When I was in college, I would trade books with my friends. One semester I swapped an Environnmental Science Book for a Psychology book.
For my literature classes, which required a thousand little paperbacks, I used the library.
And then I used half.com to find cheap books. Like Hardware Guy said, if you have the ISBN numbers, it's easy to get the exact book.
One other thing... check your school library and academic (tutoring center), sometimes they have text books on reserve. They can't leave the library, but you can study them all you want when you are there.
We started my son in state preschool and switched to a private school because after being constantly guilted into volunteering in the classroom, I noticed too much regarding the kind of kids my kid was going to school with. I think the day the cop's kid and the drug dealer's kid was talking about 'my dad arrested your dad' with expletives all around I decided you know, let's make it through second grade before we deal with guns and meth and the F-word used like salt and pepper, shall we?
The switch has been great. There are 10 kids in my sons' class. The teachers are ex-public school teachers who didn't want to just record test scores anymore but wanted to actually teach and incorporate the arts. They also flat up don't tolerate that sort of playground banter and behavioral issues.
I went to both and preferred private. My husband did public and has no opinion on it but he too realized we wanted to do a bit of intervention and find a school that reflected our values better.
We started my son in state preschool and switched to a private school because after being constantly guilted into volunteering in the classroom, I noticed too much regarding the kind of kids my kid was going to school with. I think the day the cop's kid and the drug dealer's kid was talking about 'my dad arrested your dad' with expletives all around I decided you know, let's make it through second grade before we deal with guns and meth and the F-word used like salt and pepper, shall we?
The switch has been great. There are 10 kids in my sons' class. The teachers are ex-public school teachers who didn't want to just record test scores anymore but wanted to actually teach and incorporate the arts. They also flat up don't tolerate that sort of playground banter and behavioral issues.
I went to both and preferred private. My husband did public and has no opinion on it but he too realized we wanted to do a bit of intervention and find a school that reflected our values better.
I know MLMs from the computer programming side. From the political structure side. From the competitive executive side. I know the numbers and the typical levels of payout, and how the actuarial numbers decide things. I've helped build the back-end structure of one, worked on the bonus schedules and point systems, time structures, the upflow jumps, the left and right legs, the power leg, and have even interpreted all that back-end stuff into a written a comprehensive compensation plan for a group of over 10,000.
And I never once joined.
Run away, unless you want to start one with about three other rich folks who know a dozen other good folks who are hooked up with a few more winks and nods. And they'll want you think you are in their upper echelon, or that you can attain it, but the ones at the top bought their way there. But you have no idea how true that is. You want to believe. It's powerful stuff. And besides, you only get to see the math you understand.
If you're not in the first 12 levels, well, there's easily 80 more below you, even in the early stages. No distribution model in regular corporate America has that many levels of payout. And prices are determined by the average number of point-earners in the deepest legs. If a company did have that many levels, why, they'd have to charge prices for aloe juice like the MLM'ers have to pay. "But it's the best stuff there is!"
Yeah. Been in on that part, too. It's stuff made just like everything else. Quality is nothing, marketing is everything.
The average payout only flowed down a few levels, but prices were fixed on a worst-case scenario of about 12 payout levels.
Perception is everything.
It's not illegal. But I don't think it's smart. Unless, like most of these "jewels" do, you start another new company every 6 months to a year.
you are on target to receive $1800, according to all the data and charts I have read. If you are married filing jointly, which I presume you are, you should be fine. Although $75k per year is not exactly what I'd call poor. It's ain't rich, not in this day and age, but you're not eating Ramen every night either.
I'm putting in another vote for half.com. Very often I can buy like new and sell books back for nearly what I paid for them since I take good care of my books. A cool way to verify the editions is to get the ISBN numbers from the college bookstore or amazon. I usually cross shop the college bookstore with half.com and amazon and pick and choose to get the best prices.
