I can assure you that Americans are a very caring bunch. Most people are, really - I don't think I've ever visited a place where I say "goodness, the people here are so unwelcoming". Americans have been constantly inundated with anti-socialist messages that are tied in with our McCarthy era politics, which we are still nursing a hangover from.
I think a knee-jerk reaction to socialism is just something programmed into a lot of people, honestly. I say this because people who are vehemently against big government have not protested the careful dismantling of our consitutional rights by the current administration.
But I promise you that ignorance of the Canadian health care system (which, like you said, won't be debated here) is to blame for anti-socialist sentiment, and not a lack of concern for each other.
I've been trying to access the game online for the past 3 days with no success. The site is not coming up at all.
Anyone else having the same problems?
I filled out the whole survey very diligently--but they never sent me a stapler. We're being ripped off. We filled out the survey in good faith, spending all that time reading the questions and clicking on our responses. But they, apparently, lied to us!
I either want my stapler or for them to stop using the data I produced for them. But preferably the stapler.
Where can I write to these folks? This is an outrage!
Hmm. That does help clear a few things up, and I agree with you -- but I'm still confused. In Canada, the enemy is the US health care system. In the US, the enemy is a socialist health care system. NEITHER system works particularly well, it just seems that each one is failing in a different way.
But I digress... This isn't a debate about health care :)
It's hard to look at these knee-jerk reactions to socialism and not think that Americans love money more than they care about each other.
When I try to go to playatmcd.com I have the same problem! I've also tried to go through the actual McDonald's site and it won't work from there either. I always get an error message saying that IE cannot display the webpage. My internet connection is fine and I can get to any other website I try. I still have codes to enter as well!
we have all received our stmulus checks a while back. my question is... will the amount of our checks effect in any way the amount of our tax refund checks (when I go to file in february). my stimulus check was for $900.00, so will my tax refund be for 900.00 less? I always budget out my tax refund, cause i usually know the general amount i will be getting back. but because i do not know if the stimulus checks are going to effect my tax refund i do not know what to budget for. so.can you please tell me if the stimulus checks are going to be deducted from our tax refunds?
thankyou,
katy
A few years back we had our own tractor trailer. We filled it with a company debit card. This could be a few hundred dollars every few days and in various parts of the country. Fortunately we logged in every purchase as we did it, and we reconciled our records with the bank statement on line, so even before it came out monthly.
There was an extra 360.00 purchase at a fuel stop we did go to when we went thru Northern Pa. It would ahve been so easy to think that we just forgot to turn in a receipt. But I felt we were pretty anal about logging everything in.
I had to go back, check the log books and see our truck was not even in that area at the time of purchase. And we found out that the fuel attendant had copied down our information from our card, and then logged in a bogus purchase.Our bank gave us a temporary type credit, as it was investigated, but it took some effort to prove our case. I copied the receipts, showed the log book that showed we were not there. In the end we succeeded in catching this person. But this was an easy way for a dishonest person to try to scam the truckers. Cindy
I haven't read anything like this in some time. Living in NYC, you very rarely see anything like what's described here. I live in an apartment building, and we have mostly friendly neighbors, but don't really have conversations. I agree, for the most part, with what Fazed Reality said. This post has definitely got me thinking. Its inspired me to write a post about purchasing items, and perhaps something more...
@joey, would you mind emailing me the form you use at frugalnyc at gmail dot com? Not sure if there is an attachment on this post already since I'm reading from a mobile blackberry device.
Thank you!
We should be aware of what we want vs. what we need ALL the time. If we could save money today by managing our wants then, when market turbulence comes, we do not have to worry too much
To the poster who said they landed on community chest 8 times in a row- that is awesome, but not because the came ended, it doesn't end 10/31 it ends November 3rd 2008.
I normally do not frequent McDonalds, except during the monopoly game, however, now that I know how to find out what pieces are rare and which are not online, I shall curtail my involvement next year.
For now, well, like many posters above I have all the pieces except the rare ones. In the online game I have won about 100 coke rewards points and several hours of wifi time, and I have (big surprise) acquired every property except the rare ones there too. I have also noticed that more than once the dice appeared to have changed their roll to keep me from landing on the desired winning space, however I cannot prove it, and with the way the game tracks the history of where you landed, what you rolled and the outcome, you'd have to video tape yourself playing the game to prove the dice magically changed their roll to keep you from winning.
