Consider using Libraray Elf http://www.libraryelf.com/ to avoid those late fees.
This little tool will email you when books are close to being overdue.
Thankfully my library has a courtesy email reminder about your books. Its saved me a lot -- especially on those videos/dvd's my son checks out at the library!
The American century was the 20th, not the 2lst. These are new realities - and to deny that is to incur much disappointment. There IS a very New World Order when China & India & such are major players - like it or NOT.
Thanks so much for this wonderful article - it has answered what I have been wrestling with for far too long!! I have forgoten to live by MY priorities and goals - I will be saving this for frequent reading/reminding. You are blessed with great insight -thanks for sharing. :)
I stumbled upon this with the stumble upon tool bar today and laughed so hard I gave it a thumbs up. I have met a lot of very rich people and they are all like that. They will ask you out for a beer and leave you with the bill.
One of the writers on here should write an article on how to stretch your food out as well as using store brands. There are many many things you can do to stretch out many every day meals besides using or buying certain things to lower that grocery bill. I think it would be a great help for people to read and try to incorporate new ideas into their cooking regime. Especially in these economic times. Some ideas people will know already and some will be new insight.
Some examples to start with:
*When making meat sauce for spaghetti-don't use a whole pound of hamburger. Try using a 1/2lb. You would be amazed that there really is no difference.
*Another trick for spaghetti-if feeding a large crowd or to get a few extra servings, add a can of tomato soup to the sauce.
*When making tacos, use a half pound of hamburger and substitute the rest with rice. It is a mexican dish so the rice just adds to that.
*2 chicken breasts can feed a family of 4-6. Cook in slow cooker and shred when done. Add to a sauce or gravy and this really goes far.
*Buttered noodles always make a great side dish.
*A clever way to make a meatloaf is to add more oatmeal and rice to the mixture and cuts out on use of more meat. Pound out to large square and layer mashed potatoes over. Roll over and cook as you would your meat loaf.
*Oatmeal and rice also stretches out mini meatloafs and burgers. The taste is no differnt, you save on meat and get the health benefit of the oatmeal.
I think creating an article like this and having people leave comments of what they do in their own households, would really be beneficial to many!!
Obama is a great president, but his staff can't do math. Many economists warned him. In order for the stimulus to work, they have to spend 4x to 8x more than the original amount or it would have been a complete waste. we will soon find out within few months. He also allowed dangerous risks to take place again. WallStreet minds are not designed to be ethical. Their jobs are to make money whatever it takes. You need hardcore ground rules, but it seems like they aren't going to get one. Ron is right about few things, but he is forgetting if they let the WallStreet goons take over, there will be more raping in the market. I don't believe in any party agendas, because they never worked. That is why I'm never voting again.
No matter what the pundits spout, the recession is still going strong at my house and all indicators are pointing towards a continual decline. Recession over? Not a chance!
More than half of that "growth" was due to cash for clunkers and the other half was government spending. We don't end recessions (or depressions) with government spending -- they end when private capital begins moving again. That's why this faux-recovery is just that -- fake.
With our bureaucrats racking up three times the debt this year than last, with the national debt surging higher and higher, with social programs and bills on the table that cost TRILLIONS of dollars, with no end in sight for the printing of more and more money, thinking the recession is over is a pipe dream.
To quote Dr. Ron Paul, “I am reminded of the outlook in 1930, when the experts were certain that the worst of the Depression was over and that recovery was just around the corner. The economy and stock market seemed to be recovering, and there was optimism that the recession, like many of those before it, would be over in a year or less. Instead, the interventionist policies of Hoover and Roosevelt (Obama and Biden?) caused the Depression to worsen, and the Dow Jones industrial average did not recover to 1929 levels until 1954.”
Generic food items we use the most of in this household are...tomato soup, potato flakes, cereal, granola bars, baking items, white rice, noodles, some fruit snacks, canned and frozen vegetables, canned and frozen fruit, store brand bakery, seasonings and spices,spaghetti o's, plain applesauce, frozen potatoes (french fries, hashbrowns), garlic bread, cake and muffin mixes.
