I'm so printing this out for my boyfriend. When I was living with him for awhile while looking for my own place, I bought all the TP (because of course being male, he forgot), and after going through two 24 packs in a month, enough was enough. I bought a 24 pack for my new place when I moved in and between my roommate and I've we've gone through just 10 rolls in 3 weeks, which is still excessive (probably due to my boyfriend's visits) but far better than 48 rolls a month!!
Thank you so much for this very informative article! My teeth and gums are in pretty good shape already, but I'll implement these suggestions as a preventive measure. My mom has some tooth problems, so I'll make sure she sees this as well.
I have also had success with using tea tree oil toothpicks - the last time I saw dentist she was shocked not to find any gingivitis - which I accredit to the tea tree oil effect. I also have made a simple mouthwash with 1/2 hydrogen peroxide and 1/2 water. You can also scrape a certain amount of your own tartar off with your own dental implements, saving time & $ with the hygienist...I also have found that my gums respond to my general health- and my range of vitamin supplements do help. But your comments on the very clean toothbrush will get me back to using my brush head sanitizer, which I have been neglecting! Wish I had known all this a LONG time ago before all my dental work was necessary....Also beware of following everythinjg dentists say - I had one periodentist years ago recommend surgery on my gums - which I put off forever - & then read that that method wasn't very effective AT ALL.
I really recommend going to askdrellie.blogspot.com for specific questions because she does a great job of covering every angle. I find pure xylitol candies at natural and organic grocery stores. You can also buy them on Dr. Ellie's web site.
I can run down the costs right here really quick. A 32 ounce bottle of closys is about $13. A big bottle of listerine is something like $11 (I think), and the ACT rinse runs around $8. Figure one bottle per month of each. Pure xylitol sugar is $8/pound or 454 grams. That will last about 75 days. The candies are considerably more expensive. Candies will run you about $1/day.
So if you want to eat the "minimum dose" of pure xylitol sugar, you'll be in the neighborhood of $25-$35/month (not counting toothpaste). If you want to eat the candies, then it would be about $30 additional, for $55-$65/month. Dr. Ellie says you need to eat the xylitol daily for six months to get rid of your bad bacteria.
Closys can be a bit tricky to find consistently. I buy it at Walgreens or CVS.
(Caveat: I'm not sure each bottle of mouthwash lasts exactly one month.)
Very interesting! I've started taking fish supplements too but didn't know that it would have teeth benefits as well.
Where do you find the xylitol mints and is there a recommended amount? For example, I've seen some big name gums, like Trident gums, say something like "with xylitol" but are those the same, or do they have such small amounts of the xylitol in it that it's not as beneficial?
Also, Listerine has a new 4-in-one mouthwash that has a different active ingredient than their original formula. Their new one just has flouride. I'm wondering if the new formula that boasts 4 different benefits but is only made with flouride is any better than their original formula that had a completely different active ingredient?
You are right Jim, and I did mention that in my article. If two people have very different incomes, then they won't have a penalty. Right now it really only applies to people who a) have similar incomes b) are in the 25% marginal bracket or above.
I am getting married very soon this year and not happy to hear that married couples get penalized just for being married. It doesn't make it sense!! We currently live together, pool our money together and expenses and each pay half and we make around the same amount. We've been filing seperately of course because we are not married yet. But come next year, it will be a different story. I think it is really unfair to couples who are married, with a mortgage and kids!! I thought those things were supposed to be tax deductions, not tax increases! What the heck is going on here? We have a house and no kids, but know a couple who has kids and doesn't really get that much of a break for it on taxes. I think this is awful. Do you have to file together when you're married or can you still file as an individual, but married? If you can still file seperately that would definitely be a recommendation to make because you will pay less taxes that way. It makes no sense to me as to why they are taxing a married couple as one, when each individual has a job and not just one of the individuals has a job in the marriage.
Consider two single people one makes $26k a year and the other makes $110k a year. If they get married they'll save over $2k a year in taxes using standard deductions.
Single deduction + exemption = $8950
Married deduction + 2 exemptions = $17,900
Single:
Person 1 : $26,000 income, $17,050 AGI = $2,156 tax bill
Person 2 : $110,000 income, $101050 AGI = $22,272 taxes
Combined taxes = $24,428
The marriage penalty of taxes is #147 on my list of reasons why I don't want to get married even though I have a great long term boyfriend that I'd love to spend the rest of my life with... And the fact that we live in a community property state is reason number #148. Don't get me started...
