“Eurogames” can be quite expensive and even with the great descriptions and reviews on Board Game Geek it can be hard to pick a game you’ll love to play again and again. Lisa should check in her area for a boardgaming group. Here in Ohio, we have CABS (Columbus Area Boardgaming Society), which meets 3 times a month. It’s cheap (first visit free, then $3 per visit or $35 yearly membership), family-friendly (kids under 18 are free with paying adult), and best of all, the game library has over 1,000 games! If you’re a member, you can “check out” a game to take home between meetings. Although my husband and I do own quite a few games, they’re mostly ones we’ve played at CABS and enjoyed.

6. Unless you absolutely hate it, try to learn something about clothing construction and fabrics (at least take note of what you get complimented on). You can skim a thrift store very quickly when you can spot quality fabric at ten feet. You can also better identify what might be worth full price because it will last you ten years.

None of these tips will make you indistinguishable from people who spend $1000 on an outfit, but they can make you look pulled-together enough that people assume you know what you’re talking about.

1. Train yourself to recognize degrees on the casual-dressy continuum. I have noticed that many people who want to avoid spending money or time on clothes tend to go too casual. Especially watch your shoes (there are dressy low-heeled shoes out there if you look).

2. Avoid machine-washable clothes for work. I know that a lot of people disagree with me on this, but something that looked ok for work when it was new at the store looks much less so after going through the washer a couple times. Cashemere or merino sweaters and many women’s dresses can be hand-washed, and taking good care of clothes like suits means they can go a long time between dry-cleaning.

3. Wear a slip. I seem to be the only woman in America who still does this, but it makes your clothes look better on you and it helps keep them clean from your sweat and body oils (meaning spending less on dry-cleaning).

4. Change out of your work clothes when you get home (don’t cook in them!). Again, this just makes them last longer and saves on cleaning.

5. The more you’re going to wear something, the better quality it should be. It seems as though a basic black skirt should be the cheapest thing to find, but it rarely is. In my experience, watching for sales like a hawk is the best way to get basics (though they’re still not cheap, they’re within my price range), while thrift stores can help fill in with more interesting items.

Were you listed as a POD on the account (payable upon death) by the original owner? If so, it’s probably just a matter of going to the new bank with the old account number – they should have records of what accounts were transferred (and likely renumbered in the buy out).

Alternatively, if it was just left to you by virtue of the decedent’s will – have you contacted their estate attorney? If it didn’t go through probate you could probably bring a copy of the will to the bank and show them you are the rightful owner.

But like someone else said, depending on how long it’s been, they may have turned the CD over to the state as “unclaimed property”. You can usually search your state’s website for this type of thing and submit a form proving you are entitled to the funds.

Good luck.

Secondly would you please tell me if an electrical oven and tea kettles suck watts? My husband thinks that our electric bill is going high because of these two items.I can’t work without tea kettle in my kitchen and am not willing to give it up :(

Also I was wondering about watts consumed by irons and microwaves.

They recommend turning over buying clothes and managing their money when kids are about 8 years old and present some good reasons for doing so, most notably that kids that age are enthusiastic and crave responsibility and that the mistakes they will inevitably make aren’t life-threatening.

If you give a kid $100 for clothing for this quarter and he goes out next week and buys a pair of runners for $75 and blows the rest on non-clothing items he’ll probably regret it within a week and will have to wait until the next installment of clothing money in 3 months time.

The same with other allowance money. If she blows it all at 7/11 the day she gets it on pop and candy, she won’t have money to go to the movies with her friends or buy a gift or pick up a new lipstick.

But by the time those kids get to college, they’ll probably be incredible at managing their money.

My wife and I often find brand new items at places like goodwill and savers. I bought 4 T-shirts a few weeks back and 3 still had the tags on them and the other one still had the folds and appeared to never have been washed. I paid $1.25 for each one. They were all brand name and would have cost me well over $30 at retail stores.

That being said, you do have to be patient as it is a hit or miss type of shopping. My strategy is to look only for items that appear new or nearly new, regardless of color, and buy the ones that fit.

Good luck.

I have had very good luck clothes shopping at thrift stores. You have to be patient and take the time to go through the racks and try everything on, and check for stains and damage. If you keep looking, your patience will be rewarded. I recently scored the perfect “little black dress” for 8 dollars at a thrift store. I would have paid ten times that much if I bought it new at the store it originally came from.

Something just smelled funny about the description, and I worry that Deborah and her husband are being sold a line of goods (so to speak) and getting ripped off on an “inventory purchase” that isn’t even going to earn them back their starting investment.

Also Trent, next time you go to buy a board game, I HIGHLY recommend Agricola, which was released about a month ago. It’s a bit pricey and a little complicated at first, but it’s just a refreshing style of game play.