Things that have to be national brand are...spaghetti sauce, ice cream, cheeses, boxed meals, macaroni & cheese, flavored noodle and rice packets or boxes, frozen pizzas, flavored applesauce, frosting tubs, dessert kits.
Im sure there are many more. But even just a small amount of store brand items purchased that are used regularly, will add up to big savings. And if you have small children in the house, it teaches them not to be brand loyal and to be conscious of trying new items and saving money.
I know the net advertising revenue is way down. It is easy to figure out by monitoring paper press, Google, and major broadcast stocks. I'm a bit tired of press constantly pushing their agendas to make this recession go away. This recession is NOTHING to do with the confidence. If people understand economics at all, Americans borrowed way too much their potential earnings. If you do the math, the stimulus has its limit. There is a reason more treasury notes have to be sold. These days, I rely more of my business information from NPR and PBS.
One of the reason, the market swings up and down so fast is everyone assumes they are economists. There is no good mathematic formula for our current situation including how average people get their news and global changes in the globalization. Pull and push movements no longer matters or work in the global investment era. I hope there is no Depression down the line.
Is that the light at the end of the tunnel or a near death experience?
I think you are right on. I don't think traditional economic indicators are going to mean a whole lot in what is hopefully a major shift in economic behavior on the part of the consumer.
When Real Estate collapsed and jobs disappeared and people came face to face with their spending habits and reliance on credit, thus their actual debt load, I think many big spending consumers took a hard look at their personal management systems and said"No More!" At least that's what I did, and many others that I have spoken with, as well.
Change is a messy business on any level, and it takes time. If the American consumer isn't going to spend the same way then business models have to change to adapt. I think this will be messy for awhile, but hopefully we will be healthy in the long run.
Great article! It's so easy to get distracted and off course. I recognize my own bad habits in the three areas that you mention. Thanks for this reminder to be aware of the pitfalls so they can be avoided.
It's easier for you to write about this because you don't work for a corporation. I'm pretty sure most people would love to have the freedom to work for nobody and have a stable income with proper insurance to boot. My editor has that, and he's in his mid 40's.
I have to say that getting a mortgage has motivated me incredibly in my career! I used to get very bored saving money, wondering what was the point of it all since I didn't have anything to spend it on. With a mortgage, I get an awesome sense of urgency to find new ways to achieve financial security sooner, rather than later.
Keigu,
Financial Samurai
"Slicing Through Money's Mysteries"
Most wage-earners work too much and exercise too little. As a result, drugs and medical care are required for conditions resulting from sedentary exhaustion: insominia, obesity, inflammation (heart disease, cancer), diabetes, etc. Both overwork and medical consumption contribute to raising the GNP (often viewed as a positive), whereas those who are healthy because they work less, earn less, and consume less, are a "drag" on the economy. The cost of the health insurance rises in part due to the unhealthy state of the overworked and underexercised population it covers, and in part by the research demand for new drugs and procedures for conditions caused by too little exercise. The resulting insurance cost is so high, it is unaffordable outside of the wage economy. The simple solution out of this mess: a 30-hour workweek with at least one hour a day to be spent on fitness activities, and the other perhaps on the education, nurturing, or community. This would reduce health-care costs, unemployment (4 shifts instead of 3), consumption, and delinquency. It is very difficult to do this as an individual because most jobs require full-time dedication "to compete" effectively (or obtain the affordable coverage), and the health statistics already prove that given the opportunity (the 40-hour work-week-plus-commute norm), people behave against their own personal health interest.
You did a really great job with this article. I had no idea that there were sites that paid for your older things. Keep up the great work. P.s. I found you on Google so you are ranking pretty high.
On your post talking about time accelerating as you get older, I look at it like the following:
When you are 5 years old, the elapsed time of one year is 20% of your life experience, in years lived. When you are 50 years old the same 1 year is 2% of your life experience... in this way time 'accelerates' for all of us when we get older.
I have no problem buying store brand for most things, but I have a few items I only buy name brand. #1 Cheese. I hate generic cheese. I have yet to find any that taste right, and some won't even melt.
