Remember when you were a kid how gigantic everything seemed?
This past winter, we used the kids-eye-view to great effect by turning an odd, oversized closet, tucked behind our dining room, into their new play room (yes, it needs paint).
My husband and I can barely turn around in this room.
But my five- and two-year-old think it [...]
Entries from April 27th, 2009
Stuck in Your House? Find New Uses for Wasted Space
April 27th, 2009 No Comments
Tags: Frugal hacks · makeover · wasted space
Insider Grocery Store Tips
April 26th, 2009 No Comments
From the blog Free Money Finance, here’s the best article I’ve read yet on saving money at the grocery store, written by a grocery store staffer as a guest post.
Enjoy!
Tags:
Creating a Budget for Irregular Expenses
April 24th, 2009 No Comments
It looks like we’ve finally whittled our monthly expenses down to a level where we’ll have from *$1600-$1900 left over at the end of each month.
(*Much of that money will pay for somewhat more irregular but predictable expenditures like hair cuts, clothes, and saving for vacation or gifts.)
We just played around with numbers last night, [...]
Tags: budgeting for · irregular expenses · non-monthly
Et tu, Tivo? Curse of Broken Stuff Continues
April 22nd, 2009 3 Comments
Image by stevegarfield via Flickr
Tivo is busted.
It’s been giving us fair warning, acting flaky for weeks. So we scheduled a service call, set for Monday morning. Meanwhile, DirecTV sent us robo calls over the weekend cheerfully advising us that a problem in our area had been fixed — did we still need that call? We [...]
Tags: DirectTV · lousy customer service · Tivo
Strike Three: Wells Fargo ATM Card Fails Again
April 15th, 2009 9 Comments
The ATM card fail saga continues.
Continues!
This is my third card in less than nine months (well actually fourth when I thought one hadn’t arrived and called so it was deactivated and then my husband found it in our pile of mail, but we won’t count that one) which worked for nine weeks, and yesterday, once [...]
Tags: ATM card
One Perfect Thing: Parkers Farm Peanut Butter
April 7th, 2009 12 Comments
Peanut Butter is my “deserted island” pick. (Or is it “desert island”? Which makes no sense.)
Sometimes I act as if I am, in fact, on that island; I passed up a nice garlicy portion of pork roast last night in favor of PB toast. (Never mind I’d had it for lunch, too.)
Because of the sheer [...]
Tags: grocery store
Kindergarten Lottery: Choice Hits Home
April 3rd, 2009 5 Comments
When I opened our son’s Kindergarten notification letter yesterday, I got a wierd adrenaline rush, followed by a feeling that I was going to throw up.
Not our first choice. Not our second choice. In the fall he’ll attend Armatage Elementary, our “safety” pick.
At first I was disappointed. We’d ranked our first two choices, Barton and [...]
Well That Was Fun: Spending’s Hit of Joy
April 1st, 2009 4 Comments
I have a vivid memory of standing with my mom in her bedroom as she went through her closet, bemoaning that she had nothing to wear. I was probably 4 or so. I didn’t understand what she meant — there were clothes everywhere.
Now she is me. My own closet is full of vintage dresses that [...]
Tags: money psychology
