If you don't have the $100 to keep a no-frills free-checking account with a debit card, just use cash. Why tie up your money and then have to pay fees to use your own money?
There are lots of paths. Going to college is a perfectly good one--even a great one, for the right person with the right goals.
But if you do go to college, take advantage of the things it provides! As people mention above, it provides lots of great stuff--peers who push you to excel, peers who provide perspectives that are new to you, a safe opportunity to develop skills like working in groups, access to the facilities of the institution, experts in the field who can save you a bunch of time by correcting your errors, and so on.
A lot of these things are mixed blessings. A course of study devised by an expert is much less likely to have big gaps in it. On the other hand, a course of study that you devise yourself is much less likely to have you wasting time on things that don't apply to what you want to learn. (Of couse, things that seem to you like they don't apply may well have been included for good reasons. Trying to skip them may well result in lots of unnecessary struggle.)
My point, though, is that you can learn either way. If you invest the time and money that it takes to go to college, take full advantage of the opportunities that college provides.
You might think you did well on your purchase - but check in a few months if not now. You will see that the applecare has been removed from your product notwithstanding your "purchase."
I use metal chairs and stone tables in my sunroom, which is basically a converted bedroom. The chairs have very comfortable cushions and allow me to change the decor of the room. Kudos for this inexpensive and creative use of furniture!
You guys have some great ideas. We considered the cloth diapers, but we pay fairly steeply for our laundry (we live in an apartment and so don't have our own machines) so the cost is about equal.
Thanks for sharing . . . great ideas to look into!
Oh, and I forgot to add that we do have one regular-length sofa in our main room for the few times that someone wants to lay down while watching a movie. The kids, however, are not allowed on the couch... just asking for trouble. (We were going to take it to the Goodwill, but it was too heavy to deal with.) It rarely happens that anyone actually lies down on it (since the urge to eat chips and salsa while taking in a flick always wins out over the desire to be flat-on-back), but the option is there. Also, since some of the furniture has a weight limit, it may be a good idea to have one indoor or sturdier outdoor piece (aluminum weld, maybe) for any guests who might be too heavy to enjoy an outdoor set.
Totally depends on where you're from. Since my area of the country relies heavily on sunrooms, and the use of more traditional "sitting rooms" (think parlor) for the adults to converse, drink coffee, and hang out, it is not at all unusual to see these areas of the home set up to be less a comfy place to hang out and spill your beer, and more a tidy area of the home that can be company-ready at a moment's notice. I love that our sitting room (i.e. living room) is nicely done up with outdoor furniture. Of course, I have a country look to my home (since we are on a farm)-- a NYC flat, it is not.
If you're looking for something a bit more Seinfeld and a little less Reba, you might want to look at stores like Pottery Barn or IKEA. They offer a little more in the way of modern and Euro styles.
Of course, you shouldn't take my word for it, alone. Apartment Therapy (someone with a bit more authority in the design world) has often brought up outdoor pieces as a way to accent indoor rooms:
Here in Minneapolis we have a Goodwill Outlet store that charges $1/pound for clothing and has a similar giant dumpster system. I think a lot of the shoppers are resellers - when we were starving 20somethings, I would go with my most fashionable friend. She often would pull out enough clothes that when we got home she would keep the 2-3 items that fit her well, take the others to a nicer resale shop and get $20-30 back, so a trip to "Diggers" usually cost me $3 and netted her around $20.
Your neighborhood or town may have a local parents group that swaps things around for free or for so cheap the price is basically "reassure me this has value" - 50 cents for clothes, $5 for a crib.
The hard part with kid stuff is *stopping* the incoming flow of things and getting rid of stuff as your child outgrows it.
Thanks for posting this info. I'm enjoying reading all the comments.
For anyone else reading who wants to find some tips to help with using the tax credit to buy your first house, check out this site. http://www.firsthomeexperience.com.
There are sections about home maintenance, housing market info, stuff on the tax credit, and a free booklet with a house buying guide. Plus there are some very easy contests to enter.
Consignment sales all the way for when you need stuff and when you are done with stuff. My friend just bought her 2T little girl all of her fall/winter clothing for about $50 and about $30 of that will go back to the parents who took the time to wash and prep their old clothing for the sale.
There are 3 that happen twice a year here in my 100,000 person town and they are a little frenzzied but if you are willing to sell or volunteer for them you can have first dibs.
My take at my local Kindermarket last week -
Fall jacket - $1
4 pants & 5 shirts - $15
Halloween costume - $7.50 but only because it was the PERFECT costume, otherwise I would have gotten a $3 that was only ok.
