August 2009

A little massaging of figures

August 15, 2009

Interestingly, I found a table on the Social Security Administration’s site that calculates how much your “full” retirement age SS benefit is reduced according to the number of months you retire “early.” GDU is closing our office and canning me a year and four months before I reach so-called “full” retirement age. This has caused [...]

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Do you do mail-in rebates?

August 14, 2009

Grrr! I think I just got jumped through the hoops for very little in return. At Costco I picked up a package of three air-conditioning filters for $39.99; mail in a rebate form (which asks for personal information such as your e-mail address and phone number) and they’ll send you a munificent three bucks, dropping [...]

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Recession kills off local merchants

August 13, 2009

The buy-local movement struggles under the best of circumstances. All you have to do is walk into your nearest mall to see that: every shopping district in the land, except for those targeted exclusively at tourists, looks identical, a mind-numbing array of the same boring, cookie-cutter chain stores. Even some tourist traps are chain stores. [...]

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Moments of Fame

August 12, 2009

At last! Funny has made the Big Time! Frank Curmudgeon included Funny’s report on the $64 butternut squash in The Frugal Friday Special Sunday Edition, over at Bad Money Advice. Frank’s round-up is a hilarious post, proof positive that PF bloggers DO have a sense of humor. Elsewhere, Funny made editor’s choice with the rumination [...]

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Greener Grass? To move or not to move

August 11, 2009

La Maya and La Bethulia have made up their minds to sell their beautiful, hacienda-like house down here in the Valley and move to Prescott, a more or less historic town in the cool upland parts of the Colorado Plateau. The redoubtable La B is applying for jobs there, and if she lands one (a [...]

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Delayed Gratification: The frugalist’s secret weapon

August 10, 2009

Over the weekend, M’hijito and I dropped by a Cost Plus (World Market) in hopes of finding some stylish and cheap outdoor furniture to decorate the newly refurbished yard. And did we hit the jackpot! The past few months, we’ve admired various pieces of Late Downscale Designer furnishings there but generally thought they were too [...]

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