Kris called me down to the kitchen this morning to listen to This American Life. While she baked a molasses cake and canned applesauce, I sat at the table and took notes on the show, which featured four stories about people trying to get something for nothing.
Hands on a hard body
The first story was [...]

It’s a holiday weekend in the United States. Many people are enjoying the last taste of summer before the school year begins. Things will be quiet around here until Tuesday as I take some time off to work around the house and relax with my family.
Meanwhile, here are some of the best stories from Get [...]

During 2008, my wife and I are tracking how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for August.
The berry harvest continued this month at Rosings Park, our happy half acre south of Portland. Blackberry time is my favorite time of the year. And though August is often too hot for [...]

I met with my accountant today to review the Get Rich Slowly business finances. Things are going well, but there are lots of little details that I need to work on. I’m a writer, not a bookkeeper, so some of this stuff is like Greek to me. I’m fortunate to have an accountant I trust. [...]

Most of the questions I receive are from readers in their twenties and thirties. Many of them are just starting out in life. But money issues nag everyone. Donald wrote the other day with the sort of question most of us have not yet faced. He’s getting near retirement, but doesn’t have much saved. He [...]

Disclaimer: After some strong feedback from GRS readers (and from my wife), I’ve made the rare move of heavily editing this article after publication. My hope is that the re-write makes it clear that I am not advocating all of these ideas. Yes, payday loans are on the list, but they’re at the bottom of [...]

This is a guest post from Flexo at Consumerism Commentary, the granddaddy of personal finance blogs. Previously at GRS, he shared how to be the Chief Financial Officer of your own life.
Success, financial or otherwise, comes from within.
According to studies by psychologists and researchers, people with an internal locus of control are more apt to [...]

Strange weather here in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. We had a nice mid-August hot spell, which is to be expected, but ever since, it’s looked very much like autumn: rain, wind, and clouds. Coupled with our late spring, this is wreaking havoc on our tomatoes, as Saturday’s garden update will reveal. But we’re still harvesting blackberries! [...]

Ray Otero cannot buy a break. For the past three years, he’s spent $500 to $700 a week playing the lottery, but he’s only won big a few times: $1,000 once and $2,000 twice. Still he keeps playing. He’s sure his luck is bound to change.
Otero’s story, told in a recent New York Times article, [...]

If you struggle with keeping a budget, it may be because you’re trying to predict your spending in time chunks that are just too small. A new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that people who made annual budgets were better able to predict their spending than those who made monthly budgets. [...]