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.
My husband keeps a backup key in his wallet, after I read about it in an article someplace. It means that when he does accidentally lock his keys in the car, he's fine. It's happened a few times in the last few years, so I know it's been worth the few dollars to get that key made. :)
And he discovered that it's very handy to have that key to start the car in winter mornings, to let it start warming while he gathers his lunch. The car can be locked for that few minutes away.
The papa murphys near me does a great job about being quick and serving the customers in order. I usually go there because I like their pizza and I have coupons for there. This site has lots of free pizza coupons. If you like to eat pizza, try checking it out. www.1pizzacoupons.com
I can't tell you how many times I found something on sale that I had already, and it was a fantastic buy. I wanted to buy it so I could feel like a got a deal, even though I didn't need it. Yeah, being a bargain hound can be really painful.
Unless you're already gardening, growing and drying your own herbs isn't going to save anything, and most spices can't be grown by ordinary gardeners.
I bought a jar of Italian mix at my local dollar store seven years ago, and I'm just reaching the bottom, with the scent and taste still quite strong. Keep in a dark place and away from heat for longevity. Any time I need a replacement I look first at the dollar store, and second, at the Rite Aid drug store. Not exactly the usual source, but worth checking out. The selection varies at both, and you may not always find what you want, but when you do, the savings are significant.
If I buy fair trade, organic, second hand, local and I budget carefully for it, then I hope it's the right thing to do. That's the best I have to offer the world in terms of my purchasing. Perhaps these people take advantage of me and the producer of the goods as much as the corporate world does, but it's the closest I can come to my conscience.
Sometimes, I have little choice in my purchasing. Wal-Mart chased away all the other businesses in the small (5K people) town my husband is from. When we visit and I need sunscreen, I go to Wal-Mart even though I know they "suggest" to their manufacturers outsourcing of labor. I don't feel great about it, but I give myself a pass. I could never make the same decision in my home town of a million.
When I play keeping up with the Joneses in my head, I do sometimes wish that my beliefs would allow me to take advantage of someone else's disadvantage.
Nor am I saying my actions are a good model for others. I'm actually just pointing out my own weakness: I'm a lot more likely to act on what I've seen than to go out and investigate what I don't know about.
Haven't you ever wished you DIDN'T know about the consequences of some action you used to take guilt-free?
A terribly interesting book (that I don't see mentioned in this discussion) is "The Progress Paradox" by Gregg Easterbrook. It outlines why Americans feel so let down by the current state of affairs, but in fact, Americans have seen an incredible increase in standard of living in the last 50 years.
There was a time, not too long ago, when middle class was defined as having "one TV and one car per household". MIDDLE CLASS. I would think that there are many, many people living near the technical definition of poverty that would possess these two things.
As the price of goods has fallen, we only see the financial equivalent of our material possessions, not the overall benefit they bring to our lives. When TVs were $1000 a pop, we felt better about owning one. Now that I can buy a 20" LCD TV for $299 or less, I don't feel quite so fortunate to own a TV. Yet the benefit it brings to my life is the same, no matter what I had paid for it.
About car ownership (by Beth). Using that line of reasoning, my Lear jet and my 120 foot yacht won't ever get stolen either -- since I don't own a yacht nor a Lear jet.
A Zipcar can still be stolen; it might not be yours. But if it should get stolen/totalled/damaged while under your responsibility/rental, who's got some 'splaining to do?
The amount of "refinance your mortgage" ads seems to have dropped considerably. And for all the talk of a government bailout, there hasn't really been one. (Virtually the entire extent of the government action so far has been to clarify a couple of technical rules to make it clear that lenders can work out problem loans, even if they've been packaged and sold.)
So, I think there's real reason to hope that things will return to normal. So many people see that "home prices always go up" is false (and so many people have negative equity now), that I think it'll be a generation before people will be so easily fooled again.
I think one of the major problems with this, though, is that everyone and his brother is trying to convince us that the home equity is actual money. The preponderance of home equity loans is one example. Then the stupid, at least here, East/West Mortgage ads, their newest is to say,"Tired of paying 18% on your credit cards? Would you like to lower it to 6%?" What that means is you take out an additional home equity loan or refinance your mortgage including the amount of your credit card debt, so then you pay off your credit cards and instead pay the extra loan or mortgage. Which, on the one hand, is basically what credit counselors do, kinda. Consolidating debt into one loan isn't new. But, they don't tell you how that translates into the mortgage, by adding $5k, $10k or more to your THIRTY YEAR payment plan, how much extra are you really paying on that money? Are you saving anything than if you just started paying off your credit cards to begin with?
