When I was in school, I had hardly any money. Why should I have anything? I was dependent on my parents and only made $3.25 an hour cracking eggs with both hands at McDonald’s sophomore year.  Junior year, I made $4/hour stuffing envelopes as a temp.  And finally, senior year I worked moving heavy boxes for a small business that was changing offices for $3.75 an hour.  Ouch, my back!

Almost every summer, I insisted on traveling overseas to either study a new language or culture, and even then, I somehow landed odd jobs. One job in particular paid a 3-month salary consisting of pastries in the morning and tea in the afternoon just to keep us awake into the night.  I worked as the clapper “ready, set, action” guy and crew hand for the first Chinese-American film JV in Beijing starring Catherine Kellner, Sarita Choudhory, Geng Le, David Wu and even Josh Lucas. These guys started at 6am and regularly finished at 10pm, 5 days a week!

COULDN’T WAIT TO WAKE UP Read More

Do you ever step back and wonder, “What’s the point of being frugal?” You might live in a small house, drive a 10 year old car, and have a wardrobe that should have been burned before the new millennium.

Your friends, on the other hand, don’t seem to be in financial duress, and they’re living in a McMansion with a couple of brand new cars in the driveway. Just once, you might like to purchase that new car on credit or upgrade to the house of your dreams, but I would urge you to stay the course and continue your life of frugality.

Our Story Read More

When my wife began clipping grocery coupons a couple of months ago, she learned something surprising. In her words, “I discovered that I had a loyalty to certain brands of coffee, laundry detergent, ice cream and quite a few other items. The strange thing is that these products were not necessarily better or cheaper than other brands; it is just that I got into the habit of buying them and had no good reason not to perpetuate that habit.” Fortunately, the couponing has forced her to look at each and every item with a fresh objectivity. While some of her long standing favorites have continued to find their way to her shopping cart, others stay on the shelf in lieu of better and/or less expensive ones.

Where else do we have brand loyalty?

The grocery store revelation caused me to wonder, “Where else can brand loyalty be costing us money?” My answer is in itself a revelation: almost everywhere. I will list only a few items in this post, but, hopefully, they will help you consider other product loyalties which could be costing you money. Read More