, investing, frugal living, coupons, promo codes because the little things matter in achieving financial freedom!
Family reunions, church, shopping centers, sporting events, festivals, conferences — spend some time watching people, and you’re likely to notice one thing: smartphones and tablets are everywhere.
In the same day, I had an 80-year-old man give me a twenty-minute lesson on a genealogy app, and I watched a five-year-old entertain a group of adults with bird calls from a bird watching app.
Young and old, mobile devices are a part of everyday life for most households. But that smartphone or tablet can be used for more than entertainment and killing boredom. Mobile apps can also help save you time and money.
As a baseball player, I have to deal with many different people. They all serve a different purpose in the grand scheme of the sport. Tips are part of the game, and we pay those who help us out.
Just like in the rest of the world, deciding how to tip someone is important, and good service is rewarded. These lessons can be applied to your life, as well.
Tipping in the World of Baseball
In baseball, clubhouse managers are important. They’re in the service business: they cook, clean and do just about anything necessary to make the players feel comfortable. We pay them a daily fee, plus a tip based on how well we feel we were treated. [ continue reading… ]
The summer vacation is considered a staple of the American experience. Not all of us, however, can take off for a full two weeks. Whether money is tight or you have obligations at work, a full-blown vacation might not be an option.
At times when you just can’t take off for a vacation, why not go camping? When you’re camping, you’re not only enjoying time with family and nature, but you’re also spending very little money.
Plus, since you go camping in two to three day stretches, you can go more than once during the summer. It makes a great weekend getaway that won’t break the bank or interfere too much with work.
Your boss is nagging you — again — wanting to know where the reports are. They were due yesterday. The kids are bored, driving your wife nuts at home all summer. It’ll be months before you get any more time off. But you need it now. Not later.
As the news loops in the background, you start drifting to dreamland… smiling in your mind as you feel the breeze blowing in your face, like you were standing portside on the Carnival Dream.
BUZZZZ! Your alarm yanks you from your fantasy, kicking and screaming.
The average American household carries roughly $15,000 in credit card debt, not including mortgages or loans. Economists are concerned both for the present generation’s debt problem (Millenials are projected to be in debt their entire lives), and for the Boomer generation’s ability to retire without racking up huge amounts of credit card debt.
With such unnerving statistics and the uncertainty of the economy, it’s no wonder that more and more Americans are focusing their efforts on debt elimination and cutting their credit cards once and for all.
One of the only sure ways to control excess spending is to force yourself to live without credit.
If getting and staying out of debt is as simple as this, why don’t debt advice gurus preach credit-card slashing? Answer: our society’s strong dependency on credit. In a society that’s practiced easy credit policies for the last several decades (a contributing cause of the Great Depression), it’s hard to imagine life without a credit card — especially in an increasingly cashless economy.
After all, we need credit cards to (1) conduct business and (2) build our credit score, right? [ continue reading… ]
I’m not much for paying attention to what I eat or how often I exercise, but when I started gaining weight, my doctor questioned if my new medication was to blame, or if it was my lifestyle. She suggested that I keep a food and exercise diary, but then quickly changed her mind as she watched my kids tumble across the exam table.
Yeah, finding time to log everything I eat and how many times I chase my kids around the yard in a paper journal probably isn’t realistic. Instead, we talked about activity monitors.
These little gadgets come in different varieties and electronically log how active you are during the day. Some monitors get clipped to your clothing, and others come in a wrist band that looks very similar to the rubber “cause” bands that are so popular (LiveStrong, Autism Awareness, Save the Boobies, etc.).
Here’s why activity monitors are a frugal choice for getting fit:
Free signup to get a free ebook on How to Save Money on Everything! Constantly expanding, it will be the biggest money saving ebook available, and it's FREE! →
(I hate spam and promise that your information will never be shared.)
