My company recently merged and I am pretty sure I know what the layoff date is. The director is not making eye contact and seems to be avoiding me. My plan to find out for sure if I am being laid off is to ask for that day off. I figure that if I am one of the workers being laid off my manager will not approve me for that day.
When you have the money, pay it on to your credit card. Have a positive balance. Then it's just like a debit card, but with the protection and ease of a credit card.
Or how about those prepay credit cards? (probably fewer benefits, though)
The only drawback is that you wouldn't earn a credit rating?
I also take offense at the commenters who are so quick to look at the negative side and do nothing about it...
You mentioned Walmart,... have you seen what Walmart carries???? You can get some pretty good selection of fruits (orange, banana, strawberries, etc..) and vegetables (onion, garlic, lettuce, tomato, green onions, paprika, etc..). It is not the cheapest place to buy produce, but cheaper than other supermarkets like Kroger or Publix. It also has good selection of bread. If you dont mind frozen, they have some seafood. Infact they even have some ethnic stuff from China, Thailand and Mexico.
You can also suppliment canned and processed foods with fresh ingredients. We do this all the time.
...if you factor in health care costs. Junk food may be cheaper immediately, but eating only junk is going to end up costing you later in health care costs. The working poor don't usually have decent (or usually any) health insurance. Which means that we all end up paying for the junk that people eat (not to mention all the subsidies that our tax dollars pay for.)
Americans spend far less of their incomes on food then the rest of the world does. I think perhaps our priorities are skewed. Personally, I'd rather spend a little more money on healthy food and not buy into the system. It's just too bad that this isn't an options for everyone.
I agree with the author that the poor have a hard time eating healthy. The first time I lived on my own, most of my money went for rent. The rest covered bus fare and a small amount of groceries. I lived on pb&j sandwiches, canned soup bought in bulk, and I tried to supplement my diet with milk and orange juice when I could afford it. I do not think I ate an apple during that year of my life, let alone fresh vegetables unless I ate them elsewhere.
I have reached a point now where my husband and I can live on one income while I go to school full time. We are saving for a house, so no mortgage payments, no children, no car payments. At this time, we choose to put more of our money toward eating healthy instead of saving just a bit more each month. We are lucky that we can do so. When things get tight, we generally cut back in other areas in order to continue eating well (organic, fresh produce, locally-grown meat).
The hard part for those with limited income is that there is no where to cut back. The US definitely needs to rethink it's priorities.
I wasn't aware women were mistreated during the Stone Age. I mean, the stone age was prehistory, right? So no one knows (unless we study Fred, Wilma, Barney & Betty).
Choices are good and I never meant to infer you weren't, or I wasn't, able to make them. What irks me, however, are the Vegans (and I haven't seen this here) who take a holier-than-thou attitude when it comes to meat eaters. My point was that our body has evolved to process meat and humans have always eaten meat. Although, probably not in the prodigious amounts modern man eats!
I think to be a vegetarian, you must invest time in learning about nutrition, especially the importance of protein in diet. I have personally known some vegetarians that we're particularly up on their nutrition knowledge and they looked very unhealthy.
If you are a Vegan, especially a healthy and fit one, all power to you.
i have recently found that they do TONS of clearence markdowns on beauty products, especially hair products..bring your manufactuers coupons with you on each trip and scan the hair product isle for clearence deals..you can often get a whole bottel of good name brand shampoo or what ever hair product for like a quarter! last time i did this the cashier actually got mad at me!
ha!! go ahead and get mad for me being smart? i dont mind..
So know what else is awesome about being human? The ability to make choices, and the ability to make the choices for us that work for us.
One does not need meat in this day and age to survive, regardless of past history. It can now be a choice.
If you would like to point to past history to guide all our current choices I would suggest that you look back to the way women were treated in the stone age. Is that nature at work as well?
I take offense at the commenters who are so quick to point out that they can find cheap, fresh produce easily at their local ethnic markets and tell us to just do the same. We live in the south-central US where most of the local supermarkets exist inside WalMarts - in most of the United States, especially rural and suburban areas, there are no ethnic markets to get cheap produce. We have farm stands for a few months out of the year, but you can't live on tomatoes and strawberries.
