both on the friend and on the situation. As far as he offering you advice, I try never to take advice from someone who isn't in a position I would like to be in myself. As far as having a discussion with her about her habits, I guess only you can answer that. But in general I only give them specific advice about how to handle debt if they ask for it. However, I usually offer tidbits about how I saved on a particular item, or a strategy we are using that is working out well for us. If the friend is open to discussing the gory details and wants input and suggestions, then I have the conversation.
I've also noticed that the more comfortable people are with their financial situation and plan the more comfortable they are discussing it. If they are on edge, chances are they are not comfortable with their money at all. I've also noticed that certain people are comfortable discussing savings strategies and shopping resources but not investment strategies. Some people are the opposite. But for me to take advice from someone, I need to be very comfortable with knowing about their financial situation. I think Sarah or Julie did a piece a while back on how to spot a financial bullshitter . . .
I live in Turkey. Turks have no qualms whatsoever about asking each other about money. "Hi, how are you, how much do you make at that job, do you rent or do you own?" Students will come into my home and say, "Who did you marry?" (I married an architect, but they assume that he or I must have rich relatives.")
Different cultures have different sensibilities about things. When the Turkish economy crashed and we lost our life savings and came perilously close to losing our house, my wealthy mother floated us a loan-- and we had to endure three years of her snarky second husband making "Bank of Mommy" comments-- but my not-so-wealthy in-laws, bother retired and on pensions, gave us twice as much and have never mentioned it again.
In Turkey, the fluidity between generations when it comes to money is heart warming. If someone were in terrible debt, their families would help them. It's not like in the US where we are cut loose at 18.
I never bring it up, but if someone else does then I will talk about it. It is interesting (and sometimes scary) to listen to other people's views on debt and it often is further clarification that my wife and I are doing things right!
Since most of my friends are (like myself) recent college grads, we're mostly saddled with heavy college loans and doing our best to avoid revolving credit card debt. We generally don't talk about monthly payments, but the total amount owed on student loans isn't taboo.
The same feeling goes for housing costs, especially when someone is moving out of rental, "how much are you paying a month?" doesn't seem like an inappropriate question at all, especially if there's an opportunity to reduce one's own monthly costs.
I find that I have to be mindful of which friends I'm talking to when the issues of debt and spending habits pop up. Delivering a self-righteous diatribe about how credit cards are horrible, etc. might make things awkward when the audience consists of friends who are around 20k in debt each while I'm at zero. Some people are casual about their debt, and others keep it to themselves. The ones who casually share their info tend to be people who think that everyone else is in the same boat in my experience.
You know that's really interesting Philip, because I guess I'd always heard the opposite. Now, that's just heard mind you, so I would need to do some research as well. I haven't yet. Perhaps there are various chains that have different percentage rates on markups? Not sure how the data would break down . . . hmmnn . . . . now my gears are definitely turning . . .
You can use a coffee grinder for quick flax seed grinds, then you can add it to anything. And if you keep the grinder designated as your "flax grinder" there's nothing to clean up!
The thing about energy costs is that they hit at every level. It's not just the delivery to and lighting and heating of the retail outlet, but also the powering of factories, the delivery of raw materials to those factories, and the tilling, fertilizing, and harvesting of the farms. (And to all that I'd also add the fuel used by consumers to drive to and from the grocery store.)
Still, I generally agree--the real impact of higher fuel prices is largely yet to come, as prices move higher.
I've always heard that grocery stores operated on very small margins, so I'm surprised to hear that some are able to offer much lower prices than others. It's something worth looking into.
By what I've been told... I my area, for example, there are only licensed spas in the cities that also appear on the city list. I believe that the city list is just a reference to help buyers who are wondering where they can begin looking for spas in their area. I'm guessing that any metro/city area will have plenty to choose from.
These omega-3s, from what I've read, are just a natural component of a healthy diet, but a component that most modern Americans just don't get enough of without making a special effort.
Very interesting to see so many reasons for the cost of bread.
First... out local Aldi Store sells white bread for $.59 loaf... and Whole Wheat or Oat Breat for $1.49... Less than 1/2 of the bread in the othr Major Chain Stores.
While all of the reasons stated in the thread are valid to one degree or another, a very major part of the increase is going to the Retail Store (Market).
While Ethanol is having some effect now, as the production facilities mature, there will be less than a 10% reduction of the overall value of the actual grain, as the alcohol (ehtanol) is extracted. The rest of the grain will be able to be used for all of the other byproducts. (subject for another thread).
When you get to transportation costs, as with almost all grocery products, the percentange of the Retail price is extraodinarily minor... no enough to affect the cost by as much as $.02.
