College starts costing families money long before the acceptance letter arrives. SAT and ACT scores influence not only admission, but also financial aid: higher scores help students qualify for more types of financial aid. It is possible to spend a lot of money on test prep, but it is not necessary. There are a lot… [Read More]
Blog
Category: Chicago on the Cheap
Hogs get slaughtered, Lilly for Target, and a bubble inflates and bursts in a week
Where do we begin with the fiasco that was the Target Missoni collection? You know, the one where the items sold on eBay for zillions of dollars? Except that eBay is flooded with items that have no bids, that are selling at list price, a good four years after the line was released. There have… [Read More]
Tightwad living 2.0
I’m not sure how I managed to go for so long without knowing about Mr. Money Mustache, a website about frugal living. It has pretty much the same ethos as Your Money or Your Life and The Tightwad Gazette, updated for more modern sensibilities (and interest rates). The basic idea is to cut back your… [Read More]
Money and happiness
One of the reasons that I like saving money is that there are things I really want that are not cheap, like travel. I’d rather spend less at the grocery store every week so that I have more money for vacation. Saving up for things is terribly old-fashioned. Yet, like many old-fashioned things, it’s good… [Read More]
Virtual Spring Break: DIY on vacation
Today’s assignment for Kristine Hansen’s Virtual Spring Break travel writing class is to come up with ideas for a travel story around a trend. Well, here’s one: the DIY trend and DIY on vacation. When we travel, we often forget that we can do things that locals are doing, too. When my son was younger,… [Read More]
