Well, I've been moonlighting again for American Express's cleverly titled Currency blog. I know. But this Christmas the Honeybee decided to ask for the first seven seasons of Grey's Anatomy. No, not on Blue-ray DVD -- she wants the whole cast to ...
Continue reading How My Great Dane and I Got Cheated By a Fake Charity
Consumer Alert: Qualia Free Coffee E-mail is a Scam
Any time I get an email offering me a free anything just for clicking on a link, I get suspicious.
I know. I'm just paranoid that way, but it usually saves me a lot of heartache down the road.
Not five minutes ago I got an email from "J" who sent ...
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Come On, People. Quit Maligning the Plastic Grocery Bag!
As a Southern California native, I took great interest in the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors decision to save the world by passing an ordinance that bans plastic shopping bags at grocery stores, pharmacies and convenience stores.
The ...
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Solving the Mobile Internet Puzzle
by Rob Clymo
Being able to access the internet and your email, no matter what the location is an incredibly handy thing to have. Thanks to a wealth of deals, it's now quick, easy and relatively cheap for anyone to get connected too with a simple ...
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My Daughter’s Halloween Take for 2010
In case anybody is interested, here is Nina's Halloween take this year.
I had her itemize everything in her bag when she got home Sunday night. Isn't that terrible?
Actually, she didn't mind at all. She happily put this together for me in no ...
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Deal or No Deal? Comparing Dollar Stores to Walmart & Others
Did you know that dollar stores have been around since 1955 when Dollar General opened its first one in Springfield, Kentucky? It's true.
Granted, in terms of purchasing power, a dollar went a lot further back then -- equivalent to just a hair ...
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Why Marriage Makes It So Hard to Control Remodeling Costs. (Well, Kinda Sorta.)
As I've previously mentioned, the Penzo household is in the middle of a long-awaited home renovation project with a reliable contractor.
Originally, it was supposed to be a fairly modest kitchen renovation that involved replacing our porcelain ...
Continue reading Why Marriage Makes It So Hard to Control Remodeling Costs. (Well, Kinda Sorta.)
Ticketmaster’s New Blog (And Why I Hate Them Even More Now.)
I recently bought tickets to see Maroon 5 for one of their upcoming shows in Los Angeles. Let me tell you, I love Maroon 5 almost as much as I love my dog - which puts them pretty far up my totem pole of most-cherished entities.
Of course, like ...
Continue reading Ticketmaster’s New Blog (And Why I Hate Them Even More Now.)
Black Coffee: A Little Fun with My Dog and Some Peanut Butter
It's time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe…
Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Here’s what caught my attention over the pa ...
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The Great Debate: Do Kids Really Need Their Own Cell Phone?
Last week I shared the story about my $1055 cell phone bill, courtesy of my teenage son. The article seemed to, um, resonate with a lot readers, not only here but at MSN where it was also featured as a guest post, and on Digg, where at last count it ...
Continue reading The Great Debate: Do Kids Really Need Their Own Cell Phone?
The Ugly Truth: Why Big Spenders Are Terrible In Bed
It is a truism that most big spenders are showoffs; they feed off attention.
Ironically, while your typical big spender works 24/7 trying to impress others, most of the time they rarely do so.
There is a small segment of the population, ...
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My Store-Brand vs. Name-Brand Blind Taste-Test Experiment #3
Okay. If you are a regular reader here you know the drill by now, so feel free to skip to the juicy parts!
Are name-brand groceries really worth the extra cost when alternative cheaper store-brand groceries are available? More specifically, when ...
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Drive-By Movie Review: A Simple Plan (A Movie on the Ethics of Found Money)
This is a review of the 1998 movie A Simple Plan starring Billy Bob Thornton, Bill Paxton, Bridget Fonda, and Gary Cole
Plot Summary: Two brothers and a friend find $4 million in the cockpit of a downed plane. The pilot is dead. No one is looking ...
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Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and Others: What’s the Best Travel Search Engine?
I can't believe I'm saying this, but our annual summer vacation is right around the corner. Weren't we in the throes of a Little Ice Age just last month?
Ah, well.
I'd like to say we were going back to Maui, but unfortunately I drew the short ...
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Should Low-Income Drivers Receive Subsidies to Use Toll Express Lanes?
Every day on my way home from work I zip by tens of thousands of people behind the wheels of cars stuck in hopelessly gridlocked traffic because they didn't want to pay the toll (usually between $2 and $10, depending on the direction and time of day) ...
Continue reading Should Low-Income Drivers Receive Subsidies to Use Toll Express Lanes?
The Redistribution of Health: Excuse Me, But I Think I’m Gonna Be Sick
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. - Abraham Lincoln
I don't feel so good.
The United States Congress stuck their middle finger ...
Continue reading The Redistribution of Health: Excuse Me, But I Think I’m Gonna Be Sick
The (Dead)Beat Generation
Should you walk away from your mortgage just because your home depreciated?
So you refinanced. Or bought too much house. You divided the mortgage payments by your income, and decided you could swing something a few percentage points higher than ...
Continue reading The (Dead)Beat Generation
Dear Diary: A Night at the Oscars with Me and the Honeybee
The other night the Honeybee and I sat down and watched the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, and I have to say it was the most entertaining show I've seen since Billy Crystal was hosting.
Naturally, we recorded the event to avoid all the ...
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Retirement Savings: Why My Kids Shouldn’t Plan on Receiving an Inheritance From Me
I know. A lot of you wish you could retire now, looking for reasons to retire early.
However, before that can become reality, it's important to understand our magic number; that magic number, of course, is the amount of money we'll need to have ...
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Evaluating The Costs of a Longer Commute: When It’s Better to Just Suck It Up
As many of you know, I live in Southern California; cars are king here. Most of us who live in Los Angeles can't even spell "public transportation."
That's why it was big news when I found out my employer was moving 21 miles down the road, ...
Continue reading Evaluating The Costs of a Longer Commute: When It’s Better to Just Suck It Up
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