The fact that some of the bare bones markets still sell bread at low prices points up (to me) the fact that this is just one of the high markup items that support the large chains.
Incidentally... the same disparity in pricing exists with fruits and vegetables. Our local WalMart sells cucumbers from $.59 to $.89 each while our Aldi's price is $.39 to $.49.... This kind of F & V pricing is across the board with all fresh food.
Just one consumer in a small part of America, but my point is that the profit margin differential is enormous. The grocery prices have risen (rough guess) by more than 20% in the past year. The CPI method of establishing price indexes is so bad that it is virtually worthless. (another subject for discussion).
Depending on the brand, Omega 3 gels cost less than $.05 each and represents more than a daily recommendation...
My Doctor says that this is an adequate way to get the benefits of fish oil, despite what I've read about the body not accepting the vitamins in capsule as well as in food.
Am not homeopathically inclined, but Omega 3, and Bcomplex are among the few that the NIMH accepts as beneficial.
If you have a very small food processor, you can grind flax seeds and then add a bit to your cereal, your smoothy, or whatever you are making. You probably don't want this to be your only source of Omega-3, but there are advantages to eating the whole seed raw. You get fiber, oils, and probable a dozen other nutrients that haven't been discovered yet.
If you want to find a meal assembly place in your neighborhood here's a site where you can search by city or zip code. There are ~1500 of them across the country: www.mealassembly.net.
Frozen wild salmon is a cheaper alternative to fresh. I buy it at Whole Foods and keep it in the freezer, then thaw it in the plastic packs in a bowl of cold water, which takes less than an hour.
I also get wild salmon in pouches there—it's similar to canned, but it's available in 3 and 6 oz. sizes. At about $1.50 for the small pouch, it's an economical sandwich alternative, and as I'm the only one in the family who likes the stuff, there's no waste. I mix it with mayo and French dressing, chopped tomatoes, and a bit of dill, a recipe I got from the back of the pouch, and it's delicious.
We do the canned salmon and flax meal / seed thing too. Particularly since I no longer have the same source for cheap whole salmon that I used to (darn). I haven't done the oil thing yet . . . I'll have to see if we can get that up here in the woods . . .
Over the years I've found a few things that work for me (and because of my business I am forced to be a night owl when I am naturally a lark :)
- Melatonin! (only when I know I need some extra help staying asleep, no side effects, great dreams!)
- I always wear an eye mask (I have multiples for my luggage, night stand, etc, so I always have one nearby) - the interesting thing about an eye mask, at least for me, I have a Pavlovian response to it. Just putting it over my eyes makes me go to sleep within minutes!
- Spend ONE minute to email myself a final list of things in my head, to-dos, calls, issues, etc. that I want to tackle the next day, hit send and forget about it until the next morning when I print it out and plan my day.
Hi Linsey. Good post, but when you said to "never pay" someone to find your money, this is not always the case and the states do not always do it gladly. In fact, many states have good reason to try to make it difficult to find your money. While it's true free searches are available, there are certain claims which require special attention (pre-escheat claims which have yet to be turned over to unclaimed property offices) and thats my specialty I have been focusing on since 1997. If you ever have trouble finding a claim, I can help and I do not charge an arm and a leg to do it! I really love to help people find their unclaimed funds.
I was thinking some more about the debate between investing and paying down your mortgage.
Go back to either Post 81 or Post 77. I thought about it some more and at first, if you look at the numbers, yes it appears paying off the mortgage is more beneficial. But upon more careful analysis, I realize, my math is totally wrong here!!!
Lets look at it more carefully. At the end of 30 yrs, in both cases, you would own the house outright. However, in the investment scenario you would end up with $734,075 in your investment account, whereas if you prepay, you only end up with $589,459 or $666,406 in your investment account. Yes you saved a lot of interest if you prepay. But in the end, you still have less cash in the investment account than if you had invested the extra payments. So in the final analysis, you end up being more wealthy if you had invested.
But I think it really boils down to one's risk tolerance. The security of having being debt free is priceless to some people. For others, it's a non-issue.
I wish I had known about this sooner while my parents and I were caring for my grandma at home, it would have been really helpful! I'll remember this for people I know who are or will be caregivers.
both on the friend and on the situation. As far as he offering you advice, I try never to take advice from someone who isn't in a position I would like to be in myself. As far as having a discussion with her about her habits, I guess only you can answer that. But in general I only give them specific advice about how to handle debt if they ask for it. However, I usually offer tidbits about how I saved on a particular item, or a strategy we are using that is working out well for us. If the friend is open to discussing the gory details and wants input and suggestions, then I have the conversation.