First time here. I came here via Simple Dollar. I just want to add as a Jew, we are taught to examine and question things we are taught about our faith. A famouse Jewish joke is "two rabbis, three opinions" I always liked that we are taught to question and understand and not to accept things blindly.
And many of the above posters don't seem to realize that "welfare"-- which meant AFDC -- was abolished under the Clinton administration. Its replacement, TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) is very temporary indeed, with very strict time limits and work requirements. It's not a lifestyle. The "welfare queen" stereotype was an invention of the Reagan Administration, not true when it was put forth, and certainly no longer true.
In fact, one could argue that TANF promotes work at the expense of children's welfare. Parents are forced back to work too soon after their children's birth, and are forced to leave their kids with poor supervision in order to go to work, when affordable daycare is unavailable.
Really civilized societies, like Canada and Norway, give parents time to spend with their young children. Our society is very, very stingy when it comes to moms and babes.
In Canada, each parent gets 6 months of paid parental leave. In Norway, a parent can get 1 year of paid (by government) leave. In the U.S., you get a discount on cheese. So take the damn cheese and don't feel bad about it. You should be getting much more help than you do.
I linked up to you on my blog , http://frugalfundamentals.blogspot.com/. I feel great knowing that being frugal is not only great for my pocket book, but also fantastic for breaking the cycle of consumption and thus destruction! Yay for Story of Stuff!!!!
The tax breaks part of the Bill are ridiculous, the government needs revenue to offset the debt.
The spending part is sound economics, Keynesian remedies have worked in most downturns, and this one certainly isn't showing signs of being the "stagflation" crisis of the 80s. It might be too little too late, and it's unfortunate that Obama's going to take the blame for a crisis that was made by the Bush administration, but hey, that's politics.
The money would be better spent establishing long-term universal social welfare programs (fixing health-care, universal pensions, other non-means-tested programs) that would create real jobs rather than merely staving off capital flight for a few more years, but those are politically impossible with the republicans in Congress desperately trying to destroy the economy so they can win the next election..
I saw the GreenSwitch on Modern Marvel. Great idea. I searched for it on the Net to find out the cost. Very hard to find. Finally found some information about it. It seems the "Starter Kit" runs for about $1,100. That's ridiculous!!! All of my major electronic components (TV, stereo, computer, printer, etc.) are on surge protectors ($10) to prevent power surges and blowing things up. So, by simply turning off the surge protectors every night before going to bed, I am able to do the same thing as this GreenSwitch does.
Remember, you must use it to save it. So, just use the surge propector.
The 'marriage penalty' doesn't hit most people now and many people see tax benefits to being married. My wife and I are paying less or equal taxes now and our income is over $100k. If you're in the very highest brackets then you may get hit with a marriage penalty. But only 1-2% of Americans are in those brackets. Many more of us are not paying any supposed 'penalty'.
As a Canadian, I've got to say I'm a bit annoyed by the attitude that America's trading partners that matter are all 3rd world countries with crappy labour standards. We're losing jobs to AMERICA because it's got lots of stimulus money to bribe companies to keep jobs there, and crappy labour standards in a lot of areas.
The least the US could do is keep buying our lumber, steel, coal and agricultural products which are the lifeblood of the Canadian economy.
My question is how much energy total does the green switch use itself? As it is a vampire device too. That includes the switch and each outlet.
Remember to use this switch if you decide to get it. Otherwise if you forget and just leave every thing on still then you've just increased the vampire devices not decreased them.
Both Philip Brewer and plonkee highlight the importance of definitions, which is exactly my point - that casual or muffled definitions allow the message to be distorted or manipulated, sometimes intentionally. As highlighted by the two examples I gave, the statistics are used precisely because they alarm people, and therefore the incentive is to maximize the impact by inflating the numbers.
I suspect a fair number of people are, in fact, mislead by the "47 million Americans" and if they were aware that 10 million of those are non-citizens, would wonder whether part of the problem was not a health care reform issue but an immigration reform issue. Others may not care, believing that even if we are importing part of the problem (and will surely import more with the added incentive of guaranteed coverage), the solution should still remain the same.
