:::: MENU ::::

The Debt Trap Series

by

The New York Times recently published a series of articles and resources about debt aptly named, “The Debt Trap.” I’ve only gone through some of it, but wanted to let everyone else know about it. Another blogger did a great recap:

Recap at I Will Teach You To Be Rich

Ramit picks out the highlights and provides direct links to interesting sections. Once I have some more time, I plan on reading through the whole thing. I’m not sure if it’s a side effect of the new medications I am on or what – but I have been so tired the past few days. I lay down to relax and end up taking a 3+ hour nap. Fatigue is not a known side effect so I’ll be touching base about this with my doctor during our visit this week.

5th Graders and Credit Cards, Type of Billionaire, MPG Math and Getting Better MPG

by

I absolutely love the weekend. Yesterday we went out on an adventure to find a u-pick strawberry farm and ended up checking out a local museum that we’ve heard about, but never checked out. It gave a nice look into how early settlers to the area lived. I especially paid attention to the house we were able to tour. I’m into tiny houses so I paid a lot of attention to the layout and got a few ideas.

We didn’t end up picking strawberries. Instead, we found a few boys on the side of the road selling some and picked up two quarts. My son and I dug in as soon as we got home. With a few of them I made a strawberry cake today complete with strawberry frosting (yum!). As of right now, there are only a couple strawberries left.

Besides being able to go out and check out new things, I love the weekend because I can cook to my heart’s delight! During the week, I don’t have the time because I get off at 5pm and by the time I’m done cooking it would be late in the evening. I am also usually very tired after work. But the weekends – oh boy. Then it’s my turn to cook 😉

For breakfast, we had scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, strawberries and a bagel. In the afternoon, I cooked up some chicken breast. I put some aside for ceasar salads next week and with the rest I made chicken tacos for lunch accompanied by apple slices. For dinner, I made homemade pizza from scratch. Then we had my strawberry cake for dessert.

In a way, it’s probably best that I have to work during the week. I’ve never run the cost for my weekend meals, but it probably runs on the high side. At least it is still cheaper than eating out and I enjoy flexing my cooking chops. One of these days I plan on running the numbers and sharing a few of my recipes.

Okay, now onto some articles that caught my eye this week:

My son is still a few years away from being a fifth grader, but I still got a kick out of this article by Kristy, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader (Re: Credit Cards). I wonder how my son will answer those questions when he is in 5th grade.

Livingalmostlarge had a link to a quiz to see what type of billionaire you are. I usually don’t do these, but I couldn’t resist. It said that I would be an investor. I can see that.

SiliconValleyBlogger has an article about fuel efficient cars mpg illusion. Pretty interesting article that goes through the math behind mpg. If you are looking to buy a different car to save on gas, this article is worth a read.

Here’s another gas related article: Cleverdude was forced to get better gas mileage. His findings? He got better gas mileage when he slowed down. I can attest to that as well with our car. We can get 40mpg with going 55-60mph. Once we go 70mph, our mpg goes down to around 32mpg.