Principled Money Posts #52: indulgence or decadence
Note: We have been nominated for this year’s Plutus awards. The Money Principle needs your vote! Voting is easy: just look to the right and you’ll see a golden cup with a “P” on and ‘Vote here’ underneath; click on it; enter your e-mail, scroll to the bottom and click…
Half Price? Get in My Basket.
Editor’s note: Alex discusses his frugal artistry in the shopping basket – getting the best value and quality of food – while waiting for a job interview. It’s been a slow week this week, with a job interview coming on Friday and some other prospects lurking around the ambiguity of…
Our financial goals: time for another report
The summer is truly over and it is time to sit down – with a glass of nice wine in my case – and take stock of what has been achieved so far and what is still there to excite our passions and try our endurance. And while I rarely…
Taxing Issues on Tax Avoidance
Unless you’ve been living in a cave over the last year, you know that tax avoidance has been one of the biggest business stories of the year. It’s become a legal blood-sport for press and politicians. Deride naughty tax avoiding brands, and have readers and voters sagely nodding, while darkly…
Saving With Surya
To clarify this from the beginning: Surya is the Hindu god of the sun – celebrated in regular festivals and venerated by a billion or so followers in India and beyond. It may seem rather trite to combine the concept of frugality with such a cherished idol, and certainly,…
The perils of motoring
We all fear it, those of us who take to motoring. That time when you are stuck in a traffic jam or worse, car full of kids, outside temperature rising – or raining cats and dogs – and the engine starts to falter – putter, putter, putter … silence. This…
My First Experience Earning Extra Money and Lessons Learned
Editor’s note: This post by Little House from Little House in the Valley is part of the Yakezie blog-swap. You can read my post on Little House in the Valley. By 14, I’d become the neighborhood babysitter, making $5 an hour I’d watch up to three children per household. My…
Job Search: From Cloudy to Clear View
Editor’s note: This week Alex offers some of his experience with different job search websites. It seems he is onto something: he has had impressive response using a different job search website. This week a dark cloud has been lifted in regards to gaining job interviews. Over time I…
You want a new car?
From time to time, most of us who need a car also need to consider when to change it. There are some folk who are wedded to their vehicle, come what may, and will happily spend all their waking hours under the bonnet fixing a hole because they are…
The Building Blocks of Money
Keeping track of your finances can be a full time job. Add in a family plus a career and what you’ll probably end up with is a migraine. Spending cautiously doesn’t have to be incredibly time consuming nor does it have to be complicated. All you need is the right…
Five points to help you decide whether to hire a car when on holiday
When paying off debt many people go ‘cold turkey’ – no fun, no holidays, none of the little pleasures in life that are not absolutely necessary. To me, this has always smacked a bit of a crash diet where you hardly eat anything for days denying yourself the base…
Job Applications: Please Enter Your Name, Address and Life Story Below
Editor’s note: This week Alex tackles the issue of job applications. How much do employers really need to know from the job application and do you need to be an enthusiastic high achiever to get a cleaning job? This week I’d like to spread some thought-seeds around the subject of…