Bernie Madoff may have pulled off the biggest of all Ponzi schemes in recorded history, but it’s not like he came up with the idea.  That honor belongs to Charles Ponzi, right?

Wrong.

We had Ponzi schemes before we had Ponzi.

Charles Ponzi reigns as the namesake for pyramid schemes these days, but he didn’t invent them.  They’ve been around for quite some time and it’s not hard to imagine that they predate Peter and Paul (as in “robbing Peter to pay Paul”, which was the expression generally utilized for such acts of malfeasance before Ponzi did his thin).

Take for instance, Ms. Sarah Howe.  She was pulling a Ponzi in 1880, long before Charlie P. figured out how to bilk people out of their money.  Howe as actually a double-dipper.  She wasn’t just doing the pyramid, she was going it by going after people who’d tend to trust her the most at the time–other women.  That makes Howe a Ponzi-ist and an affinity scammer (sort of like Bernie Madoff).  Apparently, she set up a women-only program, promising an 8% return on everybody’s cash.

The only way that could happen, though, is if she kept getting more women to dump money into the scheme. Obviously, her luck ran out.  There’s not a lot of information online about Howe, but the Wikipedia entry that mentions her pre-Ponzi scheme references a book that might be of interest to those who’d like to learn more about her–and Mr. Ponzi.

She wasn’t the only person “robbing Peter to pay Paul” to beat Pozi to the punch, though.

Nineteen years after Howe, but still 21 years prior to Ponzi in 1899, a guy working for a little tea company near Wall Street came up with a plan.  William F. Miller started telling people, including his bible students, that he could produce a 10% per week return on their investments because he had picked up some golden information by being so close to Wall Street.

He grabbed the cash with both hands while he could, keeping the deal afloat by paying old investors with the money from the new ones.  When it was all said and done, he was sentenced to prison.  He didn’t get his sentence as a rich man, though.  In one of those great ironies, Miller was cheated out of his money by a couple of con artists who were apparently better at playing the grift than Mr. “520%” Miller.

He ended up skirting most of his sentence, receiving a commutation from the Governor.  Apparently, that decision was less about mercy than it was about convincng t Miller to testify against other bad guys.

The interesting thing about these pre-Ponzi schemes is that they bear such a striking resemblance to Bernie Madoff’s swindle.  The names and the centuries change, but the song remains the same.

Give me your money.  I’ll invest it and give you a great return.  In reality, I’ll use your money to pay off the other people I’ve suckered.  You’ll get your money after I find a new mark or two. Eventually, someone figures it out and it all goes down the tubes.

It’s amazing how history repeats itself, isn’t it?  You can draw a pretty straight line through the gutter to connect Sarah Howe, W.F. Miller, Bernie Madoff and a slew of people who who plied their dastardly trade during the intervening years–including the guy who had this great investment opportunity involving postal coupons, the one and only Charles Ponzi.

We’re humans. We make mistakes. Many of us make the same mistakes. Some of those blunders are bigger than others.

Let’s talk about one of the biggest common personal finance errors. Wait. Let’s rephrase that. Let’s talk about the undisputed king of personal finance mistakesb. It’s mistake in which millions of people share and it can have some truly life-changing consequences (and not in a good way, either).

The big kahuna of personal finance foolishness? Failing to have a long-range plan.

It’s hard to think decades down the road. Heck, it’s hard to think three weeks ahead sometimes. When it comes to managing your money correctly, however, you need to develop that long term perspective.

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I think the reason so many people fail to come up with a long-term plan is because you can fall into an ugly cycle if you get off on the wrong foot.

Here’s what I mean. You don’t have a plan. As such, you make poor financial decisions. Those poor decisions put you in a tough situation in terms of staying above water. It’s even harder than usual to think “big picture” when you’re in dire straits and living paycheck to paycheck. The lack of that broader perspective, however, insures more poor financial decisions. That leads to… You get the idea. It’s an infinite loop of financial difficulty.

So, how do break the cycle? Short of a few lottery victories or some kind of perspective-altering head trauma, it’s a matter of recognizing that it’s time to get a handle on your money and putting your foot down. Then, you need to combine some good homework with a dedication to taking action.

Realization, research and work. It doesn’t sound like a ton of fun, does it? Maybe that’s part of the reason why people continue to circle the drain in the “no plan–>bad decision–>no plan” cycle. There may be a perception of comfort in the misery of chaotic personal finances.

