I actually enjoy some aspects of shopping. (The only part I really dislike is going to places devoted to shopping, like malls.) It's true, though, that I don't much engage in undirected shopping. When I shop it's almost always because I've decided that I need something and I'm investigating what's available so that I can decide what I want and try to find the best price.
As hobbies go, shopping at least has the advantage that you can make it as cheap as you like--even free, if you include the subcategory of window shopping.
I seldom go yardsaling because I know I'll come home with things I don't need. I went this weekend and picked up 2 things I had been mulling over but refused to pay retail for, and yes, a few things I did not need.
On the upside, I didn't spend much on the extras. On the downside, I have clutter. If I did this one weekend a month, I'd have a mountain of clutter and wonder where my time went. Going only once in a great while keeps me in check.
Yeah! If you can get a technological solution to work, that's great.
Sometimes, other people who follow deal sites for their own reasons who will let you know when they spot something they think you'll be interested in--very useful if they're highly accurate in guessing what you'll be interested in. Very narrow-purpose deal sites (just cameras, say, or just baby products) can be useful if you're interested in their narrow purpose.
This is hands-down the most helpful article I have ever received from the WiseBread newsletter - there are great tips in there (I used to think that Tuesday was the cheapest day to fly!) and it's perfect timing for those searching for a holiday airline ticket. Wonderful - thanks again!
I agree with you on trawling bargain sites, but I still utilize them in a different way. I have a small list of items I'm usually looking for and I use feedfilter.com to automatically search the feeds of such bargain sites for the items I actually care about. If there's a "bargain" I actually care about, it pops up in Google Reader. The rest (meaning the 99% I don't care about)? I don't even see them.
Make sure you read the fine print on your spouse's health plan. My husbands former employer required the spouse to carry health care through their employer if it was offered. Regardless of the cost to the spouse. When my kids were little, I was not able to find part-time work that did not give me an option to buy into the company health plan, though the company did not subsidize my premium, making the cost on a part-time minimum wage job sometimes larger then my pay check. The added benefit was that I was forced to be a stay at home mom, something I will never regret.
Which is why if i get a full time job, i am sticking with my own health insurance....since jobs sadly don't last very long these days, why not depend on yourself first!
Of course you're right, but I suspect you're someone who doesn't like to shop in general. For lots of us, shopping is recreation whether we buy anything or not. Admittedly, most of us are women, but I hate to stereotype.
The fan as it is designed is mainly a heat sink for the heater. What it does is create a greater surface area for heat to be transmitted into the living space. This is advantageous in a chimney evacuated system such as a wood or pellet stove. It pulls a little extra heat out of the system before it is vented. The caveat to this, or other heat-grabber type setups, is increased creosote and condensation build up in the chimney due to the lower flue gas temperatures. For a non-vented system the usefulness would be low or non-existent. This is because 100% of the energy remains in the living space.
As for the fan, I am suspect to it's actual usefulness. The fan is being moved from the upward current of air caused by convection. The spinning would would be the reaction to the air rather than the other way around. It's like saying a child's pinwheel is making wind when it is blown on. It is merely reacting, causing no new or augmented air currents.
I would recommend recommend a nice ornamental cast iron sculpture. The idea is to have the heating surface area increased. Also, a ceiling fan would be even better for any loft-like buildings. This is because you want to keep the heat as close to the people as possible and not trapped up against the ceiling. Additionally my neighbor always kept a cast iron pot filled with water on his wood stove. The pot increased the surface area, and the water increased the relative humidity (which helped maintain the warm feeling even at lower temps).
Doing a research paper for college, ;) right, got it. Every student should know this kind of stuff. Do some "research" on recipes for ginger beer and hard lemonade.
Corn meal:
If you use corn meal, it will let you know when it is done fermenting. It will start heavy at the bottom, get light with CO2 and float. When it is done, the CO2 will come out and then sink again. You can taste the mash and the "sweetness" the corn makes will be gone. This is not like sugar sweet, but sweet all the same. If you are making a fine delicate mash, stirring is bad. It changes the taste by adding oxygen. It also mixes up the sediment. You do not want sediment in your pot; it will give a scorched taste to it along with a yeasty taste. Wait till the mash is clear. Everything will settle out.
