I agree. The implication of the conversation seemed to be that they didn't believe I hadn't been driving uninsured. From what I understand, about a million factors go into it. The kind of car, where you live, age, sex, etc. It's all statistics.

That's why I included the comparison to what my teenage sister paid when she was just learning to drive. It was even more than it was for her. I was getting charged for not having a driving record, like a 16 year old, and for lapse in coverage. I was getting slapped twice, essentially.

That current carrier report is a big one. I'm from a city, so I only bought my first car recently. Every insurance quote I got was twice as expensive, or more, as what family and friends had advised me to expect. It was even more expensive than what my sister had been charged learning to drive as a teenager. When I…

Don't forget the cost of parking. Parking in a city can easily become more than the cost of gas and a car payment combined. I used public transit exclusively until recently, and I miss it. The local transit authority keeps hiking up costs so it isn't the money saver it used to be, but there is so much less stress. You…

I do this! I like to think of it as the Sherlock Holmes game. After years of taking the subway, I can generally guess which stop a person will be getting off at. Awesome during rush hour when everyone is jockeying for seats. Just hover around the person who will be getting off at the next stop.

Completely true. I'm an admin assistant and interviewers/employers are always delighted that I'm good with anything electronic because so few in those kinds of jobs are. It also makes me indispensable because I'd be next to impossible to replace and the idea of setting up AV, tweaking websites, formatting Kindle…

Where I live we have a chain of gas stations that only accept cash, and it's on average 40 cents cheaper per gallon than any other station. There's one right on my way to work, so I always try to make sure I have a little cash on hand so I can fill up there. They are always full of cars, so it seems a lot of people…

A few months ago some co-workers and I started stretching very afternoon as a team activity during a weight loss competition. It felt so good that I've continued to stop and stretch during my breaks.

I stopped paying for things in cash. I know that sounds counter-intuitive in a lot of ways, but as a money saving tactic in grad school I would get a certain amount of cash per week, and that was it. The problem was that not everything could be paid through cash. Most of my bills were online, I usually ordered…

"Student loans are investing in your future."

Islamabad, Pakistan

Anyone who finds themselves hunching forward at a computer should probably get their eyes checked as well. I noticed I was hunching more than I used to, and it turned out I needed a new prescription. My eyesight had deteriorated so slowly I hadn't even noticed. After that I still had to break the habit of how I sat at…

I entered in the information for my grandma, who I love dearly, and it told me she was already 4 years past her expected date of death. She's still living independently, doing her own lawn mowing and gutter cleaning, etc. I both feel like hugging her because we've already had more time than we statistically should…

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who cleans my glasses with the same stuff I use for my cell phone!

Any ideas for keeping glasses clean? It seems like no matter what I do, mine are ALWAYS dirty.