From the category archives:

Frugality

The Best and Least Expensive Kids Birthday Party Idea

August 18, 2010

When I was a kid, a birthday party was having friends over to your house, with cake and ice cream, balloons, hats, presents and—if you were big time—a piñata. Sometimes a sleepover followed, sometimes not. Birthday parties were simple and pretty standard so there wasn’t much concern with being behind the social curve. But as [...]

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Are You a Gadget Hound?

May 3, 2010
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“Gadget Expense”—necessity, form of entertainment or addiction? Have you ever known anyone who has a gadget addiction? You know the kind of person who has to have every new gadget that comes out on the market? Eventually, maybe most people will have the majority of the gadgets he’ll buy, but he’s usually the first one [...]

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Why the Gym is a Waste of Money

March 4, 2010
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This is a guest post from Darren Norman, a new blogger at Enter The Norman. Darren writes about his experiences and struggles with exercise for the lazy and weight loss in an ever fattening world. He was featured for his extraordinary weight loss on NBC’s Today show be sure to watch his story below. Norm’s [...]

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A New Way to Save When Grocery Shopping

January 31, 2010
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My wife and I have never been big couponers. Is that even a word? No matter. I certainly don’t have the patience to try and match what we are buying to coupons and then figure out what we could make based on those choices. I know there are volumes of sites devoted to that exact [...]

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Free Gift Wrapping Using Unconventional Materials

December 21, 2009
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Let’s face it, we all forget wrapping paper or don’t want to go the expense of purchasing yet another roll of ugly paper with a Bizarro world view of Santa and his reindeer.  Here at FiscalGeek labs we’ve been working on some inventive ideas for covering your gifts.  Notice I said covering, those may appeal [...]

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10 Things Your Baby Doesn’t Need that Can Fund Their College Education.

November 9, 2009
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I want to share my sage parenting advice to you would be or soon to be parents. The amount of products the corporate juggernauts are advocating for the health and well being of your baby is staggering. Here’s a secret: You don’t need most of them. I’ll never forget the day I walked into a [...]

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24 Ways to Help you Buy Cheap Used Books

October 29, 2009
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Books are a guilty pleasure of mine.  Frankly I don’t feel that guilty about it, most everything I’ve ever learned has come from a book or augering in spectacularly in a heap of flames and rubble.  The book route is much less painful.  To that end I love a good book that I can refer [...]

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Dutch Oven Cooking: 2 Mega Easy Recipes for Frugal Camp Cooking

August 21, 2009

My family and I enjoy spending time in the great outdoors.  We are fortunate enough to live in the Pacific Northwest so our camping options are many.  Last year we scored ourselves some cast iron cookware including a dutch oven for outdoor cooking.  A dutch oven or camp oven is really just a cast iron [...]

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10 Reasons County Fairs are Better than Disneyland

August 12, 2009

It’s fair time, complete your staycation with a trip to the carnival to eat some deep fried pixie sticks, ride the Zipper and listen to some Def Leppard and enjoy 10 ways that the County Fair is better than Disneyland.

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How To Make your Own Homemade Air Conditioner

July 29, 2009

Okay technically it’s not an air conditioner it’s an evaporative cooler aka a swamp cooler but definitely provides a level of cooling to your room. I’m not going to lie to you. This is not a 2 minute fix, nor is it for the faint of heart, and finally it’s not the most attractive of contraptions (as [...]

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