It depends on why you are fired. If you are fired for cause then you will not get any benefits [I am assuming you mean unemployment, so correct me if I am wrong]. I was 'fired' but my former boss wrote that it was not for cause - he actually wrote that. Then he told unemployment that I made many material mistakes that led to my being fired. Funny, but he always told me what a wonderful job I did and how great an employee I was. And I had it in writing where he said I was just let go 'at will'. It took 6 months [delays in the process], but I did get my unemployment. Sorry for going on, but it feels better to get that out. :)
I've found that not all pastas are the same, even if you adjust cooking times and techniques to bring out the best from the shape and size of whatever noodle you're using.
Whenever I see a bargain-basement deal on Barilla or De Cecco I buy as much as I can carry home. The sales are few and far between, though, so I'm usually stuck with the store-brand pasta.
We eat a lot of pasta in my household, so others may not be bothered with the difference in quality as much as I am.
I worked with many people who did many of those things. Funny that the workers who had no brains kept their jobs and the ones who thought and spoke for themselves have been let go [me included]. Of course, I hated my job and on one hand am glad, but a year later there are no prospects and money will get tight sooner or later. That, and I believe I have been blacklisted in my community. I would suggest making sure you have a plan in place before getting laid off [whether you try or not].
Working below your ability is not unethical unless you believe it to be. Employers have no problem paying you beneath your ability so sometimes it's just evening things up. Although I heard this saying once and thought it fitting - work for the job you want, not the one you have.
1. Cable tv is sold in packages. For example, you want Noggin, you have to take family BASIC cable which also includes channels 100-199 (want Noggin pay an extra $15 on top of basic JUST for this).
2. "Premium" channels after you have been TOLD you have to do #1 are literally $5 more per channel or $15 more for a package of channels.
3. All of that being said, I'm canceling and renting via netflix. Cable has nothing but the same bad shows that never seem to change from week to week.
As they always say, cash is queen, family is king. If you have both, nothing really matters.
The economy is back and things feel pretty good again. Next year will be a job market frenzy b/c firms always OVER fire during the downturn, and need to then scramble.
Keigu,
Financial Samurai
"Slicing Through Money's Mysteries"
Oh yeah, I volunteer and help the local economy, as well as serve my own country at the same time. You know what, I don't have to pay some NGO for the pleasure to do it also. As I said, I live in Africa, I use to live in Okinawa Japan. I've been everwhere from Cuba to Europe to the Middle East and Asia. There's no sweepstakes here. Just plain old working for Uncle Same. I've been to the Philippines. Why you fools pay money to go to these places. It's free for me. It's free for me to volunteer. I don't sit there and read the Huffington Post and wish i volunteered. I DO IT.
As we say in the Military: One man's Holiday Vacation is a Sailors/Soldiers backyard.
Typical, Bunch of libs forgetting the Military PAYS YOU to go live in other countries. You guys are fools, I LIVE IN AFRICA and LIVED IN JAPAN. Guess what? FOR FREE!
i am not really a movie and tv guy. Not to say that i never watch them but i dont watch them enough to see the use in having 5 movie channels. i prefer surfing the internet for cheaper goodies and the beauty of this is that i get to use the computer to read or watch what i find, thus further reducing expenses as i dont need to buy a tv
Thanks to people who think like you, we have far too many laws, regulations, and taxes. For far too long we've used democracy to take people's money and strip away their individual rights. This ain't freedom, folks.
All it needs is common sense. The HDMI protocol is digital. So there either high or low signal, there is NOTHING in betweeen. So you either have an image or you don't. Ok, technically there could be issues of high frequency signals, thats means a very crappy cable could make the image bad when information gets dropped. But there is absolutely nothing to make a digital signal "arrive" better where it should go to.
Monster cable already showed that the only way to see a difference if to trick the customer:
Realistically, there are very few channels that most people watch. If it weren't for HBO and the strength of shows like Entourage, True Blood (and on Showtime Dexter), more people would be dropping their cable. We're still not there yet, but I do know of several people that are going with an Internet + Netflix or iTunes.
Is It Time to Dump Our Cable Yet? is the question that a lot of us are going to be asking as streaming content gets better. Amazon, Netflix, and iTunes are all making it that much easier. And if you are only watching 4 or 5 shows a year, its cheaper just to buy those shows a-la carte instead. For movies, its very hard to justify paying $5 a pop on-demand when you can get Netflix or Redbox.
