Consumers have plenty of choices in the marketplace. Too many choices, really. For instance, does Betty Crocker need five kinds of vanilla cake mix? Do shoppers really want to decide among 200 different shampoos filling an entire aisle of the store?
Last October, Rachel Hoff and Tom Ferguson embarked on an experiment in hyper-locavore healthy eating. For the next 12 months, the couple from Vallejo, Calif., wouldn’t set foot in a grocery store or restaurant. Their family’s diet would consist entirely of non-processed foods gathered from farmers markets, a local sustainable food-buying club, and their own [...]
Plenty of people survive on a monthly budget of $1,000 or less. But when you’re accustomed to spending $4,000 or $5,000 a month without thinking too much about it, abruptly switching to a $1,000-a-month budget requires some serious lifestyle adjustments.
“I have learned is how FANTASTIC I feel when my credit card bill is only $250 instead of $1250!”
This week, a blogger successfully completed a self-imposed challenge: For 100 days, he allotted himself a daily allowance of $1 for food. To fill in the gaps (and his belly), he used coupons—ones available to anybody in Sunday newspapers and the Internet—and he used them creatively, at one point using a coupon to buy tampons [...]
Bored, without a job, facing the mini-crisis of turning 30, and inspired after watching “Julie & Julia,” Marisa Lynch decided to take on a new project last summer: For 365 days in a row, she would mend, cut, dye, stitch, and otherwise transform secondhand clothing into a new dress daily, and she would do so [...]
“I’m always confused when people rave about how much they ‘save’ at warehouse club stores. In my experience, I can’t get out of Costco or Wal-Mart for under $200. You want to talk savings? Try going in without your wallet.”
