:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Absolutely!! .......

I second that. :thumbup:

This is a very informative thread...I've learned a lot...and hopefully, I will save a lot. I was never one for wasteful spending, but it's getting to where a person can barely afford the essentials. The almighty dollar doesn't go as far as it used to. But I refuse to buy anything on credit at this point in time. I remember my dad always said if you don't have the cash to buy it...you don't need it. He never had a credit card is all his 81years...I want to be just like my dad!!!

......... don't for get about those washable peepads!!! We really like ours and Shelby & Seymour do too!! We try to go outside as much as we can for "pee breaks", but when it isn't possible, the pee pads work nicely. Those packages of disosable peepads aren't getting any cheaper either!! We purchased our washables from Little Bit (I am not sure, but I think that she is still selling them). Not only do they work.... but pretty, too! :)

i guess its a good time to pick up real estate bargains... plus all the businesses going under selling merchandise for 75% off:cool:
or sending to auction:thumbup:
no need to buy new:)
and gas is coming down:thumbup:

Our Costco in a nearby town is $2.89 a gallon!!!

Unforunately though, I think gas will rise again, after the elections.

I hope that you are wrong, Ashley..... but I have heard talk of that also. :thumbdown :mad:

Ashley V this is not aimed at you, I hear this a lot.

I'm curious where this thought comes from? I hear it said that gas will go up or down before or after an election and I'm just wondering about the reasoning? Is there a person or group of people that control the price of gas? And do they have a preferred candidate? If so which candidate do they favor? If George Bush Likes high gas prices why wouldn't he have caused them to be high in the first six years of his term while he had republican control of the house and senate? If Barack Obama can control gas prices why would he let them slide now when higher prices would likely help him push his change message just before the election? If John McCain brought them down he really ought to take credit for it. If there are a few nameless faceless "Oil Barons" that control the price and there is no conclusive pattern to relate to which party, ideology, or political personality they prefer...they are not wielding the power effectively.

I'm no expert but let's throw this against the wall and see if it sticks.

The futures market has billions of dollars flowing from one sector to another looking for high returns with the least risk. Until a couple of years ago there were republicans in the house and senate. They weren't doing what they were elected to do but they were still there, and we know they are more likely than democrats to push legislation to drill for more oil. This knowledge puts some pressure on the market to keep oil prices at a level that gives high returns without triggering thoughts of increasing supplies. Later "we the people" got tired of republicans misusing the power they were given and kicked their sorry butts to the curb. Now we have democrats in the house and senate. Go check your calendar and you will see that the price increases began soon after this event...why? Because the oil industry and the futures traders, unlike most of the general public, understand that if the party in control of the house and senate are steadfastly opposed to increasing domestic supplies of oil, the market can be driven to new heights without risk of repercussion. The oil producing nations around the world began to make threats against supplies, which always drives the futures market higher. Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and others began beating their chests and challenging the world because their oil revenues were through the roof. We hit four bucks and didn't even slow down. Had it not been for the sub-prime meltdown we were headed for somewhere in the seven dollar range per gallon before Americans could react and reduce demand sufficiently to cause prices to fall. Trillions of dollars of paper value have now evaporated, confidence is currently in the tank and cornering the market on anything is very high risk, so we see oil dipping under 80 bucks per barrel. If any one person or group could control the prices.....this would never happen.

If we could switch to a corn based fuel tomorrow how long would it be before we're cursing "Big Corn?"

Fossil fuel is the engine of our economy. There is no alternative to fossil fuel at this time, and we have more fossil fuel available than any other nation on the planet. If we choose to sit on it and not use it....we deserve to be ripped off every time we fill up. Regardless of who is in the Whitehouse, if we don't educate ourselves to the point that we realize when we are being sold out....we have chosen ignorance...we have side stepped personal responsibility, and we owe our children an apology.

This IS a very good point, but from what I understand, it would take YEARS to accomplish getting our sources "tapped"........ if what I have heard is true.

Thanks for the recommendation! Yes, I am still selling them. They have saved me a ton of money since I stopped using the disposable ones!

While it's true that it would take some time to get the first barrel of oil it would only take a matter of hours for the news that congress has approved drilling to be spread around the world. The market reacts quickly to risk. If there is a certainty that more product is coming the prices will reflect that. If all we accomplish is keeping the price in the $2 range for the next decade while the resource is brought to market....at least it's not $4.

If we had begun drilling ten years ago when the effort began we would already have the resource in the market...the fact that it will take a while is no reason to delay any longer. We may be ten years form bringing the product to market but we may be fifty years from replacing it, which should we focus on?

Even if we didn't need oil for our cars and trucks we can't do without it. Are we prepared to do without air travel? We're nowhere near any type of energy source that will give us the ability to fly. Most of the basic needs of our economy are tied to oil and the petroleum products derived from oil. Sterile packaging, plastics for our healthcare system come from petroleum, what will replace them? The oil based compounds that we make tires from? How about the base products that go into road construction and repair? What will we build roads from?