But we'll never know, since that figure (sometimes one or two million above or below that mark) is now accepted without question by people who don't actually know what it means. Likewise, you'll often find the same number linked to phrases about how those people "can't afford" health insurance, even though 20% of the uninsured live in households with incomes of over $75,000 a year, or even "can't afford health CARE" even though about 50% qualify for Medicaid if they choose to sign up.
Thus my suggestion that Julie was being overly optimistic by assuming factual news stories, at least if they have policy implications, were likely "true." There is very little reporting today, even of the seemingly factual kind, that is not substantially distorted by reporters' biases. I don't mean to imply that bias was not present before - it's inherent in our natures - but journalistic standards and ethics have changed dramatically in recent years in a way that many people don't realize, to actively encourage particular biases and view them as positive goods.
yes, it will kill the yeast. you should always boil water first to kill anything that will compete with yeast growth. if you get a bacteria growing that is faster, guess who eats the sugar? not only does it lower the alco level, but can leave bad taste or even unwanted chemicals. boil the water, the chlorine will evaporate and all germs will be killed, let it cool down below 110 F so it wont kill the yeast though.
1. The foot stool my grandad made. I have recovered it a few times and stained and varnished the legs. It's sturdy enough to climb on to replace a light bulb and just the right height to rest my feet on. Plus it reminds me of Christmas' at my grandparents house. He loved that foot stool as much as I do.
2. My parents old sectional couch. It was too big for their living room when they moved so they left it behind for me (I'm currently renting their house from them). They bought it from Sears about 30 years ago and it's been through several long distance moves and many a make-shift forts between my brother and I. I told my dad if he ever got rid of that couch without giving me dibs I'd disown him! I'll replace some of the foam and recover it when I can afford too, but right now it's just perfect as it is. We probably spend more hours on this couch that any other piece of furniture.
When I think of the Shriver-Kennedy group, I tend to think of public service (Special Olympics, Peace Corps) mixed with some risk-taking. But back to the post content, I think it is great to have resources in one place!
I'm so printing this out for my boyfriend. When I was living with him for awhile while looking for my own place, I bought all the TP (because of course being male, he forgot), and after going through two 24 packs in a month, enough was enough. I bought a 24 pack for my new place when I moved in and between my roommate and I've we've gone through just 10 rolls in 3 weeks, which is still excessive (probably due to my boyfriend's visits) but far better than 48 rolls a month!!
Thank you so much for this very informative article! My teeth and gums are in pretty good shape already, but I'll implement these suggestions as a preventive measure. My mom has some tooth problems, so I'll make sure she sees this as well.
I have also had success with using tea tree oil toothpicks - the last time I saw dentist she was shocked not to find any gingivitis - which I accredit to the tea tree oil effect. I also have made a simple mouthwash with 1/2 hydrogen peroxide and 1/2 water. You can also scrape a certain amount of your own tartar off with your own dental implements, saving time & $ with the hygienist...I also have found that my gums respond to my general health- and my range of vitamin supplements do help. But your comments on the very clean toothbrush will get me back to using my brush head sanitizer, which I have been neglecting! Wish I had known all this a LONG time ago before all my dental work was necessary....Also beware of following everythinjg dentists say - I had one periodentist years ago recommend surgery on my gums - which I put off forever - & then read that that method wasn't very effective AT ALL.
I really recommend going to askdrellie.blogspot.com for specific questions because she does a great job of covering every angle. I find pure xylitol candies at natural and organic grocery stores. You can also buy them on Dr. Ellie's web site.
Catherine Shaffer
Wise Bread Contributor
I can run down the costs right here really quick. A 32 ounce bottle of closys is about $13. A big bottle of listerine is something like $11 (I think), and the ACT rinse runs around $8. Figure one bottle per month of each. Pure xylitol sugar is $8/pound or 454 grams. That will last about 75 days. The candies are considerably more expensive. Candies will run you about $1/day.
So if you want to eat the "minimum dose" of pure xylitol sugar, you'll be in the neighborhood of $25-$35/month (not counting toothpaste). If you want to eat the candies, then it would be about $30 additional, for $55-$65/month. Dr. Ellie says you need to eat the xylitol daily for six months to get rid of your bad bacteria.
Closys can be a bit tricky to find consistently. I buy it at Walgreens or CVS.
(Caveat: I'm not sure each bottle of mouthwash lasts exactly one month.)