The truth is, you can do FAR better than saving 15%. I pay nearly 50% of what my neighbors do for the same service. I pay $75/month for cable, phone and high-speed Internet combined. How? I know what the competitors are offering and I call to cancel AGAIN AND AGAIN until I get a CSR who plays by my rules. NEVER go with the first CSR you talk to unless they offer you a stellar deal.
I literally hang up and dial again and explain that I'm being wooed by competitors and the last CSR only gave me 20% (or whatever) off. But I'm sure they don't want to lose my business. Do this a few times and soon you'll be given a great deal. And if that doesn't work, drop your cable down to basic analog. A few days later you'll get a phone call with a deal "for new subscribers." And it'll always be a killer rate.
We have lived in the same apartment in a major city for over 30 years. We also work from home and have a home office/library that takes up a huge part of our space, along with all the electronics, files, books, etc. that go along with it.
We could NEVER afford office space in NYC these days. However, we can "space shift" and store off-season, financial and special stuff (displaced by the office stuff) in affordable storage.
In a one-bedroom apartment, even basic stuff takes space.
The "cost" of storage is worth it to have a space we can live in without feeling literally trapped by stuff.
Sure, you can look at what we spend each month and say: Wow. I could use that for X...but we look at it and say: Wow, we've gained another whole room for a literal fraction of what it would cost a month to rent that space and/or live in a larger space.
It's all relative.
If you live in a city in a studio or one-bedroom, you NEED storage at some point, if only for off-season clothing or sports gear. (And what isn't discussed is how many people store their stuff in other people's homes--like their families--for free.)
If you don't do anything, wear anything, collect anything and have a huge space--which is NOT most people in a city--you can get away without storage. But real people, including those of us who recycle, repurpose and give to Salvation army, sell on craigslist, still need space.
Another use for storage spaces? Many people keep their small biz inventory in them. Some even try to run their biz from these spaces! Which you can do in the boondocks but not in the city.
What we need is more of these spaces so the prices were more competitive.
FYI: It makes no sense to rent space to compensate while you go from a huge home (3,000 square feet) to 1, 200. That's just delusional.
As you noted, the real issue is NOT the storage space, but the psychological issues involved in hanging on to "stuff"-- your friend is trying to pretend she still has that lifestyle. Until she admits those days are over, she won't move on.
It's easy for us to say: Get rid of it. But all those years, she's been in fear of what is inevitable.
FYI: You have to be sensitive to people's belief and feelings on all of this. Being too tough does not help.
Passing stuff on is important to people. And FYI: You do NOT know what her daughter will or won't value.
I can tell you stories of families where one member decided on the death of a parent, for example, to get rid of stuff. Meanwhile, siblings became hysterical, enraged and so upset (because they did want the possessions for sentimental value) that family members literally stopped speaking to each other.
In college, we used to host wine and cheese parties, sort of a "BYOB and cheese" soiree. Those that were feeling really broke could bring accoutrements like a baguette or crackers. And living in CA, decent wine didn't cost a fortune (not so the cheese, unfortunately).
We have friends who host a Thanksgiving potluck, where everyone takes their leftovers and shares. It always tastes better the day after you cooked it...
I'm all for having parties as a reason to clean up the house. We would live like a family of squirrels if it wasn't for throwing parties pretty regularly.
Don't even bother trying to deal with them. You just get a run around. And a maze of "offers" that really do not save you anything. (They ALWAYS try to upsell you something else and there are so many fine print details...you usually get royally messed with.)
That said, you should always check that you have the lowest "package" where applicable if you have more than one service from them (Cable TV, roadrunner, VOIP phone). The only "deals" (if you can call them that, are in the so-called "packages."
We signed up for a two-year contract when they raised rates last year--our only real option. We didn't really "save" anything but we didn't get the increase.
And the way they set up the channels/tiers? A joke, you have to have all three "tiers" to see anything.
Rip-off because they have no real competition in our area. (Verizon is not a factor and DirectTV is banned in apartment buildings due to satellite dish.)
The mere idea that our current situation is an illusion concocted to drive sales and profits sure upset a few people. But it is a very accurate idea, sometimes the truth hurts.
Some people work or at least work in part to feel like they are contributing to a community. I hear farmers mention they feed the country and how key their rather hard job is to the bigger picture. If given an option many people would still work, just different jobs or fewer hours. The pundits kept saying computers were going to usher in the 32 hour work week. We would all have more free time to spend with our families or pursue other things. Of course that never happened. Working 50+ hours or not having a job at all seems to be the norm. I have noticed that part time jobs rarely exist anymore unless it is fast food or retail.
