I explained this to my husband after our 11.5 hour flight to Tokyo. He refused to drink or eat much during the flight and it took him a lot longer to recover from jet lag. In comparison, I drank water or tea nearly every time it was offered and made sure to eat most of the meals provided. My recovery time was a lot…

Perfect timing! I feel like we broke our budget after hosting a large party this past weekend, so a challenge to help enforce eating at home is another reason to avoid pricey restaurants.

I don’t know about healthier, but a lot of more expensive dog foods tend to be more calorie-dense and have higher protein content, particularly with performance lines of pet food. For those of us with high energy dogs, that means a smaller serving size is necessary, which results in a healthy & happy dog, along with…

A few more tips from a recent trip to Japan (although applicable pretty much anywhere):

I need to reassess my investment options. My employer does not offer a 401K, so I set up a Roth IRA with Fidelity last year. I’ve been primarily funding that account each month to reach the minimum investment amount for a target-date fund. However, after following up on that recently, I see that Fidelity now requires…

Hmm... I may have to substitute negotiating my internet bill (again) instead of cell phone bill.

Thank you! Yesterday was a busy day, so we resigned to stopping by our favorite local Thai place for dinner. Since I already have dinner plans with someone later this week, I used the “save when you splurge” method and transferred the cost of dinner to my savings account this morning. I can see how this could add up…

I don’t carry much cash, so the pint-sized coin jar I’ve been dropping change in is only about half full. It’s also been raided a couple times for a few dollars’ worth of quarters for car washes.

Excellent advice - this is my goal for my next trip. On a recent two week trip in Japan, I managed with an overstuffed “barely-within-the-limits” carry on bag that rolled and could be used as a backpack, but it was heavy and annoying to deal with when traveling between cities. Not as bad as dealing with a checked bag,…

I’ve been happy with Honey. Just recently found that I had $10 in rewards, so I applied it to my Amazon GC balance. It’s very handy for watching price changes & trends. Additionally it helps me to find the best-priced seller for items on Amazon since my state was recently hit with Amazon’s 8% sales tax.

It might be worth a try. Worst they can say is “no”. Although if it’s the same standard CU-issued Visa I have, interest is probably already low, so they may not be able to do much about it.

I’ve had good luck with this on a starter card that I have built up over the years. A quick online chat with a customer service rep typically results in a permanent 4% interest rate reduction. According to most financial forums, it’s recommend to request it every 6 months. Although I’m sure once a year should be fine…