I fell in love with our small town of 900. Sure, housing was ridiculously expensive, but for the first time in years I knew my neighbors. The kids were safe walking to and from the library and I would often get calls from friends spotting this teen riding his bike without a helmet, or that one who shoveled an elderly neighbor's snow unbidden.
But when the company closed down, we were truly stuck. There were no competitive companies for 200 miles! We eventually moved back to the city, 2500 miles away. We thought we were safe because there are three competitive companies in this metro area. When hubby's job was discontinued here, we thought we had a shot at finding employment close by. But all the competitors are laying off and closing down, too! We're looking at another 2000 mile move soon, IF we can find work in his industry at all.
I bought the $49 Lasonic cheap box from Amazon. I entered my coupon code and it took the $40 off, making it less than $10 with free shipping and no tax. No stores around me even carry boxes or antennaes due to the mad rush to transition. Box works fine.
1) a) Because very few websites are as popular as itunes
B) because very few websites deal in strictly digital media that are as popular as itunes
2) Because Spain doesn't have the same market share as the US with regards to itunes - There's millions more subscribers in the US than in Spain. And/or digital media laws vary from country to country, it may be that Spain or Brazil doesn't have quite as many itunes users as say P2P users or Limewire, or some other "legitimate" purchasing program.
It's unlikely the codes are generated - although having never purchased an itunes gift card, I wouldn't really know for sure. However, if Apple were smart, their codes would be atleast as strong as a good password, utilizing letters and numbers, and being atleast 6 - 10 digits long, which pretty much means very freaking difficult to hack. That being said, how would the gift card seller test the code for validity before selling? No - unfortunately, the only real explanation is that they were purchased with fraudulent Credit Cards - and then quickly sold.
teens need to work. i think that it can be very good to develoip work habits during teenage years and can be used in life expierence with time.
with our poor on going enoconmy it's harder to ever for a teen to comp. with an adult whos' had at least a couple years of trainging for a job.
i agree, a parent paying (if they can) a teen for extra credit can be treated like work, and many applications ask for training/volunteer work. I believe that some teens although cannot work while at school. some need time to study first, and a good parental influence and role model can shape a teen to work early. but some become "the adult" and work early to help pay for a sick or weak adult in an well sometimes unstable household. or Sometimes, a close.
although, kids have the lowest rate of work today, i believe a program SHOULD BE CREATED that makes work JUST FOR TEENS
ages 16-19 along with a further Adult Program to help adults get job. That way as soon as these kids grow up, they'll have work exp. and our econ. won't FALl APART
The small-town career building strategy definitely worked for me. Right after college I got a job at a small town tech company that had some big city clients (New York City), and that enabled me to network with a lot of people at those larger companies. When I decided to move on from my small town roots a couple of years later, it didn't take me long to find a job with a company where people knew me already and knew the work that I was capable of doing.
I love DT I usually stop there before I hit the grocery store and purchase household items like paper towel, bathroom cleaners etc and i feel like im saving tons! lol/ they have really stepped their dollar game up and have a great choice of stuff in this economy i know a lot of people are shopping there with me.
NYC and Chicago DO have great tap water! The places I've lived, not so much. My morning shower smells like the pool at the Y. If you must buy bottles, then at least recycle them, AND hey, wear fleece! It's made from recycled plastic bottles, and buying fleece and other end-products of recycled materials creates a market for recycling, which makes governments want to help us do it. As for eventually recycling the fleece, I'm not so sure. If you drink soda/pop, buy cans...
All in all, a great article with good food for thought.
I think there is also lot of value to be gained in staying knowledgeable about your products AFTER you have made the purchase. For example staying on top of firmware updates, software updates, other types of fixes, product issues and warning, class action lawsuits, and even recalls.
All in all, you have given some really great advice. I do find it a bit daunting however. Its just that the number of factors to consider becomes quite high as soon as you move away from fairly one dimensional products like storage and processors.
I think at the end of the day, I'm going to stick to my previous approach of buying highly popular and well reviewed items (as you suggest), with middle of the road specs, a few months after they have come out.
