Free Republic

Money Observations: Living within Your Means. The movies and Television broadcast over and over to live on other-peoples-money and to live beyond your means. But in the "Everyday Millionaires" book by Chris Hogan and on the "Millionaire Theme Hour" with Dave Ramsey, millionaires say over and over again to live within your means and to get debt out of your lives. Indeed, I did not. for the first 20 years of work, I dabbled in credit and did not have an emergency fund. Soon I found myself living paycheck to paycheck while having a decent salary. I saw something I...

One year ago I wrote an article about 51 painless money saving tips. It was a simple enough article with a bunch of ideas on how to save some money without making huge sacrifices. The response was stupendous. There have been countless comments to the article, and the article has been viewed more than 65,000 times. But the best part of the article has been the money saving tips submitted by readers. Through comments and e-mail, readers have offered dozens of ways to save some money. So I thought I’d collect all those ideas and republish here. So in no...

I'm kicking off the New Year with a new blog. The main purpose of "The Coupon Whisperer" won't be to provide hot coupon tips, although I will be doing that. The primary purpose of this blog is to provide you with entertaining "war stories" from the field. Think of it as adventures in couponing. And so we start of with our first story...the strange story of Coupon Mike...I met Coupon Mike earlier this year at his job when I was introduced to him by a mutual friend, who worked at the same place, because of our common interest in...

You have heard it said that the three most important factors in real estate are: location, location, location. Turns out that location is also important in terms of car insurance. If you want to lower your car insurance, then be sure to live close to a house of worship. That's right, church can be good for your soul as well as your pocketbook. According to Insure.com, if you happen to live within one (1) mile of a church or other "religious instituiton" you are 10% less likely to have an automobile accident that results in property damage to your vehicle....

A 20-year-old man was flown by Air Care to University Hospital in Cincinnati after smashing his Chevrolet Cavalier into a concrete block wall at a Fairfield Township Walmart store Monday night. Police say the man apparently ran his vehicle into the store intentionally-while going 70 miles an hour. The accident happened at the store on Princeton Road Walmart about 9:50 p.m. The car hit the brick exterior wall of the store's vehicle service area. The man’s name and condition were not immediately released. No one else was hurt.

Frugality. That's been the buzzword of the Great Recession.   Sliding home values, stumbling stock portfolios and a shaky job market brought with them a consciousness about spending that many of us misplaced during years of consumer overindulgence. Americans responded to the crisis by buying less, clipping coupons more and increasing savings to 4.8 percent of disposable income in December, up from near zero before the recession.   In the past year, blogs about frugality went viral. Everyone from Oprah to President Obama joined the frugality parade.   Now a new term is marching through the blogosphere: Frugality fatigue. But...

Pain at the pump is the price of this country’s addiction to oil. Americans are feeling it intensely—outraged over oil company profits, fearful that another hurricane in the gulf, or a terror attack in the Middle East is all it would take to send prices even higher. But what if there was one solution to all of this? Something that could solve America’s energy crisis, strengthen our national security, and help save the planet at the same time? Vinod Khosla: I looked, did my research and found this was brain dead simple to do. Stone Phillips, Dateline anchor: Is it...

WASHINGTON - Bundle up, kids. It's getting cold inside. As oil and natural gas prices soar, public schools are having to make some tough decisions: turning down the thermostat, finding alternative sources of fuel, even cutting back on the school week. At Menomonie High School in western Wisconsin, principal Tom Wiatr has dropped the temperature a few degrees. Students started wearing zip-up sweatshirts and fleeces to stay warm, raising questions about a school rule against wearing jackets indoors. So the school clarified its policy, even scheduling a fashion show to highlight acceptable clothing. Naturally, it was snowed out. So far,...

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - Investing in higher education could net savings for California taxpayers, a new study suggests. That's because the number of people reaching college age is growing and if they don't have the opportunity to learn, taxpayers could end up paying for more people living in poverty and even in jail, according to the study by University of California, Berkeley researchers. The study, commissioned by the bipartisan Campaign for College Opportunity and released Wednesday, looked at the potential return on investing in education and the cost of doing nothing. In general, the study found the state will get...