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Mindful Money: What price fashion?

by Mir at 9:42 am on January 12, 2010 in Everyday Wisdom, Mindful Money, What to Wear

I was just browsing around at Dillard’s, because they’ve just taken another round of markdowns and their online clearance is one of my favorite places to buy dresses. As I mentioned earlier this morning, I don’t have to look presentable all that often, but sometimes I do, and I enjoy having pretty things to wear when I actually, you know, bother to get dressed.

More and more in our “recession economy” I heard a lot of “don’t buy it on sale if you wouldn’t have paid full price for it” as a mantra for smart shopping, and as I looked at clothes this morning I found myself thinking about that. And you know what? I think that’s stupid.

People, if I never bought anything on sale I wouldn’t have cheerfully forked over full retail price for, I would buy nothing at all. Ever.

Now, I’m not saying everyone has to shop like me (I mean, feel free, but I’m not naive enough to think my methods are for everyone), but I know so many women who put nice clothing for themselves behind everything else—clothes for the kids, household items, even kibble for the pets—that I think this is a topic worth addressing. Let’s forget glib proclamations like “don’t buy it on sale if you wouldn’t have paid full price for it” and talk about practical guidance on this. (more…)

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Mindful Money: Thinking about refinancing

by Mir at 8:22 am on January 12, 2009 in Everyday Wisdom, Mindful Money

For many people, the recent situation with the economy (do you like how I call it a “situation with the economy,” all genteel-like, sort of like how during World War II there was a situation with Germany?) has had dire consequences. Unemployment is up. Housing values are down. And the reality is that many families who were doing “okay” or “fine” before this are now barely hanging on.

If you are one of those families, this post is not for you. (You’re in my prayers, but obviously a refinance is not the solution to your situation.)

This post is for those of you who are still pretty much okay; who have a sizable (but manageable) mortgage that has not outrun your current property value; and who still have stable income and a decent credit rating. You should be thinking about refinancing right now. (more…)

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When you care enough not to give just “stuff”

by Mir at 1:54 pm on October 15, 2008 in Big Picture, Mindful Money, Questions Answered

Look; I’m a fan of stuff. I like having pretty new shoes and fun little gadgets. No one is ever going to accuse me of being some sort of ascetic. And there’s nothing wrong, per se, with wanting to have nice things. The problem comes, of course, when we have too many things, and/or when things start becoming more important than… well, other things. Things which are not things. Things that are experiences and emotions and all of that.

Okay, I’m not particularly poetic or anything. Let’s take a look at Sheryl’s question:

Christmas will soon be upon us, and I was wondering if you and/or your readers have any “alternative” ideas for how to spend Christmas. My son is the poster child for American consumerism, and already has a Christmas list a mile long. It’s not necessarily that we want to spend less money on Christmas presents (although that’s always a plus), but the kids don’t really play with the presents they get (come March, I bet they couldn’t even tell you what they received), and there’s not much to our Christmas memories beyond the thrill of tearing through wrapping paper. My parents are anti-religion, and we stay with them (out of town) over Christmas, so any church or charitable activities are out. My mom is a wee bit materialistic too, and balked at the idea that we make presents. I was thinking maybe we could use money we’d normally spend on presents and maybe take a weekend trip, or something… It just seems like making a nice memory would be remembered more fondly than quickly-forgotten presents.

First off, I want to say that I love that Sheryl is trying to think of some great, memory-making alternatives, here. (more…)

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Mindful Money: Debt and retirement

by Mir at 12:01 pm on August 26, 2008 in Big Picture, Mindful Money

I got to thinking the other day when I posted about IRA contributions, and I realized we’ve never really hashed out the whole matter of paying down debt vs. saving for retirement, here.

And lord knows that many, many people—who are actually, you know, financial experts and not just incurable tightwards such as myself—have discussed this in greater detail, but I’m going to take a stab at the Want Not summary of this issue. Just for fun. And because, if nothing else, I hope it will motivate anyone who has questions or concerns in this area to do the research and commit to a plan.

So I’m going to give you a few general tips and hopefully somewhere in there we’ll hit upon something good. Heh. (more…)

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Mindful Money: The conundrum of groceries and gas

by Mir at 12:06 pm on May 6, 2008 in Everyday Wisdom, Groceries, Mindful Money

I have a confession to make.

