I’ve always considered myself to be a pretty smart cookie when it comes to making purchases. I decide what I want, and then hunt out the best price for it. What  I generally thought was pretty clever is if I found something I needed / wanted but deemed it too expensive, I’d hunt out an alternative...

From real-life and fictional role models to lifestyle media, are women being conditioned to think that maxing out their credit cards, taking on a big mortgages and driving / carrying / sporting the latest and greatest is a basic way of life? As I’m in the final stages of  completing my Diploma...

I’m about to commence my Diploma in Professional Styling, so combined with the change of seasons and new fashions hitting the stores and lolling across magazine spreads, it’s with interest that I’ve been looking at the prices of these delectable wardrobe fillers. It occured to me that...

My fiancee and I recently moved into a new house. It’s a warehouse conversion and for some unfathomable reason, the previous owners chose the spectacular colour palette of light grey, pale blue, bottle/olive/army green, deep violet, egg yolk yellow and burnt orange. So, first point of order now...

How much did you earn when you first started working? Overlooking my paper-route, my first job was as a Subway sandwich artist the summer before my last year of school. I hated every second of it (the embarassing story of my mother sitting in on my interview is for another day) but I loved having the...

Bargaining, haggling and negotiating are very interesting skills, and key to the frugal shopper’s aim of getting the best value for his/her budget. (Although I’m not for a second suggesting that getting something on sale or for a ‘good deal’ is an excuse to buy). When these...

In the process of completely overhauling my finances, I’ve gone from being a self-proclaimed bargain hunter to truly frugal. I used to think I was smart with money; I caught public transport, I rarely paid retail for anything and I was inherently cautious with cash. However I eventually came to...

It is with much envy that I read posts and comments from American bloggers who list ‘cutting coupons’ as a leading way to save money. However, as other Australians will identify… we don’t get coupons of any serious calibre downunder. The best we can hope for in coupon country...

It seems that there are two camps when it comes to frugality. In the face of reduced means (or an attempt to reduce spending) people appear to do one of two things; 1. buy less stuff 2. buy the same amount of stuff but go for cheaper options. Whilst on a superficial level these are both valid options...