Bruce’s
Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A
digest of urban survival resources
ISSN 2161-5543
In This Issue:
1. DIY
Beer, Root Beer, Baking Mix, more
2. Nutritition
on a shoestring budget
3. Win
a $1000 Worth of Groceries, Get more Coupons to help
4. US
Workers Underpaid, Rise in SWAT raids-targeting wrong home
If it
moves, tax it. If it keeps moving,
regulate it. And if it stops moving,
subsidize it.
--Ronald Reagan
Share some sugar and shrink your bills, Offbeat News
Most everyone I know is looking to save a
buck so they can afford to fill their fuel tank!
I ran across a few more
sites which might help. Here’s another
site you can use to borrow rather than buy stuff. The site encourages community sharing and you
can create your own online community group with friends and neighbors, other
parents and others. Go to
ShareSomeSugar.com to learn more.
Here’s a site that will help
you to shrink the bills you’ll likely not give up (cell phone, internet,
cable). It will help you compare and
snag the lowest price for these services by providing you with unbiased
suggestions based on your usage. Go to: BillShrink.com
One more site to share which
should prove useful (only wish it would apply to our local water rates). WhiteFence.com helps trim utility bills by
giving you the average going rate in 20 cities, then offers free price quotes
from competing vendors and let’s you switch immediately online with a best-price
guarantee.
Finally, like most folks, I
enjoy reading the tabloid headlines while waiting to checkout in the
supermarket. I like the offbeat
headlines but admit, I liked the old National Enquirer much better when it
features such mind-candy as “Cub Scout Hacks off Leg with Scout Knife.”
When I taught marketing and
copywriting, I often used the headlines from these magazines as examples of
attention getting copy. Helen Gurley
Brown, the publisher of Cosmo magazine always wrote all of the cover copy and
those headlines sold thousands of magazines in the checkout line – she was a
master at teaser copy. Too bad most of
them now only offer up a garbage pail of celebrity nonsense. Whatever happened
to the “Wacky World Weekly?”
Still, there are websites like NewsoftheWeird.com,
Snopes.com (find the truth about online email stories) and
BodyOdd.msnbc.msn.com which offer up a healthy dose of the weird and odd!
I read a lot of political works (what a surprise) so
I need this bit of escape now and then!
Give children a small plot of land to grow a garden of
their own. A sure-fire way to occupy
their summer free time and to get them to eat vegetables.
PM’s
‘Betty Shocker’ Compendium of Useful
Stuff
Win $1000 in Groceries+Get Weekly Coupons+Learn to
Stockpile
3rd annual All You Grocery Challenge show
you how to spend $25 or less per family member per week at the supermarket.
Beermaking demystified!
You can make your own beer with little effort and a fraction of the cost of commercial beer. This simple method uses just one fermenting process, so only one brewing container is needed.
You can make your own beer with little effort and a fraction of the cost of commercial beer. This simple method uses just one fermenting process, so only one brewing container is needed.
Easy Home Made Root Beer
Here's a quick and easy way to enjoy homemade root
beer almost instantly. If you crave the old-fashioned version, made with yeast
and fermented a few days, use the recipe at:
Keep Your Beer in the Dark Create your own ‘beer cellar’ by storing your suds in a cool, dark place where you won’t need to move those cases frequently…stays fresh for six months and stock up when there are sales.
Easy, at-home cheese making guide-Free
Nutrition on a Shoestring Budget - Food isn’t cheap;
will get more expensive.
New Coupon Site-More features to save money
By using free coupon codes provided on the site, users
can save up to 90% on their regular purchases while shopping online at their
favorite stores. Coupon codes are added twice a day by the CouponSpace
editorial team and at the moment, the site has over 17,000 active coupon codes
The most interesting is the coupon code sharing
functionality. This allows any user to share coupon codes not found on
CouponSpace with the CouponSpace consumer community. All shared coupons will
appear alongside the editorially chosen coupons on the site.
DIY
Maven - Lots of how-to you can take advantage of!
Menu categories include: Beading, Before & After,
Christmas, Crochet, Décor, DIY, Gardening, General Crafts, Knitting, Loom
Knitting, MavenTV, Paper Crafts, Sewing, Uncategorized, and Woodworking.
http://diymaven.com/
http://diymaven.com/
Clean and
freshen your toilet by pouring a cup of distilled vinegar into the bowl and let
sit overnight. Scrub well and flush.
Instead of buying Bisquick baking mix, make your own at home with a
few simple ingredients.
Prep Time: 10
minutes
Total Time: 10
minutes
Ingredients:
8 cups all-purpose flour (or 4 cups each all-purpose
flour and whole wheat flour)
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups dry nonfat milk
2 cups shortening
Preparation:
Mix flour, baking powder, salt, cream of tartar,
baking soda, nonfat milk, and shortening together in large bowl (if you have a
large mixer it is ideal to use for blending this mix but it can also be done
quite adequately using a pastry blender to cut in shortening). Add shortening
about a half cup at a time mixing well after each addition. Mixture will be
mealy when mixed adequately.
