photo: LarimdaME Yes, this past Black Friday we added to the masses of people who got up before the sun and trekked to our neighborhood department store for consumer goods. We weren’t as hardcore as Boston Gal, but we didn’t go for any of the super-duper sale items like she did. What did we get ... Read more →
We got allowance raises this month! Our original allowance amount was $75 each, twice a month. We have received this amount for the last two years. We talked it over and decided to raise this to $100 each in response to some recent financial discussions we had. We use our allowances to pay for everything ... Read more →
This week, “I’m not buying it.” This means I will not buy anything for a week. I started today and already it is a change. We went to Border’s today and I just enjoyed looking at different books and not buying anything. We passed the annual sale at Victoria’s Secret and I was temped to ... Read more →
Last year I set out do do what I thought was impossible: buy all of my Christmas presents at locally owned businesses in Chicago. Fortunately, local culture blog Gaper’s Block showed me the way: they published a 2005 holiday shopping guide. It featured 12 different independently owned stores in Chicago. While I didn’t totally succeed ... Read more →
Yes, the holidays have descended upon us, meaning the purchasing of gifts. This is probably the one time of the year that Her and I like to get something expensive special for each other. But when you share an account, how do you keep purchases secret? Both Her and I check our checking account on ... Read more →
We are still recovering from a pretty rockin’ Lollapalooza weekend. Three days of music is pretty much all we could have handled. Yes, it was a pretty expensive weekend. Beers at $5 each, along with some expensive festival food made the wallet feel much lighter at the end of the weekend. Until we’re fully recovered, ... Read more →
A few days ago at lunch, a coworker was telling a story on how his parking space to his newly bought condo was less than ideal. He was pretty upset about it all day, so of course we were giving him a hard time. His response: “You’d be pissed too if you dropped $10,000 on ... Read more →
A few months before we started this blog, I sold my car. The decision was pretty easy and was brought upon by a few factors: 1. Racked up about $200 in parking tickets in about three months. One fine summer day last year I got two tickets at the same time. When I paid them ... Read more →
When we signed the lease for our apartment a year and a half ago, we came in knowing that while there was central heating, there was no central air conditioning. We signed the lease in the middle of a harsh Chicago winter, so air conditioning was pretty far from our mind…until the relentless Chicago summer ... Read more →
Last night I made the decision to boycott bankruptcy. Specifically, I intend to boycott corporations which have undergone bankruptcy. I watched the PBS Frontline documentary, “Can I Afford to Retire” and learned that many corporations are now choosing bankruptcy not as a last resort, but as part of their overall financial plan. Undergoing bankruptcy allows ... Read more →
I want the perfect black shirt for spring. I have terrible luck with black shirts. They fade, shrink, pill and stretch. I’ve owned some that did all four. So this spring I am looking for your little black shirt referral. I live and shop in Chicago, so almost any brand is easily available to me. ... Read more →
Two tickets to the Intonation Music Festival: $64.50 Two tickets to the Pitchfork Music Festival: $70.00 Two tickets to Lollapalooza: $299.50 Total ticket purchases for summer music festivals: $434.00 Three weekends, over 200 bands, diminished hearing, stories and memories of a lifetime: Priceless Assuming there will be 200 bands total that we’re going to see, ... Read more →
