My savings on just wheat flour, yeast, and sugar are enough to pay for my Costco membership - especially the yeast (I pay less for 2 pounds of yeast at Costco than I pay for a single tiny 4oz. jar anywhere else). I also save a lot on the powdered sugar and white flour that I use for my holiday baking.
The Kirkland drawstring kitchen trash bags are great. They're equal in quality to the name brands, and much cheaper. A box will last me a very long time, which means I only have to think about trash bags once a year.
I have been Cash Only for decades, but now if I try to start new phone service. They say they are unable to indentify me. Why, because they still rely on the BIG THREE CREDIT REPORTING COMPANIES. Maybe we should have CONGRESS look into this, as I never gave the credit reporting companies permission to have my social security number, and as I always pay cash (American Dollars), why are they allowed to discriminate against me?
I have some tips, make a budget planner, A budget planner dosent necessarily mean that you dont put down costs to enjoyment, you need to include these, in fact 5 things per month that you would enjoy doing, examples are, meal for 2, cinema, night out with a friend down the pub etc etc, this will then be a realistic planner, with everything included, the reason many planners become a scrap piece of paper is that all human beings want to have some enjoyment in there lives and we forget to include the costs to these! so lets get these in there along with all the other all important bills! you will see a planner you can stick to which in turn will increase the quality of you life
because I just had to comment about cast iron not actually needing special handling, but which is actually more important.
I spent YEARS trying to get used to using the crock pot, and it's just not very good for healthy cooking. I do use it once or twice a week when it's cold out, but the thing that really made scratch cooking easier and faster for us was a pressure cooker and a good pressure cooker cookbook. We literally use the thing every day, it doesn't heat up my kitchen as much in the summer, it is good for vegetarian and lower-fat foods (risotto! squash cooked so you can just eat the skin!) and took a lot of the pre-cooking steps, like soaking beans, out of our routine.
I am giving pressure cookers to a bunch of newly-learning-to-cook relatives for Christmas this year (we got ours last year, for Christmas).
Gasoline! This week I paid $2.25/gal. I paid with my Costco Business AmEx card that gives a hefty percentage back on gasoline purchases (yes I pay it off in full ALWAYS). The cheapest I could find fuel at other stations was $2.29/gal cash, 2.39/gal credit.
I have often been suspicious about what is really a good deal or not there. These are great tips -- next time I hear a friend is going I will definitely ask them to get me SEVERAL large jars of jam.
I would add to the list diapers and wipes. Serious couponers can get these things for cheaper elsewhere, but for those who want to buy diapers once a month and be done with it, the quality and price of the Kirkland brand are awesome. At least as I recall -- I haven't been a member for about 2 years.
For a family of two, the mini-french breads in the bakery (sold in packs of six) are great. They are the perfect size, great quality, and easy to freeze individually. Fun post!
I'm happy to say I already use most of these items in my home. I have the set of iron skillets that my parents received as a wedding present in 1959, and they are by far the easiest to clean and cook with.
I also found a good bread machine at Goodwill, and love it. I've started making the dough in the machine, then removing it and baking in the oven. I hardly use the clothes dryer anymore, as I actually enjoy hanging laundry outside.
I take issue only with the feather duster and the hand blender. A swiffer duster picks up the dust rather than just spreading it around. As for the blender, I used one this summer at our cabin which has no electricity. I couldn't believe how long it took to whip cream with that thing! After 20 minutes I had to stop and have someone else take over. Ouch!
I love my 9" cast iron skillet that I got at a garage sale many years ago! I mostly use it for eggs (a little butter on medium heat, can be turned off when partially cooked because the pan retains heat so well it will finish cooking) on my glass top electric stove. I always wash out my pan with hot water and a little soap and simply dry with a dish towel. How simple can it get. Of course it was well seasoned when I got it. By the way, I am 61 years old and healthy.
I have stainless steel pans for cooking other things. Oh, and the iron skillet makes great cornbread in the oven. I melt butter in it before I pour the batter in and it makes a nice crispy crust. What a fun discussion you've got going here. My son suggested I check it out.