If we are to remain a super power, we must face the facts about energy. Without a steady supply of cheap energy our economy will stagnate, look around the world, the evidence of this is everywhere.

Consider this solution, we open offshore drilling (we have the best safety and cleanup record in the world) and ANWAR. The resulting effect on the oil future market is immediate and substantial. Secondly we begin opening coal reserves to reduce the price of electricity with the understanding that we are going to begin building nuclear (nucular if your reading this W) power plants. The beauty of nuclear power is that since it's difficult to bring the reactor up and down it's helpful to find ways to use the extra energy during off peak times...this makes hydrogen energy much more feasible. Right now it takes more petroleum energy to produce hydrogen than we get from the hydrogen. If we have a very cheap energy source we can devote to separating hydrogen and oxygen....viola! Endlessly renewable energy from water.

If we let party affiliation and willful ignorance work to keep us bickering about who did what we'll lose our standard of living, and possibly our freedom. There are common sense answers staring us in the face. If you have a party hold their feet to the fire and expect results...if you don't get them....kick their sorry butts to the curb.

Heres a tip for some of you who will have some free time, the census will be starting soon. There should be jobs in your areas available. They pay good and pay gas milege. You can work up to 40 hrs a week and I think they are paying around 12 -16 an hour. I just took the test last week for a supervisor and made a 97. I have worked for them in the 1990 and 2000 census. It is a good job for a short period for someone looking for work. Just go here and look under your regional employment area, the last people they hire are enumerators and those can work any hours you want a day or weekend. Just get your name on the list.
U.S. Census Bureau

I send her a e-mail, asking her for details:(

Good for you, I'm anxious to hear your opinion. If you can find Dave's radio show to listen to it's very helpful and motivating. If you go to his website you can listen to portions of his show for encouragement. On Fridays he has people call in and tell their stories, then they get to yell "I'M DEBT FREEEEE!" I never get tired of hearing that. Get gazelle intense and get out of debt, if you need encouragement I'll be happy to help any time you need me. Friends don't let friends pay interest.

I only have one thing to add to all the good suggestions.
Everyone should buy a brita water filter. Save your old plastic bottles and refill for water on the go. No more bottled water...better for your budget, and the environment!

Suggestion Please
 

I live in a apartment on an end unit and there are lots of cracks in the windows and doors. The apartment has lots of cold air coming in. Any suggestions on keeping the cold air out? I think I can reduce my energy bill if I can fix this.

Since you are in an apartment you will need to consider the landlord before doing anything drastic, after that here's how I would handle it. Obviously you want to stop a draft but you also want to create an insulating barrier at the window so that the warm air you paid to heat doesn't contact the window and get transferred to the outside. Buy a piece of plexiglas, or anything stiff and at least translucent so it doesn't block out the sunlight. Make sure it's at least 1 inch larger than the window in each direction, if the window is 24x24 get a piece 26x26 this allows an overlap of 1 inch all the way around. Get some holders used for installing a stationary mirror like you may have over the sink in your bathroom. Also get some weatherstripping with sticky on one side. Apply the weatherstripping around the plexiglass and install the plexiglass over the window. This creates an airspace that keeps the warm room air from reaching the cold window, while also eliminating the draft around the window itself. The sunlight can still come in and it can be taken down easily in the springtime. This only leaves a few small holes that can be fixed in a jiffy if you move. If you stay you can reuse the plexiglass every year.

The guys at Lowe's can walk you through how to re-weatherstrip a door.

Ew, we have this problem too. Except, we live in an old house that we rent. We want to move so bad so we don't have to use the gas wall heaters again this year, it just stays sooo cold in here. They even put new ghetto weather stripping around the front & back door and I can STILL feel cold air coming in. :mad:

It is really bad for us also and I dont know where else I could budget. The grocery bills are so much higher. For what I used to be able to buy for $90 now costs about $130. There are only 3 of us I dont know how larger families do it. I do keep my thermostat at 65 degrees in the winter so our gas bills arent as bad as they could be.

She said that was some money market, she into investments is what I understood, but Chase took over and everything is fine, well at least for now:rolleyes:

This has worked for me in the past. I won't buy alcohol anywhere but at a grocery store or a liquor store. The amount of markup on alcohol in a restaurant or a bar is ridiculous (I know, I'm a bartender:p), plus you are tipping on the amount it adds to your bill. If you went to Outback (where I work:p:p) with two guests, you would spend about $40 without liquor, or $55 with liquor. So your tip (20% of course:p:p:p) goes from $8 to $11. By drinking iced tea you just saved yourself $18.

I can't encourage this as a restaurant employee, because of course I want you to drink. But I feel that if you are in enough of a pinch then you shouldn't be eating out anyway. I eat out a lot, but I also drink out a lot, and I've saved myself big bucks by enforcing this limit on myself for a month at a time. I won't stop drinking completely (mainly because I work in the restaurant industry), but I will do it economically when I do.