Make sure that you consider 10% into monthly savings as a "bill". Pay it faithfully, as though Guido the Knee-and-Knuckle repo man was just waiting for you to slack off. Because that's what it'll feel like if unexpected expenses hurt your budget.
My only peeve with my computer is how it bogs on YouTube videos. So I clicked the file and now I can listen to a song all the way through without choppy pauses.
Can I go into my configs and disable all the background stuff? yeah. But this works just fine for the rare times I need it.
Started off on just regular milk, then I started using the whole foods 365 organic milk and then one day bought Horizon milk because it was on sale. Well, My husband started yelling from the living room asking about the milk. He ask if it was organic and what kind. I said it was Horizon and yes it says orgainic on the box. He said it was the best milk he as ever had in his life and thats all he wants me to buy now. He could tell a difference and I don't know if that difference is good or bad for us health wise. Like is there more fat in it or what. Now I've been finding all this anti-Horizon milk stuff and don't know what to do. I can start buying the 365 milk brand again. Is there any issues with that milk? Please someone let me know!
I love the MLM I am apart of. Love the products, love the people I work with. That being said I don't think I'm going to quit my job due to the money I'll make in this business, but that's okay.
My mother is my upline, she has made more than broke even, the pastor's wife at churhc is her upline and she drives a company supplied luxury car. However, they both approach it like the small buisness that it is.
Me, I just like the products and I will talk up the products. If someone wants to sign up under me, that's great, if not, so be it.
The difference I see is that one has to join a company that has actual good products, actually like and use the products/ services yourself and then work it like the business that it is.
I like the idea of getting textbooks for less- especially because they are very expensive and seldom useful after the course is done.
One caution in general using an older edition isn't a problem unless the exercises at the end of the chapter have changed. You may end up with a huge hassle to verify that the instructor's assignment is the same one in your book!
-Rick Francis
I wouldn't consider this to be a dumb idea... maybe if the entire country was like you (not that that's a bad thing on an individual basis) and would put it in savings then it would be dumb, but a HUGE majority of the country will go spend money as soon as they get it, either because they badly need the money for necessities or to pay off debt, or because they love shopping and spending as much money as they can (think your stereotypical woman). Really though, people like you and me who will save the money are the minority in this country - the majority of America will probably spend the money as soon as they can.
This is how we started off back on September. Its awesome because every dollar does indeed have a job and there's something about it that makes the budget WORK.
As a product of 13 years of private education, I think they're totally worth the money. Here's why:
The class sized were extremely small. I had, on average in high school, a 7 or 8 to 1 student-teacher ratio. Imagine trying to daydream or pass notes with only 7 other kids in your class. Not going to happen.
We learned how to shut the hell up. The fear of a ruler on the knuckles is enough to make you stay in your seat and pay attention to the lesson.
No bullies. Seriously. No lunch money bandits, nobody pushing you around, smacking your books to the ground. Not even any real name calling. The overweight kids got picked last for kickball, but no one ever made fun of them for it.
More parental involvement. I've seen a bunch of studies that show that the more parents are involved in their kid's education, the better they do. If a parent is dropping between 5-25k per year, you better believe they're going to make sure they're getting their money's worth.
Everyone else is right: if the kid has some kind of learning or emotional disorder that would require extra help, public schools are probably the way to go. But if the kid is at least an average student and would benefit from tougher academic competition and a stronger sense of community, then you can't beat a private education, especially in the k-8 years.
I started out as a backpacker, and now I'm probably a flashpacker - in fact reading the description again, not only does it describe me perfectly, it actually sounds like exactly the sort of traveller I'd like to be.
I just learned about this from the Total Money Makeover. This is my first month trying to use this system. If you'd like to take a look, click into my new blog. Don't laugh at my measly salary/income, compared to my debt payments. I'm working on it! (-:
Just a thought, but have you considered the impact of an educational environment beyond a child's school years?
An advantage to at least consider: private schools, even in small towns, teach children to navigate challenging social waters with confidence. They also help students focus on admissions to top colleges where these skills become more valuable.
