If you have a PetSmart in your area check their prices. I buy my nyger at the feed store for about $1/lb. Since all nyger is imported from the same area I don't understand why some retailers charge so much, WBU is usually the most expensive in my area. The birds eat the feed store seed just as eagerly as the WBU stuff, they make no distinction between the two.

No gas biddy station listed for my zip code. The closest is Bakersfield at $4.39 but thatÂs down the canyon 60 miles. Here in Kernville gas is down from last week $4.76 to $4.63. I have to go down this week so I will fill up there. I donÂt think gas prices stopped many people from coming up here. The lake was full of boats, all the camp grounds were full and the market was just crazy. Claudia

Huango Ideally you want the stop sign a block before your house. The way it works though, they hit the breaks just in the middle of my house (100 feet from corner) and I never hear it. Neither does my neighbor on the corner. Plus before this traffic was really wizzing by. What happened is my street is an offshoot of a really busy street and a cut through for the 100 houses who live on the surrounding blocks. So people were wizzing because we were the quiet part of a fork, not realizing that this is a quieter street. Now I think of the stop sign as a way for them to stop and think and when they start again it is usually slower. You can couple it with some children playing signs For us it would be the same school district (they actually go to religious school which will stay the same) either way and in a sense, if there is a pecking order, they will be further up because they live in the expensive neighborhood. However I may not be happy because most of my life I have been the one with more in the less expensive suburb. I think it would be weird for me to suddenly be the poor one. I did learn about a study in sociology class in college, I believe the study was done in the 1970s. People who made 40k and lived in a neighborhood where most made 20 or 30k I forget felt themselves richer (not necessarily happier) than people who made 40k and lived in a neighborhood where everyone made 60. They felt poor We will still provide music lessons, karate and ipods, all the trappings of suburban youth. I will often try to say to our kids that things are too expensive, whether they are or not. I think they really have no idea where we are financially. It is interesting because a friend is having some money troubles and in the same breath as she spent 2 hours on the phone to save on the ride to the airport (125), she got her 10 year old ds a Chocolate cell phone for his birthday (has an MP3 player and she spent 100 on it). We had a long discussion both about purchases (he actually did need a cell phone because she is sometimes stuck in traffic and he has to let himself in) and also although this would thrill him as the coolest cell phone in his class (at least 5 out of 17 kids have them), we did discuss that he may attach to much import to this thing. That it would have been ok to get this for Ben Smith in his class whose family owns a chain of stores because it would be just another thing. For her son we decided it would set him up to expect more and more which she and her DH could not provide right now. She ended up returning it for the RAZR which is less expensive and he was thrilled with that (so maybe hte message got lost anyway). However this digresses from the topic. I guess my point is that the top of the less expensive market is not that far from the bottom of the more expensive and it seems like you get so much more (less than .3 v more than .5 usually) "A house in a good location will nearly always hold its value. The one with an unchangeable negative to its location will always be hard to unload" Well said and I guess that is the issue. Since DH does not work in something requiring relocation I guess I should worry less about that. Still you never know what market you will be selling into. I do sort of regret not selling my house 3 years ago when everything was selling

We used to fill up when the tank got to 1/4 tank, then as prices went up about a year or so ago, raised it to fill up at 1/2, this year we have been filling up at 3/4 tank, so it isn't so hard on the pocket book.. as we have 3 vehicles to purchase gas for. This time out we only needed to buy a little gas for 2 vehicles to have full tanks on all.. at the same station prices went from $3.49 yesterday to $4.49 today at noon and guess they were still rising. That was a $1 increase in 24 hours. Local news had some stations running out and lines were extremely long. They were blaming the shortage on Ike and the closing of refineries for the storms. I live in East Tennessee and won't be going anywhere this weekend. Glad I am off work and don't have to report back in until Monday. Extra shopping and side trips are out until prices are back down for me.