Congrats on your weight loss! I certainly have nothing against WW -- I know plenty of people who have found it to work. I just wanted to share for those who don't have the extra cash (or a WW in driving distance.) Keep up the good work!
this is different, but when i go to CVS I always get a three dollars off of 15 on cvs products. i save the coupons and use them to buy an expensive cvs product.
I love our bread machine. We use it sometimes 2x per week. True, it might not be the "richest" bread, but it is tastier than store bread for 1/2 the price. I do also enjoy baking "no knead bread", but I can't spare the time. I think many people can't. The varying times with mixing, rising, kneading, rising, and baking, makes it a weekend-only ordeal. So I guess I am disagreeing with almostvegetarian on how practical it is to bake your own. If you have two FT working parents, it's not.
I used to use the crockpot weekly to cook beans. We aren't vegetarian, but we eat very little meat. Then I bought a pressure cooker. It's my new gadget of choice for beans.
We have great steps to follow for social eating and holidays in our blog. Visit us at http://nodietneeded.net/
Also I agree your point of view very much, do not let anything distract you from what matters you the most. If it is weight loss, debt payoff, savings, etc...
As an individual who has lost 60 lbs and kept it off almost three years, I think weight watchers has the only weight loss provider out there that has the right attitude.
They promote healthy eating, exercising and not dieting.
With the fast food giants and their $1 menus, it is amazing actually 90% is not fat. I understand that feeding a family of four is expensive, especially in today's economy and a single income. However the junk food and the cheap fast food that actually is cheap today, may and will create such health problems that, you may end up paying more to get your health back.
For me being fat mostly ties to not being poor but being uneducated about eating right. I know plenty of people that have the dough, yet they still get their nutrition from pizza and fries.
Our blog's mission is to show you the ways for eating healthy and right, visit us at http://nodietneeded.net/
As the saying goes, don't judge a person until you walk in his shoes for a mile. I have been overweight and than obese for 15 years straight. There were times I had to go to "specialty dressing store", or spend more money on certain things but all in all, the worst thing was discrimination. I have seen strangers do it, "friends" do it, relatives do it. I was lucky enough to solve my weight problem by exercising and eating healty and I have been keeping off 60 lbs for almost three years now. Please visit my blog to read further.
I have had cable for the first time in my life in the last six months. It came for free with my internet connection for the first year. I'll have it shut off as soon as they start charging me- I never watch television, except for the first three days of squealing about the health channel's parasite shows.
I rent movies, and dvds if there's a show I want to watch. Why would I pay to watch commercials?
How do you overcome the nervousness you feel in an interview? I get so nervous that I start to go blank and forget my answers or I just ramble. Either way, I feel like a wreck.
Our dilemma has been BBC, Cartoon network, comedy central, G4, news and a few of the other basic cable channels.
We are planning on putting in a small free to air satellite dish next summer and probably a long distance HDTV antenna. Between the two we should be able to get almost everything except the ones I listed.
I wish some of the cable channels would start doing some sort of ala carte online subscription to pull broadcast.
I'm fairly young, but whatever happened to living within your means and using what you physically earn?
I say let the 'Recession' come. Maybe that would slow down our consumerism society. I'm not desperate for a house or any shiny bauble if it keeps me in debt and makes some detached overlord rich.
I'm not for this bailout either. It's simply a rushed sham that the paranoid are going to buy into and panic.
I think everyone, young peon and old corporate jockey, has forgotten hard times; so we spend too much, make too many sub-par products and believe in deals too good to be true.
Let hard times come. It will balance itself out if the people let it.
They make the claim that the government fudged the numbers in 1994 to overstate employment thereafter. You can review the labor pool numbers on BLS and test that theory.
If there was a big change in 1994 that impacted how we calculate unemployment then we'd see that reflected in the % of the population that participates in the labor pool. If you are in the labor pool then you're either unemployed or employed. So allegedly hidden unemployed people would not be in the labor pool and if that group increased then we'd see a change in the % of the population in the labor pool. But the civilian participation in the labor pool has not changed more than 1% in the past 20 years and there was not significant change around 1994. From around 1988 to 2008 the % of the population in the labor pool bounced between 66% and 67%. If the government had radically changed the # of people they count as unemployed then those people would drop into the group of people who do not participate in employment. That did not happen.
