Pecuniarities

Yes, I know I’m a little late in the game. Having seen references to Twitter all over the web in recent months, I finally decided to check it out and signed up this past Sunday. Twitter is a great, easy and fun way to interact with people – specifically for me, personal finance bloggers and [...]

While browsing the WiseBread Forums today, I came across an interesting thread in which a member asks: Is “Simple Living” Just Another Term for “Giving Up”?
Several members responded with various opinions:

There is a difference between simple living and forced poverty.
Not everyone enjoys the rat race.
It’s a choice.
It’s a form of retirement.
Some live the frugal [...]

Some people—especially those related to us—will surely ask us why we chose to adopt this little orphan when we already had two dogs to care for and our income has suffered noticeably in the current economy. We had actually discussed frequently over the past three years the possibility of adopting a small dog as a [...]

We would like to thank Karen Datko of MSN Money Central’s Smart Spending for the mention on our recent post: Economical Pet and Child Safe Ways to Repel and Kill Ants, Spiders and Other Insects.
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As kids, Madoline and I loved playing Monopoly. We enjoyed accumulating property, building hotels and watching the money roll in. We used to play to the extent of having to use calculators to keep track of our individual wealth after exhausting the bank’s supply of cash. When our cousin Mabel arrived in April for her [...]

While gifts are a great way to show that you care, an important thing to keep in mind is that most mothers and grandmothers would probably prefer to spend quality time with their families on Mother’s Day rather than receive a fancy and expensive gift. The most frugal and meaningful gift would therefore be a [...]

Playing the Piano is a Privilege (Not a Chore)

An interesting experiment would be to forbid a young child to ever touch the piano, after all it is a very expensive instrument. One can easily imagine how much higher the piano instantly rises in that child’s estimation. One then promises the child that he or she will be “allowed” to begin learning the piano at a certain age. Even better then, if someone in the family—a parent, older sibling or cousin—were to frequently play very charming pieces of the kind accessible to children. Pieces from the Romantic era are very suitable for this purpose (e.g. Fϋr Elise & Doll’s Dream), should be repeated often and might even have stories invented about them. It is very natural that the child will aspire to play these pieces someday, and a united goal has been formed without duress.