I'm not sure what you mean by travel hack, but I try to do it as cheaply as possible. We have 4 competitors and me, plus we sometimes take someone from our school along. I will sleep on the floor of the hotel room (Before anyone tells me how terrible this is, this is my choice against the objections of my family. We drive up to 24 hours one way to compete and I want the competitors to sleep as well as possible.) If we are there multiple days we get an Airbnb, because it is usually cheaper and we have more space. Also, I can cook. In the calendar year, we usually eat at a restaurant 2 times for TKD, both bonding things with the competition team. I pack food, get McDonald's on the road, and cook when possible. If we don't have someone to stay with (we'll stay with my parents on the way to/from Memphis and Dallas, for example), we'll drive straight through to save on hotels. I'd love to save more money, but gas costs what it costs (we do try to hit Sam's so we get a cheaper price plus the cash back) and I don't know of a good way to cut food and lodging more than we do, except to cut the traditional after tournament ice cream. We can be at a tournament up to 12 hours. I pack decent snacks - nuts, jerky (making our own is a possibleway to save since my parentsgive us beef), applesause, veggies, but they really look forward to their ice cream after a long day.

1 kid in college this year, 2 next 1 person in the family competing internationally this year, 2 next 1 kid with Invisalign this year, 1 with Invisalign and 1 with traditional braces next Something has got to give. I may or may not contribute to the thread, but I am definitely needing to make our money do more things. In January we'll be traveling to Memphis for competition. The Airbnb is already paid as are the tournament fees. I'd like to pay for the gas and food out of our regular budget. I use the term budget loosely. Dh hasn't ever wanted an official budget. In March we'll be competing in Dallas, Minneapolis, and possibly Chicago? I can't remember if Chicago is March or April, but Omaha is one and Chicago is the other. Anyhow, tournament fees have been paid for Dallas as well as part of the Airbnb. I'm hoping to pay all the rest of the tournament fees and travel expenses from the regular budget as well. But that will be tricky, especially if Chicago is one of the three tournaments in March.

It is okay that Junie didn't like it, but Mafia is usually a very light-hearted social deduction game. I've never heard anyone vote on who they wanted to die. It has always been voting who they think is a member of the mafia.

It isn't as exciting as it sounds. My husband and most of the kids are in TKD.

Dh's gifts are almost all related to making Team Usa (old guys division lol). He couldn't let Ds have all the fun. If things go well, they'll travel to Portugal in 2023, I think. A new chest protector Good luggage Hey Dudes to wear through the airport Something to carry his passport in Also, coffee I forgot he also requested new work pants, so I'll have to see if I can find any between now and Christmas.

I like self checkout for a few items, hate it for a full cart.

I said $4000 and $800, but that isn't true exactly. We could sell our home, buy a cheaper one, and live on $2-3000/month. Groceries could maybe go as low as $600 for 6 people and still be buying decent food, but we get beef from my parents. One of the reasons we could do that is because many of our expenses would go way down. The kids would qualify for financial aid, taxes would be way lower, tithe would be way lower. But it would also mean cutting some huge bills. We couldn't afford TKD (which is definitely an extra) at that income. A huge, huge percent of our discretionary income goes to that right now. This calendar year, we competed in at least 10 different states and Ds16 competed in Brazil. Next year, two people in our family will be traveling with the National Team and Ds16 will be training in an 11th state. I do everything I can to minimize the expenses and Ds16 got a job to help pay for it, but it is still a money suck. If we made less money, that expense would just go away. Ironically, we might actually have more money in the budget if we made less. We'll have two kids in college next year. They are both making cheap choices and working to pay for as much as they can. We are trying to cover everything else. If we made less money, Dd19 would have a full ride and Ds18 would be getting financial aid. Between FA, his sister having a full ride, and his working we'd still be able to cover it, I think.

@Pam in CT I could see my son in what you wrote about yours. I love my son so much, but he can be exhausting. One of my goals for him (he is 18 and will soon leave home) is to help him moderate his tendency to debate (too much, too long) and read social cues better. He is getting better, but I think he'll always have to actively think about it or he'll default to rigorous debate, often in situations where it inappropriate.

Things we genereally buy at Sam's: gas, rotisserie chicken, bacon, good cheeses (specifically cheddar and gouda), baking supplies (particularly yeast and flour), tomatoes, pineapple, jerky (tournament protein staple, we can be at a tournament for 12 hours), toilet paper, kleenex, batteries, some vitamins, some toiletries, and copy paper. My husband buys our tires and water softener salt there. We used to buy sausage, but it is 50% higher than a year ago, so I am buying the Aldi off brand more for us but buy at Sam's for my parents. I will also buy some canned goods, mostly the ones I don't like in the store brands. Sometimes grapes because they are typically really good quality even if more expensive. We buy other things but these things I typically find either significantly cheaper or better quality. I shop mostly at Aldi. There are a few things that I can't get at either Sam's or Aldi, and I pick those up a Walmart.

