Savings achieved in daily household routine
joyfulguy
21 years ago
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daily support - march 24 thru march 30
Comments (61)Hi Everyone! I'm glad to report I stuck to my plan last night - only had one light beer and one fake beer and 2 med slices of pizza. Drank a huge glass of water too. Ending this week I'm still ahead having 20 bonus point left for the week. I've almost recovered on the scales from last weekend - tomorrow is my weigh day. Planning ahead is worth it. No, I did not get all of the snow moved. I can now see out 1/2 the window. With the temps warming this week, I will be throwing more snow on the drive to melt and will continue to do so until I can get through my patio gate to the back door and clear the front window snow bank. I can only do so much and have to wait for the snow to melt before I can toss some more. It's good exercise and fresh air - so I don't mind. Waiting for my swimsuits to arrive in the post (ebay) - going to start playing in the pool at the nearby sports center. Planning on walking there one way and probably busing back now that the sidewalks have been clear. Any water activity really has helped me in the past tone up and get rid of flab. It's also a treat for me. Dodi, I've only been through your area once on our holiday driving down to Boston area - beautiful is an understatement! I can understand why you drive to town to do your walking! Raeanne what were you working on? I'm going to check out August Rush on the internet. We watch movies at home so I may have to wait. Where is Lake George? Besh do you have any other children? They grow up so fast. Marci what is on the agenda for next week - any time for yourself in there? Milkdud would you please send some of your heat my way? I wanna garden so bad it's driving me nuts. I can smell the snow melting. Yes, it has a particular smell. How is Aubrey today? Hey John it's great to have a man's perspective on all of this journey. What do you do to relax after work? NhSuzanne - what neck of the woods are you in to have as much snow? Let's go visit Milkdud! DeeMarie - what type of work do you do? Are you still feeling refreshed from your holiday? I loved working on projects in my career - I'm an administrative junkie at heart. Patti congrats on your weight loss too - trying to find your post on it but I keep getting lost! Can you update me please! After rereading the posts - I think my crock pot is getting hauled out today. I can't believe I see so many of them in charity shops all the time. There was a smaller one available last week and a bunch of tall mason jars which I'm thinking of returning on Monday to pick up. I have a craving for lima beans and crock pots do them justice. QOD: What was your first childhood toy that you claimed as your 'buddy? Mine was a stuffed, butt ugly monkey. I traded a toy tractor with my foster brother for it. We were moving from Ontario to Manitoba. My foster brother needed special care that was not available in the military camp we moved to. It broke our hearts to part with Brian. I was so creative I called him Monkey. Monkey had many surgeries in his life, many baths and finally disintegrated in my late 20's to the point of no return - may Monkey rest in peace. Let's make today count! It's sunny -3' and going to a balmy +2'C (34'F). Might have to do some snow tossing! Cheers, Peggy...See MoreDangerous Unintended Consequences
Comments (41)Hi Bethesdamanman, My apologies then, Dave. I thought that I had recalled you posting on the other board that mortgage rates would stay low for years and years, and that we would never return to the high rates of years past. My error. Eeeesschhh .... well.... actually... kinda sorta, YES.... your apologies in this case are NOT warranted. Herein lies a case of "text failing where a verbal conversation *may* have worked better." I've never said rates would stay low "well... forever".... I HAVE said rates (30 FRM rates to be precise) will unlikely climb over 7% in our lifetimes. I *STILL* stand by that.... albeit, I am now offering that we are entering a territory of government-induced inflation at levels I (perhaps naively) thought the United States political system was above. If we continue down the path of dollar-dilution that we've begun accelerating along, there are only two end-game results; A) we reverse course back out of it before we self-destruct in revolution, B) we self-destruct (and the devil we do not know is always a potential problem.) *IF* we successfully reverse and dig ourselves out of the hole of trouble our most recent past and our current government administrations are hell-bent on digging us into... there are only two ways of "sopping back & vacuuming up" the diluted unbacked funny-money that has been injected out into the system; A) The Treasury collects more taxes than it provides to the government to spend, and/or, B) The Fed increases interest rates higher than its blended payout on the treasury bonds (and then some... the greater the positive income spread to the Fed, the more painful to the "fixed-income retired crowd" which is our baby-boomer bubble... who will rally with AARP-sponsored pitchforks.) Both A & B will be met with *MASSIVE* resistance from the only crowd that the poloticos *KNOW* will consistently show up to vote, and have almost unlimited spare time to write, call, email, and generally pester the daylights out of the politicians; The Seniors. SO.... I've learned to never rely on "common sense" when it comes to anticipating "government logic" (an oxymoron if there ever was one.) Obama has enlisted the original architect of option B... Paul Volcker... as a "senior economic