The fact that there are so many such ads--coming at us from so many directions, from institutions we can rationalize wouldn't try to cheat us, they're trying to make money from us and they can't do that if we can't pay, so if we can't pay, they wouldn't be loaning us the money--is what the problem is. The average American has been conditioned for YEARS to trust information from certain sources (banks, the gub-ment) and they get suckered in by these money grubbing fools. Interest only mortgages anyone? I'm not a finance expert but when those popped up I looked at my husband and said - does anything about that sound like a good idea?? But there are a lot of slick talkers out there with initials after their names and people believe them.
It's so frustrating, especially when the government is bailing out those slick-talkers and their equally guilty prey (for not researching the whole thing more and taking someone at face value) AND I DID THE RIGHT THING AND GOT A LOAN THAT I CAN PAY AND AM PAYING RESPONSIBLY! Where's my bailout? Refinance?
The first couple of years after I was married I found Christmas was a very expensive business. My in-laws liked to give each other expensive gifts. This was fine because my husband's siblings were not married then and only had to buy a few gifts but we had gifts for my family also and had to buy 22 gifts.
I suggested that we draw a name so that each person would get one good gift or limit the gifts to $10 or $20. They refused and one brother-in-law made a point of leaving the price tag on his gift to us.
I certainly didn't stand corrected. He was just counting his one Christmas present to us. But we have given to him all year round, eg entertaining his friends when they were visiting our town - bil just gave our name and phone number without consulting us and telling them to look us up. Letting his friends stay at our place when we were on holidays. Treating him for meals and giving him books and other things. He would let us buy software and then he would borrow it and had the nerve to remind us to get the update! He took all these things for granted but it cost us time and money.
My MIL rejected gifts we gave her. She just said she didn't want it, take it back. I took no pleasure in gift giving but my husband said we had to give her a gift. I would buy her something from a department store and she would receive her gift and the receipt so she could exchange it.
I discovered that it was his family that insisted on Christmas gifts. Their spouses all shared the same view as I did but got no where about changing things. My SIL's husband said she didn't speak to him for a day after he suggested no gifts.
Finally, a few years ago we said that we would stop giving gifts.
Only those under 21 and over 65 would get a gift. And we would donate money to a charity.
It created a big fuss. I couldn't understand why. After all, their kids would still presents. We don't have kids so, in effect, they got a better deal because they wouldn't have any costs and their kids got something free.
My MIL called us cheap. She said that even when they were poor everyone got a gift. This is the woman who always rejected our gifts! My SIL said, "Don't you want to feel validated by having a gift?" Validated? I have enough self-esteem I don't need a leather eye glass holder, probably the cheapest item from Ferragamo, to validate myself!
Most of the gifts we received from them ended up at the Salvation Army. Items such as the Itty Bitty Book Light, Deep Fryer, mostly stuff from Costco. All unused. And I noticed that they didn't care for our gifts either. Christmas dinner is at MIL's and his brothers don't even bother to take the presents home. They have been left in MIL's basement for years.
MIL has a room full of Christmas presents, some unopened. We cleared out her pantry and threw out lots of stuff from Christmas baskets - cookies, tea, candies all untouched and past their safe-use date. What a waste!
I jokingly told my husband that we should go into the basement, rewrap a couple of her gifts and give them to her and she wouldn't even know the difference. Actually, last Christmas I found an old gift bag and tag we had used for her gift. I used it again for our gift to her and as I hadn't dated it, we didn't have to write another tag even. How is that for recycling?
Usually, I write a couple of sentences for comments but I have gone on and on. It is a sore sujbect. Which is sad because there is no spirit of Christmas in that sort of gift giving.
“Hm. Can Target sell an $12 sweatshirt and still pay the person who sewed it fairly? I don't know, and since the answer might make me stop shopping at Target, I'm not sure I want to know.”
“Once I saw videos of chickens crammed into coops, one on top of the other, I could never again bring myself to buy eggs that are not cage free, even though they cost more.”
So, you are fine with humans being mistreated, but chickens are where you draw the line? Have you ever even been around a real chicken? They are probably the dumbest animal on the planet and are one of the few animals that the “Industrial” animal farms can use to make their case for abusing animals (so dumb they aren’t self-aware). I’m not saying that abusing chickens is ok, but this advice is obviously worthless. Spend your money saving humans first, it’s a bigger bang for your buck.