Public school may do the same for many, but I was a shy kid from a working class background who lucked into a (partial) scholarship at a small private school school. My prep school tuition and college loans may have been painful at the time, but now I see they bought more than just a top notch education. They effortlessly opened up a social world that made my adult career goals not just possible, but expected.
Six degrees of separation shrank to one or two. All thanks to private school.
I'm sure the next 30 years will treat Jimmy Carter much better than the last 30 years. In particular, on the topic of energy, Jimmy knew what was coming long before most people did. If we'd spent the past 30 years using cheap oil to build non-auto transportation infrastructure and renewable energy generation infrastructure, then the next 30 years would be a lot more pleasant than they're going to turn out.
As far as wrecking the economy, that was mostly the Fed's fault--and Jimmy was the one who fixed that, getting the Fed chairman to resign and appointing Paul Volker. The corrective actions didn't really take hold until Jimmy was out of office, though.
Finally, as you say, a full-blown zero-based budgeting effort would probably be more trouble than it's worth for most households. But I think there's a lot of value in the concept of setting all the budget categories to zero from time to time, rather than just accepting that next year's spending is destine to look a lot like the last.
I request all of my music from the library. Our library has an amazing music selection and we can even reserve the music online. Better yet, our library even lets you check out iPods to borrow with audio books already loaded for you on them. Fabulous resource for the frugal-minded.
Otherwise, I love Yahoo's Launch music station or Pandora. I just love to have music on in the background at our house all of the time and this is perfect. You can't rewind or anything like that, but it is great to have for dinner music or to play while the children are playing.
When I was in college, I would trade books with my friends. One semester I swapped an Environnmental Science Book for a Psychology book.
For my literature classes, which required a thousand little paperbacks, I used the library.
And then I used half.com to find cheap books. Like Hardware Guy said, if you have the ISBN numbers, it's easy to get the exact book.
One other thing... check your school library and academic (tutoring center), sometimes they have text books on reserve. They can't leave the library, but you can study them all you want when you are there.
We started my son in state preschool and switched to a private school because after being constantly guilted into volunteering in the classroom, I noticed too much regarding the kind of kids my kid was going to school with. I think the day the cop's kid and the drug dealer's kid was talking about 'my dad arrested your dad' with expletives all around I decided you know, let's make it through second grade before we deal with guns and meth and the F-word used like salt and pepper, shall we?
The switch has been great. There are 10 kids in my sons' class. The teachers are ex-public school teachers who didn't want to just record test scores anymore but wanted to actually teach and incorporate the arts. They also flat up don't tolerate that sort of playground banter and behavioral issues.
I went to both and preferred private. My husband did public and has no opinion on it but he too realized we wanted to do a bit of intervention and find a school that reflected our values better.
Margaret Garcia-Couoh
We started my son in state preschool and switched to a private school because after being constantly guilted into volunteering in the classroom, I noticed too much regarding the kind of kids my kid was going to school with. I think the day the cop's kid and the drug dealer's kid was talking about 'my dad arrested your dad' with expletives all around I decided you know, let's make it through second grade before we deal with guns and meth and the F-word used like salt and pepper, shall we?
The switch has been great. There are 10 kids in my sons' class. The teachers are ex-public school teachers who didn't want to just record test scores anymore but wanted to actually teach and incorporate the arts. They also flat up don't tolerate that sort of playground banter and behavioral issues.
I went to both and preferred private. My husband did public and has no opinion on it but he too realized we wanted to do a bit of intervention and find a school that reflected our values better.
Margaret Garcia-Couoh
I know MLMs from the computer programming side. From the political structure side. From the competitive executive side. I know the numbers and the typical levels of payout, and how the actuarial numbers decide things. I've helped build the back-end structure of one, worked on the bonus schedules and point systems, time structures, the upflow jumps, the left and right legs, the power leg, and have even interpreted all that back-end stuff into a written a comprehensive compensation plan for a group of over 10,000.