advisor." ("Senior" may (MAY) work somewhat to our advantage here... as Gramps Volcker *MIGHT* have some age-gained sensitivity to his classmate comrade's plight.) Volcker is the one who decided to fight inflation in the 1970's by driving short-term interest rates up to the 20%'s... The late '70's and early '80's result was that Volcker recaptured (in a VERY painful way) the excess liquidity (flooding of funny money) our country created by going off the gold standard and adopting a "weak dollar" policy through the 1960's. WHAT WILL WA DC DO??????????????? I dunno.... (I know what I pray/chant/meditate they will do...) *IF* the government (both the loonie left & jackthug right) get OUT of the way of the naturally balancing markets... then my expectations and predictions stand, with virtually my 100% confidence. My fears are that the United States idea of a market-based capitalist self-righting system has been a grand and wonderful social experiment... but that the human frailties (compounded in mob psychology) are sabotaging the underlying DNA strands that made it possible to stand. My COMFORTING REALIZATION... is that despite my egoistic pride for being part of a "successful system".... even if that system turns out to be a decaying failure, INDIDIVIDUALLY I and my family, and those I guide, can still retain their own personal success and quality of life. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner...See MoreExcellent Home Office and Household Paper Management Advice, Link
Comments (10)Interesting thoughts -- we could all improve on paperwork storage in our homes. Two things I think I'm doing well that differ from the above mentioned Script, and someone else might find some ideas in my methods: Taxes. Yes, like Script, I am scrupulous about maintaining records for my taxes. About a dozen years ago I went to the office supply and bought two big boxes of BRIGHT GREEN folders (green like money). I labeled them Taxes 2000 ... Taxes 2001 ... Taxes 2002 ... Taxes 2003 ... and so on. Given my family's typical lifespan, I made enough green folders to take me to age 110 -- probably more than I'll need, but I'm ready! They're all stored in my file cabinet, taking up very little space. Now when I receive anything tax-related -- a charitable receipt, an end-of-the-year bank statement, whatever -- I have a place to file it. In April, I have a place to file a copy of my taxes, and I can go back and see previous tax years. For the rest of my life, this system is in place. Death folder. Ours is a notebook. Two identical notebooks, actually, since we have two children. Our girls are young adults now, but they've never dealt with an estate -- even if they don't open it 'til they're old, it'll be useful to them. It contains a lot of stuff: - A personal letter to the two of them - A list of our wishes about funeral and items we'd like donated to various family members or charities - A list of things they must do immediately; it starts with going to our house and taking possession of the dog, but it also includes small details like canceling our voting registration and destroying any medicines in the house. At every turn this list includes addresses and phone numbers, including the lawyer we suggest for probate, the funeral home our family's always used, and family members who should be contacted. - A copy our will; they know what's in it -- everything split between the two of them - A list of our financial assets -- bank accounts, investments, insurance, deeds/maps of real estate ... when our youngest became a legal adult, we made the two girls co-beneficiaries of every account; note that this was done before either was married, so our two kids -- not future son-in-laws -- will own these items. - A list of the bills we pay each month -- electricity, phone, even the guy who cuts our grass. - Official copies of our birth certificates, our marriage certificates, and the girls' birth certificates -- they might not be needed, but the girls won't have to scramble to find them - A flashdrive with all of the above in digital format plus photographs that might be useful in putting together the funeral Our rule: We keep two years of tax returns in the notebooks ... the reason being that someday an accountant will file our final estate tax return, and he or she will want our last two years of returns -- so every April we pull out the notebook, discard one old return and insert the newest ... so our rule is that every April we look over the notebook and update anything that's changed. For example, last year we changed bank accounts, and someday we hope to add items concerning grandchildren to the book. Our girls know that the notebooks are stored in the safe, and they know where the key to the safe is hidden, and they know it's labeled with a misleading name so that a thief wouldn't look at it twice. Last thought on this notebook: Though this project took us the better part of a year --- we kept remembering one more thing, one more thing that really should be included -- we didn't find it difficult emotionally. I suspect that if we were older and/or one of us were in poor health, it might've been different....See MoreBoost your Routine. A Brand New Detergent Discovery!
Comments (189)Did a load of dishes with Bubble Bandit last night. At first glance, everything looked amazing. However, as I was unloading things, I noticed that anything with a small amount of food on it, didn't wash away. :/ There was also a horrible streak on two glasses. Re-Washed everything this morning with Cascade Gel + STPP, and once again Spotless. I just don't get that Bubble Bandit stuff. :(...See Morespewey
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