#2 I only buy Skippy Natural Peanut Butter because it is the only peanut butter without hydrogenated oils that tastes like the regular and has a good texture. I can't live without my peanut butter. #3 Sandwich meat. We have some packs of sandwich meat around here that are around $0.33 for a small pack, but you can't tell the difference between the ham, turkey, or anything else. I'll stick with the real meat.
Other than those items, cheap is the way to go.
Oh, and I buy milk from a local dairy that has pasteurized milk that hasn't been hydrogenated (the cream is still in there). Once you start drinking this milk, the best name brand tastes like water. It costs about $5.99 a gallon, but worth it for us.
We have the advantage of a bump and dent store in our town. (Salvage, overruns, close to expiration.) That said, we end up with quite a few odd branded items. My husband still insists Hellmann's is the best mayo but he's fine with the sister brand, Best Foods. He's also funny about Skippy. If there's a jar of Skippy in the pantry and another is already open on the shelf, he'll break out the Skippy as well. Well at least it's gotten at a great price. Sadly, once we find something oddball we really like it may never show up again.
Okay, I've done the store brand vs national brand ice cream test, in the last month actually. It is worth it to buy the national brand. The store brand wasn't as flavorful, didn't have the same texture, and had more air. The national brand was definitely a hands down winner in every category (except price which is about a .50 difference). Again, one of the things we buy rarely, so it is worth it!
I have the most basic cable you can get. Most localities require cable companies to offer a very-low-priced plan as part of their local monopoly. Your cable provider won't volunteer that they have this plan; you have to ask for it. But ask for it. It offers the broadcast channels and a few others (C-SPAN, Weather, local access, etc.). It also passes HD signals to my HD TV! That alone can save you a bundle if you don't watch very much TV.
And read your bill. I have high-speed Internet access through my cable provider. Looking at the rate schedule, I found it was cheaper to bundle high-speed Internet with the cheapest cable plan than it was to get just high-speed Internet. It's counterintuitive, but, around here, it's for real.
Consider using Libraray Elf http://www.libraryelf.com/ to avoid those late fees.
This little tool will email you when books are close to being overdue.
Thankfully my library has a courtesy email reminder about your books. Its saved me a lot -- especially on those videos/dvd's my son checks out at the library!
The American century was the 20th, not the 2lst. These are new realities - and to deny that is to incur much disappointment. There IS a very New World Order when China & India & such are major players - like it or NOT.
Obama is a great president???? ooh my
Thanks so much for this wonderful article - it has answered what I have been wrestling with for far too long!! I have forgoten to live by MY priorities and goals - I will be saving this for frequent reading/reminding. You are blessed with great insight -thanks for sharing. :)
I stumbled upon this with the stumble upon tool bar today and laughed so hard I gave it a thumbs up. I have met a lot of very rich people and they are all like that. They will ask you out for a beer and leave you with the bill.
One of the writers on here should write an article on how to stretch your food out as well as using store brands. There are many many things you can do to stretch out many every day meals besides using or buying certain things to lower that grocery bill. I think it would be a great help for people to read and try to incorporate new ideas into their cooking regime. Especially in these economic times. Some ideas people will know already and some will be new insight.
Some examples to start with:
*When making meat sauce for spaghetti-don't use a whole pound of hamburger. Try using a 1/2lb. You would be amazed that there really is no difference.
*Another trick for spaghetti-if feeding a large crowd or to get a few extra servings, add a can of tomato soup to the sauce.
*When making tacos, use a half pound of hamburger and substitute the rest with rice. It is a mexican dish so the rice just adds to that.
*2 chicken breasts can feed a family of 4-6. Cook in slow cooker and shred when done. Add to a sauce or gravy and this really goes far.
*Buttered noodles always make a great side dish.
*A clever way to make a meatloaf is to add more oatmeal and rice to the mixture and cuts out on use of more meat. Pound out to large square and layer mashed potatoes over. Roll over and cook as you would your meat loaf.
*Oatmeal and rice also stretches out mini meatloafs and burgers. The taste is no differnt, you save on meat and get the health benefit of the oatmeal.
I think creating an article like this and having people leave comments of what they do in their own households, would really be beneficial to many!!