Here is an excellent article in Newsweek about the difficulties finding healthy food in so-called Food Deserts:
Just happened to me- Realizing that your medical and disability insurance were canceled because the insurance company didn't get your change of address notice.
These are all great ideas. Even with all the gagets and doo-dads out there most kids will love them. My mom made a baby doll (Andy) for my youngest (2) last year, and gave a game to my oldest(9). This year my oldest requested a homemade item as well.
I had to say that baby lookse just like both my boys when they were younger. awwww
We need to get ourselves some long term disability insurance. We never realized how important it was, until one of our friends injured themselves and couldn't work for months.
The two oldest people I know (my grandmother, 90 and my great aunt, 93) are both drinkers. Sometimes my grandmother even drank whiskey straight. Neither of them have any health issues, and neither of them are on any medications. Both mow their own yards, plant their own gardens, and live alone just fine. That's in no way scientific, but it's worked in my family for longer than record shows, I'm gonna keep doing it.
Hi Rob in Madrid. Thanks for the tip! I live about 40 minutes from Madrid in a small village though and we don't drive, so Lidle and Carrefour aren't really an option here. There is an Alcampo in Colmenar Viejo, but it's pretty expensive too.
If you live far enough north there is no local produce for about 4 months of the year. We can sometimes get greenhouse tomatoes from one state over into the late fall. So your only option becomes whatever the stores truck in from everywhere else. Both of us have to restrict carbs for medical reasons and that really throws a curve into trying to find cheap groceries. Veggies and meat are not cheap. We have found that adding some lentils, yellow peas, wild rice, brown rice and sweet potatoes a few times a week really helps stretch groceries without going overboard on carbos.
The huge price spikes in groceries changed my garden plans for next summer. We are tripling what we can grow and will be canning or freezing a portion of it.
I took the Wisebread advice from a few weeks ago and bought sprout seeds. We have our first batch of sprouts ready to eat. This was a great discovery since it doesn't require lots of sunlight to grow. My attempts at growing baby lettuce and spinach in big pots near the windows last winter just didn't work, we don't get enough sunlight.
I just wish we could find a cheaper source of eggs.
These kinds of problems all have stop-gap solutions, all of which are debatable, but the real source of the problem is a finance-driven economy. Millions of people are investing money into things, hoping to get a payoff, but what it all amounts to is people hoping to get something for nothing. Value in economies is created by people who work for a living, doing something productive or useful. Those who simply want to make money from having money have become so numerous that the weight of their burden is causing the economic system to collapse.
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil for one who strikes at the root." - Henry David Thoreau
The ultimate root of all this trouble is a simple concept called "interest". When a person can make money from having money, there is no incentive to work. (Though some may argue that guessing where to invest is work in itself, it actually produces nothing of value for the community) This is a system instituted by banks, the most egregious of which is the Federal Reserve. This "bank" is neither federal nor does it hold any reserves. It creates money out of thin air (not backed by gold) and "loans" it to the country at interest. Since they are the only source of legitimate money in the country, where does the interest come from to pay them back? Only from another loan. In this way they have indebted an entire nation, and forced an economic system of parisitism on the masses.
People who do not work make more money loaning than those who do the labor building the thing the company took the loan out for. This system is a disease on the economy, and the root cause of all the trouble.
Money should BE what people THINK it is. Instead, it is a system whereby the people who control how it is issued, who control credit, and control interest rates are secretly confiscating the wealth of the world.
If you see Google Video: "Money as Debt" you may be as surprised as I was to learn these things. Almost impossible to believe, yet it is true...
Our "Federal" "Reserve" is a privately owned corporation (not part of government) which runs its affairs in secret for one purpose: profit off of the American people.
Americans must have their eyes open to this fact or we will soon be running around mad, hungry, and scared searching for something to save us when we could have solved the problem ourselves all along: Abolish the Fed!
