Sense to Save

A roundup

I’m having surgery today (ok, someone please tell me WHY I have to be at the hospital at 5:15 a.m.? What’s so hard about 8 a.m.?) and I’ll be taking it easy for a day or two. Nothing serious. I’ll be fine.

Here’s some articles that I think you’ll enjoy reading:

Northern Cheapskate warns us to not be greedy with freebies. I agree! It’s easy to get caught up in the exicitement of getting something for free.

The Simple Dollar explains how the sunk cost fallacy can lead us to do something/continue doing something because we’ve already put money into it, and don’t want to “lose” the money. Fact of the matter is — the money is already spent.

It’s Just Change presents a good case for having a car emergency fund (this is in response to my post about using a general emergency fund for car repairs).

The Frugal Dad also has several emergency funds and explains why. It’s a strategy that might work for some, but not others.

Money Saving Mom shares her buy-ahead grocery shopping strategy. It takes some organization and planning, but you can save a ton of money this way!

Christian PF shares a distrubing bit of research findings that show on average, most people don’t donate much of their incomes (we’re talking around 2% here). In fact, the lowest-income earners give the highest percentage of their earnings. Maybe if people had less debt, they’d be able to give more. And maybe there are other reasons.