I am right there with you on this! I love art and not just so-called "fine art" either. I love art from friends of mine too. For this Christmas, I commissioned a custom illustration from a friend I know who does really whimsical cut paper art (http://greenbeanbaby.etsy.com). This one is for my mom and replaces one I had done for her a few years ago before my youngest son was born. Etsy is an excellent source for this. Thanks for sharing!
My healthy habit for 2010 is to maintain the habits I have developed in 2009. I have mostly gotten on track with exercise and healthy eating. One thing I would like to add is more healthy cooking and some batch cooking so we always have yummy stuff ready to eat.
Most of the alcohol is created in the first couple days or so. I think you should have pulled your wine off to a secondary a long,,,, long time ago. There may be some odd flavours from sitting on the bed of yeast and pulp for so long. You can distill any time you want now. Since you have taken the time to make nice wines, you may want to consider making brandy. Use some of the wine in the thumper (doubler) for flavour. I just put in a hard wood floor, lots of white American oak sawdust. I wrap it tight in aluminum foil and toast it in the oven. Once you distill your brandy, you add the toasted sawdust to the bottle. Tip it upside down once a day. In a month or so, you will have 10 year old brandy. It does even better if the temps are going up and down daily, like day and night temps.
One consideration that hasn't been discussed here is safety. We drive a fullsize van which we have converted to a camper. We have also had a small car as our second car. A couple of years ago, we were in a freak accident driving on the Interstate, where a car on the other side had a collision and caromed across the median and hit us. We had just minor injuries. I am sure that we would have been a lot worse off, maybe badly injured or killed, if we had been driving a small, politically-correct car.
Therefore, I replaced the van with another full-size van. Since my wife gave up driving shortly after that, the van is now our only vehicle. I am willing to pay the extra gas costs for safety.
The cost of a minimal healthy diet unfortunately goes up with inflation like everything else. In October 2009, following the USDA's 2006 Thrifty Food Plan would have cost an average of $38.50 per week for young adult men.
The goal of the TFP is to follow nutritional guidelines, minimize costs, and not deviate unnecessarily from the usual American diet. So if you are willing to follow an unusual diet, you may be able to eat healthy for less. But I suspect not much less.
Neutral Trend TradeMax is a full featured Vista style trade software specifically designed for active traders and investors to manage their trade data, optimize their gain/loss strategy, and prepare their Schedule D or Mark-to-Market Form(4797).
The new features of TradeMax include
1.) Track your trades: You can setup different investment type accounts among whole family and manage trade data over years. TradeMax tracks and categorizes trade data and security price automatically. You can view all investment accounts in one place.
2.) Comprehensive Corporate Events Module : Recording various corporate events, such as stock splits, stock merge, spinoff and symbol changes
3.) Powerful importing module: TradeMax has pre-defined profiles support most brokers. TradeMax also provides a flexible format reorganization algorithm which allows you to customize your own format.
4.) Intelligent Option Cost Basis Adjustment Function: Auto- detecting Assigned, exercised and expired option, also defers cost to corresponding shares with its Option Adjustment function.
5.) Handle Wash Sales: TradeMax calculates various Wash Sale scenarios, include but are not limited to, Wash Sale between identical securities (stocks and options), Wash Sales on an unequal number of securities and Wash Sales on Same Day Rule.
6.) Simplify tax preparation: TradeMax can assign short trades and convert short / long position, and calculates Wash Sales automatically. You can generate Capital gains/losses report for Schedule D purpose or export *.txf file to popular tax software such as TaxCut, TurboTax.
7.) Analyze your trading performance: You can analyze your trading performance easily with the help of WashSales Detail Report,Summary Report, Transaction Report and Daily Market Value Report.
8.) Powerful Forex Rate Module:Auto-convert the transactions under Non-USD currency into USD figures.
