My dear friend Katie, who I went to high school with a l-o-n-g time ago, asked:

Hey Bargain Queen, can you help with how to become a Budget Queen? I am so in debt!

I must admit this isn’t my greatest strength. I can make money go a long way, I’m practically religious about staying out of debt and I managed with irregular income for a few years — but that’s it. Financial planning and investments aren’t…

I’ve been asked many times whether I think it’s worth spending money on expensive skincare products.

In a way I can’t answer that because it depends on your individual priorities: for some people, skin care is a higher priority than it is for other people.

I can answer the underlying question though: do expensive skincare products do the things they promise?

Read on for the answer.

FrugalForLife has a great guest-post up about sewing. It includes tips on learning to sew, as well as a discussion on the economics of sewing your own clothes. It’s well worth a read if you’d like to save money by making some of your own clothes.

Personally, I can only sew a little and always mean to practice more but never get time. I’m currently having zero luck finding attractive, reasonably priced sleepwear so maybe I’ll…

Thrift stores, op shops and charity shops (the US, Australian and UK terms respectively for basically the same type of store) are brilliant. They’re cheap, environmentally sound, help charities and are a lot of fun if you like a scavenger hunt. Op shopping, as we call it here in Australia, is also a great way to pick up things that noone else has…. and possibly some designer gear as well.

One of my favourite blogs, Punky Style, has a list of web sites with coupons and codes for online shopping. If you’re about to buy something online, take a look — you can often save 5-20% on your purchases just by checking for a coupon.

PS: The Budget Fashionista is another great place to look.

I regularly get emails from readers, asking me about various beauty products. Most of those questions fall into one of two categories:

1. Is this product any good?
2. How much does it cost in Australia?

I’m not a beauty expert by any stretch, but I do know where to find this information if I need it. Since I can’t answer every question individually, I’ll let you in on my sources instead.

I’ve just started following my search logs, which show what people were looking for on this blog. Developing personal style is by far the most common question, so I’ll continue my series on the topic shortly.

There are also lots of quick questions that don’t require a whole blog post, but I’d still like to answer. I’ll address some of the fashion questions first:

Longchamp bags:
Where to find inexpensive ones?
Where to buy them in my city?
Are the ones on ebay fake?

As…

Spring’s first warm breath has just arrived here in Sydney, and I’ve already bought a couple of new pieces to mix in with last year’s summer wardrobe. A couple of weeks ago it was pretty shoes; this week I bought this gorgeous skirt:

One more great find today: shoestringdecorator.com.

I’m especially loving the pictures of great workspaces KatyBeck posted a few days ago. I would LOVE to have something like this in my place!

(Photo: AccidentalJulie)

The irony? I’m online procrastinating. I should be inking drawings that show how my building will look when its repainted… so long as the other owners don’t insist on keeping the current, inappropriate colour scheme. Perhaps it’s time to log off!

…

A couple of reader questions prompted me to write about finding your own personal style. (So far: purchases to avoid, some points to ponder in finding your style and a book recommendation.)

Today I found a new blog called Style Sense. This is how the writer introduced herself:

I’m Tam, a 19 year old girl starting her college life. Along the way, I hope to develop my own personal style and find my own niche in this chaotic…