I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but mattress sales on Memorial Day are ubiquitous across the United States. Then, there are the home good sales. And the linen sales. And the lawn furniture. And the list goes on. While I have nothing against scoring a bargain on something you actually need, no one should … [Read more…]
Bow, curtsy, tap toes, wave, smile, nod. These are just some of the handshake alternatives that are enjoying their turn in the limelight. There are also peace signs, Spock signs, salutes, air high-fives. If you’re my middle school students, you might just take to greeting one another with a squirt of hand sanitizer. (Actually, don’t … [Read more…]
“No one has time any more for anyone else.” The words sat there, just a few pages into our novel study of Fahrenheit 451. My breath caught in my throat. I’ve read those very words over a dozen times, but this year, they read differently. In 1953, Bradbury predicted many things. From screens that interact … [Read more…]
Over the past year, I received two remarkable gestures from two Internet heroes. While I’ve certainly thought about their actions, I haven’t quite been able to find the words to tell the stories. I’m still not sure I have those words. But I want to share their gestures now for two reasons. I want to … [Read more…]
“But what’s the point of not really buying anything all the time if we don’t do this?” A comment my husband made while we were mapping out our summer plans stopped me in my tracks. Once again, I forgot the why of frugality. We were knee deep in the middle of ideas–literally. Our dining room … [Read more…]
Every holiday, my nana and I had the exact same fight. She would give me more money than I knew she could afford, and I would spend the rest of the time she was visiting us trying to strategically hide it in her purse. If she happened to write a check, it was much simpler. … [Read more…]
Weekends are hard for me. Sundays in particular. No, I don’t dread going back to work the next day. The problem is that the weekends are a chance to slow down. Sometimes. And when I do slow do, I spend time catching up. Often times, I’ll read posts like “How to Pay Off $100K in … [Read more…]
Personal finance is about spending. There. I said it. Of course, saving and investing matter. But so does spending. It’s all about making money work to meet our needs, fulfill our wants, and achieve our dreams. While I could drum up a really romantic notion for this post about how the best money I’ve spent … [Read more…]
For this post, I thought I’d change things up a bit. Think of it as the awkward vacation edition. Generally, these posts are a recap of how people in my life question our money-saving choices. Since I’m writing this cozied up to the Pacific Ocean in Costa Rica–seriously, our hotel’s wifi stretches all the way … [Read more…]
I hate our mortgage. And I probably always will. The fact that we own so little of our home yet foot all the repair bills was maddeningly frustrating last week when our furnace started acting up to the tune of $600. But after clicking through Tim Urban’s “The Tail End”, I realize that maybe I’ve … [Read more…]