I will have 20 people for Thanksgiving, not just for the meal but for several days. It's at my house, but there isn't an expectation that I will do all the work. I'll do as much as possible ahead of time so my mom and sister actually have a rest while at my house. My daughter is making about 8 batches of rolls today. She'll make cookies, and I'll make cheesecake tomorrow. Tuesday I'll make pies - 2 pumpkin, 2 funny cake, 1 blueberry. Mom will probably bing a pecan (I told her to bring one if she wanted one when she asked what to bring lol) and shoo-fly. Wednesday morning I'll make the cranberry jello salad. Thursday we'll work together on the turkey/ham, gravy, potatoes, sweet potatoes, veggies. We'll all have a good time. I'll mostly cook the other meals, but they won't all be fancy. We'll have leftovers or grilled cheese or chips and dip. My sister is bringing up frozen pizza stuff she got for a fundraiser. I'll also make some nicer meals, especially breakfast. It will all be fine. We'll spend some of each day cooking and cleaning up and the rest of the time playing games or watching football or reading. We'll take the little girls Black Friday shopping even though it is terribly lame now. We'll also set up my Christmas decorations in about half an hour Saturday morning. Many hands.... After they leave, I will probably be picking up 500 nerf darts in the basement. It's a good time. For dh's family get togethers it got to be too much for MIL to host everyone, so we all started bringing stuff. It's fine. I would typically make my stuff there, but we travel and sometimes my family is there a day or two before the meal. We just make it work.

Chicken is available here, but in limited quantities. Prices are also up. Yesterday I paid $20 for something that would have been about $12 precovid. I would have passed, but my 12 year old has been pukey for days and was finally well enough to eat. She requested chicken noodle.

I have 3 teens and an almost teen. I would love to provide everything for them, but the fact is the teens need to work. My oldest worked 2 (sometimes 3) concurrent minimum wage jobs in high school. She also volunteered one morning per week at a local school. We were okay with her taking minimum wage jobs (local library and dojo) because it was likely she would get some scholarships. She works part time while at school (tutor) and took an internship she didn't particularly want this past summer to pay for school. She is paying all tuition, books, and rent. We pay her gas and anything else she gets at Sam's and Dh's (minimum wage, so about $25-35 each week) pay from teaching at the dojo gets deposited into her account to help with groceries and fun. She wanted to change one of her majors but decided to just add the third so we wouldn't have to make up the difference in lost scholarship money, about $4500 per year. That will mean a few tought sememsters, but she was willing to do it. Such a thoughtful, responsible girl. My second oldest has been working at a grocery store for over two years. He has saved for and purchased a nice car and is currently saving for college. He is not going to get scholarships. He was really close to an automatic scholarship at the state school he will attend, but his processing speed just wasn't there for the standardized test. So, he is working as many hours as possible while taking 9 hours at the CC this semester. He is currently being scheduled for 24-31 hours per week. This week he worked an evening shift on Tuesday and early shifts (starting at 6:00, 5:00, and 6:00) Thursday-Saturday. He'll be able to pay for at least half of his college expenses himself. Yes, he has to put up with rude customers. Yes, he has to put up with bad employees (sexual harassment from not one but two other male employees, kids not showing up for their shifts so he has more work to do at close and gets home really late, etc). Yes, he has had one manager that he hasn't liked to work under (impossible to please). But he is doing his part to get through college debt free. He is thinking about switching jobs, but only because he could make more than his current $12.50 and hour. My other teen started working a few months younger than the older two. He had, somewhat accidentally, qualified for Team USA for his sport (long story that I think I've already shared here). We were not prepared for that financially, so he got a job to pay for part of the international travel. He is pretty busy these days. He needs to train. He also needs to work to pay for this next level of involvement. We will also help him less with other things, since we are spending so much on this sport. So, he is only working about 16-18 hours per week (every single Saturday we are in town) during school but will work as many hours as he can get this summer. He flat out needs to earn money to accomplish what he wants - international competition, a good car, half of college expenses. My 12 year old is volunteering this morning. The church youth are raking leaves for all the older people in church. She wants a job as soon as she turns 14. It is obvious to me that there are kids who are willing to work to get what they need/want. We see lots of examples of good teen workers. We also see a fairly high number of kids who don't work or don't show up for shifts or do a shoddy job. I tell my kids that all they need to do to stand out is to show up on time for their shifts and do their job with a pleasant attitude. They have found this to be 100% true. I also tell them to do the best job they can do. Denigrate the protestant work ethic all you want, but my kids are prepared for when the job market shifts.

