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Monthly Archives: July 2010
31 things … redux!
Yay, to my friend Heather who reminded me that last year, to mark my 31st birthday, I had a list of things that I planned to accomplish in my 31st year. Let’s see how I did. The asterisked portion is my 32-year-old perspective on what the younger me had planned to do. 1. Lose 31 pounds. Hell, I should lose more, but 31 sounds like a reasonable number. (**Um, no. I think I went backwards on this goal. But I … Continue reading
Posted in Everyday Living
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The thrill of a new year
I should have entitled this “the thrill of a new year … and more dental problems.” In good news? I turned 32 on Saturday. I like odd numbered years, but I like even numbered ones even better. (Hell, every year that I’m breathing is a good year.) Bad news? The twinge in my jaw that started on Saturday morning turned into a full blown toothache yesterday. And although it’s feeling better today, I need to remind myself that it’s because … Continue reading
Posted in Debt Reduction
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The importance of reading fine print
This is the first Saturday in awhile that my husband and I have been home. The morning found us in front of our computers reading our favorite news sources and columns, but then we took advantage of our down time … and then we started cleaning. While going through papers that I was intending to shred for the compost bin, I found a letter from my bank. And while I usually just give this mail a cursory glance before filing … Continue reading
Giveaway Alert! Free Road Trip Guides
I saw this article today on Yahoo.com – Lonely Planet is giving away free U.S. roadtrip guides that you can download from their Facebook page. I have a note to myself to write some tips on taking an excellent, yet frugal, roadtrip, but what could be better than a free guidebook to direct you to different places?
Kids’ questions about money
First off … the disclaimer: I don’t have kids, unless you count that four-legged beast of a cat who thinks that he is human. So I’m just throwing this out there because this recent column in the New York Times spurred a pretty decent amount of debate and conversation between readers and the post’s author. Ron Lieber writes a column for the New York Times called “Your Money.” Recently, he posted an item “Kids’ Money Questions: Why Don’t We Have … Continue reading
Posted in Good Reading, Inane articles
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Cheap eats – Grilling vs. Going Out
Here’s the scene from last night: It’s a Friday night in my home. It’s a Friday after a very long week (ironic, considering that we had Monday off to celebrate the holiday). And there was a part of me that really, really, really wanted to tell my husband that I was going to blow off cooking for the night and that I really wanted to go out for dinner. Somewhere nice – not our normal pizza joint. But I remembered … Continue reading
Posted in Debt Reduction
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It’s a (cheap) wrap!
I had to share this cheap, reusable idea for wrapping gifts. One of my coworkers recently broke her leg, so a bunch of us pitched in some funds to buy her a couple of gift certificates and some wine for her recovery (because when you have a broken leg, there’s nothing like a little merlot.). Anyway – it fell to me to wrap our gift and I’ll be honest. When gift bags were introduced into society, it was one of … Continue reading
The dreaded “b” word
I have been married to my husband for over a year, have been his roommate for nearly three years and have known the man since college (over 10 years), but the relevant portion of this article is the three years that we’ve lived together and have struggled and failed to create a budget. Sure, I have a mental tally of where my money needs to go in my head, as does my husband – but have we ever sat down … Continue reading
Posted in Debt Reduction
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DIY Edition: Topsy Tuvrys out of recycled materials
Sorry that it took me a bit to post these photos, but I finally made my own Topsy Turvys using recycled milk jugs and an orange juice carton. The inspiration for this came from here. In addition to liberating my recycling, the supports are constructed out of bamboo skewers and I used regular kitchen string to hang the entire ensemble. So far, the orange juice topsy turvy is the lamest (literally and figuratively) out of my experiment. The milk cartons … Continue reading
Posted in Debt Reduction, Everyday Living
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Summer Reading Lists
I grew up on a farm that wasn’t quite in the middle of nowhere but was 10 miles from the closest town. So while many of my peers spent the summers at our city’s park or in the municipal swimming pool, I spent a lot of summers in the treehouse that my father built for my brother and I, a can of pop near my elbow and a book in my hands. I would burn through a ton of books … Continue reading
Posted in Everyday Living, Good Reading
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