My daughter is 11 and homeschooled and one of the most social people I know!! Not only is she social but she has respect for everyone around her. Im not saying anything bad about public school children but they pick up wrong behaviors from other children and from some teachers. (my daughter was enrolled in publc schools for 3 years) She is also involved with people from all ages. Clubs, public school friends, volunteering at our local Toys for Tots and homeless shelters. Socialization is the least thing that I worry about. She is way more outgoing and social then I have ever been, and I am a public school graduate. Here are a couple of websites that we go to for help, lesson plans, etc.
... is that if you know where to look for the dent, you will always see a little mark ... that's why these techniques are primarily used by caryards.
But, if you are selling the car - or don't look TOO close - or don't care ... then using these techniques (or even professional PDR shops that use funny-looking tools to 'massage the dents out') can save you a bundle!
A lot of people also misunderstood what equity actually means. For example, one of my friends told me that he is going to suddenly get $500,000 in equity because he is buying a house, and I asked him if he knew that equity means the value of the house minus the amount of debt, and he didn't. Another couple I know are doing an interest only loan, and they keep on talking about equity to me, too. It's pretty bizarre because I know they are pretty much just renting the money from the bank.
I would like to dispute Paul's interpretation of the car theft statistics by make/model/year. Paul suggests that the fancy cars aren't on the "most stolen" list because they are harder to move for thieves, which is a valid point, but don't think the statistics given support it.
I think it's MUCH more likely that fancy cars aren't on that list is because there are many more average cars on the road, and far fewer of the fancy cars on the road. What percentage of '95 Honda civics are stolen versus the number of '95 Honda civics on the road?
Say there are 10,000 '95 Honda civics on the road and 100 of them get stolen, and say there are 100 pretty BMW's on the road and 20 of them get stolen. Now, far fewer BMW's are stolen in total, but theft of existing Honda's is 1% and theft of existing BMW's is 20% HUGE DIFFERENCE!
Which is why if you own a beautiful fancy car, you never park it on the street in a bad neighborhood. Because if a car thief sees your BMW next to a beat up Honda, if he's willing to steal and resell a car, which is more worth the effort?
The radio DJs in my area have been telling people to have their 5's checked at banks because some don't look like "normal" ones. :) The 5's they describe sound like the new ones. Looks like we got our new fives right off the bat! I wonder why they didn't know about the new design, I did.
Brock, I would invest nearly all of the extra money -- your investments should really grow at a higher interest rate (overall, over time) and starting now will make a huge difference in the long run and financially, you will be better off. If you get in a jam, you can tap into your investments to pay off the loans (though holding some in cash will be helpful) -- that's from a pure calculation standpoint. There may be psychological value in paying off loans early -- for me that would be the truck loan; still you have a great interest rate and you are likely to get a higher return in the market.
As a professional photographer I do not agree with scanning images because you feel it is your right to do so. Copyright laws are copyright laws period.
What so many consumers forget is that the fee they are paying is for the time and talent of the artist. Many photographers spend years researching, studying, learning, and honing their craft. Just because you have a copy of photoshop does not mean you know how to use it, and just because you have a camera does not mean you know the principles of fine photography.
For example: Lets say you pay $150 for your creative fee. The photographer spends 1 hour in a consultation. The photographer spends another hour location scouting (this includes gas and milleage.) Then the photographer spends another hour setting up, getting to know your family etc. Then the session itself last approx 2-3 hours. Now, that photographer must spend another hour or so going through the images (most I know take around 2-300 per session) and whittling them down to 30. Most professional photographers I know also shoot in RAW which requires special software that cost sometimes upward to the $1000 range. So that means 30 images the photographer must then spend approx 30 min to an hour a piece editing because they must create a black and white conversion of each image (and proper conversions are more than just desaturating.) Now the photographer must not only prepare the images (all 60 of them) for web use, but also for print use, and proofing, and archiving (if you are doing things properly you don't archive a jpg format you archive in TIFF format.) AND..if the photographer is doing it correctly they've color managed for the specific printer at the same time. WHEW!
now you do the math...how much exactly have you paid the photographer and how much exactly have you paid them per hour for all that work from the original creative fee?
And as far as getting "all your images" I do not agree with this. Like many photographers I consider myself an artist because I have studied art as well as photography. I would never put my name on anything that was not fully processed. If you want those kinds of images (just snapshots where you don't care if faces are blurred or teeth look yellow) then just find Aunty Sue and her point and shoot camera and have her take the photos for free.
