Recent comments

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    I rented for years but moved in with my boyfriend last year in a suburb condo. We've come to love condo life; no exterior maintenance and the freedom to modify the inside of the home. We're about to move to a downtown condo now and couldn't be happier. While you really have to do that math to know if HOA fees are affordable and cover the common areas to your standards it's a nice compromise.

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    A pro of renting is that you don't have to worry about major repairs; a con these days is that if the owner goes into foreclosure, you have to move out. It happened to us last year.

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    We currently rent a town home but, are saving up to buy a home next spring..We've been at this rental for over 6 years and want a home of our own to decorate as we wish and to have more privacy.

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    We've rented for the past 5 years, but were home-owners before that. We are definitely ready to go back to owning our own home!

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    I rent. I looked into the purchase process and I really couldn't find the advantage.

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    Own.. it is ours to do with as we please... although the bank expects us to pay it off first and the government will take it away if we don't pay the taxes, but that is a different topic. :-)

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    Rent

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    Rent but in proces of owning. Id rather be house poor and invest than give my $ to someone else.

  • 8 Creative Uses for K-Cups   13 years 38 weeks ago

    Um, I don't have a Keuring, I have a Tasimo, but doesn't the process of brewing a K-cup involve the machine punching a hole through the plastic cup? I don't see how you can reuse the cup after that.

  • Maintaining Memories: How to Save Old Photographs   13 years 38 weeks ago

    Thank you for this post, and it was quite informative! As a personal historian, I am personally a big advocate of preserving photos in several ways - digitally on a hard drive and the original paper photos in acid free photo boxes. I personally reprint the digital photos in an album and I am currently putting together all of my photos to be saved on the cloud.

    I wanted to comment that if a person still wants assistance with preserving the paper photos as well as digitizing, there is local help available. The Association of Personal Photo Organizers (www.appo.org) can help you find a local photo organizer, so that if you want to personally hand-off the photos and have a face-to-face confidence in the professional it can happen. Also, a person can check out the Association of Personal Historians (www.personalhistorians.org). Some personal historians provide archival services, and if the person is interested in capturing the stories behind the photos, they can assist with that as well in both printed and video format.

    Good luck with your project -- what a wonderful discovery!

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    My wife and I own our home. We bought about 5 years ago, within about six months of the market crashing. We love having our own house as we rented for the first seven years of marriage. One of the biggest pro's is not living communally, meaning we don't have to put up with noisy neighbors with the thin walls and we also love having more space. The biggest con is that when something needs fixed, then we can't just call the landlord. Not being very good with our hands means that we've had to teach ourself some things, which takes extra time (but in the long run I imagine the learning to do for ourselves is good).

  • 8 Tips for Planning a Last-Minute Wedding   13 years 38 weeks ago

    There are so many sites out there for DIY wedding everything from decorations, to food and drink, flowers, invitations, centerpieces, and even bridesmaids dresses! If you are really on a strict budget or time crunch, there are plenty of ways to cut corners without making your wedding seem cheap, you just have to know what to do, put in some effort, and plan really well.

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    I own it. Well, really the bank owns it now, but I will in about 10 years!

  • Line Drying Your Laundry: Frugal or Foolish?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    Wow, if you really do this I commend you! When I lived in Spain for a semester my roommates and I were completely dumfounded that no one used dryers and everyone hung their clothes on a line. Although it was a little bit of a hassle for 5 girls in one apartment, I really appreciated the eco-friendly way of getting clean clothes (other than when an unexpected rainstorm hit and I had to re-wash everything). But you're arguments are on point, and I do agree that in many instances there is no reason to use energy and money with a dryer, the sun will do just fine!

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    We own our own home.

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago
  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    Always "like" you. :)

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    Own. It's a pain in the neck dealing with maintenance/repair issues, but I can do what I want with the place and it's less expensive than renting (in this area, for comparable space and location).

  • Maintaining Memories: How to Save Old Photographs   13 years 38 weeks ago

    Jennifer,
    Great ideas to preserve those old photos. Whenever I write a life story for clients, I always include some pictures - the older, the better. It can be a huge challenge sometimes to get good quality scans, but the bigger challenge is to document the details: who, what, when, where & why.

    While your oldest relatives are still alive and coherent, take some time to go through the photos with them and document what they recall. If you can use an audio or digital recorder, that's icing on the cake. For other ideas on saving family memories, please check out the Association of Personal Historians at www.personalhistorians.org and the newsletter on my website at www.bethlamie.com.

  • 47 Cheap, Fun Things to Do This Weekend   13 years 38 weeks ago

    You began this post the perfect way, this interaction happens to me almost every weekend! I love your idea of finding a place to pick some fresh berries, and then baking with them. When I was younger my sister and I would go out with our grandmother to pick fresh blueberries, and then we'd spend the day making muffins and pies. You can get a heaping basketful of delicious berries for cheap!

  • 10 Really Easy Ways to Unclog Drains   13 years 38 weeks ago

    The green clean alternative to unclogging drains: the Drain Genie. A quick, easy, low cost, green tool that attaches to a wet vac to clear drains without the use of harmful chemicals. Please see: http://draingenie.com/

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    I own my home.

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    We own our home, free and clear, no mortgage. In 1984 we purchased a home in San Jose and watched property values go up and up. Then by 2011, they had come down significantly but we still were able to sell and realize enough profit from the deal to buy an even better house in a cheaper area for cash. If I had to make the rent/buy decision today, I would buy because home sale prices have come down a lot more than rents, and interest rates are low. If I were young, I'd live with relatives and save massively for the hugest down payment possible and I'd make extra payments on the principle. Of course, this is off the top of my head. I'd consult my financial advisor first.

  • Ask the Readers: Do You Rent or Own Your Home?   13 years 38 weeks ago

    I rent, and I'm not ashamed of it. I'm a single woman living in a city - it just makes sense, I don't want or need roots yet.

  • 8 Creative Uses for K-Cups   13 years 38 weeks ago

    I am all for creative uses for K-cups, and some of the later ones are pretty cool.

    Just as a warning for those wanting to make ice cubes in them, once they are used there is a hole in the bottom of the k-cup. I suspect the ice cubes, sauces and jello shots might be a bit on the messy side without lining it with plastic wrap or something.