The school issue is a real one for some folks with kids. It's not for all of them, but, many definitely make education a priority. In my city, the numbers generally break down like this - public schools in the bigger city areas are down in the bottom 20% of the scores, in the more affordable suburbs, it's just above the median, and in the expensive suburbs they're scraping the top 20%. The top schools are usually specific schools.
Partly, this is because schools in the city blow more of their money on discipline costs, special ed, and student retention efforts. Partly, it's because the wealthier public schools push the parents to donate money toward sports and arts and other programs, freeing up the state money for education. Factor in the parental education levels, and there's this huge gap in test scores, as well as education quality.
It's an unfair situation, but, lacking a strong, widespread educational justice movement, it's hard to fault the parents for moving out to the affordable suburbs to seek better opportunities for their kids.
When I bought shoes for my kids from Payless or Walmart (usually $15-$20), the shoes fell apart before the end of the school year. Then I have to buy another pair of shoes, plus I am out the time and travel expenses for shopping for the shoes. I prefer buying a $30-$40 pair of name-brand shoes that will last the school year. There is a very popular shoe I always buy now, but I don't know if I'm allowed to say the name.
i just learned that the tires i purchased last spring were made in 2002! i'm furious, and i fully intend to call michelin on monday and demand a discount on my replacements. i will bring up the lawsuits against firestone if they try to feed me some line.
they were five years old already when i bought them, now they're past the 6 years line and practically worn out. i don't trust them as far as i can throw them. this is ridiculous!
there's also a valve stem recall on valves installed from late 06-mid 07. i have had 3 flat tires in the past 2 weeks thanks to that too. not a good car month.
I am 6 months pregnant so this post was very interesting, and made me feel a lot better that we haven't bought anything for our baby's arrival yet. However, there were two points that made me feel very glad that I live in the UK.
It had never occurred to me what the cost of giving birth was because the costs are covered by the state (in fact I don't think our health insurance covers labour because it is not an illness).
I am organising my maternity leave at the moment with my work and I can have up to 12 months of without losing my job and for 9 months of that I get maternity pay from the Government.
These certainly reduce the cost of having children.
My missis opened the door at a mcdonalds drve through hit my landrover door on the keyosk no paint damage but a 5 mil center punch dont would any of the above methods work as i have trauled the net and found no refference to tiny dents anywere.
Second what happend to the after photos you satnd there with the dent tell us how good the methods are how chuffed you are with the result yet no confermation photo results???.
When I see a potential unplanned purchase, I simply tell myself that I will buy it tomorrow, after sufficient thought (and possibly research).
Sometimes I have forgotten the item by the time I leave the store. Sometimes I decide that it is nice but not worth the trip back to the store. Sometimes I find by research that I can get it cheaper or better elsewhere, or that it was of poor quality. By the time I buy it, if I buy it, I am no longer giddy about the purchase, but I feel entitled to it as a rational purchase. (Of course, this does not apply to the 36 episodes of The Cisco Kid I got the other night for five dollars.)
I think a psychological life-style choice is important. It you need to feel or look solidly middle class, you are lost. I grew up in a time when it was fine to be poor but respectable, with no shame in financial self-control.
Your story just made my day! Trading business cards! You must have had wonderful friends. When I left the country for the first time and went to Italy, I kept all my subway stubs and various tickets, but I never thought to keep them in a journal. One day when I have kids, I'll certainly take a cue from your mum!
Sorry I forgot to make a note in my last post but its important to not use milky tea bags. So just to clear up any confusion, when making up batches of tea do not include milk just tea and water and when reusing tea bags try and remove them from your tea before you add milk.
Even though using milk on eye irritations has commonly been used as a home remedy for decades its actually not good for the this delicate area due to its lactic acid content.
I absolutely agree with luna you really shouldnt use baby oil around your eyes. No oil based products should be used around the eyes, the skin in this area is to thin and will absorb oil. This toxic build up creates puffy,swollen,saggy skin (or "bags") under and above the eye which leads to premature aging.
Baby oil is especially a big NO NO as a general rule it shouldnt be used for anything on the human body, it is full of crude mineral oils and chemicals that will damage and polute your skin. Make your own body oil using either almond, jojoba or olive oil with a few drops of essential oils for sent or make up your own mixture of oil and fresh herbs for the scent/nutrients. Again this can not be used as eye make up remover the best option is to use tea. Tea is full of antioxidants and feel great on and around the eye area. The best teas to use are chamomile and green but your average black tea is fine as well.
HOW TO USE TEA:
there is a couple of ways to do this the most effective easiest and budget friendly is to simply save your used teabags. Pop the moist teabag straight onto the eye area, hold it against the eye for roughly 30sencond making sure you soak the lashes and throughly moisten the area before you start to "gently" wipe away the make up. Use the tea bag as you would a cotton pad this not only eliminates the need to waste cotton pads but the soft tea bag will really sooth the skin. I like to make a fresh cup of green tea and use the warm(not hot)bag straight away the warmth is a really nice touch and shifts stubborn make up easier. otherwise you can save tea bags in a container in the fridge but make sure to re soak them in either chilled or warm water before using.
If you dont use tea bags just apply a generous amount of fresh warm tea to a cotton pad or to save time you can
make up a large batch of tea (roughly four days worth)and store in the fridge and use cold.
NOTE: chilled tea is best suited to puffy swallen eyes that need to be refreshed and warm tea is best for sore tired irritated eyes that need to be soothed. But its up to you what ever feels right warm or cold is fine.
NOTE: when using tea bags use one for each eye if you dont want to use two just use one side of the bag for each eye this will prevent the spread of germs from one eye to the other.
This is really interesting because personally I have always felt people give up so, so much in terms of quality of living by moving far away from cities. But as one poster mentioned, that's a matter of preference -- I would find life in certain suburbs or exurbs soul-crushing while others would find an urban or semi-urban lifestyle too hectic.
I hate it, though, when I read about great ways to save money, and they turn out to be the way I've always done it. Like, I'd love to save money by going down to just one car, but we've NEVER owned more than one car so I can't save money that way. Well ok I already am but that's not such exciting news, is it?
It costs me about $2500 per year to own my car including gas, maintenance, repairs, insurance, and "payments" (saving for my next car). Of course I live in the city and do not drive to work--I generally fill my tank about once a month. (Also, I buy cars that are ten years old and reliable makes, and then I keep them ten years. I pay cash and do not get collision insurance.) So my car costs would be higher if I lived in a suburb.
Some of my friends live in a nearby town that is now considered a suburb of my city. There I could get a house that is half again as big as my house (1500 square feet vs. 1000) for the same price as what my house is supposedly currently worth. That town also has plenty of things in walking distance--lots of stores, shops, and restaurants.
With my friends living all over the place, though (of course they did not all move to the same part of town or the same suburb), I'd much rather live in the middle. In good traffic, nothing is more than 20 minutes away. Also, I live 3.5 miles from my workplace, and plenty of other workplaces are only 20 minutes away even during rush hour. Since I live near the center of town, I'm generally going against rush hour to get to work.
After I retire, I'm not totally sure I couldn't deal with living in a suburb, especially since the development of the internet and Netflix (which did not exist when I was growing up in suburbs). I suppose if property taxes got too high I'd have to consider it.
In conclusion, I have chosen to both live in town and have my own car by having a small house and an old car. (I suddenly feel rich. I have it all!)
I can see that adding a third car that gets much better fuel economy might be slightly cheaper than going on driving a car with poor mileage--although, since fuel is only about a third of the total cost of ownership of a car, I don't think it's a clear win. But I don't see any way adding a third car can be cheaper than getting rid of a second car.
The cost of "moving to the city" might come to almost anything. As I said, moving to Champaign-Urbana from one of the outlying towns or villages adds about $60,000 to the price of a comparable house. Moving to Manhattan would probably boost your housing cost more (although even there, it depends on where you're moving from).
