The Sun's Financial Diary

Last week, I wrote a post about the $70 night out I had with my husband. In the cheap night out post I knocked myself for spending a week’s worth of grocery money on one dinner and a movie. Luckily, Len Penzo of Len Penzo dot Com stopped by and slapped a little bit of [...]

Apparently, I don’t get out much. This weekend, Hubby and I decided to go out with another couple for dinner and a movie. 4 hours and $70 later I was in the car on the way home with a stunned expression on my face trying to figure out where it all went wrong.
You know, I [...]

I think the goal of almost every single person on Earth is to go through many stages of upgrading his or her life. Remember the car you drove when you were a teenager? Well there is no way you want to drive that car foreve – heck no, you want to upgrade. From the car [...]

Surprisingly, many people do not realize that they can still get one last deduction out of 2009 even though their current calendar reads 2010. No, this isn’t fantasy or traffic grasping SEO hype — there really is one way for you to still get another deduction on your 2009 taxes. Ready? Here goes:
If you want [...]

I was once a big fan of stocking up on things when they were on sale. I used to think this was a great way to be frugal — buying things on sale before I needed them in anticipation of the time when I would. After a few years I accumulated so many unused items [...]

Hi, my name is Yolander and I sort of have an addiction. What am I addicted to? Well, it’s not dangerous, it’s not expensive, and I can safely operate a vehicle after I’ve indulged in it… I’m addicted to the MTV documentary series, True Life. I tend to be a bit of a voyeur which [...]

While it seems that unemployment numbers may be dropping, there are still millions of people who are out of work right now. Being unemployed is not only damaging to the self-esteem of those affected but it is also really hard on the pocketbook because unemployment benefits are not commensurate with your former salary and not [...]

When you live in a fun state to visit, like I do, you are frequently barraged with incoming guests. It starts with a simple phone call, “Hey, we’re on vacation in March and we are coming down to visit you . Mind if we bunk in the guest room?” Not wishing to ruin anyone’s great [...]

Sometimes in our quest to save money we make… well… bad decisions. We try to save money by doing repairs ourselves or we contract inexperienced workers to do work around our home for us. These decisions may seem smart when you see a full wallet after your repair or other service is done, but they [...]

There is no more frugal activity than getting something for nothing. Nothing, in case you didn’t know, is less than anything and the more stuff you get for nothing … well … the less money you spend.
Of course, finding something for nothing that is actually worth having can be difficult and, I am not going [...]