Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
ISSN 2161-5543
In This Issue:
1. Dumpster Diving
Revisited, Free Food
2. Tracking down loved ones
3. 7 Tips for improving home security
4. Poverty – America’s growth industry
5. How the government makes starting a business difficult
Gerald Celente always says:
“ When people lose everything that they
have, they tend to lose it.”
Got Milk?
Getting more from your milk…
As a kid, our family never had much extra
money. My mother was a whiz at squeezing
a dollar from a dime and one way she stretched the budget was to use powdered
milk. She would mix it with water and
whole milk to disguise it from us kids but we could always tell. I thought it tasted terrible.
There are other good
uses for milk you probably never thought of and here are a few suggestions from
Real Simple magazine:
==Rescue plants. If mildew
appears on your houseplants, mix one part milk with nine parts water and spray
them weekly.
==Use it as a skin softener. Add
a cup of milk to your warm bath water and soak.
==Stain Fighter. When spills
from wine discolor your shirt or tablecloth, submerge the fabric in milk,
squeeze out the excess then launder.
==Soothe burns. Milk fat calms
inflammation and helps your skin to heal.
The next time you burn yourself, soak a washcloth in milk and cover the
burn with it.
==Buff shoes with it. Use milk
to moisten a cloth and then buff leather to restore its shine.
Finally, when milk
goes sour, it’s still very useful in a variety of baking recipes such as
pancakes, waffles and other desserts. The
Joy of Cooking offers a variety of uses for milk and you can find tons
of recipes online…just type in “what to do with sour milk.”
Use a lemon to disinfect your kitchen and bath – just a squeeze a drop
or two and wipe.
PM’s
Compendium of Useful Resources
Dumpster
Diving Revisited
A year ago we
wrote a story about dumpster diving…here’s an update as this trend continues to
grow…
During the recent
economic downturn, the popularity of dumpster diving has exploded. Today, there
are dumpster diving meetup groups, dumpster diving Facebook groups, and even entire organizations such as Food
Not Bombs that openly encourage
their members to go dumpster diving.
If your family was
going hungry, would you go dumpster diving?
You might be surprised
at who is doing it. Dumpster diving is not just for the homeless and the
unemployed anymore. A lot of people that have decent jobs have picked up on the
trend.
A programmer by day, Todd takes to the streets of
North Carolina by night, digging through Dumpsters at drug stores and grocery
stores all around his rural neighborhood.
"You would be simply amazed at what businesses
throw out," he said. "I've only had to buy two loaves of bread all
year. ... Last week I had a trunk full of cereal, cookies, chips and ramen
noodles."
Todd slinks in
and out of smelly places with low-light flashlights to evade rent-a-cops who
will shoo him away. Most nights, his 14-year-old son comes along.
Free Food,
Finding More Coupons and Discounts
Even in this economy,
many eateries are giving away free food.
You can sign up for email alerts, become a ‘friend’ on face book, or
share your opinion to get rewards. For
example, check the receipt and look for a web address that links you to a
survey. Complete the survey and get free
food. Example: Arby’s, Burger King and McDonald’s and Dunkin
Donuts all offer a reward for completing the survey.
Many eateries, such as
TGIF Friday’s and Chili’s (www.ChilisEmailClub.com) allow you to sign up for
free e-mail alerts. Once you become a member, you’ll get e-mails with
discounts, samples and other offers.
NOTE: Secret ways to find discounts…during visits to the
supermarket, look on their public bulletin board. Often, other customers will tack up coupons
they don’t use. Also, when you visit
your doctor or dentist office you’ll find discount coupons on the counter and
tables in the waiting room area. Some
libraries offer a free coupon exchange box and always check your ‘junk’ mail as
you never know what kind of coupons might be included.
Resources: SavingLifestyle.com; QueenofFree.net; ingoodcents.com
Consumers have less time to use manufacturers coupons as expiration
dates come faster now – an average of 10 weeks.
Storing
Medical Records online
Keep your family
medical records in one convenient location online…this site automatically
tracks your checkups, tests and procedures.
These sites are free.
If you shop Target, Meijer and other stores always check the sales
flier to find free gift cards offered when you purchase certain items. I got a $5 gift card from HP to use at
WalMart for an inkjet buy!
Tracking Down
Loved Ones
You can always Google
someone to find a lost loved one. Start
searching by typing your friend’s name in quotes with the exact name so only
those results appear. You can also try
searching by nickname and maiden name.
If you’re willing to
pay for a good search, consider these sites:
They’ll provide basic
information but for a fee, they’ll also locate their profiles on social
networking sites and photo sites.
