budget

It's one thing to use Photoshop to make your waistline look slimmer in your snapshots. Many people also take a distorted view of their finances, fooling themselves about the health of their balance sheets. Here are some common self-deceptions.

U.S. credit card debt shrank 5% in the second quarter from a year ago, approaching 10-year lows. It's not just due to banks, which have written off uncollectible debts. Learn how consumers are taking control of their finances and how you can too.

As the federal super committee looks for $1.5 trillion in cuts, it's clear that fixing the federal budget will mean tackling big items -- including Medicare, America's most popular social program and one of its most expensive.

She may specialize in dating for millionaires, but The Millionaire Matchmaker's Patti Stanger also knows how to have a good time on the cheap. Here's her advice for planning fun dates on a budget.

Some women are in charge of the household budget – and prefer to keep it that way – while other ladies delegate the responsibility of managing household finances to their significant other. Regardless of whether you're a single woman who's steering your own finances, or are running an...

The U.S. Postal Service released a list of nearly 3,700 post offices that it will consider shuttering. The USPS lost more than $2.2 billion last quarter, and has warned that it will run out of money in September, so such closures are probably inevitable.

The U.S. economy is still sputtering, and household budgets are still under pressure. So where are we cutting: Fancy coffee? Check. Eating out? You bet. But there are a few things that once would have been considered luxuries the recent poll shows Americans just aren't willing to do without.

People may be willing to change, but there's always going to be a line in the sand. As much as the Great Recession has caused Americans to give new sanctity to saving, some sacrifices they are simply not willing to make. According to the June Financial Literacy Opinion Index poll hosted on the...

When it comes to the the state of their family finances, Americans seem to be moving toward the "acceptance" stage. Some of us think our own household scenarios will get better in the coming year, some of us dread things getting worse, but mostly, we expect more of the same.

It's a contentious personal finance debate: To stay out of debt and get rich, should we focus on controlling our small purchases, or put most of our effort into making the big gains in areas like earnings? DailyFinance asks three of the Web's most popular personal finance bloggers for their views.