Karen Datko, lead blogger, is a veteran journalist in small-town Montana, where her mortgage is $310 a month.
Teresa Mears is a veteran writer in Florida. She doesn't clip coupons, but she does shop at Goodwill.
Donna Freedman, our "Living With Less" columnist, is a student, freelance writer and handywoman in Washington.
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Deals include a $149 netbook and $49 digital camera.
Halloween isn’t even here yet, but one of the first big Black Friday sales ads has already been leaked: the circular for OfficeMax.
The best deals listed for one of the biggest shopping days of the year, the day after Thanksgiving, include an Acer Aspire netbook with Intel Atom processor, 10-inch screen and Windows XP for $149, half off its regular price of $300.
- Find on Bing: More on Black Friday sales
The same ad shows an Olympus X905 10 MP digital camera for $49. That camera is now on sale at OfficeMax for $99, marked down from $149.
Karl Rabeder has traded unbridled luxury for life in a two-room flat.
This kind of story gives you faith in humankind, or makes you feel you’ve entered the Twilight Zone: An Austrian multimillionaire is giving away all his money to charity in pursuit of a simple, happy life.
Happiness and self-realization eluded Karl Rabeder as he indulged in a supremely materialistic lifestyle -- a $2.2 million, 3,455-square-foot lakeside villa in the Alps, a farmhouse on 42 acres in Provence, six gliders, an Audi A8. His entire fortune was estimated at $4.7 million.
Rabeder, now 47 and divorced, lives in a two-room apartment in Innsbruck, and gets by on just $1,260 a month. “The worst that can happen to me is that I have to take a small job to get by,” he told the Daily Mail.
''My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing. Money is counterproductive -- it prevents happiness.''
Really? We’re not so sure about that. And, believe it or not, Rabeder has critics.
Expect more mobile coupons as retailers seek to reach phone-addicted millennials.
Target has become the latest retailer, and among the first major national retailers, to offer its coupons via cell phone. You can also download your Target gift cards to your phone.
Expect this trend to continue. The Dallas Morning News reports that J.C. Penney is rolling out cell phone coupons nationwide next month, and 7-Eleven just finished a test in San Diego. Sears offers some mobile coupons via Cellfire, the electronic coupon site used by Kroger and other supermarkets.
The co-founder of Seventh Generation says detergent is often unnecessary. She does a test.
This guest post comes from “vh” at Funny about Money.
"Frugal Scholar," who must read everything of value on the entire Internet, stumbled upon an amazing remark in, of all places, The Wall Street Journal. In an article, Seventh Generation co-founder Jeffrey Hollender remarks that it’s surprising most people use laundry detergent at all: “You don’t even need soap to wash most loads,” he says. The truth is, it’s the action of the agitator, not the chemicals, that gets most clothes clean.
Uhmmm …. Say what, my Captain of Industry?
Most of us have figured out that we need only a fraction of the amount we were brought up to pour into the washer, partly because newer detergents are far more efficient and partly because you don’t really need even the recommended amount. But … no detergent at all?
Well, of course, the gantlet was down.
Survey shows fewer companies believe employees will have enough money for retirement.
Good news for employees: About 80% of medium-size and large companies that suspended or reduced their company match to 401k programs last year are planning to restore their matching contributions in 2010.
But, the same survey also showed that employers don’t believe their employees have the ability to save enough for retirement and are looking for ways to help -- short of adding pension plans, of course.

Saving money -- you can do it
Strategies for saving more and spending less. Here's how to build a rich nest egg one paycheck at a time.
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