The online game does say at someone posted, that you must play at the winning time, which is random, but related to their high traffic patterns of use. I have played at all different times of day and did not notice that I won my rewards points or wifi at a certain time more than other times.
As for not being able to login or having pieces stolen by the game freezing- I think the game only froze on my once, and I was able to enter the game piece again after I closed the page and went back to the site.
To the folks who posted saying they have the Boardwalk Monopoly Game Piece, it's more likely you think you have it and you actually have Park Place, in the event you are not mistaken, congrats to you!!!
If you are going to buy McDonalds just to play, the breakfast hash browns, at least where I live, are the cheapest item you can buy that has the actual pieces with it.
You're right about the work with cooking chicken -- some of it might ruin appetites to discuss the details. By the time I was a kid, chickens weren't in the backyard but in the grocery store so I missed seeing all the prep work. I do hear about people in my town raising chickens now but mostly for the eggs.
Thanks for the clarification, Steve. I got hit with what seemed like ridiculous taxes after taking a part-time job for about six month. While I didn't lose all the money I had made, I ended up owing the government about $3K, which sapped all the savings that I had set aside. My tax accountant didn't explain what I was being taxed on. I just saw the final bill. :) Much appreciated on the clarification.
Nice article. I think it is important to point out that you are looking at the issue of the credit card payment from a *Balance Sheet* point of view as opposed to a cash flow point of view. From the point of view of a balance sheet, there a difference between "payment" of principle on a debt, which is a transfer, and the accrued periodic interest, which is an expense.
However, my understanding is that from the cash flow analysis/point of view, the entire credit card payment, principal and interest included, can properly be considered an outflow and that outflow is typically categorized as "debt service", or the amount that you (or a business) has to pay out of operating cash to maintain your contractual credit obligations. In a sense then, it *is* an expense. You just have to know whether you are looking at it from a balance sheet (assets and liabilities) point of view, or a cash flow (inflow and outflow/ income and expense) point of view.
Re: the tree year old and the sweater, I agree he is probably fine. But be aware that young children don't always have the body awareness to know when they are cold. In the house, where it's 55-60 degrees, that's fine, but outside they can get in trouble and are at greater risk for hypothermia than adults when hiking etc outdoors.
One thing to do with small children is , rather than asking him if he is cold, just gently feel his hands. If his hands feel relatively warm, his body temperature is good. If they feel cold, it means his body is pulling blood into his body core to keep it warm and putting on another layer might be in order. Eventually kids will get cold enough to realize they are cold, but it takes them longer to realize it than adults. Besides the issue of their body awareness, due to their larger surface area relative to body mass, they cool off a lot faster than an adult does in the same temperature and weather conditions. Which is why outdoor clothing is super important for them (they should be dressed much better than an adult) if you are bringing them into a situation where there is no shelter or heat nearby.
I did chuckle, though, when you said "if she wanted chicken she caught one and cooked it," because there were many steps in between the catching and the cooking. Chicken for dinner was a big deal because of the work that went into it.
I have been thinking about the food my mother used to cook in the 1950's. She and my father were depression kids also but they never made us feel deprived. I remember her adding water to a can of chili to make it stretch, and there's no good reason not to do that, as it's soup after all and crackers are cheaper than chili. If we had chili dogs (and food like that was rare), she would cut the weiners in half lengthwise and use only a half in the bun. No chips. For snacks, I remember having crackers and peanut butter (we must have gone through a lot of Saltines) and a slice of bread with mayonnaise or butter on top. No cokes except on special occasions--we drank Koolaid with our snacks. My mother usually made our bread and always made our desserts even though she worked outside the home also. There was no fast food but occasionally we went to a drugstore counter for a hamburger which was not automatically accompanied by fries. These are small differences but they are money-saving ones and the changes which made our lives more expensive have come on so gradually that we failed to notice them. I'm trying to go back to some of the old ways, because not only did we live more cheaply, none of us were fat.
I can assure you that Americans are a very caring bunch. Most people are, really - I don't think I've ever visited a place where I say "goodness, the people here are so unwelcoming". Americans have been constantly inundated with anti-socialist messages that are tied in with our McCarthy era politics, which we are still nursing a hangover from.