Keeping people on the treadmill of debt and wage slavery allows companies to abuse workers. Without that dependence on that job companies could not over work people, stress them out and otherwise make them miserable. Desperate people are much easier to manipulate. This is why health care is such an issue. Employers know that health insurance is a big shackle on employees they can use to their advantage. If people could move jobs or go out on their own without fear of the health insurance mess it would be harder to keep people under your thumb.
Health insurance that costs more like your cable bill rather than more than your mortgage would free people up to use that money for other things.
Yep--there's not much worse than pointless work. In fact, I wrote a whole post suggesting that people find work worth doing.
That post drew some interesting counterpoints, some from commenters who thought that there was no such thing as pointless work, and others who thought that pointless work was a good teaching device. I disagreed with both those ideas.
There are several partial solutions to the fear that you speak of:
Accumulate some capital. An emergency fund to begin with, but then some income-earning investments that can help fill the gap when your income doesn't cover your expenses.
Develop additional skills. The more things you're qualified to do, the easier it is to find work. Also, network--the more people who are familiar with your skills, again, the easier it is to find work.
Do, build, make, grow, and fix things yourself. The more of your needs you can satisfy outside the money economy, the less vulnerable you are to purely economic problems.
None of those--not even all of them put together--add up to a complete solution, but they all help and they can all help you feel less afraid.
Comcast is pretty good with cutting your bill. I had a promotional rate when I started with them, for 12 months. When the period was up, I would call back and ask if they had any new available promotional rates, and I was given those lower rates with no problem. Sometimes a package was thrown in for free. However, I wasn't fond of their customer service otherwise, for problems with service.
You can also get a basic cable package. Ours runs for just under $14/month plus taxes. We have little kids and little time for TV. We realized we normally just watched the main networks if we watched TV and rent movies when we don't or watch shows online. We have found the package is not usually advertised and oftentimes you still get the expanded channels because they don't send someone to switch it over. We have had this experience many times in several different houses we have lived in across the country in the past 5 years.
Thanks for the tips. I'll be moving in just over a week so these tips are very timely. I'll have to call the cable anyways, I might as well research competitors' offers and play a little hardball.
It depends on why you are fired. If you are fired for cause then you will not get any benefits [I am assuming you mean unemployment, so correct me if I am wrong]. I was 'fired' but my former boss wrote that it was not for cause - he actually wrote that. Then he told unemployment that I made many material mistakes that led to my being fired. Funny, but he always told me what a wonderful job I did and how great an employee I was. And I had it in writing where he said I was just let go 'at will'. It took 6 months [delays in the process], but I did get my unemployment. Sorry for going on, but it feels better to get that out. :)
I've found that not all pastas are the same, even if you adjust cooking times and techniques to bring out the best from the shape and size of whatever noodle you're using.
Whenever I see a bargain-basement deal on Barilla or De Cecco I buy as much as I can carry home. The sales are few and far between, though, so I'm usually stuck with the store-brand pasta.
We eat a lot of pasta in my household, so others may not be bothered with the difference in quality as much as I am.
I worked with many people who did many of those things. Funny that the workers who had no brains kept their jobs and the ones who thought and spoke for themselves have been let go [me included]. Of course, I hated my job and on one hand am glad, but a year later there are no prospects and money will get tight sooner or later. That, and I believe I have been blacklisted in my community. I would suggest making sure you have a plan in place before getting laid off [whether you try or not].
Working below your ability is not unethical unless you believe it to be. Employers have no problem paying you beneath your ability so sometimes it's just evening things up. Although I heard this saying once and thought it fitting - work for the job you want, not the one you have.
Good post.
1. Cable tv is sold in packages. For example, you want Noggin, you have to take family BASIC cable which also includes channels 100-199 (want Noggin pay an extra $15 on top of basic JUST for this).
2. "Premium" channels after you have been TOLD you have to do #1 are literally $5 more per channel or $15 more for a package of channels.
3. All of that being said, I'm canceling and renting via netflix. Cable has nothing but the same bad shows that never seem to change from week to week.
As they always say, cash is queen, family is king. If you have both, nothing really matters.
The economy is back and things feel pretty good again. Next year will be a job market frenzy b/c firms always OVER fire during the downturn, and need to then scramble.
Keigu,
Financial Samurai
"Slicing Through Money's Mysteries"
Oh yeah, I volunteer and help the local economy, as well as serve my own country at the same time. You know what, I don't have to pay some NGO for the pleasure to do it also. As I said, I live in Africa, I use to live in Okinawa Japan. I've been everwhere from Cuba to Europe to the Middle East and Asia. There's no sweepstakes here. Just plain old working for Uncle Same. I've been to the Philippines. Why you fools pay money to go to these places. It's free for me. It's free for me to volunteer. I don't sit there and read the Huffington Post and wish i volunteered. I DO IT.