Great article Kathryn. Switching the dry food your cat gets would probably make the biggest difference. Including wet food in their diet (at least 50%; more if possible)makes a huge difference too.
Most kitties are poor drinkers so the extra moisture in the wet food really helps cut down on kidney stones, UTIs, etc.
Honestly, this is the easiest thing in the world. Cloth diapers, hand me downs for everything. Children don't need anything but food (oh yeah-breast feed), care, lots of holding. I think many parents use babies as an excuse to spend.
Ok, when you steam off your first run from the mash, you get about a gallon if you go to fast. Save the left over to ferment again with more tap water, yeast and sugar. The product you steamed off gets 2 gallons of distilled water added and steam it off again, you can not rush this one as fast. Do not let the pot bubble!! This bowl is your bottle spirits. The left over here can be used for the second run of steaming when the next batch is ready.
I just went to home show in New Jersey, the product does exist. I talked with the seller. Jeff Schuld. He informed me that each state is an individual company,thats why you cant buy the products in PA from an online company and live in NY orNJ. Yes, its expensive 4 receptacles $70 each,4 switches$70 each, Master switch $250 and tstat $200.. Thats $1050 for parts and and $250 for installation. $1300 for both. If monthly bill is $250 per month and you shave off 20% thats $50 per month. $50 x 12 months is $600 . Thats 24 month payback. Thats pretty good and was worth it. No one is forcing anyone to buy it, but its a great investment...INVESTMENT . thats the part people never remember. Keep using the clip strips,or running around pulling stuff out. Hit the circuit breakers (if they are SWD rated ) but its easier to do it with one switch than any other method you can come up with. I bought mine through Gone green technologies in NJ. Thanks for your articles. Keep up the good work.
Ann, I think you'll find the overall tax burden in the UK is no more than yours. No-one pays over half, I pay around 35% in all taxes and I get a great standard of healthcare included in that :-)
this is a very encouraging article. as a self employed person, i like reading about the mistakes that others before me have made so that i dont fall into the same pitfalls. i particularly like bezos' mistake :)
I definitely think that anyone who is looking to be economical when it comes to a new baby should consider cloth diapers. The upfront costs are higher, but it's great not to have to buy disposables (or to buy fewer disposables). We invested in Bum Genius, which are quite a bit more expensive than cloth prefolds, but easier to use in that they are more like disposable diapers when it comes to putting them on the baby--no pins! And the environmental benefits of cloth are undeniable--fewer disposables in the landfills and poop going through the sewer system rather than the into the landfill.
The answer to Q18 can be right as well. I am working with my boss for the past 3 years, without no grudge at all. I never let an argument last to an extent that leads disgruntlement. It all starts when you ain't flexible. My answers would be "No" to Q18 and still I am not a liar.You may have to rethink on the same, I request.
Thank you for the info on where to post hair for sale. I've posted to the hairtrader.com to sell about 2 feet of my hair and have had 22 hits already, its only been 2hrs.
Imagine if you took 4 years and devoted it to learning your field by yourself without wasting time in class. You would benefit much more if you could force yourself to do this and actually study. You also wouldn't have to worry about paying tuition.
When I was about to go to college I thought it would be a bunch of really smart people who cared about learning things and intellectual pursuits. I thought it would be challenging intellectually and that I would have to work really hard. What I found was quite different. The classes were easier than what I was taking in high school and the other students were of just average intelligence. I guess if you go to MIT or Harvard it's a different experience, but I thought all colleges had smart people.
College for me turned out to be a waste. I dropped out and joined the military and now I'm making more money as an Arabic linguist with a 2 year degree than many people I know who are still fooling around in college with liberal arts degrees.
If I had it to do over I would have skipped the college all together and joined the military right out of high school.
i'm sorry but this sounds incredibly tacky. unless it's a sunroom there is no way this is going to look good. what's next, patio astro-turf instead of carpet because of how easily it cleans?
though i can see why it's a good idea for families because i have seen some horridly disgusting couches at my in-laws houses. the thought of what i'm sitting in is sort of gross (leaky diaper residue).
If you don't have the $100 to keep a no-frills free-checking account with a debit card, just use cash. Why tie up your money and then have to pay fees to use your own money?
There are lots of paths. Going to college is a perfectly good one--even a great one, for the right person with the right goals.
But if you do go to college, take advantage of the things it provides! As people mention above, it provides lots of great stuff--peers who push you to excel, peers who provide perspectives that are new to you, a safe opportunity to develop skills like working in groups, access to the facilities of the institution, experts in the field who can save you a bunch of time by correcting your errors, and so on.