I'm a healthy mid 30's guy who has never had to use a hospital or had anything major medical wise. i lost my job earlier this yr and didn't take the cobra option so i have no insurance at the moment. i consider myself politically independent, but here's my research that makes me lean against a public option: after my cobra option expired, i compared possible plans to pay on my own (i used the ehealthinsurance website) and my choices are Humana, Medical Mutual, Unitedhealth, and about 4 other companies, with plenty of options for deductibles and coverages. i'm planning on getting basic catastrophic coverage, not office visits or dental/vision. the avg competitive cost per month is around 65-75, with a 2500/yr deductible and 3-5 million lifetime max benefits. not bad. perhaps my options don't apply to everyone, but you should at least check if there's better coverage at a lower price for you.
the recent profit margins for insurance companies range from 3% to 8%, not terribly outrageous. media stories tend to not report this but rather reflect only a relative pct rise i.e. "68% rise in profits" or absolute profits "25 billion last year!" without the overall context of total revenue vs. total costs. (for a math example, an absolute rise in profit margin from 4% to 6% is a 50% relative rise, and should not be insinuated as a 50% profit margin). perhaps the math illiterate tend to have their emotions inflamed by less than accurate reporting. Blue Cross and others are already nonprofit.
a good analogy for me would grocery stores... they don't have terribly high profit margins and there's fairly good choice, and a gov't grocery store option simply would not bring down *costs*, the main driving factor in my point of view.
when i had insurance, my impression with doctors has been "useless and clueless" albeit well intentioned. for example last year my insurance company Aultcare had to pay a $600 bill for a 2 hr nonhospital visit, with only a $15 copay mine. i would never have authorized the doctor's ear and throat tests if had been told the cost and would have had to pay directly. health costs are high because "someone else" pays for it. i tend to blame doctors a little more than some would, experiences vary.
i would consider supporting a public plan but for catastrophic care only, and for only the "uninsurables" (me not included) and preferably just kept at the state level.
Yes and when you're on welfare between checks it's what feeds the kids for breakfast. Only sitting on you ass and no exercise would make eating butter give you a heart attack if you aren't already genetically prone to high fats deposits no matter what you do.
About a year ago I was missing the apple cider from my childhood. Every year we'd go to a pumpkin patch/apple orchard to pick out the Halloween pumpkin & get fresh pressed apple cider that fermented (from wild yeast) as it aged. My parents were very lax about alcohol. I can't remember dinner without wine as a child, and I even remember potty training!
Anyhow, I remembered someone many years ago telling me about "prison" or "jail-house" wine, which had something to do with fruit, water & garbage bags?? No clue how it worked...but I'm also not planning a life of crime! So I poked around the Internet read up on wine-making & decided to try my own.
So....with all the enthusiasm of a newbie, instead of using frozen concentrate, or even frozen fruit, I mashed & juiced a gazillion fresh fruits. (Maybe I exaggerate slightly, it was really only four trillion and five.) Now I have 3 'works in progress'...all started at the same time over a year ago!
1) 5 gallons of concord grape mash w/Merlot yeast & powdered sugar...however, the vapor lock broke, & I resealed, but God only knows what's in there!
2) 5 gallons of my apple mash from a mix of apples Gala, Fugi, Delicious...champagne yeast...a dribble of high fructose corn syrup, a dribble of molasses (because I was preparing all 3 at the same time and.....EEEEK! No sugar except confectioners.... so I tossed some in.)
3) 2 liter bottle of Mandarin Orange mash, bakers yeast & champagne yeast, powdered sugar, honey, vanilla extract & a very crude vapor lock...just a sandwich baggie & the rubber band from my hair...the baggie swells up & I squeeze it once a month
Since ALL 3 are still actively releasing CO2 (maybe because it was powdered sugar) do I need to keep waiting until fully fermented? or can I start distilling now? Let me rephrase, obviously I CAN start distilling now...but should I? is it better to wait? & how do you get the creamy liqueur (like Baily's)...I'm guessing you start by scraping out Vanilla beans?
@Julian - I don't know of one myself, but the first place I'd go to research this would be Transitions Abroad, which is a Site dedicated to Studying, working, and living abroad.
