When our children were very young our budget was especially tight. We learned how to make do without a lot of extras and to find free or inexpensive entertainment options, and we came to appreciate the value and meaning in simple things like time spent with family. With a little creativity and imagination, you can…
This post originally ran over at Mumbling Mommy. I turned 40 earlier this year, and to mark the occasion my wife offered to help organize a birthday party. I thought that was interesting, but I also didn’t want anything big, as I prefer small groups. After giving the matter some thought, I decided to invite…
Not long ago, I was talking to a relative about the business of writing. This relative maintains a very active social media account, and I told the relative that I thought that maybe there was some potential to turn it into a blogging gig, perhaps even a monetized one to help offset the relative’s tight…
I probably don’t need to tell you that technology is everywhere. If it wasn’t, you probably wouldn’t be reading this. I don’t automatically think that the internet–and everything that comes with it–is necessarily bad. It’s a tool. At its best, it can keep us in contact with people far away, teach us about things that…
A few years ago, some of my relatives requested a gift card from a chain movie rental store for Christmas. I was happy to oblige, and as I was standing in the store purchasing the gift card, I realized my husband and I have not rented a movie from a traditional video rental store —…
There are a lot of ways to pay for entertainment, be it cable or a vacation. But sometimes you may not have the money, or you may not want to spend the money. Chances are, there are some free (or really cheap) entertainment options in your area and you may not even know about them….
I once held a $200,000 lottery ticket. It was many years ago. A friend of mine ran a work pool that would regularly buy Powerball tickets … and one time, one of the group’s tickets matched 5 numbers in the Powerball lottery. At the time, the payout was $200,000. When he told me this story,…
“I keep warning you. Doors and corners, kid. That’s where they get you.” — Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse, Book 3), by James S. A. Corey Most people don’t go looking into novels for life advice … and, generally speaking, that’s probably for the best. A novel is primarily about telling a good story, and…
For most of human history, humanity has waged a war against boredom. For some, it was how to cope with tedious, desensitizing work. For others, it was how to manage free time apart from work, whether that free time be generous or scarce. Prior to the last century or so, the primary weapons against boredom…
Antenna TV is one of the most misunderstood technologies in America. Most Americans don’t realize they can even get it, and among those who do, there is a lot of confusion. Do you need special technology? Is the signal that fuzzy thing that we had back in the 80s? The answers are no and absolutely not!…