And I never once joined.
Run away, unless you want to start one with about three other rich folks who know a dozen other good folks who are hooked up with a few more winks and nods. And they'll want you think you are in their upper echelon, or that you can attain it, but the ones at the top bought their way there. But you have no idea how true that is. You want to believe. It's powerful stuff. And besides, you only get to see the math you understand.
If you're not in the first 12 levels, well, there's easily 80 more below you, even in the early stages. No distribution model in regular corporate America has that many levels of payout. And prices are determined by the average number of point-earners in the deepest legs. If a company did have that many levels, why, they'd have to charge prices for aloe juice like the MLM'ers have to pay. "But it's the best stuff there is!"
Yeah. Been in on that part, too. It's stuff made just like everything else. Quality is nothing, marketing is everything.
The average payout only flowed down a few levels, but prices were fixed on a worst-case scenario of about 12 payout levels.
Perception is everything.
It's not illegal. But I don't think it's smart. Unless, like most of these "jewels" do, you start another new company every 6 months to a year.
you are on target to receive $1800, according to all the data and charts I have read. If you are married filing jointly, which I presume you are, you should be fine. Although $75k per year is not exactly what I'd call poor. It's ain't rich, not in this day and age, but you're not eating Ramen every night either.
I'm putting in another vote for half.com. Very often I can buy like new and sell books back for nearly what I paid for them since I take good care of my books. A cool way to verify the editions is to get the ISBN numbers from the college bookstore or amazon. I usually cross shop the college bookstore with half.com and amazon and pick and choose to get the best prices.
I was starting to get that grim feeling of "no good deed goes unpunished." Glad it worked out for you.
Make sure that you consider 10% into monthly savings as a "bill". Pay it faithfully, as though Guido the Knee-and-Knuckle repo man was just waiting for you to slack off. Because that's what it'll feel like if unexpected expenses hurt your budget.
My only peeve with my computer is how it bogs on YouTube videos. So I clicked the file and now I can listen to a song all the way through without choppy pauses.
Can I go into my configs and disable all the background stuff? yeah. But this works just fine for the rare times I need it.
Thanks.
Started off on just regular milk, then I started using the whole foods 365 organic milk and then one day bought Horizon milk because it was on sale. Well, My husband started yelling from the living room asking about the milk. He ask if it was organic and what kind. I said it was Horizon and yes it says orgainic on the box. He said it was the best milk he as ever had in his life and thats all he wants me to buy now. He could tell a difference and I don't know if that difference is good or bad for us health wise. Like is there more fat in it or what. Now I've been finding all this anti-Horizon milk stuff and don't know what to do. I can start buying the 365 milk brand again. Is there any issues with that milk? Please someone let me know!
I love the MLM I am apart of. Love the products, love the people I work with. That being said I don't think I'm going to quit my job due to the money I'll make in this business, but that's okay.
My mother is my upline, she has made more than broke even, the pastor's wife at churhc is her upline and she drives a company supplied luxury car. However, they both approach it like the small buisness that it is.
Me, I just like the products and I will talk up the products. If someone wants to sign up under me, that's great, if not, so be it.
The difference I see is that one has to join a company that has actual good products, actually like and use the products/ services yourself and then work it like the business that it is.
I like the idea of getting textbooks for less- especially because they are very expensive and seldom useful after the course is done.
One caution in general using an older edition isn't a problem unless the exercises at the end of the chapter have changed. You may end up with a huge hassle to verify that the instructor's assignment is the same one in your book!
-Rick Francis
Sorry, to clarify that last comment, it was a response to Josh's comment.
So......does that mean that my husband and I will get the $1200, plus $300 each for our two kids?
I do NOT work, and haven't in years.
That's what I'm wondering.....is it definately $1200 per couple, or since I paid NO taxes myself, do they count me out??
Whew...I think my husband just made under the $75k.....
it pays to be poor?? LOL!
I used the library a lot when I was in college!
