What is Freganism? The Cheapskate Next Door and more.

Bruce’s Poor Man Recession Bulletin
Your choice for usable Urban Survival Resources

In This Issue:

· Freeganism-we all want it for nothing!
· Creative Governing-Drones to spy on citizens
· Unemployed need not bother apply
· Fire hydrant can save your life in more ways than one
· The cheapskate next door
· Prudent Poor Man Tip-shut off home electric hogs from anywhere


History has witnessed the failure of many endeavors to impose peace by war, cooperation by coercion, unanimity by slaughtering dissidents.... A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets. — Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government [1944]



The Poor Man Wants Your Help – No Money Required

Although you could send money, that’s not what I’m asking for. I’ve been tweaking my site for the past few days and of course, it’s trial and error for people like myself. Indeed, I accidentally closed the site down for awhile by putting hidden html coding on top of each other to satisfy some google ranking parameters…

Our site is expanding in the near future with the addition of ‘expert’ interviews and by adding video. I personally dislike much of the video out there, but most people want something they don’t have to read (too much brain drain?) so we got a camera and we’re working on learning how to use, edit, post, etc.

What I am seeking are experts – perhaps authors or non-profit group directors- that I can interview and post to this Bulletin and the site. Areas of interest include alternative energy DIY, green related (recycling, energy reduction, etc.), and others who have something useful to share with our readers. Sooooooo….ask and ye shall find, right! Ask your friends to contact me at: bedavid@yahoo.com

Got a report, which suggests obesity is affecting our national security (the lack of border security in Mexico is a worse threat). After visiting a local flea market over the weekend it is pretty evident…I’ve never seen so many young women so fat…even the nightly news when it airs police reports, it shows many female officers to be the size of a blimp!

How do they get on the force? One in three American children are obese and this report says 27% of Americans of recruitment age are too fat to fight in our military.

Finally, my wife has discovered a new source of free energy (no, it’s not her husband…though some of my musical fruit flatulence might be tapped)…if we can figure how to tap her hot flashes – any suggestions?


What is Freeganism:
Freeganism is an anti-consumerist movement. It takes issue with society's focus on buying new and throwing away old (but still useful) items. In the simplest terms, freeganism is a reaction against the waste of resources. Participants, known as "freegans," have two main goals: to buy as little as possible and to use only what they need.
Learn More at: http://frugalliving.about.com/od/bargainshopping/p/Freegan.htm
>>>>>>>>>

7 websites that Consumer Reports suggests to get free stuff.

StartSampling.com offers samples of everything from quit smoking patches to skin lotion.

"It was just really easy to understand," said Laura. She ordered free hair conditioner but to get it, had to give up her e-mail address and date of birth.

Procter and Gamble's site, P&G Everyday Solutions, features coupons for its products and free samples.

Next up, Freebies4Mom.com where the free samples are geared toward moms. It features everything from diapers to popcorn. Some are actually coupons so you can pick up a free item at a store.

Then, there's FreeStuffTimes.com which Laura really liked because it offers a lot. She also liked it because it tells you when the offers expire and what other websites you'll be directed to.

"This one was probably one of the most straightforward ones," said Laura.

But when she tried to order a magazine, she was asked her job title. When entered 'homemaker', she was told she didn't qualify.

FreeMania.net offers free product samples such as cereal but also free services. However, Laura found a drawback. "This one had lots and lots of questions," explained Laura. "If I had tons of time on my hands, maybe I would do it, but I really don't."

Coupons.com allows you to print coupons to take the store.

Finally, there's Thunderfap.com, which took a while to load on several computers, but once it did, there were offers for everything from lotion to cologne.

Laura found a couple of downsides to these sites in general. For instance, some offers require a lot of personal information.

"They wanted to know phone numbers, they wanted to know addresses and birthdates. One even asked for income range," said Laura. But overall, she said, "It's worth checking out."

