Whenever someone talks about frugal expenses, Netflix always seems to be the popular example held up as the sacrificial lamb to the frugal gods. I think it’s a popular target because it’s so easy to attack. Subscribers pay a flat monthly fee to watch movies, a pure discretionary entertainment expense, and so many times our lives get in the way. Movies sit on the table unwatched, unreturned, and the only cost is a flat monthly fee. It’s all too convenient and so it makes an inviting target.

Before I was a convert I had no idea why people signed up for Netflix and took my fair share of shots at Netflix. So what changed my mind?

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Checks for Vets is a guidebook that will help wartime service vets and their surviving spouses receive their VA pensions as a result of their service. If you’ve ever filled out a government form, then you know how complicated and vague that can be. How certain line items, despite “instructions,” can be difficult to understand and that every accidental error or inaccuracy results in a processing delay. Just think about your tax return!

When I was approached by Joe McCarthy’s publicist about the book, I knew I had to get a copy and review it. I’m always grateful for those who serve, have served, or work in support of our armed services. Knowing how complicated government forms can be, I knew a guide to the whole process, written by someone with intimate knowledge of the process, would be invaluable for those seeking to claim their benefits.

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For years, my budget consisted of an Excel spreadsheet that documented every purchase I made every single day of the year. As a numbers guy, this wealth of data was amazing and helped me tweak my spending, find my financial leaks, and reach financial goals much sooner than I would have without budgeting. Since then, I’ve been tentatively using online personal finance tools because of the security issue and instead I rely on Quicken’s desktop application, which is one of the most comprehensive tools available.

What if you just want to maintain a budget? Enter You Need A Budget. You Need A Budget, often called YNAB, is a desktop budgeting software package that will help you set, maintain, and stick to a budget. It’s a much better version of what I used to hack together in an Excel spreadsheet.

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If you want to learn about options, you can’t go wrong picking up a copy of The Rookie’s Guide to Options by Mark Wolfinger. It was a little harder to do a review of this book because I’m not an options trader, I’m not terribly interested in options, and I’ve never even opened a book about options outside of Brian Overby’s The Options Playbook for a review a while back.

Overall, the book is really comprehensive and after the first chapter, where the most basic of basics are explained, I felt like I knew enough about options to be a danger to myself. Call options, put options, wonderful… how hard could it be? If it were that easy, there wouldn’t be another two hundred pages to read!

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My wife and I have been trying to cook more of our meals at home, rather than going out to a restaurant. Part of it is frugality, cooking at home is simply cheaper than eating out. However, an even bigger part has to do with being healthier. Restaurants tend to use way too much oil, fat, cheese, and salt (among other things) and eating out all the time can expand your waistline as quickly as it thins out your wallet. So when I was offered a copy of The Frugal Foodie Cookbook by Lara Starr and Lynette Shirk to review, I was eager to see a cookbook that had frugality, rather than a particular cooking style or cuisine, in mind.

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By his own admission, Phil Villarreal is a stingy scoundrel. I didn’t know much about him before I received his book, other than how he also wrote articles for The Consumerist from time to time, but his book – Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel is an awesome and educational read.

The book contains a hundred little tricks and hacks that will save, or earn, you some serious money. He admits that while his advice does contain “a few splashes of innovation,” much of it is common sense – and it is. However, if the Darwin Awards are any indication, common sense is in short supply and we could all use a little refresher.

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When I was first approached to do a review of The New Rules for Mortgages by Dale Robyn Siegel, I was eager to get my hands on the book because of all the stories I had heard about how getting a mortgage today was much harder than it was a few years ago. Three years ago, you could get a loan based on thin air because the mortgage company could sell it to an even bigger sucker down the road. That’s part of the reason why we are in the economic funk we’re in today.

However, I feel for the people who, through no fault of their own, now have to deal with the after effects today and thought a review of this book might be helpful. So, let’s dive into the book!

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Dave Ramsey is a polarizing figure. Some people love him and swear by his advice and others think he’s a hack. Which one is he? Unfortunately that’s a question only you can answer but hopefully I will provide you with enough information about his flagship book to make your own decision.

The problem with personal finance is that there are multiple solutions to any one problem. If you think it’s simply about math, you’re wrong. Someone in credit card debt understands that when you use your credit card and don’t pay your entire bill, you’ll go into debt. They aren’t stupid, they know how interest works, but there is a non-math reason why they’re in debt.

If you had to boil down the book into a single sentence, then I’d say that Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover is a book that gives you a good framework to get yourself out of debt and back on solid financial footing.

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The 1-2-3 Money Plan by Gregory Karp is a book that seeks to provide practical and specific financial advice that anyone can use – it says so on the back! Published by Finantial Times Press, this book seeks to help you establish a structure to your personal finances and give you a process you can follow to get you on track.

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The Richest Man in Town by W. Randall Jones bills itself as containing the “inside secrets of America’s self-made millionaires.” In it, Jones talks about the Twelve Commandments of Wealth, illustrating each with quotes and stories from the richest men and women from a variety of cities across the United States.

W. Randall Jones is a pretty rich man himself, having founded Worth Magazine, and in this book he spent two years interviewing local business editors and community leaders in a hundred towns to find the most successful and richest self-made individuals in each. 96 of the 100 were men, which, coupled with simplicity, gives us the title of the book. From there, he used public data to value their holdings to estimate their net worth, which is to say it’s a guess. Either way, the stories and quotes you read in the book come from very rich and successful people, even if they aren’t #1.

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