are straight from heaven... I love them. And I'm with you on the homeschool lessons, Fred. While it isn't a "formal" classroom activity for us, when we do get to the botany parts of our science discussion, the kids already know the answers (and roll their eyes to even be asked the 'obvious' gardening questions.)
The kids get geared up for tomatoes for many months before they come. We have a row just for them to forage at will. And they always get to help for a bit each day (even though the toddlers don't last too long amongst the weeds!)
Having a garden and a pet are the two dreams that I'm saving for retirement. Both require so much time and love, and I want to fully enjoy the experiences. I love the flavor and texture of home grown vegetables and fruit! For me, no dessert in the world beats a sun-ripened strawberry or snow pea. : )
I've tried this a few times. Sometimes it worked but mostly it didn't. And, even when successful, the results were only temporary. If you need to bribe yourself to do it (whatever the carrot or stick), chances are very high it won't last.
The old "steady as she goes" method of eating healthier (but still deliciously satisfying) meals combined with regular exercise is the only way I have had any lasting results. Learning how to cook and never eating anything I don't want (this may sound strange or obvious, but when you've been raised to eat everything put in front of you and all of it, those habits die hard) has helped a lot. I have also fasted to detox my body for 10 days and that was great for losing weight, too. I write about it in "5 Simple Ways to Lose Weight and Keep It Off." But, no method works for long if you return to old habits.
The same is true in the UK, coins are only legal tender up to a specified maximum. My wife bought me a coin-sorter which is great for storing spare change, but all the smaller coins go straight to my four-year old who eagerly stores them in her piggy bank (she does not know that my wife then empties it and takes it to the bank...). I collect subs from a football team every week and pay for the pitch hire with the coins that I collect, but I know that they usually appreciate the change (or they are just too polite to say).
It took me a while to de-programm myself and now I do all these habits - except 5. Your salary is not a secret :) It's a thing here where I live not to talk about it, top secret, shush.
It is so true! I have seen the 'honor student' one a lot - and the parents drive so speedy.
Another issue: why would you give someone more reasons to identify you? I think these stickers, to say nothing about vanity plates, make people less safe.
A friend of mine LOVED quarters and she would use m&m mini tubes. I forgot how many quarters it would hold but I think it was a little more than a roll. As I am writing this I am not sure if they still sell them in tubes. Last time I saw they they had "mega" tubes. Anyhow, just a thought. :)
Thanks for including home swapping in your article as a great way to travel free (or almost!) I'm glad to see that you mentioned the security aspects of having people living in your home too.
With the value of the dollar low, no doubt many of your readers have dismissed Europe as a destination at present. But it doesn't have to be if you swap homes. In fact, as our own home exchange service, Home Base Holidays, has been operating in London for many years, we have a huge number of attractive exchange offers here, making even our notoriously expensive city affordable (and there's lots of free stuff to do here too!).
If interested in finding out more about home swapping, I hope you will visit my blog too.
Our kids our too young to receive dollar bills for their allowance, at least we think so. So quarters go a long way as a compensation system. Plus they are good for teaching them fractions and adding.
Great ideas and a great subject to touch on. Who in this world doesn't have loads of change lying around. We've done both the quarter rolling, which can be fun with the kids, and Coinstar.
You know, as the world spirals out of control and the price of grains and gasoline skyrocket, growing our own food is the wave of the future. The fact that it improves our health and our planet are bonuses. Besides, it's a great way to spend time with the family and it's nice to know where your food comes from. Saving money makes it all the more sensible.
We are really into our garden, though it's mostly Ruth's and the children's gig, I just do the dirty work, i.e., turning, tilling and weeding. As far as weeding goes, talk about your losing battles. Not unlike the battle of the bulge.
And there are always good home school lessons about biology in there.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, guys. I grew up in LA and spent most of my life hating humanity behind the wheel of my car. It really stinks, and takes years off your life, and my car was a total junker, though covered with stickers. Shanel, kudos to you for being so Zen about your negative car experience, it ain't easy in this day and age. And Lucille, it's amazing sometimes what crazy things your tax dollars fund in terms of research.
Nowadays there is a great variety of itineraries to choose for travelling. Unfortunately many people think that travelling is too expensive but it is not the case. On the contrary, it is getting more affordable if you spend your money wisely.
I think most of us have always looked at travel as a "vacation" and one that will cost a pretty penny. But there's no reason you can't work your way across the country. :)
Cool idea for a blog post. One of my favorite Chinese proverbs relating to finance is "Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.".
I take it to mean it's better to take responsibility for your actions and situation if you are not happy with the current status (debt) rather than pity yourself and simply complain. Thanks for the motivation!
