Tradd
Senior Member

Alan, I’m sorry to hear about your hometown. Iris, I was wondering if you were affected any.

Brides who can’t afford to invite you to their reception, but still expect a gift. A friend from church’s son is getting married in a few weeks...

Went through texts, WhatsApp, FB Messenger, and Signal to delete any messages I didn’t need to keep. I also keep an empty email inbox and regularly...

Yes, I sing in church choir. Our music is all a cappella. It would be considered more classical type music.

What do you call staying home? Not flying? No road trips? No day trips locally?

I heard about this listening to BBC Radio 4 today. I starting singing Tomorrow from Annie. It was a song we had to learn in elementary school music...

Add to an omelette?

Thanks for the update. Good thoughts continue.

This is my emergency fund. Six months of expenses is $15K. Given the economy and the industry I work in, I want the cash in the bank. This isn’t for...

Payday and another $1K into high yield savings account. $3K in big bank savings connected to checking and now $8400 in high held savings. So $11,400...

I tell people to look for an intersting job you can tolerate. Have your passion for outside work.

I had no clue that states get that much money from the feds.

I hated the masks as I have horrid hot flashes. Thankfully I was out of work for 4 months and then WFH for 8 months so I didn’t have to wear them a...

Very interesting NYT article that breaks down the customs form that shows how crazy the China tariffs have gotten. Surprised to see the 7501/entry...

I do like to chill by myself especially after the recently very stressful days at work the past few months.

A pope with a Chicago accent. Unfortunately, he’s a White Sox fan. I’m a Cubs fan. Since I’m in the Chicago area, there are lots of fun memes and...

Or single people used to being by themselves.

Actually so did I.

Too people-y is what I call it.

Woke up at 2:40 am. Heard it on the BBC I was listening to then went to NYT. Surprised!

:)

I had two tomato sandwiches for an early dinner.

I received a $100 Amazon gift card (yes, it's legit!) from switching home internet providers. I'll use it for Kindle books.

We're going to just see actual price increases in the next month or two. Retailers and other companies front loaded by bringing in extra inventory....

I’m sick of importers (customers) keeping asking us to commit customs fraud so they play less duty on China stuff. Some of this is on air freight, so...

Lots of friends go to Bonaire for diving. You can shore dive (aka no boat), which help cuts costs.

Announcement on WH website about China. Sounds like it's more of a plan of a plan, than an actual plan. Announcement tomorrow.

In my experience observing others, this leads to massive student loans and few marketable skills.

I don’t garden and never liked digging in the dirt, but I love seeing your photos and hearing about your gardens!

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear you’re feeling somewhat better and getting stuff done. Good thoughts your way.

Wow. Congrats on the savings. I ditched mine around 2010ish.

Wow. Congrats on the savings. I ditched mine around 2010ish.

Well, that’s good to hear!

I was the smart one so my education was paid for. My mother would have gone to college if family finances allowed it. They didn’t and she had to go...

I get my groceries delivered!

So I started a thread on r/AskEurope to see how people how don’t use checks pay their bills. I was surprised to learn checks are still used some in...

Thank you. And one customer was so appreciative she sent a box of fancy cookies to me at the office a couple of weeks ago. They were all individually...

Checks have been considered electronic payments since the Check 21 law that went through in the early 2000s. All the planes grounded after 9/11 was...

Whole countries overseas live without checks. Utility bills are often direct debited from your account (you might get a better rate this way). PayPal...

Idiot owner at work was actually in the office today and surprisingly passed along remarks from customers that were thrilled how I handled the tariff...

So you’re giving your bank info out over the phone, yet you won’t pay anything online from your bank’s online bill pay? Perfect example of the folks...

That’s just pants on head stupid. Why can’t they do that before they get in line?

My 4 years of college including room and board at a second tier state school was $30K. Class of 91. I worked a lot and parents helped a ton.

The only person who gets birthday gifts from me is my almost 20 yo goddaughter. She wants cash and I send it via Message on her iPhone to Apple Cash....

Yay!

I use iCloud for sync as I have an iPhone and two iPads. Google Photos is the long term storage. I have a 50GB iCloud plan. I’m well under the max.

The postal service has gotten so bad I question why people are even trusting their checks to it. I’m referring to check theft as well as just very...

iCloud is more a sync service. Google is much better for long term storage. I pay $20/year for 100 GB of storage. I’m also a heavy Google Drive user.

Online bill pay.

Yes, that rule is ridiculous. You couldn’t initiate an electronic payment from your bank’s bill pay?

No online bill pay? That’s so backward in 2025.

Your business bank doesn’t have online banking? How utterly backward.

My work hasn’t taken checks for a couple of years. ACH, plus e check (free) or cc fee) via our online payment portal. There’s also PayCargo...

My diving clubs take Venmo or PayPal.

Do you really think businesses are suddenly going to take checks if there is a power outage? It’s cash or nothing. A lot of younger people no longer...

Direct deposit? Ask your bank about it.

Check fraud has increased massively since the pandemic. I know at least one senior had a check(s) that was washed and they lost a lot of money.

The US appears to be the last country hanging onto checks like this. No reason for it. For small tradesmen who don’t want to take card payments,...