Blow That Dough 2025

audreyh1 said:
You saved both of you. Thank goodness you had a system to turn the water off.

We always turn off the water and gas when we go out of town.
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Not practical for me- we had very cold weather while I was gone and even keeping the thermostat at 50 might have been a mistake since the pipe that leaked was close to an outside wall. Turning off the gas completely would be even riskier. I also take trips in the spring and fall that can run 3 weeks. Without sprinkling the grass would die.

And, a postscript on the expensive sweaters: I figured they'd send me a discount code now that I'm a customer. Just got 30% off when I ordered two more. :)
 
Our grass/yard is on a different system than the house, so we can turn water off right at the house yet still have yard irrigation.

Our heat is electric so don’t have to worry about that and can turn off the gas. We have all outside faucets well covered and below freezing is very rare anyway.
 
While working, I always had 4 or 5 suits in the $3k (ea) range. Haven't really needed one since I retired 20 years ago, except for weddings and funerals, and the two I have left have (ahem) "shrunk" on me.

As we have a wedding to go to in March, DW and I went out today to get me a new suit. My choices were either in the $600 range or $3500. Went back and forth and then realized that eventually, hopefully in 20 or so years from now, I'd be buried in it, wearing it for the next 1000 years.

Went with the $3500 one, a $280 custom shirt and a $175 tie.
 
marko said:
While working, I always had 4 or 5 suits in the $3k (ea) range. Haven't really needed one since I retired 20 years ago, except for weddings and funerals, and the two I have left have (ahem) "shrunk" on me.

As we have a wedding to go to in March, DW and I went out today to get me a new suit. My choices were either in the $600 range or $3500. Went back and forth and then realized that eventually, hopefully in 20 or so years from now, I'd be buried in it, wearing it for the next 1000 years.

Went with the $3500 one, a $280 custom shirt and a $175 tie.
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Maybe in 20 more years that overly expensive suit will be out of style. Then what are you going to do? :facepalm:
 
marko said:
Went with the $3500 one, a $280 custom shirt and a $175 tie.
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Never as high as $3,500 but I used to have some nice suits from a local tailor that were pretty nice. They weren't made to order but very well tailored and I enjoyed wearing them. Definitely a BTD. I probably would have gone with the $600 suit now given how unlikely I am to wear it more than a couple times. I am thinking about getting a nice blazer though, which will go with a few different slacks. I won't mind paying up on that.
 
aja8888 said:
Maybe in 20 more years that overly expensive suit will be out of style. Then what are you going to do? :facepalm:
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As they say "quality never goes out of style". With this new one, just throw a nice new tie on me and I'll be stylin' until 3045!
 
Well, this is interesting... we are going to South America....

On the local airlines we were able to book a couple of business seats for $32 each... it is only an hour trip but we did BTD!!!

SOOOO, looked at our long flights and the business seats down were $409 each... WOW... not that much... so did another BTD...

Now, we had already bought some upgraded premium seats that appear to be the same as business on the way home for about $180 each... but looked at the 'first class' lay down... almost $2k each... we will stick with what we have....

Now working on upgrading the hotels!! Found the travel agent booked a few 'interior' rooms (not sure about a hotel with this) but we want a view!!!
 
A rake fell over and jammed my garage door. 50 year old opener didn’t stop and bent the top panel. Had the panel replaced along with two new openers.
Hired a local guy instead of DIY. About $600 labor but I’m not working on a ladder for hours anymore.

While the guys were doing the door install I noticed the hot water was not. Tank sprung a leak. Rushed off to Home Depot to buy one and realized I’m not going to be able to get it in the basement myself. Called the install it number on the shelf and there’s another $700 in labor.

$1,300 in labor ($3,500 over all) but may have saved thousands on medical bills. lol

I didn’t count on not doing my own repairs 12 years ago but I can see they will need to be hired out more and more as the years go on.
 
