I can remember when I was a high school senior and I applied to go to Virginia Tech. I was accepted to go there, but I did not qualify for enough grants and scholarships to be able to attend – even though I had taken college preparation courses in high school and had received all A’s and B’s on my report cards. My parents were already sending my older brother to college and they said that they could not afford to help me to attend college as well. So, I could not go to college. My life’s dream of becoming a veterinarian would never come to pass. If I had been able to attend college right out of high school, I would have led a much much better life, and the lives of my children would have been much better as well. College is the foundation on which financial stability is built. Our children need and deserve the chance to improve their lives with a good education.

When that happens, all of the friends of the original poster jump on the case of the older, wiser family member and call that older person a “hater.” Sometimes friends of the older family member will interject a post that is an attempt to calm the waters, but instead it turns into a feeding frenzy of the younger people becoming argumentative and the older people not being heard. That is so sad. Makes me want to stop reading the posts on Facebook.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m thrilled that he has finally decided to go to work dressed like a serious businessman. I’m just wondering what in the world changed his mind about how to dress for success! For years now he was perfectly happy to wear cargo pants and T-shirts, but now he spends hours picking out the best looking tie to wear with his gray pin stripe suit.

Much to my surprise, a couple of weeks later one of the intended recipients told me that she was thinking about buying one of those Himalayan salt lamps online. She showed me the picture of what she wanted, and it was exactly the same one that I had already bought for her! I told her that I had bought one for her for her Christmas present, and not to buy one herself. She asked me to give it to her now because she wanted to start “enjoying the benefits” immediately. Well, I agreed and I gave it to her. She was happy and took it home with her.

Less than a week later she told me that her daughter told her that she hated it, that it made her feel depressed instead of happy, and she gave the lamp back to me and asked me to give her something different for Christmas. I agreed to do that, and now I am using it in one of my bathrooms. I like how it deodorizes and helps to dehumidify the room. As for the original recipient, well, I ended up giving her a gift card to Wal-Mart. I know she buys things there, and I think that maybe I’ll just keep giving her gift cards in the future.

Black wedding rings

Mary was telling me that she was trying to find black titanium rings to buy for her wedding ring. She said that titanium was one of the metals that won’t irritate her sensitive skin and that it is guaranteed never to tarnish. She first found out about titanium jewelry when her fiance gave her a couple of titanium bracelets a couple of years ago. She said that she was concerned at first about wearing them because of her sensitive skin, but quickly discovered that she was able to wear the bracelets without any discoloration or discomfort at all.

Mary found a website that sells titanium jewelry, and thought that she had found the black rings she was hoping for, but when she was showing the website to me I pointed out to her that the black rings that we were looking at were made out of ceramic, or tungsten. They were pretty, but they were not titanium. I would expect that she would be able to wear a ceramic ring, but I don’t know how durable a ceramic ring would be. I’ve never had any ceramic jewelry before, have you?

Sometimes I add some spices to the crock pot when I’m cooking meat, but this time I just put the roast in the crock pot with no spices, and no water. I ended up having three people showing up at the dinner table, and it worked out fine – I warmed up some Bob Evans mashed potatoes, some canned green beans, and some chicken gravy. Nothing fancy, but it was still good eating. I was glad that I had put the roast in the crock pot – I don’t have any idea what I would have had for supper if I had waited until the last minute, when everyone walked in the door, hungry and tired. I love my crock pot!

The first game I played was only nine holes, and I was exhausted be the end of the game. We walked the course, and I carried my own clubs. Yes, I mean I really did carry my own clubs. The first couple of holes were better than I had hoped they would be, but I was nowhere close to par. Thankfully I avoided the sand traps and the water hazard, but I really have to chalk that up to blind beginners luck. By the end of the ninth hole, my body was so sore that I was just hitting the ball wildly and although I never ended up in the rough, the ball never went very far down the fairway. More than once I asked my father if I could just forfeit the hole, pick up the ball and call the game over, but he was insistent that I finish the hole. If I recall correctly my score on that hole, which was a Par 3, was a very embarrassing nineteen. From that point on, every time I played golf I insisted on renting a golf cart. I understand that golf is great exercise, but I wanted to survive the game!

Maybe next year I’ll try to go online to a website that sells cheap sports tickets and get my father a ticket to go to the Masters himself so he can be part of the action, instead of watching it on television. I’d love to see the look on his face when he realizes what the ticket is for!

I immediately started reading an article about how to save money on tools, and enjoyed reading his little story about when he was a little boy his grandfather gave him his first set of tools, and how he and his grandfather worked together on a variety of projects that needed tools. The story brought back memories of my own relationship with my own grandfather and it brought a smile to my face. You see, even though I am female, I was a tomboy, and my grandfather treated me like the son he never had of his own. It was great fun visiting him on his farm and helping him plant seeds in the garden and follow him around in the barn and watch him slop the hogs and feed the cows.

Realizing that I enjoyed his writing style, I decided to click around on his website, and found that the author of the website is offering college scholarships! I found that very interesting that he would do that, and decided to read more about that. Apparently he is going to award two $5,000 college scholarships a year! His requirements for winning the scholarship do not seem to be unreasonable, based on academic history, extra curricular activities, and ingenuity of essays.

That particular article brought back the memory of how my youngest son was able to go to college on a full grant/scholarship to Princeton due to the generosity of one of Princeton’s alumni. A friend came over to visit a few days ago and she was talking about how her son had thrown away his chances to go to college on a full scholarship and how upset she was that he was not taking advantage of the opportunity. Her concerns made me so grateful that my son was fortunate enough to get the financial grants he needed to go to Princeton, and how that college degree will be opening doors for his career for the rest of his life.

I’ve bookmarked this frugaldad.com website; I think I’ll be going back to read it again and again.