u/LordShuckle97

Only gonna have like half an hour, so I would need one specific spot or one area with 2-3 spots in it.

Just looking for stuff that's close by, laid-back, stereotypical 4th of July celebration. Good food, music, fireworks, drone show, that kind of thing. Would like to avoid getting MAGA propaganda thrown in my face if possible.

I'd be happy to buy it off of you if it's even remotely close to me in size. The stuff costs $900 new. Just DM me

I'm graduating this August with my Ph.D. and will be staying in academia after as a professor at a small liberal arts college in the northeast. I was planning to buy the doctoral regalia outright so I could wear it at my students' graduations in the future as a professor. But I was floored by the cost. About $900 for everything before tax. And it's only $200 to rent.

I know you're supposed to order through Barnes & Noble, but... if I were to go looking for a cheap alternative online somewhere, are there any former or current Ph.D. students that have found something that looks similar to the A&M regalia?

My wife and I are moving to NH county in late August from out of state. I’m used to signing a rental contract as early as March or April for August move in. I’ve been keeping an eye on places in NH county since February now. Almost every single one is just “available immediately”. Or available at some date within the next month.

Are we going to have to wait until July to sign on for a place for August move in? This all just seems weird to me.

Edit to add: we’re mainly looking at SFH’s and townhomes in the suburbs, especially Hamden and Milford and Stratford, more so than apartments. Not sure if that influences anything.

• Remote start
• Lane departure assist
• Blind spot sensors
• Roof rails

I'm looking at one online right now that's priced pretty aggressively, but they don't explicitly mention these things in the specifications. According to ChatGPT these should be featured on any 2026 select sport trim.

During the summer term itself, not just breaks

My wife and I are moving to the New Haven county area this fall. Where we are coming from, there's a dog training place that does "socialization classes", where you can bring your dog to an enclosed play area with other dogs, and they're supervised by trainers to make sure there's no aggression. Basically it's a supervised dog park. They charge like $15 per hour per dog, or something like that.

I'm seeing a number of dog training places in NH/Fairfield counties, but going through their websites, I'm not seeing anything quite like what I described above. Any recommendations of something similar in the area?

I came across this recent post in r/MiddleClassFinance about buying new vs. used and found the discussion very insightful. The OP was basically making the claim that buying old beater cars doesn't really make a lot of financial sense if you can afford new, and the main consensus in the comments was that the "sweet spot" is to buy lightly used cars - something 2-5 years old with less than 50K miles, for example.

I am in the market for a car right now myself, so I did some digging into numbers. I know they say a new car depreciates by 10% to 20% the moment you drive it off the lot, but what I'm wondering is - does that really still hold in 2026?

For example, one car I'm interested in is the Mazda CX-30. I live in Connecticut. My local dealer has brand new CX-30's available in the most base trim for $27,700 after all fees besides tax/title/registration, and that's assuming you aren't able to negotiate a few hundred bucks off MSRP. So let's just say, $29K out-the-door for a brand new, 2026 CX-30 with 0 miles on it and the full manufacturer's warranty.

That same Mazda dealer has a 2023 CX-30 (also base trim) with 38K miles on it (so manufacturer's warranty will no longer apply) for $22,500 - we'll say around $24K out-the-door. It's almost the exact same OTD numbers at CarMax for a 2023 with similar miles.

Why exactly would it not make sense to pay the extra $5,000, get a car that's 3 years newer, has 38K less miles, and has the full warranty intact? I mean, in this example, we aren't even seeing the so-claimed "20% depreciation" after 3 years, let alone right after driving it off the lot.

Here are a few other quick comparisons of models I've looked at in my area:

2026 Honda HR-V LX: Roughly 29K OTD new, vs. 26K OTD for a 2024 with 41K miles

2026 Toyota Corolla Cross LE: Roughly 31K OTD new, vs 29K OTD for a 2024 with 22K miles

I'm moving to New Haven county from the west coast this August. I will likely be living in either Stratford, Milford or Hamden, or possibly the Westville part of New Haven. I wanted to get some recommendations on grocery stores and gyms, since these are things it's hard to get a grasp on before actually living in a new place.

Gyms: I'm hoping to get a gym membership for $30 a month or less that includes fitness classes and that has personal trainers I can train with at a reasonable additional cost. It seems like LA fitness offers this - are they any good? What about the YMCA's in the area? Is Edge fitness any good?

Grocery Stores: It seems like Stop & Shop, ShopRite, and Big Y are the two big chain grocers in the area, alongside the national chains like Aldi, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods. I'm spoiled in California where I have all kinds of Latin American grocery stores that sell good Mexican foods and cooking ingredients. Which stores am I most likely to find that at in Connecticut? Between Stop & Shop, ShopRite, and Big Y, is one generally known for being more affordable or having better selection than the others? Are there any other solid grocery store chains in the area that I'm missing?

Thanks in advance!