On another note: alot of photographers today are making cd's available as well as prints and also giving a discount for enlargements and other products.
I've been producing asktheheadhunter.com for almost 15 years. One of my readers put me on to what you wrote above. Made me slap my forehead, wow. The site is devoted to the simple idea that if you want a job, you must go into the interview and DO THE JOB, right there in front of the manager. You must show how you will deliver profit to the business. As you imply, that eliminates almost all potential candidates, and gives the edge to those who are most serious and motivated.
Now I want to get a hold of that crummy Duvall movie (hey, I like Duvall a lot, so I'll be able to sit through the whole thing) - it'll be a good time. Kudos to you for publishing your advice on this topic. Your 3 steps are mirrored in my 4 Questions. Hope you enjoy the site if you have a minute to check it out.
@Greg: You've put your finger on the problem with market value--it depends entirely on finding a buyer who will pay that much. I know of some rural land around here that sold for over $5500 an acre back when the market price for similar land was about $3000--because the buyer wanted that exact piece of land. Was that what the land was worth? Arguably it was--someone paid that much for it. But any other owners who began to imagine that their land was worth as much ended up sorely disappointed.
@Guest: The productive and rental value may be difficult to forecast into the future, but surely it's no more difficult to find out what similar houses rent for than it is to find out what they sell for. You can get a pretty good idea just by checking the "for rent" ads in the paper.
The thing about rentals is that the information is current: The amount of the rent gets reset every year, and the rent actually gets paid every month. On the other hand, a house can go years--even decades--without being sold.
Unless you have an offer in hand, the market value is just a guess.
There are plenty of people who will make that guess, based on recent sales of similar properties (and other things). But I think homeowners who take that guess, subtract what the owe on their mortgage, and then call that their "equity" are just fooling themselves.
Equity is easy to calculate. Especially now that decent approximations of market value are free of charge online.
I'm finding the task of calculating value based on productivity plus rent collected (or not spent) to be a little more subjective. I am assuming that the value is the sum of all future years productivity and rent. Further, the percent of total that each of those two summands contributes, I suppose, would depend on how the property was purposed.
OK. We need to adjust for many factors, as mentioned in the post. Do we adjust for inflation as well, to find the value in today's dollars? We must assume that the property remains purposed in the same way, and isn't the source of unexpected fabulous wealth or ID'd as a superfund site, etc. My point is, that this calculation has some major assumptions behind it, (but I guess the equity calc based on market value does too)
It's an interesting analysis to play with though. And it adds a level of control over one's own property value, where we have little control over our equity. For example, the idea may prompt a landowner, even in a suburban or urban area, to consider innovative ways to gain productivity or rental income on an existing property. (Hopefully innovative within the law). I believe true RE investors tend to do this manner of analysis at some level whether they are fully aware of it or not.
Your garden variety home owner may lack the sophistication, patience, or motive to run this analysis. As previously observed here and in prior posts, the equity calculation is easy to understand, PLUS it was (and will be again, I'm sure) a great way for many folks to sell all sorts of loan 'products.' Which of course all amount to commitments of future earnings, based on some present market value using the property as collateral.
Will the practice of calculating market value fall away in lieu of this other way to determine value. Ha ha. Come on. the astute will always do both and choose how to assert a value depending on what side of the deal they're on. Mwa ha ha.
As anyone that lives in a big city in the Eastern U.S. can attest to, bedbugs have become a HUGE problem. Any upholstered furniture is susceptible, and many bugs have been spread simply by people picking up mattresses secondhand after they've been 'sanitized'. Bedbugs are resiliant and resistant to many pesticides, and while your mattress or couch may be free, you will wind up paying hundreds of dollars in exterminators' fees!!
Philip, your post brings to mind one thing that's always been a bit of a mystery to me. You mention two ways to determine the value of land: production value and rental value. I've always thought there was another, and equally valid, way of determining something's worth. For instance, When my mom died, she owned a 35-acre ranch, a very unique property with creek frontage and irrigated fields and end-of-road privacy, and so on. We had a couple of appraisers tell us what they thought of it, but in the end I always came back to the same idea: the land's value is what you can get someone to pay you for it. If someone looking for property comes across a place that they absolutely fall in love with, and must have, they then value the place more (and hopefully fork over more cash for) than someone else who doesn't love it as much. Right? I've always thought that the "value" of land or a homestead was really highly subjective, and that the whole business of appraising was almost pointless.
