Hello everyone! I'm definitely NOT a fan of Wal-Mart, although I can appreciate the reasons why people shop there. Wal-Mart has extremely low prices, but I am absolutely NOT convinvced their products are of good quality. One of the few things I bought was a garden-hose-spray-nozzle for .99 which broke within a few days. At a yard sale, I got 2 used garden-hose-spray-nozzles for $1 each, which have held up faithfully. 4 years ago, My mom bought a kids' mountain bike for her grandson. What a piece of crap that was. Crappy enough to make a kid not want to ride a bike. Yes, it was very inexpensive, but who cares, if its just junk? I bought my mountain bike on local-ebay, 2nd hand, for a lot less than what it'd cost new. Walmart clothes: decent, but Target is far better. I'm lucky to live in a metropolitan area, where thrift stores are chock-full of good clothes. Nobody does a better job of being thrifty than me: I'm enthusiastic about buying things 2nd hand, at thrift stores, auctions, on craigslist.org, in the local paper, etc. I get a lot of great things, used. Where I live, anything I need can be found for a good price at smaller stores (...every store is smaller than Walmart). And if paying a little more means supporting a smaller and/or local store, I will do so. Smaller stores sometimes have great sales! I believe in supporting small/smaller businesses, because I believe they are healthy for our economy, from which everyone benefits. I wrote a letter to the mayor of Oregon City, thanking her for saying "no" to a Walmart store being built here. (She wrote me back!) Another point: Don't buy anything just because it's dirt cheap. Garbage service costs, and the landfills have enough junk already. How much useless crap could a household possibly need?

We believe that our bodies/our health are our #1 asset and that our financial situation is in the next high tier. So, in general, we believe that if we eat food loaded with antibiotics (mass produced meats/dairy) and chemicals (foods have somewhere near 15000 man made chemicals in them), then we invite health problems that could otherwise be avoided and we incur extra medical costs. So, we grow what we can and food shop to focus on healthy foods. We seriously walk at least 5 evenings/wk - year round. Knock on wood and thank god, we don't get sick very often, but I do have some medical issues that require regular oversight and which I can't eliminate. We also believe that if we buy quality, we won't be rebuying the items again and again. So, we save up for larger purchases and only get a "new" one when the old one is shot. We often look for used, refurbished items as our "new" when we need to replace. I'm using the coffee pot that my mom &dad were given when they got married in 1954 (and no it doesn't make cappucino/lattes!!), we use a drill that I purchased in 1980 which is all metal. We use a 1950something toaster which we purchased used. We buy garden and other tools at garage sales and we try to avoid buying items with plastic parts. We use cotton and wool blankets, we don't redecorate every 6 months. Because we eat fairly healthy and we exercise, we don't change clothes size - yes, we can go up and down, but we get back to the base size before a size change is in order. Staying the same size is a blessing and a curse. We try and make sure that most of our clothes are all cotton/wool/silk because we have found that synthetic materials wear out and get ratty looking alot faster. We don't buy "trendy" styles and we always look reasonably timeless. We wait for clothes to wear out but because we do, we don't always wear the absolutely most current color or style. And that is ok. My husband grew up in a military family and money was tight. I grew up in a middle class family, but my parents had lived through the great depression - I always heard about how much things cost. Sure, sometimes we don't have a choice but to buy cheaply made items, but we do what we can to avoid it and we shop with local firms. We find that it's pretty easy to avoid Walmart and live within a budget at the same time.

I have spoken to elderly women to not leave their purses in the cart as they will steal your purse and they immediately thank me and grab their purse to them. Watch out too as they can slice the bottom of your purse thinking you are safe. I heard that they watch you put your purse in your trunk, have a friend that does that all the time. If I had to go to park or somewhere, I would only take my wallet and put it in my pocket, that is why I like pockets on everything I wear so I could pop them in and so if need to go to store or stop somewhere have money and card on me to use. Also all the ones that leave their cell phones, lap tops and other valuables in car and wonder why they got broke in. Anything including change they will break in your vehicle and take. And putting your purse way back in the tunk and putting something over it won't work, if they break in they will go at everything and find it. also heard that most women put their purses in their kitchen when they come through the door and keys too and if they are outside in the backyard, someone will come in and find those and steal not only your purse but your car too. Also people are still not locking their vehicles, lock them up at all times no matter if you run in and run out, YOu could get delayed and time goes by that someone could have watched you, with all the remote keys they can tell by watching if you clicked it locked or not. I had always thought those in chair or scooter hanging it in the back was a calling card to steal the purse and nothing they could do about it as they probably wouldn't even know until they go for it. Or the ones that have baskets in front, same thing grab it so fast and run like crazy and its gone. Warning, don't leave windows down in car as I had looked after my two nephews on time years ago and they had a friend over who came with us to bank and we all got out and I did the instanbank and suddnely the friend had zipped ahead and he could put his arm in the window and unlock the door. I couldn't believe it as the window was not down that far either and he could put his arm in it. So, be careful about that too. Just try not to carry anything more that you need in your purse. They do tell you not to take valuables traveling as they can get stolen and absolutely no money left or your passport or birth certificate or tickets, have them locked up in hotel safe. Wear money belts. I learned a hard way you can't trust anyone, I worked in a day care waiting for the last kids to be picked up and they came and I put my purse down for some reason instead of taking it with me to click out as I always did and came back and just like that gone. I had to call home and police as keys, and everything gone. And then report it next day to the head person and they questioned who they were, didn't know them except knew that one boy due to his class he went too was by the toddler room I worked in and his dad who was always late in picking him up. But didn't know the other parents or kids but could you point them out, yes, I could and went to classrooms and pointed them out and the mom worked in a bank and don't know where the guy worked, they were living together, Found out their house was on the way home and next thing I knew the mom got fired from her bank job and the house was up for sale. They moved I believe to Ontario, nice to do in front of their kids. It was right before christmas and had all my christmas money to go and buy gifts, I didn't get anything back either, then also next day called and called before got through to cancel out cards, they were stolen and yes, police was called about it. Next spring I get this phone call saying found your purse as they threw it in this huge snow bank by church across parking lot and the sisters found it. I never could use that purse again, its horrible having it stolen but when parents do with their kids right there, wow.

I think so many people have gotten used to quite warm winters that they no longer register real cold as something dangerous. I'm pretty sure that around here, many people no longer have warm winter clothing. I know that surely wasn't true when we were a zone 5A (instead of our current nearly zone 7), temps regularly went well below zero--30 below Christmas eve 1983, though that was exceptional-- with daytime temps that never got out of the low teens. School rarely closed, certainly not for cold temps, and they used to put chains on the school buses if it was snowing--steep, curvy mountain roads. Now schools close if it looks like it's going to be too cold--mid teens maybe?