I think a lot of people forget that when we refer to "the poor," we're referring to "the WORKING poor." With purchasing power lower than in the past, many have to work longer at minimum-wage jobs (often juggling more than one full-time one) in order to feed even a family of four. My single mom worked three jobs (one full-time, two part-time, including one delivering newspapers, which required getting up at 3 in the morning) in order to support her 3 kids. When do people think that someone like her would find the time to soak lentils and cook them for the required 45 minutes? The majority of the working poor not only have jobs but children to feed, clothe and send to school as well. My mother barely had the energy to slice lettuce, much less make an entire salad. And as someone pointed out, most of the poor do not live anywhere near a Whole Foods. They generally live in neighborhoods near Walmarts and Sam's Clubs. Even at those establishments, even the conventional produce will cost more than, say, a box of mac 'n' cheese.
An Atlantic Monthly article recently came to the same conclusion: the poor have very limited access to healthy foods, education about healthy lifestyles, and healthy neighborhoods. It's one of the reasons why obesity rates are highest among low-income groups; Kirstie Alley and John Goodman notwithstanding, most wealthy people have more resources (time and money) that they can devote to pursuing a healthy lifestyle.
Remember - you are in effect transferring your own money from your checking account into a savings account. Now, note the interest rate of the checking account and the savings account. The savings account rate currently (Nov. 2007) is .23%. And the checking rate is .25%. Those rates are ridiculously low. They can afford to pay you a matching amount for the first few months to get you tied to the program, because you are earning nothing on you money. (My A.G. Edwards Ultra Asset Account pays me 4.25% and I have checkwriting and a debit card.
The reason BAC is doing this is because studies show that when customers have three accounts at one location , they are less likely to move their accounts. This is all about business. They are not focused on trying to help you save. They are trying to make money for the bank. (Last year the bank earned about $40 Billion in fees.)
Consumer beware. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish.
Remember - you are in effect transferring your own money from your checking account into a savings account. Now, note the interest rate of the checking account and the savings account. The savings account rate currently (Nov. 2007) is .23%. And the checking rate is .25%. Those rates are ridiculously low. They can afford to pay you a matching amount for the first few months to get you tied to the program, because you are earning nothing on you money. (My A.G. Edwards Ultra Asset Account pays me 4.25% and I have checkwriting and a debit card.
The reason BAC is doing this is because studies show that when customers have three accounts at one location , they are less likely to move their accounts. This is all about business. They are not focused on trying to help you save. They are trying to make money for the bank. (Last year the bank earned about $40 Billion in fees.)
Consumer beware. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish.
Um, did some of the commenters really read the article, or any of the linked articles? First, the author mentioned that Walmart is cheap. The produce there is cheap, just like your local Asian market. The kicker is that when you buy cheap imported produce, you're not supported US agriculture. If you are a conscientious consumer, this would be of concern to you.
How hard is it to understand that imported produce means that US produce has to compete against incredibly cheap goods? Because we can't grow produce for those prices, our produce industry suffers. Sure, some mega-farms can compete, but the few family farms that are left can't offer fresh produce for those prices. It's more profitable to grow things like soybeans, corn (used for things other than food now), and wheat - things that are used widely and can be used in junkfood.
It has been shown (go ahead and Google it, since you're so good at Googling) that, calorie for calorie, junk food is cheaper (this has to do with the Farm Bill). And when you are poor, you tend to buy calorie-dense food. It might not be a conscious process, but it does happen. If you have $25 to feed a family, you're probably going to buy packaged stuff with lots of calories, like lunch meats and chips and bread, rather than fresh spinach and carrots.
Anyone who suggests that Whole Foods is a good source for affordable organic veggies needs a good head check.
I'm looking forward to some UPS hybrid delivery trucks next!
As I recall reading in some article about the time UPS started implementing this policy, their primary focus was to reduce delivery times. However I'm sure they're more than satisfied with the added fuel savings benefit!
My company recently merged and I am pretty sure I know what the layoff date is. The director is not making eye contact and seems to be avoiding me. My plan to find out for sure if I am being laid off is to ask for that day off. I figure that if I am one of the workers being laid off my manager will not approve me for that day.
