We know budgets are important, now a post on ING Direct USA’s We, the Savers blog suggests giving your budget some personality – even a name – to help you stick to it. Check in with Elaine (or whatever your budget is called) before buying.
Shoppers much prefer getting something extra free to getting something cheaper, according to a study cited on The Economist. It says a team of researchers examined consumers’ attitudes to discounting – and found the main reason for the preference for free “is that most people are useless at fractions”.
Author of An Economist Gets Lunch, Tyler Cowan, answers reader questions on Freakonomics. He writes that filling up on vegetables at a college cafeteria is a good idea, as the opportunity cost of eating “bad-tasting but nutritious food is especially low in these circumstances”.