I live in NYC. Believe me, you can't haggle with TimeWarner (only supplier for us city folks. DirectTV requires outside antennae, which is forbidden in our building. And yes, people have been penalized, including being threatened with eviction.)
Verizon TV a poor option and also expensive. Plus service outages are abysmal.
We do use many of the alternatives you mentioned, but we still watch a lot of stuff on TV that we can't get late and/or free, or low fee later on.
now if we could pay ONLY for the channels we want (a la carte), we might be able to save.
To get any channel above 13, you pay extra. (Yea, it's a ripoff.)
The good stuff is all above 13.
We're mad fans of Fine Living, HGTV and some other non-basic channels.
We do get our money's worth, but cable is still overpriced.
Until there are enough cancellations and we subscribers have more leverage it will stay that way.
So, anybody who can cancel their cable, please do so.
Then, when they are forced to bring prices down, you can reconsider.
Also, when comparing costs, remember: This is entertainment. And if you spent $ for gas, food to go out to see a movie, all of this is big savings in time as well as money.
What would be even better? If you had neighbors to share with...split costs for NetFlix, other subs.
I'm not sure why everybody forgets the practice of loan originators who helped ignore, or fudge numbers to make a loan possible. Sure they were all trying to reach for the carrot without any true regulation, ethics, or licensing in most states. My family has been involved in banking and home loans for years... With all the bank consolidation over the years they've seen a lot of things they disagreed with.. Maybe that's why they all work for banks that do not sell their loans now.. There's something about accountability if a bank has to keep a certain # of their loans to ensure they do their homework.. Sadly.. the big banks seems to sell loans like hotcakes...
The problem is that all the little workers get shat on working their butts off while the CEO makes gobs for playing golf and making friends with other CEOs. I know these people have responsibility but that seems to be a small percentage of what they do.
I think capping CEO pay to a multiple of their least paid worker encourages companies to spend more making those that actually make the company money happier thus spreading the wealth around rather than concentrating it at that top 1%.
Pure market capitalism, contrary to the remark about government regulation being communism, is something no one wants to see. There is a happy medium. We don't want the corporations controlling everything and we don't want governments doing that either.
It seems that these entities created purely for the purpose of shielding responsibility and maximizing profitability have a hard time regulating themselves. "Let the market decide" is often the battle cry of so called capitalists but they "own" so much of Congress that the second their mistakes start to hurt they ask for a bailout.
Things are a mess and its not getting better. The way I see it, Canada has loads of natural resoucres. Mexico has oil and cheap labor and the US has a lot of debt. So to me it makes sence that we will do this. Everything done in our economy is gimmics and short term gains. The world is getting smaller and I think we will follow Europe and unite.
I have a feeling that some major event will take place to trigger to make the change.
I think the Amero is years away, unless its being worked on behind the sceens.
I lived in Japan for four years using Yen. I paid all my bills, bought food, entertained my family using Yen. I don't care what the money looks like it all does the same thing.
I do agree that our lifestyle will take a major hit. We are getting raedy to take a hit now with this bail-out.
Changing to the Amero is a good way to pull some other funny stuff under its cover.
The Amero has nothing to do with religion, its money like the dollar, the world did not come to an end when the dollar came about did it?
I agree . I work at saving money were i can to spend it on the things thats matter. if i die tommorow it not going to matter what i have i retirement if i cant enjoy life while im on my way there.
extremely poor service from MFI ordered a kitchen cabinet for £3700 and delivered the item 1 weeks after the set date, items arrived damaged and wrong items were sent, and the main cabinet still missing, nothing is being done, had to pay extra £200 to the fitter for rearranging the date for him, this delayed our complete kitchen work process, proo service from MFI, went to the shop and the manager "ash" was really unfriendly and argued back when it was there fault, all i'd say is never buy from MFI again extremely terrific service
Congrats on your weight loss! I certainly have nothing against WW -- I know plenty of people who have found it to work. I just wanted to share for those who don't have the extra cash (or a WW in driving distance.) Keep up the good work!
Linsey Knerl
this is different, but when i go to CVS I always get a three dollars off of 15 on cvs products. i save the coupons and use them to buy an expensive cvs product.
I worked as holiday cover for a local brewery and eventually stayed on for 4 years!