At some point, though, people do hit bottom. They wake up and realize that they’ve had enough. They finally bite the bullet and get started with the process of devising that long-term plan, even in the face of short-term challenges. If they follow through, they can break the cycle. They can start making progress. They can tame a little chaos and feel much more secure in their futures.

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I doubt any of that is particularly controversial. We know that good money management improves both immediate and long-term qualities of life. We also know that a lot of people are running around without an end goal in mind. It’s a mistake and it’s a common one, but is it really the undisputed king of all financial blunders?

Let’s ask around, shall we?

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Simple Dollar did a piece on “The Twelve Biggest Personal Finance Mistakes People Make Over and Over Again”. They’re top slot went to, “Concern rarely extends beyond the next paycheck or two”. In other words, living in the moment without a bigger goal of a plan is a huge no-no.

The Bankruptcy Law Network explains their version of the “Top Ten Personal Finance Mistakes”. They startthis: “Rule #1: Have a personal financial goal and a plan to achieve it. The pressure of bills and getting the income to pay them typically causes you to lose sight of your personal financial goals. Sounds familiar, right?

Almost every time you look at a list of the worst common personal finance blunders, lacking a goal and a plan almost invariably sneaks up toward the top. Dallas Morning News columnist Pamela Yip sums it up nicely:

Without a plan or goal, your financial behavior will lack focus and you could spend your money – a dollar here, a dollar there – not knowing where it’s going or how the expenditures are affecting your financial security.

She wrote that as part of an article entitled “Top Ten Personal Finance Mistakes”. Her number one, predictably, was ” Not having a goal and a plan for how to achieve it”.

If you’ve busted out of the cycle and have put together a plan, kudos. I hope you’ll share what led you to take action and how you managed to get started. If you’re still floating around without a good plan, there’s no better time than now to start putting things into perspective and planning a way out of your current financial turmoil and into a future where money errors don’t cripple the quality of your life.

Sometimes, you just don’t want to use real cash.  Play money can come in handy.

You can use a wad of homemade cash to play board games after you’ve lost the dough that came from Parker Bros. or Milton Bradley.  Printable play money comes in handy when your kids want to play “store” but you don’t want to entrust them with the real McCoy.  It’s good for teaching kid money-related math.  It’s NOT a good idea when you want to buy groceries, though.  The Treasury Dept. doesn’t think it’s funny when that happens.  In fact, they dislike the idea so much that it can be tough to scan your own money and print it out.

In any case, you might have a need for some play cash.  If you do, there are plenty of places to find it.  Here are 7 great places to find it online.

Money Instructor. This site has a nice collection of realistic US bills.  They’re clearly marked “COPY” and bear the site’s URL.  Oh, they also do coins.  Paper coins?  Sure.  They come in handy when you’re trying to teach your youngsters not to fall for that whole “a nickel is bigger than a dime so it must be worth more” trick the big kids always use.

Free Stuff for Kids.  These folks have printable play money in a few different denominations.  The values are easy to spot and read.  The cash looks nothing like the real deal.  Totally different, but almost web 2.0-ish.  There’s something about the way it looks that I really like.

Printable Play Money.  Two different options at this site.  You can either print the stuff that has a real look to it, or you can go with the “obviously NOT U.S. currency” look.  Either way, you can find printable phony cabbage here.

Activity Village. Here’s another site with the standard paper currency and pages of coins.  This one has an advantage, though.  It’s not all US money.  They do Euros.  Get your printable play Euros here.

Disney Dough.  If you’re kids are all about the Magic Kingdom, you might want to print out these $1, $5 and $10 bills featuring Disney icons like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and even the Pirates of the Caribbean skull and crossbones.

Festisite. This isn’t really a play money site, per se.  It’s actually a cool little app you can use to create phony bills featuring your own photo or someone else’s. You can create bills from a variety of nations.  If you wanted to, you could even make a Kazakhi dollar bill with Bernie Madoff’s picture on it.  I did.  It’s the picture you saw above.  Your finished products can be saved as PNG files and you could then opt to print them out.  If you want to come up with really fun play money, imagine putting your kid’s face on a $10 bill.  Just make sure that mom and dad adorn the big bills so the kids remember who’s boss!

Donna Young.  Here’s a good source of play bills in a variety of denominations.  They share enough characteristics with the real deal to create some level of recognition in a learning youngster.  You can also print each denomination in a different color to make sorting easier.

There you have it.  Seven different sites where you can print yourself a small fortune.  Lose all your monopoly money?  Have a burning desire to put your snapshot on a Euro?  Need a printout of coins to help your kids learn how to make change?  Get your printable play money now!

I can’t remember the last time I booked a room by actually talking with anyone directly affiliated with the hotel in question.  When the Lampsen clan travels, we tend to spend precious little time in our hotel space, so we’re not the most discriminating consumers.  As long as basic cleanliness standards are maintained and the location is within reasonable proximity of our recreational targets, we make do.  That’s why I’m more likely to book a deep discount room via William Shatner’s outfit than I am to get on the horn to call some hotel company’s reservation line.  If you’re willing to roll the dice, it’s hard to beat Travelocity, Expedia, etc.

Not everyone shares my perspective, however.  Some folks have higher expectations for accomodations and aren’t willing to gamble with their vacation beds.  I can understand that. 

Those who do exercise more discretion might want to look into the Wyndham Rewards program.

The Wyndham program is your standard hotel customer loyalty program.  If you stay at a participating hotel, you earn points for every night (or frequent flier miles, for that matter).  You can later cash those babies in for just about anything under the sun.  Whether you want a Home Depot gift card or a free night at a participating property, your wish is Wyndham’s command.  They’re also known to do other promotions, including sweepstakes contests for members.

But the point thing isn’t the whole story.  There are other perks associated with the program.  Days Inn, part of the Wyndham family, explains:

Membership has many benefits:

• Receive free room upgrades*
• Relax with early check-in and late check-out*
• Enjoy a free snack and drink
• Earn points that can be redeemed for free night stays and other rewards
• Or earn airline miles with one of our participating airline carriers
• Convenient online booking
• Easy online account access

Those little extras could be pretty darn handy for someone who travels a great deal and when you consider the fact that it’s free to join up, it’s fairly inviting.

You’ll notice that I mentioned the “Wyndham family” of properties.  It’s a big family.  You don’t need to stay at a Wyndham to use your membership.  The collection of participants includes Baymont Suites, Microtel Inn, Ramada, Hawthorn Suites, Howard Johnson’s, Wingate, TravelLodge, Days Inn, Super 8 and Knights Inn.  There are probably others.  You get the idea.  There are many different hotels that are covered in your reward membership.

Of course, not everyone is in love with the reward program.  One gripe, which is common to almost all point-based customer loyalty offerings, is the fact that accumulated points can expire if they’re not used in what the terms of the agreement consider a timely fashion.  In the case of Wyndham, that would appear to be eighteen months.  So, if you’re master plan was to generate a big point total over the course of two full years, you should probably recalibrate your scheme’s details to comport with the program rules.

Would I choose a Wyndham property over a similarly-appointed alternative that was cheaper based on the rewards program alone?  Probably not.  Maybe, if I was really accumulating a sizeable chunk of points, but otherwise…  Nah.

However, if you absolutely LOVE a particular Wyndham variation it makes sense to join.  Likewise, if you’re staying at a Wyndham property on a regular basis because it happens to be the only legitimate option or due to its perfect location for your needs, it makes sense to sign up.  You’re going to be there either way, you might as well get a little lagniappe out of the deal, right?

Me?  I’ll keep low-balling my bids and hoping that I end up with a hotel that isn’t frequented by too many hookers, cockroaches or drunken Shriners.  I’m a gambling man.  If you’re not, consider whether the Wyndham reward program is a good fit for your travel tendencies.

Did you buy a Sony product?  Then Sony loves you.  Sony adores its customers so much that it decided to create a special rewards program designed to lavish freebies and deep discounts on its regular customers.  There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but there may be a free Blu-Ray or a free memory stick in your future if you maintain brand loyalty.

That’s a little tongue in cheek, obviously.  I’m sure Sony is happy for your business and it does operate its reward program in hopes of encouraging to keep buying from them.  The program is not, however, a way for any normal person to stock up on gobs of Sony swag.

Here’s how the reward program works, in a nutshell.  You apply for a special Visa card, the Sony Rewards card.  If you’re approved, you can use that credit card just like any other card in your wallet.  If you use it to buy Sony stuff, you earn points that you can later cash in for discounts and/or free items.

Sony makes the whole thing a little heartier by adding other ways to build your point total if you have a card.  They’ll have special offers where you can secure extra points and it appears as if there’s some kind of deal going on where you can watch Wheel of Fortune and find ways to bump your totals and/or win a prize.  I’ll be honest.  I didn’t pay too much attention to that.  I can’t stand Pat Sajak and Vanna White has always seemed a little creepy to me, even when she was in her 1980s prime.

So, should you apply for that Sony Rewards card and get on the fast track to earning a free Vaio or what?  I tend towards “no”.  Here’s why:

First, it’s another credit card and I think we all know the kind of personal finance troubles unnecessary additional credit cards can produce.  Feel free to ignore that concern if you’re ultra-responsible, capable of paying your bills in a timely fashion (preferably in full), and have a superhuman power to resist the temptation to accumulate stuff you don’t need.  The rest of us need to think about that stuff, though.

Second, the point system itself is primarily designed, it would appear, to give kickbacks to big-time customers.  If you aren’t spending a lot of dough with Sony you aren’t going to get much out of this.  That’s especially true when you realize that you have a brief window in which to accumulate points.  They expire and drop off your account after a year.

Third, the “exchange” rate isn’t that hot.  Sure, it’s nice to get something “for nothing” (cue laugh track), but some Sony Rewards members have groused about the crummy ratio of points to dollars spent and the fact the points don’t pack that much buying power.

That’s why I didn’t rush to fill out an application an it’s why it doesn’t seem like a must-do from where I sit.

There are probably some people who’d love the whole thing.  If you’re a Sony addict who spends a boatload of money on Sony products and wants even more of them, this could work out for you (assuming you have that whole previously-mentioned credit card thing under control).  

I have some Sony stuff.  Some of it I really like.  I tend to buy more gadgetry and electronics than I need, too.  Nonetheless, I wasn’t all that impressed with the Sony Reward program.  

Whaddya think about that, Miss Vanna White?  Huh?

When I was a kid, Papa Lampsen made me work around the house and yard in exchange for an allowance.  I was forced to sock away a portion of that nominal payment into a savings account.  I could carry the rest of it around in my pocket.  If I ran out of money before my next “payday”, I didn’t buy anything.

At some point, Papa Lampsen advised me to go get a job.  I did.  Every two weeks, I’d go to the bank with my measly paycheck.  A percentage of it went into that savings account.  The rest went into my pocket.  If I ran out of money before the next payday, I didn’t buy anything.

Simple.  And it worked.

But now we’re a decade into the 21st Century and the idea of kids using actual cash money is apparently completely unrealistic and/or unsafe.  The 21st Century solution is kiddy plastic.

We have just enough grip on common sense not to give kids a Discover card with a $5,000 limit and to set them loose in the local shopping mall.  Well, most of us do.  Instead, the fine people at Visa offer an alternative that many people apparently find reasonable.  It’s called Visa Buxx.

Basically, it’s a preloaded debit card.  You toss some cash on it and hand it over to the munchkin (ages 13+).  The kid can use the card like a regular Visa until he or she spends all the money deposited into the account.  The parent has control over the account and access to all records via the Internet.  Visa Buxx will tell you when and where your kid is spending money.

Those offering Visa Buxx make it sound like such a great idea.  It’s “just like” a real card, but you can’t screw up your whole life with it.  That doesn’t come until they start signing your little bundle of joy up for the real deal ten minutes after you drop them off at State U.  The parent has control over the account and you can use the tracking information and purchase records to sit down with your child to discuss money management.

I would need to sit in a silent room with a pen and paper for three days to think of anything more unnecessary than Visa Buxx.  The last time I checked, the stores kids “need” to visit take cash.  And it really is just about impossible to spend more cash than you actually have.  Trust me, I’ve tried.  Mama and papa can still have heart-to-hearts about money management without Visa’s handy online user interface.

But it isn’t just the lack of necessity that turns me off.  It’s the fact that there is a very real downside to this handy piece of kiddy plastic.  Consider the following:

The issuers will beat the heck out of you and your kid with fees.  One bank’s version of Visa Buxx is subject to no less than fifteen different fees and charges.  Others aren’t quite as oppressive, but you’re still losing money on the deal.

Visa Buxx appears to be a way of desensitizing young people to making credit purchases.  An interesting New York Times article explains why these parent-approved cards might just be a stepping stone to eventual consumer debt.  And we all know how well that credit card debt thing has been working out for people.

There’s nothing magical about converting presidential portraits into a credit card clone.  Your kids don’t need Visa Buxx to function in society or to learn about how spending works in the real world.  I rarely say this, but I think Papa Lampsen was onto something back when I was a kid.

