Evolving Personal Finance » Entries tagged with "movies"

Does Less Exposure to Commercials Translate to Fewer Wants?

August 26th, 2013 | 31 Comments

Does Less Exposure to Commercials Translate to Fewer Wants?

Like many other Americans, I stopped watching TV commercials about ten years ago.  Between giving TV up for years on end (college, early grad school) to DVRs to Netflix and Hulu, we were no longer forced to endure traditional TV spot commercials.   Of course advertisers still want eyeballs, so our honeymoon from commercials only lasted a few years.  Advertisers increased their efforts in other areas, most noticeably injecting commercials before and in between online video content.  … Read entire article »

Filed under: spending

Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 7July2013

July 14th, 2013 | 5 Comments

I have had a really nice week!  I didn’t get enough done at work, though, so I’ve had to make up for it this weekend.  🙁  Last Sunday we met Cash Rebel on the way home from our trip to Madison, WI.  We had a pretty normal workweek; we’ve left open the chance of playing tennis anytime but it’s been raining every single day!  So disappointing.  This weekend was the weekend of catching up on our Netflix DVDs; we watched City of God on Friday and Apocalypse now on Saturday.  We also had a workday at a local elementary school with our church – I added a flagstone path to and mulched a section of a garden and Kyle weeded another section.     Posts I Liked   Amanda from Frugal Confessions implores us to block out … Read entire article »

Filed under: weekly update

Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 24Feb2013

March 3rd, 2013 | 9 Comments

I gave THREE practice prelim presentations this week – once for my lab, one for my peers, and one for my advisor.  I wanted to work far in advance so we could go see Les Miserables on Friday night and watch a basketball game and go to a game night on Saturday without feeling too stressed.  Kyle also gave two presentations this week so he was working hard as well.  My prelim is TOMORROW!   Oh, and in PF news, the grad student tax workshop I helped prepare was last Wednesday and it went really well!  The audience was very diverse – from people who had never seen a 1040 to people who were trying to argue that grad students should be paid with W-2s instead of 1099-MISCs.  I think our speaker … Read entire article »

Filed under: weekly update

Do You Buy, Lease, or Get Free Entertainment?

January 9th, 2013 | 25 Comments

Do You Buy, Lease, or Get Free Entertainment?

For Christmas this year Kyle received an Amazon (affiliate link – thanks for using!) Kindle gift card (and the giver checked that we do in fact own a Kindle).  Receiving that gift card, as well as considering some others, made me realize that we really don’t buy media any more.  I can remember only twice in the last five years or so that we’ve bought a song, book, or movie that wasn’t a gift.   It’s not just … Read entire article »

Filed under: frugality, spending