I save tons of money using coupons. 1. I clip them from the Sunday paper and swap ones I don't use with a few friends. My mother and an aunt send me coupons since they don't use them at all. I also use mail in rebates and other "instant" rebate coupons in stores. These are usually available in the section where beer and wine are sold. It's fun to get $10 and $15 checks in the mail. 2. I plan our meals based on what's on sale at the stores I drive by regularly. By sale, I mean significant markdown, or even better BOGO. For example, one of the stores I shop at offers double coupons up to .99 cents. Today, huge jars of Smuckers grape jam are $1.00 each. I have three coupons for .35 off each jar. With the great sale and coupons, I got three 32 ounce jars of jam for a total of .90 cents. I stock up on everything when it's on sale and I have coupons. We rarely run out of anything. I also buy meat if it's the last day of freshness and put it in the freezer. 3. Once a week is Refrigerator Banquet Day, usually Fridays. If it's in the house and you can fix it (or I can help you since my kids are young), you can eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. If eggs and biscuits have been on sale that week, that just might be your dinner Friday night. 4. Shop where they offer bonus bucks. Like CVS. Buy an item on sale using a coupon and get bonus bucks back that you can use to buy other items in the store. Use the bonus bucks to buy stuff that's on sale and use more coupons. You end up getting free stuff ultimately. 5. A good shopping trip for me is when I save at least as much as I spend. for example, I was very happy this morning when the register rang up $144 worth of groceries. I paid $71.74 for them. 6. Here's another tip. Always scan your coupons last, AFTER you have scanned your customer card. This way, you make sure that you get the coupon discount deducted from the store's sale price and not the full price. The way I like to do it is to have the clerk scan the groceries first, then scan my customer card, then scan my coupons. 7. Use a coupon organizer. Here's a video about how to select and organize one. I love saving money!
Where I live there are shared garages (like 6 alltogether). Because my neighbours all have automatic garage door openers despite me telling them how easy these are to open I park my car outside under a street lamp where it is clearly visible from every window around here (suburbs, so many houses).
In two years there has been two breakins in the garage, both times the thieves emptied all the cars, leaving mine untouched.
Everyone is taught about 'supply and demand' and yet something that should be more important doesn't cost as much as Coke... Granted, I like my cans of pop, but still. You're not going to see a potential war influenced by the threat to sugar and caramel colour.
I use to go there all the time until they started all these promotions. I just want a movie, stop asking me all these questions. The girl was very nice and tried to explain they HAVE to say it all or get in trouble and even though most guests dont like it, they have to. She was written up because she didn't make 10 bundles. 10 candy bundles on a slow day sound stupid to me. Well anyways, i can understand why they are closing, i would rather do my stuff online and not have to be bothered with all the promotions.
I use to go there all the time until they started all these promotions. I just want a movie, stop asking me all these questions. The girl was very nice and tried to explain they HAVE to say it all or get in trouble and even though most guests dont like it, they have to. She was written up because she didn't make 10 bundles. 10 candy bundles on a slow day sound stupid to me. Well anyways, i can understand why they are closing, i would rather do my stuff online and not have to be bothered with all the promotions.
Sometimes, I do wonder if I'm contributing to a slower economy. I'm trying to shift us from buying foods that are increasing in price, to foods that tend to still be steady. I'm going to the thrift store for clothes now, where I can - the kids and I don't need brand-new, although my husband's job needs him to have fairly high quality stuff (and I will look to see if there's anything at the thrift store for him too).
Then I look at the other people in the checkout line with me. When their cart is half as full, and their bill is twice as much, I know that the economy has lots of push behind it. Sometimes I'm in awe of other people, for having really good deals and high quality foods, and sometimes I look at what we got at a particular store and I'm very aware that I'm doing stress-binge-eating again - but generally, even then, others are spending far more.
There are new stores being built, there's an area of land being fought over for perhaps a big box store - here, at least, there are many more people spending than there are people who aren't.
My daughter is 11 and homeschooled and one of the most social people I know!! Not only is she social but she has respect for everyone around her. Im not saying anything bad about public school children but they pick up wrong behaviors from other children and from some teachers. (my daughter was enrolled in publc schools for 3 years) She is also involved with people from all ages. Clubs, public school friends, volunteering at our local Toys for Tots and homeless shelters. Socialization is the least thing that I worry about. She is way more outgoing and social then I have ever been, and I am a public school graduate. Here are a couple of websites that we go to for help, lesson plans, etc.
http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/interactive.htm
http://classroom.jc-schools.net/math-unit/
http://classroom.jc-schools.net/sci-units/
... is that if you know where to look for the dent, you will always see a little mark ... that's why these techniques are primarily used by caryards.