A lot of these things are mixed blessings. A course of study devised by an expert is much less likely to have big gaps in it. On the other hand, a course of study that you devise yourself is much less likely to have you wasting time on things that don't apply to what you want to learn. (Of couse, things that seem to you like they don't apply may well have been included for good reasons. Trying to skip them may well result in lots of unnecessary struggle.)
My point, though, is that you can learn either way. If you invest the time and money that it takes to go to college, take full advantage of the opportunities that college provides.
You might think you did well on your purchase - but check in a few months if not now. You will see that the applecare has been removed from your product notwithstanding your "purchase."
Apple does not sell it that cheap.
http://reviews.ebay.com/FAKE-APPLECARE-APPLE-CARE-A-warning-to-buyers_W0...
I am a smart purchaser and even I got suckered into this.
I use metal chairs and stone tables in my sunroom, which is basically a converted bedroom. The chairs have very comfortable cushions and allow me to change the decor of the room. Kudos for this inexpensive and creative use of furniture!
I have been useing net spend for a few years and i think its the best pre-paid card out there.
You guys have some great ideas. We considered the cloth diapers, but we pay fairly steeply for our laundry (we live in an apartment and so don't have our own machines) so the cost is about equal.
Thanks for sharing . . . great ideas to look into!
Oh, and I forgot to add that we do have one regular-length sofa in our main room for the few times that someone wants to lay down while watching a movie. The kids, however, are not allowed on the couch... just asking for trouble. (We were going to take it to the Goodwill, but it was too heavy to deal with.) It rarely happens that anyone actually lies down on it (since the urge to eat chips and salsa while taking in a flick always wins out over the desire to be flat-on-back), but the option is there. Also, since some of the furniture has a weight limit, it may be a good idea to have one indoor or sturdier outdoor piece (aluminum weld, maybe) for any guests who might be too heavy to enjoy an outdoor set.
Linsey Knerl
Totally depends on where you're from. Since my area of the country relies heavily on sunrooms, and the use of more traditional "sitting rooms" (think parlor) for the adults to converse, drink coffee, and hang out, it is not at all unusual to see these areas of the home set up to be less a comfy place to hang out and spill your beer, and more a tidy area of the home that can be company-ready at a moment's notice. I love that our sitting room (i.e. living room) is nicely done up with outdoor furniture. Of course, I have a country look to my home (since we are on a farm)-- a NYC flat, it is not.
If you're looking for something a bit more Seinfeld and a little less Reba, you might want to look at stores like Pottery Barn or IKEA. They offer a little more in the way of modern and Euro styles.
Of course, you shouldn't take my word for it, alone. Apartment Therapy (someone with a bit more authority in the design world) has often brought up outdoor pieces as a way to accent indoor rooms:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/surveys/outdoor-furniture-indoors-095440
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/outdoor/outdoor-furniture-wed-use-ind...
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/sales-events-calendar/on-sale-in...
Thanks for the comments, everyone!
Linsey Knerl
That is awesome!
Here in Minneapolis we have a Goodwill Outlet store that charges $1/pound for clothing and has a similar giant dumpster system. I think a lot of the shoppers are resellers - when we were starving 20somethings, I would go with my most fashionable friend. She often would pull out enough clothes that when we got home she would keep the 2-3 items that fit her well, take the others to a nicer resale shop and get $20-30 back, so a trip to "Diggers" usually cost me $3 and netted her around $20.
Your neighborhood or town may have a local parents group that swaps things around for free or for so cheap the price is basically "reassure me this has value" - 50 cents for clothes, $5 for a crib.
The hard part with kid stuff is *stopping* the incoming flow of things and getting rid of stuff as your child outgrows it.
Great post.
For event organizers www.viamerge.com helps people travel to their events together.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has a paper comparing impact of different travel modes for different distances:
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/solutions/cleaner_cars_pickups_and_suvs/greentravel/getting-there-greener.html
Thanks for posting this info. I'm enjoying reading all the comments.
For anyone else reading who wants to find some tips to help with using the tax credit to buy your first house, check out this site. http://www.firsthomeexperience.com.
There are sections about home maintenance, housing market info, stuff on the tax credit, and a free booklet with a house buying guide. Plus there are some very easy contests to enter.
Consignment sales all the way for when you need stuff and when you are done with stuff. My friend just bought her 2T little girl all of her fall/winter clothing for about $50 and about $30 of that will go back to the parents who took the time to wash and prep their old clothing for the sale.
