I try to keep up with the Joneses, but with actions rather than possessions. You know - save more money, retire earlier, spend more time with my kids/family. I couldn't care less about all the stuff that they buy.

Steps 3-5 would all apply, I think. The single best thing we did is learn what my skillset is worth to other companies so I could tell if I was being underpaid or not.

Surprising that this doesn't mention anything for your spouse/significant other to do. My wife was laid off at the end of August. We both updated our resumes, built networks on linkedin, applied for jobs, etc. A couple interviews and a job offer later and we're making the same amount while she continues job hunting.

Had no idea FSA's were so hated. We used an FSA last year to cover prescriptions. Since we knew exactly how much they'd cost each month it was a simple decision and we didn't lose any money. If you have regular (expected) medical costs, they work well (coincidentally, these regular medical expenses make the HSA/high…

My dad did something almost identical about 15 years ago. He took a corded drill and chucked a wooden scrub brush to clean the tub and tiles in the bathroom. I've never seen mildew disappear so quickly.

I've held off on buying a GPS watch for a couple years hoping smart watches would become useful. It's not that complicated: GPS watch + SIM card + bluetooth + touchscreen. Garmin already makes a touchscreen GPS watch, so that's halfway there.

That might be the exact one I've been looking at. I want to use a phone/tablet/computer to view the feed instead of a dedicated device, but my wife thinks it'll be too complicated for anyone else to use. Since I have an old iPhone 3G laying around gathering dust, I'm planning on getting a camera to keep an eye on our…

I saw that original article this morning and was disappointed - I thought they were going to explain how to make dynamic wallpapers (like the built in ones that have dots that'll slide around depending on how the phone's angled). Oh well.

Yet my wife still insists on getting a baby video monitor :(

I've been on a plant based diet for over a year and am really happy with it. Lately it's sort of morphed into vegan-paleo hybrid (ie fruits, veggies, and seeds/nuts only), but that's mostly due to the fact that I love oven roasted vegetables much more than any rice/pasta dish.

My commute's about 16 miles each way. Up until about April this year, that meant a 25 minute drive each way with a stop at daycare on the way home. Then I tried biking and found I could still get to daycare a few minutes before the other parents arrived (and my kid was the envy of all the other children since he got…

That's what we do too. We'll also check the upcoming week's ad in case there's something good enough to warrant saturday and sunday trips to the grocery store (eg ground beef on sale until Saturday + corn on sale starting Sunday = 2 grocery store trips + grilling all week).

An average of $30k?! That's insane!

I have a couple regular routes but they all follow the same idea - from my house to a lake, around that lake (makes it simple to add distance) some number of times, then back home. It makes it simple in case I need to be found in an emergency, plus it's easy to bring my dogs with when there's a large body of water for…

Depends on if I'm driving or biking to work.

Yeah, the nose unlock method has limited uses. Although swiping to answer a call or pull up the camera while keeping my hands toasty warm is totally worth it.

I thought I remember hearing that the screen can register 11 touch points - one for each finger and one for your nose. Seems odd Apple wouldn't let you store 11. I know in winter I'd much rather use a nose print than take off my gloves.

I've used the guest account for presentations before and it works pretty well. Another option is a virtual machine - that way you won't have any extra task bar icons.

I ran out of grenadine and substituted some juice from the maraschino cherry jar. It ended up tasting so much better that I've never used grenadine since.

I've long prefered digital since it's so easy to share with other people and sync across devices. My wife had always used paper. Our solution: shared electronic lists with a whiteboard on the fridge showing the status of the most important tasks and a queue of tasks waiting to be added to the shared lists. We started…