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Saturday, July 30, 2011

Turn talent into cash, cheap factory tour vacations


Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources


ISSN 2161-5543

In This Issue:

1.       Cheap factory tour vacations

2.       Inventor creates new water filtration system

3.       Coffee alternatives

4.       Turn your talents into cash

5.       Why it’s unlikely the economy will ever ‘recover’



Progress is not created by contented people…

--Frank Tyger

Coffee Substitutes and alternatives…

Although I grew up drinking only tea (I still consume a half-gallon a day of iced tea), over the past decade or so I have developed a morning coffee habit.  Our favorite coffee, Yuban, recently went up to $16 for a large can.  During the holidays it was on sale for $6.50 a can and I bought 15 cans of it and now that supply is gone so I winced when I saw how much it and other brands had shot up in price.


I always thought it odd someone would pay $4 or more for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, a brand I find too bitter.  A daily Starbucks habit can be rather costly.


Our emergency food stockpile includes a dozen jars of freeze-dried instant coffee making it ideal for consumption or barter.  Folgers makes a good freeze dried coffee even though their regular coffee is only mediocre.

Popular Substitutes


Ground roasted chicory root has been sold commercially on a large scale since around 1970, and it has become a mainstream product, both alone and mixed with real coffee. It was widely used during the American Civil War on both sides, and has long enjoyed popularity especially in New Orleans, where Luzianne has long been a popular brand in this respect.


Nestlé Caro is made of roasted barley, malted barley, chicory, and rye and enjoyed as a coffee substitute

In World War II, acorns were used to make coffee

Roasted grain beverages are common substitutes for coffee.


I’ve never tried any of these alternatives but they’ve been around for a long time and may be worth a taste test.


Teecchino is made from roasted carob, roasted barley, and roasted chicory. It also contains figs, almonds, and dates for sweetness and a nutty flavor. Different flavors, including vanilla nut, hazelnut, and java. Must be brewed in a coffee maker or expresso machine.



You can find coupons for some brands of coffee at these sites.








White Cloud toilet tissue will save your family roughly $130 per year versus Cottonelle - both are good brands, but the cost difference is large enough to make the switch.



PM’s ‘Betty Shocker’ Compendium of Useful Resources

Survey Shows Employees are Happier and Healthier Working from Home

The majority of telecommuters say they are more productive in
their home office, according to a new survey from Staples
Advantage.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y11/m07/i25/s04



Turn Your Talents Into Cash - PeopleStox
"Do you have a talent and want to make some money? PeopleStox allows you to connect with a huge network of fans and friends who are willing to buy fun Experiences.



It’s simple.

There are two types of EXperiences, face to face and remote. Face to Face Experiences are unique services delivered in person, from sailing classes to gourmet dinners prepared by a chef in the comfort of your own home. Remote Experiences don’t require an in person meeting, allowing dreamers and fans to connect from different corners of the world. Some examples are design services, web programming and custom songs amongst many others. It’s Free to join!






Get a peek behind the scenes for factory tours, usually a no-cost way to stretch a vacation dollar.  Visit:  FactoryToursUSA.com



Pat Farrelly is currently in the process of patenting a unique water filtration system that he believes will revolutionize water filtering for commercial and humanitarian purposes. His invention, Aqua-Nu, took five years to develop in his own kitchen.

Farrelly said that Aqua-Nu had multiple applications, from filtering water for individual houses and group schemes to rainwater harvesting and small-scale filtration.

‘‘We can turn any container into a water-filtering device,” he said.’ ‘We are interesting because we have microbiological capability. Our technology can prevent a microbe one-quarter the size of a red blood cell from getting through.”

The finished product is just six weeks old and, following the verification of independent tests, Farrelly embarked on the patenting process. Aqua-Nu have applied for patents in 67 different countries, 42 of which have already been granted.

He said that Aqua-Nu had fielded inquiries from companies in several sectors, including waste water management. It has received a number of letters of intent, and is engaged with production and licensing opportunities as far afield as Malaysia.

The humanitarian prospects for the system were also considerable, said Farrelly.’ ‘We can start saving lives tomorrow. Our filtering can be as easily used in an Irish kitchen as in a mud hut in Africa.”






Get cash for your old gadgets






A little unknown clause in Obamacare, beginning in 2012, the U.S. government will demand tracking of all precious metals transactions worth over $600. That clause effectively kills the saving of gold to offset a shaky economy for U.S. citizens because even a one-ounce transaction is worth $1612 as of today.

However, silver is another matter altogether. It remains reasonably enough priced that purchases of silver can still fly under the radar of the United States government and their abusive, confiscatory agencies. And at today's prices you could still buy a little less than 15 ounces of silver and remain unknown and unseen.