One more downside; Laura says she's received a lot of junk e-mails so you might want to set up a special e-mail account just for your freebie site searches.

the prudent Poor Man…

· Airfares & extras continue to rise at the airlines…try knocking them down with coupon codes for booking sites such as Orbitz and Travelocity by going to: www.Retailmeno.com/coupons/airlines
· Gold prices continue to rise so think about making your vacation pay for itself by panning for gold. All you need is a ridged pan and a plastic squeeze bottle then find a gold camp at: www.GoldMinersHQ.com/vacations/goldcam.htm or at www.family-vacations-oldwest.html
· Win $50,000 by casting your ballot for M&Ms favorite brand color – go to www.MMs.com


A free, easy means
of generating extra cash-could prove to be a nice sideline biz
www.InstantPayPalCash.com

Don’t pitch those cheese scraps…Easy recipe to take those scraps and turn them into fromage fort. Gather the scraps of any variety (about a half-pound works well) and put into a food processor along with a couple of cloves of garlic, ¼ cup white wine and season with pepper to taste. Blend until smooth & creamy. Makes a great topping for crusty French bread or crackers.

Duct tape MPG Boosted Car-fun modifications to your car – good guy site
www.EcoModder.com

Prudent Poor Man Tip – Turn off Energy Hogs from anywhere. Forget to turn off electrical goods when you left the house today? No problem – get a WI FI enabled system and Picco Watt web page and with a few clicks you can manage your home energy consumption – Cost: $80
www.tenrehte.com

"A happy person is not a person in a certain set of
circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of
attitudes." -- Hugh Downs
>>>

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Make Your Own Energy
Step-by-step guide reveals how to
make your own energy for $100 or less. http://tinyurl.com/PMEnergy

Terrific site for resources and green, eco-friendly goods http://www.growandmake.com?ref=71
http://www.GreenIrene.Com/PoorMan


Don’t Get Caught With Your Pantry Down – the all time best book on family preparedness has been updated & now includes an online video segment as well. Highly recommended 11th Edition. http://tinyurl.com/PMBasics

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The Cheapskate Next Door
This narrative largely neglected the Americans best equipped to speak to the simple life: the people who have always lived frugally. In his new book, "The Cheapskate Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of Americans Living Happily Below Their Means," author Jeff Yeager gives voice to the sensible folks who spent the boom years quietly paying down their mortgages and making their kids earn their allowances (if they got one at all).
Yeager surveyed and interviewed more than 300 fellow cheapskates -- traveling the country on his bicycle and crashing on the couches of his thrifty brethren. He quickly discovered a group of people who bore little resemblance to the stereotypical tightwad. Not only do Yeager's cheapskates donate more money to charity than the general population, they also have lower divorce rates and higher education levels. Although their politics and religious views span the spectrum -- from Christian conservative to hippie freegan -- they're united in their rejection of consumer culture, excessive borrowing and waste. They also believe the cheap life is the happiest.
I talked to Yeager on the eve of his second bicycle/couch-surfing book tour about the joys of thrift, the sorrows of spending and why your grandmother is greener than you are.

How do you define a cheapskate?
A cheapskate is someone who lives almost exclusively debt-free with the possible exception of a home mortgage, and even then about 85 percent of the people I polled said they had paid off their mortgage early or planned to. These were the folks that during the heyday of the economy and real estate boom were doing the absolute unsexiest thing: paying down their mortgage. Which meant they could lose a job but not lose everything else. But it goes deeper than that: These were people who never relied on money to make them happy.
Get the rest at:
http://www.salon.com/life/pinched/2010/06/15/cheapskate_next_door

“$600 million annually – amount feds and states spend on care & feeding of illegals.”


Headline News Roundup

Out-of-work job applicants told unemployed need not apply
The last thing someone who is unemployed needs to be told is that they shouldn't even apply for the limited number of job openings that are available. But some companies and recruiters are doing just that.

Employment experts say they believe companies are increasingly interested only in applicants who already have a job.

"I think it is more prevalent than it used to be," said Rich Thompson, vice president of learning and performance for Adecco Group North America, the world's largest staffing firm. "I don't have hard numbers, but three out of the last four conversations I've had about openings, this requirement was brought up."
Some job postings include restrictions such as "unemployed candidates will not be considered" or "must be currently employed." Those explicit limitations have occasionally been removed from listings when an employer or recruiter is questioned by the media though.

