19 guides. Showing 1–12.
I ran both budgeting frameworks side by side for three months on the same income. Here's the real numbers, the one rule that broke immediately, and the hybrid I actually use now.
A weekend leak audit, three $4 fixes from the hardware store, and one phone call to the city. The exact 30-day plan that knocked $33 a month off a US water bill, with the things that actually moved the needle.
An itemized bill, four phone calls, and a phrase the billing department actually responds to. The exact script for negotiating a US hospital bill, with the line items that almost always come off.
A real list of sinking fund categories I tried for 12 months, with the dollar amounts I actually saved into each, the ones that paid off, and the ones I'm killing in 2026.
A dumb-simple rule that cut my impulse spending by about $90 a month with zero willpower. Here's the exact setup, the numbers from three months of running it, and the two times I broke it on purpose.
Costco for one person sounds insane until you do the math. I tracked six months on a Gold Star membership. Here's the 9-item list that earned the $65.
I'm one person in a 480 sq ft studio. I joined Sam's Club for a year. Here's what paid for the $50 membership and what rotted in my fridge.
A manual burr grinder under $100 beats every electric in the same price band. We tested the Timemore C2, 1Zpresso Q2 and the rest side by side.
A four-month freezer experiment on the ground beef price spike. What drives it, which substitutes actually hold up, and where the cheapest pounds live.
How balance transfers actually work, the math that decides if the fee pays off, and the tripwires that leave half of people worse off. One sticky note.
Six weeks, five moka pots, one $5-a-day coffee shop habit. We ranked the stovetop espresso makers that actually replace the cafe cup and which fall flat.
Rakuten, Ibotta, Fetch, Upside, Coupert. We tested each on real purchases and ranked the ones that still pay out in 2026 and the ones that do not.