Pressure cooker:
Make sure you keep safety on pressure cooker. That it IS stainless, not aluminum. And that you do NOT boil. If you have a large canning stainless cooker, attach a column to it (cut a large whole for it). A reflux column is really nice, but strips away the flavours that you get from moonshine. But, boy is it fast.
Thanks for the comments, all, and for the question, Ellen.
I asked my C.P.A. about Ellen's question ("How does the tax preparer feel about doing your taxes on your own with something like Turbo Tax? What are the benefits of hiring a professional?)
His reply: "There are some user-friendly tax software programs available to consumers. If your return is fairly simple, you are comfortable with the software, and you have the time to spend doing your own tax return, they are a good option. However, if you are not willing to put in the effort to check your work carefully, this may not be your best bet."
Great article, but can someone do a piece on Open enrollment? I hear pre-existing conditions are accepted and December is the time to get medical coverage.
My dad took tax prep certification classes through H&R Block last fall, when he was unemployed. After the initial cert class, there was another class which was basically how to be a good salesman. He quit at that point because he hates sales and said he'd never work for them. He just couldn't see charging someone several hundred dollars for a tax return and still being able to sleep at night. He now works for a small place where it's just him and the owner, who I believe is a CPA. The highest fee they charge is $69 for the most complicated returns, they don't upsell, and their customer retention is about 95% (as compared to H&R Block's roughly 50%). I'm sure there are other little places out there, but it's probably like mechanics - the good ones don't need to advertise. So if you're tired of paying an arm and a leg for tax prep, ask around for recommendations.
And about TurboTax, my dad says he can almost always find deductions and such that his clients missed in attempting to do it themselves. Just for everyone's information.
where can i get this so called brasso/ metal polish at...
and do u think it will work on games for xbox 360???
my cousins came over for a party and i let them us my xbox cause they asked to and keept on asking so i said yeah...
they tipped it over 1 to many times and when they left i wanted to play and it had a circular scratch on it and i want to see if i can fix it before i buy a new one...!!!
OK, I've clearly been more distracted than I realized, as I totally missed this article the first time around. Great piece!
You know, even though we have a leather couch, I've been wanting to not go with additional chairs and keep the walking / moving space we have in the living room. However, we are short on seating when people come, as the couch sits three and the antique platform rocker is the only additional chair, unless you count the camel saddle.
So. . . I've been thinking of trying to find a sectional that's chic, yet wraps the entire three sides of the room after I finish getting rid of the storage pieces that currently are on the walls. It's a decorating transition in process to be sure, but I've been holding off because the cost I thought I was going to have to pay was nauseating.
Now I feel like I have an option or two. Thanks, Linsey!
I followed your instructions to the tee. And now I have reception throughout my house. I appreciate it. I thought this cannot work, but it did. Thanks whoever you are....
Even the presence of dogs is enough. It doesn't matter what type or size as long as the thief knows they are there, they are less likely to break in. A number of years ago I lived in a small city. The person on the far side of the duplex next to me, and the person 2 doors over on the other side were robbed. Not me or my immediate neighbors.
Hello! My region-free DVD Player just broke, and so my family got a new one, a Sony DVP-NS710H. Could someone tell me the codes for the Sony DVP-NS710H?
So my realtor seems to be continuously lying about the availability of some properties. Certain houses which we liked and asked to see would suddenly have an accepted offer. Then we call the listing agent for that property and there is no offer. Why would our agent do this? Does it have something to do with what listing agents he/she likes to work with?
It's total garbage I'm not hiring a realtor ever again.
I agree with George Johns. 50% off of a $200 framing job for a single piece of art isn't really much a deal. If you can manage to stack or combine coupons, you might get somewhere, but even then, it's unlikely that you'll get away from custom framing without paying through the nose.
:) I should mention that I used the wicker couch for two years - my comment sort of made it sound like I bought it and stuffed it into storage immediately. I found a usable couch, finally, but the wicker saved me during the in between times.
I've also found that there are some really cool metal pieces that can look incredibly chic if repurposed for indoors. People also give away old lawn furniture all the time on craigslist. If you can swoop and and get your hands on that stuff, it's a great way to outfit parts of the house without spending thousands of bucks.
When I first read the part about cockroaches in the comment above, I was thinking that that was overkill, but then I recalled a free dining room table that I had snagged while living in the Bay Area that was infested with silverfish (:: shudder :: twitch ::). I had to Raid the heck out of that thing, and then leave it outside for a few days before bringing it in. But it was still the best darn dining table ever.
Many of the franchise tax preparation companies offer training to help you learn to do taxes. The cost for the class can cover a large range depending on the city/state. It does take about 40 hours of your time so you have to consider that as well.
The training can help you significantly in preparing your taxes. Unless you have a very simple return, you will often benefit by getting a professional to look at your taxes.
I would suggest a couple of other ideas on saving money with your fees.
1) Call now to sit down with them to see if there are actions you can take between now and the end of the year to generate deductions.
2) Find out when their slow time is during the tax season. March is usually a slow time for most firms though depending on the number of business returns they do it varies. If you are willing to visit during the slow part of the season, you can often get a discount.
3) Do them yourself and have the pro do a review. Many companies will do a free review or only charge you a smaller efile only fee if they are correct. You won't get the same number of questions doing it this way so may miss some deductions but you do at least know that your math is correct.
Once you know how they should be done, you can do them yourself unless things dramatically change. Many people I know can do their own taxes, they simply choose not because they want a professional available if they ever get a letter from the IRS.
@Ginny:
I actually enjoy some aspects of shopping. (The only part I really dislike is going to places devoted to shopping, like malls.) It's true, though, that I don't much engage in undirected shopping. When I shop it's almost always because I've decided that I need something and I'm investigating what's available so that I can decide what I want and try to find the best price.
As hobbies go, shopping at least has the advantage that you can make it as cheap as you like--even free, if you include the subcategory of window shopping.
I seldom go yardsaling because I know I'll come home with things I don't need. I went this weekend and picked up 2 things I had been mulling over but refused to pay retail for, and yes, a few things I did not need.
On the upside, I didn't spend much on the extras. On the downside, I have clutter. If I did this one weekend a month, I'd have a mountain of clutter and wonder where my time went. Going only once in a great while keeps me in check.
@Trent:
Yeah! If you can get a technological solution to work, that's great.
Sometimes, other people who follow deal sites for their own reasons who will let you know when they spot something they think you'll be interested in--very useful if they're highly accurate in guessing what you'll be interested in. Very narrow-purpose deal sites (just cameras, say, or just baby products) can be useful if you're interested in their narrow purpose.
This is hands-down the most helpful article I have ever received from the WiseBread newsletter - there are great tips in there (I used to think that Tuesday was the cheapest day to fly!) and it's perfect timing for those searching for a holiday airline ticket. Wonderful - thanks again!
I agree with you on trawling bargain sites, but I still utilize them in a different way. I have a small list of items I'm usually looking for and I use feedfilter.com to automatically search the feeds of such bargain sites for the items I actually care about. If there's a "bargain" I actually care about, it pops up in Google Reader. The rest (meaning the 99% I don't care about)? I don't even see them.
Make sure you read the fine print on your spouse's health plan. My husbands former employer required the spouse to carry health care through their employer if it was offered. Regardless of the cost to the spouse. When my kids were little, I was not able to find part-time work that did not give me an option to buy into the company health plan, though the company did not subsidize my premium, making the cost on a part-time minimum wage job sometimes larger then my pay check. The added benefit was that I was forced to be a stay at home mom, something I will never regret.
