Skiing and Making the Most of What You Have

March 12, 2012

One of the great things about living in the Berkshires is that it is filled with outdoor activities year round.   I literally can see the local ski mountain as I drive home from work.  It takes all of 10 minutes to get there from my house.  Bousquet was one of the first ski mountains with [...]

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Why my Underwater House Worked for Me

March 2, 2012

There has been a lot of buzz in the PF world about Strategic Defaulting on a Mortgage. (For you non-PF’ers that’s the term used to walk away from a mortgage even though you can afford to keep paying.)   First Financial Samurai talked about friend of his who is about to walk away from a mortgage [...]

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Risk Taking – Going Back into Debt

February 27, 2012

During my last Coffee Talk, I spoke about how one of my downfalls was my conservative nature when it comes to spending and investing.  Given the stock market scares me and I already do most of my retirement there, I was looking for an outlet for the extra cash we’ve been saving.   Between wanting to [...]

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Frugal Living: The Shoe Cobbler

February 22, 2012

One of the quirky things about our downtown is that we have some old timey businesses still plugging away that have probably been long forgotten in many parts of suburbia.  One of those businesses is George, the Shoe Cobbler.  George is an immigrant and his store has probably been around for as long as he’s [...]

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Coffee Talk: Your Tax Return Diary

February 8, 2012

Have you ever really thought about what your tax return says about you?  I know a person who used to work at a tax office for the government and although illegal, this person would look up people’s tax returns because they were nosy. You’ll be happy to know they no longer work there, but it [...]

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Babci on Remodeling: Do 1 Room per Year

February 1, 2012

The 3 family house my parents bought in the 1970′s was $10,000.  They paid cash for it and it was near condemned.  The 3rd floor apartment had  a toilet right smack in the middle of the kitchen where the sink was supposed to be and it had a ladder to access the 3rd floor stairway. [...]

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Feb Coffee Talk: Dream Jobs, Eccentrics and Tax Returns

January 30, 2012

UPDATE: This coffee talk has been posted live here: Coffee Talk: My Tax Return Diary All, I’ve decided it was time for our next coffee talk.  For those of you new to this series, it is a way to link two seemingly unrelated topics together to stretch one’s writing ability and make for entertaining reading.  [...]

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Do Credit Cards Make Finances Simple

January 21, 2012

I have the ultimate role model when it comes to simplified personal finances.  I often wonder if Babci even has a credit score. She’s always been on a cash only basis.  It wasn’t until I started managing her finances that  she broke down and got  a checking account.  You’re probably going to ask how the [...]

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Cutting Babci’s Hair with Dog Clippers

January 16, 2012

Babci’s hair has been a constant source of discontent ever since she moved to my town 7 years ago. No matter where I take her, she finds fault in the hair salons I take her.  The last time she was due for a haircut, she decided that hair dressers didn’t know how to cut her [...]

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How to Take a Break from Toxic People

January 9, 2012

I’m back. Life was hectic, the holidays were upon us and I had 1001 things I wanted to get done during my 1.5 weeks off from work. After about thing 271 I realized that I’m insane and I needed to try to do a little less with my time. I think this is part of [...]

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