Skip expensive produce washes.
Use baking soda on a damp sponge, scrub and rinse.
7 tips for
home security that cost less than $23 to implement.
Includes a free checklist for you called "Simple Steps For Ultra-Effective Home Security," Courtesy our friends at TBO Tech.
Includes a free checklist for you called "Simple Steps For Ultra-Effective Home Security," Courtesy our friends at TBO Tech.
Note: Also check Kelly Hancock’s site for savings savvy at:
faithfulprovisions.com
It’s better to store
medicine on a high shelf in the kitchen or closet than in your bathroom
medicine cabinet. The heat and humidity
can alter their effectiveness.
The Nanny
State Updates…
From the “Gee, I wonder why poverty in America is a growth industry?”
Department
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, median household income in the
United States dropped
2.3% in 2010 after accounting for inflation. Overall, median household
income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account
for inflation since December 2007...keep in mind that the government definition
of poverty rises based on the rate of inflation. If inflation was still
calculated the way that it was 30 or 40 years ago, the poverty line would be
much, much higher and millions more Americans would be considered to be living
in poverty.
Because they cannot get good jobs that will enable them to support
themselves and their families, millions of Americans that used to be hard
working contributors to society are now dependent on government handouts.
Nearly every single measure of government dependence is at a record high, and
there are no signs that things are going to turn around any time soon.
Big corporations are even recognizing the change that is happening to
America. Just consider the following example from a recent article in the
Huffington Post....
Manufacturers
like Procter & Gamble, the household-goods giant responsible for everything
from Charmin and Old Spice to Tide, are concentrating their efforts on luxury
and bargain items, putting less emphasis on products aimed at the middle class,
the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Another way to cut US jobs…
If our middle class jobs keep getting shipped overseas, our prosperity
is going to vanish. If the American people allow this to continue, the standard
of living of American workers is going to continue to fall toward the level of
workers in third world countries.
Arthur Stamoulis, the executive director of Citizen Trade Campaign recently
had the following to say about why he is opposed to this new free trade agreement....
"They’ve shipped our jobs overseas. They’ve reduced the tax base,
they’ve driven down the wages and benefits for the jobs that are left. We’ve
had enough.
Perhaps you want to do some outsourcing of your own…'Outsource
This' will teach you all the ins and outs of global outsourcing…http://bit.ly/123daven1
The National Sheriffs'
Association says it "strongly supports" and endorses a proposed
federal law that requires Internet service providers to store the logs of their
customers' online habits for one-and-a-half years. They say this will make their job easier – just in case you
commit some kind of unknown and unpredictable crime in the future.
The Parting Thought – Government is the cause of
unemployment
According to John
Williams of shadowstats.com, when you factor in all of the short-term discouraged
workers, all of the long-term discouraged workers and all of those working
part-time because they cannot find full-time employment, the real unemployment
rate is now approximately 23 percent.
Things appear even
more frightening when you look at the number of Americans that actually do have
jobs. Right now, only 47 percent of the U.S. workforce is "fully employed"
at this point.
Things wouldn't be so bad if millions of unemployed
people could run out and start their own businesses. But in America today, it
is incredibly difficult to start a small business. The federal government, our state
governments and our local governments have piled mountains of ridiculous
regulations on to our businesses.
The Average
Joe Is Finding It Increasingly Difficult To Run A Small Business
The number of
"self-employed" Americans continues to rapidly shrink. According the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in
December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million. Even though we have 14 million unemployed people in
this country and jobs are incredibly difficult to come by, the number of people
trying to work for themselves continues to decrease because the environment for
small businesses in this country has become so incredibly toxic.
The Average Joe Is Being Hounded By Federal
Bureaucrats
Did you know that hay
is now considered a "pollutant" by the federal government? Kansas
cattle feeder Mike Callicrate recently told an audience that the EPA is now cracking down on his feedlot....
“Has the Environmental Protection Agency declared hay
a pollutant?” an audience member asked. Callicrate responded affirmatively and
explained that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently initiated a
formal enforcement action against his Kansas feedlot for, among other things,
failure to store his hay in a pollution containment zone. “Now that EPA has
declared hay a pollutant, every farmer and rancher that stores hay, or that
leaves a broken hay bale in the field is potentially violating EPA rules and
subject to an EPA enforcement action,” Callicrate said. “How far are we going
to let this agency go before we stand up and do something about it?”
The average Joe’s that I
know are plain fed up with government intrusion into every aspect of our
lives. As you’ve heard me state before,
“We don’t need another election; we need another revolution.”
Yours for repealing
government stupidity, the Poor Man
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