The long weekend is here and hopefully the sun will stick around long enough to enjoy the outdoors. We plan to clean up the balcony so that we can enjoy our garden and cheap patio set (from Craigslist)! We enjoyed our first harvest of watercress just this morning. On Monday, we’re taking a short trip out to Steveston Village in nearby Richmond. For somewhere so close to home, I’m not actually sure if I’ve ever been. It’s difficult to access on transit, so we’ll be taking advantage of my Modo Car Co-op membership.
Happy long weekend – get out and enjoy it!
- From CF: Here’s an oldie but a favourite of mine. I love my slow cooker and often use it on the weekend to prepare a batch of meals for days in the week where I might be a bit busier. If you’re just starting out, it can be hard to know where to start. Trent from the Simple Dollar gives us a couple easy crock pot recipes.
- The chemist in me was impressed with Earth and Money’s research into the hidden ingredient in frangrances: pthalates. By law, fragrance companies do not need to tell you what is in their ‘trade secret’ compounds. I did a lab experiment during my undergrad to analyze one of my cologne’s using gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). It was a very enlightening experience (although I don’t remember any of the compounds by name). Pthalates can be dangerous to your health, yet there is no information on what is actually in most fragrances. Pthalates are also used in plastics as a plasticizer and can leech into food over time. I’m glad we switched to glass containers to heat our lunches!
- Money Smarts Blog looks at whether you should sell your house to avoid the coming market crash. I’ve noticed prices starting to head downwards in Vancouver lately, but we are not considering selling our condo. I see this as an opportunity, and perfect timing for the master plan. By the time we’re ready to buy our 2nd condo, the market should be right where we want it! I fully agree with the article that you should never try to time the market. This goes with stocks, real estate, anything.
- Sustainable Personal Finance looks at what did the latte ever do to you? Oddly enough, we have a post this coming week which uses the latte factor as an example, however I think the idea is that the latte factor is a metaphor. It’s a metaphor for all the things that we frivolously spend money on that are ‘easy’ to cut back on given the right mindset. We’re not trying to pick on the latte, it’s just a widely accepted metaphor.
This week, The Outlier Model was featured in:
