Poor
Man Survival
Self Reliance tools for
independent minded people…
ISSN
2161-5543
A Digest of Urban Survival
Resources
I
don't want the cheese, I just want out of the trap!
>Spanish Proverb
Recession
Busters: Save Money, Make Money
Everywhere you turn inflation and other
money parasites are trying to break your budget. As promised, each
week the Poor Man will bring you new ways to either make or save
money. For instance if you're trying to save money, make sure you
shop alone, or only hit the stores with very thrifty friends.
Impulse shopping is what kills most budgets. Always have a list. I am always prepared to take advantage however of unadvertised store specials.
- If at all possible, avoid shopping with young children-they want everything and can be tyrants of impulse shopping. Show them the list and remind them if it is not on the list, it doesn't go in the basket. Extras are allowed only if on close out or sale. Make a game of it.
- More stores are making use of electronic coupons tied into your loyalty cards-use them. Kroger, where I shop sends our family a weekly email with coupons that we can load to our card. An additional perk is that we use their pharmacy [I use a lot of drugs for my heart condition] so also get additional fuel points and have saved as much as a dollar per gallon when filling our gas tank-a big savings!
- Because beef has been so high I have stopped buying it – even ground beef. Instead, I buy whole pork loin which has averaged $1.50 per pound. I can grind my own to use in a variety of recipes or thin slice it for Mexican dishes or make my boneless pork chops.
Stop
Money Dripping Away
If you
read my column on a regular basis you know one of number one
complaints about MI is its high cost of water. Despite being
surrounded by the largest repository of fresh water on the planet, we
pay some of the highest water bills in America. For two of us we pay
nearly $3,000 annually and we don't own a pool or grazing animals [we
can't afford to]. Instead, they base their fee partially on the
value of the property, something I have never heard of anywhere else
in the nation. It gives meaning to the “G” in government meaning
GOUGE the citizen.
The price
of residential water service is going up faster than the cost of
nearly every other household staple in 30 major US cities, according
to water conservation news site CircleofBlue.org. To
reduce your bill, get smart about how your family uses water. The
biggest source of use is the bathroom [so stop bathing-just kidding]
where the average shower consumes 50-gallons per day. Beyond the
obvious notion of taking shorter showers and replacing old shower
heads and kitchen sinks with water-miser low flow devices, you
consider using rain barrels and replacing old toilets with more water
efficient ones.
We looked
into getting a well at our home but apparently it is not a viable
option but we're now considering a gray water system. Thankfully, at
our mini-farm where we plan to eventually retire, we do have a well
system.
...A
Final Note:
Some of us were having a
discussion this week about the benefits of using TSP to boost the
performance [when my Dad was alive he worked for DuPont & would
bring home 55-gallon barrels of it] of washing machines, dishwashers,
cleaning grease off driveways, etc. However, since phosphorus has
been removed from most detergents, borax is often used as a booster.
Borax
[sodium borate] can help
soften water and improve the effectiveness of laundry detergent but
it is not quite as effective as TSP [tri-sodium phosphate] in
dislodging dirt and oil. We also used TSP and aluminum foil as a
means of shining sterling silver by placing it in a plastic tub with
hot water and sterling flatware for 15
minutes or so, then wipe them down with a clean cloth.
Additional
Resources
Cheapest
and Easiest Ways to do a Will (Clark Howard):
"What are the odds you don't have a will? The best guess
is that 50% of people don't have one. If you don't have
children and have very little in the way of assets, that may
be OK for you. But if you do have children, you need a will
for the simple fact that if you don't have one, the state will
decide who raises your kids."
The
$15 Retirement Plan (The Simple Dollar): "All
you need is $15 a day to retire very nicely if you start when
you’re young. That’s just a bit of pocket money most
days. Let’s run through the math."
The
Money Boss Manual: A Brief Guide to Financial
Independence (Money Boss): "I’m
pleased to announce that, at long last, A Brief Guide to
Financial Independence is available to download. This free
70-page PDF collects all of the material from my “financial
independence crash course” into one convenient document."
Radical
Cost Cutting Sometimes your income vs expenses just needs a
little tweak to bring things back into line. But what happens if
they're seriously out of balance? And what can you do to correct the
situation? Read
more.
|
Yours
for better living,
Bruce
‘the Poor Man’
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