I started out chuckling, but this list became depressing very quickly. Are there that many people willing to be dishonest, tasteless or repulsive just to save a little change? I didn't find it useful at all.
The utlimate business solution. The ability to cut the cost of any business expense, or just plain invest.
Developed multiple arbitrages for the financial markets. Arbitrages that produce just a few percent a year, to arbitrages that produce over 30 percent a year.
In 2001 i started developing, as of now, a dozen arbitrages. I lock in an X percentage, and Y time later, i close out the arbitrage. Over 30%/yr.
Risk-Free Investing is not only possible, but in abundance. Just that people are told and taught that it is impossible. No risk has been in front of all, but not seen.
The market is unlimited.
I'm interested in selling, or partnering to sell, or partner in a business that uses my arbitrage.
I know a awesome website that offers money making ideas. The address is healthstore-howtobehealthy.blogspot.com under financial health.
Thanks I really loved it, learned a lot of real money making ideas.
I completely agree about the water tasting bad thing. Its not really the water, but what is added to the water that makes us say *yuck* Its really amazing what *minerals* are allowed in our water and what is added to make it "taste better" and also the amount of chlorine added to make the water more apealing. We reciently got a water filtration system that helps take care of all that (a little costly but worth it!!) Since then i've been drinking more water. Its nice to know there are other things you can add naturally to it to make it not so ordinary and dull sometimes for variety's sake :)
My friend just told me of something that really turned out great...try orange slices and star fruit slices. Let it sit over night in the fridge. I tried it and really liked it!!
I know someone at my company who is prob going be fired and I have warned them about things they can do to improve to no avail. I think some people just do not "get it". I feel bad backing away from this person as does everyone else in the company but after a while, you give up and it is frustrating to try and deal with or make sense with someone who is totally clueless. The company is willing to keep people around who can work with others and has a good attitude. Those that get canned are those with crappy attitudes, poor work ethic, bad communication skills, inappropriate behavior. You think it would be obvious but some people just don't get it.
I appreciate your concern for the restaurants offering certificates. However, if restaurants using the program were getting the raw end of the stick, don't you think they would stop participating. Nobody made them give such a big discount through Restaurant.com. We've used the coupons many times and our waiters never gripe at them (mind you, we always tip well too). The purpose of the certificates is simply to fill the seats that would have went empty anyways and that maybe next time you will full price, or tell a friend about the restaurant and they'll go.
For instance, we used a certificate at Ted's Montana Grill in Atlanta. The service was superior and the food was spectacular. Even with using the coupon, we just had two entrees and the meal came to $14. ($24 minus a $10 certificate). We tipped our waitress $6 - she had nothing to complain about. We tipped better than the table next to us who didn't use a coupon, had three people in the their party and ate full meals. They also happened to complain about the food and sent it back twice (multiple people in their party). Then complaining to the manager four times and blatantly asking for free stuff. So, who was ripping off the restaurant? Certainly not the person participating in the marketing program that the restaurant signed up for.
The people next to us were from out of town and likely will never be back or tell their friends about the restaurant. I, however, paid for my meal (which was relatively inexpensive to produce), have told a number of friends about my great experience already, and have posted reviews on the internet as well. All in all, I think the Restaurant.com thing is a great deal for a restaurant like that.
Now, if a restaurant has complaining waiters, subpar service and food, Restaurant.com may give the them the worse publicity they could have ever dreamed of.
You can use your bread machine for more than bread. Use it as a mini oven to bake things like vegetables or whatever, even a chicken or a roast if you eat meat.
All you need is a pan that will fit in the machine and something to rest the pan on so it is above, and not resting on, the heating elements.
I put a small pyrex dish in the bottom of the bread machine to act as a spacer (to keep the pot I am cooking with above the heating element) and then just set it to bake at whatever temperature I want. I suspect it is more energy efficient and less expensive than firing up the oven for a single dish.