Obama is a great president, but his staff can't do math. Many economists warned him. In order for the stimulus to work, they have to spend 4x to 8x more than the original amount or it would have been a complete waste. we will soon find out within few months. He also allowed dangerous risks to take place again. WallStreet minds are not designed to be ethical. Their jobs are to make money whatever it takes. You need hardcore ground rules, but it seems like they aren't going to get one. Ron is right about few things, but he is forgetting if they let the WallStreet goons take over, there will be more raping in the market. I don't believe in any party agendas, because they never worked. That is why I'm never voting again.
No matter what the pundits spout, the recession is still going strong at my house and all indicators are pointing towards a continual decline. Recession over? Not a chance!
More than half of that "growth" was due to cash for clunkers and the other half was government spending. We don't end recessions (or depressions) with government spending -- they end when private capital begins moving again. That's why this faux-recovery is just that -- fake.
With our bureaucrats racking up three times the debt this year than last, with the national debt surging higher and higher, with social programs and bills on the table that cost TRILLIONS of dollars, with no end in sight for the printing of more and more money, thinking the recession is over is a pipe dream.
To quote Dr. Ron Paul, “I am reminded of the outlook in 1930, when the experts were certain that the worst of the Depression was over and that recovery was just around the corner. The economy and stock market seemed to be recovering, and there was optimism that the recession, like many of those before it, would be over in a year or less. Instead, the interventionist policies of Hoover and Roosevelt (Obama and Biden?) caused the Depression to worsen, and the Dow Jones industrial average did not recover to 1929 levels until 1954.”
Generic food items we use the most of in this household are...tomato soup, potato flakes, cereal, granola bars, baking items, white rice, noodles, some fruit snacks, canned and frozen vegetables, canned and frozen fruit, store brand bakery, seasonings and spices,spaghetti o's, plain applesauce, frozen potatoes (french fries, hashbrowns), garlic bread, cake and muffin mixes.
Things that have to be national brand are...spaghetti sauce, ice cream, cheeses, boxed meals, macaroni & cheese, flavored noodle and rice packets or boxes, frozen pizzas, flavored applesauce, frosting tubs, dessert kits.
Im sure there are many more. But even just a small amount of store brand items purchased that are used regularly, will add up to big savings. And if you have small children in the house, it teaches them not to be brand loyal and to be conscious of trying new items and saving money.
I know the net advertising revenue is way down. It is easy to figure out by monitoring paper press, Google, and major broadcast stocks. I'm a bit tired of press constantly pushing their agendas to make this recession go away. This recession is NOTHING to do with the confidence. If people understand economics at all, Americans borrowed way too much their potential earnings. If you do the math, the stimulus has its limit. There is a reason more treasury notes have to be sold. These days, I rely more of my business information from NPR and PBS.
One of the reason, the market swings up and down so fast is everyone assumes they are economists. There is no good mathematic formula for our current situation including how average people get their news and global changes in the globalization. Pull and push movements no longer matters or work in the global investment era. I hope there is no Depression down the line.
Is that the light at the end of the tunnel or a near death experience?
I think you are right on. I don't think traditional economic indicators are going to mean a whole lot in what is hopefully a major shift in economic behavior on the part of the consumer.
When Real Estate collapsed and jobs disappeared and people came face to face with their spending habits and reliance on credit, thus their actual debt load, I think many big spending consumers took a hard look at their personal management systems and said"No More!" At least that's what I did, and many others that I have spoken with, as well.
Change is a messy business on any level, and it takes time. If the American consumer isn't going to spend the same way then business models have to change to adapt. I think this will be messy for awhile, but hopefully we will be healthy in the long run.
i guess you don't read the news everyday. have you read the friday news?
I personally think the market will collapse again soon, big time. But thanks, for a second there, it felt good to pretend.
Great article! It's so easy to get distracted and off course. I recognize my own bad habits in the three areas that you mention. Thanks for this reminder to be aware of the pitfalls so they can be avoided.
It's easier for you to write about this because you don't work for a corporation. I'm pretty sure most people would love to have the freedom to work for nobody and have a stable income with proper insurance to boot. My editor has that, and he's in his mid 40's.
