So we’ve made it through another year. A day from now we all may go tumbling off a vast economic cliff, led by a herd of brainless bellwethers. But for the moment, we’ll eat, drink, and make merry…for tomorrow what we drink will cost twice as much.
Unlikely as it seems, a little peace and quiet would be welcome in the new year. The past two weeks have been spent in nonstop work. Except for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the indefatigable client has found some new set of tasks every time I expected we were about done. But the book goes to the printer in a day, willy-nilly. So it’s to be hoped that we’ve done as much as need be and gotten it right.
Wonder what’s going on in the wide world…
101 Centavos goes through a very entertaining then-and-now exercise, comparing the amount of work required to purchase various items and services in 1958 vs. today. Great image from the Sears catalog, too…I need one of those gadgets!
At The Debt Myth, Jackie reflects on the many benefits of learning to say “no.”
Check out this amazing story at Consumerist. I’m not sure if this is a story of “a$k and ye shall re¢eive” so much as it is about one of the rare good guys of corporate America.
Justin at The Frugal Path says he’s in the camp that believes credit cards tempt you to spend more than you do with cash.
Unless you’re the ultra-petite type, you may not realize how much hassle it is to buy clothing if you don’t fit a standard off-the-rack size. Check out Revanche’s latest shopping adventures at A Gai Shan life. Reminds me of the time my sister-in-sin actually flew all the way over from Seattle to search shops here trying to find something that would actually fit to wear to her son’s wedding… We traipsed through three shopping centers before she found something that didn’t make her look like a ten-year-old, a fruitcake, or a potato sack tied in the middle!
Edward Antrobus comes up with a stack of good ideas for keeping warm in the winter.
Donna contemplates the annual Christmastime orgy of materialism — and its effect on kids — at Surviving & Thriving.
Over at Afford Anything, Paula reflects on the “why” behind one’s passion for personal finance.
At Bargaineering, Melissa contemplates the economics of a touchy subject for some of our guys: male pattern baldness. Don’t worry, fellas…you’re still our handsome heroes, no matter how much hair (or not) you’ve got on your noggin.
Mrs. PoP describes, with before-and-after photos, the really effective DIY remodeling job the PoPs did on their kitchen & bathroom, for an amazingly low price. If you have a house with one of those big recessed boxes that hold flourescents above a big plastic panel, (they were called “light ceilings,” as I recall…one of the more misbegotten ideas of the 1960s and 70s), you should check out the very clever update they came up with.
TB observes that Christmas means hard times for a lot of blue-collar guys: for remodeling contractors, it’s a time when business reliably slows down.
Daisy at Add Vodka reports that they’ve bought a house! This is a very big deal, since it appears to be their first. 🙂
Mrs. Accountability discovers electronic check depositing. Yay! Some banks have been slow to offer this service. The credit union here started offering it..what? a year or so ago? Recently they updated the program, and now it works pretty well.
At Brip-Blap, Steve describes what he calls ways to get free money. Some of them truly are “free,” assuming you play the game right; some of them…not so much.
Evan recently got rid of one of his student loans and is feeling happy about the amount of interest he’s saving by paying it off early.
At Free from Broke, Kevin Mulligan suggests there may actually be some circumstances in which it’s worth paying an annual fee for a credit card.
Crystal lists her New Year’s resolutions and looks back over 2012’s goals.
Sean at One Smart Dollar points out that downsizing doesn’t necessarily save you money, or at least maybe not as much as you expected. This is a thought that’s crossed my mind, too…
At NZ Muse, eemusings celebrates the holidays by replaying some old posts. Here’s a pretty entertaining one…my mother used to say a person’s tastes change every seven years. 🙂
Five-cent Nickel plunges into the regifting controversy. Personally, I like his idea of passing unwanted gifts along to charity.
Money Beagle is also reviewing 2012 goals and considering which worked out and which didn’t. Last year Beagle also made a bunch of predictions…and now would like to know what topics you think deserve predictions for 2013.
FMF gets a ton of comments over at Free Money Finance when he asks whether Americans should be forced to pay into a mandated defined-contribution plan.
Abigail admits to being lured into buying more than she needed by a retailer’s free shipping offer.
Frugal Scholar’s most recent post is an amazing recipe: potato pickle soup!
At Grumpy Rumblings, nicoleandmaggie ask how long it took you to furnish your home.
At Get Rich Slowly, Sarah Gilbert touches directly on FaM’s underlying theme when she addresses the issue of money and stress.
Fabulously Broke wonders why people would even consider marrying for money.
Welp, it’s cold in here and the Corgi and I have yet to have breakfast. And so, away…
And a Happy New Year to you!
Images:
Fireworks over Tybee Island, Georgia. Steevven1. . Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license.
Tivoli Gardens fireworks. Stig Nygaard. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Glad to hear that Jansport’s warranty program is still alive and well. I used it about 15 years ago and it was amazing. I mailed a backpack with a broken zipper in at the beginning of the summer, and while they fixed it, they sent a postcard back written from the ‘backpack’ all about how much it was enjoying the zipper races at backpack camp. It came back before school started again in August and to this day, I still have the backpack.
Happy New Year =)
How very funny!
It’s neat to have something that still actually LASTS, eh? Too bad it can’t be a refrigerator or a dishwasher…
Coach used to do that: you could send a tired old purse in and they’d clean, repair, and renovate it. If they couldn’t fix it, they’d give you 50% off any purse in their catalog. Don’t think they do that anymore, though. But…truth to tell, I haven’t tried lately.
All the best wishes for the New Year, FaM, and continued success with the copywriting gig.