I have made baked roasted rice this way in a covered round metal pan (used to have a handle but that fell off years ago) and it worked fantastically. Also I baked an entire butternut squash last week. Pressure cooker would be even more efficient for the squash, though.
I hope you don't become too miserable living "inside the box" your whole life. Your perspectives about everything that Kiyosaki, and this guy teach are very skewed. I may sound ignorant only being 21, and saying that I am not going to live in the rat race, but my mother has lived it her whole life. And it's funny how my dad (who shares the same ideas as you) is too big headed to hear what I've got to say about wealth, yet he and his wife are struggling financially. It's funny how opinionated some people are, yet they don't even understand(or want to understand) these concepts of the wealthy. I feel that when I am rich, my biggest battle will be to accept that there are people who think like you! First, my dad doesn't support me financially through college, claims I should work full time, and go to community college (which where will that get me in life?), and then he can't even try to be positive and support me on this road. Life is so terrible in the rat race,and I know ways that my dad could improve his life greatly, but he is so ignorant, and there's no getting through to him. These guy's main points are that your financial life has much less to do with traditional education, and everything to do with your financial education. I fear the day that I'm wealthy, and my dad acts as if I should help him financially, even though he never supported me in any of this, and just made me feel terrible for taking a non-traditional route. Buuuut One of Shemin's key virtues is forgiveness, and I feel like my soul will be free if I forget my dad's ignorance, and help him with whatever he needs. Because I live in abundance: )
p.s. I'm more afraid of struggling, and living miserably in the "rat race" than going down this path and failing.
I think you are dealing in generalities and each individual is unique. This invalidates your whole comment.
Great article. Thanks!
My savings on just wheat flour, yeast, and sugar are enough to pay for my Costco membership - especially the yeast (I pay less for 2 pounds of yeast at Costco than I pay for a single tiny 4oz. jar anywhere else). I also save a lot on the powdered sugar and white flour that I use for my holiday baking.
Bread flour, chocolate chips, YEAST (by far the best deal per ounce at Costco), spices, milk, cheese.
The Kirkland drawstring kitchen trash bags are great. They're equal in quality to the name brands, and much cheaper. A box will last me a very long time, which means I only have to think about trash bags once a year.
Free range eggs are SO cheap at Costco! I was in a hurry yesterday and paid $4! At Costco they're somewhere around $2.
Also, they carry some tasty organic bread (my boyfriend thinks its too chewy, I like it). He goes there for electronics, I always stock up on eggs!!
I have been Cash Only for decades, but now if I try to start new phone service. They say they are unable to indentify me. Why, because they still rely on the BIG THREE CREDIT REPORTING COMPANIES. Maybe we should have CONGRESS look into this, as I never gave the credit reporting companies permission to have my social security number, and as I always pay cash (American Dollars), why are they allowed to discriminate against me?
I have some tips, make a budget planner, A budget planner dosent necessarily mean that you dont put down costs to enjoyment, you need to include these, in fact 5 things per month that you would enjoy doing, examples are, meal for 2, cinema, night out with a friend down the pub etc etc, this will then be a realistic planner, with everything included, the reason many planners become a scrap piece of paper is that all human beings want to have some enjoyment in there lives and we forget to include the costs to these! so lets get these in there along with all the other all important bills! you will see a planner you can stick to which in turn will increase the quality of you life
because I just had to comment about cast iron not actually needing special handling, but which is actually more important.
I spent YEARS trying to get used to using the crock pot, and it's just not very good for healthy cooking. I do use it once or twice a week when it's cold out, but the thing that really made scratch cooking easier and faster for us was a pressure cooker and a good pressure cooker cookbook. We literally use the thing every day, it doesn't heat up my kitchen as much in the summer, it is good for vegetarian and lower-fat foods (risotto! squash cooked so you can just eat the skin!) and took a lot of the pre-cooking steps, like soaking beans, out of our routine.
I am giving pressure cookers to a bunch of newly-learning-to-cook relatives for Christmas this year (we got ours last year, for Christmas).
