Last weekend was another gig with the ten-piece band I play with. And another charity auction with bargains to be had. After the full-contact silent auction had come and gone, I was the proud owner of a brand-new Keurig Elite for $80. I was nearly 100% sure that this model went for over $100. It … Read more
I received a question in a comment on one of my more popular posts that describes how to figure out how much gold jewelry is worth. Here’s the question: What is the dollar worth of an 18″, 14-karat, 14.38 gram weight gold chain? No formulas please. Before working out the answer, it’s important first to … Read more
Food and drinks out of vending machines are sold at ridiculous mark-ups, but sometimes that extra bit of concentration that a snack or a soda is what’s needed to get through the mid-afternoon slump — that time when the brain is screaming “nap” and the stomach is yelling “feed me.” Unfortunately, the cooking facilities at … Read more
If you have at least one website going that has any kind of user interaction whatsoever — heck, if you have an e-mail address — then you’ve had the pleasure of dealing with spammers. It’s always going to be a cat-and-mouse game with spam comments, e-mail, user registrations, trackbacks, etc. I’ve had to extricate this … Read more
MSN MoneyCentral has produced a list of ten things that people waste money on every day. I agree that, most of the time, the items on this list are money-wasters. There are always exceptions though. Here are my comments on the list: Lottery tickets. The odds of winning the big prize are astronomical. What’s more, … Read more
Starting a website up in “spare time” with the purpose of developing expertise and getting a Plan B going is a great idea. The Plan A job can go away at any time. Actually, doing just about anything that provides a product or service — whether it’s holding a sign or painting numbers on curbs … Read more
Bart, over at the Personal Finance and Money Stack Exchange site, lacks discipline with tracking his finances. He asks: I have had very little success with managing money. I have gone bankrupt once ($50K in credit card debt) and since then I no longer have credit cards (just a debit card) but my spending is … Read more
Halloween is coming up, and you don’t have a costume yet? Fear not! Here are nine quick and easy Halloween costumes that won’t break the bank, and will at least give you a few groans from incredulous passersby. To make it a little more fun, I’ll post the answers in the comments so that you … Read more