It only happens every couple years, but we camp out in front of the tv and watch the olypics instead of going out. Turned down an invite to go roller skating (would be 40 dollars total) to stay in make dinner and watch some real athletes
25K for an uncomplicated birth?! They must have used silk swaddling blankets and gold plated monitoring equipment! We've had two, with a third on the way, and the total for each never went about $10,000 for midwife/doctor, office visits, ultrasounds, tests, hospital stay, and all the miscellaneous stuff they stick you with. That's the whole pregnancy, not just the birth.
...that when a fraud alert is put on your account, applying for credit of any kind is made much more difficult and requires more thorough checks (including calling you at a verified home number). That's what I was told by my financial advisor anyway.
Putting a fraud alert on your account will not affect your credit rating, but it is unlikely to do a damn thing to protect you from fraud. It is an advisory only to lenders; most of them ignore it. Or at least that was how I understood it when I worked at TransUnion.
A year or two back, a Chinese mfg. of tires forgot one of the critical elements that held the tire together. From Rubber News:
"The NHTSA-ordered recall of 450,000 light truck tires made by China's Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. Ltd. has the potential to stall the growth of that nation as an exporter of tires to the U.S. This is a very poor time in history for a Chinese tire maker to have its quality standards, even its response to a problem, questioned.
The issue concerns several tire brands sold in the U.S., many of them brought in by importer Foreign Tire Sales Inc. of Union, N.J. That company told NHTSA the tires were made without or with insufficient gum strips between the belts to prevent belt separation."
Sorry about the TXT doc., but I work for a Tire industry equipment maker and can't have any info leak out, especially since we paid for a list of these codes.
The store boughten' ceramic top cleaner costs about $5 - $7. Toothpaste works.
my opinion only
The school issue is a real one for some folks with kids. It's not for all of them, but, many definitely make education a priority. In my city, the numbers generally break down like this - public schools in the bigger city areas are down in the bottom 20% of the scores, in the more affordable suburbs, it's just above the median, and in the expensive suburbs they're scraping the top 20%. The top schools are usually specific schools.
Partly, this is because schools in the city blow more of their money on discipline costs, special ed, and student retention efforts. Partly, it's because the wealthier public schools push the parents to donate money toward sports and arts and other programs, freeing up the state money for education. Factor in the parental education levels, and there's this huge gap in test scores, as well as education quality.
It's an unfair situation, but, lacking a strong, widespread educational justice movement, it's hard to fault the parents for moving out to the affordable suburbs to seek better opportunities for their kids.
When I bought shoes for my kids from Payless or Walmart (usually $15-$20), the shoes fell apart before the end of the school year. Then I have to buy another pair of shoes, plus I am out the time and travel expenses for shopping for the shoes. I prefer buying a $30-$40 pair of name-brand shoes that will last the school year. There is a very popular shoe I always buy now, but I don't know if I'm allowed to say the name.
i just learned that the tires i purchased last spring were made in 2002! i'm furious, and i fully intend to call michelin on monday and demand a discount on my replacements. i will bring up the lawsuits against firestone if they try to feed me some line.
they were five years old already when i bought them, now they're past the 6 years line and practically worn out. i don't trust them as far as i can throw them. this is ridiculous!
there's also a valve stem recall on valves installed from late 06-mid 07. i have had 3 flat tires in the past 2 weeks thanks to that too. not a good car month.
HOW CAN I MAKE MY JWIN PLAYER REGION FREE?
Anyone know what citizenship rules would apply to the baby, if expectant parents traveled out of the country to save on delivery costs?
I buy food when I travel.
The liter of olive oil I purchased in Spain was a joy each time I cooked dinner with it. Herbs de Provence. Fancy mustard, as someone else mentioned.
Or, I buy jewelry because that is small and portable.
I am 6 months pregnant so this post was very interesting, and made me feel a lot better that we haven't bought anything for our baby's arrival yet. However, there were two points that made me feel very glad that I live in the UK.
It had never occurred to me what the cost of giving birth was because the costs are covered by the state (in fact I don't think our health insurance covers labour because it is not an illness).
I am organising my maternity leave at the moment with my work and I can have up to 12 months of without losing my job and for 9 months of that I get maternity pay from the Government.
These certainly reduce the cost of having children.