Sorry, but you truly can't save the world as an individual (and as I bible believer, I know it's gonna go someday anyway). Our leaders have sold us out slowly but surely over the years. ANY spending I do these days is as little as possible, and I've cut every corner I can think of. I'm within walking distance of a Walmart and a Dollar General and some thrift stores, and the evil giants certainly get my business. I buy new things seldom. Gift giving in our family is no more except for the kiddies occasionally. And $12 for a sweat shirt? Cut me a break. New ones can be had for less thn $2 on a good day in a thrift store. Guess I'm getting too old to be reading and commenting on Wise Bread. Any 50-somethings here besides me?
What keeps me away from sale items I don't need is - the cost of ownership. Even if you get something for free you have to pay to store and maintain it. Too much unused stuff is clutter which may have a negative impact on your life. You might even have to pay to dispose of it.
I am 22 and I bought a brand new house for $158,000 last May 07' my payment w/o taxes or insurance is 925.00 per month @ 30yrs @ 5.865% fixed intrest. My lawn business is growing very quick, so I now make an additional 300.00 payment per month toward the house, and and additional $200 toward my truck payment per month (which is normally 290@ 6% at 60 months). does everyone think paying these loans down is the smartest thing to do with my money? Or should I make normal payments, and bank away all that additional $500.oo per month?
I have also lived in the 3rd world and am thinking about a post about the many ways to look at cheap labor. After all there are so many countries out there that have nothing to offer the world market but cheap labor, and if we didn't have this race to the bottom, they would not be able to attract any manufacturing at all. It's definitely more complicated than it would first appear.
Many Asian countries share similar values about money, stemming from their shared Confucian teachings, which include thrift. I'm Chinese American and was raised on such values.
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.
My husband keeps a backup key in his wallet, after I read about it in an article someplace. It means that when he does accidentally lock his keys in the car, he's fine. It's happened a few times in the last few years, so I know it's been worth the few dollars to get that key made. :)
And he discovered that it's very handy to have that key to start the car in winter mornings, to let it start warming while he gathers his lunch. The car can be locked for that few minutes away.
The papa murphys near me does a great job about being quick and serving the customers in order. I usually go there because I like their pizza and I have coupons for there. This site has lots of free pizza coupons. If you like to eat pizza, try checking it out. www.1pizzacoupons.com
I can't tell you how many times I found something on sale that I had already, and it was a fantastic buy. I wanted to buy it so I could feel like a got a deal, even though I didn't need it. Yeah, being a bargain hound can be really painful.
Unless you're already gardening, growing and drying your own herbs isn't going to save anything, and most spices can't be grown by ordinary gardeners.
I bought a jar of Italian mix at my local dollar store seven years ago, and I'm just reaching the bottom, with the scent and taste still quite strong. Keep in a dark place and away from heat for longevity. Any time I need a replacement I look first at the dollar store, and second, at the Rite Aid drug store. Not exactly the usual source, but worth checking out. The selection varies at both, and you may not always find what you want, but when you do, the savings are significant.
Come on, we know its the CHOCK-a-let and not the green coating!
Yes, ALL THE TIME!
If I buy fair trade, organic, second hand, local and I budget carefully for it, then I hope it's the right thing to do. That's the best I have to offer the world in terms of my purchasing. Perhaps these people take advantage of me and the producer of the goods as much as the corporate world does, but it's the closest I can come to my conscience.
Sometimes, I have little choice in my purchasing. Wal-Mart chased away all the other businesses in the small (5K people) town my husband is from. When we visit and I need sunscreen, I go to Wal-Mart even though I know they "suggest" to their manufacturers outsourcing of labor. I don't feel great about it, but I give myself a pass. I could never make the same decision in my home town of a million.
When I play keeping up with the Joneses in my head, I do sometimes wish that my beliefs would allow me to take advantage of someone else's disadvantage.
DON'T do what Donny Don't does.
Nor am I saying my actions are a good model for others. I'm actually just pointing out my own weakness: I'm a lot more likely to act on what I've seen than to go out and investigate what I don't know about.
Haven't you ever wished you DIDN'T know about the consequences of some action you used to take guilt-free?
