June was a difficult month for me. I was busy in Real Life, distracted by home remodeling and by physical fitness. Things are settling, which will allow me to spend more time on the site. On top of that, I now have actual help around here!

My wife, Kris, is processing the backlog of e-mail.
My friend, [...]

Kris and I went grocery shopping this weekend. We stopped at Bob’s Red Mill — a local health-food store — to use some “buy one, get one free” coupons. “You can get anything you want,” Kris told me, “except hot cereal.”
“Why can’t I get hot cereal?” I asked. “I love hot cereal.”
“I know,” Kris said. [...]

This is a guest post from my wife, and features a story I’ve come to look forward to updating every summer: the tale of two entrepreneurial girls.
Last weekend I explored Portland’s beautiful Eastmoreland neighborhood during its annual 140-family garage sale. In the past, I’ve come away with major bargains, but this year I had [...]

The Motley Fool is a web site devoted to helping average people make better investment and financial decisions. Recently, GRS forum administrator (and resident economist) Jericho Hill got a chance to visit The Motley Fool headquarters. This is part two of a report on his experience. (Here’s part one.)
When I was in high school, I [...]

During 2008, my wife and I are tracking how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for June.
It was a miserable June for gardeners in northwest Oregon. The first two weeks weren’t just wet — we’re used to that — they were cold, too. The local media dubbed the month [...]

Allen recently attended a family wedding that put a hole in his budget. He wonders how to cope with societal pressure to spend:

How do you deal with social situations where you have to spend? I just had to spend $300 to go to a cousin’s wedding. I couldn’t not go — it’s family. But I [...]

This is a guest post from Chris Guillebeau at The Art of Non-Conformity. It’s long. It’s good. If you can’t read it all now, bookmark it and come back later. It’s worth it. Earlier this week, Chris released a short (and free) e-book called A Brief Guide to World Domination. It’s all about rejecting mediocrity [...]

Charlie from PearBudget dropped a line to point out that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service is increasing the mileage reimbursement mid-year. The rate is 50.5 cents per mile right now, but will see a 16% jump next week. Here’s the official IRS notice:

The rate will increase to 58.5 cents a mile for all business miles [...]

“Want to go out to dinner?” I asked Kris last Monday night.
“No,” she said.
“Want to go out to dinner?” I asked Kris last Tuesday night.
“No,” she said.
I asked her again on Wednesday and Thursday and got the same response. “How come you never want to go out to dinner anymore?” I asked.
She gave me [...]

Last fall, I discovered my Quicken data file from the mid-1990s. It contains all my transactions from 01 January 1995 until 06 April 1998. There are many fascinating insights to be gleaned from my crazy spending a decade ago, but as I was looking through my checkbook register, one thing in particular stood out.
Before nearly [...]