Living in your home after a death
Nine months ago I was sitting at this very laptop, surrounded by every other laptop we had in the flat (all of which were logged into different Facebook accounts), plus address books, and lists of names, and my mobile phone had never seen so much use in its life.
My fiancé had passed away early that morning and we’d just finished letting everyone know.
How can we weatherize our drafty busted-ass house without using plastic?
How can we weatherize our drafty busted-ass house without using plastic? Because we’re using plastic right now, but… you know. IT’S PLASTIC.
And I don’t mean rugs on the wall like people do in Russia, because rugs are expensive.
If your bank’s too big to fail, make it smaller: what to know about switching from banks to credit unions
Since I had three business and personal accounts at two different crappy banks who definitely cheated their way to prosperity, last month I closed my accounts on Bank Transfer Day.
We disconnected the internet at home and we lived to tell the tale
Cutting costs. Phones? Need them. Car? We’re a one-car family already. Cable? Nah. But the internet? Certainly that is necessary for a student and a couple planning a wedding.
This house is off the water grid — how much do cisterns suck?
My fiance and I have been house-shopping for quite some time now, and I have fallen in love with one amazing little fixer-upper. It has three bedrooms, a fenced-in area, a pond and it’s on one beautiful acre… the only catch is that it is not hooked up to public water/sewer: it has a septic system and a cistern.
Is it time for a landline?
Like many other twentysomethings, I haven’t had a landline phone since I moved out of my parents’ house. My husband and I both use our cell phones as our primary phones, and never even considered needing a phone line for the house. It seemed like an unnecessary monthly expense.
But now that we’re getting ready to expand our family, I’m starting to wonder if a landline makes some sense. Unlike cell phones, a plain old telephone system usually works in power outages, won’t run out of battery, and may be more reliable in emergency situations.
Have you ever been thankful to have a landline for your family, or had a situation where you wish you had one?
I need to winter-proof my rental — are tapestries my only hope?
I’m wondering if there are any clever winter-proofing things I can do — I have visions in my head of castle-style wall tapestries in the bedroom to warm the freezing cold wall behind my back. Plausible?
The 5 not-at-all-essential things you should prepare for your home in case of a power outage
There are no-brainer needs when it comes to a power outage: flashlights. Candles. But if you prep these five items you won’t bemoan your lack of Internets the next time your power drops.