I have to say that getting a mortgage has motivated me incredibly in my career! I used to get very bored saving money, wondering what was the point of it all since I didn't have anything to spend it on. With a mortgage, I get an awesome sense of urgency to find new ways to achieve financial security sooner, rather than later.
Keigu,
Financial Samurai
"Slicing Through Money's Mysteries"
Most wage-earners work too much and exercise too little. As a result, drugs and medical care are required for conditions resulting from sedentary exhaustion: insominia, obesity, inflammation (heart disease, cancer), diabetes, etc. Both overwork and medical consumption contribute to raising the GNP (often viewed as a positive), whereas those who are healthy because they work less, earn less, and consume less, are a "drag" on the economy. The cost of the health insurance rises in part due to the unhealthy state of the overworked and underexercised population it covers, and in part by the research demand for new drugs and procedures for conditions caused by too little exercise. The resulting insurance cost is so high, it is unaffordable outside of the wage economy. The simple solution out of this mess: a 30-hour workweek with at least one hour a day to be spent on fitness activities, and the other perhaps on the education, nurturing, or community. This would reduce health-care costs, unemployment (4 shifts instead of 3), consumption, and delinquency. It is very difficult to do this as an individual because most jobs require full-time dedication "to compete" effectively (or obtain the affordable coverage), and the health statistics already prove that given the opportunity (the 40-hour work-week-plus-commute norm), people behave against their own personal health interest.
You my friend,
You did a really great job with this article. I had no idea that there were sites that paid for your older things. Keep up the great work. P.s. I found you on Google so you are ranking pretty high.
Just though you should know.
Jay's Saving Your Money
FS,
On your post talking about time accelerating as you get older, I look at it like the following:
When you are 5 years old, the elapsed time of one year is 20% of your life experience, in years lived. When you are 50 years old the same 1 year is 2% of your life experience... in this way time 'accelerates' for all of us when we get older.
-Mike
I have no problem buying store brand for most things, but I have a few items I only buy name brand. #1 Cheese. I hate generic cheese. I have yet to find any that taste right, and some won't even melt.
#2 I only buy Skippy Natural Peanut Butter because it is the only peanut butter without hydrogenated oils that tastes like the regular and has a good texture. I can't live without my peanut butter. #3 Sandwich meat. We have some packs of sandwich meat around here that are around $0.33 for a small pack, but you can't tell the difference between the ham, turkey, or anything else. I'll stick with the real meat.
Other than those items, cheap is the way to go.
Oh, and I buy milk from a local dairy that has pasteurized milk that hasn't been hydrogenated (the cream is still in there). Once you start drinking this milk, the best name brand tastes like water. It costs about $5.99 a gallon, but worth it for us.
We have the advantage of a bump and dent store in our town. (Salvage, overruns, close to expiration.) That said, we end up with quite a few odd branded items. My husband still insists Hellmann's is the best mayo but he's fine with the sister brand, Best Foods. He's also funny about Skippy. If there's a jar of Skippy in the pantry and another is already open on the shelf, he'll break out the Skippy as well. Well at least it's gotten at a great price. Sadly, once we find something oddball we really like it may never show up again.
Okay, I've done the store brand vs national brand ice cream test, in the last month actually. It is worth it to buy the national brand. The store brand wasn't as flavorful, didn't have the same texture, and had more air. The national brand was definitely a hands down winner in every category (except price which is about a .50 difference). Again, one of the things we buy rarely, so it is worth it!
Wise words, thoughtfully spoken. Thank you for much food for thought and study...
I have the most basic cable you can get. Most localities require cable companies to offer a very-low-priced plan as part of their local monopoly. Your cable provider won't volunteer that they have this plan; you have to ask for it. But ask for it. It offers the broadcast channels and a few others (C-SPAN, Weather, local access, etc.). It also passes HD signals to my HD TV! That alone can save you a bundle if you don't watch very much TV.
And read your bill. I have high-speed Internet access through my cable provider. Looking at the rate schedule, I found it was cheaper to bundle high-speed Internet with the cheapest cable plan than it was to get just high-speed Internet. It's counterintuitive, but, around here, it's for real.