My missis opened the door at a mcdonalds drve through hit my landrover door on the keyosk no paint damage but a 5 mil center punch dont would any of the above methods work as i have trauled the net and found no refference to tiny dents anywere.
Second what happend to the after photos you satnd there with the dent tell us how good the methods are how chuffed you are with the result yet no confermation photo results???.
but input in this matter would be appreicated
kind regards
Admin@raveskool.com
When I see a potential unplanned purchase, I simply tell myself that I will buy it tomorrow, after sufficient thought (and possibly research).
Sometimes I have forgotten the item by the time I leave the store. Sometimes I decide that it is nice but not worth the trip back to the store. Sometimes I find by research that I can get it cheaper or better elsewhere, or that it was of poor quality. By the time I buy it, if I buy it, I am no longer giddy about the purchase, but I feel entitled to it as a rational purchase. (Of course, this does not apply to the 36 episodes of The Cisco Kid I got the other night for five dollars.)
I think a psychological life-style choice is important. It you need to feel or look solidly middle class, you are lost. I grew up in a time when it was fine to be poor but respectable, with no shame in financial self-control.
Your story just made my day! Trading business cards! You must have had wonderful friends. When I left the country for the first time and went to Italy, I kept all my subway stubs and various tickets, but I never thought to keep them in a journal. One day when I have kids, I'll certainly take a cue from your mum!
Cheers!
Sorry I forgot to make a note in my last post but its important to not use milky tea bags. So just to clear up any confusion, when making up batches of tea do not include milk just tea and water and when reusing tea bags try and remove them from your tea before you add milk.
Even though using milk on eye irritations has commonly been used as a home remedy for decades its actually not good for the this delicate area due to its lactic acid content.
I absolutely agree with luna you really shouldnt use baby oil around your eyes. No oil based products should be used around the eyes, the skin in this area is to thin and will absorb oil. This toxic build up creates puffy,swollen,saggy skin (or "bags") under and above the eye which leads to premature aging.
Baby oil is especially a big NO NO as a general rule it shouldnt be used for anything on the human body, it is full of crude mineral oils and chemicals that will damage and polute your skin. Make your own body oil using either almond, jojoba or olive oil with a few drops of essential oils for sent or make up your own mixture of oil and fresh herbs for the scent/nutrients. Again this can not be used as eye make up remover the best option is to use tea. Tea is full of antioxidants and feel great on and around the eye area. The best teas to use are chamomile and green but your average black tea is fine as well.
HOW TO USE TEA:
there is a couple of ways to do this the most effective easiest and budget friendly is to simply save your used teabags. Pop the moist teabag straight onto the eye area, hold it against the eye for roughly 30sencond making sure you soak the lashes and throughly moisten the area before you start to "gently" wipe away the make up. Use the tea bag as you would a cotton pad this not only eliminates the need to waste cotton pads but the soft tea bag will really sooth the skin. I like to make a fresh cup of green tea and use the warm(not hot)bag straight away the warmth is a really nice touch and shifts stubborn make up easier. otherwise you can save tea bags in a container in the fridge but make sure to re soak them in either chilled or warm water before using.
If you dont use tea bags just apply a generous amount of fresh warm tea to a cotton pad or to save time you can
make up a large batch of tea (roughly four days worth)and store in the fridge and use cold.
NOTE: chilled tea is best suited to puffy swallen eyes that need to be refreshed and warm tea is best for sore tired irritated eyes that need to be soothed. But its up to you what ever feels right warm or cold is fine.
NOTE: when using tea bags use one for each eye if you dont want to use two just use one side of the bag for each eye this will prevent the spread of germs from one eye to the other.
thanks for reading i hope this helps :)
it's amazing . you have cretivity.
This is really interesting because personally I have always felt people give up so, so much in terms of quality of living by moving far away from cities. But as one poster mentioned, that's a matter of preference -- I would find life in certain suburbs or exurbs soul-crushing while others would find an urban or semi-urban lifestyle too hectic.
I hate it, though, when I read about great ways to save money, and they turn out to be the way I've always done it. Like, I'd love to save money by going down to just one car, but we've NEVER owned more than one car so I can't save money that way. Well ok I already am but that's not such exciting news, is it?