How about doing it the other way around.
When you have the money, pay it on to your credit card. Have a positive balance. Then it's just like a debit card, but with the protection and ease of a credit card.
Or how about those prepay credit cards? (probably fewer benefits, though)
The only drawback is that you wouldn't earn a credit rating?
I also take offense at the commenters who are so quick to look at the negative side and do nothing about it...
You mentioned Walmart,... have you seen what Walmart carries???? You can get some pretty good selection of fruits (orange, banana, strawberries, etc..) and vegetables (onion, garlic, lettuce, tomato, green onions, paprika, etc..). It is not the cheapest place to buy produce, but cheaper than other supermarkets like Kroger or Publix. It also has good selection of bread. If you dont mind frozen, they have some seafood. Infact they even have some ethnic stuff from China, Thailand and Mexico.
You can also suppliment canned and processed foods with fresh ingredients. We do this all the time.
...if you factor in health care costs. Junk food may be cheaper immediately, but eating only junk is going to end up costing you later in health care costs. The working poor don't usually have decent (or usually any) health insurance. Which means that we all end up paying for the junk that people eat (not to mention all the subsidies that our tax dollars pay for.)
Americans spend far less of their incomes on food then the rest of the world does. I think perhaps our priorities are skewed. Personally, I'd rather spend a little more money on healthy food and not buy into the system. It's just too bad that this isn't an options for everyone.
Coasting only reduces 'engine braking'. The operation of your actual brakes will still work fine!
I agree with the author that the poor have a hard time eating healthy. The first time I lived on my own, most of my money went for rent. The rest covered bus fare and a small amount of groceries. I lived on pb&j sandwiches, canned soup bought in bulk, and I tried to supplement my diet with milk and orange juice when I could afford it. I do not think I ate an apple during that year of my life, let alone fresh vegetables unless I ate them elsewhere.
I have reached a point now where my husband and I can live on one income while I go to school full time. We are saving for a house, so no mortgage payments, no children, no car payments. At this time, we choose to put more of our money toward eating healthy instead of saving just a bit more each month. We are lucky that we can do so. When things get tight, we generally cut back in other areas in order to continue eating well (organic, fresh produce, locally-grown meat).
The hard part for those with limited income is that there is no where to cut back. The US definitely needs to rethink it's priorities.
I wasn't aware women were mistreated during the Stone Age. I mean, the stone age was prehistory, right? So no one knows (unless we study Fred, Wilma, Barney & Betty).
Choices are good and I never meant to infer you weren't, or I wasn't, able to make them. What irks me, however, are the Vegans (and I haven't seen this here) who take a holier-than-thou attitude when it comes to meat eaters. My point was that our body has evolved to process meat and humans have always eaten meat. Although, probably not in the prodigious amounts modern man eats!
I think to be a vegetarian, you must invest time in learning about nutrition, especially the importance of protein in diet. I have personally known some vegetarians that we're particularly up on their nutrition knowledge and they looked very unhealthy.
If you are a Vegan, especially a healthy and fit one, all power to you.
That's my precious oldest son.. when he was a little younger, of course! thanks!
Good to know. Thanks, Linsey. I've got a pack of noodles here that I may need to try it with in the very near future, then.
i have recently found that they do TONS of clearence markdowns on beauty products, especially hair products..bring your manufactuers coupons with you on each trip and scan the hair product isle for clearence deals..you can often get a whole bottel of good name brand shampoo or what ever hair product for like a quarter! last time i did this the cashier actually got mad at me!
ha!! go ahead and get mad for me being smart? i dont mind..
So know what else is awesome about being human? The ability to make choices, and the ability to make the choices for us that work for us.
One does not need meat in this day and age to survive, regardless of past history. It can now be a choice.
If you would like to point to past history to guide all our current choices I would suggest that you look back to the way women were treated in the stone age. Is that nature at work as well?
