When I was in cooking school, the instructors made a point that when restaurants want to boost their margins, they cook omelettes, crepes and the like – made with cheap ingredients like eggs and flour. In other words: Brunch. So last week, this post by Eric Wahlgren at DailyFinance caught my eye. Wahlgren reports that brunch at restaurants is up 8.2% for the year, while traffic was actually down 1% for breakfast, 2% for lunch and 4% for dinner.
Brunch has always been a recession-friendly meal, even when we weren’t in a recession. Not only is it typically inexpensive – you can take your family out to brunch for half the cost of going out to dinner, and solicit less glares over your high chair, to boot – but, as the name implies, it combines two meals into one, lowering the strain on your wallet even further.
HOW: Not many people can say they were both fired from their corporate job and started a business in a matter of a week – but Melissa Bushell did just that. “Right after losing my job as an assistant media planner, I jumped into a taxi with tears in my eyes and went straight to my older brother’s office.” Bushell’s brother, Brian, and his business partner, Matt, both entrepreneurs, encouraged Bushell to jump back on the horse and start a business doing something she knew she was good at – baking unique, miniature cupcakes.
“That night, I went home and baked 200 cupcakes,” Bushell says. Her roommate at the time was an intern with a public relations firm, and Bushell had her bring the cupcakes into her office the following day. “The PR firm fell in love with the treats,” Bushell says, More…
As parents, we all seem to struggle a bit when it comes to allowance – how much do we give, how often do we give it, and whether we should dictate, to at least some extent, how it gets spent. Read my take on the subject in this article by Bonnie McCarthy on WalletPop: New Year, new allowance rules for kids.
“I recently discovered that my wife has hidden several thousands of dollars in debt from me. Beating me to the mailbox, sending statements to one of her friend’s homes. I have left the house and wanted some advice on where to start rebuilding if even possible after the deception.” - Jim, California
I hear this all the time, unfortunately. About 2 to 5% of the population can be categorized as compulsive shoppers, and it can have a devastating impact on a marriage. And when it’s done in secret, my friend the psychiatrist Gail Saltz often says, it’s particularly devastating. That’s because there are two betrayals: The hiding of the information and the disregard for the financial life you’ve built together. That said, if your wife is willing to work on the problem you can repair your finances and your marriage.
Financially, your first obligation — and it is a joint obligation since you’re married — is to face the debt and preserve your credit history. Sit down with your wife and More…
This morning’s edition of Money 911 featured a variety of financial questions. What will canceling a high-limit credit card do to your credit score? How can you adjust the payments on a loan? If you missed the answers to these questions and more, watch the segment below.
We all have a special talent we wish we could monetize – maybe you make the best pies in the neighborhood, or your photography skills are prized by your friends. But how do you turn it into a profitable business?
We get this question all the time. And the best advice is always to start small, with little to no overhead. If you can moonlight in your pie-making business on the side, you’ll not only make some extra cash in your spare time, but you’ll get a feel for whether it could actually be a profitable, full-time business down the line.
Luckily, there are all sorts of online tools popping up these days to help you sell the fruits of your labor. In a series of posts on this blog, I’m going to detail some of the best ones, starting with one of my favorite online shopping destinations, Etsy.com. More…
Worried about the changes 2010 might bring to your credit cards? Check out the video below from this morning’s edition of Today’s Money on NBC, where I went over some of the new credit card fees you may be seeing this year.
Here’s what we know so far: Over the past year, the recession has taken a toll on our sex lives, our health, and our sanity.
Here’s what I have to say about that: New year. New decade. New start.
It is time to stop whining about the recession and figure out how you can best participate in the recovery. That means take control of your money if you ceded it to the stress of the last year, or grabbing hold even if you never had all that much control before. (I’m not, by the way, ignoring the still-dismal unemployment picture. If you are out of work, particularly if you have been for a while, the only task on your to-list is finding that next job.) But if you have a job – or you have enough savings to tide you over until you find that next one — I want you to consider the steps below. Each will help you build a more secure – and prosperous – financial life.
Increase your automatic savings. You should be saving 10 percent of every dollar you earn. If you’re not, kick it up right now. And if you can’t get to 10 percent immediately, More…
My new book, Money 911, is so jam-packed with useful information – I wasn’t kidding when I said it answers well over 300 of your money questions – that I did not one, but two segments about it on this morning’s Today show. Here’s the second one, in case you missed it:
You have money questions. I know you do, because they pop up in my inbox throughout the day. And I answer many of them, either through my syndicated newspaper column or with a panel of colleagues on our weekly Money 911 segment on NBC’s Today.
But it’s still not good enough, especially in these economic times, when many of your questions have likely become – or are on the verge of becoming – emergencies. So I came up with the idea for a book, also called Money 911, that answers every question I’ve ever been asked, and then some.
This book is a bit different from my others, in that it is intended to be a reference guide, and has been carefully indexed so you can flip to the section you need and absorb the information. Trying to decide whether to refinance your mortgage? Turn to page 184. Want to learn the best way to negotiate the price on that new television? Page 121 has the answer. Looking for life insurance? You’ll find all you need to know to select the best policy for you on page 255. All in all, you’ll find the answers to well over 300 questions, along with resources – other books, organizations, web sites and government agencies – that I’ve carefully vetted, in case you need to learn even more.
When I was in cooking school, the instructors made a point that when restaurants want to boost their margins, they cook omelettes, crepes and the like – made with cheap ingredients like eggs and flour. In other words: Brunch. So last week, this post by Eric Wahlgren at DailyFinance caught my eye. Wahlgren reports that brunch at restaurants is up 8.2% for the year, while traffic was actually down 1% for breakfast, 2% for lunch and 4% for dinner.
WHO: Melissa Bushell
Here’s what we know so far: Over the past year, the recession has taken a toll on our 
You have money questions. I know you do, because they pop up in my inbox throughout the day. And I answer many of them, either through my syndicated newspaper column or with a panel of colleagues on our weekly 
