When preparing taxes, one challenge is collecting all of the necessary documents. Tax-related papers flow into a home at all times of the year, not just in the spring. It’s easy to lose important papers.
I’ve found a method to eliminate the headache completely.
I have a bill-paying area at my desk: a small cubby-hole specifically designated for bills, financial statements, and receipts. Each January I take a small manilla envelope and label it — TAXES 2006, for example. During the year, I place each tax-related document inside: mutual fund statements, charitable contribution receipts, tax forms, mortgage information, etc.
At the end of they year, it’s a trivial matter to sort these documents and then to submit them to my tax preparer.

New automobiles are generally poor investments for a number of reasons. That’s a topic for another post. Some people don’t want the hassle of buying a used car, or prefer the features of a new model. If you’re going to buy a new car, how much should you pay?
There’s some great advice to be found in this AskMetafilter thread, including the obvious “check with Consumer Reports“. When we bought my wife’s Civic a decade ago, we paid about $20 for pricing information from Consumer Reports. We then faxed a form letter to about twenty dealers in the Portland/Salem/Vancouver area. In the letter we described the exact make, model, and options we were looking for and listed what we believed was the invoice cost for these. We received about ten responses. Most of the dealers wanted us to come in to negotiate. We wouldn’t. Instead, we dealt with the three dealers that were willing to operate [...]

This is the first in a series of practical examples of how people put frugal notions to use in real-life.

I often claim that the back porch is “my favorite room in the house”. It’s true. This is partly because it’s situated at the home’s northeast corner, which is perfect for Portland weather. But mostly I love this place because I’ve been able to furnish it cheaply and effectively.

This is a self-portrait I took this afternoon, as I convalesced from the flu.
When we bought the house, I paid the former owners $20 cash to keep the chair on the left. It’s a perfect chair to sit in and chat. It’s handsome and comfortable, if a little old. The wooden stump, which makes an excellent footstool, was a gift from a friend. It can also serve as extra seating.
I bought the endtable for $5 from a garage sale. It’s old and it’s ugly, but it’s [...]

Here’s a site that lists 450+ useful free utilities for Microsoft Windows that do specific jobs well, allowing you to save time and money. The site lists:

19 anti-malware utilities
24 audio utilities
27 business utilities
18 communication utilities
45 desktop utilities
11 text editors
60 file manipulation utilities
4 financial utilities
27 graphics utilities
13 reference utilities
39 internet utilities
6 macro utilities
61 system enhancement utilities
20 productivity utilities
9 programming utilities
2 uninstaller utilities
11 video utilities

Free software is often an excellent alternative to mainstream commercial applications. In fact, I often prefer freeware applications because they’re stripped down, don’t come with all the bloat that you find in programs like Microsoft Word.
The site also has a separate list of 400+ open source applications and utilities.

Users Manual Guide is an on-line database of hundreds of user manuals for electronic devices: Panasonic air conditioners, Sharp microwave ovens, CASIO calculators, Motorola phones and more. The next time you have a problem with an electronic device, check here first for a downloadable PDF of the user manual.

The official Get Rich Slowly position on credit cards is: DON’T USE THEM. Credit cards are a trap. They’re designed to make money for banks, not to be convenient for consumers. There’s a reason that credit card companies are making record profits. There’s a reason that banks are eager to offer consumers new credit cards. You have to question anything that a bank is eager to do for you; you can be sure it’s not in your best interest.
Having said that, for a minority of people, credit cards can be a valuable tool. If you never carry a balance, if you never make spontaneous purchases with plastic, if you never pay an annual fee, then there are some great options out there.
Index Credit Cards is a site the catalogs 912 current credit card offers. The site even provides lists of low interest credit cards, cash back credit cards, credit card reward programs, travel and [...]