Posts tagged as:

money

All I Want For Christmas is January

December 13, 2009

I’m feeling pretty bah humbug this year. I’m tired, broke and grouchier about the weather than usual. The holiday season feels less like a joyful opportunity to reconnect and more like a train wreck of social, family and financial obligations. But tis the season, so I’m bucking up and doing my frugal best to be [...]

Tagged as: holiday, money

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Explaining Bank Fees To A Little Kid

December 10, 2009

When I had my blowout with Wainwright Bank last week, I had my kids with me. Of course. The toddler was sleeping, thank the gods, but my five year old stood there and watched wide-eyed while I tore into the banker about social justice issues and customer service problems. I was, comically and entirely coincidentally, [...]

Tagged as: money, parenting, rio

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Letters to Santa

December 8, 2009

We all still believe in Santa around here. Yesterday, Rio made her first letter to Santa. It said: A Dollhouse That Looks Like A Real House (this was my suggestion) 16 Barbie Dolls (this was not my suggestion) Me 2 Barbie! Me Purple Barbie! (this was Serena’s suggestion) In fact, I had thought Serena was [...]

Tagged as: holiday, money, parenting, princesses

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Groceries For Me!

December 3, 2009

The manager at my local Wainwright branch called today. Since I happened to be in the neighborhood (ironically making a deposit in my new checking account down the block), I went in to talk with her in person. Maria was extremely polite and apologetic. She refunded my fees, and offered to help me set up [...]

Tagged as: money

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Wainwright Bank Stole My Lunch Money

December 2, 2009

Dear Wainwright Bank, You appear to have stolen my grocery money. I was surprised and alarmed to see, when I checked my bank balance this morning, that I had been charged $92.97 in overdraft fees. My statement clearly shows that no overdraft took place. I showed my bank statements to a manager at your Davis [...]

Tagged as: money, rants

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Charitable Holiday Gift Guide

November 27, 2009

Another guest post! I was working on a couple of holiday gift guides for non-consumer types. One of my regular readers (and a dear friend) had already written one about charitable giving. Why reinvent the wheel? Rowan was gracious enough to let me reprint it, so here it is! I thought I made this post [...]

Tagged as: holidays, money

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My Big Question: Is Free Trade a Good Thing?

November 24, 2009

Today I have the dubious honor of having one of my questions about how the world works picked apart by a man with a very big mind: Steven Landsburg, author of the new book, “The Big Questions”, and a fascinating blog that goes with it. Steven is an economist. To say our areas of expertise [...]

Tagged as: money

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Not quite “Non-Consumption”

November 9, 2009

I posted recently at Wise Bread about “frugality fatigue”, the idea that Americans are tired of being frugal and breaking out their wallets for a little party time. I might resemble those remarks. In the past few months, I’ve bought: The car. The first new bras I’ve bought since my last baby was born. They’re [...]

Tagged as: finance, frugality, money

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The dangers of bulk buying, and joining the Wise Bread staff

October 27, 2009

I have a new guest post up on Get Rich Slowly today, on the Dangers of Bulk Buying. I have also just joined the staff at Wise Bread. You can read more of my personal finance writing there. To follow all my Wise Bread writing, subscribe to the RSS feed for my Wise Bread posts [...]

Tagged as: money, writing

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This too shall pass

October 20, 2009

The king calls his wisest magician and orders him to create an emblem that will help the king to celebrate his greatest triumphs with humility and his grieve his sorrows with perspective an grace. The magician comes back with a ring, engraved with the words, “This too shall pass”. This has been my mantra for [...]