Which is why if i get a full time job, i am sticking with my own health insurance....since jobs sadly don't last very long these days, why not depend on yourself first!
Of course you're right, but I suspect you're someone who doesn't like to shop in general. For lots of us, shopping is recreation whether we buy anything or not. Admittedly, most of us are women, but I hate to stereotype.
The fan as it is designed is mainly a heat sink for the heater. What it does is create a greater surface area for heat to be transmitted into the living space. This is advantageous in a chimney evacuated system such as a wood or pellet stove. It pulls a little extra heat out of the system before it is vented. The caveat to this, or other heat-grabber type setups, is increased creosote and condensation build up in the chimney due to the lower flue gas temperatures. For a non-vented system the usefulness would be low or non-existent. This is because 100% of the energy remains in the living space.
As for the fan, I am suspect to it's actual usefulness. The fan is being moved from the upward current of air caused by convection. The spinning would would be the reaction to the air rather than the other way around. It's like saying a child's pinwheel is making wind when it is blown on. It is merely reacting, causing no new or augmented air currents.
I would recommend recommend a nice ornamental cast iron sculpture. The idea is to have the heating surface area increased. Also, a ceiling fan would be even better for any loft-like buildings. This is because you want to keep the heat as close to the people as possible and not trapped up against the ceiling. Additionally my neighbor always kept a cast iron pot filled with water on his wood stove. The pot increased the surface area, and the water increased the relative humidity (which helped maintain the warm feeling even at lower temps).
Just my two cents. Stay warm!
Meow.
Doing a research paper for college, ;) right, got it. Every student should know this kind of stuff. Do some "research" on recipes for ginger beer and hard lemonade.
Corn meal:
If you use corn meal, it will let you know when it is done fermenting. It will start heavy at the bottom, get light with CO2 and float. When it is done, the CO2 will come out and then sink again. You can taste the mash and the "sweetness" the corn makes will be gone. This is not like sugar sweet, but sweet all the same. If you are making a fine delicate mash, stirring is bad. It changes the taste by adding oxygen. It also mixes up the sediment. You do not want sediment in your pot; it will give a scorched taste to it along with a yeasty taste. Wait till the mash is clear. Everything will settle out.
Pressure cooker:
Make sure you keep safety on pressure cooker. That it IS stainless, not aluminum. And that you do NOT boil. If you have a large canning stainless cooker, attach a column to it (cut a large whole for it). A reflux column is really nice, but strips away the flavours that you get from moonshine. But, boy is it fast.
Thanks for the comments, all, and for the question, Ellen.
I asked my C.P.A. about Ellen's question ("How does the tax preparer feel about doing your taxes on your own with something like Turbo Tax? What are the benefits of hiring a professional?)
His reply: "There are some user-friendly tax software programs available to consumers. If your return is fairly simple, you are comfortable with the software, and you have the time to spend doing your own tax return, they are a good option. However, if you are not willing to put in the effort to check your work carefully, this may not be your best bet."
Great article, but can someone do a piece on Open enrollment? I hear pre-existing conditions are accepted and December is the time to get medical coverage.
My dad took tax prep certification classes through H&R Block last fall, when he was unemployed. After the initial cert class, there was another class which was basically how to be a good salesman. He quit at that point because he hates sales and said he'd never work for them. He just couldn't see charging someone several hundred dollars for a tax return and still being able to sleep at night. He now works for a small place where it's just him and the owner, who I believe is a CPA. The highest fee they charge is $69 for the most complicated returns, they don't upsell, and their customer retention is about 95% (as compared to H&R Block's roughly 50%). I'm sure there are other little places out there, but it's probably like mechanics - the good ones don't need to advertise. So if you're tired of paying an arm and a leg for tax prep, ask around for recommendations.
