Star Trek, College Savings & Flowery Apartment Therapy Prose

by Katy on July 26, 2013 · 15 comments

Katy & Spock

Katy + Huffington Post Publishing Power = Star Trek Article

I went ahead and spit shined edited my old Everything I Needed to Learn in Life I Learned From Star Trek blog piece and uploaded it to The Huffington Post. (I know the fine folks at HuffPo thought I would be penning helpful frugality pieces when they asked me to start blogging for them, but I just can’t resist writing and publishing goofy stuff like How to Remove Demonic Spirits From Your Thrift Store Clothing! So ha, joke’s on them!)

Ya’ll already know that I am a Star Trek geek, truly, deeply and not in an cool ironic-geek way. Just in a regular geeky way, as evidenced by the above photo from 2009’s Star Trek in The Park.

Click HERE to read my Huffington Post article. And please feel free like it, share it and spread the love.

Thank you!

 

Step Two — Save All We Can

I wrote the other day about how with the exception of our mortgage, my husband and I are now completely debt free. (We’re on track to easily pay off the mortgage by retirement.) But instead of loosening our purse strings, we’re going to continue with our uber-frugal lifestyle to support our financial goals. And to make sure that neither of us finds temptation in the flush checking account, I’ve set up an automated credit union transfer for each and every Friday (our paydays) that will quickly fatten up our savings account. Needless to say, I’m super excited to watch the money start to add up!

Because our older son is entering his senior year of high school, my husband and I have college expenses on the mind, and this method will easily accumulate enough money to pay for a school such as University of Oregon, or even put a big fat dent into paying for a private college such as Whitman.

How fantastic will it be to pay ourselves instead of someone else?!

By the way, the answer is “so fantastic!” Very much so.

 

Apartment Therapy Likes Itself 

I really like the Apartment Therapy website. Although my decor style differs from most of what they feature, I still find inspiration from the creative home owners/renters whose spaces fill their pages.

However, sometimes it seems as though they’re parody-ing themselves. Take the example of a recent Apartment Tour that is described thusly:

“Manuel and Colt are masters of relaxed charm. Their parties are thoughtful arrangements of interesting people, their stories are full of curiosities and intrigue, and their home provides the perfect stage.”

Their parties are thoughtful arrangements of interesting people, their stories are full of curiosities and intrigue?!

How on earth can I not mock this?

My parties are thoughtful arrangements of:

  1. My neighbors.
  2. The people I happen to be related to by birth or marriage.
  3. The few people who had nothing better to do than to come to my house.
  4. A combination of the above.

Our stories are full of:

  1. Complaints about the neighborhood.
  2. Complaints about our children.
  3. Laughing at ourselves.
  4. A combination of the above.

Do the Apartment Therapy editors not see how ridiculous their descriptions have become?! Then again, it did make me laugh. Maybe I should just be thanking them.

So thank you Apartment Therapy, you put a smile on my face. 😀

 

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Pinterest.

{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }

Emily Mengel July 26, 2013 at 11:08 am

Have you looked at Unhappy Hipsters? That AT post could be a caption for one of the Unhappy Hipster photos. (unhappyhipsters.com)

Reply

Katy July 26, 2013 at 11:36 am

I just did, thank you!

Katy

Reply

Erin July 26, 2013 at 4:06 pm

There is nothing better than Star Trek and living simply. Kudos for a great combo!

Erin
erinswhite@wordpress.com

Reply

rosarugosa July 26, 2013 at 4:38 pm

Hmm – I think I’ll keep away from AT if they really say stuff like that with straight faces!

Reply

Tracy Stone July 26, 2013 at 5:50 pm

I feel like I should be reading that AT line with a cup of tea in my hand with my pinky in the air.

Reply

Katy July 26, 2013 at 7:03 pm

That’s because you should!

Katy

Reply

Alicia July 26, 2013 at 7:20 pm

Is Spock your brother? I see a resemblance!

Reply

Alicia July 27, 2013 at 8:28 pm

Katy…Serious question!

Reply

Karen July 27, 2013 at 5:40 am

Re: automatic transfer to savings. That old saying :Out of sight, out of mind” keeps running through my head. If you never see the increased balance in your checkbook, you are not as tempted to spend it on today’s expenses.

Reply

Katy July 27, 2013 at 10:14 am

That’s exactly my thinking. Although I don’t want it too much out of sight, as I am all too fully aware of life unexpected expenses.

Katy

Reply

Karen July 27, 2013 at 11:34 am

My house is not as old as yours, but needed repairs this year. Have had three separate things done at intervals; budgeted for them, but still a good chunk of money

Reply

marieann July 27, 2013 at 12:17 pm

I’ll keep the demons…if someone could just tell me how to get the fabric softener smell out of my thrift store sweater.
Marie

Reply

Katy July 27, 2013 at 1:09 pm

Ha!

Katy

Reply

Jennifer C July 29, 2013 at 11:26 am

I am not a Star Trek geek but my sister and her family are– we went to Star Trek in the Park in Portland a couple of years ago. It was hilarious!

Reply

Sue G. August 2, 2013 at 9:49 am

Ugh, AT. I love Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan’s philosopy and read his book, “Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure” over and over and over, but I had to stop reading AT.com. I felt they were always blogging about “deals” for home decor that were all new items (not used) and way over $1000 (ah, that’s a deal?). And then, one comment-poster noted how an article (by one of the site’s many bloggers) was plagerized from another website (not republished by the same author in two blogs, just copy-and-paste of whole portions of someone else’s work). Boo! I was done with AT. Not surprised to hear about too-serious-hipster-type attitude you cite. Such a shame.

Reply

Cancel reply

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: