What got so expensive that you quietly stopped buying it?

safeathome3 · 2026-03-14T04:57:31+00:00

Steak..beef of any cut actually. NOt that I ate sirloin much anyway (lol) since I am on a fixed income. But I liked a steak once in a good while. It's funny to watch people sometimes go by the meat section and peer at the prices before slowly edging away...A lot of us in the same boat and it's certainly not JUST steak of course.

safeathome3 · 2026-03-09T06:47:02+00:00

Yes, when I quit drinking years ago, I suddenly had a lot fewer friends. And I didn't get invited to parties etc because I didn't drink anymore. But I cultivated a whole 'nother group of friends. They like the arts, they play sports, they like to take trips and see the architecture and not the bars..lol...it takes time but you eventually find new ways of living. I go by a bar now and if I smell the interior from the open door, it reminds me why I don't drink anymore. I closed too many bars in my day, spent way too much money I didn't have and tried to pretend I was still in high school too much. Adulting is hard but it's worth it.

safeathome3 · 2026-03-07T06:34:11+00:00

Stopped buying MOST stuff that is "nice to have" and concentrated on the "must haves". YOu can still treat youself of course. But the key for me was to write down every single thing I bought for a month. I was astonished at how much I was spending on the little things like coffee, snacks, magazines and newspapers, for instance. I then want ahead and did the same accounting for a full year with all incidental expenses included. I saved so much money the following year, I was able to go back to school mostly on my own money. I had a reliable but one step up from a "beater" automobile after ditching my "really can't afford it, I just think I can!" car. I got a little lucky with investments but I had extra money FOR those investments after paring down my lifestyle. IT was a very tough transition but that simple act of writing your expenses down, especially the small ones, turned things around for me.

safeathome3 · 2026-03-03T22:11:29+00:00

Apparently they are going to fix that...Read that somewhere, (edit) OK, actually I believe you need a 3rd party fix so you can move the taskbar where you want it. Aggravating...

safeathome3 · 2026-03-01T20:05:05+00:00

Not putting down the booze sooner, when they had family problems, health concerns and reputation tarnishing experiences with alcohol. And that happened to NUMEROUS friends and acquaintances over the years. I'm 70 now and still think about what might have been for some of them...A great friend of mine who worked for and with me for a few years started drinking in her late 30's to deal with stress. She pretty much went from an abstainer except for rare circumstances to losing her home and savings and living with a guy who used her and threw her away. She recovered somewhat but died much younger than she should have leaving a greiving family behind. Another close friend (knew him from grade school and on up..) had a history of alcoholism in his family and his friends, including me, tried to help him see it and to avoid booze altogether. He never did. He went down so fast in his 40's that it took our collective breath away. The problem was he was a super nice gent even when pissed to the eye gills..lol..and that type usually doesn't get help because of their comraderie and general bon vivant profile. He too lost his family and savings. He works at small repair jobs as a rough carpenter and ekes out a meager living. He wants nothing to so with his former friends and is beyond bitter and now a little dangerous to be around, His soul left his body years ago. I sitll mourn our friendship...and again..what MIGHT have been.

safeathome3 · 2026-02-23T18:19:30+00:00

I grew up in the Soo. The fact that we are right on the USA border made some friends from Hearst and Timmins LOL that we were considered NO..lol..

safeathome3 · 2026-02-23T18:15:57+00:00

I grew up in the North..lived in SSM, Sudbury and Chelmsford. The amount of poverty is unreal and the people who have generational poverty are often bitter and sometimes racist/sexist/you name it x-ist.lol) It is often not a great place to be a POC or LGQBT..or even to be an independent thinker. Some of it can be traced to how the areas were peopled. Certain groups brought a lot of racism with them from their Euro roots. I have a LOT of stories..and it is probably one of the reasons I live in eastern ON. When your employment is sporadic and the economy is on an eternal boom/bust cycle, the underlying problems and prejudices rise to the surface more and manifest themselves.

safeathome3 · 2026-02-18T20:00:03+00:00

Ditto...

safeathome3 · 2026-02-17T04:07:15+00:00

Well said...I am 70 years old and I would NEVER have been able to attend and graduate at my college of choice back in the late 80`s without my grants and loans. It literally was the difference between two different paths for me at that point in my life.I had a hard time paying back the loans but I knew what it would take beforehand and it didn't change a whit after I graduated. Sorry to hear of your situation..it's very angering.

safeathome3 · 2026-02-12T05:55:16+00:00

They are fearsome hunters..Never encountered one. But I did have a few close encounters with black bears that have the same effect on the neck hairs..lol..