If there’s a single thread that connects virtually all Internet users, it is hatred for PayPal.

Seriously, even people who receive the bulk of their income via PayPal transactions and who’ve never had a single serious issue with them harbor a dark animosity.  Sometimes, a person can’t help to think that PayPal only continues marching on because it doesn’t have a major competitor.

The weird thing is that they DO have a competitor.  And it’s the biggest, nastiest rival one could have.  Google.  Google checkout was supposed to become the PayPal killer.  That didn’t happen.

Now there’s another hope for those who’d like to see PayPal die (or who would at least appreciate a widely-used alternative).  It’s Revolution Money Exchange.

RME was funded by some big names like Goldman Sachs and Citibank back before the days of TARP and recession.  It has well-known folks like Steve Case on the letterhead and it offers something that should be utterly irresistible–fee-free online transactions.

When you set up an account with RME, you’re really setting up a little checking account with an actual FDIC insured bank out of South Dakota.  We’re living the post 9/11 banking world, so that means you’re going to need to pony up identifying info, a Social Security Number, etc. to get started.  Once you have all of your ducks in a row and have gone through the account verification process, you can start buying, selling, and transfering money to other RME members online.

There’s an issue here, though.  Despite the fact that the system has been up and running for awhile, there aren’t that many people hopping aboard.  That’s the case even though Revolution Money Exchange shelled out big bucks in order to induce sign ups.  They offered free $25 credits and were paying referring affiliate $10 per new sign-up.

Why isn’t RME getting real traction?  

1.  It’s up against PayPal.  Everyone may have a grip about PayPal, but everyone also knows that they’re the real deal and won’t evaporate overnight.

2.  The eBay factor.  The biggest single online marketplace in the world is still eBay, and the auction site won’t back RME as a payment method.  It’s hard to overestimate the importance of that limitation with respect to widespread acceptance.

3.  Protection is lacking.  PayPal’s mehods of protecting buyers and sellers from deals gone sour are lousy, inconvenient and often hamfistedly applied.  But some protection is better than none.  The best I can tell, RME doesn’t have procedures in place to handle bum deals.

4.  Customer service issues.  I don’t know if anyone else is going through this kind of thing, but if they are…  Well, it doesn’t look good for RME.

So, is Revolution Money Exchange a PayPal killer?  It doesn’t look that way.  Absent finding an eBay foothold (fat chance) and taking care of some other significant issues, RME seems destined to fall far short of dethroning the big PP.  

With big names and big money behind it, however, it might find a niche in the marketplace.  I don’t know how excited RME would be to have a user roster consisting of people who’ve been banned by PayPal, but there is a definite market niche out there to service those who aren’t on good terms with the major player.  Even if only a few major sites latch on to RME as an exclusive payment service, it might be able to limp along indefinitely.

If you’re a Disney buff or if you have kids, you’re gonna eventually find yourself schlepping off to either Florida or California to do the whole “Disney vacation” thing.  Well, some folks will find other diversions, I suppose, but a lot of us realized long before the station wagon pulled into the parking lot that a Disney trip was part of our destiny.

Once upon a time, that meant you were heading toward LA and would be spending a few days at Disneyland.  Then, Roy Disney turned Walt’s big ol’ chunk of Florida land into Walt Disney World.  He undoubtedly exceeded the high expectations of his brother, creating a truly massive complex that dwarfs the original California offering.

Disney World got so big and garnered so much attention that Walt’s original creation started to recede into the shadows.  Everyone still knew about Disneyland, but everyone wanted to go to Orlando for the BIG PARK.

I’ve got nothing against Disneyworld and I’m constantly amazed at how many things they have going on in the Orlando area, but I’m going to stick up for Disnelyland.  It’s the original.  It’s more manageable.  It’s become more affordable.  And  it’s a lot of fun.

The great thing is that you can walk down Main Street USA or zip around the “It’s a Small World” ride in California for a fraction of the price you’re going to spend in Florida.  You can also build a vacation that features Disney action but that doesn’t rely exclusively upon it to fill two weeks.  The California park is so much more manageable, while Florida is a little like visiting a Smithsonian of family fun.  There’s too much to suck in quickly.

If you line up one of the many great Disneyland package deals out there, the trip west makes even more sense.  These specially-assembled deals combine everything you need during your stay in and around the original Magic Kingdom and that bundling creates some fantastic bargains.

