On the way home from town this past weekend, we passed a farm that was going to be sold at auction. My wife saw that the sale was an absolute auction. She asked me what was so great about an absolute auction. When she said that, my ears perked up. An absolute auction implies that … Read more
Just when I was all excited about my cheap exercise bike, my wife comes in to show me a postcard that’s announcing the opening of a YMCA in our county this fall. The membership is $69/month for a family membership. Over eight hundred a year. She wanted to get a membership for a number of … Read more
Our daughter has a lot of food allergies that place a lot of restrictions on her diet. A corn allergy takes out a lot of foods, as does dairy. Many of the restaurants we go to don’t have much of anything that our daughter is able to eat. This leaves us with a few options: … Read more
JLP at All Financial Matters asked his readers how they handle cold calls from charities. Is there a way to handle these kinds of calls gracefully when there’s no interest in giving to the charity? JLP asks: “How do you say no to legitimate calls for help without feeling guilty?” I’m not anti-charity and we … Read more
We’ve come to enjoy Amazon Prime. (For those not familiar, Amazon Prime is all-you-can-eat 2-day shipping, plus a lot of other stuff, for a single price.) We’ve mentioned this before, but our daughter has a number of food allergies that make some of her staple foods pretty expensive. Ukrop’s is kind to us and lets … Read more
Our three-year-old daughter is a very smart, articulate, generally considerate, always cute three-year-old. With her articulateness also comes backtalk, sometimes incessant talking and demanding of attention, and vocal displeasure when the winds aren’t blowing her way. Our current modes of discipline only seem to have limited effect, so my wife and I were talking about … Read more
Just because an organization is tax-exempt doesn’t mean that donations to that organization are tax-deductible. The Internal Revenue Code lists dozens of types of organizations that are exempt from paying federal income tax. Some of these organizations can accept tax-deductible donations, but others can’t. Our Lions Club recently tracked down specifically what kind of organization … Read more
My wife and I are munching on some popcorn that I bought from one of my colleagues, whose son is in the Boy Scouts. The quality of the popcorn is fine. The bags don’t open quite as easily as other commercial microwave brands. A variety 30-pack of these was $30, which works out to one … Read more