Catherine Shaffer
Wise Bread Contributor
Very interesting! I've started taking fish supplements too but didn't know that it would have teeth benefits as well.
Where do you find the xylitol mints and is there a recommended amount? For example, I've seen some big name gums, like Trident gums, say something like "with xylitol" but are those the same, or do they have such small amounts of the xylitol in it that it's not as beneficial?
Also, Listerine has a new 4-in-one mouthwash that has a different active ingredient than their original formula. Their new one just has flouride. I'm wondering if the new formula that boasts 4 different benefits but is only made with flouride is any better than their original formula that had a completely different active ingredient?
Could you write a follow up post outlining the specific costs involved?
This is very interesting!
Thanks,
Nate
You are right Jim, and I did mention that in my article. If two people have very different incomes, then they won't have a penalty. Right now it really only applies to people who a) have similar incomes b) are in the 25% marginal bracket or above.
I am getting married very soon this year and not happy to hear that married couples get penalized just for being married. It doesn't make it sense!! We currently live together, pool our money together and expenses and each pay half and we make around the same amount. We've been filing seperately of course because we are not married yet. But come next year, it will be a different story. I think it is really unfair to couples who are married, with a mortgage and kids!! I thought those things were supposed to be tax deductions, not tax increases! What the heck is going on here? We have a house and no kids, but know a couple who has kids and doesn't really get that much of a break for it on taxes. I think this is awful. Do you have to file together when you're married or can you still file as an individual, but married? If you can still file seperately that would definitely be a recommendation to make because you will pay less taxes that way. It makes no sense to me as to why they are taxing a married couple as one, when each individual has a job and not just one of the individuals has a job in the marriage.
Consider two single people one makes $26k a year and the other makes $110k a year. If they get married they'll save over $2k a year in taxes using standard deductions.
Single deduction + exemption = $8950
Married deduction + 2 exemptions = $17,900
Single:
Person 1 : $26,000 income, $17,050 AGI = $2,156 tax bill
Person 2 : $110,000 income, $101050 AGI = $22,272 taxes
Combined taxes = $24,428
Married:
$136,000 income, $118,100 AGI = taxes $22,213
Tax savings when married = $2,215
The marriage penalty of taxes is #147 on my list of reasons why I don't want to get married even though I have a great long term boyfriend that I'd love to spend the rest of my life with... And the fact that we live in a community property state is reason number #148. Don't get me started...
How do your publicize your other sites, blogs, etc. through Bukisa?
First time here. I came here via Simple Dollar. I just want to add as a Jew, we are taught to examine and question things we are taught about our faith. A famouse Jewish joke is "two rabbis, three opinions" I always liked that we are taught to question and understand and not to accept things blindly.
You're spot-on, Linsey.
And many of the above posters don't seem to realize that "welfare"-- which meant AFDC -- was abolished under the Clinton administration. Its replacement, TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) is very temporary indeed, with very strict time limits and work requirements. It's not a lifestyle. The "welfare queen" stereotype was an invention of the Reagan Administration, not true when it was put forth, and certainly no longer true.
In fact, one could argue that TANF promotes work at the expense of children's welfare. Parents are forced back to work too soon after their children's birth, and are forced to leave their kids with poor supervision in order to go to work, when affordable daycare is unavailable.
Really civilized societies, like Canada and Norway, give parents time to spend with their young children. Our society is very, very stingy when it comes to moms and babes.
In Canada, each parent gets 6 months of paid parental leave. In Norway, a parent can get 1 year of paid (by government) leave. In the U.S., you get a discount on cheese. So take the damn cheese and don't feel bad about it. You should be getting much more help than you do.
I linked up to you on my blog ,
http://frugalfundamentals.blogspot.com/. I feel great knowing that being frugal is not only great for my pocket book, but also fantastic for breaking the cycle of consumption and thus destruction! Yay for Story of Stuff!!!!
The tax breaks part of the Bill are ridiculous, the government needs revenue to offset the debt.
The spending part is sound economics, Keynesian remedies have worked in most downturns, and this one certainly isn't showing signs of being the "stagflation" crisis of the 80s. It might be too little too late, and it's unfortunate that Obama's going to take the blame for a crisis that was made by the Bush administration, but hey, that's politics.
The money would be better spent establishing long-term universal social welfare programs (fixing health-care, universal pensions, other non-means-tested programs) that would create real jobs rather than merely staving off capital flight for a few more years, but those are politically impossible with the republicans in Congress desperately trying to destroy the economy so they can win the next election..