Prior to the current financial situation in this country (you know, the whole “we’re not saying the ‘r-word’ therefore it’s not actually that thing that rhymes with concession!”), even as frugal as I generally am, I struggled to avoid falling into one of two extremely un-thrifty habits.

It seemed like I had two modes of operation: Either I went to the grocery store nearly every day, or—if I managed to keep my shopping to just once a week—I was constantly throwing away food that had gone bad before I had a chance to use it up.

Here’s another confession: I’m still struggling to figure out how to avoid doing this, and I do mean struggling. (more…)

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Mindful Money: Life Insurance

by Mir at 2:09 pm on February 26, 2008 in Big Picture, Mindful Money

Hey, remember when you were young and carefree and life insurance was for old people? No? That’s because now you’re old and senile. Ha!

Everything I want to tell you today can be summed up in this one sentence: You need to have life insurance. The end.

But if you want to get picky—and more specific—about it, read on.

If you have kids, you need life insurance. If you have a spouse, you need life insurance. If you are a single person old enough to not be on your parents’ health insurance anymore, you need life insurance. Have I covered everyone here, yet? You, in the back! You need life insurance! (The only exception here is children. Children do not need life insurance, no matter how many daytime television commercials tell you otherwise.)

The reasons vary, the amounts vary, how you handle it may vary, but you need it and you need it now. Yes. Repeat after me: I need life insurance. (more…)

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Mindful Money: Cash v. credit

by Mir at 1:36 pm on January 29, 2008 in Big Picture, Mindful Money

This is a subject near and dear to my heart, and I’ve talked about it before, but I think it bears repeating.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for financial advisors like Dave Ramsey who have practical advice for people in dire financial straits. Truly, my admiration for them is vast and this is not about me saying “he’s wrong” or anything like that.

Nevertheless, I submit to you that any “cash only” plan for living is not only limiting, it potentially decreases how much money you have. (more…)

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Mindful Money: What price groceries?

by Mir at 10:30 am on January 23, 2008 in Groceries, Mindful Money

Far and away the most common question I am emailed in association with this site is “How can I save money on groceries?” Most of us are feeding families, and most of us are dismayed by the rising costs of food.

Most of us would like to know how to feed our families on a shoestring budget, and I was the same way, for years. For some of us, it’s absolute necessity to bring the bill down. For others, we just have this notion that this is another place where we must save as much money as possible.

There are two things to remember when headed into this issue: First, that there are ways to keep the bill down; but second, that you probably should be spending more on food than you think. (more…)

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Mindful Money: Yours, mine, and ours

by Mir at 12:27 pm on January 15, 2008 in Mindful Money

Hopefully you read my recent post on tucking money away into savings regularly, and now you’re doing just that, even if you weren’t before. There were some great comments on that last post, some of which impelled me to say what I want to say today:

I don’t care if you work or you stay home; I don’t care if your spouse is a jerk or up for canonization; if you are married, you still need to have at least one bank account and one credit card in your name only.

There are a number of reasons why this is true (we’ll get to those in a minute), but the first thing you need to do in this matter is remember that money is money and love is love and confusing those two things never leads to anything good. I swear. (more…)

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Mindful Money: Saving is as important as breathing

by Mir at 1:22 pm on January 8, 2008 in Everyday Wisdom, Mindful Money

Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and when you start talking about saving money they get that deer-in-the-headlights stare going on. “I can’t possibly put any money in the bank,” they say. “I’m barely making ends meet as it is.”

If it’s that difficult to make your ends meet, it’s time to start considering different ends.

How you plan your spending and reduce your expenditures is a whole ‘nother topic, of course, and one that deserves its own post (and may get one, at some point, but not right now). What I want to talk about right now is the money that’s going into your savings account on a regular basis. If you don’t have a regular savings plan, you need one. If you think you can’t afford one, you really need one.

Here’s the thing: Don’t tell me you can’t possible afford to save any money if you have a place to live and any income and a means to get to a computer and read this site. If you’re here, you can afford it. Period. (more…)

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