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The LipStick Effect and Frugal Living

The lipstick effect can be a help or a hinderance to your commitment to frugal living. Find out what the lipstick effect is and how to deal with it. What is the lipstick effect? The term came about because of our most recent world war. At that time, money was very tight, and people could not spend much money on luxury items. This is similar to today’s situation and our difficult economy. Almost everyone is trying to save money and live frugally. An interesting phenomena occurs during times of economic hardship. Specifically during the war years, sales of lipsticks soared. … Continue reading →

Five Little Grocery Shopping Tricks: Look Left and Right

When it comes to shopping for groceries, we need all of the help we can get. Rising prices and reduced coupon values make reducing your grocery bill by 70 percent a thing of the past. And those grocery stores have plenty of tricks up their sleeves to get you to buy the products they want you to buy and to buy as many of them as they need you to do. We’ve been going over the different strategies these stores use to grab your shopping dollar, Now here is a really sneaky one. Marketing research shows that when someone is … Continue reading →

How to Get First Pick at Outgrown Sales

This weekend, there are two very big outgrown sales near my home. These are the type of sales that frugal people like myself wait for all year long. I can get some really nice children’s clothing and toys for less than the cost of new. One thing, though that will be different this year, is that there will be a lot more competition for the bargains. Usually these type of sales do well, but they still need to advertise to get a good turn out. This year, however, the organizers have been saying that they are worried about the rush … Continue reading →

Frugal Living Month in Review: June 2008

What a happy month is June, filled with the renewal of spring and the promise of summer. In the last month, we have shared so many ideas for frugal living and saving money. This past month has seen some pretty big increases in food, gas and other items (look for an upcoming post about strawberries increasing more than 100 percent). Now more than ever, it is important to save money where we can. This is why I decided to do a month in review. June 2nd Frugal Living Review: May 26th Through June 1st Garage sale shopping has got to … Continue reading →

Are Recession Bargain Hunters Making It Harder to Be Frugal?

Among all of the stories out there about the recession, there seems to be a large portion of articles about how to save money with all of the rising prices. This is understandable, of course,. People who never even thought about living frugally are now finding that they must curb their spending or at least shop smarter in order to get by. For some of these new recession bargain hunters, being frugal will be just a fad and something to be abandoned once the economy gets better. For others, it is the opportunity to learn about frugal living and then … Continue reading →

Frugal Living Review: May 19th Through May 25th

Did you have a good week? Ours was pretty good as far as being frugal. It was raining during the week days, so that probably helped, since we didn’t go anywhere. On Friday, out came the sun and the yard sales. Here is the Frugal Living week in review for May 19th though May 25th May 19th Frugal Living Week in Review: May 12th Through May 18th I sometimes get asked the question, where do you come up with your frugal ideas?!? I love this question, because it really humbles me. I am by no means someone who comes to … Continue reading →

The Recession and Garage Sales 2

Are you going to shop the garage sales this weekend? You might find things to be a little different than they were last year. I’m talking about how the recession may be affecting garage sale shopping. If you missed the first part of this article, please click here: The Recession and Garage Sales. Now let’s talk about pricing. When the economy is bad, you might think that garage sale items would decrease in value like everything else and go down in pricing. But the opposite might happen. People may feel that because buying new stuff is expensive then their old … Continue reading →

The Recession and Garage Sales

The Memorial Day weekend is the official start to the yard or garage or tag sale season here on much of the east coast. I have gotten some of my very best bargains at Memorial Day weekend garage sales. Folks have spent the last few weeks doing their organizing and spring cleaning, and they are ready to sell their stuff. For my little area of Pennsylvania, the sales should be numerous, since this is the first nice weather that we have had in a week, and everyone should be out and about enjoying it one way or another, including holding … Continue reading →

How the Economy Can Affect Your Marriage

An economy in recession can put a lot of stress on a marriage, and not just from increased worry about paying the bills, although of course money worries can always create some tension. In tough times, personality differences, even differences in gender may make the situation ripe for conflict. Let’s talk about this issue and how we can recognize when the economy is affecting our marriages. In a tough economy there may be stress over where the money is spent. If you have one spouse who is a saver and the other who likes to spend, the difference between the … Continue reading →

Baby Gifts for Tough Times

In these tough economic times, it might be hard to decided what to get that baby in your life for the holidays. Did you know the average toy for a baby runs between $40 and $60? Must have strollers and other equipment can run into the hundreds. But babies need love and good care above all else. They would rather spend time engaged with loving people than playing with a top-rated toy by themselves. Young babies in particular, need very little in terms of toys no matter what the toy experts may lead you to believe. Study after study has … Continue reading →