I think a knee-jerk reaction to socialism is just something programmed into a lot of people, honestly. I say this because people who are vehemently against big government have not protested the careful dismantling of our consitutional rights by the current administration.
But I promise you that ignorance of the Canadian health care system (which, like you said, won't be debated here) is to blame for anti-socialist sentiment, and not a lack of concern for each other.
try using mozilla firefox to open it. it works for me with that
I've been trying to access the game online for the past 3 days with no success. The site is not coming up at all.
Anyone else having the same problems?
The sweet Ice Tea which is great and addicting has 2 games pieces and it's a $1.00
is there anyway to like crack the algorithm for the code so you could make new codes and enter them in?
ur funny i got 857m
I filled out the whole survey very diligently--but they never sent me a stapler. We're being ripped off. We filled out the survey in good faith, spending all that time reading the questions and clicking on our responses. But they, apparently, lied to us!
I either want my stapler or for them to stop using the data I produced for them. But preferably the stapler.
Where can I write to these folks? This is an outrage!
you need to check out cornucopia.org for proof that Horizon is not living up to their promises.
Hmm. That does help clear a few things up, and I agree with you -- but I'm still confused. In Canada, the enemy is the US health care system. In the US, the enemy is a socialist health care system. NEITHER system works particularly well, it just seems that each one is failing in a different way.
But I digress... This isn't a debate about health care :)
It's hard to look at these knee-jerk reactions to socialism and not think that Americans love money more than they care about each other.
When I try to go to playatmcd.com I have the same problem! I've also tried to go through the actual McDonald's site and it won't work from there either. I always get an error message saying that IE cannot display the webpage. My internet connection is fine and I can get to any other website I try. I still have codes to enter as well!
Great idea with great potential, thanks!
we have all received our stmulus checks a while back. my question is... will the amount of our checks effect in any way the amount of our tax refund checks (when I go to file in february). my stimulus check was for $900.00, so will my tax refund be for 900.00 less? I always budget out my tax refund, cause i usually know the general amount i will be getting back. but because i do not know if the stimulus checks are going to effect my tax refund i do not know what to budget for. so.can you please tell me if the stimulus checks are going to be deducted from our tax refunds?
thankyou,
katy
A few years back we had our own tractor trailer. We filled it with a company debit card. This could be a few hundred dollars every few days and in various parts of the country. Fortunately we logged in every purchase as we did it, and we reconciled our records with the bank statement on line, so even before it came out monthly.
There was an extra 360.00 purchase at a fuel stop we did go to when we went thru Northern Pa. It would ahve been so easy to think that we just forgot to turn in a receipt. But I felt we were pretty anal about logging everything in.
I had to go back, check the log books and see our truck was not even in that area at the time of purchase. And we found out that the fuel attendant had copied down our information from our card, and then logged in a bogus purchase.Our bank gave us a temporary type credit, as it was investigated, but it took some effort to prove our case. I copied the receipts, showed the log book that showed we were not there. In the end we succeeded in catching this person. But this was an easy way for a dishonest person to try to scam the truckers. Cindy
Excellent article.
And I appreciate the comment from Wilson--my thoughts, exactly!
What a great and refreshing topic!
I haven't read anything like this in some time. Living in NYC, you very rarely see anything like what's described here. I live in an apartment building, and we have mostly friendly neighbors, but don't really have conversations. I agree, for the most part, with what Fazed Reality said. This post has definitely got me thinking. Its inspired me to write a post about purchasing items, and perhaps something more...
@joey, would you mind emailing me the form you use at frugalnyc at gmail dot com? Not sure if there is an attachment on this post already since I'm reading from a mobile blackberry device.
Thank you!
We should be aware of what we want vs. what we need ALL the time. If we could save money today by managing our wants then, when market turbulence comes, we do not have to worry too much
I tend to shun away from drinks when doing buffet. That way, I am still left with plenty of "space" in my stomach for the food :D
Really awesome piece, and timely.
To the poster who said they landed on community chest 8 times in a row- that is awesome, but not because the came ended, it doesn't end 10/31 it ends November 3rd 2008.
I normally do not frequent McDonalds, except during the monopoly game, however, now that I know how to find out what pieces are rare and which are not online, I shall curtail my involvement next year.