I know that some people got Mails from Apple that the code is bought with stolen or faked creditcards,
but there are some difficult questions:
1. If the codes are bought with stolen cards, why don't we find cheap gift codes for many many other shops ?
2. If the answer for 1. question is that only apple's fraud section works so slowly, why can we find only US-iTunes Codes cheap ?
Why are there no offers for... spain or brasilian itunes Codes ?
Only US....
3. There are sooo many Codes sold. For these many codes you can find really less sites where people say that their account is frozen.
It's not logic in any way...
But - I have an idea:
Is it possible in any way to generate the Codes ?
If yes - this coud be the answer to all 3 questions, because the people are only able to generate US itunes codes.
Not any amazon codes, or itunes Spain codes for example - only US codes.
AND: It would be logic if apple find out some generated codes, not all, but some. They cancel the codes but they write that the account is frozen because of fraudulent gift codes.
They would be stupid to write that the account is frozen because there are generated Codes on the web ;-)
Thanks for your great article. In addition to the websites you mentioned in your article, I'd like to suggest a website called Retrevo.com. Retrevo has lots of reviews from other experts and users, in addition to their "bang for the buck" charts.
These are an essential for hard-core couponers at chain drugstores. CVS and Walgreens, in particular, do a lot of offers with catalinas (CVS calls them ExtraCare bucks, Walgreens calls theirs Register Rewards). Often you can get products like shampoo, toothpaste, razors, paper goods, etc. for pennies or free, and then roll the catalinas into next week's deals. Even if you don't eat any processed food, I would bet you wash your hair with a commercial product. =)
True, for a family that consumes no processed foods, Catalina deals don't have much to offer. But for a family that uses some processed foods for convenience but wants to make more room in the budget for more and better fresh foods, it's perfect. You would never get as much food, pound per pound, buying fresh produce and meat for the money as you get in these Catalina deals, but of course no one should be eating JUST processed foods so we don't live off these deals alone. We use them to enable ourselves to spend more on the healthy stuff.
Here's how it works at my house: We would have bought certain packaged items anyway. A few cans of soup a month, a couple boxes of cereal a week (we really like cereal), and if they're affordable some granola bars. (The canned soup is especially handy because my husband keeps it in his cubicle at work and if he forgets his lunch, the soup stops him from going out to a restaurant.) But instead of buying these items each week, I can now wait until one of these deals comes along, buy up a bunch of what I would normally get anyway, and spend much, much less than I otherwise would have.
That frees up money in my weekly shopping budget for higher-quality fresh items. For instance, next week, since I don't need any cereal, soup, meat (I stocked my freezer on that when hormone and antibiotic-free meat was on sale at Target), or pasta, I will be able to use my whole $80 budget on organic fruits and vegetables and a few staples from Trader Joe's. Since I started shopping Catalinas (I've done three of them in the past four or five months), I've been able to switch to mostly organic produce and mostly hormone/antibiotic-free milk and meat.
My absolute favorite two items I've gotten with Catalina deals: boxed chicken broth and canned tomatoes. Since I do most of my cooking from scratch, I use a lot of these items. Yes, it would be healthier to make my own stock from a chicken carcass, and I do when I have one. But the fact is I probably make 10 meals with chicken broth for every one actual carcass I have around to make it. Hence, for me, getting boxed broth for practically nothing was fantastic.
This does look like a smart way to cram down your costs. The problem is that the selected products or the ones involved are almost always processed foods. Those all have a high price margin vs. ingredients or nutrition involved because they are processed foods.
Possibly a better way to cut your grocery costs would be to consume less processed convenience foods.