My sons and I have made a game out of finding and collecting coins. My two boys 7 and 3, look for change in our normal everyday task. We collect it and then blog about where we found it and any products around us. The adds generated byt the blog content accumulate in Google Adsense. We compete against google adsense to see who can come up with the most change. All of our change goes to a charity. I would love readers to spread the word and think about doing it with their kids. It taches them to give and to save.
If you're the clerk, it can be a little confusing/distracting to watch someone else count change, so I always preferred people hand it to me, sorted.
I'd add that it's probably not a good idea to pay in change when the store is really busy or about to close. Just because it's time consuming to count out the change. I save mine for parking meters and laundry.
This is similar to "There's no such thing as a free lunch" and "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". Basically, if someone's offering you a good deal, it often means that they're going to get something out of it, too.
If the false positives are random, then repeating the test would (probably) finger a completely different cohort of 20 victims--one would have to be very unlucky to be falsely fingered twice. On the other hand, if the false positive was due to some systemic factor, you might get a false positive every time.
So, it's important to understand which factor is at play.
Also, it may well be that they're already running the test twice, in order to get the 0.1% false positive rate, in which case you might have to run it four times to get the false positive rate down to less than one person in the population.
And, of course, once you accept that some fraction of false positives is okay, you're also accepting that, no matter how small the fraction is, you're going to have some people who lose out, even if the odds are millions-to-one against. (After all, the odds are millions-to-one against winning the lottery, but someone wins one somewhere, almost every week.)
I have no problem using up all my quarters for laundry (and often need to request extra rolls from the supermarket); but the dimes, nickels, and especially pennies always seem to pile up! People seem to really mind if you count these little guys out for them -- even if you have exact change ready and you're just counting it for their benefit. If they look really perturbed, I politely ask them, "Would you like me to just give it to you?" That seems to do the trick b/c they usually get over it at that point. ; )
are straight from heaven... I love them. And I'm with you on the homeschool lessons, Fred. While it isn't a "formal" classroom activity for us, when we do get to the botany parts of our science discussion, the kids already know the answers (and roll their eyes to even be asked the 'obvious' gardening questions.)
The kids get geared up for tomatoes for many months before they come. We have a row just for them to forage at will. And they always get to help for a bit each day (even though the toddlers don't last too long amongst the weeds!)
A few favorites
"Friendship improves happiness and abates misery by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief." - Marcus Cicero
"Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy though he be master of the world." - Epicurus
"He who seeks revenge should remember to dig two graves." - Chinese proverb
I love them all and reading wise words is a great way to keep mentally fit.
Most of the newer snack machines will return larger change. If you deposit nickels and press the coin return you should get back a quarter.
By changing up your change you can get rid of it easily.
I have posted a coin return table for vending machines on my website.
http://www.frugalcanadianliving.com/2008/05/change-your-change.html
Having a garden and a pet are the two dreams that I'm saving for retirement. Both require so much time and love, and I want to fully enjoy the experiences. I love the flavor and texture of home grown vegetables and fruit! For me, no dessert in the world beats a sun-ripened strawberry or snow pea. : )
I've tried this a few times. Sometimes it worked but mostly it didn't. And, even when successful, the results were only temporary. If you need to bribe yourself to do it (whatever the carrot or stick), chances are very high it won't last.
The old "steady as she goes" method of eating healthier (but still deliciously satisfying) meals combined with regular exercise is the only way I have had any lasting results. Learning how to cook and never eating anything I don't want (this may sound strange or obvious, but when you've been raised to eat everything put in front of you and all of it, those habits die hard) has helped a lot. I have also fasted to detox my body for 10 days and that was great for losing weight, too. I write about it in "5 Simple Ways to Lose Weight and Keep It Off." But, no method works for long if you return to old habits.
The same is true in the UK, coins are only legal tender up to a specified maximum. My wife bought me a coin-sorter which is great for storing spare change, but all the smaller coins go straight to my four-year old who eagerly stores them in her piggy bank (she does not know that my wife then empties it and takes it to the bank...). I collect subs from a football team every week and pay for the pitch hire with the coins that I collect, but I know that they usually appreciate the change (or they are just too polite to say).
It took me a while to de-programm myself and now I do all these habits - except 5. Your salary is not a secret :) It's a thing here where I live not to talk about it, top secret, shush.
It is so true! I have seen the 'honor student' one a lot - and the parents drive so speedy.
Another issue: why would you give someone more reasons to identify you? I think these stickers, to say nothing about vanity plates, make people less safe.
A friend of mine LOVED quarters and she would use m&m mini tubes. I forgot how many quarters it would hold but I think it was a little more than a roll. As I am writing this I am not sure if they still sell them in tubes. Last time I saw they they had "mega" tubes. Anyhow, just a thought. :)
If we weren't in transition right now, I'd be right there with you, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Cool piece, Linsey.
Hi Kate
Thanks for including home swapping in your article as a great way to travel free (or almost!) I'm glad to see that you mentioned the security aspects of having people living in your home too.
