Blow That Dough 2025

[Kings over Queens]

Here is mine for today. 2024 GMC Canyon for my 25 y/o son. His sister got her car 2 years ago, now it's his turn. I'm following the "die with zero" mantra to spend money and gift to the people you love while they can enjoy it and you can see them enjoy it. We're so proud of the adults our kids have turned into and truth told, feeling pretty good about ourselves to be in a position where we can do something like this.

 

[street]

Here is mine for today. 2024 GMC Canyon for my 25 y/o son. His sister got her car 2 years ago, now it's his turn. I'm following the "die with zero" mantra to spend money and gift to the people you love while they can enjoy it and you can see them enjoy it. We're so proud of the adults our kids have turned into and truth told, feeling pretty good about ourselves to be in a position where we can do something like this.

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I want one of those!!! They are a hot item and the Colorado too!!!!

 

[Koolau]

Here is mine for today. 2024 GMC Canyon for my 25 y/o son. His sister got her car 2 years ago, now it's his turn. I'm following the "die with zero" mantra to spend money and gift to the people you love while they can enjoy it and you can see them enjoy it. We're so proud of the adults our kids have turned into and truth told, feeling pretty good about ourselves to be in a position where we can do something like this.

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If reincarnation is real, I want to come back as one of your kids!

Very nice. I'm sure your son appreciates it.

 

[5Miler]

This is shaping up to be an expensive year. DGF just scored a FAM trip (she is a certified Travel Agent) for a land trip to Budapest, Vienna and Prague this November/Dec. Already checking out Delta 1 airfare. Total group is limited to 15 couples. Will add three more countries to my visited list.

Travel scheduled so far this year.

Mar - Caribbean cruise for 11 days
Apr/May - Dive trip to Bonaire for 5 weeks
Jun - Flight to AR to visit both sons and families
Sep - Hawaii cruise for 7 days plus 2 day land tour
Nov/Dec - Land tour Budapest, Vienna and Prague
Dec/Jan - Dive trip to Bonaire 2 weeks

All airfare has been paid for so far except the last two trips in Nov/Dec and Dec/Jan.

 

[Retired Expat]

This is shaping up to be an expensive year. DGF just scored a FAM trip (she is a certified Travel Agent) for a land trip to Budapest, Vienna and Prague this November/Dec. Already checking out Delta 1 airfare. Total group is limited to 15 couples. Will add three more countries to my visited list.

Travel scheduled so far this year.

Mar - Caribbean cruise for 11 days
Apr/May - Dive trip to Bonaire for 5 weeks
Jun - Flight to AR to visit both sons and families
Sep - Hawaii cruise for 7 days plus 2 day land tour
Nov/Dec - Land tour Budapest, Vienna and Prague
Dec/Jan - Dive trip to Bonaire 2 weeks

All airfare has been paid for so far except the last two trips in Nov/Dec and Dec/Jan.

Clearly I need to get busy making travel plans.

Booked:
Feb/March France and Switzerland (in Berne currently). Oh the cheese and chocolate! To die for!
May: Caribbean cruise with daughter and her family
May: Florida vacation on the gulf coast for a week after the cruise
May/june: 3 weeks trip to our vacation home in CT

Dreaming about and starting to plan:
July hoping for 2 week tour of the Loire valley in France and Tuscany. Hope it won’t be too hot!
August theater festival in Scotland

 

[freedomatlast]

What car is that? Looks great

Looks like a Toyota GR86. Basically same as Subaru BRZ. Both have Subaru boxer engine.

 

[fisemper]

Small steps to start, but had to get a set of tires for the X3 @50k miles and figured why not for the Colorado @40k miles. So around $3000 there. Brew fridge died so there was $800 for a new one just to hold ingredients, got a kegerator for $1k, finally, that arrived damage...Trying to plan a hunting trip to Canada this fall.

 

[Kings over Queens]

I'm on a roll recently.

25 Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy Night Edition for my wife. It's been a while since she had a "nice" car.

 

[aja8888]

I'm on a roll recently.

25 Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy Night Edition for my wife. It's been a while since she had a "nice" car.

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Nice ! And BIG!

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

Here is mine for today. 2024 GMC Canyon for my 25 y/o son. His sister got her car 2 years ago, now it's his turn. I'm following the "die with zero" mantra to spend money and gift to the people you love while they can enjoy it and you can see them enjoy it. We're so proud of the adults our kids have turned into and truth told, feeling pretty good about ourselves to be in a position where we can do something like this.

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I'm still driving my 2010 GMC canyon. It has become irreplaceable so I'll just keep driving it until it rusts to the point of structural failure. It looks tiny compared to the one in your photo.
If only someone would make a regular-cab (2-door) truck with a clutch pedal again...

 

[Ronstar]

Bought an antique pocket watch.

 

[mebden]

Bought upgraded lithium batteries for my golf cart today which was just over $1100 but it supposed to make my cart go faster like 2 MPH and batteries are supposed to last up to 30 miles per charge so we will see how this works out after I get them mailed to me and installed.

 

[Slotracer]

Bought an antique pocket watch.