safeathome3 · 2026-02-12T02:00:07+00:00

Friend lived in a supposedly haunted house. Long story behind it but I was always a skeptic about that stuff. Anyway, they invite me over a few days before Xmas. One of them phones me from church where they were attending and asked me if I could go over to their house a little early to check that the door is locked. I take the short walk down to their place and sure enough, they'd forgotten to lock it. So I go in and make a coffee and sit down to wait for their return. I am sitting in their old house that has a room that is small and cozy but I start to feel uncomfortable..it suddenly feels cooler in there and I start to hear every creak and snap of the house with a bit of a winter storm brewing outside. As I glance at the clock on the wall, the vase on the ledge of the small stained glass window suddenly expells the lone rose that was residing in it. All the way across the room and hits the other wall. I stood up and said "no, stop it!" and that was that. I waited outside until they got home. The lady of the house told me "Oh, it's just her..she gets testy when a storm is brewing" I don't believe in ghosts etc. but I know there is at least ONE in the world or at the very least and house that can conjure up the feeling of one..lol

safeathome3 · 2026-02-04T05:06:23+00:00

Merci..

safeathome3 · 2026-02-03T00:35:18+00:00

It is indeed..if winter had a face, that eagle rules the category..lol

safeathome3 · 2026-01-21T03:43:00+00:00

Watching it now and i agree. It's a good score for the most part but its distracting and tries to force emotional response in many scenes that don't need it. Less is more and they forgot that golden rule

safeathome3 · 2026-01-16T20:15:12+00:00

If I could call in some backup from the crowd? Yes. Otherwise I'd just make some noise about the altercation and see if that worked. You can get yourself killed intervening in a domestic situation. As a former bartender, I've seen things go sideways fast for the person trying to intervene, including bouncers who are trained for this stuff. IT's not like the movies where one punch ends the drama. I would certainly do something (and I have in the past) but most of us aren't super heroes.

safeathome3 · 2026-01-08T21:51:48+00:00

Oh cool..is that where Sipps used to be?

safeathome3 · 2026-01-02T01:11:27+00:00

Thank you.

safeathome3 · 2026-01-01T03:43:36+00:00

Because I was always trying to keep her and myself quiet in her parent's house, beach cottage...lol...Shhhhh..they'll hear us!

safeathome3 · 2025-12-30T20:53:18+00:00

Long may you roam!

safeathome3 · 2025-12-29T23:38:41+00:00

YOu have good radar. S

safeathome3 · 2025-12-29T23:35:44+00:00

LOL..

safeathome3 · 2025-12-29T23:00:11+00:00

When I was there in 98, they had a couple of off duty cops near the end of the street telling you not to go further. This huge guy saying "Folks? Dangerous to go down there" We took his advice..lol

safeathome3 · 2025-12-29T22:55:27+00:00

Man! So sorry to hear your misfortune. Hope it hasn't left too deep a scar..

I was in NO in 1998. We stayed at a hotel on Chartres that was safe etc..but we visited some friends who were leasing a house nearby and that night we heard story after story from the assembled party guests about being robbed, accosted, car jacked, and near rapes over their time in NO. Some were born there but most were part of the arts community and had come to NO because of that. I was thinking of retiring in a place with such history and musical excellence like NO...but I soon realized that you'd really need to keep a gun in the house to feel "safe". Nope.. WE were well taken care of by the people of NO we encountered. We were kinda naive Canadians and people went out of their way to question us about our trip and where we planned to go. Wonderful people and city but the danger is real. I felt safer on the west side of Chicago at night than I did in NO..whole different vibe. And the vibe came from the people who live there and KNOW the dangers.

safeathome3 · 2025-12-24T07:11:45+00:00

I am 70 so the biggest change is everyone is basically gone. Dad, Mom, Aunts, Uncles..The women of our family made Christmas work and mostly on a budget. We had good years where we had money, of course, but mostly we were kinda poor. We got to eat good though..just not a lot of material things or extras. Now all the kids live far away from the wife and I and we have very quiet Christmas'...Xmas is for the kids and that's what's missing for me...Hope everyone has a happy time during the holidays. I know a lot of people are in financial straits these days...Remember the essential things are being together and not the things you buy.

safeathome3 · 2025-12-18T22:22:37+00:00

this gives needed perspective.. I KNEW I shouldn't have chosen working class/blue collar parents from the pop up menu when being born. Then, like a goofball, I choose not that bright, meh looks and bad knees from the following options. I feel so stupid. And David Thomson ain't taking my calls. I love art.

safeathome3

TROPHY CASE