I saw the GreenSwitch on Modern Marvel. Great idea. I searched for it on the Net to find out the cost. Very hard to find. Finally found some information about it. It seems the "Starter Kit" runs for about $1,100. That's ridiculous!!! All of my major electronic components (TV, stereo, computer, printer, etc.) are on surge protectors ($10) to prevent power surges and blowing things up. So, by simply turning off the surge protectors every night before going to bed, I am able to do the same thing as this GreenSwitch does.
Remember, you must use it to save it. So, just use the surge propector.
The 'marriage penalty' doesn't hit most people now and many people see tax benefits to being married. My wife and I are paying less or equal taxes now and our income is over $100k. If you're in the very highest brackets then you may get hit with a marriage penalty. But only 1-2% of Americans are in those brackets. Many more of us are not paying any supposed 'penalty'.
As a Canadian, I've got to say I'm a bit annoyed by the attitude that America's trading partners that matter are all 3rd world countries with crappy labour standards. We're losing jobs to AMERICA because it's got lots of stimulus money to bribe companies to keep jobs there, and crappy labour standards in a lot of areas.
The least the US could do is keep buying our lumber, steel, coal and agricultural products which are the lifeblood of the Canadian economy.
My question is how much energy total does the green switch use itself? As it is a vampire device too. That includes the switch and each outlet.
Remember to use this switch if you decide to get it. Otherwise if you forget and just leave every thing on still then you've just increased the vampire devices not decreased them.
Oops, "misled" not "mislead."
Both Philip Brewer and plonkee highlight the importance of definitions, which is exactly my point - that casual or muffled definitions allow the message to be distorted or manipulated, sometimes intentionally. As highlighted by the two examples I gave, the statistics are used precisely because they alarm people, and therefore the incentive is to maximize the impact by inflating the numbers.
I suspect a fair number of people are, in fact, mislead by the "47 million Americans" and if they were aware that 10 million of those are non-citizens, would wonder whether part of the problem was not a health care reform issue but an immigration reform issue. Others may not care, believing that even if we are importing part of the problem (and will surely import more with the added incentive of guaranteed coverage), the solution should still remain the same.
But we'll never know, since that figure (sometimes one or two million above or below that mark) is now accepted without question by people who don't actually know what it means. Likewise, you'll often find the same number linked to phrases about how those people "can't afford" health insurance, even though 20% of the uninsured live in households with incomes of over $75,000 a year, or even "can't afford health CARE" even though about 50% qualify for Medicaid if they choose to sign up.
Thus my suggestion that Julie was being overly optimistic by assuming factual news stories, at least if they have policy implications, were likely "true." There is very little reporting today, even of the seemingly factual kind, that is not substantially distorted by reporters' biases. I don't mean to imply that bias was not present before - it's inherent in our natures - but journalistic standards and ethics have changed dramatically in recent years in a way that many people don't realize, to actively encourage particular biases and view them as positive goods.
So, caveat lector.
yes, it will kill the yeast. you should always boil water first to kill anything that will compete with yeast growth. if you get a bacteria growing that is faster, guess who eats the sugar? not only does it lower the alco level, but can leave bad taste or even unwanted chemicals. boil the water, the chlorine will evaporate and all germs will be killed, let it cool down below 110 F so it wont kill the yeast though.
I have 2 favourite pieces of furniture:
1. The foot stool my grandad made. I have recovered it a few times and stained and varnished the legs. It's sturdy enough to climb on to replace a light bulb and just the right height to rest my feet on. Plus it reminds me of Christmas' at my grandparents house. He loved that foot stool as much as I do.
2. My parents old sectional couch. It was too big for their living room when they moved so they left it behind for me (I'm currently renting their house from them). They bought it from Sears about 30 years ago and it's been through several long distance moves and many a make-shift forts between my brother and I. I told my dad if he ever got rid of that couch without giving me dibs I'd disown him! I'll replace some of the foam and recover it when I can afford too, but right now it's just perfect as it is. We probably spend more hours on this couch that any other piece of furniture.
When I think of the Shriver-Kennedy group, I tend to think of public service (Special Olympics, Peace Corps) mixed with some risk-taking. But back to the post content, I think it is great to have resources in one place!