I work for a cable company as a csr and I can agree with this whole heartedly. Usually what happens is the business department regularly comes out with special promotions at random intervals for different random areas. Unless a customer calls in and asks about it, we don't know if they qualify or not. Considering the immense number of areas, services, and the like, it's impossible to make sure every customer knows about them. So yes, at least once a month, call your provider to see if new promotions have come out.
well i think what people don't understand is that every papa Murphy's is owned by someone else . so different store different experience if you can stick to the corporate stores . there listed on website . i have worked at 3 papa murpheys and also a couple pizza huts TRUST ME WHEN I SAY don't go to pizza hut or at least don't piss off the workers you do not want to know what kind of stuff goes into your 23.00 pizza at least at papa murpheys we wear gloves and you can see whats happening to you food
it is actually pretty easy to do this. I only do the ones that are for products I use all the time, and routinely get my $20 or $30 of groceries for less than $10, sometimes, $5. I make my list of what I want before I leave the house and clip my coupons to the list. I work full time and have 2 kids and it takes only minutes to save. I also use this to buy food for our local food bank- I can donate a lot more on what I can afford to spend.
I would suggest looking into local resources that may be able to assist with expenses (food and medical services) through community programs or social service programs.
I recently joined Costco and have been trying to get into buying in bulk. As Jim said, I do try to compare costs before buying in bulk, so I make sure I'm not paying extra.
Just found your website, and the review of this book. I have been on a quest for financial education since my divorce and trying to raise 5 children alone. Robert's books are a great part of my financial library. I would love to glean what I can from wise people and would love to read this one. Thank you.
Nora, I was really impressed by your article and of course, your life being a full-time traveller. I didn't know someone who do travelling full-time! It could be expensive but you've done a great work at budgeting. It's good to know that you also have your travel insurance.
Work for a teen can be a good thing. They can earn money, learn how to handle it, learn responsibility, etc. However, remember that a work environment will inevitably bring new social influences into your teen's life. Is your teen ready for a new level of peer pressure? How much control will you have over the environment?
I fell in love with our small town of 900. Sure, housing was ridiculously expensive, but for the first time in years I knew my neighbors. The kids were safe walking to and from the library and I would often get calls from friends spotting this teen riding his bike without a helmet, or that one who shoveled an elderly neighbor's snow unbidden.
But when the company closed down, we were truly stuck. There were no competitive companies for 200 miles! We eventually moved back to the city, 2500 miles away. We thought we were safe because there are three competitive companies in this metro area. When hubby's job was discontinued here, we thought we had a shot at finding employment close by. But all the competitors are laying off and closing down, too! We're looking at another 2000 mile move soon, IF we can find work in his industry at all.
Moral: enjoy your life wherever you live!
I bought the $49 Lasonic cheap box from Amazon. I entered my coupon code and it took the $40 off, making it less than $10 with free shipping and no tax. No stores around me even carry boxes or antennaes due to the mad rush to transition. Box works fine.
Linsey Knerl
I'm not an expert, but my best guess would be:
1) a) Because very few websites are as popular as itunes
B) because very few websites deal in strictly digital media that are as popular as itunes
2) Because Spain doesn't have the same market share as the US with regards to itunes - There's millions more subscribers in the US than in Spain. And/or digital media laws vary from country to country, it may be that Spain or Brazil doesn't have quite as many itunes users as say P2P users or Limewire, or some other "legitimate" purchasing program.
It's unlikely the codes are generated - although having never purchased an itunes gift card, I wouldn't really know for sure. However, if Apple were smart, their codes would be atleast as strong as a good password, utilizing letters and numbers, and being atleast 6 - 10 digits long, which pretty much means very freaking difficult to hack. That being said, how would the gift card seller test the code for validity before selling? No - unfortunately, the only real explanation is that they were purchased with fraudulent Credit Cards - and then quickly sold.
teens need to work. i think that it can be very good to develoip work habits during teenage years and can be used in life expierence with time.
with our poor on going enoconmy it's harder to ever for a teen to comp. with an adult whos' had at least a couple years of trainging for a job.
i agree, a parent paying (if they can) a teen for extra credit can be treated like work, and many applications ask for training/volunteer work. I believe that some teens although cannot work while at school. some need time to study first, and a good parental influence and role model can shape a teen to work early. but some become "the adult" and work early to help pay for a sick or weak adult in an well sometimes unstable household. or Sometimes, a close.
although, kids have the lowest rate of work today, i believe a program SHOULD BE CREATED that makes work JUST FOR TEENS
ages 16-19 along with a further Adult Program to help adults get job. That way as soon as these kids grow up, they'll have work exp. and our econ. won't FALl APART
It's definitely not a secret! I work at starbucks and people order tham all the time and wee use them for kids drinks like hot chocolate...