I've also noticed that the more comfortable people are with their financial situation and plan the more comfortable they are discussing it. If they are on edge, chances are they are not comfortable with their money at all. I've also noticed that certain people are comfortable discussing savings strategies and shopping resources but not investment strategies. Some people are the opposite. But for me to take advice from someone, I need to be very comfortable with knowing about their financial situation. I think Sarah or Julie did a piece a while back on how to spot a financial bullshitter . . .
Great topic generator.
I live in Turkey. Turks have no qualms whatsoever about asking each other about money. "Hi, how are you, how much do you make at that job, do you rent or do you own?" Students will come into my home and say, "Who did you marry?" (I married an architect, but they assume that he or I must have rich relatives.")
Different cultures have different sensibilities about things. When the Turkish economy crashed and we lost our life savings and came perilously close to losing our house, my wealthy mother floated us a loan-- and we had to endure three years of her snarky second husband making "Bank of Mommy" comments-- but my not-so-wealthy in-laws, bother retired and on pensions, gave us twice as much and have never mentioned it again.
In Turkey, the fluidity between generations when it comes to money is heart warming. If someone were in terrible debt, their families would help them. It's not like in the US where we are cut loose at 18.
"They, like us, come from families where debt is a way of life and a foregone conclusion"
How true it is.
I never bring it up, but if someone else does then I will talk about it. It is interesting (and sometimes scary) to listen to other people's views on debt and it often is further clarification that my wife and I are doing things right!
Since most of my friends are (like myself) recent college grads, we're mostly saddled with heavy college loans and doing our best to avoid revolving credit card debt. We generally don't talk about monthly payments, but the total amount owed on student loans isn't taboo.
The same feeling goes for housing costs, especially when someone is moving out of rental, "how much are you paying a month?" doesn't seem like an inappropriate question at all, especially if there's an opportunity to reduce one's own monthly costs.
I find that I have to be mindful of which friends I'm talking to when the issues of debt and spending habits pop up. Delivering a self-righteous diatribe about how credit cards are horrible, etc. might make things awkward when the audience consists of friends who are around 20k in debt each while I'm at zero. Some people are casual about their debt, and others keep it to themselves. The ones who casually share their info tend to be people who think that everyone else is in the same boat in my experience.
I've done this before with nuts . . . not sure why I didn't think of it for flax seeds. Thanks!
You know that's really interesting Philip, because I guess I'd always heard the opposite. Now, that's just heard mind you, so I would need to do some research as well. I haven't yet. Perhaps there are various chains that have different percentage rates on markups? Not sure how the data would break down . . . hmmnn . . . . now my gears are definitely turning . . .
You can use a coffee grinder for quick flax seed grinds, then you can add it to anything. And if you keep the grinder designated as your "flax grinder" there's nothing to clean up!
Thanks for the tips on canned salmon!!
The thing about energy costs is that they hit at every level. It's not just the delivery to and lighting and heating of the retail outlet, but also the powering of factories, the delivery of raw materials to those factories, and the tilling, fertilizing, and harvesting of the farms. (And to all that I'd also add the fuel used by consumers to drive to and from the grocery store.)
Still, I generally agree--the real impact of higher fuel prices is largely yet to come, as prices move higher.
I've always heard that grocery stores operated on very small margins, so I'm surprised to hear that some are able to offer much lower prices than others. It's something worth looking into.
By what I've been told... I my area, for example, there are only licensed spas in the cities that also appear on the city list. I believe that the city list is just a reference to help buyers who are wondering where they can begin looking for spas in their area. I'm guessing that any metro/city area will have plenty to choose from.
These omega-3s, from what I've read, are just a natural component of a healthy diet, but a component that most modern Americans just don't get enough of without making a special effort.
any licensed spa should be able to accept the gift certificates
That doesn't really make sense. If any licensed spa could accept them, why do they have a list of cities with "participating spas"?
Too confusing, I think I'll pass. But thanks for the info anyway.
Very interesting to see so many reasons for the cost of bread.
First... out local Aldi Store sells white bread for $.59 loaf... and Whole Wheat or Oat Breat for $1.49... Less than 1/2 of the bread in the othr Major Chain Stores.
While all of the reasons stated in the thread are valid to one degree or another, a very major part of the increase is going to the Retail Store (Market).
While Ethanol is having some effect now, as the production facilities mature, there will be less than a 10% reduction of the overall value of the actual grain, as the alcohol (ehtanol) is extracted. The rest of the grain will be able to be used for all of the other byproducts. (subject for another thread).