But, if you are selling the car - or don't look TOO close - or don't care ... then using these techniques (or even professional PDR shops that use funny-looking tools to 'massage the dents out') can save you a bundle!
Thanks for the great tips! AJC.
Givem you article, it's not surprising that this far and away the most popular post on my site:
http://7million7years.com/2008/02/04/how-much-to-spend-on-a-house/
You don't want to live 'land rich ... dirt poor' ... AJC.
A lot of people also misunderstood what equity actually means. For example, one of my friends told me that he is going to suddenly get $500,000 in equity because he is buying a house, and I asked him if he knew that equity means the value of the house minus the amount of debt, and he didn't. Another couple I know are doing an interest only loan, and they keep on talking about equity to me, too. It's pretty bizarre because I know they are pretty much just renting the money from the bank.
I would like to dispute Paul's interpretation of the car theft statistics by make/model/year. Paul suggests that the fancy cars aren't on the "most stolen" list because they are harder to move for thieves, which is a valid point, but don't think the statistics given support it.
I think it's MUCH more likely that fancy cars aren't on that list is because there are many more average cars on the road, and far fewer of the fancy cars on the road. What percentage of '95 Honda civics are stolen versus the number of '95 Honda civics on the road?
Say there are 10,000 '95 Honda civics on the road and 100 of them get stolen, and say there are 100 pretty BMW's on the road and 20 of them get stolen. Now, far fewer BMW's are stolen in total, but theft of existing Honda's is 1% and theft of existing BMW's is 20% HUGE DIFFERENCE!
Which is why if you own a beautiful fancy car, you never park it on the street in a bad neighborhood. Because if a car thief sees your BMW next to a beat up Honda, if he's willing to steal and resell a car, which is more worth the effort?
This is a silly article.
On an unrelated note, why is gold so cheap in weight comparison to diamonds? One pound of gold costs a tenth of one pound of diamonds, it's nonsense!
The radio DJs in my area have been telling people to have their 5's checked at banks because some don't look like "normal" ones. :) The 5's they describe sound like the new ones. Looks like we got our new fives right off the bat! I wonder why they didn't know about the new design, I did.
are never far from the imagination. The funny thing is that in my travels I have actually heard of people using the goat idea and making decent money with it. My personal favorite is using Craigslist, you can make a lot of money reselling items that you bought from there, I know a guy that does that with cars and makes a fortune. Great post, thanks.
Brock, I would invest nearly all of the extra money -- your investments should really grow at a higher interest rate (overall, over time) and starting now will make a huge difference in the long run and financially, you will be better off. If you get in a jam, you can tap into your investments to pay off the loans (though holding some in cash will be helpful) -- that's from a pure calculation standpoint. There may be psychological value in paying off loans early -- for me that would be the truck loan; still you have a great interest rate and you are likely to get a higher return in the market.
Ah, I'm so proud to see Yakima on that list. I'm not from Yakima, but just glad that SOMEWHERE outside of the SW and California got a mention.
Because there would be no point in you hiring a professional photographer in the first place if that's all you want. Get it?
As a professional photographer I do not agree with scanning images because you feel it is your right to do so. Copyright laws are copyright laws period.
What so many consumers forget is that the fee they are paying is for the time and talent of the artist. Many photographers spend years researching, studying, learning, and honing their craft. Just because you have a copy of photoshop does not mean you know how to use it, and just because you have a camera does not mean you know the principles of fine photography.
For example: Lets say you pay $150 for your creative fee. The photographer spends 1 hour in a consultation. The photographer spends another hour location scouting (this includes gas and milleage.) Then the photographer spends another hour setting up, getting to know your family etc. Then the session itself last approx 2-3 hours. Now, that photographer must spend another hour or so going through the images (most I know take around 2-300 per session) and whittling them down to 30. Most professional photographers I know also shoot in RAW which requires special software that cost sometimes upward to the $1000 range. So that means 30 images the photographer must then spend approx 30 min to an hour a piece editing because they must create a black and white conversion of each image (and proper conversions are more than just desaturating.) Now the photographer must not only prepare the images (all 60 of them) for web use, but also for print use, and proofing, and archiving (if you are doing things properly you don't archive a jpg format you archive in TIFF format.) AND..if the photographer is doing it correctly they've color managed for the specific printer at the same time. WHEW!
now you do the math...how much exactly have you paid the photographer and how much exactly have you paid them per hour for all that work from the original creative fee?