The small-town career building strategy definitely worked for me. Right after college I got a job at a small town tech company that had some big city clients (New York City), and that enabled me to network with a lot of people at those larger companies. When I decided to move on from my small town roots a couple of years later, it didn't take me long to find a job with a company where people knew me already and knew the work that I was capable of doing.
I love DT I usually stop there before I hit the grocery store and purchase household items like paper towel, bathroom cleaners etc and i feel like im saving tons! lol/ they have really stepped their dollar game up and have a great choice of stuff in this economy i know a lot of people are shopping there with me.
NYC and Chicago DO have great tap water! The places I've lived, not so much. My morning shower smells like the pool at the Y. If you must buy bottles, then at least recycle them, AND hey, wear fleece! It's made from recycled plastic bottles, and buying fleece and other end-products of recycled materials creates a market for recycling, which makes governments want to help us do it. As for eventually recycling the fleece, I'm not so sure. If you drink soda/pop, buy cans...
All in all, a great article with good food for thought.
I think there is also lot of value to be gained in staying knowledgeable about your products AFTER you have made the purchase. For example staying on top of firmware updates, software updates, other types of fixes, product issues and warning, class action lawsuits, and even recalls.
To make it easier, I am trying out the new beta Owner Alert System at AllYourPrices http://www.allyourprices.com/owner-alert-system
All in all, you have given some really great advice. I do find it a bit daunting however. Its just that the number of factors to consider becomes quite high as soon as you move away from fairly one dimensional products like storage and processors.
I think at the end of the day, I'm going to stick to my previous approach of buying highly popular and well reviewed items (as you suggest), with middle of the road specs, a few months after they have come out.
Hi,
I just found your blog.
The Story about itunes codes is very interesting.
I know that some people got Mails from Apple that the code is bought with stolen or faked creditcards,
but there are some difficult questions:
1. If the codes are bought with stolen cards, why don't we find cheap gift codes for many many other shops ?
2. If the answer for 1. question is that only apple's fraud section works so slowly, why can we find only US-iTunes Codes cheap ?
Why are there no offers for... spain or brasilian itunes Codes ?
Only US....
3. There are sooo many Codes sold. For these many codes you can find really less sites where people say that their account is frozen.
It's not logic in any way...
But - I have an idea:
Is it possible in any way to generate the Codes ?
If yes - this coud be the answer to all 3 questions, because the people are only able to generate US itunes codes.
Not any amazon codes, or itunes Spain codes for example - only US codes.
AND: It would be logic if apple find out some generated codes, not all, but some. They cancel the codes but they write that the account is frozen because of fraudulent gift codes.
They would be stupid to write that the account is frozen because there are generated Codes on the web ;-)
I'm interested in your answers.
Thanks for your great article. In addition to the websites you mentioned in your article, I'd like to suggest a website called Retrevo.com. Retrevo has lots of reviews from other experts and users, in addition to their "bang for the buck" charts.
Carrie---You are my idol! I wish you were my best friend and would go with me to the store!!!!
These are an essential for hard-core couponers at chain drugstores. CVS and Walgreens, in particular, do a lot of offers with catalinas (CVS calls them ExtraCare bucks, Walgreens calls theirs Register Rewards). Often you can get products like shampoo, toothpaste, razors, paper goods, etc. for pennies or free, and then roll the catalinas into next week's deals. Even if you don't eat any processed food, I would bet you wash your hair with a commercial product. =)
True, for a family that consumes no processed foods, Catalina deals don't have much to offer. But for a family that uses some processed foods for convenience but wants to make more room in the budget for more and better fresh foods, it's perfect. You would never get as much food, pound per pound, buying fresh produce and meat for the money as you get in these Catalina deals, but of course no one should be eating JUST processed foods so we don't live off these deals alone. We use them to enable ourselves to spend more on the healthy stuff.
