How do you decide what to stockpile? I looked at our needs and went from there. Canned goods are very easy to stockpile because there is usually a sale on canned goods weekly. When something was on sale that we ate and liked such as green beans; instead of buying the sale quantity, I doubled and sometimes tripled what I bought. Pay close attention to the outdates of whatever you buy. I'm buying canned goods with 2 to 3 years forward outdates. 

Going through an intense debt elimination program, it's easy to make it the focus of your life. It's easy to think that working on your relationship is something that will have to wait until you get your financial footing back. 

My husband and I are retired and living on a fixed income and have tried many things to supplement our finances.  Some ideas have worked and some have not. Some have created a great deal of "fast cash" and others have only generated a small amount. 

Between writing, email, surfing the internet and a whole basket of other activities, I use my computer a lot. But I noticed that I hardly EVER use the speakers. So infrequently that I'm kicking myself for not buying the less expensive speakers, or just plugging in headphones I already own when sound was required.

There are quite a few retailers that do promotions similar to Old Navy's Super Cash.  Pay attention to what they give you, and what the fine print says.  Otherwise, you might just find out the hard way that two 10s don't equal 20.

Young males are the highest risk category for having an accident, so I wasn't looking forward to seeing what having my son become a driver would do to our insurance rates. But, I knew it needed to be done so we called up our agent and had him gently tell us the damage.

Life insurance eases the burden of the people who survive you. It's not a windfall; even policies for hundreds of thousands of dollars are usually calculated precisely. (We'll explore how shortly).

It's the phrase that popped into my head recently when I came across a fantastic sale on charcoal. Twin packs of grill fuel shrink wrapped together for the usual price of a single bag. It's a phrase that maybe you've used once or twice as well.

Before you start making piles of 10 in your shopping cart, be sure you know the rules. Can you get the sale price ($1.00 per item) if you don't want 10? Can you combine different items to total 10 and get them for $10.00? I have shopped at stores where they just won't allow this and require that you buy 10 of the same item to get the $1.00 each price.

I used to say I didn't care at all about my credit score. I've posted countless times to threads in the forums stating that I just pay my bills on time and let my score take care of itself. Then, earlier this year, my wife and I walked through the doors of our bank and started the process of trying to refinance our mortgage. 

I'm usually a fairly passive guy in these kinds of situations, and would have just accepted what the cashier said, and would have made a point to use the second coupon the next time we were at the mall. 

Since we completed our program, we've working through a list of "to dos" to solidify our financial well-being. 

Rebates are a form of advertisement for some companies. Companies offer rebates to try to entice you into buying a specific product. In return for buying the product, they will send you a reward, usually a check or a free product coupon.

Is there anything you've stopped doing to earn or save money once you completed your debt relief program? How do you feel about that?

Critical Illness pays a lump sum tax-free pile of money if you are diagnosed with an illness (or have an accident) that is on a predetermined list. Depending on the policy you choose, there can be a lengthy list of illnesses, but the main ones (that garner the most claims, and are covered under most policies) are heart attack, stroke, and cancer.

Less than an hour later, I was on my way to the mall with three very chatty twelve year olds in the back. My daughter had her cash in her purse, and it was understood that she needed to be responsible enough to determine how much she wanted to spend, as well as whether each individual item was worth it's cost.

I know that feeling, too. I had to take some drastic actions to keep our finances from completely falling apart. 

There must be other reasons to not have or stick to a budget; but, the ones listed above and any others you might think of are all bad reasons.  Let's focus on some good reasons why having a budget is so vital to building solid financial habits.  It may change our perception of following a budget completely and, maybe, even convince some of us to get busy working on a budget plan.

What is it about a cell phone that people object to when it comes to children?  Let's explore.

In this series on hedging your bets, we'll explore various types of insurance, how to evaluate whether they're good investments, and ways to structure your policy.

It's been over three months since the final payment was made to my debt consolidation plan, and I'd like to share with you my favorite things that have changed with our finances.

I think I have just convinced myself that I don't really have a need to buy bottled water; especially since the majority is reprocessed tap water. Why pay for what I already have? 

This duplication of data may seem unnecessary to some, but for us it makes our discussions go so much easier since we are each looking at information that makes sense.

I can't begin to tell you how delicious the frozen Asparagus was during the winter and what a savings! 

It reminded me a lot of a phone call I made on July 1^st, 2009.  That was the day I enrolled in the debt consolidation program