And as far as getting "all your images" I do not agree with this. Like many photographers I consider myself an artist because I have studied art as well as photography. I would never put my name on anything that was not fully processed. If you want those kinds of images (just snapshots where you don't care if faces are blurred or teeth look yellow) then just find Aunty Sue and her point and shoot camera and have her take the photos for free.
On another note: alot of photographers today are making cd's available as well as prints and also giving a discount for enlargements and other products.
Philip,
I've been producing asktheheadhunter.com for almost 15 years. One of my readers put me on to what you wrote above. Made me slap my forehead, wow. The site is devoted to the simple idea that if you want a job, you must go into the interview and DO THE JOB, right there in front of the manager. You must show how you will deliver profit to the business. As you imply, that eliminates almost all potential candidates, and gives the edge to those who are most serious and motivated.
Now I want to get a hold of that crummy Duvall movie (hey, I like Duvall a lot, so I'll be able to sit through the whole thing) - it'll be a good time. Kudos to you for publishing your advice on this topic. Your 3 steps are mirrored in my 4 Questions. Hope you enjoy the site if you have a minute to check it out.
Best,
Nick Corcodilos
asktheheadhunter.com
@Greg: You've put your finger on the problem with market value--it depends entirely on finding a buyer who will pay that much. I know of some rural land around here that sold for over $5500 an acre back when the market price for similar land was about $3000--because the buyer wanted that exact piece of land. Was that what the land was worth? Arguably it was--someone paid that much for it. But any other owners who began to imagine that their land was worth as much ended up sorely disappointed.
@Guest: The productive and rental value may be difficult to forecast into the future, but surely it's no more difficult to find out what similar houses rent for than it is to find out what they sell for. You can get a pretty good idea just by checking the "for rent" ads in the paper.
The thing about rentals is that the information is current: The amount of the rent gets reset every year, and the rent actually gets paid every month. On the other hand, a house can go years--even decades--without being sold.
Unless you have an offer in hand, the market value is just a guess.
There are plenty of people who will make that guess, based on recent sales of similar properties (and other things). But I think homeowners who take that guess, subtract what the owe on their mortgage, and then call that their "equity" are just fooling themselves.
Equity is easy to calculate. Especially now that decent approximations of market value are free of charge online.
I'm finding the task of calculating value based on productivity plus rent collected (or not spent) to be a little more subjective. I am assuming that the value is the sum of all future years productivity and rent. Further, the percent of total that each of those two summands contributes, I suppose, would depend on how the property was purposed.
OK. We need to adjust for many factors, as mentioned in the post. Do we adjust for inflation as well, to find the value in today's dollars? We must assume that the property remains purposed in the same way, and isn't the source of unexpected fabulous wealth or ID'd as a superfund site, etc. My point is, that this calculation has some major assumptions behind it, (but I guess the equity calc based on market value does too)
It's an interesting analysis to play with though. And it adds a level of control over one's own property value, where we have little control over our equity. For example, the idea may prompt a landowner, even in a suburban or urban area, to consider innovative ways to gain productivity or rental income on an existing property. (Hopefully innovative within the law). I believe true RE investors tend to do this manner of analysis at some level whether they are fully aware of it or not.
Your garden variety home owner may lack the sophistication, patience, or motive to run this analysis. As previously observed here and in prior posts, the equity calculation is easy to understand, PLUS it was (and will be again, I'm sure) a great way for many folks to sell all sorts of loan 'products.' Which of course all amount to commitments of future earnings, based on some present market value using the property as collateral.
Will the practice of calculating market value fall away in lieu of this other way to determine value. Ha ha. Come on. the astute will always do both and choose how to assert a value depending on what side of the deal they're on. Mwa ha ha.
As anyone that lives in a big city in the Eastern U.S. can attest to, bedbugs have become a HUGE problem. Any upholstered furniture is susceptible, and many bugs have been spread simply by people picking up mattresses secondhand after they've been 'sanitized'. Bedbugs are resiliant and resistant to many pesticides, and while your mattress or couch may be free, you will wind up paying hundreds of dollars in exterminators' fees!!
Philip, your post brings to mind one thing that's always been a bit of a mystery to me. You mention two ways to determine the value of land: production value and rental value. I've always thought there was another, and equally valid, way of determining something's worth. For instance, When my mom died, she owned a 35-acre ranch, a very unique property with creek frontage and irrigated fields and end-of-road privacy, and so on. We had a couple of appraisers tell us what they thought of it, but in the end I always came back to the same idea: the land's value is what you can get someone to pay you for it. If someone looking for property comes across a place that they absolutely fall in love with, and must have, they then value the place more (and hopefully fork over more cash for) than someone else who doesn't love it as much. Right? I've always thought that the "value" of land or a homestead was really highly subjective, and that the whole business of appraising was almost pointless.
