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
Our Lions Club had a community yard sale a couple of weeks ago. There used to be a bigger selection of things to choose from but we don’t have the same space available to us that we once did, so there aren’t quite as many bigger items. We still get a few, though. I bought … Read more
April 23rd was Tax Freedom Day in the United States this year. That’s the day that your taxes for the year will be paid, assuming that every penny up until that point went to pay taxes. In other words, it’s the day that you stop working for the government and the day you start working … Read more
One of my daily break-time reads is Coding Horror. Jeff Atwood is almost to 100k subscribers on that blog; it’s quite popular. Today Jeff’s post rags on WordPress, the blogging engine that powers this blog as well as all the others my wife and I have. It’s free to use. The user base is very … Read more
Five Cent Nickel had a good discussion on bi-weekly mortgage payment plans. I’ve received these before. The principle is sound: 26 bi-weekly payments of half your (fixed-rate) monthly mortgage payment will indeed pay off your mortgage years ahead of schedule. Basically you’re sneaking in an extra payment per year, and taken a little bit at … Read more
(Fair warning: rant ahead! Check out some really cute puppies or join MyPoints if rants aren’t your thing.) I think I knew that Earth Day was coming up but the real reminder came when I checked Google today. They changed their logo’s primary colors to a happy, huggy lush waterfall scene with a shiny, happy … Read more
I did a Google search on “$600” and the first result was for an article on the “Top Ten Things to Buy With $600.” This is exactly what the powers that be want us to do with our “economic incentive” money, and that’s a misleading, if not downright self-serving, message. I’m certainly not well-heeled enough … Read more
They make $150k per year. There should be a bit of slack in your budget when a couple makes six figures between them, right? I suppose it makes a difference where they live, how much house they have, and possibly other circumstances a bit beyond their control, but $150k per year should give a bit … Read more