  • Amtrak Empire Builder Train Trip Seattle - Minneapolis, luxury cabin. Never been on an overnight train.
  • Maui in May for DW's signficant birthday. Taking DD and DS and their SOs.
  • Danube Viking Cruise in July - Three days in Prague and then 10 days Passau to Budapest.
  • Still planning possible Christmas Markets in early December
 
GravitySucks said:
I didn’t count on not doing my own repairs 12 years ago but I can see they will need to be hired out more and more as the years go on.
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Yeah, I'm done with anything requiring high ladder work. My balance is great but I live alone and don't want to risk a serious fall. I've also got decent musculature for a skinny 72-year old female but am still VERY careful about what I try to lift.
 
timbervest said:
  • Amtrak Empire Builder Train Trip Seattle - Minneapolis, luxury cabin. Never been on an overnight train.
  • Maui in May for DW's signficant birthday. Taking DD and DS and their SOs.
  • Danube Viking Cruise in July - Three days in Prague and then 10 days Passau to Budapest.
  • Still planning possible Christmas Markets in early December
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Great trips. I loved the Empire Builder trip. I did it solo in a Roomette and enjoyed it a lot. Sleeping can be challenging with all the movement and noises, but I usually slept better after the first night.

And I did some of the European Christmas markets in 2023. Wonderful time.
 
Went with business class for our December Panama Lindblad/NationalGeo trip.
 
Winemaker said:
Just got back from Napa for the Zin Expo, an advocate for Zinfandel lovers, our first time. Great way to BTD while eating, tasting great stuff with 99% people we met for the first time. We won a few auctions and look forward to receive our shipments in a few weeks.
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A Zin lover aye, two Robert Parker (Wine Advocate)stories, We lived in Baltimore where Parker lives we were in a circle of friends which included his assistant. So we were doing a Zin tasting and the assistant brought a 1968 Mayacamas Late Harvest from Parkers cellar for his selection. Blew me away.

Second story, we were at the American Heart Association Wine Auction. We were bidding on a magnum of hand painted Perrier Jouet champagne. So we were near the front and we looked around to see who was still bidding. Yeah RP Jr. We were about tapped out and above are limit and we bowed out. Parker won, and the auctioneer announced that they had two bottles would we like it for the final price. Hey what could I say.
 
grasshopper said:
<snip> We were bidding on a magnum of hand painted Perrier Jouet champagne. So we were near the front and we looked around to see who was still bidding. Yeah RP Jr. We were about tapped out and above are limit and we bowed out. Parker won, and the auctioneer announced that they had two bottles would we like it for the final price. Hey what could I say.
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But do you actually DRINK it? I'm a scotch drinker and my limit has been $75-$80 a bottle. I did spend twice that coming home through London on my last trip to Europe- my favorite shop (The Tasting Room, has cask-strength whisky from a single malting, no filtering, coloring or blending). I'd run out of room in my checked bag so I could buy only one. So I spent $150. I'm OK with drinking that; I'm just afraid that if I blew, say, $400 on one bottle I'd never find a good excuse to open it.
 
athena53 said:
But do you actually DRINK it? I'm a scotch drinker and my limit has been $75-$80 a bottle. I did spend twice that coming home through London on my last trip to Europe- my favorite shop (The Tasting Room, has cask-strength whisky from a single malting, no filtering, coloring or blending). I'd run out of room in my checked bag so I could buy only one. So I spent $150. I'm OK with drinking that; I'm just afraid that if I blew, say, $400 on one bottle I'd never find a good excuse to open it.
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We shared with friends, sold the bottle at a moving yard sale, might have gotten a few dollars for it.
 
$33k on my midlife crisis BTD. If all goes well I have a platform to build off, but in all reality this is an extremely performant car. Spent a little bit on some aftermarket items to get her where she needs to be.

The stock exhaust leaves much to be desired for a small coupe.
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Visiting the city where I used to work. Mainly to check in with old friends.

No hotel this time. Splurging on a nice spacious AirBnB in a central location for a week. And in less than an hour 3 of my friends are coming here for dinner. I am not cooking - it's delivered.

I love that I can afford this blow!
 
It's always fun to check in with old friends and former co workers.
 
Starting to check on places at the coast for our yearly week with the kids.
VRBO has the place we stayed at last year, $3300 for rental, but by the time all the fees are added it gets to $5500! Hot tub fee, cleaning fee, fee to VRBO, etc etc.
Why post the nightly rate when it really isn't the true rate! Frustrating.:(
I get some added cost such as taxes, etc similar to hotels, but this is a bit ridiculous.
 
kgtest said:
$33k on my midlife crisis BTD. If all goes well I have a platform to build off, but in all reality this is an extremely performant car. Spent a little bit on some aftermarket items to get her where she needs to be.

The stock exhaust leaves much to be desired for a small coupe.
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Nice that you can still fid a small coupe in 2025. Congratulations!
 
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