Hi B2, LOL! Big Box Store: "A large retail store whose physical layout resembles a large square of box when seen from above. A big box store is characterized by a large amount of floor space, a wide array of items available for sale, and its location in suburban areas. Big box stores often can offer lower prices because they buy products in high volume. Also called supercenter, superstore, megacenter." Therefore: Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart, Target, etc. I think of them as the "cheap stores," tho some of them are definitely cheaper than others! I don't have time for the long answer, but Hyponex is mostly Colorado "sedge peat," which is basically SLUDGE! Next time you're in a Walmart, go to the "garden" section and lift one of the bags of Hyponex! It's like lifting a bag of lead! (Compared to any other brand of soil mix you'd use for potted plants.) Plants don't grow very well in MUCK, so plants don't grow very well in Hyponex. (In my opinion, plants don't grow AT ALL in Hyponex.) The baled stuff is Canadian sphagnum peat, which is what you want. If you ever get peat in a bag, be sure that's what it is, but it's much cheaper in the bales (used to come in 3 sizes)---and you can keep it "forever" if you don't use it all right away! (It's already a few thousand years old!) That's why I always specify Canadian when I'm talking about peat! It's a completely different animal from Colorado Muck---I mean "peat!" Don't feel ignorant about asking things! The only way to learn something is to ask about it! My Mantra around here: The only dumb question is the one you don't ask! :-) [Now that's assuming you don't ask the SAME question over and over and over.......] You're really not that far from Timberline. If you consider buying a bulk soil, run over there some day and ask to see their soil mixes. They show a "Planter's Mix" for $29.50 a yard. If you go, ask if Kelly is there, and if he is tell him what you're using it for and see if he thinks that would be a good choice. [Tell him Dee sent you!] If he tells you to get the "EKO Planter's Mix," tell him that's too expensive, and you're gonna add your own peat---'cause I said so!!! (And tell him I said Hi!) If you decide to get it in bags, I still think you should wait till Walmart gets their stuff in, then pick up one bag of each of the 2 or 3 cheapest things they have, take them home to check them out, and then go back to get a bunch more of whichever looks the best to you. (Take it home to check it out because you want to moisten it to see what it's gonna be like when you're actually growing in it!) It's been a few years now, but the last time I checked baled peat prices, it was cheaper at HD or Lowe's, so, since they carry the same sizes, compare prices on that one. Walmart was NOT the cheapest! One other quick thing before I go! Gardening is supposed to be fun--the thing you do to Relax and Get Away From it All! (Yeah! I know it's work!) So don't take it too seriously! There is no definitive Right or Wrong! Try something, and if it works, it's RIGHT! Everybody does it differently, so figure out what's right and what works for you, and, while you're doing that, relax and enjoy it. If something doesn't turn out well, laugh, and try again! We'll all help you with the laughing part! You get to do the working part yourself!!! '-) Gotta go! Was just checking back in before x'ing out of cyberspace for the nite! Skybird Here is a link that might be useful: Timberline Gardens

I know this for a fact. If you are an authorized user, you are only authorized to use the card and the c/c does not report anything about you to the credit reporting agencies. Your mom is solely responsible for the card. If you became a JOINT user of the card, then you are equally liable for the charges and they report the payment history to the reporting agencies. How I know this is I am from Canada and married an American. I had no US credit history and they do not take Canadian credit history here even though I had good credit back home. At first I was an authorized user of dh's cards, thinking they would report the info to the credit bureaus. When I checked my free annual credit reports, tehre was nothing on me. No info whatsoever. It wasn't until dh made the cards joint (and me ultimately responsible for the cards too) that the info was reported to my record. I also have almost the same high fico score as dh. Basically, all his credit history transferred to me and I reaped the benefit of his high score. Authorized user = no reporting to agencies Joint user = report to agencies and the user is liable for charges.