Here's how it works at my house: We would have bought certain packaged items anyway. A few cans of soup a month, a couple boxes of cereal a week (we really like cereal), and if they're affordable some granola bars. (The canned soup is especially handy because my husband keeps it in his cubicle at work and if he forgets his lunch, the soup stops him from going out to a restaurant.) But instead of buying these items each week, I can now wait until one of these deals comes along, buy up a bunch of what I would normally get anyway, and spend much, much less than I otherwise would have.
That frees up money in my weekly shopping budget for higher-quality fresh items. For instance, next week, since I don't need any cereal, soup, meat (I stocked my freezer on that when hormone and antibiotic-free meat was on sale at Target), or pasta, I will be able to use my whole $80 budget on organic fruits and vegetables and a few staples from Trader Joe's. Since I started shopping Catalinas (I've done three of them in the past four or five months), I've been able to switch to mostly organic produce and mostly hormone/antibiotic-free milk and meat.
My absolute favorite two items I've gotten with Catalina deals: boxed chicken broth and canned tomatoes. Since I do most of my cooking from scratch, I use a lot of these items. Yes, it would be healthier to make my own stock from a chicken carcass, and I do when I have one. But the fact is I probably make 10 meals with chicken broth for every one actual carcass I have around to make it. Hence, for me, getting boxed broth for practically nothing was fantastic.
I blog at www.shopliftingwithpermission.com.
This does look like a smart way to cram down your costs. The problem is that the selected products or the ones involved are almost always processed foods. Those all have a high price margin vs. ingredients or nutrition involved because they are processed foods.
Possibly a better way to cut your grocery costs would be to consume less processed convenience foods.
I work for a cable company as a csr and I can agree with this whole heartedly. Usually what happens is the business department regularly comes out with special promotions at random intervals for different random areas. Unless a customer calls in and asks about it, we don't know if they qualify or not. Considering the immense number of areas, services, and the like, it's impossible to make sure every customer knows about them. So yes, at least once a month, call your provider to see if new promotions have come out.
well i think what people don't understand is that every papa Murphy's is owned by someone else . so different store different experience if you can stick to the corporate stores . there listed on website . i have worked at 3 papa murpheys and also a couple pizza huts TRUST ME WHEN I SAY don't go to pizza hut or at least don't piss off the workers you do not want to know what kind of stuff goes into your 23.00 pizza at least at papa murpheys we wear gloves and you can see whats happening to you food
it is actually pretty easy to do this. I only do the ones that are for products I use all the time, and routinely get my $20 or $30 of groceries for less than $10, sometimes, $5. I make my list of what I want before I leave the house and clip my coupons to the list. I work full time and have 2 kids and it takes only minutes to save. I also use this to buy food for our local food bank- I can donate a lot more on what I can afford to spend.
I would suggest looking into local resources that may be able to assist with expenses (food and medical services) through community programs or social service programs.
That's pretty impressive shopping, Carrie. Good job.
Nice article.
I recently joined Costco and have been trying to get into buying in bulk. As Jim said, I do try to compare costs before buying in bulk, so I make sure I'm not paying extra.
Just found your website, and the review of this book. I have been on a quest for financial education since my divorce and trying to raise 5 children alone. Robert's books are a great part of my financial library. I would love to glean what I can from wise people and would love to read this one. Thank you.
info@eaaaaaaaamixi.jp
Nora, I was really impressed by your article and of course, your life being a full-time traveller. I didn't know someone who do travelling full-time! It could be expensive but you've done a great work at budgeting. It's good to know that you also have your travel insurance.
Work for a teen can be a good thing. They can earn money, learn how to handle it, learn responsibility, etc. However, remember that a work environment will inevitably bring new social influences into your teen's life. Is your teen ready for a new level of peer pressure? How much control will you have over the environment?
Just some things to think about.