Start with this page; I already notice a few links that will help you find what you're looking for:
Thanks so much for your wisdom in regards to the debate over term vs. permanent. You are right in your analysis. The average American investor needs to wake up and commit to re-educating themselves about possible options that can help them grow their money tax-free and with a decent rate of return with moderate to low risk!
Ok, so my friend gave me this game disk for my original xbox (don't ask, short on cash to aquire a 360 >.>....shut up.) Anyways, it's Hitman: Blood Money and I REALLY want to play it, so I placed it in my xbox and i got the famous message: Unreadable. Please remove disk from console and continue. -.- ....my face, was priceless of course. I almost slammed my xbox into the wall of my room, with amazing anger, BUT, I removed the game and observed it: it had scratches, some deep. I used toothpaste (white of course) on it about 4 times that night, then washed it off and dryed it, then placed it in the console...still unreadable. So, tonight I tried rubbing alcohol first and waited for it to dry...placed it BACK into the console, still unreadable, tried toothpaste 5 times again, unreadable. So, I began reading ALL these ideas, mom explained to me some of them were ****, so I'm stuck unable to know what i should do as of right this moment...what should I DO, what would work good, and NOT cost me? Thanks =D signed, Hysteria.
Interesting post. The take home message is your last sentence. Food safety is up to us. The USDA only provides a false sense of security.
We recently purchased a whole cow from a local butcher. I'll admit, we didn't ask those questions, but I know the meat all came from the same cow.
I am right there with you on this! I love art and not just so-called "fine art" either. I love art from friends of mine too. For this Christmas, I commissioned a custom illustration from a friend I know who does really whimsical cut paper art (http://greenbeanbaby.etsy.com). This one is for my mom and replaces one I had done for her a few years ago before my youngest son was born. Etsy is an excellent source for this. Thanks for sharing!
I used the site recommended in the previous post http://itunes-giftcards.com/FAQ.html I live in Sweden and it worked great. I can recommend them.
Johnny marzetti - et. al. My step-monster called this American Chop Suey.
Debt Free in 2010!!!
This is not such a goal as it is a lifestyle choice.
If everyone gets the invoice price for a new car, the dealership will go under. After all, the employees aren't going to work for free!
My healthy habit for 2010 is to maintain the habits I have developed in 2009. I have mostly gotten on track with exercise and healthy eating. One thing I would like to add is more healthy cooking and some batch cooking so we always have yummy stuff ready to eat.
Most of the alcohol is created in the first couple days or so. I think you should have pulled your wine off to a secondary a long,,,, long time ago. There may be some odd flavours from sitting on the bed of yeast and pulp for so long. You can distill any time you want now. Since you have taken the time to make nice wines, you may want to consider making brandy. Use some of the wine in the thumper (doubler) for flavour. I just put in a hard wood floor, lots of white American oak sawdust. I wrap it tight in aluminum foil and toast it in the oven. Once you distill your brandy, you add the toasted sawdust to the bottle. Tip it upside down once a day. In a month or so, you will have 10 year old brandy. It does even better if the temps are going up and down daily, like day and night temps.
PaperbackSwap.com
SwapaCD.com
SwapaDVD.com
One consideration that hasn't been discussed here is safety. We drive a fullsize van which we have converted to a camper. We have also had a small car as our second car. A couple of years ago, we were in a freak accident driving on the Interstate, where a car on the other side had a collision and caromed across the median and hit us. We had just minor injuries. I am sure that we would have been a lot worse off, maybe badly injured or killed, if we had been driving a small, politically-correct car.
Therefore, I replaced the van with another full-size van. Since my wife gave up driving shortly after that, the van is now our only vehicle. I am willing to pay the extra gas costs for safety.
Thank you for this wonderful article! I am going to send this to a lot of people I know. It really gets to the heart of frugality.
The cost of a minimal healthy diet unfortunately goes up with inflation like everything else. In October 2009, following the USDA's 2006 Thrifty Food Plan would have cost an average of $38.50 per week for young adult men.