I'll delete in a bit, but my kids are early Celtic this year. I generally sew their costumes. The little one is a Tuatha de Danann fairie, older girl is Medb, and the boy is one of the Fianna under Finn MacCool. Not that anyone will know. lol It will be close enough if people think Braveheart.

I define friendship by whether or not I would call someone for help if I was stranded by the side of the road. I have a number of friendly acquaintances but only a few friends by that definition.

Both of my oldest two are happy to have been homeschooled, but I recently had an interesting set of exchanges with them. The younger three studied King Arthur for a couple of weeks this fall. Right around that time, Dd19 recounted a conversation she had with a brilliant college friend who knew nothing about King Arthur. Dd19 found that shocking. Lol Within a day or two of that conversation, Ds18 mentioned in a bit of a complaining way that he knew lots about King Arthur but lacked skills. He was reading his syllabus for his online sleech class. I assured him he would be able to figure out Zoom and uploading to YouTube. I, apparently, couldn't win with teaching King Arthur. Lol Dd19 went through a phase where she wanted to try public school. It wasn't an option for us to split our schooling options, so we had a lot of conversations about how there were things she would love about public school and things she would dislike. Those conversations helped a little, but what really helped was volunteering in a ps one morning per week from the time she was 13. By the 2nd or 3rd week, she had decided she was never putting her kids in school. Ds18 has never wanted to go to public school, even if I did fail to teach him Zoom skills. The younger three are all happy to be homeschooling, but my 16 year old does make more comments like, "PS'ers don't have to finish the book," now that his school work is harder.

Yes, of course.

Have the doctors said what might have caused the loss of feeling? Temporary swelling perhaps? My niece has had several brain surgeries. Two were terrible and one was almost a non-issue. But even the worst effects have improved and some of the effects completely resolved within the first few months.

I would call my oldest home from college and my parents and sister and ask them to come. I'd invite my brother, but he is farther away. I'd spend the rest of the time hanging out with my family. We'd play games and sing praise songs to God. When everyone was asleep, I'd write letters for the kids to open later. I'd say especially for my 8 year old, but my Dd12 and Ds18 would take it extra hard, too. Dd19 and Ds16 would grieve but fare better, I think.

A few things that I either don't buy or rarely buy now due to price increases: OJ, not in a can - $2.09, $3.50ish 2lb. Jimmy Dean sausage - $4.98, $7.58 I am actually still buying the sausage, but mostly just for my parents. They give us beef (my dad raises cattle) and groceries are so expensive where they are, especially now. So, I bought them sausage and bacon and would take a bunch down every visit. Now the price has gone up. I still buy it, because they would have to pay more. But, I won't give my mom a straight answer on the current price, because she would feel bad. Lol My groceries prices aren't hugely more than they were several years ago, because we got an Aldi. If I had to shop at my old store for everything, it would be painful.

My husband has to deal with the RR with his job. The RR has always been a pain to work with, but awhile ago they told their top 10 customers that the customers needed to cut back their railroad business. The RR is losing business due to crew shortages. I doubt being understaffed is their goal. If crews are short, the RR cannot fulfill their contracts. Crews can't work overtime, so they will leave a job half-finished. There are no white hats in this scenario. My parents' farm has a RR track cutting off one corner. The union workers have no problem telling Dad that none of the three workers, who are doing nothing, can move the equipment blocking entrance to his pasture because of union rules. They also don't care what damage they do to a fence line (as in, they don't mind clipping a fence even when there is a nearby gate) or about letting cattle out on the tracks where they could be hit by a train. They let the owner and the RR deal with the fallout.

We go to church as a family and will continue to do so until kids are grown.

My kids (8-19) all play some games together. There are a lot of different personal preferences, but a few work for everyone. Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig is one. My oldest son ran a D & D campaign for our family this summer. It was hard to find times to play with everyone with two people working days and two people working evenings. We'll watch some shows together. We have enjoyed read alouds or audiobooks together.

I don't think so. I believe the answer is in the article you posted, though. The left is very well served by the MSM.

Why do suppose @Frances that right wing talk radio became a thing? And left wing talk radio didn't?

You know what else shuts down conversation? Assuming that the other half is getting their (wrong by your assumption) information from a biased source while your side (by your assumption) is just correct, presumably with no bias.