I save tons of money using coupons. 1. I clip them from the Sunday paper and swap ones I don't use with a few friends. My mother and an aunt send me coupons since they don't use them at all. I also use mail in rebates and other "instant" rebate coupons in stores. These are usually available in the section where beer and wine are sold. It's fun to get $10 and $15 checks in the mail. 2. I plan our meals based on what's on sale at the stores I drive by regularly. By sale, I mean significant markdown, or even better BOGO. For example, one of the stores I shop at offers double coupons up to .99 cents. Today, huge jars of Smuckers grape jam are $1.00 each. I have three coupons for .35 off each jar. With the great sale and coupons, I got three 32 ounce jars of jam for a total of .90 cents. I stock up on everything when it's on sale and I have coupons. We rarely run out of anything. I also buy meat if it's the last day of freshness and put it in the freezer. 3. Once a week is Refrigerator Banquet Day, usually Fridays. If it's in the house and you can fix it (or I can help you since my kids are young), you can eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. If eggs and biscuits have been on sale that week, that just might be your dinner Friday night. 4. Shop where they offer bonus bucks. Like CVS. Buy an item on sale using a coupon and get bonus bucks back that you can use to buy other items in the store. Use the bonus bucks to buy stuff that's on sale and use more coupons. You end up getting free stuff ultimately. 5. A good shopping trip for me is when I save at least as much as I spend. for example, I was very happy this morning when the register rang up $144 worth of groceries. I paid $71.74 for them. 6. Here's another tip. Always scan your coupons last, AFTER you have scanned your customer card. This way, you make sure that you get the coupon discount deducted from the store's sale price and not the full price. The way I like to do it is to have the clerk scan the groceries first, then scan my customer card, then scan my coupons. 7. Use a coupon organizer. Here's a video about how to select and organize one. I love saving money!
I have a old pressure cooker that is aluminum, and i herd that if you use aluminum it will make a poison? is this true?
Where I live there are shared garages (like 6 alltogether). Because my neighbours all have automatic garage door openers despite me telling them how easy these are to open I park my car outside under a street lamp where it is clearly visible from every window around here (suburbs, so many houses).
In two years there has been two breakins in the garage, both times the thieves emptied all the cars, leaving mine untouched.
this bowling ball is the crapiest bowling ball i have ever seen in my life
Everyone is taught about 'supply and demand' and yet something that should be more important doesn't cost as much as Coke... Granted, I like my cans of pop, but still. You're not going to see a potential war influenced by the threat to sugar and caramel colour.
We must have some pretty hefty subsidies.
I use to go there all the time until they started all these promotions. I just want a movie, stop asking me all these questions. The girl was very nice and tried to explain they HAVE to say it all or get in trouble and even though most guests dont like it, they have to. She was written up because she didn't make 10 bundles. 10 candy bundles on a slow day sound stupid to me. Well anyways, i can understand why they are closing, i would rather do my stuff online and not have to be bothered with all the promotions.
I use to go there all the time until they started all these promotions. I just want a movie, stop asking me all these questions. The girl was very nice and tried to explain they HAVE to say it all or get in trouble and even though most guests dont like it, they have to. She was written up because she didn't make 10 bundles. 10 candy bundles on a slow day sound stupid to me. Well anyways, i can understand why they are closing, i would rather do my stuff online and not have to be bothered with all the promotions.
Sometimes, I do wonder if I'm contributing to a slower economy. I'm trying to shift us from buying foods that are increasing in price, to foods that tend to still be steady. I'm going to the thrift store for clothes now, where I can - the kids and I don't need brand-new, although my husband's job needs him to have fairly high quality stuff (and I will look to see if there's anything at the thrift store for him too).
Then I look at the other people in the checkout line with me. When their cart is half as full, and their bill is twice as much, I know that the economy has lots of push behind it. Sometimes I'm in awe of other people, for having really good deals and high quality foods, and sometimes I look at what we got at a particular store and I'm very aware that I'm doing stress-binge-eating again - but generally, even then, others are spending far more.
There are new stores being built, there's an area of land being fought over for perhaps a big box store - here, at least, there are many more people spending than there are people who aren't.