Era 2X Ultra with Oxi Booster cleaned clothes as well as Tide’s TotalCare but at only 10 cents per load versus Tide’s 30 cents a load.



Calculating the value of home gardens

Roger Doiron, decided to calculate the value of the produce he grew in his family food garden. His wife, who majored in economics in college, set up an accurate way to measure the value of the crops as they were harvested. Doiron invested roughly $240 in seeds, supplies, and compost. Growing an average assortment of vegetables and fruits on a relatively modest sized plot of land, his garden produced a whopping $2,400 worth of food in one season. What’s even more impressive? Doiron lives in Maine, which has a shorter growing season compared to much of the country, and he produced his bumper crop in a garden that was only 1/25th of an acre. If he planted a full acre, he calculated, he could grow roughly $60,000 worth of food a year.




The Nanny State Updates…



COMMERCE, n. A kind of transaction in which A plunders from B the goods of C, and for compensation B picks the pocket of D of money belonging to E.



A one-time limited GAO audit of the Federal Reserve that was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has uncovered some eye-popping corruption at the Fed and the mainstream media is barely even covering it. It turns out that the Federal Reserve made $16.1 trillion in secret loans to their bankster friends during the financial crisis. You can read a copy of the GAO investigation for yourself right here. These loans only went to the "too big to fail" banks and to foreign financial institutions. Not a penny of these loans went to small banks or to ordinary Americans. Not only did the banksters get trillions in nearly interest-free loans, but the Fed actually paid them over 600 million dollars to help run the emergency lending program. The GAO investigation revealed some absolutely stunning conflicts of interest.


So precisely who got this money?

Well, a recent article on Raw Story named some of the big Wall Street banks that got some of this money....

Out of all borrowers, Citigroup received the most financial assistance from the Fed, at $2.5 trillion. Morgan Stanley came in second with $2.04 trillion, followed by Merill Lynch at $1.9 trillion and Bank of America at $1.3 trillion.


But it just wasn't U.S. banks that were showered with nearly interest-free loans. It turns out that approximately $3.08 trillion went to foreign financial institutions all over Europe and Asia.


So who in the world gave the Federal Reserve permission to bail out financial institutions all over the world?


Nobody did.

But under our current system the Federal Reserve doesn't have to get permission. They literally get to do whatever they want.

On his website, Senator Sanders expressed his outrage over these foreign loans....

"No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president"



Increasing government regulation and stupidity cost America dearly…

Anyone who reads the poor man bulletins know few things stick in my craw more than government bullcrap…this new report verifies what I’ve been saying for years.

Regulatory nonsense cost Americans $1.7 Trillion annually - a virtual sinkhole!



In the just-released "Red Tape Rising: A 2011 Mid-Year Report," The Heritage Foundation's James Gattuso and Diane Katz explain the pervasiveness of government's intrusive regulatory hand (that oftentimes goes go well beyond ensuring product safety) and how it controls nearly every facet of your daily life.

Do you heat your home? Light your rooms? Buy and cook food? Watch TV? If the answer is "yes," then you've fallen under federal regulation. And you're paying for it, too. Gattuso and Katz
explain how every product imaginable costs more because of regulations



The Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA battery tested the best while its Energizer Max tested as the lowest rated battery.



Why the economy will never recover – the Parting Thought

 Our debt ceiling has been raised 78 times since 1917, the year the income tax started!

Since the 1950s our economy has been based on consumerism which was fostered by the growth of good jobs with benefits.  The population, as a whole, paid little in the way of taxes and had few expensive regulations to contend with.


We know that scenario is not returning.  Corporations today pay little to support ‘their’ country and have almost no regard for the American worker.  Most analysts say our glacial pace of job creation and lack of consumer confidence, will plunge us into another recession (did we ever leave the last one?).


The middle class is being shell shocked and the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen.  Although largely unreported by mainstream press, there is a growing crime wave in the country.  Other countries are beginning to experience the same problem of bankrupt governments and disenfranchised citizens.


For decades consumers (and government) relied on debt to finance the ‘American Dream.”  No one can afford to do this any longer.  Even the public sector has caught on to the fact they can longer spend money like ‘drunken politicians,’ and have shed a half-million jobs because of plunging tax receipts.


Aside from government mismanagement the world has been plagued with a seemingly non-stop spate of natural disasters which is taking a heavy financial toll.


As Congress continues the carnage is started 35 years ago, we’re all waiting for some real leadership to appear…perhaps Superman will come to life?  While waiting, I suggest the solution to our problems lies within each one of us.


It’s up to the American people to ignore Congress and to once again, become the self reliant nation we’ve been known for during the past two centuries.


That’s it from your wandering Poor Man!



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