The frugal side in me says homeschooling. Well not only for frugal reasons but unless we move our kids will be homeschooled.
I wouldn't consider this to be a dumb idea... maybe if the entire country was like you (not that that's a bad thing on an individual basis) and would put it in savings then it would be dumb, but a HUGE majority of the country will go spend money as soon as they get it, either because they badly need the money for necessities or to pay off debt, or because they love shopping and spending as much money as they can (think your stereotypical woman). Really though, people like you and me who will save the money are the minority in this country - the majority of America will probably spend the money as soon as they can.
This is how we started off back on September. Its awesome because every dollar does indeed have a job and there's something about it that makes the budget WORK.
As a product of 13 years of private education, I think they're totally worth the money. Here's why:
The class sized were extremely small. I had, on average in high school, a 7 or 8 to 1 student-teacher ratio. Imagine trying to daydream or pass notes with only 7 other kids in your class. Not going to happen.
We learned how to shut the hell up. The fear of a ruler on the knuckles is enough to make you stay in your seat and pay attention to the lesson.
No bullies. Seriously. No lunch money bandits, nobody pushing you around, smacking your books to the ground. Not even any real name calling. The overweight kids got picked last for kickball, but no one ever made fun of them for it.
More parental involvement. I've seen a bunch of studies that show that the more parents are involved in their kid's education, the better they do. If a parent is dropping between 5-25k per year, you better believe they're going to make sure they're getting their money's worth.
Everyone else is right: if the kid has some kind of learning or emotional disorder that would require extra help, public schools are probably the way to go. But if the kid is at least an average student and would benefit from tougher academic competition and a stronger sense of community, then you can't beat a private education, especially in the k-8 years.
I started out as a backpacker, and now I'm probably a flashpacker - in fact reading the description again, not only does it describe me perfectly, it actually sounds like exactly the sort of traveller I'd like to be.
I just learned about this from the Total Money Makeover. This is my first month trying to use this system. If you'd like to take a look, click into my new blog. Don't laugh at my measly salary/income, compared to my debt payments. I'm working on it! (-:
Just a thought, but have you considered the impact of an educational environment beyond a child's school years?
An advantage to at least consider: private schools, even in small towns, teach children to navigate challenging social waters with confidence. They also help students focus on admissions to top colleges where these skills become more valuable.
Public school may do the same for many, but I was a shy kid from a working class background who lucked into a (partial) scholarship at a small private school school. My prep school tuition and college loans may have been painful at the time, but now I see they bought more than just a top notch education. They effortlessly opened up a social world that made my adult career goals not just possible, but expected.
Six degrees of separation shrank to one or two. All thanks to private school.
I'm sure the next 30 years will treat Jimmy Carter much better than the last 30 years. In particular, on the topic of energy, Jimmy knew what was coming long before most people did. If we'd spent the past 30 years using cheap oil to build non-auto transportation infrastructure and renewable energy generation infrastructure, then the next 30 years would be a lot more pleasant than they're going to turn out.
As far as wrecking the economy, that was mostly the Fed's fault--and Jimmy was the one who fixed that, getting the Fed chairman to resign and appointing Paul Volker. The corrective actions didn't really take hold until Jimmy was out of office, though.
Finally, as you say, a full-blown zero-based budgeting effort would probably be more trouble than it's worth for most households. But I think there's a lot of value in the concept of setting all the budget categories to zero from time to time, rather than just accepting that next year's spending is destine to look a lot like the last.
I usually buy all of my textbooks on half.com, saves me a TON of money.
I request all of my music from the library. Our library has an amazing music selection and we can even reserve the music online. Better yet, our library even lets you check out iPods to borrow with audio books already loaded for you on them. Fabulous resource for the frugal-minded.
Otherwise, I love Yahoo's Launch music station or Pandora. I just love to have music on in the background at our house all of the time and this is perfect. You can't rewind or anything like that, but it is great to have for dinner music or to play while the children are playing.