Recent comments

How did you get your pig to sit still for that picture?  Mine is always squirming around...

Very enjoyable article.  I'll have to share it with some folks!

Linsey 

I use easy duplicate finder. It was reccommended by my PC "guru".
easyduplicatefinder.com down load and you're off sounds much akin to double killer. I use the default settings and let it tear through the whole pc all at once (that can take awhile) then you get the same sort of options keep this or that or neither. never had any problems with it and I run it once or twice a month.

Guest,

Sorry to hear about the bugs with Double Killer.  I had no problems, but systems will vary.  I updated the post to include SourceForge as a resource for finding an alternative OS option.

Thanks!

Linsey Knerl

I have contacted the author of the program, so I hope to get this solved.

It would be nice if wisebread posted on their blog the opensource alternatives in the coming days !!!! :)

Gas prices are changing EVERYTHING in this country. I can't think of anything that has occurred over the last 50 years that has infiltrated simply every aspect of our lives, like this current gas crisis. Even 9/11, which was a huge impact on many aspects of our lives, did not have as big an impact as this. Price of gasoline simply crawls into everything we consume and it changes consumption patterns that can disrupt entire sociological systems. Crazy...

Am I wrong, or doesn't your cable company take care of that for you?  I thought they were only for those with old school rabbit ears?  Correct me someone if I'm off, here...

Another good resource are the USDA Yearbooks. They are compilations of essays written by agents from different county extension offices. Our library has the USDA Yearbook, "Living on 5 Acres" from the "first" oil crisis of the 1970's and the advice they give is truthful and honest. No touchy-feely "sell" to abandon city life and return to the country, simply the facts laid out so you can make a good decision for your particular circumstances and they outline the financial pros and cons of both "traditional" and "organic" farming methods. We used these yearbook essays to raise poultry and geese and make infertile clay soil produce reliable gardens during the "first oil crisis" and the advice is still good today. Because the advice is honest, we decided to NOT raise a pig (goats are better on a small farm) and NOT to try our hand at certain high-maintenance crops that would have had marginal returns in our climate. Instead of raising goats, which was a possibility on our lot but the book warned would crimp our summer RV/camping lifestyle (you can use automatic feeders to feed and water a small poultry flock for the weekend, but not a larger farm animal), we instead came up with a nice arrangement to buy goats milk and cheese from our neighbor, who used the same book to launch her small business and benefitted from our steady patronage. I strongly suggest you see if you can get any of these yearbooks, even old ones, through interlibrary loan to supplement the Living on an Acre book, which is more of an introductory overview, and contact your local extension office if you need more specific information.

If we could pass some kind of universal health care system like every other industrialized country in the world that would end a lot of these headaches. People should not have to worry about the cost of their necessary medical treatments. It's plenty to deal with trying to get and stay healthy. Imagine having every necessary procedure paid for, and pharmaceuticals costing a couple dollars. That's life for much of the rest of the first world, and even some of the third.

I don't even buy the milk for the organic fact...But the sheer fact that it last upto a month and it the fat free milk tast great. So while I love the taste of it and I love the fact that I am not wasting money on buying milk once a week or so cause regular milk sours so soon.

The way I understood tontines, a group would invest a sum of money together, which remains invested until only one member of the original group is left alive, at which point he gets the whole thing.  It turns out to be a bit more complex than that.  There's a fascinating wiki page on tontines.

I'm glad you mention school fees, because I think there a great example of the fact that everybody does this all the time, within families.  Money for tuition comes from all different sources (savings, gifts, borrowing), but a central part of the money comes from parents paying the tuition, first for their eldest child, then the next, then the one after that. 

Looked at that way, it's really the exact same structure.  So, of course, it's vulnerable to all the same failure modes that any other sort of ROSCA is.  In particular, the parents could suffer a financial reversal after paying for one education and before paying for a second, or they could just decide that they'd rather keep their money.  We're aware of these problems, but we don't imagine that family finances need to be fundamentally changed--nobody suggests that we need "tuition insurance" to protect against a child losing his shot at college because his or her parents keep arguing about money.

Financial arrangements within the family structure are different from financial arrangements between families.  Since whether or not someone is "part of the family" are culturally determined, you can expect very different notions of whether a scheme like this can work.

I recommend eating at a restaurant during happy hour. Many restaurants or bars offer Happy Hour specials on their food (hoping you'll order a drink obviously!) but when you don't get a drink sometimes you can spend as little as $5 for a meal!
Plus, it won't be crowded since happy hour is normally between 3-6pm.

Lindsey - I really enjoyed your article, and agee with you on many points. This is a big concern of ours, too, as homeschooling parents.

I too grew up in the dark about my parents' financial situation, and in retrospect, I think they really were children themselves trying to deal with money. They had no good role models, until much later in life when my grandmother began a restaurant with a partner. Knowing what I know, I think the partner is probably why the place did so well financially, not my grandmother.

However, the emphasis in my home was on the APPEARANCE of wealth and money on expensive clothes, haircuts and always going out to eat (and taking friends out to eat versus cooking for them) all fed my idea that we were pretty well off, until my teens. Imagine my surprise at 14 when we had moved and the $350 long distance phone bill (from calling friends back home) came the same day (a week before Christmas) as my dad was laid off from his job (in a one-income family), AND we'd just purchased a house.

I wanted video games and expensive clothes that Christmas, but I received a typewriter and instructions to PLEASE pay mom and dad back as soon as possible. In retrospect, I think was one of the best things that could have happened, given my age. I was finally old enough to understand the debt AND earn money....I began to babysit and houseclean like mad for everyone in the neighborhood- including after school care and weekends, and by Spring break three or four months later, I had paid my parents back AND earned enough for a plane ticket to go see my friends back home (that I had spent so much money calling) and still had $150 or so dollars in spending money for my one week trip! I had finally taken responsibility, and our little "crisis" probably led my parents to be much more responsible fiscally with my younger brother, who was encouraged to work and earn money at a much younger age than I for the "extras".

Now with three kids ages 15, 14, and 11, (who all homeschool) our finances are usually pretty tight with one basic income and then our part time farming. They have learned from my earlier mistakes- they used to get an allowance, and then that morphed into credit for anything that went over our monthly budget for classes for them.

There did begin to be a fair amount of nickel and diming, so now there are just basic (unpayable) chores, occasional bonuses (like concert tickets or a pool mmebership) and they earn their own money through writing, designing cover art, babysitting, mother's helping, and selling items they make (like jewelry and bags) at the farmers market. We occasinally give advances for some items- but not for things like candy or consumables.

And at the end of our growing season, we figure costs, and profit and pay them a portion of the profit based upon how many hours they worked for the farm business. Last year, it was a very minimal amount since it was our first year, but they are all invested in it ,so it is more now like a co-op (everyone is paid the same amount per hour) than a business supported by low-wage earners.

I think some times they might know a little too much about our finances and get worried (people rarely get rich from farming) but generally when I ask what they want for birthdays and other gift occasions, they say they want a few small things, but also state that they have all that they need. They all save (some btter than others) and occasionally, they will buy something big like a mandolin, or computer or a lamb with those savings after careful research and consideration.

So, I am really hoping we are on the right track with them! Viva homeschooling math:)