In today’s economy, with today’s prices, coins have become nearly worthless.  We all know that the penny costs more to manufacture than it is “worth”.  When was the last time you paid for anything with a few pennies?  Or with a few nickels?  Heck, even paying for anything with a few quarters is becoming a [...]

Special diets (unlike regular old diets like Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, or even simpler ones like the Slow Carb Diet) are almost always a result of some sort of food intolerance or disease.  Lactose intolerance requires that the afflicted person refrain from milk and dairy product that contain lactose.  Of course, there are milk and dairy [...]

A few weeks ago, I asked all of your advice on whether we should refinance our mortgage.  At the time, we had just begun thinking about it and were still working out the numbers.  As you can probably guess from the title of this article, we went ahead and did it. So, here’s why.  Part [...]

In our house, we have a gas fueled furnace for heat and an electric fueled central air unit.  So, as you can likely deduce, our gas bill is much higher in the winter months and our electric bill is much higher in the summer months.  But, our bill hardly ever fluctuates.  Why is that?  We’ve [...]

Ok, folks.  I want your opinions and advice. The situation is this.  My wife and I have been living in our current home for almost 6 years.  While the interest rate on our mortgage isn’t astronomical (6.75%), it is still a few points higher than what we could get now if we refinanced it.  Also, [...]

So, are you surprised by that news?  That new home sales dropped like a rock in May?  I can’t say that I am.  I try hard to keep my politics out of this site, but what the heck were they thinking?  If you look at the chart that CNNMoney has posted, you can clearly see [...]

When many people discuss buying more produce (fruits and veggies) the most common complaint is how expensive it is.  How can they afford to pay that much for fresh produce and still feed their family?!?  Well, I think it’s a myth. Based on my recent visit to the grocery store, the price of produce is [...]

As I mentioned before, part of what were doing with our tax refund is to remodel our kitchen.  Our kitchen was in a bit of rough shape, as some of it was likely original to when the house was built in 1950.  The linoleum had been added, as had the carpet and the counter-top, but [...]

In the midst of spending 5 straight days remodeling our kitchen, our good friend Murphy’s Law decided to show up.  My father came over for the long weekend and helped.  Without him, the remodel would have probably been a disaster.  But, that’s not where Murphy comes into play.  One evening, after we had supper, we [...]

I dislike getting a refund from the government. I don’t like having to look up the my tax refund status.  I don’t have any good reason to give them an interest free loan, but any changes I make to my W4 don’t seem to make any difference.  I keep getting a refund every year.  This [...]