The goal of the TFP is to follow nutritional guidelines, minimize costs, and not deviate unnecessarily from the usual American diet. So if you are willing to follow an unusual diet, you may be able to eat healthy for less. But I suspect not much less.
Thanks, it's easy to miss out on ever receiving consumer rebates by not following the rules EXACTLY.
John DeFlumeri Jr
Extreme Frugality: Twenty Memories of My Mother
new features of TradeMax include
Neutral Trend TradeMax is a full featured Vista style trade software specifically designed for active traders and investors to manage their trade data, optimize their gain/loss strategy, and prepare their Schedule D or Mark-to-Market Form(4797).
The new features of TradeMax include
1.) Track your trades: You can setup different investment type accounts among whole family and manage trade data over years. TradeMax tracks and categorizes trade data and security price automatically. You can view all investment accounts in one place.
2.) Comprehensive Corporate Events Module : Recording various corporate events, such as stock splits, stock merge, spinoff and symbol changes
3.) Powerful importing module: TradeMax has pre-defined profiles support most brokers. TradeMax also provides a flexible format reorganization algorithm which allows you to customize your own format.
4.) Intelligent Option Cost Basis Adjustment Function: Auto- detecting Assigned, exercised and expired option, also defers cost to corresponding shares with its Option Adjustment function.
5.) Handle Wash Sales: TradeMax calculates various Wash Sale scenarios, include but are not limited to, Wash Sale between identical securities (stocks and options), Wash Sales on an unequal number of securities and Wash Sales on Same Day Rule.
6.) Simplify tax preparation: TradeMax can assign short trades and convert short / long position, and calculates Wash Sales automatically. You can generate Capital gains/losses report for Schedule D purpose or export *.txf file to popular tax software such as TaxCut, TurboTax.
7.) Analyze your trading performance: You can analyze your trading performance easily with the help of WashSales Detail Report,Summary Report, Transaction Report and Daily Market Value Report.
8.) Powerful Forex Rate Module:Auto-convert the transactions under Non-USD currency into USD figures.
http://www.itrademax.com
I'm a healthy mid 30's guy who has never had to use a hospital or had anything major medical wise. i lost my job earlier this yr and didn't take the cobra option so i have no insurance at the moment. i consider myself politically independent, but here's my research that makes me lean against a public option: after my cobra option expired, i compared possible plans to pay on my own (i used the ehealthinsurance website) and my choices are Humana, Medical Mutual, Unitedhealth, and about 4 other companies, with plenty of options for deductibles and coverages. i'm planning on getting basic catastrophic coverage, not office visits or dental/vision. the avg competitive cost per month is around 65-75, with a 2500/yr deductible and 3-5 million lifetime max benefits. not bad. perhaps my options don't apply to everyone, but you should at least check if there's better coverage at a lower price for you.
the recent profit margins for insurance companies range from 3% to 8%, not terribly outrageous. media stories tend to not report this but rather reflect only a relative pct rise i.e. "68% rise in profits" or absolute profits "25 billion last year!" without the overall context of total revenue vs. total costs. (for a math example, an absolute rise in profit margin from 4% to 6% is a 50% relative rise, and should not be insinuated as a 50% profit margin). perhaps the math illiterate tend to have their emotions inflamed by less than accurate reporting. Blue Cross and others are already nonprofit.
a good analogy for me would grocery stores... they don't have terribly high profit margins and there's fairly good choice, and a gov't grocery store option simply would not bring down *costs*, the main driving factor in my point of view.
when i had insurance, my impression with doctors has been "useless and clueless" albeit well intentioned. for example last year my insurance company Aultcare had to pay a $600 bill for a 2 hr nonhospital visit, with only a $15 copay mine. i would never have authorized the doctor's ear and throat tests if had been told the cost and would have had to pay directly. health costs are high because "someone else" pays for it. i tend to blame doctors a little more than some would, experiences vary.
i would consider supporting a public plan but for catastrophic care only, and for only the "uninsurables" (me not included) and preferably just kept at the state level.
