One Caveman’s Financial Journey

Let’s face it, we all have discretionary expenses that we can cut in a time of crisis. We may think of these as necessary for survival, but you’d be surprised how little you can get by with and still survive. The reason so many personal finance-minded people encourage everyone to maintain a fully-funded emergency [...]

I recently returned from a business trip that earned me two full days of overtime pay plus a per diem allowance of $54 per day (unfortunately, I only get 3/4 of that amount on travel days). Through smart spending and my already-reduced intake due to my diet, I was able to pocket half of [...]

Last night, my wife approached me with some bad news: The checking account is running dangerously low, even though I was just paid yesterday. “How in the world could that be?” I nervously asked.
“Your credit card bill took more than half of it, the car payment is due soon, and we have $250 in [...]

My employer’s fiscal year starts in July, so every June we make our benefits elections. This past June we were starting to realize our looming financial trouble: The life we were living before the baby could no longer be sustained given that we now only had one income.
Insurance costs were becoming one of the [...]

A post on Frugal Dad this morning about the tax rebate got me thinking about how hard it is to not go out and spend it like a “good little consumer.” Every now and then, I get this nearly uncontrollable urge spend. It’s usually triggered by a large purchase or an unexpected influx [...]