by Libby Balke | Uncategorized
My mother and I have a Friday lunchtime tradition. Each week, one person picks a restaurant, and the other person picks up the tab. (However, being that I’m dining with my mother, she tends to pay more often than I do, regardless of who picks the venue.) Last...
by Libby Balke | Miscellaneous
My husband and I are what pop culture refers to as “millennials”: born in the early 80s, we’re too old to be Gen X’ers (much to my chagrin), so we’ve been tagged Gen Y. We’re the generation that came of age with AOL Instant...
by Libby Balke | Miscellaneous
I’ve been a loyal Amazon Prime member for years – in fact, I enrolled in the program within a week of purchasing my very first Kindle (one of the black and white ones that didn’t even have a touch screen). Since Amazon Prime’s inception in...
by Libby Balke | Uncategorized
Last year, for the first time since getting married, my husband and I entered a new tax bracket for our federal taxes. We were interested to see what this would do to our effective tax rate, which in previous years had been in the single digits. Of course, 2013 was...
by Libby Balke | Maximize Career
This week, I celebrated my first “work-a-versary” at my new job; although, I guess that I’ve been with my job for a full 12 months now, it’s not all that “new” anymore. When I chose to return to the workforce after several years as...
by Libby Balke | Food and Recipes
There was a time in the not too distant past when I did all my grocery shopping at Walmart. The reasons were twofold: first, Walmart was the closest grocery store to my house, so convenience played a big role; second, saving money was my main motivator, and no other...