Gasoline! This week I paid $2.25/gal. I paid with my Costco Business AmEx card that gives a hefty percentage back on gasoline purchases (yes I pay it off in full ALWAYS). The cheapest I could find fuel at other stations was $2.29/gal cash, 2.39/gal credit.
I have often been suspicious about what is really a good deal or not there. These are great tips -- next time I hear a friend is going I will definitely ask them to get me SEVERAL large jars of jam.
I would add to the list diapers and wipes. Serious couponers can get these things for cheaper elsewhere, but for those who want to buy diapers once a month and be done with it, the quality and price of the Kirkland brand are awesome. At least as I recall -- I haven't been a member for about 2 years.
For a family of two, the mini-french breads in the bakery (sold in packs of six) are great. They are the perfect size, great quality, and easy to freeze individually. Fun post!
I'm happy to say I already use most of these items in my home. I have the set of iron skillets that my parents received as a wedding present in 1959, and they are by far the easiest to clean and cook with.
I also found a good bread machine at Goodwill, and love it. I've started making the dough in the machine, then removing it and baking in the oven. I hardly use the clothes dryer anymore, as I actually enjoy hanging laundry outside.
I take issue only with the feather duster and the hand blender. A swiffer duster picks up the dust rather than just spreading it around. As for the blender, I used one this summer at our cabin which has no electricity. I couldn't believe how long it took to whip cream with that thing! After 20 minutes I had to stop and have someone else take over. Ouch!
I love my 9" cast iron skillet that I got at a garage sale many years ago! I mostly use it for eggs (a little butter on medium heat, can be turned off when partially cooked because the pan retains heat so well it will finish cooking) on my glass top electric stove. I always wash out my pan with hot water and a little soap and simply dry with a dish towel. How simple can it get. Of course it was well seasoned when I got it. By the way, I am 61 years old and healthy.
I have stainless steel pans for cooking other things. Oh, and the iron skillet makes great cornbread in the oven. I melt butter in it before I pour the batter in and it makes a nice crispy crust. What a fun discussion you've got going here. My son suggested I check it out.
I started out chuckling, but this list became depressing very quickly. Are there that many people willing to be dishonest, tasteless or repulsive just to save a little change? I didn't find it useful at all.
Car insurance is very important and it is also advisable to check the fine prints of your insurance.
The Holy Grail to Investing.
The utlimate business solution. The ability to cut the cost of any business expense, or just plain invest.
Developed multiple arbitrages for the financial markets. Arbitrages that produce just a few percent a year, to arbitrages that produce over 30 percent a year.
In 2001 i started developing, as of now, a dozen arbitrages. I lock in an X percentage, and Y time later, i close out the arbitrage. Over 30%/yr.
Risk-Free Investing is not only possible, but in abundance. Just that people are told and taught that it is impossible. No risk has been in front of all, but not seen.
The market is unlimited.
I'm interested in selling, or partnering to sell, or partner in a business that uses my arbitrage.
Thomas
352-283-3326
HolyGrailToInvesting@hotmail.com
I know a awesome website that offers money making ideas. The address is healthstore-howtobehealthy.blogspot.com under financial health.
Thanks I really loved it, learned a lot of real money making ideas.
I completely agree about the water tasting bad thing. Its not really the water, but what is added to the water that makes us say *yuck* Its really amazing what *minerals* are allowed in our water and what is added to make it "taste better" and also the amount of chlorine added to make the water more apealing. We reciently got a water filtration system that helps take care of all that (a little costly but worth it!!) Since then i've been drinking more water. Its nice to know there are other things you can add naturally to it to make it not so ordinary and dull sometimes for variety's sake :)
My friend just told me of something that really turned out great...try orange slices and star fruit slices. Let it sit over night in the fridge. I tried it and really liked it!!
