Category: Frugal

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3 Used Car Negotiation Tactics That Can Help You Save

From a financial perspective, buying a used car as opposed to a brand new car is beneficial in a number of ways. Not only is the asking price lower, but you are in a position to avoid the massive depreciation in value that occurs during the first year of new car ownership.

Of course, just because you are saving money by purchasing used does not mean you should agree to pay the sticker price. There are steps you can take to negotiate a better deal – so why not save even more money?

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automotive • Frugal • shopping
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17 Easy Ways to Save Energy at Home This Summer

Are you ready for summer yet? While the temperature here in New Mexico is still in the “I can’t decide if it’s summer or winter” mode with 80 degree days and 25 degree nights, we all know that sooner rather than later summer will be here, accompanied by heat, humidity, and bugs! Just when you start learning to cope with snow, ice, and below 0 days, everything changes and now you’re sweating those upcoming summertime utility bills. Depending on where you live, the size of your home, and how much utility costs are in your area, summer can often bring the highest monthly bills of the year. The good news, however, is that it’s only May and you have time to prepare for those hot summer days and high electric bills, so here are some easy to implement tips to both keep cool at home and save a little money at the same time. Let’s get started!

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Frugal • saving
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24 Thrifty Tips for Frugal Spending – From the Readers

Recently, I ran a giveaway of the book “Be Thrifty: How To Live Better With Less” and asked those who wanted to enter to win to send their best frugal/thrifty tip in with their entry. Well, you guys certainly responded! And because the tips were so great, I wanted to assemble them in a post and make them available to all the regular readers and new visitors to the site. So without further ado, here is a collection of thrifty tips sent in by readers of My Two Dollars:

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Frugal
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10 Ways To Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch

You know that expression, right? This pretty famous saying is in the fable “The Milkmaid and Her Pail” where Patty, a farmer’s daughter, is daydreaming as she walks to town with a pail of milk balanced on her head. “The milk in this pail will provide me with cream, which I will make into butter, which I will sell in the market, and buy a dozen eggs, which will hatch into chickens, which will lay more eggs, and soon I shall have a large poultry yard. I’ll sell some of the fowls and buy myself a handsome new gown and go to the fair, and when the young fellows try to make love to me, I’ll toss my head and pass them by.” At that moment, Patty tossed her head and lost the pailful of milk. Her mother said, “Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.” The same expression fits perfectly here in the world of personal finances, where many of us spend our money either before we have it or above and beyond our means. Well, here are 10 ways that some people do count their chickens before they hatch, putting their financial security at risk.

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Frugal
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Frugal Burnout: Fad Or Portent?

Guest post from Abigail who blogs over at I Pick Up Pennies. She and her husband are in debt from health-related expenses, and she talks about getting out of debt on relatively low income.

I’ve seen several articles lately that indicate spending is up. We could take this to mean that the recession is receding, and certainly that is what the media seem to believe. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the real cause. I think we’re in a round of frugal burnout. People have been frugal too long (or so they believe), and they simply can’t take it anymore. They start to indulge here and there. The purchases are small, of course, but they will grow exponentially. And the spending is indicative of a big problem: entitlement.

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Frugal
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