A terribly interesting book (that I don't see mentioned in this discussion) is "The Progress Paradox" by Gregg Easterbrook. It outlines why Americans feel so let down by the current state of affairs, but in fact, Americans have seen an incredible increase in standard of living in the last 50 years.
There was a time, not too long ago, when middle class was defined as having "one TV and one car per household". MIDDLE CLASS. I would think that there are many, many people living near the technical definition of poverty that would possess these two things.
As the price of goods has fallen, we only see the financial equivalent of our material possessions, not the overall benefit they bring to our lives. When TVs were $1000 a pop, we felt better about owning one. Now that I can buy a 20" LCD TV for $299 or less, I don't feel quite so fortunate to own a TV. Yet the benefit it brings to my life is the same, no matter what I had paid for it.
The company runs a credit check?
Is that legal? If so, does it happen often?
About car ownership (by Beth). Using that line of reasoning, my Lear jet and my 120 foot yacht won't ever get stolen either -- since I don't own a yacht nor a Lear jet.
A Zipcar can still be stolen; it might not be yours. But if it should get stolen/totalled/damaged while under your responsibility/rental, who's got some 'splaining to do?
The amount of "refinance your mortgage" ads seems to have dropped considerably. And for all the talk of a government bailout, there hasn't really been one. (Virtually the entire extent of the government action so far has been to clarify a couple of technical rules to make it clear that lenders can work out problem loans, even if they've been packaged and sold.)
So, I think there's real reason to hope that things will return to normal. So many people see that "home prices always go up" is false (and so many people have negative equity now), that I think it'll be a generation before people will be so easily fooled again.
I think one of the major problems with this, though, is that everyone and his brother is trying to convince us that the home equity is actual money. The preponderance of home equity loans is one example. Then the stupid, at least here, East/West Mortgage ads, their newest is to say,"Tired of paying 18% on your credit cards? Would you like to lower it to 6%?" What that means is you take out an additional home equity loan or refinance your mortgage including the amount of your credit card debt, so then you pay off your credit cards and instead pay the extra loan or mortgage. Which, on the one hand, is basically what credit counselors do, kinda. Consolidating debt into one loan isn't new. But, they don't tell you how that translates into the mortgage, by adding $5k, $10k or more to your THIRTY YEAR payment plan, how much extra are you really paying on that money? Are you saving anything than if you just started paying off your credit cards to begin with?
The fact that there are so many such ads--coming at us from so many directions, from institutions we can rationalize wouldn't try to cheat us, they're trying to make money from us and they can't do that if we can't pay, so if we can't pay, they wouldn't be loaning us the money--is what the problem is. The average American has been conditioned for YEARS to trust information from certain sources (banks, the gub-ment) and they get suckered in by these money grubbing fools. Interest only mortgages anyone? I'm not a finance expert but when those popped up I looked at my husband and said - does anything about that sound like a good idea?? But there are a lot of slick talkers out there with initials after their names and people believe them.
It's so frustrating, especially when the government is bailing out those slick-talkers and their equally guilty prey (for not researching the whole thing more and taking someone at face value) AND I DID THE RIGHT THING AND GOT A LOAN THAT I CAN PAY AND AM PAYING RESPONSIBLY! Where's my bailout? Refinance?
The first couple of years after I was married I found Christmas was a very expensive business. My in-laws liked to give each other expensive gifts. This was fine because my husband's siblings were not married then and only had to buy a few gifts but we had gifts for my family also and had to buy 22 gifts.
I suggested that we draw a name so that each person would get one good gift or limit the gifts to $10 or $20. They refused and one brother-in-law made a point of leaving the price tag on his gift to us.
I certainly didn't stand corrected. He was just counting his one Christmas present to us. But we have given to him all year round, eg entertaining his friends when they were visiting our town - bil just gave our name and phone number without consulting us and telling them to look us up. Letting his friends stay at our place when we were on holidays. Treating him for meals and giving him books and other things. He would let us buy software and then he would borrow it and had the nerve to remind us to get the update! He took all these things for granted but it cost us time and money.
My MIL rejected gifts we gave her. She just said she didn't want it, take it back. I took no pleasure in gift giving but my husband said we had to give her a gift. I would buy her something from a department store and she would receive her gift and the receipt so she could exchange it.
I discovered that it was his family that insisted on Christmas gifts. Their spouses all shared the same view as I did but got no where about changing things. My SIL's husband said she didn't speak to him for a day after he suggested no gifts.
