Boredom is usually a self-inflicted condition. If you take a moment to think about it, when you are on your own time, you usually control whether or not you are engaged or bored by what you are doing. If you are always looking for a television for entertainment, chances are good that you will quickly [...]
Yesterday I went to the movies with one of my sons. He is a film buff and wanted to see a Ray Harryhausen movie on a big screen. Fortunately, a local cinema was offering a free screening 1974′s all too memorable Golden Voyage of Sinbad and we took advantage of that. Just as we left, [...]
If you need to make a onetime purchase and you find a way to save a few dollars, it is a good thing. At the same time, if you are going to put a lot of effort into finding ways to save money, it is almost always going to be more beneficial to focus your [...]
It’s been said that you get what you pay for. While there may be exceptions to that rule, it does often prove to be the case. Where quality matters, paying more for an item of higher quality can offer a better value than paying less for lesser quality. For example, I’ve learned through comments that [...]
An insurance company has recently been running a television commercial in which it notes that saving money is now a very popular topic of conversation. One incidental character in the commercial tells a friend that since he stopped buying lunch each day and started bringing lunch from home, he is putting fifty dollars each week [...]
I just returned from a trip to my local grocery store. The store manager, who has been with the company for thirty years, was at the front of the store greeting customers. The employees who have been working there for the past ten years smiled and said hello as I walked by them. Indeed, most [...]
My parents are getting older. Dad will be 83 in a few months. Mom will be 72. Dad suffered a fall a couple of months ago and, although he has recovered, a full recovery was in doubt for quite a while. He is also close to being deaf and can hear only with the help [...]
There are a lot of different levels of friendship. There is the guy in the cubicle next to you at work who you don’t really like all that much, but who you still introduce to your significant other as your friend because you don’t want to create awkwardness at work. There is the guy you [...]
I very much enjoyed a recent Saving Advice column that considered the etiquette of having a yard sale. The writer made several excellent points about how a seller should approach a yard sale and what can and should be sold at yard sales. It occurs to me, however, that a yard sale really should only [...]
It was not that long ago that a young person could find a job and expect to keep that job until he retired. Experience was rewarded. Seniority was respected. Pensions were offered. And at the end of a long career, employers expressed their gratitude. Those days are gone and it is now exceedingly rare to [...]
