Consumerism, Smart Spending & Savvy Shopping Tricks
Everything in moderation. It’s one of the philosophies we hang onto here, and it’s especially relevant to how we use, administer and manage our financial resources. We echo our sentiments in many of our articles on personal expense management and frugal spending and discuss the best strategies for minimizing the outflow of our hard-earned money.
Given all the demands and uses we have for our limited resources, we sure want to conserve what we can while trying to get the best value out there — or the most bang for our buck, if you will. Our main focus for this part of our site is to provide you a collection of great ideas on how to best control and manage your spending and how to be a smart consumer. We do our bit to give you a heads up on great deals and available discounts, and bring to your attention those helpful tools, platforms and services that can help you save you money, even while you shop. We’d like this to be a haven for smart shoppers and careful spenders, where we can exchange daily money management tips and thoughts on everyday savings trends and recommendations.
The flipside of being a good saver is being a smart shopper!
How much are you willing to pay for sentiment? What do you do for Mother’s Day? As the day approaches, I receive junk mail (for flowers, jewelry, figurines(?)) and see the commercials, which strongly encourage me to do my share of giving and gifting for yet another celebratory opportunity that involves nice, sweet and sometimes [...]
Are you frugal? If so, you’re probably conditioned to visit a shopping warehouse like Costco or Sam’s Club in order to try to save on groceries. But before you go on a money saving trip to these stores, check out some of the exceptions to the rule that supports buying in bulk. Apparently, bulk buying [...]
When we celebrate the end of Lent, we attend Mass and have a nice family dinner. Or we may decide to hold an Easter Egg hunt at our home or at a party somewhere for the kids. But all around the Christian world, Easter is a holiday that has fascinated artists who have been inspired [...]
It can be hard to get the tickets you want before they sell out. The next time you want to catch a concert or sporting event, you might be tempted to use an online ticket broker. But before you do, check out this little exposé of the event ticket industry. Behind those sites and platforms [...]
The first online stock broker I came to know happens to be ETrade, and this was way back in the 1990′s. So I’m a bit more familiar with this company than I am with other brokers, only because ETrade has been around longer and is certainly considered as one of the most recognizable. However, being [...]
Do you spend on your pet? I used to think that it was silly (or even crazy) to spoil a pet like you would a person, until I found a pet that really connected with me. At that point, we fell into the clutches of the pet product industry and bought into toys and trinkets [...]
Here’s one “secret” for finding anything under the sun for half price or less. Well, many things anyway. Part of running a household involves performing regular maintenance. You’ll notice that over time, you’ll eventually need to replace a whole bunch of things at home. Stuff breaks all the time. So for instance, in my case, [...]
When we’re in a financial bind, it’s easy enough to cut back on the higher priced items and luxury goods. But when the prices of necessities jump, then that’s when some people may get worried, particularly if they’re living on fixed income. And this will be an even bigger problem if and when we begin [...]
Protect yourself from merchandise bugs. Another retail “holiday” is coming up that’s out to separate you from your dollars. What are you thinking of getting your Valentine? Beyond the standard roses and chocolates (or even slinky nightwear ), I’ve always thought that a nice gift for Valentine’s Day should be something personal enough yet still [...]