When you get to transportation costs, as with almost all grocery products, the percentange of the Retail price is extraodinarily minor... no enough to affect the cost by as much as $.02.
The fact that some of the bare bones markets still sell bread at low prices points up (to me) the fact that this is just one of the high markup items that support the large chains.
Incidentally... the same disparity in pricing exists with fruits and vegetables. Our local WalMart sells cucumbers from $.59 to $.89 each while our Aldi's price is $.39 to $.49.... This kind of F & V pricing is across the board with all fresh food.
Just one consumer in a small part of America, but my point is that the profit margin differential is enormous. The grocery prices have risen (rough guess) by more than 20% in the past year. The CPI method of establishing price indexes is so bad that it is virtually worthless. (another subject for discussion).
Just an opinion... :)
Depending on the brand, Omega 3 gels cost less than $.05 each and represents more than a daily recommendation...
My Doctor says that this is an adequate way to get the benefits of fish oil, despite what I've read about the body not accepting the vitamins in capsule as well as in food.
Am not homeopathically inclined, but Omega 3, and Bcomplex are among the few that the NIMH accepts as beneficial.
what a good informative blog. you need more information about loan and home loan
check here,hope it help. http://homeloan.online-assisant.info.
If you have a very small food processor, you can grind flax seeds and then add a bit to your cereal, your smoothy, or whatever you are making. You probably don't want this to be your only source of Omega-3, but there are advantages to eating the whole seed raw. You get fiber, oils, and probable a dozen other nutrients that haven't been discovered yet.
If you want to find a meal assembly place in your neighborhood here's a site where you can search by city or zip code. There are ~1500 of them across the country: www.mealassembly.net.
Frozen wild salmon is a cheaper alternative to fresh. I buy it at Whole Foods and keep it in the freezer, then thaw it in the plastic packs in a bowl of cold water, which takes less than an hour.
I also get wild salmon in pouches there—it's similar to canned, but it's available in 3 and 6 oz. sizes. At about $1.50 for the small pouch, it's an economical sandwich alternative, and as I'm the only one in the family who likes the stuff, there's no waste. I mix it with mayo and French dressing, chopped tomatoes, and a bit of dill, a recipe I got from the back of the pouch, and it's delicious.
We do the canned salmon and flax meal / seed thing too. Particularly since I no longer have the same source for cheap whole salmon that I used to (darn). I haven't done the oil thing yet . . . I'll have to see if we can get that up here in the woods . . .
Over the years I've found a few things that work for me (and because of my business I am forced to be a night owl when I am naturally a lark :)
- Melatonin! (only when I know I need some extra help staying asleep, no side effects, great dreams!)
- I always wear an eye mask (I have multiples for my luggage, night stand, etc, so I always have one nearby) - the interesting thing about an eye mask, at least for me, I have a Pavlovian response to it. Just putting it over my eyes makes me go to sleep within minutes!
- Spend ONE minute to email myself a final list of things in my head, to-dos, calls, issues, etc. that I want to tackle the next day, hit send and forget about it until the next morning when I print it out and plan my day.
the Christian frugal blogger link is broken
Hi Linsey. Good post, but when you said to "never pay" someone to find your money, this is not always the case and the states do not always do it gladly. In fact, many states have good reason to try to make it difficult to find your money. While it's true free searches are available, there are certain claims which require special attention (pre-escheat claims which have yet to be turned over to unclaimed property offices) and thats my specialty I have been focusing on since 1997. If you ever have trouble finding a claim, I can help and I do not charge an arm and a leg to do it! I really love to help people find their unclaimed funds.
I was thinking some more about the debate between investing and paying down your mortgage.
Go back to either Post 81 or Post 77. I thought about it some more and at first, if you look at the numbers, yes it appears paying off the mortgage is more beneficial. But upon more careful analysis, I realize, my math is totally wrong here!!!
Lets look at it more carefully. At the end of 30 yrs, in both cases, you would own the house outright. However, in the investment scenario you would end up with $734,075 in your investment account, whereas if you prepay, you only end up with $589,459 or $666,406 in your investment account. Yes you saved a lot of interest if you prepay. But in the end, you still have less cash in the investment account than if you had invested the extra payments. So in the final analysis, you end up being more wealthy if you had invested.
But I think it really boils down to one's risk tolerance. The security of having being debt free is priceless to some people. For others, it's a non-issue.
I wish I had known about this sooner while my parents and I were caring for my grandma at home, it would have been really helpful! I'll remember this for people I know who are or will be caregivers.