Really good-tasting water for free

This may not be a revelation to many of you but natural spring water can taste really, really good. We and my wife’s parents have recently begun stopping off at a natural spring just off of Route 55 near the Virginia-West Virginia border. We had made a number of trips before that and we always … Read more

All you can eat? Yah right!

I’d heard anecdotes of people being asked to leave all-you-can-eat buffets because, well, they eat too much, but apparently it’s starting to happen (or has been happening, and I just haven’t heard about it).  I found this article via Clever Dude, and apparently there was some flak between some customers and a restaurant owner when … Read more

Carpooling for fun and profit

Carpooling to work has always been a good idea but with gas prices on the rise it’s more appealing than ever.  Other terms for carpooling are ride-sharing, lift-sharing, or slugging (kinda, at least around DC).  Advantages?  Here are a few: Lower gasoline cost.  The single most important consideration. Lower vehicle maintenance cost.  Driving less means … Read more

Kitty litter to the rescue!

No, seriously — it works really well at getting rid of smoke odor. I bought a collection of California Raisin figurines at a yard sale for a decent price. They were a little dirty but they’re durable, so they withstood scrubbing to get the grime off. Then I smelled the cigarettes. The woman who sold … Read more

Yard sale finds for today

We hit a few yard sales and a flea market this morning. There were a bunch of good deals, but space is getting tight in our house, so we have to really have a purpose for the things we buy or be able to “turn the merchandise” quickly. So here’s what we found and the … Read more

Attack college expenses from the other end by growing up sooner

Free Money Finance commented on a Kiplinger’s article which gives guidelines on how much college debt is too much.  It boils down to investment and payoff: the higher the expected payoff (increased salary) the higher the investment should be (college expenses and/or college debt). This is reasonable advice, assuming a traditional career path and a … Read more