A couple weeks ago, I was talking with a friend about his apartment hunt. “So many places do credit checks now,” he said, lamenting the fact that he’d probably have to offer several months’ rent up front to get around it, as he has a very thin credit history. The personal finance website editor in [...]

I’ve been a personal finance junkie since I got my first job after college. At first, I scoured books and websites for money advice because I was bad at the basics, like paying my bills on time and saving. I got better at managing my money, but kept reading to find new tips and tricks. [...]

When I graduated from college and began my job search, money was tight. A relative suggested a personal finance book he liked by a famous money guru, and I picked it up from the library. One of the first chapters was about “easy” ways to save money. Among the suggestions: Stop buying lattes. Pack a [...]

When my husband and I first started trying to get out of debt, I decided to try couponing. At the time, it seemed like an easy way to save a few bucks. I signed up to get deal alerts from several websites, such as Couponaholic and The Krazy Coupon Lady, and starting clipping and printing [...]

This month’s electric bill gave me quite a shock. It was $268 — for a one-bedroom apartment! My eyes darted to the “usage” chart that appears on the left side of the bill. No problem there — our electric use for February was our lowest yet, beating our November 2012 record. My eyes darted to [...]

Paying down debt is kind of like losing weight or anything else that requires hard work and a change in habits. It’s easy to get really motivated at first, then lose steam once the initial excitement wears off. For example, I was really focused when my husband and I started our debt repayment push last [...]

My husband and I are credit union turncoats. When big banks began toying with debit card fees in 2011, “Switch to a credit union!” was grassroots activists’ battle cry. We once made the switch, too. But a little more than a year later, we found that our friendly credit union was, well, not so friendly [...]

I’ve been moving into a new apartment this week. This summer, I wrote about how my boyfriend and I were willing to stay in our current apartment to save money, but that has changed. We’ve lost track of how many times our heat and air conditioning have gone out, our energy bills are astronomical because [...]