I often hear people say that budgets don’t work, just as diets don’t work. But, speaking as a middle-aged white lady, everything we have been told about diets is a lie. With a budget, you don’t have your metabolism working against you. Because my income is highly variable, I need a system to make sure… [Read More]
Blog
Tag: Saving Money
Money Smart Week: Earth Day and saving money
Today is Earth Day. That’s an important day for cheapskates, because saving money is almost always good for the environment – and vice-versa. It’s easy to forget that, in a world of overpriced food, toiletries, and cleaning products passing themselves off as better for the environment. Whole Paycheck, I’m looking at you. If you eat… [Read More]
Thoughts on The Tightwad Gazette, all these years later
I’ve been re-reading The Complete Tightwad Gazette, looking for inspiration for Chicago on the Cheap. It’s a compilation of newsletters on thrifty living that Amy Dacyczyn started in 1990. She and her husband wanted to raise a large family (six children) on a small farm in Maine, without sending the kids to day care. They… [Read More]
Made in China, the Environment, Our Budgets, and Other Thoughts
It turns out that the Team USA Olympic uniforms are made in China, and that is creating all kinds of outrage about offshoring of different U.S. industries. This is, of course, big news in China, where the story is that Americans should be grateful that our economy has evolved beyond garment work. Certainly, America’s strength… [Read More]