Put in air-tight container and store either in refrigerator or at room temperature. Use within about 3 months.
Put in air-tight container and store either in refrigerator or at room temperature. Use within about 3 months.
For Biscuits:
Mix 2 cups of Baking Mix with 1/2 cup water. Bake at 450 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes.
For Muffins:
Mix 2 cups of Baking Mix with 2 Tablespoons sugar, 1 beaten egg and 2/3 cup milk. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.
For Pancakes:
Mix 2 cups of baking mix with 1 beaten egg and 1-1/3 cup milk.
For Waffles:
Mix 2 cups of Baking Mix with 1 beaten egg, 2 Tablespoons oil, and 1-1/3 cup milk
Mix 2 cups of Baking Mix with 1/2 cup water. Bake at 450 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes.
For Muffins:
Mix 2 cups of Baking Mix with 2 Tablespoons sugar, 1 beaten egg and 2/3 cup milk. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.
For Pancakes:
Mix 2 cups of baking mix with 1 beaten egg and 1-1/3 cup milk.
For Waffles:
Mix 2 cups of Baking Mix with 1 beaten egg, 2 Tablespoons oil, and 1-1/3 cup milk
A good soaking for your vegetable garden is better
than light sprinkling and watering in the morning or evening works best.
The Nanny State Updates…
US Workers Underpaid
Over the last decade, the share of U.S. national
income taken home by workers has plummeted to a record low. Since the 1980s, income for the richest 1 percent of Americans has
exploded, while hardly budging at all for everyone else.
Still, there's little sense that either Obama
administration or Congress plan to do much about this growing inequality.
Indeed, any serious action to boost the economy and cut unemployment now seems to be off the table.
Police are armed to the teeth... and while their
official marketing slogan may be to 'keep people safe', their real function is
to be the protectors and enforcers for the political class, all while keeping
the people in check so that the know who's boss.
No Knock Raids-Using SWAT on Public Enemy #1 (Drugs)
Often targeting the wrong home, 70,000 US raids annually, frequently killing
innocent people, including children and old people usually of color.
Bethesda, Maryland. Just
outside the gates of Congressional Country Club, the site of this year's U.S.
Open, some kids were selling lemonade to patrons with the intention of donating
the profits to children's charities.
Turns out there is something
more American than that: government bureaucracy. Montgomery County inspectors
repeatedly warned the children (and their parents) that they were violating a
ban on vendors within county limits, and when the tots didn't shut down their
operation, the government shut it down for them, slapping their parents with a $500 fine
The US economy will never ever, ever, ever, ever recover
until it returns manufacturing to its shores. Manufacturing in China is not
making it, no matter how cheap the price and crummy the goods. The federal
government has projected large deficits for the entire duration of its budget
projection. now it wants to increase its debt without any demonstrative means
to repay it. eventually, creditors will wise up and refuse to lend to these
reckless fools. eventually, the federal government will go broke unless it
learns to live within its means.
The Parting Shot…
As our country runs out of borrowed money, will it
sink Obama?
In a few
weeks our country will run out of ‘borrowed’ money and the Treasury Dept. has
already begun issuing IOUs rather than bonds to many government pension
funds. Unable to borrow $4 billion a day
to pay its bills and with no compromise seen in Congress, we risk defaulting.
The International
Monetary Fund cut its forecast for U.S. economic growth on Friday and
warned Washington and debt-ridden European countries that they are
"playing with fire" unless they take immediate steps to reduce their
budget deficits.
The Fed and many in the White House inner circle and
even China warn default would mean disaster for our economy with higher
interest rates and prices on everything and even an average loss of more than
$8000 per person on their IRAs and 401(k) plans.
Some think tanks are also suggesting it would mean the
loss of more than 640,000 jobs. As you
may already know, America borrows 41 cents of each dollar it spends. It may even mean more layoffs for federal
workers (what a shame) and delays in welfare payments.
As you’ve heard me say again and again, the blame lies
with both parties. Each party has been
dangerous and poor stewards of our resources.
I don’t believe any President has won re-election for
a second term when the unemployment numbers were above eight percent. The odds of Obama getting re-elected, in my
opinion, are less than 35%.
Although no president can truly ‘fix’ the economy and
get companies hiring again…he can create a better economic environment by
totally revamping our stupid tax system and bureaucratic system of red tape
which is choking Americans at every level, rendering our country impotent
against other countries. Further, he
could foster a climate which fuels research and development and
entrepreneurship in this country.
One thing in his favor at the moment, is that the
Republicans do not have a particularly strong candidate to run against
Obama. Another double-dip recession will
almost certainly sink Obama’s second term aspirations. What do you think?
That’s it from your political analyst, the Poor Man!
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1 comment:
Darn good info & useful goodies - thanks!
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