By Shannon Christman
It’s that time of year again. Some of us know it as spring; others call it the start of yard sale season. Yard sales (also known as garage sales, tag sales, rummage sales, and stoop sales) attract an interesting and diverse subculture of bargain hunters, environmentalists, and treasure hunters; they are […]

By Shannon Christman
Personal storage facilities are appearing everywhere. Whether new garage-like structures or refashioned warehouses, factories, and banks, all have the purpose of storing our culture’s accumulated stuff. For the “low” price of $39.95 a month, you can rent the smallest of these empty boxes — a space not much bigger than a walk-in closet. […]

By Shannon Christman
It’s been said that when you take free advice, you should remember that you get what you pay for. I agree that it’s important to evaluate any advice — free or not — before following it, but rejecting all free advice because it is free is a really bad idea. (Unless you […]

By Shannon Christman
Lehighton Night at Dorney Park was a highlight of each year when I was a young teenager. For $5 anyone in my small town (Lehighton) could buy an advance ticket for evening admission to the amusement park just over 25 miles away. Not only could a carload of my friends and […]

Shannon Christman
Personal finance isn’t about money. Well, it is about money in the sense that it’s not about music or biology or hockey, but it’s not only about money. Having strong personal finance skills usually does mean that you will have more money than your peers, but the benefits of honing your personal finance skills […]

By Shannon Christman
“Instead of using coupons, I buy things on sale” is a statement I hear often from people who think I waste my time clipping coupons. My response is, “Why not do both? If you use the coupons for things that are on sale, you can save even more.” In most cases, the […]

By Shannon Christman
My church is part of a denomination whose doctrinal statement reads in part, “Nonconformity calls us to reject the world’s unrestrained materialism, its sensualism, and its self-centeredness. Rather we seek to express the values of God’s kingdom by a lifestyle of modesty and simplicity.” Nevertheless, in the eight and a half years […]

By Shannon Christman
It seems everything is taxable — even coupons! I never questioned the small print on the coupons I use, at least not the part about the customer paying sales tax. (I don’t understand why a manufacturer can say a coupon shouldn’t be doubled when it’s the retailer that makes a doubling […]

By Shannon Christman
Anyone who is seriously considering stay-at-home parenting is likely to have done the math. Most potential stay-at-home parents know how much they will have to cut their expenses to live on less than two full salaries. They have considered the financial effects of forgoing several years of career experience, and they are […]

By Shannon Christman
The boxes were gone. My three-year-old was crestfallen. He had looked forward to his regular job of returning the plastic bags from last week’s grocery shopping trip to the recycling boxes just inside the store. But the boxes are no longer there; an employee told us that the store had discontinued its recycling. […]