Well We have cut back so much in the last three years , I don't know if we can cut back any more. I hurt my back 4 years ago and had to quit my job. we used our savings up in a years time and had to depend on the credit cards more then Id like to say. vet bills and yearly bills as home insurances car Ins and stuff like that . My Hubby gets paid every 2 weeks and he has pretty much had to work more hours to make up for what I wasn't bringing in.

WE live in a double wide on 5 acres I was working at the time and we had hoped planned to someday build a house here
on this land, but after I got hurt there was no way that was going to happen. but we can always dream.this place needs so much work.I dont know if well ever be able to fix every thing. central air is a must. but all summer we only had it on 80 so just enough that we did not get heat stroke.
In the winter its set to 7o.

My Hubby works an hour away from home, so him and my son and another guy all ride together to save on gas.

I try my best to make one trip to town a week to go grocery shopping, pay bills , go to the bank every thing is done the same day.

I have dial up so that's only $21.00 a month
I have never owned a cell phone
I do have a home phone and I don't use long distances unless its an emergency
I do save what coupons I can. But I need to work harder on that.but you cant get coupons unless you buy the news paper or have ink to print them out.( witch cost extra)
we cut back from eating out one day a week to only eating out on a special day like sweetest day or our birthdays.
I cook a big meal a day. we shop at wall mart and save alot.

I don't buy on line no ebay nothing ever. no extra money for that.
On Holidays me & hubby and my adult children all go in on the meals.

this year instead of getting each other we are drawing names and only buying for one.

us and a neighbor share the trash bill.
Hubby go's many hours at work with out eating and only eats before he goes to work and I get onto him for that.

We haven't bought new clothes in years. we get them on the holidays.
living from check to check is very hard. but we do what we have to. and be Thankful for what we do have, even if its not much we have each other. That's what Family's are all about.

Thank you for the reminder. I'm going through a rough time with money and probably will only have $10 this time around to last us two weeks... but as long as we have each other.

I think it's amazing that you are able to stay positive through all of that.
I probably have a lot less problems with finances right now than some others here and some days I feel hopeless..I don't have kids, and have considered getting a divorce God knows how many times now. My husband put us in such a bad financial position that we had to move in with my parents. So now we have a lot less bills, but his check is being garnished. He does the same as yours, he wont eat all day at work.. He works two jobs now and I feel so guilty sometimes because I'm not working, I'm still going to school full time.

great idea for a thread! ;)

making greeting cards
 

I have an application that is just for making greeting cards, in fact, I have two of them. I use pictures of my pets, two Bichons and a Chihuahua, and the flowers I grow in my yard. I've been making my own cards for years now. I buy card stock at Wal-Mart. Comes with half-fold cards and envelopes, 25 for $5.99. I have sold some of them to friends who also have Bichons and several of my friends have said I should sell them on E-bay. I haven't tried that yet, but may one of these days. I'm not sure I want to commit to getting orders that have to be filled and put in the mail. I'm retired and not willing to get into something like that. I keep pretty busy. I have thought about trying to get my cards into some local craft store or some place like that to sell them. Then I could make them up when I want to and replenish them when they're all gone. I've recently began making cards using iris paper folding. That's very interesting and the cards are very pretty.

This has hit us hard
 

I was making 18$ an hour, I fell at work and damaged my arm and back, things have been really bad sence, I tried to go back to work I work in furn, run an automated cutter been at sherrills furn, in nc 9 yrs! in the same professtion for 25 yrs but there thing at my job now is to cut your pay everyone is so unhappy, I reinjured myself and am back out of work again, I am afraid I will loose everything. the House is not my biggest fear, Its my babies, I love them all so very much, they are what make me get up in the morning, whos going to rent to someone that has 10 dogs 7 yorkies 2 maltese 2 old yorkies 10& 14 and 2 rescue dogs that live outside but have my basememt to stay in, I worry what will happen to us, and I pray a lot I have always been the bread winner in my home now my husband wants to leave, I am not shocked about that one though, he wants me to get rid of my babies, NO WAY! THEY HAVE BEEN BETTER TO ME THAN HE HAS. I just hope something changes, that it will get better, I can't live without my babies!:( norht carolina has been hit hard!! Blessings to all of you and I am glad to here some good news from some of you.:)

I am so sorry I know how you feel, no extra's here either! we even heat with wood , furnice when out but the power bills are so high 2-300 a month its a old house needs a lot of work, it was my grandperants, I have to say my dogs have it better than me, they have a heatpump/ air 2500 btu in the room I built for them some yrs back, but they have to be warm! and they take turns sleeping with mom, my husband doesn't want them in the house so I moved in the other bed room, I love having them in bed with me, he just self centered always has been, its all about him, I breed he wants no part of that but when the$ come he thinks he's intitled to that part, what a winner lol sorry for you bind, I am right thier with you Blessings