Northern Cheapskate featured in Star Tribune

For those who don't know, my wife Christina is the Northern Cheapskate, blogging about family budgeting, money-saving tips and personal finance. She got a great write-up in Kara McGuire's Star Tribune "Ka Ching" column in the Money section today. Check it out. Here's the setup, which is followed by several specific tips that Christina suggested for families to save money:

Several of the best ideas came from Christina Brown, also known as the Northern Cheapskate (www.northerncheapskate.com).

She's traded her career as an academic adviser to be a full-time mom whose new job includes not only taking care of her 2-year-old and 10-month-old sons, but also stretching dollars. "As my toddler says, 'Daddy makes money, mommy saves it,' " she said.

7 random things

I don't normally play along with crazy Internet forward games but since this one came from my wife (the Northern Cheapskate), and she knows all our account numbers while I don't, I'll play along with this one.

Here's the game. I've been tagged to share seven random facts about myself on my blog. At the end, I'll "tag" other people.

1) I would trade everything I know about politics and history for rhythm.

2) I used to smoke. One time, when I smoked, I bought this really tacky plastic lighter that was in the shape of a woman wearing a slinky evening gown. I used to smoke Winstons on the deck overlooking a small forest behind a radio station where I worked. One night, something in the lady lighter malfunctioned and it burst into flames in my hand, so I hurled her into the woods. If it hadn't been raining that night it easily would have started a forest fire that probably would have destroyed a nearby car dealership.

3) I have the lower body of a 28-year-old runner and the upper body of a 48-year-old Russian playwright.

4) I got married at age 20.

5) We had three boys within a two year span.

6) My first alcoholic drink was consumed illegally in a bar at age 18 while shaking the hand of my state's attorney general.

7) An agenda of a 1999 Clarke College faculty association meeting included an item entitled "The Aaron Brown Situation." (I had put up a web site called the "Clarke College Communist Party" or CCCP as a protest against some tyranny of the moment; the next year I transferred to a public school).

I don't quite understand how the tagging system works, so I'll just ask the many anonymous readers who have visited lately to have their way with the comments section. Name seven random facts about yourself!

Brown on the Air times Two: Northern Cheapskate Saturday!

It's been a rough week. Normally, when I tell you what I'll be doing for the Saturday "Between You and Me" program on KAXE I've already written, recorded and edited the piece. This week, I have done none of those three things. But I do know the topic and it is close to home, believe me.

This week, "Between You and Me" will feature the Northern Cheapskate talking about bargains and budgeting in Minnesota's north woods. The Northern Cheapskate is, of course, my wife Christina Brown. She blogs at http://www.northerncheapskate.com/ and also records radio segments for KAXE. My traditional Saturday essay will explore the topic of what it's like to be married to the Northern Cheapskate. I have comprehensive notes on the subject, but haven't put it all to paper yet. You'll have to tune in Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon to hear Christina join host Heidi Holtan and callers from around the region to talk about saving money.

The show will be streaming online at www.kaxe.org.

Brown on the Air: Winter Wonderland

The long Christmas weekend begins Saturday with the topic of KAXE's "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE: Winter Wonderland. We northern Minnesotans live in just such a wonderland. My essay is about how recent unusual winters have been a drag for our local snow enthusiasts. Only it's supposed to be funnier than how I just described it. Trust me.

Tune in Saturday between 10 a.m. and noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota, or streaming online at http://www.kaxe.org/.

Also, tune in to KAXE Monday morning for my wife Christina's second segment of "The Northern Cheapskate" on KAXE at 6:50 and 8:50 a.m. She's developing quite a following for her nuggets of rural frugality and personal finance knowledge. She's great at this stuff and is the entire reason we live on a lake instead of instead of inside a culvert.

Savin' some bucks; keepin' it in the family

Check out Christina's new blog, Northern Cheapskate. Unlike my undisciplined, eclectic blog, Christina focuses on a specific topic: living frugally in the north woods. She talks about her experiments in running our household more efficiently, money-saving ideas and resources for trimming the family budget. She's a whiz at this stuff and her blog is clever, fun and useful. And she never, ever talks about Range politics or energy issues.

That's Northern Cheapskate ... part of the Brown family of time-stealing blogs.