Quick question: Do you think a microwave is a necessity or a luxury? I ask because the other day NPR ran a story about a Pew Research Center study that asked these types of questions. According to the findings Americans are paring down on what they consider necessities. For example, in 2006 68% of people called the microwave a “necessity”. In 2009 only 47% now feel that way. Here is a chart showing how some other items fared as well. It’s interesting to see that a shaky economy has people viewing less items as necessities. But it totally makes sense. [...]
Read MoreApril 2009
After last week’s poor performance of the voting widget, TopBlogPosts.net is running a second test carnival before Beta release begins. Bible Money Matters was the unofficial winner of the first test carnival with the post: Days Like This Make You Realize What Is Important: It Isn’t Your Possessions For those that didn’t catch the TopBlogPosts.net is a unique spin on the blog carnival that is designed to: Be a reader controlled filtering service for the fire-hose that can be a normal blog carnival. Instead of great links being lost within the hundreds of posts, only the best are highlighted. Make [...]
Read MoreYee-Haw! The Debt Destroyer clan finally got out of Dodge (meaning we took a quick vacation over Easter break). And with such a trip, there are all the last minute preparations you need to take care of before leaving. Making sure the kids are all packed up. Making sure the van is ready to go. Bring snacks, DVDs, & music for the trip. Drop off the dog. Get Traveler’s checks(cheques). I crossed the last one off because it’s the 21st Century. While I might pretend to be a pretty cool cat, I’ll admit to being old enough to have [...]
Read MoreThe world of free online music has changed quite a bit from the early days of bulletin boards and Napster. Now, there are so many unique and useful free music services and web sites streaming music that it can spin your head. Most of them are legal or at least not illegal at this point. I did my best to sort through the tidal wave of music services to provide a unique blend of the best free music services. Pandora – My personal favorite. You create a station by requesting a particular artist and Pandora attempts to play music on [...]
Read MoreA few months ago I shared some tips on how shave a little off your grocery bill. Today I will share some tips on how to totally mess up your grocery budget: Visit friends who are great cooks. Become motivated by friends to be more adventurous with your cooking. Find some tasty looking recipes. Buy a $10 block of cheese. Before you now it, your grocery budget is gone! Ok, so maybe it’s not a great idea to follow these steps exactly, but if you’re lucky the results can be quite scrumptious. Allow me to explain… Mrs. DD has a good [...]
Read MoreToday marks the official Alpha release of a new site I created called TopBlogPost.net. TopBlogPosts.net is a unique spin on the blog carnival that is designed to: Be a reader controlled filtering service for the fire-hose that can be a normal blog carnival. Instead of great links being lost within the hundreds of posts, only the best are highlighted. Make it easier for readers to connect with the best content. Draw more attention to the authors that are writing the best content. Make carnival content easily and instantly sharable across all blogs. Provide more traffic for the best articles. Monetarily [...]
Read MoreI bet most of you have already received your tax return before I even filed mine. This year I waited until April 14th to send mine in. Why did I wait so long? Simple. I knew we’d be paying in, so I was in no rush. After all if they’re going to give me until April 15th, then by golly I’ll take my time. Last night when I was putting all the paperwork away I decided to take a trip down memory lane and in doing so I realized that our annual income has been on quite a [...]
Read MoreThe Rockette and I were traveling to our in-law’s house and we were having an informal marriage budget meeting. It was the perfect time to bring up a few new areas that we could grow our giving. I failed. I failed at including my wife in a way that gave her any input. I failed, because I assumed I had the right answers all worked out. I failed, because I acted as if I just needed her approval on my right answer. I failed because I didn’t value her input or perspective. I failed at a chance to draw us [...]
Read MoreIf you are a fan of multi-player first person shooter video games, then you are in luck. ID software has decided to try and change the gaming world by offering a slighty updated version of Quake III Arena that runs directly in your web browser. The best part is that it is completely free. ID plans to support the game by in game billboard ads that should mesh nicely with the Quake boards. They may even offer a premium option that will let players control their own games and servers. That means this isn’t some teaser tactic to lure people [...]
Read MoreThis is a guest post by Trisha Wagner. Trisha is a freelance writer for DepositAccounts.com, where you can compare rates from dozens of banks in one place. Trisha writes regularly on the topics of personal finance and saving money. Credit card debt is among the hardest debt to pay off once you have accumulated it. Not only are the interest rates pretty high, but most people use their cards regularly, which means they add to the balance just as fast (or faster!) than they make payments on them. If you make a payment late or charge more than your available [...]
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