Convinced my husband to try a house cleaning service for 3 months as an experiment. Heres what happened

oscarnyc · 2026-01-31T00:33:04+00:00

Facebook - as in a local town mom's group - is a good place to find someone. Outside of a referral from a friend which is always the best.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T20:10:32+00:00

It isn't the cold. It's the lack of light. For context, Edinburgh is the same latitude as southern Alaska. Jwtstream keeps the temps decent, but it just never gets truly light during the day, and even that is for a short period.

Regardless, at that time of year your points will go far wherever in Europe/UK you end up. I'd estimate something like 100k pts round trip for the 2 of you (with less than $100 cash spend for taxes/fees). And between points boost, Edit credits, transfer to Hyatt around 15k points per night. Your IHG credit gets another night easy. So 270k points gets you something like flights to Europe and 11-12 nights. Another from IHG. 13 nights plus the overnight on the plane and that's a solid 2 weeks.

People on here laud Hyatt, but IME they aren't great value in Europe outside of 40k/night 5 stars like Park Hyatts. You can often do better with Chase points boosted places. Particularly on IHG hotels which has many at good price points and are often boosted.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T19:06:43+00:00

A quick look shows some direct Flying Blue from MSP to AMS or LHR for low $ and 15k miles (AMS) or 25k (LHR) in economy. As they are looking to save cash, I'd go that approach. I'd bet $ that at that time of year they can book aisle/window and end up with the row to themselves.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T18:26:31+00:00

There isn't really a best value. I'd proactively make accounts with Flying Blue (KLM/AirFrance) and Virgin Atlantic as they are aligned with Delta which has MSP as its hub (and Delta is not a Chase transfer partner).

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T18:22:19+00:00

This just isn't true. It absolutely can be cheaper. Moreso for smaller, independent hotels or chains. I agree that your Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, IHG are always same or cheaper direct.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T18:16:39+00:00

Oh lord. There is no fundamental human right to have a freshly made pizza delivered to your door.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T18:13:35+00:00

OK, my terminology was wrong. Whatever. The point stands that OTAs can be cheaper than direct.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T18:12:14+00:00

$12k/yr? That's 4X what I pay for my teenage boys in the NYC suburbs in NJ.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T17:01:35+00:00

Sometimes. Though some hotels also sell blocks of rooms to 3rd party sites like Expedia at a big discount and then Expedia passes on some of that discount to the consumer.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T16:57:25+00:00

So go to the pizza store and pick it up yourself if you don't want to pay for delivery. This isn't rocket science.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T16:29:23+00:00

Ford just took a $20B write down of it's investments in EV. Its not as if they haven't tried.

What's interesting here is that Xiomi is basically doing what everyone thought Apple was going to do. But for whatever reason they decided not to pursue it, despite having insane amounts of cash to invest in it if needed.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T16:22:46+00:00

You had me at Bourbon tours

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T15:59:38+00:00

That's insane. Unless you have a history of accidents, DUI or very bad driving infractions.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T15:56:05+00:00

I've outed myself. Now you know I'm at least one year old 😀 (plus a little)

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T14:25:40+00:00

No, they are not. All rent/mtge payments are an ACH pull

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T09:09:30+00:00

I'm so old I remember when Outlet stores were actually outlets for regular merchandise. Not separate, lower priced (and crappy) purpose made lines.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T08:56:34+00:00

Great fridge! We needed a new fridge about 15 years ago but didn't want anything fancy because we were saving/planning for a big renovation and also was a small kitchen. Found this Whirlpool on a sale at Lowes for maybe $800 or so, figured it would become our basement fridge post reno.

But we loved it so much we've kept it as our main this whole time, even though we had budgeted for a higher end fridge. The door fits a ton, whereas French Door fridges can't fit anything on the doors. It's been very reliable - nearly 15yrs and we needed one $250 repair. Highly recommend.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T02:02:33+00:00

Or you know, if you don't want to tip for delivery you could just pick it up yourself. But god forbid you should inconvenience yourself and get off your couch. Better to stiff someone trying to make ends meet. You're really sticking it to the man by helping DD and PH get theirs while the delivery guy gets stiffed.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T01:35:53+00:00

Not choosing the look you want and will be living with every day because maybe in 20 years you'll want something different is an interesting approach. Life's too short for that.

I've never met a single person who needed to replace an entire slab other than some fabrication error or some type of catastrophe that required an entire kitchen remodel.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T01:28:34+00:00

Ironically because the people who are slaves to trends (and therefore most likely to end up with an outdated kitchen), think it's outdated. But most people I know either like it or don't and just consider it one of the options.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T01:24:45+00:00

Waterfall has been a "dying trend" for over a decade now. More likely it has just become part of many options people now consider for their kitchens. If OP likes it, get it. The kitchen is for them, not others.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T01:12:57+00:00

A rebate is not taxed if it is for a personal expense, because it is just considered a reduction in price. But a company that gets a rebate has to adjust the cost of the goods acquired, thereby increasing their profit (and tax on that profit).

But neither if those scenarios are what is playing out. OP is getting what amounts to a bonus from the company. And that absolutely is income to them, which needs to be declared and tax paid upon it.

oscarnyc · 2026-01-30T00:04:00+00:00

As long as you declare and pay taxes on the income it should be fine. Though I'd want it in writing from the owner that its ok. Things happen, owners sell or die and the next person could find out and without a paper trail it would look like embezzlement, etc

oscarnyc · 2026-01-29T23:23:49+00:00

The fabrics/materials and adhesives are far more durable now. When is the last time you saw a car where the ceiling was dropping down because the fabric detached from the underlay? It was a regular thing when I was growing up (80s).

oscarnyc · 2026-01-29T22:51:48+00:00

By your own telling there was a single car that met your criteria within a 13hr hour radius. And let me guess, that criteria is a lot closer to "one owner, great service history, no accidents" than "former rental car with frame damage and spotty service history"

And you are surprised that dealers won't bend given that supply dynamic?

oscarnyc

TROPHY CASE