Queercents

“Bad excuses are worse than none.” – Thomas Fuller

The young couple that supplies our home cleaning service announced last week the price was increasing from $80 to $90 per visit. The reason: rising gas prices.

Our plumber recently came by to free the clog in the bathroom sink. His service call was $98. In 2005, a similar event produced a charge of $80. Reason for the increase: rising gas prices.

Are gas prices really the culprit or is this just an excuse for service businesses to give themselves a raise? I figured more people would be asking this same question, but I had to surf the superhighway to Tucson in order to find a newspaper online covering this fuel surcharge trend:

Whether Fluffy needs a trim, you broke your key off trying to get into your car, your toilet is leaking or you are having an appliance delivered, the rising cost of gas is eventually going to cost you.

But you’ll see in the comments that one reader does that math and thinks the reasoning doesn’t compute: Read the rest of this entry »

“Don’t throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds water.” – Swedish Proverb

In the last year, my iPod died, my Blackberry broke, 8 (yes 8!) of our 12 new Riedel wine glasses shattered, Jeanine’s pricey camera lens cracked, and today the coffee maker seems to be on the brink.

When does it pay to fix things? Or should we toss and replace? Obviously, we can’t fix the wine glasses, but often things can be refurbished. But it’s not always worth repairing. AOL Money lists the Top Five Things Never to Repair. Check out the article to understand why. But here are the items: Read the rest of this entry »

We have some prolific commenters at Queercents: Roland known as FrugalZen, DivaJean, Mrs. Micah, Liza of LizaWasHere and A.J. of The GuppieLife. I’ve noticed that often times a comment can be as good as the post it appears on. This happens to be the norm with Roland. I’ve noted several of his over the last year and decided to turn this one into a guest post. This comment originally appeared on The Emergence of Bling. I took the liberty to give it a title, but these are his words…

Fountain Pens: The ultimate old money accessory

A good book to read that was published way long ago that I bought and read in college is “Dress For Success” and many of the little bits of advice are just as true today as when it was published and I’ll give you a personal example…

Now I’ve always loved Fountain Pens and used them since 9th grade and over the years have gotten quite a collection some of them in the price range (even on sale… I’m still a Cheap SOB) that would probably make a lot of you wince. Read the rest of this entry »

“No vacation goes unpunished.” – Karl Hakkarainen

These days, many companies are experimenting with what is described as an unlimited vacation policy but career writers are asking if this is nothing more than corporate-speak for no vacation at all.

Marci Alboher at Shifting Careers gives these details:

One of the trendy perks at progressive companies is unlimited vacation time. The pitch is that responsible adults are capable of managing their own time so why not allow them to decide which hours and days to work as long as the work gets done. It’s yet one more way that the employed are starting to resemble the self-employed.

She points readers to this article in The Boston Globe Magazine that contemplates if this policy is really such a good thing. At first glance, it rings of work life balance, but does it actually result in people taking less time off? Read the rest of this entry »

Vicki Wagner is a funny girl, but she gets serious when it comes to dating. A comedian since 2001, Vicki wrote “Get a Gay Date Today, How to Market Yourself for Love” to offer vital strategies for gays and lesbians on the quest for love and connection. (There’s also a straight version!) The book boils it down to the game of “selling” to the right kind of “buyers” and this is the guidebook with how-tos.

Vicki is also the host of “Lesbian Knows Best,” a tell-it-like-it-is Internet talk show about relationships in which she freely dishes out advice. Sometimes though, the best advice comes with a price ($29.95 to be precise!), but the return on investment is pretty hard to beat. By the end of the book, you’ll be getting dates. Of course, the love part is up to you.

Below, Vicki answers our questions about money and finding your mate. Enjoy!

1. It is noted on your talk show, “Lesbian Knows Best” that you think like a man. How does this make you different than most women when it comes to money?
Well, my talk show, Lesbian Knows Best, is about me giving advice to straight people about their relationships, so when I say I think like a man I am talking about the obvious way a man would think about a woman… as in checking her out or having sexual thoughts about her. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a guest post from Jeff Hammerberg, the founder of GayRealEstate.com, the largest company in the nation representing the rights of queer home buyers and sellers. These are his words…

Tips for Maintaining Your Home while on Vacation

Returning from vacation to go back to work, catch up on a backlog of projects, and open a stack of bills that accumulated during a blissful absence can be tough. Some things - especially the rather unpleasant ones - can’t be controlled or avoided. But homeowners can take practical steps to ensure that they come back to a welcoming home and that while they are gone the house does not suffer any unwanted surprises but remains safe and secure.

Here are some tips to help prep a home so that it is not a source of worry while vacationing:

Maintenance
Turn the water heater to its vacation setting. Otherwise each time the water in the tank cools, the unit will reheat unnecessarily. It will repeatedly cool off and then get reheated, wasting energy and money. The vacation setting is usually a dial or knob located on the base of the water tank and it has two or three different settings or modes. Read the rest of this entry »

“Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.”– Peter F. Drucker

Yesterday, Wise Bread put together a list of Top Personal Finance Blogs by Women. The post was prompted by Lynn Truong’s attendance at the BlogHer conference in San Francisco last month where she expected to run into quite a few personal finance bloggers… after all, there were over a thousand women bloggers attending the event. The conference planners set aside a room for a personal finance meet-up and nobody showed except the host, sponsors and contingency of writers from Wise Bread. I attended BlogHer 07 and AOL sponsored a lunch with Mary Hunt, AOL Money Coach and author of Debt-Proof Living. The turn out was about the same.

So where are all the women personal finance bloggers? And why are women afraid to write about money? Or are they writing about money but their blogs are classified as something besides personal finance blogs. Here are a couple of comments from the Wise Bread post:

I think the fact that women write about personal finance (mostly) from a personal perspective causes a lot of PF blogs to get classified as other sorts of blogs- family or mommy or giveaways etc- in the minds of the authors. Almost as if there were the attitude that I’m a mom, so it’s a mommy blogger talking just about money. Read the rest of this entry »

Hunk alert: Fellas, gather around. Sam Page is an ex-Mormon, reformed porn star & L.A. trainer. Earlier this year, I interviewed Sam and his partner, Bronson for Ten Money Questions. He writes PeaceLoveLunges.com, a health and fitness blog where you’ll find everything from gay inspiration with his guycandy posts to his video interview with Kathy Griffin in Bora, Bora.

Sam’s training motto is “fitness through inspiration, not intimidation,” which reflects his belief that total health is available to everyone, regardless of his or her present condition. He also thinks that muscle is currency. If that’s the case, then you just might want to make a deposit at the Bank of Sam. These are his words…

Years ago, I was in a relationship with a very muscular, worked out guy who was adored by all of our friends for his Adonis-like physique.

James (not his real name) spent hours in the gym each week working every muscle group to failure. Even my friend Paul who rarely gushes over anyone told me that he “had the best body of anyone he’d ever seen.”

His diet was strict. His collection of bodybuilder photos numbered in the thousands. He supplemented with amino acids and protein drinks several times throughout the day. Read the rest of this entry »

“No person shall… be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” – Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

This summer there has been hot public debate in my community about the future of a medical office building. It’s not just any office building. It’s been deemed as having historical significance because it was designed in 1963 by Richard Neutra, one of modernism’s most important architects.

The building’s owner had submitted permits for a new building project on the site which meant the Mariners Medical Arts Center was destined for the wrecking ball:

But after local architects and community members protested the project, city officials looked into documents referencing the building and new construction. After doing so, they decided to put a suspension on the building permit.

They cited the California Environmental Quality Act that requires a study to determine environmental effects. Historical significance (due to its noted architect) is included in this category. Read the rest of this entry »

“The question isn’t at what age I want to retire, it’s at what income.” – George Foreman

Remember when I asked the question, “Why did you cash out your 401(k)?” Your comments were my inspiration for a guest post yesterday over at the Shifting Careers blog.

Marci Alboher, the Shifting Careers columnist for The New York Times, invited me to post about work and money. While our 401(k) might lack the sizzle of other financial topics, the treatment of these funds throughout our career is what will set us apart in retirement.

If you’re not familiar with her Shifting Careers column and blog, Marci is also known as the author of One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model For Work/Life Success (reviewed here). We were introduced last year when I was writing for BlogHer and she participated in the Ten Money Questions series.

Yesterday’s post begins with this: Read the rest of this entry »