My opinion-despicable and those firms should be boycotted by consumers!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Outofwork-job-applicants-told-cnnm-3498252371.html?x=0

>>>>

Drug Raid Madness-SWAT Teams now used routinely to invade homes
Ninja police raids mayors home by accident, kills his dogs. Becoming routine and without oversight or apology. 100 raids occur each day, no-knock-warrants often result in innocent people being tired and killed by law enforcement.
Police seldom apologize or even allow the freedom of information act to expose guilty government officials.

There are 20,000 laws on the books trying to curb your gun ownership rights alone…we should not need ‘permission’ from the government to own a weapon unless we’re medically insane.

Our constitutional rights are being abridged by the government at an alarming rate, and the protections our Founding Fathers envisioned (armed citizens among them) are increasingly irrelevant in an age where no single citizen stands a chance against local police (where military training and weapons are now commonplace).

Watch the John Stossel, FOX News Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1nWKyJF45I&feature=player_embedded

Emergency or Crisis Water Available at your…
A fire hydrant could save your life. The only tool you will need is a hydrant wrench, which can easily be ordered online (for now). You may also need a length of 1" galvanized pipe to help with leverage if your fire hydrant is rusted or overly tight.

The key is to identify the lowest elevation hydrants in your neighborhood or area. This can be done in most places by simply taking a walk and noting which hydrants are at the lowest points. For areas that are relatively flat, researching the topography of your neighborhood with the help of Google Earth could prove useful.

So how can hydrants possibly be the solution? Even when the power grid is down or the local water tower is empty, the water lines that feed your neighborhood hydrants are very likely still full of water. For illustration purposes, an eight-inch water line will hold about 2 gallons of water per linear foot, and twelve-inch lines will hold about 6 gallons of water per linear foot.

If you happen to live near an industrial area, chances are that those water lines are even larger. The reason to identify the lowest elevation hydrant is to ensure that there is some downward pressure to help push the water out. The full force of a pressurized line is not necessary because all that is needed to push the water out can be as little as 3 pounds per square inch or about as much pressure from a simple water fountain.

When the need arises, slowly open the hydrant with your wrench and collect the water into five gallon buckets for transportation. When you get home, transfer the water into clean, one gallon milk jugs and close them tight. One word of warning here: do not attempt to collect water from any pipe system or hydrant that is painted purple; this water is not potable. You'll probably want to fill your 5-gallon buckets far in advance in order to experiment with the best way to transport them from the hydrant to your home.

Throughout history, major wars have often been triggered by financial crises. So the question is: Will today's great financial crisis — the worst since the 1930s Depression — lead to World War III? And if so, when?

Creative Governing-Parting Shot

Years ago there was a TV show called SeaQuest. Its opening premier showed actor Roy Scheider, speeding through town on a motorcycle when he’s zapped by a traffic monitor which reads his license plate, automatically finding him guilty of speeding and then debiting his bank account of the fine.

Now, the FAA has been asked by many to allow use of unmanned Predator drones in the US to track criminals, oil pipeline leaks and so on. Folks, there is a reason they are called “Predators.” The government always wants something with an excuse of ‘the greater good’ used to justify the expense and the curtailment of liberties…we keep marching to ever expanding frontiers of Big Brother.

Remember when the Social Security number (aka: socialist slave number) was first issued? It stated on the card that it was not intended to be “used for identification purposes.” Today, every nosy bastard around wants that damned number, even if they’re not entitled to it. Is it any wonder identity theft has become a major crime?

When it comes to the government always beware and remember the old adage of “give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.” Unhappily for the populace, they demonstrate this time after time and we all get suckered into the pot of boiling water! Finally…

The New York Times reports that "Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders have tentatively agreed to allow the state and municipalities to borrow nearly $6 billion to help them make their required annual payments to the state pension fund.

"And, in classic budgetary sleight-of-hand, they will borrow the money to make the payments to the pension fund — from the same pension fund."
Can you believe it? Of course you can. It's nothing more than a variation of the Obama bail-out plan in which money is manufactured out of thin air - although this scheme seems to go one better. You just borrow money from yourself and pay it back, with interest, starting in 2013.

That’s what I call another example of ‘creative governing.’

Yours for better living,

Bruce “The Poor Man”

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