To use or to admire or both?

 

[Ronstar]

To use or to admire or both?

Both. My Apple Watch just doesn't have the panache of a pocket watch.

 

[Slotracer]

Both. My Apple Watch just doesn't have the panache of a pocket watch.

Good for you - enjoy!

 

[street]

Bought an antique pocket watch.

Interesting BTD. You got me thinking of a gift I bought my dad when going to college for Christmas about 45 plus years ago. He never used it, but he had those old-time cheap pocket watches he used his entire life.

I just hunted it down and took out of box to look at it, after I seen your post.

Here is a picture of it never been in a pocket that I have known.

 

[Ronstar]

Interesting BTD. You got me thinking of a gift I bought my dad when going to college for Christmas about 45 plus years ago. He never used it, but he had those old-time cheap pocket watches he used his entire life.

I just hunted it down and took out of box to look at it, after I seen your post.

Here is a picture of it never been in a pocket that I have known.
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Nice watch! I can see why your father never had it in his pocket. He cherished it as a gift from you and wanted to keep it as good as new.

 

[street]

Nice watch! I can see why your father never had it in his pocket. He cherished it as a gift from you and wanted to keep it as good as new.

I'm sure that was a lot of the reason. Those old timers saved and I'm sure just didn't want to have it show any wear.

 

[Koolau]

Both. My Apple Watch just doesn't have the panache of a pocket watch.

I always thought I'd wear a wrist watch, but when I got a phone, I decided I don't need one. YMMV

It's true that some watches are fashion statements.

 

[athena53]

I always thought I'd wear a wrist watch, but when I got a phone, I decided I don't need one. YMMV

It's true that some watches are fashion statements.

I LOVE my Apple watch. A year or so after I got it I decided I was done with traditional watches and sold my Rolex to a "we buy gold" place. (It was a lower-end stainless steel and gold, no date function, so not great resale value.) I should have waited, given the price of gold right now.

Yesterday I blew my tax refunds on home improvements. My house, which was built with otherwise very good craftsmanship and materials, had a large patch of particleboard in the living room. (It was covered by a rug when we looked at the place and then we discovered why they offered a $300 "rug allowance" at closing.) I plan to put the house on the market next year so late last year I had a contractor tear out the odious particleboard, patch in hardwood strips, sand and re-varnish. Well, now it looks so beautiful that the 30-year old carpeting in the adjacent dining area and the front bedroom look cheap. I just got a quote on putting in hardwood floors in those rooms and decided to do both.

And then I went out to the grocery store because they had a promotion for that day giving you 20 cents off per gallon at their gas station if you spent $30 on groceries.

 

[timbervest]

Just back from a trip to Egypt and Jordan. Biggest BTD beyond the trip itself was that DW bought a plant stand with a hand made, detailed, stone mosaic top of a tree of life for $2000.

I bought one also in Jordan about two years ago (same price). Was this in Madaba?

 

[FlaGator]

I owned pickups for most of my life until the first kid was born over 20 years ago. With the youngest gone, thought it was time to get back to my roots. Keeping the Honda SUV, but this will likely be the daily driver - 2024 Ford Ranger Lariat 2WD.

Ride is great for pickup, quieter than the SUV, and much better tech than the 2019 Honda. Already hauled home a new grill and lawn mower

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

I owned pickups for most of my life until the first kid was born over 20 years ago. With the youngest gone, thought it was time to get back to my roots. Keeping the Honda SUV, but this will likely be the daily driver - 2024 Ford Ranger Lariat 2WD.

Ride is great for pickup, quieter than the SUV, and much better tech than the 2019 Honda. Already hauled home a new grill and lawn mower

Congratulations!
I've had 3 pickups since 1991. None of them have had much in the way of "tech", though, and I like it that way.

 

[Sunset]

I cannot directly upgrade my Windows 10 system to Windows 11 due to CPU and motherboard restrictions. So I BTD to build a windows 11 test platform to migrate to before the October 2025 support deadline. The cost was a little more than $250 (after $70 savings from Amazon gift cards from various sources) for motherboard, power supply, cpu, 32GB memory, mSATA SSD boot drive, and PC test bench rack. I already have spare HDs to source a second hard drive from.

Windows 11 is installed but I have not yet BTD on a Windows 11 license. I did not realize until recently
that Windows 11 without activation does not "expire" and stop working after X number of days. The activation reminder message will remain on the screen,, and there are some customization limitations, but programs function normally and updates can applied. So I will BTD on that once I finish
testing my desired applications.

You didn't want to go with Linux ?

 

[Koolau]

I cannot directly upgrade my Windows 10 system to Windows 11 due to CPU and motherboard restrictions. So I BTD to build a windows 11 test platform to migrate to before the October 2025 support deadline.

Yeah, my latest BTD was for a new Mac. I kept getting notices that this feature and that app would no longer be supported after such and such a date. Even my virus protection said they couldn't help me after Feb. 28!

So, here I sit, typing on my shiny new Mac - that I saved $150 on. I've been finding people on the Net who say that my old Mac can be saved, but it sounds too technical for me. At least DW can still play her games on it.