Take this package for instance:

“A Good Neighbor Hotel vacation offers a stay at a nearby hotel, preferred seating at selected attractions in Disney’s California Adventure® Park and more. The Disneyland® Resort Good Neighbor Hotels really are “neighbors” to the Disneyland® Resort.”

Sounds pretty good, right?  I bet it sounds even better when you find out that the package costs less than $300 per person.  The same site had some other exceptional deals for those who wanted to stay on-site at the Grand California or some of the other very nice Disney hotel properties.

In many cases, you can snag even better deals by hitting Disneyland during the off-season.  More bang for your buck if you’re willing to shake hands with Mickey in November (Don’t worry, it’s not like your in Duluth or anything.  No frostbite risk at all).

Whatever you do, make a point of shopping for Disneyland package deals before you start making plans and reservations on an ala carte basis.  You really can save a small fortue on your Disney experience by bundling the stuff you need into one deal.  Some of the packages can get interesting, too, with features like gift cards to the shops and meal plans for every member of the family.

If you can just feel in your bones that you will eventually be scheduling a family Disney vacation, think twice about going to the Sunshine state.  You can get all the Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Pluto you can handle in Anaheim, and Disneyland package deals make for a cheap trip.

Spring has sprung.  It’s official, were out of winter and into spring.  So will someone please explain to me why giant swaths of the country are being inundated with snow?  It’s bad enough to deal with the stuff during the short days of December.  Being forced to shovel the driveway a week before baseball’s opening day is enough to make a guy sick.

And cold.  Which is why I’m making a giant pot of chili tomorrow.  The nippy winds that portend a snowy catastrophe in the morning have also persuaded me to brew a pot of coffee.  And that brings us to the topic of saving money on coffee.

New York Magazine proclaims that “Even the smallest changes in your coffee habit can save hundreds of dollars a year.”  If you guzzle the stuff the way we do around here, I’m willing to wager that your price differential could easily be that significant.  It’s one of those things that multiplies its way into significance.  You have coffee every day.  That means a buck-a-day change suddenly becomes $365.  If you’re wearing a wedding ring, you might be able to double your number.

So, let’s talk about a few ways to start saving money on coffee.

First, if you’re going to buy it from a store, buy it from a cheap store.  Resist the urge to leave a picture of Lincoln behind when you can stop at the spot around the corner and drop two Washingtons.  You want the convenience of having someone else make your joe?  That’s great.  That doesn’t, however, mean that you have to go to a notoriously overpriced place to do it.  Go Dunkin Donuts over Starbucks.  Stop at Generic Diner instead of Ooh La La Beans.  Hey, WaWa and QuikTrip can both make a good pot of coffee, too.  

Second, once you’ve found a cheap joint to serve you that morning cup of “get up and go”, find out if they have a customer loyalty thing happening.  If they do, join up.  If you can get one of those little coffee cards that they punch every time you buy a cup, eventually qualifying you for a freebie, you should take advantage of the opportunity.

Third, if you’re brewing at home, look into reusable filters.  Yes, you pay more for them up front.  In the long run, though, you save some money.  There’s the whole reduced environmental impact to consider, too.  It’s sort of like those new super-duper lightbulbs:  You spend more out of pocket in order to do a good thing while setting yourself up for future savings.  

Fourth, stop thinking in terms of “if” you’re brewing at home and start doing it.  Even folks who brew their own coffee using pretty nice machines and those overpriced pods of coffee end up saving gobs of money.  I’ve seen people estimate their costs for home brew at somewhere between 10 and 30 cents per cup.  Compare that to a several-dollar coffee from the coffee shop and start doing the multiplication.  If I can’t convince you, maybe Martinique from QueerCents can.  You should make your own coffee!

Fifth, if you’re the only coffee drinker in the house, you should consider going with one of those single-cup brewers.  Youwon’t waste the coffee that way and fewer coffee buying trips is an easy way to start saving on coffee.  Don’t worry, the age of the lousy one-cup brewer is over.  This equipement rpoduces good coffee.

There you have it.  

And those five ideas are just a fraction of the possibilities.  Smart shopping, liquid portion control, coupon cutting, making the switch to tea and several other options exist, too.  

I’ve got a fresh pot of very good homemade coffee available to me right now.

Let it snow!  As long as Juan Valdez and his donkey can make it around, I’m OK with it.