My Kind of “Free Market” Economy

Last week, one of the coupon mom bloggers I follow on Twitter mentioned that she had posted on Freecycle to give away some of her stockpile of feminine hygiene products and got a response from someone who thought they were a weird thing to give away. She questioned her own judgment in these matters, and it got me thinking [...]

Charity on the Cheap: Donating school supplies

It occured to me last night that I will have access to more free school supplies than my adopted/sponsored family will need. So I hit up Freecycle, Craigslist and Google for some ideas and got lucky with the ol’ Googler. Those of you who like to donate things instead of money are going to love [...]

Revisiting my food budget

In a recent post about my whole life policy budget item, FrugalShoppingIdeas left the following comment which has had me thinking ever since:
The amount you set up for restaurants is sooo high though! There are so many free options these days or discounted. Even at Arby’s, buy a soft drink and you get a free [...]

A shout-out to my new “helper”

I’ve mentioned before that other people have helped my charity activities (unsolicited, which makes it all the more meaningful) by sending me their coupons, jumping into the fray at the shelter to cook for the masses, donating to causes I’ve blogged about, and one even mailed a $25 Walgreens gift card for me to pass on to the family I [...]

Shopping for Free for Me + Three

I was in the mood for a coupon orgy this weekend – I had about 30 Kelloggs coupons that I just couldn’t let go to waste, especially since I had gone out of my way to buy them. I asked my mother if I could mail her the coupons to do 3 simple orders at Target, but [...]

My Pricey Neighborhood: The Awesome, The Annoying, The Absurd

I had a particularly dense 24 hours of unexpected entertainment without wandering more than a few steps from my eyrie bower. You tell me if this justifies or explains the hefty price tag on said bower…
Wednesday afternoon, I nipped out to mail some coupons to my mother and couldn’t get to my usual mailbox of choice – first [...]

Kiva: The End of a Love Affair

I started participating in microlending through Kiva about 20 months ago, and have cycled my $225 through 28 loans so far. Actually, it’s down to $212.50 because a bunch of borrowers in Ecuador defaulted after an earthquake, and the one I was in on had only repaid half, hence the odd amount. For those who [...]

Charity or Sharing: A dignified blurring of the lines

Last month, I picked up some Keebler Pecan Sandies on a drug store deal with the intention of giving them to Working Poor Mom/Family. But she didn’t come to collect her goodie bags fast enough, and I…I…I opened the package and ate some. For breakfast. In an effort to save my waistline, I taped up [...]

Whole life policy: Good or bad decision?

Last summer, my financial advisor talked me into a whole life policy with an annual premium of $9K. Two weeks after signing on the dotted line, Lehman crashed and the value of our country and planet spiraled. I have since been questioning my ability to keep up the payments, whether it’s the right product for [...]

Stockpile Distribution Etiquette

My recent post about working the drug store games attracted a very thoughtful and relevant comment from one of my readers:
The down side [of bargain-hunting] is that as much as [my mother] loves a bargain, she looks for things not only for herself, but for everyone who lives close enough to her for her to give things to [...]