Mrs. McFrugal

Well-known financial guru Dave Ramsey once said something along the lines of, "Why take money advice from someone who doesn't have any? They obviously don't know what they're doing!" So, here I am, a person who doesn't have a lot of money, blogging about money. So why should you pay any attention to me? I believe there are a few reasons why... I'm not giving financial advice. I'm not trying to tell you the best ways to invest your money, or the best money market accounts with the highest returns. I don't claim to know how to make more money than you have, I only try to help you make more of the money that you do have. I am on a financial journey. I suppose everyone is technically on a financial journey, but I have a lot more learning to do than most people, so why not share what I learn? I'm not coming up with new ideas here...basically, I'm just researching and sharing what I find! I may add my own opinions and revelations along the...

Saving money. We hear it all the time these days, and even more recently with TV shows like "Extreme Couponing." Yahoo Finance has almost daily articles about different ways to save money. Then today, they had an article called "Dumb Money 'Saving' Mistakes" and I found myself guilty of a few. First, it addresses the classic "Buy One, Get One Free" (or any variation of that). Basically, unless you were already planning to buy the One in the first place, the Free one isn't really "free," now is it? I've fallen victim to this at Victoria's Secret, when their lotions and perfumes are Buy 3, Get 2 Free. This would be really awesome, if I needed 5 (or even 3) beauty products all at the same time, but usually I'm only out of one item in the set--lotion, for example. So, instead of buying the one bottle of lotion that I actually need, I end up buying lotion, body spray, body cream, and then scrambling to find 2 more items to c...

Did you know that military families stationed overseas can use manufacturers coupons at the Commissary (grocery store) and PX or BX (department store) up to 6 months past the printed expiration date? I know that I personally have stacks of unclipped coupons from Sunday newspapers. I've been wanting to get involved in this for some time, and I'm excited to get started! I will commission J to help me with the clipping :) If you don't know anyone personally in the military who is based overseas, you can just send your unused or expired coupons to the base directly. For more information, see the Overseas Coupon Program's website . Or you may find other programs just by Googling the phrase "sending expired coupons to military bases." Be sure to send them sooner than 6 months past the printed expiration date. OCP recommends that they are no more than 2 months past the date, since the package will take a while to arrive, and then will need to be sorted and dist...

Recently, I was inspired by someone close to me--we'll call him J--to do some heavy Spring Cleaning. I've always attempted to do this in the past, but have never been very successful. I always think, "What if I need this someday? I don't want to have to buy it again!" I think this stems from not always having the money to buy all the things I want, but that's another story... The idea for this came from J, who had recently been inspired to do some spring cleaning of his own. He is currently on a journey of finding the balance between "having" and "giving," as giving to those who are less fortunate is the Biblical mandate for all who claim to be Christians. How much is required of us? Do we need to give away everything and live amongst the poor, or are we allowed to enjoy some material possessions? I don't know the answer, and I don't know if there is one set answer for every person, but I do know that I was doing too much "ha...