Ok, I know what you’re thinking. It’s already the middle of February and I haven’t issued a frugal challenge! Well here’s the thing, since it’s a short month I couldn’t give you one of the harder challenges (you totally have to do the hard stuff for a full 30-31 days, ha!). But I do have…
January Frugal Challenge: Clean Out Your Pantry and Freezer
When I go grocery shopping, I fall into this trap pretty frequently: OH, it’s on sale?!? I’ll buy a ton of it and keep it in the pantry or freezer! Ok, so that’s not always a terrible idea. For things you use often it makes total sense and can bring down your grocery budget significantly.…
Paying For Travel Expenses As Part Of Your Minimum Spend
While points are great, you’re usually sacrificing at least a little convenience and the ability to book spontaneous, short-notice travel when you use them. But with this smart and very simple credit card spending technique I’m getting ready to show you, you won’t have to plan your trip far in advance, or deal with complicated award…
6 Lessons I Learned from my United Award Booking to China
I recently took a trip to China to visit my brother who lives and works there as an education consultant. We spent a few days hiking and also exploring Changsha and Hong Kong. The trip was semi-unexpected as I made a last-minute decision to go. But luckily, I was still able to use United miles,…
Why We Cut the Cord (Again)
One night, just a few weeks ago, my wife and I were talking about lifestyle inflation. We had been putting off this conversation about all the little costs and luxuries that we now enjoy but never used or needed previously. Things like our gym membership, our bigger home, premium organic food, and cable TV. Sometimes,…
It’s Official, My Cell Phone Bill is $1.87
I told you before about the new service from Comcast called Xfinity Mobile. After some debate, I made the switch to their service, and I’m happy to report that my cell phone bill is now lower than it has ever been. I paid $0 before taxes, and even after taxes my total bill was $1.87.…
The Easy Way to Find Out When You Opened a Credit Card (Using Credit Karma)
Have you ever been organizing your credit card information, and needed a handy way to tell how long your cards have been open? For some reason, this question has come up a lot lately on some other blogs and forums that I visit regularly, and while there are a few ways to track down the…