John W.

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My policy on endorsements, reviews, and affiliates

John W. posted an article on - Dec 3, 2009, 2:35 am
As you may be aware (or not!) the FTC has revised its guide concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising to include social media, which include blogs like the very one you’...
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Win $100 with MrRebates.com through Christmas 2009!

John W. posted an article on - Dec 1, 2009, 12:48 pm
Now that it’s officially official that we’re into the official holiday shopping season, Mr. Rebates has increased its rebate percentages on 300 stores.  Using this and other rebate sites ...
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If anyone comes your way, tell them we're closed. Huh?!

John W. posted an article on - Nov 30, 2009, 11:19 pm
I found out recently that our county is going to be entering the late-20th century in an important way: We’re getting a Walmart.  This is important to us because it’s going to be built ad...
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Friday Fiscals: Cruise edition

John W. posted an article on - Nov 27, 2009, 9:56 pm
Not me, by the way:  my wife has a very generous aunt who has offered to take the girls (my wife, my daughter, and my mother-in-law) on a cruise in warm waters.  So I get to hold down the fort and f...
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What money smells do you need to work on?

John W. posted an article on - Nov 27, 2009, 2:27 am
I do software development at work.  A term that gets thrown around a bit is code smell.  It’s a catch-all for any number of programming practices that indicate more serious underlying problems...
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Scratch-off lottery games WILL eat your lunch

John W. posted an article on - Nov 24, 2009, 1:44 am
A few weeks ago I met “J” of BudgetsAreSexy.com, and Nicole of Breaking Even Communications, up in DC.  It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and in the process I really got a f...
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Carnival of Money Stories: Great Questions edition

John W. posted an article on - Nov 23, 2009, 2:03 am
Welcome to the Carnival of Money Stories. Among this week’s posts I’ve included great money questions asked over at Cash Commons.  Enjoy! Business Free Money Finance talks about taking...
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One week until Black Friday (Fiscals)!

John W. posted an article on - Nov 20, 2009, 11:50 pm
Can you feel the excitement??? All of that black ink just waiting to be put on the ledgers?? Nah, I can’t either. Here are some interesting links from my feed reader: The Simple Dollar disc...
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Has Black Friday jumped the shark?

John W. posted an article on - Nov 18, 2009, 2:07 am
... , Toys “R” Us, and Target have already had their Black Friday ads “leaked.”   I can’t really ... completely planned: orchestrated to create buzz. Black Frida...
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Welcome to the Carnival of Debt Reduction

John W. posted an article on - Nov 16, 2009, 1:44 am
Howdy!  Here are the on-topic submissions for this week’s carnival: Bargaineering hosts a guest post on how to sue debt collectors. The Smarter Wallet shares some first-hand experience with de...
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Here's a great comeback when negotiating to buy a property

John W. posted an article on - Nov 14, 2009, 12:42 am
It’s no secret that there are federal tax credits available for many people who are looking to buy a home.  Both first-time and non-first-time homebuyers now can play the game. The people who ...
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Friday Fiscals: Black cat dancing on a broken mirror

John W. posted an article on - Nov 13, 2009, 9:56 pm
Happy Friday the 13th. Check out these lucky links from my reader: Five Cent Nickel has a guest post from Money Help for Christians with several good tips on how to find a good deal. Digerati Life r...
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Where is that extra French hen?

John W. posted an article on - Nov 11, 2009, 1:00 am
(If you have a true love, then you have thirty of them from last Christmas! Most people really only need twenty-nine French hens.) Regifting this year is up.  Way up. A Consumer Reports survey found...
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Friday Fiscals: Wii Fit Plus edition

John W. posted an article on - Nov 6, 2009, 9:58 pm
My wife got Wii Fit Plus earlier this week and it makes you think on some of the games.  Nice build-on to Wii Fit.  Besides, what other game can I flap my arms and fly around in a giant bird suit? ...
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Convenience credit card users are not perfect customers

John W. posted an article on - Nov 5, 2009, 9:58 pm
This article on MSN Money misses a bit in the title: Banks punish perfect customers The article is another one on how credit card companies are hitting otherwise conscientious users with annual fees...
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Carnival of Debt Reduction time!

John W. posted an article on - Nov 2, 2009, 12:46 am
Welcome to this week’s Carnival of Debt Reduction! I’m very pleased that more of the submissions are on-topic. This is a very good thing, and I know it will benefit everyone concerned, fr...
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Friday Fiscals: Oof-tah!

