After giving myself a giant environmentally-friendly pat on the back for how green it was for me to buy a used washer and dryer, a big hole was pointed out in my argument. I had considered the costs of electricity and manufacturing, but neglected to consider water costs. Commenter “First Step” points this out: I … Read more
What’s more, there are likely a few more appliances that I’d be eager to buy used, even though there are more efficient, “greener” versions being made today. I mentioned in the roundup that we bought a used clothes washer and dryer. We found the advertisement on our local Craigslist, went up, and found the set … Read more
No really, that isn’t a joke: Some people did get bonuses this year, and they weren’t even bank executives! Got a tip to this CNN Money feature on how seven people will spend their year-end bonus. (One of the featured people is Danielle Liss, also known as The Frugal Lawyer.) The bonuses for these seven … Read more
Merry Christmas! We’re at my wife’s parents today celebrating Jesus’s birthday. If you’ve had a lot of snow (as we have) here’s a quick treat if you have some (real) maple syrup around and a candy thermometer: Collect some snow in a bowl. (Make sure the snow is all right, meaning that it’s all white.) … Read more
Getting a bolstered emergency fund is a great idea now. (It usually is, but now especially.) One way to get to a decent cushion is to spend less so that the extra can go into savings. Many kinds of expenses can be cut, but the easiest ones to eliminate are ones that you probably won’t … Read more
We just arrived in West Virginia to visit my wife’s parents and her grandmother who’s visiting them. We’re bringing along a three-month-old puppy that we got a few weeks ago from a friend. We stopped at Five Brothers for dinner and ate outside so that Taffy could get out, too. While we were eating, I … Read more
Cube farms are great for overhearing little bits of random quotable goodness, like this gem from one of my (male) co-workers while he was talking on the phone with his wife (I can only assume): I like to smell like a man, but sometimes I like to smell like a different-smelling man. But this isn’t … Read more
OK, so I’m reading the July, 2009, issue of U.S. News & World Report that my mother-in-law left the last time she visited, and I happen on an article called “Frugal Forever?” written by Kimberly Palmer, senior editor at U.S. News and blogger at Alpha Consumer. (She had several articles in that issue.) The gist … Read more