I take offense at the commenters who are so quick to point out that they can find cheap, fresh produce easily at their local ethnic markets and tell us to just do the same. We live in the south-central US where most of the local supermarkets exist inside WalMarts - in most of the United States, especially rural and suburban areas, there are no ethnic markets to get cheap produce. We have farm stands for a few months out of the year, but you can't live on tomatoes and strawberries.
Here is an excellent article in Newsweek about the difficulties finding healthy food in so-called Food Deserts:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/76929
Just happened to me- Realizing that your medical and disability insurance were canceled because the insurance company didn't get your change of address notice.
These are all great ideas. Even with all the gagets and doo-dads out there most kids will love them. My mom made a baby doll (Andy) for my youngest (2) last year, and gave a game to my oldest(9). This year my oldest requested a homemade item as well.
I had to say that baby lookse just like both my boys when they were younger. awwww
We need to get ourselves some long term disability insurance. We never realized how important it was, until one of our friends injured themselves and couldn't work for months.
-bump-
The two oldest people I know (my grandmother, 90 and my great aunt, 93) are both drinkers. Sometimes my grandmother even drank whiskey straight. Neither of them have any health issues, and neither of them are on any medications. Both mow their own yards, plant their own gardens, and live alone just fine. That's in no way scientific, but it's worked in my family for longer than record shows, I'm gonna keep doing it.
Hi Rob in Madrid. Thanks for the tip! I live about 40 minutes from Madrid in a small village though and we don't drive, so Lidle and Carrefour aren't really an option here. There is an Alcampo in Colmenar Viejo, but it's pretty expensive too.
If you live far enough north there is no local produce for about 4 months of the year. We can sometimes get greenhouse tomatoes from one state over into the late fall. So your only option becomes whatever the stores truck in from everywhere else. Both of us have to restrict carbs for medical reasons and that really throws a curve into trying to find cheap groceries. Veggies and meat are not cheap. We have found that adding some lentils, yellow peas, wild rice, brown rice and sweet potatoes a few times a week really helps stretch groceries without going overboard on carbos.
The huge price spikes in groceries changed my garden plans for next summer. We are tripling what we can grow and will be canning or freezing a portion of it.
I took the Wisebread advice from a few weeks ago and bought sprout seeds. We have our first batch of sprouts ready to eat. This was a great discovery since it doesn't require lots of sunlight to grow. My attempts at growing baby lettuce and spinach in big pots near the windows last winter just didn't work, we don't get enough sunlight.
I just wish we could find a cheaper source of eggs.
These kinds of problems all have stop-gap solutions, all of which are debatable, but the real source of the problem is a finance-driven economy. Millions of people are investing money into things, hoping to get a payoff, but what it all amounts to is people hoping to get something for nothing. Value in economies is created by people who work for a living, doing something productive or useful. Those who simply want to make money from having money have become so numerous that the weight of their burden is causing the economic system to collapse.
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil for one who strikes at the root." - Henry David Thoreau
The ultimate root of all this trouble is a simple concept called "interest". When a person can make money from having money, there is no incentive to work. (Though some may argue that guessing where to invest is work in itself, it actually produces nothing of value for the community) This is a system instituted by banks, the most egregious of which is the Federal Reserve. This "bank" is neither federal nor does it hold any reserves. It creates money out of thin air (not backed by gold) and "loans" it to the country at interest. Since they are the only source of legitimate money in the country, where does the interest come from to pay them back? Only from another loan. In this way they have indebted an entire nation, and forced an economic system of parisitism on the masses.
People who do not work make more money loaning than those who do the labor building the thing the company took the loan out for. This system is a disease on the economy, and the root cause of all the trouble.
Money should BE what people THINK it is. Instead, it is a system whereby the people who control how it is issued, who control credit, and control interest rates are secretly confiscating the wealth of the world.
If you see Google Video: "Money as Debt" you may be as surprised as I was to learn these things. Almost impossible to believe, yet it is true...
Our "Federal" "Reserve" is a privately owned corporation (not part of government) which runs its affairs in secret for one purpose: profit off of the American people.
Americans must have their eyes open to this fact or we will soon be running around mad, hungry, and scared searching for something to save us when we could have solved the problem ourselves all along: Abolish the Fed!