I love our bread machine. We use it sometimes 2x per week. True, it might not be the "richest" bread, but it is tastier than store bread for 1/2 the price. I do also enjoy baking "no knead bread", but I can't spare the time. I think many people can't. The varying times with mixing, rising, kneading, rising, and baking, makes it a weekend-only ordeal. So I guess I am disagreeing with almostvegetarian on how practical it is to bake your own. If you have two FT working parents, it's not.
I used to use the crockpot weekly to cook beans. We aren't vegetarian, but we eat very little meat. Then I bought a pressure cooker. It's my new gadget of choice for beans.
We have great steps to follow for social eating and holidays in our blog. Visit us at http://nodietneeded.net/
Also I agree your point of view very much, do not let anything distract you from what matters you the most. If it is weight loss, debt payoff, savings, etc...
As an individual who has lost 60 lbs and kept it off almost three years, I think weight watchers has the only weight loss provider out there that has the right attitude.
They promote healthy eating, exercising and not dieting.
To read more http://nodietneeded.net/
With the fast food giants and their $1 menus, it is amazing actually 90% is not fat. I understand that feeding a family of four is expensive, especially in today's economy and a single income. However the junk food and the cheap fast food that actually is cheap today, may and will create such health problems that, you may end up paying more to get your health back.
For me being fat mostly ties to not being poor but being uneducated about eating right. I know plenty of people that have the dough, yet they still get their nutrition from pizza and fries.
Our blog's mission is to show you the ways for eating healthy and right, visit us at http://nodietneeded.net/
As the saying goes, don't judge a person until you walk in his shoes for a mile. I have been overweight and than obese for 15 years straight. There were times I had to go to "specialty dressing store", or spend more money on certain things but all in all, the worst thing was discrimination. I have seen strangers do it, "friends" do it, relatives do it. I was lucky enough to solve my weight problem by exercising and eating healty and I have been keeping off 60 lbs for almost three years now. Please visit my blog to read further.
I wasn't aware that an average-income-level full-time worker with a family, should not be able to afford a home in which to live.
That doesn't seem, somehow, to be a luxury that they should be denied.
This is an excellent post, by the way.
I have had cable for the first time in my life in the last six months. It came for free with my internet connection for the first year. I'll have it shut off as soon as they start charging me- I never watch television, except for the first three days of squealing about the health channel's parasite shows.
I rent movies, and dvds if there's a show I want to watch. Why would I pay to watch commercials?
Andrea,
I bumbled upon your writings... just a note to say I enjoy both your wit and style. Diverse and intelligent.
Thanks for the mind food!
Best,
Matt
How do you overcome the nervousness you feel in an interview? I get so nervous that I start to go blank and forget my answers or I just ramble. Either way, I feel like a wreck.
Our dilemma has been BBC, Cartoon network, comedy central, G4, news and a few of the other basic cable channels.
We are planning on putting in a small free to air satellite dish next summer and probably a long distance HDTV antenna. Between the two we should be able to get almost everything except the ones I listed.
I wish some of the cable channels would start doing some sort of ala carte online subscription to pull broadcast.
I'm fairly young, but whatever happened to living within your means and using what you physically earn?
I say let the 'Recession' come. Maybe that would slow down our consumerism society. I'm not desperate for a house or any shiny bauble if it keeps me in debt and makes some detached overlord rich.
I'm not for this bailout either. It's simply a rushed sham that the paranoid are going to buy into and panic.
I think everyone, young peon and old corporate jockey, has forgotten hard times; so we spend too much, make too many sub-par products and believe in deals too good to be true.
Let hard times come. It will balance itself out if the people let it.
They make the claim that the government fudged the numbers in 1994 to overstate employment thereafter. You can review the labor pool numbers on BLS and test that theory.
If there was a big change in 1994 that impacted how we calculate unemployment then we'd see that reflected in the % of the population that participates in the labor pool. If you are in the labor pool then you're either unemployed or employed. So allegedly hidden unemployed people would not be in the labor pool and if that group increased then we'd see a change in the % of the population in the labor pool. But the civilian participation in the labor pool has not changed more than 1% in the past 20 years and there was not significant change around 1994. From around 1988 to 2008 the % of the population in the labor pool bounced between 66% and 67%. If the government had radically changed the # of people they count as unemployed then those people would drop into the group of people who do not participate in employment. That did not happen.
