Post tagged with spending

  • Learn to Use Cash Instead of Cards

    May 12th, 201102:45 PM ET
    By Matthew Pryor
    My wife and I decided this would be the year we would transition from using a combination of credit cards and debit cards to primarily using cash. While we'll still use a rewards-based credit card for gasoline purchases (we're not going to spend more on gas just because we're using credit, so we might as well get rewards for that spending), we'...

  • Big picture finances

    July 14th, 201002:47 PM ET
    By Matthew Pryor
    Back in April I was thumbing through Consumer Reports' annual auto issue when I came across an article entitled, "Best Values: Small Cars and Family Cars Provide the Most Bank for Your Buck." No real surprise there, but always looking to reassure my value-seeking sensibilities, I continued on to read about road-test scores, predicted reliability ra...

  • Do you need it — or just want it? [Update]

    May 12th, 201002:45 PM ET
    By Matthew Pryor
    [NOTE: Do not attempt without the express approval of a supportive, loving spouse who is willing to go along with your tech-loving cost-cutting split personality!] Back in February, I challenged myself (and hopefully you as well) to question needs vs. wants, especially keeping in mind technology and digital services. With companies constantly rele...

  • What do your finances look like?

    March 24th, 201002:38 PM ET
    By Matthew Pryor
    If you had to visualize what your finances looked like, what would come to mind? Water down the drain? (It's slippery, moves fast, and it's almost impossible to hold in place.) Maybe one of those barrels of peanuts at a restaurant? (A few shelled peanuts in a pile, a handful "reserves" still in the shell, but mostly lot of remnants of wha...

  • Revisiting "The Coming Economic Earthquake"

    March 22nd, 201009:30 AM ET
    By Matthew Pryor
    Echoing concerns raised by Larry Burkett in his 1994 book, The Coming Economic Earthquake, SMI Assistant Editor Joseph Slife recently wrote a "déjà vu all over again"  post about runaway government spending and debt. (Back in the day, Joseph did some of the research for the Earthquake book and produced a radio special based on it.) To ...

  • A newbie's first look at real couponing

    March 11th, 201011:29 AM ET
    By Matthew Pryor
    Of all the different ways we've learned to save money, couponing has been low on the list. But of all the different irrational things that scare me, couponing has been high on the list... higher than the fear of Big Foot, stuck crossed-eyes, and breaking someone's back by stepping on a crack - combined. Why? Because of all the work you hear it...

  • Advantages of using a credit card?

    March 05th, 201011:48 AM ET
    By Matthew Pryor
    Be it the unintended consequences of the CARD Act signed into law last year making things worse for consumers not better, the controversial safety and hidden fee issues, or the oft-recited studies showing you spend typically 10-30% more when paying with plastic rather than cash, credit cards are getting a lot of bad press these days. And all t...

  • Do you need it — or just want it?

    March 01st, 201008:11 AM ET
    By Matthew Pryor
    As we become a more and more data-centric society, all that information consumption not only eats up our time but also our money. And if you're anything like me (and for your sake I hope you're not), it's easy to fool yourself into categorizing a "want" as a "need." Take, for instance the cell phone. Until January 2009, I was an anti-cellphone...

  • Kansas City Fed Chief: Hyperinflation could happen here

    February 25th, 201008:08 AM ET
    By Joseph Slife
    I started working for Larry Burkett in 1990, about the time he was beginning work on a book called The Coming Economic Earthquake. Larry wasn't an economist. He was just an extraordinarily insightful, common-sense guy who had the uncanny ability to see around corners. Although some criticized The Coming Economic Earthquake (I think unfairly) a...

  • How do your money habits compare to the Jones's?

    February 03rd, 201001:01 PM ET
    By Matthew Pryor
    There's a site in beta that allows you to compare your spending (and soon, saving) habits with the proverbial Jones's. It's called Bundle.com. That's more interesting than it may sound at first, as you can slice the data any which way - by geography, age group, income, type of household...you name it. You can even see which business end up with t...
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