I know someone at my company who is prob going be fired and I have warned them about things they can do to improve to no avail. I think some people just do not "get it". I feel bad backing away from this person as does everyone else in the company but after a while, you give up and it is frustrating to try and deal with or make sense with someone who is totally clueless. The company is willing to keep people around who can work with others and has a good attitude. Those that get canned are those with crappy attitudes, poor work ethic, bad communication skills, inappropriate behavior. You think it would be obvious but some people just don't get it.
I appreciate your concern for the restaurants offering certificates. However, if restaurants using the program were getting the raw end of the stick, don't you think they would stop participating. Nobody made them give such a big discount through Restaurant.com. We've used the coupons many times and our waiters never gripe at them (mind you, we always tip well too). The purpose of the certificates is simply to fill the seats that would have went empty anyways and that maybe next time you will full price, or tell a friend about the restaurant and they'll go.
For instance, we used a certificate at Ted's Montana Grill in Atlanta. The service was superior and the food was spectacular. Even with using the coupon, we just had two entrees and the meal came to $14. ($24 minus a $10 certificate). We tipped our waitress $6 - she had nothing to complain about. We tipped better than the table next to us who didn't use a coupon, had three people in the their party and ate full meals. They also happened to complain about the food and sent it back twice (multiple people in their party). Then complaining to the manager four times and blatantly asking for free stuff. So, who was ripping off the restaurant? Certainly not the person participating in the marketing program that the restaurant signed up for.
The people next to us were from out of town and likely will never be back or tell their friends about the restaurant. I, however, paid for my meal (which was relatively inexpensive to produce), have told a number of friends about my great experience already, and have posted reviews on the internet as well. All in all, I think the Restaurant.com thing is a great deal for a restaurant like that.
Now, if a restaurant has complaining waiters, subpar service and food, Restaurant.com may give the them the worse publicity they could have ever dreamed of.
A half cup of white vinegar set in a room will deodorize it.
To the guy who broke his phone...you're the idiot for paying that much for a phone to impress your friends and then destroying it by your own hand.
There are also some tips for jumping off a ciff on the web so you may want to stay away from those. Then again, maybe you shouldn't.
You can use your bread machine for more than bread. Use it as a mini oven to bake things like vegetables or whatever, even a chicken or a roast if you eat meat.
All you need is a pan that will fit in the machine and something to rest the pan on so it is above, and not resting on, the heating elements.
I put a small pyrex dish in the bottom of the bread machine to act as a spacer (to keep the pot I am cooking with above the heating element) and then just set it to bake at whatever temperature I want. I suspect it is more energy efficient and less expensive than firing up the oven for a single dish.
I have made baked roasted rice this way in a covered round metal pan (used to have a handle but that fell off years ago) and it worked fantastically. Also I baked an entire butternut squash last week. Pressure cooker would be even more efficient for the squash, though.
I hope you don't become too miserable living "inside the box" your whole life. Your perspectives about everything that Kiyosaki, and this guy teach are very skewed. I may sound ignorant only being 21, and saying that I am not going to live in the rat race, but my mother has lived it her whole life. And it's funny how my dad (who shares the same ideas as you) is too big headed to hear what I've got to say about wealth, yet he and his wife are struggling financially. It's funny how opinionated some people are, yet they don't even understand(or want to understand) these concepts of the wealthy. I feel that when I am rich, my biggest battle will be to accept that there are people who think like you! First, my dad doesn't support me financially through college, claims I should work full time, and go to community college (which where will that get me in life?), and then he can't even try to be positive and support me on this road. Life is so terrible in the rat race,and I know ways that my dad could improve his life greatly, but he is so ignorant, and there's no getting through to him. These guy's main points are that your financial life has much less to do with traditional education, and everything to do with your financial education. I fear the day that I'm wealthy, and my dad acts as if I should help him financially, even though he never supported me in any of this, and just made me feel terrible for taking a non-traditional route. Buuuut One of Shemin's key virtues is forgiveness, and I feel like my soul will be free if I forget my dad's ignorance, and help him with whatever he needs. Because I live in abundance: )
p.s. I'm more afraid of struggling, and living miserably in the "rat race" than going down this path and failing.