While these facts are great - I do disagree with the "swipe with caution." Are new jeans caution? My husband certainly won't think a $20 piece of meat is cautionary. So where do you draw the line? It makes it easier to be cut and dry - DON'T use credit, save for the things you want. You can use services like SmartyPig ...more

Thanks for posting! Unfortunately, my "wants" almost always exceed my means. I call it good taste, my husband calls it trouble. So although a home or car isn't in my means now, it's not out of the question. Even though we just bought our home two years ago, I'm already saving for our next home, the dream home. I use Sm...more

Agree with Add-Tel. If you don't have the money - don't buy it! Save for it, pay cash, go debt free. SmartyPig has goal based systems for this - your TV, your car, whatever.

Booking discount travel online is nothing new - but shopping and deal finding is. I haven't paid full price for something in years.

I think this is totally doable - minus my mortgage. In this recession it seems silly to overindulge. While we still treat from time to time, I feel MUCH better putting that extra 50 bucks a week into my savings goals. I use SmartyPig's system with separate goals to motivate me towards vacations or new clothes. It's all...more

We received a large refund this year. Surprised us both as we generally owe. We both changed our withholdings and as a safety net have taken the increase in our take home pay and started saving it with SmartyPig. It was easy to plop it into our Taxes 2011 goal each month and we don't miss because we didn't have it prio...more

Agree with the below statements - you can pay down debt more aggressively sans children than with. The same goes for saving. The amount I'm able to save each month has been cut in half due to daycare costs, diapers and the like since my first child was born. I was lucky enough to have little debt to begin with - so pay...more