Food Network has spawned a boon of celebrity chefs as has PBS. While many of them can make tasty food, often their recipes are full of expensive ingredients. (I am thinking of my favorite chef, Ina Garten, who makes delicious meals such as lobster pot pies. I would love to eat at her house, but I can’t afford to make many of her meals at home.) However, if you search carefully, you will find a few celebrity chefs who not only offer tasty food, but inexpensive food.

Here are a few of my favorite chefs who prepare affordable food:

(click here to continue reading…)

While laundry is much easier to do now than it was 100 years ago, the modern conveniences like a washer and dryer and commercial detergent can add up over time. If you have a large family or live in an apartment and have to use the Laundromat, you will see your costs increase even more. However, just a few easy changes to your routine can add up to significant savings over the course of a year.

(click here to continue reading…)

When it comes to frugal living, it’s possible to save money if you make certain lifestyle choices. Without kids and pets, you could save a lot each year. But many of us like the emotional benefits that come with some expensive decisions, like having a mortgage for that home you bought, and sending the kids to college.

That money spent has to be made up somewhere. Some people decide to make more money as a way to offset those costs. Others, though, take frugality to the next extreme. While there are some quite sensible things you can do to save money, there are also some crazy ways to be frugal. Here are some of the more ridiculous ways that some people save money:

(click here to continue reading…)

Some people wait all winter for garage sale season to begin so they can start snapping up frugal treasures. States have actually turned garage sales into tourist attractions such as the 212 mile garage sale in Michigan every August and the Highway 127 Corridor Sale that sometimes stretches as far as 675 miles. There is no doubt that garage sales offer great bargains, if you know what to look for.

There are certain things that I always look for when I go to a garage sale and certain items I always skip. As a general rule, I stick with items that are durable and skip the ones that are not.

(click here to continue reading…)

If you want to save money, there are a few tried and true techniques that almost every personal finance expert will tell you. Brown bag your lunch. Make your coffee or tea at home. Cut the cable. The list goes on and on and on. The “hardcore frugalists” might go as far as to suggest splitting two-ply toilet paper or cutting open your toothpaste container to get that very last bit (I don’t do this now but I would consider it on the basis of just not wasting it, not to save money).

Unfortunately, while those savings are nice, they don’t impact your financial life as much as they appear based on sheer effort. A lot of them take a significant amount of effort for a less than significant amount of savings. While that’s obvious for those tips like splitting two-ply toilet paper (yes, I’ve seen that suggested before), it’s less obvious for the suggestions to brown bag lunch every day or make your own coffee.
(click here to continue reading…)

Many of us don’t realize that our every day habits and pleasures cost us. Some of our lifestyle choices end up costing us in the long run.

In order to save money at all costs, there are some rather extreme (at least in our society) things that you can resort to. Consider your situation, and what might work best for you. And remember, that there are some things that are better than having money:

(click here to continue reading…)

Summer might be half over, but there is still plenty of time to enjoy a barbecue party, and really, what says summer more than gathering with friends and family and enjoying some food on the grill?  I look forward to it all winter long.

You might be reluctant to host a barbecue party if your money is tight or you don’t like to spend a lot of cash, but there are plenty of ways you can save. 

Consider the following:
(click here to continue reading…)

I love cooking, and I especially love finding ways to make my favorite restaurant food at home. I feel like I have somehow outsmarted the system. I can make a great, restaurant quality meal at home for my whole family for the price of one entree and tip at the restaurant.

This week, my focus is on Applebee’s. In graduate school, my friends and I went to Applebee’s frequently for their half price appetizers during happy hour (perfect for broke college students!) and their desserts.

The guys, especially my then boyfriend and now husband, loved the chicken wings.

(click here to continue reading…)