Finally, a few years ago we said that we would stop giving gifts.
Only those under 21 and over 65 would get a gift. And we would donate money to a charity.
It created a big fuss. I couldn't understand why. After all, their kids would still presents. We don't have kids so, in effect, they got a better deal because they wouldn't have any costs and their kids got something free.
My MIL called us cheap. She said that even when they were poor everyone got a gift. This is the woman who always rejected our gifts! My SIL said, "Don't you want to feel validated by having a gift?" Validated? I have enough self-esteem I don't need a leather eye glass holder, probably the cheapest item from Ferragamo, to validate myself!
Most of the gifts we received from them ended up at the Salvation Army. Items such as the Itty Bitty Book Light, Deep Fryer, mostly stuff from Costco. All unused. And I noticed that they didn't care for our gifts either. Christmas dinner is at MIL's and his brothers don't even bother to take the presents home. They have been left in MIL's basement for years.
MIL has a room full of Christmas presents, some unopened. We cleared out her pantry and threw out lots of stuff from Christmas baskets - cookies, tea, candies all untouched and past their safe-use date. What a waste!
I jokingly told my husband that we should go into the basement, rewrap a couple of her gifts and give them to her and she wouldn't even know the difference. Actually, last Christmas I found an old gift bag and tag we had used for her gift. I used it again for our gift to her and as I hadn't dated it, we didn't have to write another tag even. How is that for recycling?
Usually, I write a couple of sentences for comments but I have gone on and on. It is a sore sujbect. Which is sad because there is no spirit of Christmas in that sort of gift giving.
My husband and I recently started using BulkHome.com for bulk grocery shopping. They have free shipping and don't charge membership fees.
It's one of the ways we save money. That and a tough but flexible budget.
Vons. Not Von's
Fact checking FTW.
The best way to save money is to not spend it.
The best way to keep your car from being stolen is not to own one in the first place. I'm a Zipcar member. My car will never be stolen.
Pathetic and misguided:
“Hm. Can Target sell an $12 sweatshirt and still pay the person who sewed it fairly? I don't know, and since the answer might make me stop shopping at Target, I'm not sure I want to know.”
“Once I saw videos of chickens crammed into coops, one on top of the other, I could never again bring myself to buy eggs that are not cage free, even though they cost more.”
So, you are fine with humans being mistreated, but chickens are where you draw the line? Have you ever even been around a real chicken? They are probably the dumbest animal on the planet and are one of the few animals that the “Industrial” animal farms can use to make their case for abusing animals (so dumb they aren’t self-aware). I’m not saying that abusing chickens is ok, but this advice is obviously worthless. Spend your money saving humans first, it’s a bigger bang for your buck.
Think before you write next time.
Sorry, but you truly can't save the world as an individual (and as I bible believer, I know it's gonna go someday anyway). Our leaders have sold us out slowly but surely over the years. ANY spending I do these days is as little as possible, and I've cut every corner I can think of. I'm within walking distance of a Walmart and a Dollar General and some thrift stores, and the evil giants certainly get my business. I buy new things seldom. Gift giving in our family is no more except for the kiddies occasionally. And $12 for a sweat shirt? Cut me a break. New ones can be had for less thn $2 on a good day in a thrift store. Guess I'm getting too old to be reading and commenting on Wise Bread. Any 50-somethings here besides me?
What keeps me away from sale items I don't need is - the cost of ownership. Even if you get something for free you have to pay to store and maintain it. Too much unused stuff is clutter which may have a negative impact on your life. You might even have to pay to dispose of it.
I am 22 and I bought a brand new house for $158,000 last May 07' my payment w/o taxes or insurance is 925.00 per month @ 30yrs @ 5.865% fixed intrest. My lawn business is growing very quick, so I now make an additional 300.00 payment per month toward the house, and and additional $200 toward my truck payment per month (which is normally 290@ 6% at 60 months). does everyone think paying these loans down is the smartest thing to do with my money? Or should I make normal payments, and bank away all that additional $500.oo per month?
I have also lived in the 3rd world and am thinking about a post about the many ways to look at cheap labor. After all there are so many countries out there that have nothing to offer the world market but cheap labor, and if we didn't have this race to the bottom, they would not be able to attract any manufacturing at all. It's definitely more complicated than it would first appear.
Many Asian countries share similar values about money, stemming from their shared Confucian teachings, which include thrift. I'm Chinese American and was raised on such values.