Yes and when you're on welfare between checks it's what feeds the kids for breakfast. Only sitting on you ass and no exercise would make eating butter give you a heart attack if you aren't already genetically prone to high fats deposits no matter what you do.
Drink more water, and eat more raw foods....
About a year ago I was missing the apple cider from my childhood. Every year we'd go to a pumpkin patch/apple orchard to pick out the Halloween pumpkin & get fresh pressed apple cider that fermented (from wild yeast) as it aged. My parents were very lax about alcohol. I can't remember dinner without wine as a child, and I even remember potty training!
Anyhow, I remembered someone many years ago telling me about "prison" or "jail-house" wine, which had something to do with fruit, water & garbage bags?? No clue how it worked...but I'm also not planning a life of crime! So I poked around the Internet read up on wine-making & decided to try my own.
So....with all the enthusiasm of a newbie, instead of using frozen concentrate, or even frozen fruit, I mashed & juiced a gazillion fresh fruits. (Maybe I exaggerate slightly, it was really only four trillion and five.) Now I have 3 'works in progress'...all started at the same time over a year ago!
1) 5 gallons of concord grape mash w/Merlot yeast & powdered sugar...however, the vapor lock broke, & I resealed, but God only knows what's in there!
2) 5 gallons of my apple mash from a mix of apples Gala, Fugi, Delicious...champagne yeast...a dribble of high fructose corn syrup, a dribble of molasses (because I was preparing all 3 at the same time and.....EEEEK! No sugar except confectioners.... so I tossed some in.)
3) 2 liter bottle of Mandarin Orange mash, bakers yeast & champagne yeast, powdered sugar, honey, vanilla extract & a very crude vapor lock...just a sandwich baggie & the rubber band from my hair...the baggie swells up & I squeeze it once a month
Since ALL 3 are still actively releasing CO2 (maybe because it was powdered sugar) do I need to keep waiting until fully fermented? or can I start distilling now? Let me rephrase, obviously I CAN start distilling now...but should I? is it better to wait? & how do you get the creamy liqueur (like Baily's)...I'm guessing you start by scraping out Vanilla beans?
Thanks!
@Julian - I don't know of one myself, but the first place I'd go to research this would be Transitions Abroad, which is a Site dedicated to Studying, working, and living abroad.
Start with this page; I already notice a few links that will help you find what you're looking for:
Great tips and strategies, Philip! You're bang on...
Thanks so much for your wisdom in regards to the debate over term vs. permanent. You are right in your analysis. The average American investor needs to wake up and commit to re-educating themselves about possible options that can help them grow their money tax-free and with a decent rate of return with moderate to low risk!
Pardon me - you are talking about MedicAid/MedicCare fraud. Where? Please provide some details. I haven't heard of this being a problem.
And just curious - how much have the insurance companies been defrauded? Do you know?
Ok, so my friend gave me this game disk for my original xbox (don't ask, short on cash to aquire a 360 >.>....shut up.) Anyways, it's Hitman: Blood Money and I REALLY want to play it, so I placed it in my xbox and i got the famous message: Unreadable. Please remove disk from console and continue. -.- ....my face, was priceless of course. I almost slammed my xbox into the wall of my room, with amazing anger, BUT, I removed the game and observed it: it had scratches, some deep. I used toothpaste (white of course) on it about 4 times that night, then washed it off and dryed it, then placed it in the console...still unreadable. So, tonight I tried rubbing alcohol first and waited for it to dry...placed it BACK into the console, still unreadable, tried toothpaste 5 times again, unreadable. So, I began reading ALL these ideas, mom explained to me some of them were ****, so I'm stuck unable to know what i should do as of right this moment...what should I DO, what would work good, and NOT cost me? Thanks =D signed, Hysteria.
Stretch, Sex, Sleep and Smile :)
All great things for physical AND mental health!