John W. posted an article on - Oct 30, 2009, 10:27 pm
Here are some posts of interest from my feed reader: Generation X Finance shows how to get your cheap books and movies. Free Money Finance tells us what not to aspire to:  being at the bottom of the...
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Review of Phil Villarreal's Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel

John W. posted an article on - Oct 30, 2009, 12:49 am
I requested a review copy of Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel, and the first time the book was sent out, somehow it got lost in the mail.  The publicist contacted me to ask if I was going to review it, ...
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Seniors lose $10,000? Huh?

John W. posted an article on - Oct 29, 2009, 12:26 am
I got suckered into reading this article on MSN from the title: A $10,000 Social Security hit There was a stock photo of two obviously very depressed seniors right next to that headline.  At first ...
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Here's the one thing you can absolutely count on in this economy

John W. posted an article on - Oct 28, 2009, 1:49 am
This economic downturn hasn’t been kind to a lot of people.  Jobs that haven’t been taken away from people have had their hours cut, their workload increased, or their cost of living allo...
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More discussion on charging your tithe

John W. posted an article on - Oct 25, 2009, 2:59 pm
On last week’s post on whether you should be able to put your tithe on a credit card, I received a well thought-out response from commenter Brian.  I’ll reprint it here, and discuss it. ...
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Eliminate expenses that have no relevance anymore

John W. posted an article on - Oct 24, 2009, 12:57 pm
Getting a bolstered emergency fund is a great idea now.  (It usually is, but now especially.)  One way to get to a decent cushion is to spend less so that the extra can go into savings. Many kinds ...
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Friday Fiscals: Tearing up the carpet

John W. posted an article on - Oct 23, 2009, 9:48 pm
We’re ditching our wall-to-wall carpet in much of our house in favor of some laminate flooring.  Our dogs don’t quite know what to do with the new hard surfaces. Anyway, some links of in...
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Do this and you'll manage your checking account successfully

John W. posted an article on - Oct 23, 2009, 1:45 am
Managing a checking account isn’t rocket science but it’s not basket weaving either.  (No offense meant to basket-weavers.  I tried to weave a basket in eighth grade art class and it end...
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Uh-huh: Anti-credit-card legislation hurts just about everyone

John W. posted an article on - Oct 20, 2009, 11:50 pm
Caught this in a tweet from Wise Bread: Latest bank fee is for paying off credit card on time every month The target of new fees for credit card issuers is people who haven’t paid them yet, am...
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Don't worry about not being able to contribute more to your 401(k)

John W. posted an article on - Oct 19, 2009, 5:37 pm
Sun’s Financial Diary reported that the 2010 contribution limit for 401(k) accounts will remain at $16,500.  The announcement came from the IRS Thursday.  There had been speculation that the c...
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Should you be able to give your tithe on a credit card?

John W. posted an article on - Oct 18, 2009, 11:58 am
At lunch yesterday I saw this:  Now even God takes credit cards!  The article lists a number of new (or relatively new) places that have come to accept plastic for payment, and number 2 on the list ...
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Friday Fiscals: O Happy Day edition

John W. posted an article on - Oct 16, 2009, 10:52 pm
Here are some posts this week that made my happy day: Free Money Finance asks if you missed the ride up.  (Yes I did, but I also missed part of the ride down that immediately preceded it.) Get Rich ...
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When is the right age to open a bank account for your kids?

John W. posted an article on - Oct 13, 2009, 11:31 pm
No Credit Needed is taking his oldest daughter (ten years old) to open her first savings account.  He and his family have been free of consumer debt for over three and a half years now and this is a ...
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Carnival of Debt Reduction, Columbus Day Edition

John W. posted an article on - Oct 12, 2009, 10:37 am
Happy Columbus Day, everyone!  Here are the articles for this week’s Carnival of Debt Reduction.  At the top are the posts by people who discuss areas of their personal debt reduction, which i...
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Friday Fiscals link love

John W. posted an article on - Oct 9, 2009, 10:48 pm
A few weeks ago, the Recaptcha at one site I visited was “Fiscals Friday.”  So, I switched the order of the words, and there you are. Here are a few links of interest for your viewing ...
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Note from Restaurant.com clarifying some of its policies

John W. posted an article on - Oct 8, 2009, 4:19 pm
In my last post announcing an 80% Off Restaurant.com coupon, I decided to highlight some things to bear in mind before buying a dining certificate package.  Jeff Conlin from Restaurant.com responded ...
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Cash Commons now in open beta!

John W. posted an article on - Oct 8, 2009, 7:09 am
First off, a big thank-you to beta testers Flexo, SuburbanDollar, J from Budgets are Sexy, The Frugal Lawyer, and a number of others who expressed interest. Now that the hosting platform is in open b...
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Before you hire a computer geek, check out this free website

John W. posted an article on - Oct 7, 2009, 6:40 pm
Computer problems can range from being almost unnoticeable, to mildly annoying, to frustrating, to downright costly if it’s a necessary component of your business.  Regardless of whether your c...
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Extended yard sales: sign of the times?