With the value of the dollar low, no doubt many of your readers have dismissed Europe as a destination at present. But it doesn't have to be if you swap homes. In fact, as our own home exchange service, Home Base Holidays, has been operating in London for many years, we have a huge number of attractive exchange offers here, making even our notoriously expensive city affordable (and there's lots of free stuff to do here too!).
If interested in finding out more about home swapping, I hope you will visit my blog too.
Cheers
Our kids our too young to receive dollar bills for their allowance, at least we think so. So quarters go a long way as a compensation system. Plus they are good for teaching them fractions and adding.
Great ideas and a great subject to touch on. Who in this world doesn't have loads of change lying around. We've done both the quarter rolling, which can be fun with the kids, and Coinstar.
Nice to hear the ancient wisdoms applied to modern life. It's no wonder that China is becoming such an economic superpower.
You know, as the world spirals out of control and the price of grains and gasoline skyrocket, growing our own food is the wave of the future. The fact that it improves our health and our planet are bonuses. Besides, it's a great way to spend time with the family and it's nice to know where your food comes from. Saving money makes it all the more sensible.
We are really into our garden, though it's mostly Ruth's and the children's gig, I just do the dirty work, i.e., turning, tilling and weeding. As far as weeding goes, talk about your losing battles. Not unlike the battle of the bulge.
And there are always good home school lessons about biology in there.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, guys. I grew up in LA and spent most of my life hating humanity behind the wheel of my car. It really stinks, and takes years off your life, and my car was a total junker, though covered with stickers. Shanel, kudos to you for being so Zen about your negative car experience, it ain't easy in this day and age. And Lucille, it's amazing sometimes what crazy things your tax dollars fund in terms of research.
Nowadays there is a great variety of itineraries to choose for travelling. Unfortunately many people think that travelling is too expensive but it is not the case. On the contrary, it is getting more affordable if you spend your money wisely.
Here are the proverbs in traditional Chinese
1) 一寸光陰一寸金,寸金難買寸光陰.
2) 有錢能使鬼推磨
3) 賜子千金,不如賜子一技
4) 留得青山在﹐不怕無柒燒
I think most of us have always looked at travel as a "vacation" and one that will cost a pretty penny. But there's no reason you can't work your way across the country. :)
Cool idea for a blog post. One of my favorite Chinese proverbs relating to finance is "Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.".
I take it to mean it's better to take responsibility for your actions and situation if you are not happy with the current status (debt) rather than pity yourself and simply complain. Thanks for the motivation!
My sons and I have made a game out of finding and collecting coins. My two boys 7 and 3, look for change in our normal everyday task. We collect it and then blog about where we found it and any products around us. The adds generated byt the blog content accumulate in Google Adsense. We compete against google adsense to see who can come up with the most change. All of our change goes to a charity. I would love readers to spread the word and think about doing it with their kids. It taches them to give and to save.
If you're the clerk, it can be a little confusing/distracting to watch someone else count change, so I always preferred people hand it to me, sorted.
I'd add that it's probably not a good idea to pay in change when the store is really busy or about to close. Just because it's time consuming to count out the change. I save mine for parking meters and laundry.
An inch of time is worth an inch of gold; but it is hard to buy one inch of time with one inch of gold
I still remember I first taught of this saying during my primary school days.
The teacher of course use it to motivate us to study hard but I can't recall how this proverbs meaning relates to study.
But this post further reminds me the importance of achieving financial freedom as early as possible.
If one fulfills his financial obligations in life, he can free up his time to do whatever he likes.
This is similar to "There's no such thing as a free lunch" and "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". Basically, if someone's offering you a good deal, it often means that they're going to get something out of it, too.
That's a good example of how randomness matters.
If the false positives are random, then repeating the test would (probably) finger a completely different cohort of 20 victims--one would have to be very unlucky to be falsely fingered twice. On the other hand, if the false positive was due to some systemic factor, you might get a false positive every time.
So, it's important to understand which factor is at play.
Also, it may well be that they're already running the test twice, in order to get the 0.1% false positive rate, in which case you might have to run it four times to get the false positive rate down to less than one person in the population.
And, of course, once you accept that some fraction of false positives is okay, you're also accepting that, no matter how small the fraction is, you're going to have some people who lose out, even if the odds are millions-to-one against. (After all, the odds are millions-to-one against winning the lottery, but someone wins one somewhere, almost every week.)
I have no problem using up all my quarters for laundry (and often need to request extra rolls from the supermarket); but the dimes, nickels, and especially pennies always seem to pile up! People seem to really mind if you count these little guys out for them -- even if you have exact change ready and you're just counting it for their benefit. If they look really perturbed, I politely ask them, "Would you like me to just give it to you?" That seems to do the trick b/c they usually get over it at that point. ; )