There are 3 that happen twice a year here in my 100,000 person town and they are a little frenzzied but if you are willing to sell or volunteer for them you can have first dibs.
My take at my local Kindermarket last week -
Fall jacket - $1
4 pants & 5 shirts - $15
Halloween costume - $7.50 but only because it was the PERFECT costume, otherwise I would have gotten a $3 that was only ok.
Great article Kathryn. Switching the dry food your cat gets would probably make the biggest difference. Including wet food in their diet (at least 50%; more if possible)makes a huge difference too.
Most kitties are poor drinkers so the extra moisture in the wet food really helps cut down on kidney stones, UTIs, etc.
i have been trying to get a payday loan in GA too and nobody will accept me! i keep going to websites and the problem is that they are illegal.
Honestly, this is the easiest thing in the world. Cloth diapers, hand me downs for everything. Children don't need anything but food (oh yeah-breast feed), care, lots of holding. I think many parents use babies as an excuse to spend.
Save the money--it will be more useful later!
Ok, when you steam off your first run from the mash, you get about a gallon if you go to fast. Save the left over to ferment again with more tap water, yeast and sugar. The product you steamed off gets 2 gallons of distilled water added and steam it off again, you can not rush this one as fast. Do not let the pot bubble!! This bowl is your bottle spirits. The left over here can be used for the second run of steaming when the next batch is ready.
I hope I said that ok. Let me know.
I just went to home show in New Jersey, the product does exist. I talked with the seller. Jeff Schuld. He informed me that each state is an individual company,thats why you cant buy the products in PA from an online company and live in NY orNJ. Yes, its expensive 4 receptacles $70 each,4 switches$70 each, Master switch $250 and tstat $200.. Thats $1050 for parts and and $250 for installation. $1300 for both. If monthly bill is $250 per month and you shave off 20% thats $50 per month. $50 x 12 months is $600 . Thats 24 month payback. Thats pretty good and was worth it. No one is forcing anyone to buy it, but its a great investment...INVESTMENT . thats the part people never remember. Keep using the clip strips,or running around pulling stuff out. Hit the circuit breakers (if they are SWD rated ) but its easier to do it with one switch than any other method you can come up with. I bought mine through Gone green technologies in NJ. Thanks for your articles. Keep up the good work.
Ann, I think you'll find the overall tax burden in the UK is no more than yours. No-one pays over half, I pay around 35% in all taxes and I get a great standard of healthcare included in that :-)
this is a very encouraging article. as a self employed person, i like reading about the mistakes that others before me have made so that i dont fall into the same pitfalls. i particularly like bezos' mistake :)
I definitely think that anyone who is looking to be economical when it comes to a new baby should consider cloth diapers. The upfront costs are higher, but it's great not to have to buy disposables (or to buy fewer disposables). We invested in Bum Genius, which are quite a bit more expensive than cloth prefolds, but easier to use in that they are more like disposable diapers when it comes to putting them on the baby--no pins! And the environmental benefits of cloth are undeniable--fewer disposables in the landfills and poop going through the sewer system rather than the into the landfill.
The answer to Q18 can be right as well. I am working with my boss for the past 3 years, without no grudge at all. I never let an argument last to an extent that leads disgruntlement. It all starts when you ain't flexible. My answers would be "No" to Q18 and still I am not a liar.You may have to rethink on the same, I request.
Thank you for the info on where to post hair for sale. I've posted to the hairtrader.com to sell about 2 feet of my hair and have had 22 hits already, its only been 2hrs.
Imagine if you took 4 years and devoted it to learning your field by yourself without wasting time in class. You would benefit much more if you could force yourself to do this and actually study. You also wouldn't have to worry about paying tuition.
When I was about to go to college I thought it would be a bunch of really smart people who cared about learning things and intellectual pursuits. I thought it would be challenging intellectually and that I would have to work really hard. What I found was quite different. The classes were easier than what I was taking in high school and the other students were of just average intelligence. I guess if you go to MIT or Harvard it's a different experience, but I thought all colleges had smart people.
College for me turned out to be a waste. I dropped out and joined the military and now I'm making more money as an Arabic linguist with a 2 year degree than many people I know who are still fooling around in college with liberal arts degrees.
If I had it to do over I would have skipped the college all together and joined the military right out of high school.
i'm sorry but this sounds incredibly tacky. unless it's a sunroom there is no way this is going to look good. what's next, patio astro-turf instead of carpet because of how easily it cleans?
though i can see why it's a good idea for families because i have seen some horridly disgusting couches at my in-laws houses. the thought of what i'm sitting in is sort of gross (leaky diaper residue).