For now, well, like many posters above I have all the pieces except the rare ones. In the online game I have won about 100 coke rewards points and several hours of wifi time, and I have (big surprise) acquired every property except the rare ones there too. I have also noticed that more than once the dice appeared to have changed their roll to keep me from landing on the desired winning space, however I cannot prove it, and with the way the game tracks the history of where you landed, what you rolled and the outcome, you'd have to video tape yourself playing the game to prove the dice magically changed their roll to keep you from winning.
The online game does say at someone posted, that you must play at the winning time, which is random, but related to their high traffic patterns of use. I have played at all different times of day and did not notice that I won my rewards points or wifi at a certain time more than other times.
As for not being able to login or having pieces stolen by the game freezing- I think the game only froze on my once, and I was able to enter the game piece again after I closed the page and went back to the site.
To the folks who posted saying they have the Boardwalk Monopoly Game Piece, it's more likely you think you have it and you actually have Park Place, in the event you are not mistaken, congrats to you!!!
If you are going to buy McDonalds just to play, the breakfast hash browns, at least where I live, are the cheapest item you can buy that has the actual pieces with it.
Good Luck to all, and especially to me =)
You're right about the work with cooking chicken -- some of it might ruin appetites to discuss the details. By the time I was a kid, chickens weren't in the backyard but in the grocery store so I missed seeing all the prep work. I do hear about people in my town raising chickens now but mostly for the eggs.
Thanks for the clarification, Steve. I got hit with what seemed like ridiculous taxes after taking a part-time job for about six month. While I didn't lose all the money I had made, I ended up owing the government about $3K, which sapped all the savings that I had set aside. My tax accountant didn't explain what I was being taxed on. I just saw the final bill. :) Much appreciated on the clarification.
Nice article. I think it is important to point out that you are looking at the issue of the credit card payment from a *Balance Sheet* point of view as opposed to a cash flow point of view. From the point of view of a balance sheet, there a difference between "payment" of principle on a debt, which is a transfer, and the accrued periodic interest, which is an expense.
However, my understanding is that from the cash flow analysis/point of view, the entire credit card payment, principal and interest included, can properly be considered an outflow and that outflow is typically categorized as "debt service", or the amount that you (or a business) has to pay out of operating cash to maintain your contractual credit obligations. In a sense then, it *is* an expense. You just have to know whether you are looking at it from a balance sheet (assets and liabilities) point of view, or a cash flow (inflow and outflow/ income and expense) point of view.
Re: the tree year old and the sweater, I agree he is probably fine. But be aware that young children don't always have the body awareness to know when they are cold. In the house, where it's 55-60 degrees, that's fine, but outside they can get in trouble and are at greater risk for hypothermia than adults when hiking etc outdoors.
One thing to do with small children is , rather than asking him if he is cold, just gently feel his hands. If his hands feel relatively warm, his body temperature is good. If they feel cold, it means his body is pulling blood into his body core to keep it warm and putting on another layer might be in order. Eventually kids will get cold enough to realize they are cold, but it takes them longer to realize it than adults. Besides the issue of their body awareness, due to their larger surface area relative to body mass, they cool off a lot faster than an adult does in the same temperature and weather conditions. Which is why outdoor clothing is super important for them (they should be dressed much better than an adult) if you are bringing them into a situation where there is no shelter or heat nearby.
I did chuckle, though, when you said "if she wanted chicken she caught one and cooked it," because there were many steps in between the catching and the cooking. Chicken for dinner was a big deal because of the work that went into it.
I have been thinking about the food my mother used to cook in the 1950's. She and my father were depression kids also but they never made us feel deprived. I remember her adding water to a can of chili to make it stretch, and there's no good reason not to do that, as it's soup after all and crackers are cheaper than chili. If we had chili dogs (and food like that was rare), she would cut the weiners in half lengthwise and use only a half in the bun. No chips. For snacks, I remember having crackers and peanut butter (we must have gone through a lot of Saltines) and a slice of bread with mayonnaise or butter on top. No cokes except on special occasions--we drank Koolaid with our snacks. My mother usually made our bread and always made our desserts even though she worked outside the home also. There was no fast food but occasionally we went to a drugstore counter for a hamburger which was not automatically accompanied by fries. These are small differences but they are money-saving ones and the changes which made our lives more expensive have come on so gradually that we failed to notice them. I'm trying to go back to some of the old ways, because not only did we live more cheaply, none of us were fat.