As we say in the Military: One man's Holiday Vacation is a Sailors/Soldiers backyard.
Typical, Bunch of libs forgetting the Military PAYS YOU to go live in other countries. You guys are fools, I LIVE IN AFRICA and LIVED IN JAPAN. Guess what? FOR FREE!
i am not really a movie and tv guy. Not to say that i never watch them but i dont watch them enough to see the use in having 5 movie channels. i prefer surfing the internet for cheaper goodies and the beauty of this is that i get to use the computer to read or watch what i find, thus further reducing expenses as i dont need to buy a tv
So important in times like these to read something that reminds us we can all HELP! Thanks Linsey and Mom Advice!
Keigu,
Financial Samurai
"Slicing Through Money's Mysteries"
how can i change the region on my toshiba lap top., i can't play dvd cd on toshiba dvd player
Thanks to people who think like you, we have far too many laws, regulations, and taxes. For far too long we've used democracy to take people's money and strip away their individual rights. This ain't freedom, folks.
All it needs is common sense. The HDMI protocol is digital. So there either high or low signal, there is NOTHING in betweeen. So you either have an image or you don't. Ok, technically there could be issues of high frequency signals, thats means a very crappy cable could make the image bad when information gets dropped. But there is absolutely nothing to make a digital signal "arrive" better where it should go to.
Monster cable already showed that the only way to see a difference if to trick the customer:
http://gizmodo.com/268788/the-truth-about-monster-cable-part-2-verdict-c...
Yes, it does make me angry.
Realistically, there are very few channels that most people watch. If it weren't for HBO and the strength of shows like Entourage, True Blood (and on Showtime Dexter), more people would be dropping their cable. We're still not there yet, but I do know of several people that are going with an Internet + Netflix or iTunes.
Is It Time to Dump Our Cable Yet? is the question that a lot of us are going to be asking as streaming content gets better. Amazon, Netflix, and iTunes are all making it that much easier. And if you are only watching 4 or 5 shows a year, its cheaper just to buy those shows a-la carte instead. For movies, its very hard to justify paying $5 a pop on-demand when you can get Netflix or Redbox.
The truth is, you can do FAR better than saving 15%. I pay nearly 50% of what my neighbors do for the same service. I pay $75/month for cable, phone and high-speed Internet combined. How? I know what the competitors are offering and I call to cancel AGAIN AND AGAIN until I get a CSR who plays by my rules. NEVER go with the first CSR you talk to unless they offer you a stellar deal.
I literally hang up and dial again and explain that I'm being wooed by competitors and the last CSR only gave me 20% (or whatever) off. But I'm sure they don't want to lose my business. Do this a few times and soon you'll be given a great deal. And if that doesn't work, drop your cable down to basic analog. A few days later you'll get a phone call with a deal "for new subscribers." And it'll always be a killer rate.
Good points but not always relevant.
We have lived in the same apartment in a major city for over 30 years. We also work from home and have a home office/library that takes up a huge part of our space, along with all the electronics, files, books, etc. that go along with it.
We could NEVER afford office space in NYC these days. However, we can "space shift" and store off-season, financial and special stuff (displaced by the office stuff) in affordable storage.
In a one-bedroom apartment, even basic stuff takes space.
The "cost" of storage is worth it to have a space we can live in without feeling literally trapped by stuff.
Sure, you can look at what we spend each month and say: Wow. I could use that for X...but we look at it and say: Wow, we've gained another whole room for a literal fraction of what it would cost a month to rent that space and/or live in a larger space.
It's all relative.
If you live in a city in a studio or one-bedroom, you NEED storage at some point, if only for off-season clothing or sports gear. (And what isn't discussed is how many people store their stuff in other people's homes--like their families--for free.)
If you don't do anything, wear anything, collect anything and have a huge space--which is NOT most people in a city--you can get away without storage. But real people, including those of us who recycle, repurpose and give to Salvation army, sell on craigslist, still need space.
Another use for storage spaces? Many people keep their small biz inventory in them. Some even try to run their biz from these spaces! Which you can do in the boondocks but not in the city.
What we need is more of these spaces so the prices were more competitive.
FYI: It makes no sense to rent space to compensate while you go from a huge home (3,000 square feet) to 1, 200. That's just delusional.