I think a lot of people forget that when we refer to "the poor," we're referring to "the WORKING poor." With purchasing power lower than in the past, many have to work longer at minimum-wage jobs (often juggling more than one full-time one) in order to feed even a family of four. My single mom worked three jobs (one full-time, two part-time, including one delivering newspapers, which required getting up at 3 in the morning) in order to support her 3 kids. When do people think that someone like her would find the time to soak lentils and cook them for the required 45 minutes? The majority of the working poor not only have jobs but children to feed, clothe and send to school as well. My mother barely had the energy to slice lettuce, much less make an entire salad. And as someone pointed out, most of the poor do not live anywhere near a Whole Foods. They generally live in neighborhoods near Walmarts and Sam's Clubs. Even at those establishments, even the conventional produce will cost more than, say, a box of mac 'n' cheese.
An Atlantic Monthly article recently came to the same conclusion: the poor have very limited access to healthy foods, education about healthy lifestyles, and healthy neighborhoods. It's one of the reasons why obesity rates are highest among low-income groups; Kirstie Alley and John Goodman notwithstanding, most wealthy people have more resources (time and money) that they can devote to pursuing a healthy lifestyle.
Salut,
Marjorie
Remember - you are in effect transferring your own money from your checking account into a savings account. Now, note the interest rate of the checking account and the savings account. The savings account rate currently (Nov. 2007) is .23%. And the checking rate is .25%. Those rates are ridiculously low. They can afford to pay you a matching amount for the first few months to get you tied to the program, because you are earning nothing on you money. (My A.G. Edwards Ultra Asset Account pays me 4.25% and I have checkwriting and a debit card.
The reason BAC is doing this is because studies show that when customers have three accounts at one location , they are less likely to move their accounts. This is all about business. They are not focused on trying to help you save. They are trying to make money for the bank. (Last year the bank earned about $40 Billion in fees.)
Consumer beware. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish.
Remember - you are in effect transferring your own money from your checking account into a savings account. Now, note the interest rate of the checking account and the savings account. The savings account rate currently (Nov. 2007) is .23%. And the checking rate is .25%. Those rates are ridiculously low. They can afford to pay you a matching amount for the first few months to get you tied to the program, because you are earning nothing on you money. (My A.G. Edwards Ultra Asset Account pays me 4.25% and I have checkwriting and a debit card.
The reason BAC is doing this is because studies show that when customers have three accounts at one location , they are less likely to move their accounts. This is all about business. They are not focused on trying to help you save. They are trying to make money for the bank. (Last year the bank earned about $40 Billion in fees.)
Consumer beware. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish.
You guys have your share of really awesome guests.
Um, did some of the commenters really read the article, or any of the linked articles? First, the author mentioned that Walmart is cheap. The produce there is cheap, just like your local Asian market. The kicker is that when you buy cheap imported produce, you're not supported US agriculture. If you are a conscientious consumer, this would be of concern to you.
How hard is it to understand that imported produce means that US produce has to compete against incredibly cheap goods? Because we can't grow produce for those prices, our produce industry suffers. Sure, some mega-farms can compete, but the few family farms that are left can't offer fresh produce for those prices. It's more profitable to grow things like soybeans, corn (used for things other than food now), and wheat - things that are used widely and can be used in junkfood.
It has been shown (go ahead and Google it, since you're so good at Googling) that, calorie for calorie, junk food is cheaper (this has to do with the Farm Bill). And when you are poor, you tend to buy calorie-dense food. It might not be a conscious process, but it does happen. If you have $25 to feed a family, you're probably going to buy packaged stuff with lots of calories, like lunch meats and chips and bread, rather than fresh spinach and carrots.
Anyone who suggests that Whole Foods is a good source for affordable organic veggies needs a good head check.
I'm looking forward to some UPS hybrid delivery trucks next!
As I recall reading in some article about the time UPS started implementing this policy, their primary focus was to reduce delivery times. However I'm sure they're more than satisfied with the added fuel savings benefit!