My understanding is that the gas wouldn't go from, for instance, $1.319 to $1.35 unless you bought just one unit. If you bought 10 gallons, for $13.19, it'd round to $13.20. It's not quite the windfall some are suggesting. And yes, in certain circumstances the tax increase percentage-wise would be high, but in real life, I doubt it's going to be that much different. Some of the arguments on both sides of this reminds me of the arguments years ago over going to the metric system. My one teacher in school was talking about it and saying look what would happen for instance in football games. How many times is a play short or over by an inch or two so now if you change it from yards to meters it would make a difference in the game... Yeah, this was a teacher... need I say more? LOL I use pennies. I never understood the idea of keeping buckets of coins. You're not "saving" anything by keeping barrels of coins around the house. You're spending the bills to get the coins to put in the bucket, and I like to keep the bills rather than the coins. For that matter, except for keeping some 1s for tipping I prefer to keep the larger bills and spend the smaller ones rather than pile up the small stuff. I know some feel like they have more if they have 20 $1 bills than they do if they have 2-10s or a $20 bill. I'm not that way. I don't find it that problematic to use coins rather than bills. If I get a pocketful of change I'll pay with the change when I can. I used to keep a cup in the house for change but ran into the problem that it sat there and I figured enough of that. You usually have to make a special trip somewhere to cash in the coins and at $3+ per gallon, you lose a lot of pennies making the trip to say nothing of the waste of time and effort to grunt it down there. I do keep a little cup in my vehicle with some change in it for parking meters, emergency money, etc. If I get an excess of pennies in there, I've been known to pay a $3.07 total with seven pennies (and occasionally even use up some quarters) rather than let them pile up. Easy to do at a drive up window. You normally have to wait and gives you plenty of time to get the right change and even use all change for the purchase, like my $1.07 cup of coffee on which I'll occasionally splurge. (I don't go to the MegaBucks coffee house!) If I find a lot of change in the cup, I'll take in some and use as part of the tip too when I eat out. Not even an effort to reach in, grab some coins and put in the pocket as I'm walking into the restaurant. Seems to me the "bucket brigade" folks are only fooling themselves most of the time, much like those who believe they have a windfall of a savings account by overpaying their withholding on income taxes each year so they get a bigger check at tax paying time. The "windfall" they don't even save, but figure "How can I spend this now?" I shake my head in disbelief at that one too! I will say though, for the few who simply cannot budget at all, then maybe the bucket "savings" could help them. Sort of like the "envelope system" that some use though most abuse. But, that's my opinion derived from observation so if it makes you happy, go ahead. I'm sure I'll get another lecture! LOL Much of my frugality was learned back when there was some noticeable interest being paid at banks so it was worth it to keep as much money in the bank as you could keep there. Now that's gone but I believe the lessons learned are still good. The US citizens rejected dollar coins then some "genius" came up with the SueBee which was laughingly rejected. (Still laugh when I think about the southerner saying "No way! Don't want no broad on mah muney!) I personally refuse to accept them if I get them in change. Guess if they do ban "paper" here, I'll have to go only to places that take credit cards. People don't "change" easily. People still want the perceived "lower" price as proven by the success of the "Cost Club" stores, dollar stores and the 10% off clearance racks where they were marked *up* 25% the week before. It's a fact in retail business that the 99¢ item still sells better than $1.00, except occasionally when there's a $1 area that can have things higher per unit than others. I guess for the real penny-pinchers the the "penny pitching" would encourage buying more since buying 5 - 99¢ non-taxable items would cost less per unit than buying 1-4 of them with the tax round-up. I do question if this is going to cause an accounting nightmare. Tax is (usually) based on a percentage of the sales, so the extra is extra profit for the store? Then to be taxed again? Or do the Feds (or in Canada, the Parls?) accept the amount the cash register says is their share? On small amounts it's of no consequence but a big store will have a difference I would think. All this hoopla over pennies... Hmm. Says something about society doesn't it?

Wanda, just added you. Don't worry. You aren't late! And I enjoy doing this. I have 14 of us signed up, including me. As that is all we have, unless all of you want me to split the list into 2 groups, I will just leave it as one group, and we send to everyone. Let me know if you want it split, please!