As you noted, the real issue is NOT the storage space, but the psychological issues involved in hanging on to "stuff"-- your friend is trying to pretend she still has that lifestyle. Until she admits those days are over, she won't move on.
It's easy for us to say: Get rid of it. But all those years, she's been in fear of what is inevitable.
FYI: You have to be sensitive to people's belief and feelings on all of this. Being too tough does not help.
Passing stuff on is important to people. And FYI: You do NOT know what her daughter will or won't value.
I can tell you stories of families where one member decided on the death of a parent, for example, to get rid of stuff. Meanwhile, siblings became hysterical, enraged and so upset (because they did want the possessions for sentimental value) that family members literally stopped speaking to each other.
This is a highly loaded issue.
In college, we used to host wine and cheese parties, sort of a "BYOB and cheese" soiree. Those that were feeling really broke could bring accoutrements like a baguette or crackers. And living in CA, decent wine didn't cost a fortune (not so the cheese, unfortunately).
We have friends who host a Thanksgiving potluck, where everyone takes their leftovers and shares. It always tastes better the day after you cooked it...
I'm all for having parties as a reason to clean up the house. We would live like a family of squirrels if it wasn't for throwing parties pretty regularly.
Hello guys
Does anybody know how to unlock the SONY DVP-SR200P?
I brought it to Brazil and it is a bitch - will not play
any local DVDs - nada, zippo.
Thanks
RB
These are the best party ideas! Thanks for the reminder that a gathering of friends does not have to just be a dinner party.
Don't even bother trying to deal with them. You just get a run around. And a maze of "offers" that really do not save you anything. (They ALWAYS try to upsell you something else and there are so many fine print details...you usually get royally messed with.)
That said, you should always check that you have the lowest "package" where applicable if you have more than one service from them (Cable TV, roadrunner, VOIP phone). The only "deals" (if you can call them that, are in the so-called "packages."
We signed up for a two-year contract when they raised rates last year--our only real option. We didn't really "save" anything but we didn't get the increase.
And the way they set up the channels/tiers? A joke, you have to have all three "tiers" to see anything.
Rip-off because they have no real competition in our area. (Verizon is not a factor and DirectTV is banned in apartment buildings due to satellite dish.)
The mere idea that our current situation is an illusion concocted to drive sales and profits sure upset a few people. But it is a very accurate idea, sometimes the truth hurts.
Some people work or at least work in part to feel like they are contributing to a community. I hear farmers mention they feed the country and how key their rather hard job is to the bigger picture. If given an option many people would still work, just different jobs or fewer hours. The pundits kept saying computers were going to usher in the 32 hour work week. We would all have more free time to spend with our families or pursue other things. Of course that never happened. Working 50+ hours or not having a job at all seems to be the norm. I have noticed that part time jobs rarely exist anymore unless it is fast food or retail.
Keeping people on the treadmill of debt and wage slavery allows companies to abuse workers. Without that dependence on that job companies could not over work people, stress them out and otherwise make them miserable. Desperate people are much easier to manipulate. This is why health care is such an issue. Employers know that health insurance is a big shackle on employees they can use to their advantage. If people could move jobs or go out on their own without fear of the health insurance mess it would be harder to keep people under your thumb.
Health insurance that costs more like your cable bill rather than more than your mortgage would free people up to use that money for other things.
@ Anna:
Yep--there's not much worse than pointless work. In fact, I wrote a whole post suggesting that people find work worth doing.
That post drew some interesting counterpoints, some from commenters who thought that there was no such thing as pointless work, and others who thought that pointless work was a good teaching device. I disagreed with both those ideas.
There are several partial solutions to the fear that you speak of:
None of those--not even all of them put together--add up to a complete solution, but they all help and they can all help you feel less afraid.
Great post - I think the same could be applied to many other kinds of expenses & bills as well!:)
Comcast is pretty good with cutting your bill. I had a promotional rate when I started with them, for 12 months. When the period was up, I would call back and ask if they had any new available promotional rates, and I was given those lower rates with no problem. Sometimes a package was thrown in for free. However, I wasn't fond of their customer service otherwise, for problems with service.
You can also get a basic cable package. Ours runs for just under $14/month plus taxes. We have little kids and little time for TV. We realized we normally just watched the main networks if we watched TV and rent movies when we don't or watch shows online. We have found the package is not usually advertised and oftentimes you still get the expanded channels because they don't send someone to switch it over. We have had this experience many times in several different houses we have lived in across the country in the past 5 years.
Thanks for the tips. I'll be moving in just over a week so these tips are very timely. I'll have to call the cable anyways, I might as well research competitors' offers and play a little hardball.