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Blog /// Reading List: “The Cheapskate Next Door”
August 9, 2010 by Andrea Bennett
Jeff Yeager is the author of what some would call the definitive guide to saving money: “The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches: A Practical (and Fun) Guide to Enjoying Life More by Spending Less.” Dubbed the “ultimate cheapskate” by the Today show on NBC, he’s become known for his creative tips for saving a buck. Now, in his new second book, “The Cheapskate Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of Americans Living Happily Below their Means,” Yeager also asserts that people living not just within— but below— their means are more responsible. -
Blog /// Change in the Wash
July 27, 2010 by Andrea Bennett
Could you live without your clothes dryer? How about washing your clothes in cold water and drying them on a rack? Seventh Generation, the maker of nontoxic laundry and household products, is challenging people to do both this summer. Certainly saving the energy is a responsible thing to do: According to the US Department of Energy, about 90 percent of the energy used for washing clothes in a conventional top-load washer goes toward heating the water.Tags: laundry, conservation, energy, money
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Blog /// Reversal of Fortune
May 7, 2010 by Kathy McManus
An Australian newspaper recently asked readers what they would do if they found $100,000. Keep the money, or return it? Far from hypothetical, the question was based on the current case of two Melbourne bargain-hunters who paid $15 for a cast-off suitcase at a Salvation Army thrift store, and later discovered $100,000 sewn in the lining. The suitcase had been donated by a woman who was unaware her husband had used the case to stash cash. The distraught woman contacted the thrift store, but the buyers were long gone. -
Blog /// A Check for Doing Good
May 7, 2010 by Kathy McManus
New York Times reporter Julie Bosman writes that a New York City program paying cash to poor families “to encourage good behavior and self-sufficiency” will be shut down because two years of the handouts have had “only modest effects” on the lives of the recipients. Privately-funded but government- run, “Opportunity NYC Family Rewards” has been paying parents “for things like going to the dentist ($100) or holding down a full-time job ($150 per month),” Bosman says. -
Blog /// Banking on Divorce
November 18, 2009 by Kathy McManus
Ron Bednar married his wife because, as he puts it, “I believe in the whole act of marriage, to declare that we are married in front of friends and family and God and all that.” Now he’s getting divorced, as his soon-to-be ex-wife explains, “In order to be able to eat.” -
Blog /// Should Organ-Selling Be Legal
October 27, 2009 by Kathy McManus
News reports that Steve Jobs received a liver transplant in Tennessee included widespread speculation that the Apple CEO had—as The Boston Globe put it— “somehow gamed the organ donation system in order to jump to the head of the waiting list.” -
Blog /// Doing Time: Pay to Stay
July 21, 2009 by Kathy McManus
Old saying: If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. New saying: If you can’t pay for the time, don’t do the crime. Straddling the intersection of recession and responsibility, a Missouri county prosecutor wants to start charging local jail inmates $45 a night for room and board... -
Blog /// Coming Home Again
May 8, 2009 by Kathy McManus
“Boomerangers” — adult offspring who return to live with their parents — have been the stuff of sitcoms and punch lines. But the freeloader image may become a casualty of the recession, which is reshaping what it means to be a responsible American family in an era of mounting crises.Tags: money
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