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Money CAN Buy Happiness

Can Money Buy You Happiness? We live in an extreme society. A society where we can find the morbidly obese and the fatally thin, both by personal choice and volition. A society where there are those that work eighty hours a week while there are those that refuse to work any. A society of ultraconservatives

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Meet DreamGirl Marissa, Candle Maker and Founder of Scents By Francesca

Marissa and I met while we studied abroad at the University of Legon, Ghana- almost thirteen years ago. Always the quiet, intense, and principled type, Marissa always sought purpose and meaning out of life. And me, never tired of deepening my understanding of how I fit into the rhyme and rhythm of this   world,

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Why Cutting The Cable Will Save My Marriage (and Us Money)

Before I got married, I used to hear women talk about how hard it was to keep the passion going and the juices flowing in a marriage.  I never understood what they meant, though. Not that I believed that the love in their marriages wasn’t real, I just (naively) thought the passion that my husband and

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Five Oprah “Aahaa” Lessons I Picked Up: Shopping In My Closet Update Weeks 4 and 5

January is officially over and the Shopping In My Closet Challenge has been 95% successful. On January 31st, I spent $20 on a couple of tops to replace the ones that I had to throw out because they were getting shabby. Despite that trip, I feel completely renewed and I believe that my relationship with

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Meet DreamGirl Joanne Hillhouse: Author of Oh Gad!

There is NO question about whether or not I am a black woman, but the question of my identity is a COMPLETELY different subject all together. Depending on when you ask me,why you ask me, or who is asking I may answer the questions “What are you?” or “What’s your background?” with any of the

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The Budget and The Bride: 8 Ways To Start A Financially Fluid Marriage

It took two years before I finally walked down the aisle.  I loved my fiancé, but I just wasn’t ready. “Ready” had nothing to do with “cold feet.”  “Ready”, for me, had everything to do with being financial positioned to absorb the cost of a wedding. I had spent the larger part of my twenties

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Single and Saving In the City

They say “love don’t cost a thing”, but we all know that dating sure does. Keeping an active social life while guarding your long-term financial goals such as property ownership, zero debt, advanced study, and a secure retirement don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Incorporate a couple of these “single and saving in the city”

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Get Your Money Mindset Right: 27 Ways To Keep You On Track to Living The ‘Fabulous N’ Frugal’ Lifestyle

I have to admit that I am a self-help buff  freak. :). I love the idea of looking within with the goal of leaving better than when I chartered out…moving some stuff in, throwing some stuff out, collapsing this, expanding that… you get the hint. But, here is the caveat about self-help. It does not

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Meet DreamGirl damali abrams: Video and Performance Artist

damali and I have been friends for over a decade and for as long as I have known her, she has been an artist– fixed on giving her thoughts a voice through various media. She is as fiercely political as she is artistic and the dance that the two do is evident in her work.

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How Getting A Life Kept Me Out of the Mall: Shopping In My Closet Challenge Update Week 3

Good Morning Frugalistas! I am sorry for having not updated my progress and struggle with shopping in my closet–but I have been busy having an active civic and social life– which I think is the main reason why shopping in my closet was so easy this week. As I mentioned last week, I realized that

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