It's All About Saving Money and Trying to Get Smarter in the AM

I feel so grown up. I also feel like an advocate for the newspaper industry.

Save the Pages! Save the Pages! Now don't you yell at me because I am supporting newsprint on paper. If you drop a newspaper it doesn't crack.

Just a few minutes ago I ordered home delivery of the New York Times...7 days a week...it's going to happen. There will be a party on my doorstep every morning as all the news from around the world arrives in a cute little bundle.

Whenever money gets tight the first thing I have always done is cut out my walk to the corner for a copy of the paper. A NYT costs just over 2 bucks in Chicago and that adds up each week. Buying the Sunday edition often felt like a guilty pleasure. That all changes now. Seven days a week costs about as much as 1 Sunday edition and 1 weekday purchase. By changing my habits, I am saving money and doing more to halt the ever-dwindling remnants of gray matter. Reading words on paper is much more pleasing to me than staring at monitor.

Ordering home delivery does feel a bit like a luxury purchase. I guess I can write it off on my taxes because I am still entertaining thoughts of trying to add the term "writer" to my job description. Hell, I'll take the term "laborer" on my job description right now! However, today I am a newspaper advocate. I'll do what I can to help the industry. Newspapers can be beneficial. Computer monitors that can lead to Facebook or Farmville or Ebay can be harmful. The thought of seeing a library full of Kindles or Ipads is disconcerting, but if everyone has some kind of "pad" will there even be a need for libraries? I'd hate to be an encyclopedia salesman right now...