And about TurboTax, my dad says he can almost always find deductions and such that his clients missed in attempting to do it themselves. Just for everyone's information.
most every area allows free tax prep at yu rlocal state offec building . evaluate first though
where can i get this so called brasso/ metal polish at...
and do u think it will work on games for xbox 360???
my cousins came over for a party and i let them us my xbox cause they asked to and keept on asking so i said yeah...
they tipped it over 1 to many times and when they left i wanted to play and it had a circular scratch on it and i want to see if i can fix it before i buy a new one...!!!
OK, I've clearly been more distracted than I realized, as I totally missed this article the first time around. Great piece!
You know, even though we have a leather couch, I've been wanting to not go with additional chairs and keep the walking / moving space we have in the living room. However, we are short on seating when people come, as the couch sits three and the antique platform rocker is the only additional chair, unless you count the camel saddle.
So. . . I've been thinking of trying to find a sectional that's chic, yet wraps the entire three sides of the room after I finish getting rid of the storage pieces that currently are on the walls. It's a decorating transition in process to be sure, but I've been holding off because the cost I thought I was going to have to pay was nauseating.
Now I feel like I have an option or two. Thanks, Linsey!
You can also follow me on Twitter and Trek Hound.
I followed your instructions to the tee. And now I have reception throughout my house. I appreciate it. I thought this cannot work, but it did. Thanks whoever you are....
Even the presence of dogs is enough. It doesn't matter what type or size as long as the thief knows they are there, they are less likely to break in. A number of years ago I lived in a small city. The person on the far side of the duplex next to me, and the person 2 doors over on the other side were robbed. Not me or my immediate neighbors.
Hello! My region-free DVD Player just broke, and so my family got a new one, a Sony DVP-NS710H. Could someone tell me the codes for the Sony DVP-NS710H?
That's a really creative solution, Ashley. Thanks for the idea!
So my realtor seems to be continuously lying about the availability of some properties. Certain houses which we liked and asked to see would suddenly have an accepted offer. Then we call the listing agent for that property and there is no offer. Why would our agent do this? Does it have something to do with what listing agents he/she likes to work with?
It's total garbage I'm not hiring a realtor ever again.
I agree with George Johns. 50% off of a $200 framing job for a single piece of art isn't really much a deal. If you can manage to stack or combine coupons, you might get somewhere, but even then, it's unlikely that you'll get away from custom framing without paying through the nose.
:) I should mention that I used the wicker couch for two years - my comment sort of made it sound like I bought it and stuffed it into storage immediately. I found a usable couch, finally, but the wicker saved me during the in between times.
I've also found that there are some really cool metal pieces that can look incredibly chic if repurposed for indoors. People also give away old lawn furniture all the time on craigslist. If you can swoop and and get your hands on that stuff, it's a great way to outfit parts of the house without spending thousands of bucks.
When I first read the part about cockroaches in the comment above, I was thinking that that was overkill, but then I recalled a free dining room table that I had snagged while living in the Bay Area that was infested with silverfish (:: shudder :: twitch ::). I had to Raid the heck out of that thing, and then leave it outside for a few days before bringing it in. But it was still the best darn dining table ever.
Many of the franchise tax preparation companies offer training to help you learn to do taxes. The cost for the class can cover a large range depending on the city/state. It does take about 40 hours of your time so you have to consider that as well.
The training can help you significantly in preparing your taxes. Unless you have a very simple return, you will often benefit by getting a professional to look at your taxes.
I would suggest a couple of other ideas on saving money with your fees.
1) Call now to sit down with them to see if there are actions you can take between now and the end of the year to generate deductions.
2) Find out when their slow time is during the tax season. March is usually a slow time for most firms though depending on the number of business returns they do it varies. If you are willing to visit during the slow part of the season, you can often get a discount.
3) Do them yourself and have the pro do a review. Many companies will do a free review or only charge you a smaller efile only fee if they are correct. You won't get the same number of questions doing it this way so may miss some deductions but you do at least know that your math is correct.
Once you know how they should be done, you can do them yourself unless things dramatically change. Many people I know can do their own taxes, they simply choose not because they want a professional available if they ever get a letter from the IRS.
Be prepared now to make the new year much easier.