John W. posted an article on - Oct 6, 2009, 10:55 pm
In better times, a yard sale is a good way to clear the junk out of the closets and make a little bit of extra money.  And what doesn’t sell will find a good hope at the Salvation Army thrift s...
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Why the tip jars are coming out

John W. posted an article on - Oct 5, 2009, 11:11 pm
Liz Pulliam Weston had an article today on the new tip-jar economy — that new business practice of putting out the tip jar, raising the “customary” tipping percentage, and adding oth...
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Hitting yard sales near the end of the day? Paydirt

John W. posted an article on - Oct 4, 2009, 2:37 am
While my wife was at a quilt guild meeting this weekend, I went around to a few places with my daughter.  We went to what will probably be the last flea market this year in our town.  (Next month mi...
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Looking for absolutely fearless beta-testers!

John W. posted an article on - Sep 30, 2009, 1:21 am
I have a new site in the works and would love some trailblazers to come over to take it for a spin! All you need to bring with you is some questions about money.  For bonus points, you can bring som...
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80% off Restaurant.com – now with a side order of disclosure!

John W. posted an article on - Sep 29, 2009, 1:06 am
Restaurant.com is running an 80% off coupon through the end of September, 2009.  The coupon code is CHEF. I think largely that people are happy with the deals that they get through Restaurant.com. ...
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Welcome to the Carnival of Debt Reduction

John W. posted an article on - Sep 28, 2009, 12:00 am
Hi everyone, and welcome to this week’s Carnival of Debt Reduction. There were more good articles submitted this week than are shown below, but only a small number of them dealt directly with (...
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PF Bloggers: Trademark your frugal names quick!

John W. posted an article on - Sep 26, 2009, 10:49 am
Many of my colleagues have heard about the recent cease and desistery regarding the trademarking of what I thought was a fairly common term for a frugal woman which, by the way, rhymes with barista. ...
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Puppies for nothing and your chicks for free

John W. posted an article on - Sep 25, 2009, 10:52 pm
We just arrived in West Virginia to visit my wife’s parents and her grandmother who’s visiting them.  We’re bringing along a three-month-old puppy that we got a few weeks ago from a...
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Just try to smell like a different-smelling man

John W. posted an article on - Sep 23, 2009, 2:40 am
Cube farms are great for overhearing little bits of random quotable goodness, like this gem from one of my (male) co-workers while he was talking on the phone with his wife (I can only assume): I lik...
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Review of Bill Schultheis' The New Coffeehouse Investor

John W. posted an article on - Sep 19, 2009, 10:22 pm
The author’s marketing company kindly sent me a complimentary company of Bill Schultheis’ latest reworking of his book: The New Coffeehouse Investor.  According to the “about the au...
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Ladies: Can someone tell me precisely why I'm out of touch on this point?

John W. posted an article on - Sep 17, 2009, 11:46 pm
OK, so I’m reading the July, 2009, issue of U.S. News & World Report that my mother-in-law left the last time she visited, and I happen on an article called “Frugal Forever?” written...
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Stockpiling food helps everyone

John W. posted an article on - Sep 16, 2009, 12:55 am
Dawn over at Frugal For Life discusses some of the ethical implications of stockpiling foods.  She gets into a few rules of thumb for testing to see whether stockpiling has crossed into greed, or jus...
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Four out of five people want to save money on their car insurance

John W. posted an article on - Sep 11, 2009, 12:27 am
And the fifth person is really thinking hard about it.  He’ll come around eventually. No, seriously: Who doesn’t want to save money on their car insurance? I don’t know of any good...
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Oh my: 90% off Restaurant.com dining certificates!

John W. posted an article on - Sep 9, 2009, 9:14 am
It’s a first!  For 99 hours only, starting today, 9/9/09, and ending on September 13th, 2009, at 3:01 PST, Restaurant.com is offering an unprecedented 90% off its Dining Certificates and Dinner...
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It costs if you're fat. Now it might cost even if you're thin?

John W. posted an article on - Sep 9, 2009, 2:37 am
I tell you:  It just doesn’t pay to be human anymore.  Big or small. I’m well aware of how being fat costs money.  But there are now rumblings on the possibility of the following:  If...
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Here's a great way to reduce your auto insurance

John W. posted an article on - Sep 8, 2009, 2:18 am
Get rid of cars that aren’t working anymore. Last week we got rid of a van that we found out would cost almost as much to fix as we had paid for it.  (No, not this one.)  The vehicle had sat ...
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