Blow That Dough 2025

Kings over Queens said:
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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Kings, here here! I fully support your “die with zero” mantra and the objective of seeing those you love enjoy these gifts now!
 
Sunset said:
You didn't want to go with Linux ?
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Not for my main desktop. I still use too many applications that run best on Windows vs Linux (Quicken, Microsoft Office components, etc.). I did, however, migrate the desktop I use for my audio lab projects from Windows to Linux.

In addition, in the home computing lab I have 5 Linux tower servers, a couple of Proxmox servers, a VMware server, a laptop, an OpenMediaVault server, and 3 Raspberry Pis for my various software, networking, integration and virtualization adventures :) .
 
5Miler said:
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.
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Just booked airfare for our Bonaire dive trip in Dec/Jan. We usually book First Class at anywhere from $1800 to $2600 for that four hour flight and we were hoping to use our First Class Companion ticket for this one. The Companion ticket failed early as all available fares for that sold out immediately but even if not sold out, Delta wanted over $4.2K. We usually fly Delta1 to Europe cheaper than that.

Comfort Plus fares were running just over $2200 each so we ended up booking main cabin at $1800 each and throwing a few miles on it finally paying $1419.00 each. With Platinum Medallion status we were automatically upgrades to Comfort Plus anyway. Being over both Christmas and New Years makes for some tough holiday travel fares. These airfares are always ridiculous but these are really out there. I remember the days of flying Air Jamaica Champaign flights to Bonaire for only $450 but clearly those days are far behind us.

That's enough whining for now until we book our Nov/Dec airfare to Budapest and Prague. Delta1 all the way.
 
At my request, PCP sent script to Lily Direct for first month of Zepbound. Will pay out of pocket to drop 20% of weight and hopefully improve arthritis related pain and mobility issues. Specifically, sciatica. Wish it was available for all who would benefit. Not just those who can afford it.
 
Sanstar said:
At my request, PCP sent script to Lily Direct for first month of Zepbound. Will pay out of pocket to drop 20% of weight and hopefully improve arthritis related pain and mobility issues. Specifically, sciatica. Wish it was available for all who would benefit. Not just those who can afford it.
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Can you get Dixie Cups with that?:hide:




(Sorry 'bout that.)
 
5Miler said:
That's enough whining for now until we book our Nov/Dec airfare to Budapest and Prague. Delta1 all the way.
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Yeah, I just booked round trips to Heathrow in September/October in Business Class and it's becoming more and more work to get something reasonable. I always schedule overnights in London each way and book flights to my ultimate destination separately. London to Athens- plenty of nonstops. Skopje (Macedonia), where my tour ends, to London- no nonstops at all but Austrian Airways stops in Vienna. I could have taken Vienna back home on Austrian (overnighting in Vienna instead of London) but the one-way fares on two different airlines would have been WAY more than half the round trips.

So... decided to stick with my original plan- round trips to and from LHR and taking the Skopje-Vienna-LHR connecting flight. The AA round trip was $4,000-$5,000. Tooke forever to poke through the $4,000 ones to find ones with reasonable connection times (which I know can be messed up if they change the schedule).

First world problems, indeed.
 
We just returned from our two-week BTD trip to Japan. Biz class flights, luxury and boutique hotels, various tickets, backcountry ski guides, and even our omakase dinner were paid in advance. Total was close to $20k and paid months ago.

Food and most other things were super cheap in Japan, so it was hard to blow any more dough.
 
athena53 said:
Yeah, I just booked round trips to Heathrow in September/October in Business Class and it's becoming more and more work to get something reasonable. I always schedule overnights in London each way and book flights to my ultimate destination separately. London to Athens- plenty of nonstops. Skopje (Macedonia), where my tour ends, to London- no nonstops at all but Austrian Airways stops in Vienna. I could have taken Vienna back home on Austrian (overnighting in Vienna instead of London) but the one-way fares on two different airlines would have been WAY more than half the round trips.

So... decided to stick with my original plan- round trips to and from LHR and taking the Skopje-Vienna-LHR connecting flight. The AA round trip was $4,000-$5,000. Tooke forever to poke through the $4,000 ones to find ones with reasonable connection times (which I know can be messed up if they change the schedule).

First world problems, indeed.
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We are considering extending the Budapest, Vienna. Prague tour to include Berlin on our own afterwards as DGF's mother was German and although we both lived in Germany for years (not together) neither of us has been to Berlin. This will change the plan a bit for airline travel but the lowest fare we had seen for the original itinerary for Delta1 was $5500 and ranged north of $8000 for direct flights. Good thing we still have lots of time to figure it out.
 
5Miler said:
We are considering extending the Budapest, Vienna. Prague tour to include Berlin on our own afterwards as DGF's mother was German and although we both lived in Germany for years (not together) neither of us has been to Berlin. This will change the plan a bit for airline travel but the lowest fare we had seen for the original itinerary for Delta1 was $5500 and ranged north of $8000 for direct flights. Good thing we still have lots of time to figure it out.
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I recommend signing up to tour the Reichstag building dome. Very unique and amazing views of Berlin. No fee (even free audio guide) unless you have a guided tour, but heavy security and you have to sign up well in advance. German Bundestag - Registering to visit the dome of the Reichstag Building
 
baby steps here... just back from three weeks in France. Had a nice AF operated business class seat both directions. First for domestic connections (trains and flights). Not a travel thread, but was impressed with the Delta One lounge at LAX. The full table-side service and full cooked to order menu was a nice treat.

One minor thing was going to La Grande Epicerie in Paris, sort of like an Erewan/Dean & Deluca but French and with better prices. (Was inspired by the linked video). Excellent selection of cheese and an entire floor of wine, a a good butchery section. Had lunch there too, in the 2nd floor (premier etage) restaurant and it was actually good. The upper floors of this branch were part of Le Bon Marche department store, with a pretty extensive and good kitchen section. Service everywhere was very good. Would be dangerous if I lived nearby.
 
oiseux said:
baby steps here... just back from three weeks in France. Had a nice AF operated business class seat both directions. First for domestic connections (trains and flights). Not a travel thread, but was impressed with the Delta One lounge at LAX. The full table-side service and full cooked to order menu was a nice treat.

One minor thing was going to La Grande Epicerie in Paris, sort of like an Erewan/Dean & Deluca but French and with better prices. (Was inspired by the linked video). Excellent selection of cheese and an entire floor of wine, a a good butchery section. Had lunch there too, in the 2nd floor (premier etage) restaurant and it was actually good. The upper floors of this branch were part of Le Bon Marche department store, with a pretty extensive and good kitchen section. Service everywhere was very good. Would be dangerous if I lived nearby.
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Thanks for sharing the video. It brought back memories of shopping in Paris in 1964 when I was a teenager. The couple have a video of the store I was most impressed with.



Just BEING in Paris at that time of my life was a BTD. I w*rked for a year to go.
 
Koolau said:
Thanks for sharing the video. It brought back memories of shopping in Paris in 1964 when I was a teenager. The couple have a video of the store I was most impressed with.



Just BEING in Paris at that time of my life was a BTD. I w*rked for a year to go.
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You are welcome. The big department stores of the Grandes Boulevards are still there, awaiting your BTD return. In the US these type of large, grand department stores seem to be inceasingly impacted have by changing buying habits. But in France, they seem to be doing OK
 
oiseux said:
You are welcome. The big department stores of the Grandes Boulevards are still there, awaiting your BTD return. In the US these type of large, grand department stores seem to be inceasingly impacted have by changing buying habits. But in France, they seem to be doing OK
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IIRC there were also fabulous restaurants within Galleries Lafayette. Of course, that was 60+ years ago.
 
Koolau said:
MacBook Air (laptop).
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They just announced MacBookAir with the M4 chip.

You may be able to swap the one you got e new one, though not sure if they increased the price.

www.apple.com

Buy 13-inch MacBook Air

Get a new 13-inch MacBook Air laptop with the M4 chip from only $83.25 per month. Choose a model or customize your own now at apple.com.
www.apple.com
 
explanade said:
They just announced MacBookAir with the M4 chip.

You may be able to swap the one you got e new one, though not sure if they increased the price.

www.apple.com

Buy 13-inch MacBook Air

Get a new 13-inch MacBook Air laptop with the M4 chip from only $83.25 per month. Choose a model or customize your own now at apple.com.
www.apple.com
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Thanks. I can always ask. (Not holding my breath.)
 
DW wants to get the dining room and kitchen repainted. We don't want to do it ourselves this time. There are some things to repair first also. We had a guy over yesterday for the first estimate. Before he got here, DW said "How much do you think it will be? $1000, $1500". He said they had a 15% discount going on now. After that, it was $2800 plus paint of ~$500. Why is everything always double what you think?
 
^^^

The going rate along time ago was a penny/inch^2. Now the rate is closer to 0.10/inch^2. But the going rate is dependent on supply and demand, and I see a lot of people just don't want to paint themselves (for whatever reason). As a landlord, there were many possible renters would pass on my rental unit because the color was beige, and not a color that went with their couch, sofa etc......
 
While it's not a sports car, I bought the new iPad Air after it was released yesterday, and even splurged on the Magic Keyboard. We're traveling for around a month this summer and now I won't need to bring my laptop. Total with AppleCare came to around $1000, which seemed like a bargain.
 
I think I already reported my pending business class air to Rio, but today I dropped $685 on the chikungunya vaccination. If that virus gets into you, there's an acute phase, which, eh, anybody can take any discomfort for a few days. But there's a possible chronic phase where you basically have arthritis for the rest of your life. Talk about kicking yourself for being frugal! Can you imaging living your life with debilitating arthritis when you could have prevented it? This is starting to sound less like BTD and more like "duh!" It's like when somebody comes on the BTD thread and says fixing the roof was "blowing" dough. That's just required spending. Now my frugal self is going to try to file with Medicare to try to get some of my $685 back :)
 
sengsational said:
I think I already reported my pending business class air to Rio, but today I dropped $685 on the chikungunya vaccination. If that virus gets into you, there's an acute phase, which, eh, anybody can take any discomfort for a few days. But there's a possible chronic phase where you basically have arthritis for the rest of your life. Talk about kicking yourself for being frugal! Can you imaging living your life with debilitating arthritis when you could have prevented it? This is starting to sound less like BTD and more like "duh!" It's like when somebody comes on the BTD thread and says fixing the roof was "blowing" dough. That's just required spending. Now my frugal self is going to try to file with Medicare to try to get some of my $685 back :)
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Many of us get arthritis without the virus when old age hits. Heck, it just shows up! But anything you can do to try to prevent it is worthwhile.
 
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