Money-Saving Tips

How do you actually implement a spending plan and stick to it? We offer an overview of several common methods used to stay on budget.

Making financial progress requires setting limits in each of your spending categories. Here's how.

Tracking your income and expenses is the first step toward becoming a faithful steward of what the Lord entrusts to you.

If you'd rather not make financial progress in 2009, we have some excellent excuses you can use.

Your personal finances are largely dictated by two factors: income and spending. For most people, spending is much more easily adjusted than income, making it a natural target for those wishing to shore up their financial health. Here are 9 money-saving tips from SMI's king of the bargain hunters.

Your personal finances are largely dictated by two factors: income and spending. For most people, spending is much more easily adjusted than income, making it a natural target for those wishing to shore up their financial health. Part 2 of this article on smart spending strategies offers 9 more money-saving tips from SMI's king of the bargain hunters.

Generations of readers have discovered the secrets of building wealth from the wise teacher Arkad, Babylon's richest man — as imagined by George S. Clason in his classic 1926 book.

"Buy now with no payments and no interest until 2009!" If you haven't seen the ads yet, you surely will start to soon. While these "free money" deals may sound enticing, they are fraught with peril for the unwary shopper.

Have a mortgage? There's a sure-fire way to cut its cost over the long term. But first, you may need to change your way of thinking.

How would you like to earn a 15% return on your savings this year? That's right, the same savings currently earning less than 4% in your money market account. We explain how this opportunity for big returns exists year after year.

Mary Hunt is one of our favorite frugal gurus and she's got a new collection of time and money saving tips out in her recent book Tiptionary 2. Here's a sampling of some favorite tips as selected by the SMI staff.

We're pretty big on boring things like budgets, discipline, and saving. Is there ever a time to relax some of these rigors and bend the financial rules a bit? If there is, family vacations would be one such exception. These eight steps can help you put together a vacation plan that will provide a lifetime of memories, without taking you a lifetime to pay it all off.

Over the past decade, the Internet has completely changed how people approach travel planning. But many travelers are unaware of the newest entrants into the online travel planning field and miss out on potential bargains as a result. We review six types of sites you need to know about before planning your next trip.

Travel deals abound for those who know where to look. We've got the tips you need to save you big money when booking hotel, plane, and car reservations.

Creating and following a spending plan is a key financial discipline, without which few people ever progress much financially. But how do you implement a spending plan effectively? Austin offers six key principles from his personal experience.

Making financial progress isn't always a matter of earning more. Spending less is just as effective, and is often more within our immediate control.

Long-time Texas football coach Darrell Royal used to explain why his teams ran the football so much by saying, "Three things can happen when you pass and two of 'em are bad." A similar thing is true when you hit the market to acquire an automobile. Of the three approaches most people take, two of them are less than ideal. We explain what to avoid here.

In part one of this article, we learned that two of the three approaches to acquiring an automobile are less than ideal. Here, we explore the right way to go about the process.

There can be a huge difference between dressing well and dressing expensively. Here are four key principles to keep your spending on clothing in check.

Many people think of AARP as a sort of "discount program" for seniors. But it's much more than that—it's a powerful political and lobbying force. When AARP exerts its influence, does it really represent your viewpoint? If not, there are plenty of other retiree organizations ready to stand in as alternatives.

Few roles are more challenging than that of today's working mother. Competing priorities and desires present a never-ending tug of war on her external, and internal, resources. With financial stress often cited as the number one reason for divorce, what can Christians do to help ease these pressures? Russ Crosson writes that perhaps it's not the financial demands themselves that are at the heart of our financial stress, but rather the worldly expectations we allow to become entrenched in our marriage.

Warehouse clubs like Sam's, BJ's, and Costco built their reputations by delivering big savings to those willing to buy in big quantities. But how much savings do they really deliver to your bottom line? We sent our in-house investigator on a fact-finding mission to uncover the truth.

The use of online banking has exploded in recent years. What's behind the surge in client interest, and more importantly, does online banking offer anything you should be interested in?

The "envelope system" has long been considered one of the best ways to manage a budget in real time. But there are drawbacks, not the least of which is that most people these days use credit cards and other electronic transactions in addition to cash. Enter Mvelopes, the envelope budgeting system for the digital age.

You can now track your spending, check your balances, and monitor your cash flow via the Internet — using a no-frills site that doesn't cost a thing.

Have you ever figured out what your holiday gift-giving actually costs you? Here are a few tried and true ideas to help keep the lid on your Visa bill this season.

Can you really have an all-cash Christmas? Sure. Financial tipster Mary Hunt has ideas on how to make it happen.