Consignment stores haven’t always been fashionable. In many areas they’re considered only a small step above Goodwill or Salvation Army. The perception is that they are smelly, overcrowded corners of the retail world where ugly clothes go to die. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Not in this economy. Consignment stores are back –
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Way back in the days before credit cards, if you didn’t have the money to buy something, you could put it on layaway. With diligent payments, the desired item could be yours as soon as the final payment was made in full. Discovering that consumers saving up for things and paying cash was counter-productive to a culture of impulse shopping and entitlement, most stores gradually discontinued their layaway programs over time. Credit cards and store cards became the preferred payment method.

I’m just as guilty as you are. I swore I was giving up TV for good … it’s all trash anyway… but I still had shows I wanted to watch! Unfortunately, my cable TV costs were breaking the bank. Something had to give, and it wasn’t going to be my bottom line. Fortunately, it turns out that there are many ways to watch TV online for much less than you’ll pay for a regular cable subscription.

Living on one income can sometimes seem like the elusive unicorn – very pretty in theory but completely unattainable in the real world. But with some work and planning, most couples can achieve this dream and watch it bear the fruit of having one spouse devote themselves to other things that have more long-term value.
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Frugal preppers know all about the benefits of reuse and recycling.  It’s not necessarily about Mother Earth—it’s about making sure your basic needs are met and not wasting money on unnecessary goods.  Into the middle of this framework should be another highly useful activity—freecycling. What Is Freecycling? Freecycling is a formalization of what your grandparents
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What would you do with an extra 40 hours per week? Homeschool your children? Devote more time to getting off grid by planting a larger garden? Canning more, or spending more time learning skills you need to survive? Volunteer, care for your extended family, or help others? Whatever the reason, for many couples, finding a
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My husband was taught “the triangle” while going to college for film making. Basically, the theory goes that when you are making a movie there are only three things: good, cheap, and fast. You can only have two. I have found this axiom to be true for all of life. You can have something that
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As the hardening of the job market continues and the economic landscape becomes bleaker and bleaker, there may come a time when you have to look at your accumulated debt and make a decision—do I declare bankruptcy or try to pay my creditors? Bankruptcy is never the option of first resort. We are compelled through
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Saving doesn’t take a financial expert. Most of us live from paycheck to paycheck. If you are fairly new to the survivalist mentality, you are probably thinking it costs a bundle to be properly prepared. With a little creativity, the actual cost of being prepared can become a part of your daily life. The biggest
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For a lot of people, the word survivalist leads to visions of people living in some cult compound deep in the countryside of some remote area, caching supplies of ammunition and food in preparation for a cataclysmic event. In a few cases that may be the case, and undoubtedly there are several more who wish
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