Jim
A great website that I've found that aggregates job listings from many sources and makes them easily searchable is Simply Hired.
I live in NYC. Believe me, you can't haggle with TimeWarner (only supplier for us city folks. DirectTV requires outside antennae, which is forbidden in our building. And yes, people have been penalized, including being threatened with eviction.)
Verizon TV a poor option and also expensive. Plus service outages are abysmal.
We do use many of the alternatives you mentioned, but we still watch a lot of stuff on TV that we can't get late and/or free, or low fee later on.
now if we could pay ONLY for the channels we want (a la carte), we might be able to save.
To get any channel above 13, you pay extra. (Yea, it's a ripoff.)
The good stuff is all above 13.
We're mad fans of Fine Living, HGTV and some other non-basic channels.
We do get our money's worth, but cable is still overpriced.
Until there are enough cancellations and we subscribers have more leverage it will stay that way.
So, anybody who can cancel their cable, please do so.
Then, when they are forced to bring prices down, you can reconsider.
Also, when comparing costs, remember: This is entertainment. And if you spent $ for gas, food to go out to see a movie, all of this is big savings in time as well as money.
What would be even better? If you had neighbors to share with...split costs for NetFlix, other subs.
I can get ESPN 360 on the internet (not all internet providers offer this). That allowed me to see the sports I wanted (ie: college basketball).
Great post!
I'm not sure why everybody forgets the practice of loan originators who helped ignore, or fudge numbers to make a loan possible. Sure they were all trying to reach for the carrot without any true regulation, ethics, or licensing in most states. My family has been involved in banking and home loans for years... With all the bank consolidation over the years they've seen a lot of things they disagreed with.. Maybe that's why they all work for banks that do not sell their loans now.. There's something about accountability if a bank has to keep a certain # of their loans to ensure they do their homework.. Sadly.. the big banks seems to sell loans like hotcakes...
I routinely cut open tubes and plastic bottles that seem "empty" and get another week's worth of product out. I just put whatever it is in small jars.
I find your article entertaining and shocking. Especially your last paragraph. Who knows how deep the gap will get. I do see a gladiator age apon us.
The problem is that all the little workers get shat on working their butts off while the CEO makes gobs for playing golf and making friends with other CEOs. I know these people have responsibility but that seems to be a small percentage of what they do.
I think capping CEO pay to a multiple of their least paid worker encourages companies to spend more making those that actually make the company money happier thus spreading the wealth around rather than concentrating it at that top 1%.
Pure market capitalism, contrary to the remark about government regulation being communism, is something no one wants to see. There is a happy medium. We don't want the corporations controlling everything and we don't want governments doing that either.
It seems that these entities created purely for the purpose of shielding responsibility and maximizing profitability have a hard time regulating themselves. "Let the market decide" is often the battle cry of so called capitalists but they "own" so much of Congress that the second their mistakes start to hurt they ask for a bailout.
Now who's acting Communist?
Things are a mess and its not getting better. The way I see it, Canada has loads of natural resoucres. Mexico has oil and cheap labor and the US has a lot of debt. So to me it makes sence that we will do this. Everything done in our economy is gimmics and short term gains. The world is getting smaller and I think we will follow Europe and unite.
I have a feeling that some major event will take place to trigger to make the change.
I think the Amero is years away, unless its being worked on behind the sceens.
I lived in Japan for four years using Yen. I paid all my bills, bought food, entertained my family using Yen. I don't care what the money looks like it all does the same thing.
I do agree that our lifestyle will take a major hit. We are getting raedy to take a hit now with this bail-out.
Changing to the Amero is a good way to pull some other funny stuff under its cover.
The Amero has nothing to do with religion, its money like the dollar, the world did not come to an end when the dollar came about did it?
I agree . I work at saving money were i can to spend it on the things thats matter. if i die tommorow it not going to matter what i have i retirement if i cant enjoy life while im on my way there.
extremely poor service from MFI ordered a kitchen cabinet for £3700 and delivered the item 1 weeks after the set date, items arrived damaged and wrong items were sent, and the main cabinet still missing, nothing is being done, had to pay extra £200 to the fitter for rearranging the date for him, this delayed our complete kitchen work process, proo service from MFI, went to the shop and the manager "ash" was really unfriendly and argued back when it was there fault, all i'd say is never buy from MFI again extremely terrific service