I blog at www.shopliftingwithpermission.com.
It costs me about $2500 per year to own my car including gas, maintenance, repairs, insurance, and "payments" (saving for my next car). Of course I live in the city and do not drive to work--I generally fill my tank about once a month. (Also, I buy cars that are ten years old and reliable makes, and then I keep them ten years. I pay cash and do not get collision insurance.) So my car costs would be higher if I lived in a suburb.
Some of my friends live in a nearby town that is now considered a suburb of my city. There I could get a house that is half again as big as my house (1500 square feet vs. 1000) for the same price as what my house is supposedly currently worth. That town also has plenty of things in walking distance--lots of stores, shops, and restaurants.
With my friends living all over the place, though (of course they did not all move to the same part of town or the same suburb), I'd much rather live in the middle. In good traffic, nothing is more than 20 minutes away. Also, I live 3.5 miles from my workplace, and plenty of other workplaces are only 20 minutes away even during rush hour. Since I live near the center of town, I'm generally going against rush hour to get to work.
After I retire, I'm not totally sure I couldn't deal with living in a suburb, especially since the development of the internet and Netflix (which did not exist when I was growing up in suburbs). I suppose if property taxes got too high I'd have to consider it.
In conclusion, I have chosen to both live in town and have my own car by having a small house and an old car. (I suddenly feel rich. I have it all!)
I can see that adding a third car that gets much better fuel economy might be slightly cheaper than going on driving a car with poor mileage--although, since fuel is only about a third of the total cost of ownership of a car, I don't think it's a clear win. But I don't see any way adding a third car can be cheaper than getting rid of a second car.
The cost of "moving to the city" might come to almost anything. As I said, moving to Champaign-Urbana from one of the outlying towns or villages adds about $60,000 to the price of a comparable house. Moving to Manhattan would probably boost your housing cost more (although even there, it depends on where you're moving from).
It only happens every couple years, but we camp out in front of the tv and watch the olypics instead of going out. Turned down an invite to go roller skating (would be 40 dollars total) to stay in make dinner and watch some real athletes
As the Wall Street Journal reported some time ago, many families are adding a 3rd car for commuting.
The new Honda hybrid (April 2009) is cheaper (under $20,000) and lighter (perhaps 50 mpg highway) than even the Prius.
That's much cheaper than paying the price to move to the city.
That's the theory, yes. Creditors are supposed to be more thorough if you have an alert on your credit report. They usually aren't, though.
about=above in the comment above
25K for an uncomplicated birth?! They must have used silk swaddling blankets and gold plated monitoring equipment! We've had two, with a third on the way, and the total for each never went about $10,000 for midwife/doctor, office visits, ultrasounds, tests, hospital stay, and all the miscellaneous stuff they stick you with. That's the whole pregnancy, not just the birth.
...that when a fraud alert is put on your account, applying for credit of any kind is made much more difficult and requires more thorough checks (including calling you at a verified home number). That's what I was told by my financial advisor anyway.
Putting a fraud alert on your account will not affect your credit rating, but it is unlikely to do a damn thing to protect you from fraud. It is an advisory only to lenders; most of them ignore it. Or at least that was how I understood it when I worked at TransUnion.
Regarding the tires that "fall apart"...
A year or two back, a Chinese mfg. of tires forgot one of the critical elements that held the tire together. From Rubber News:
"The NHTSA-ordered recall of 450,000 light truck tires made by China's Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. Ltd. has the potential to stall the growth of that nation as an exporter of tires to the U.S. This is a very poor time in history for a Chinese tire maker to have its quality standards, even its response to a problem, questioned.
The issue concerns several tire brands sold in the U.S., many of them brought in by importer Foreign Tire Sales Inc. of Union, N.J. That company told NHTSA the tires were made without or with insufficient gum strips between the belts to prevent belt separation."
Here's a list of the DOT codes that tell you exactly where the tire was made: http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=tybbznpq2wf
Sorry about the TXT doc., but I work for a Tire industry equipment maker and can't have any info leak out, especially since we paid for a list of these codes.