Bruce’s
Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A
digest of urban survival resources
ISSN 2161-5543
In This Issue:
1. Mom and Pop Teach You About Success
2. Top
Tech ways to get a job
3. Free
DIY picnic table plans
4. What
happens when the US defaults?
5. More
tricks for getting it free, NeighborGoods
"The
trouble with most folks
isn't so much their ignorance,
as knowing so many things
that ain't so."
-- Josh Billings
isn't so much their ignorance,
as knowing so many things
that ain't so."
-- Josh Billings
Electronic Reading vs. Book Reading
Groucho Marks said,
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.”
I read that Kindle reader sales have now overtaken
book sales, or something to that effect.
I know Amazon and others push this electronic reading format, but I’m
not convinced. It’s been apparent for
several years that younger people don’t read much, everything is delivered to
them electronically.
Most of them cannot write either. This inability includes not being able to
construct a proper sentence, poor grammar and misspelled words. A personally written note has gone the way of
the typewriter for most folks.
The publishing conferences and trade magazines all
focus on electronic publishing today and how they might make a profit from it. Sure, there are some advantages to using a
Kindle such as the amount of books one can store (around 3200 I believe). However, if I lose a book, I’ve not lost $150
for the reader. Also, I don’t need
batteries to operate a book!
On another note, the weather here finally broke long
enough for me to start tilling the soil for our garden. We hope to begin planting this week; late
spring equals late crops but I’m already looking forward to home grown veggies!
I also got our outdoor grill back up to snuff for the
season – outdoor cooking sure beats heating up the house on those hot summer
days!
Oh, and by the way, the world did not end in May as
had been predicted.
Mowing Magic
Mow your lawn often—a couple of inches at a time and
no more than 1/3 the total blade length—rather than
waiting until the grass is as high as an elephant’s eye. It’s less stressful
for the grass. Besides, the short, unseen, leftover clippings do not have to be
bagged, and they will eventually decompose and return valuable nutrients to the
soil.
PM’s
‘Betty Schocker’ Compendium of useful resources
Best way to remove sensitive data from old
computers-before you sell your computer.
Easy, online retail store site setup
Top 10 Tech Ways to Get a Job - Great for new Grads
The top ten ways to find, apply for, and capture your
dream job. Nine of ten are web-based. Nine of ten are free. And ten of ten
deserve a click.
Some options we chose for their job boards. Everybody
knows the standards. CareerBuilder. Monster. Indeed. We’re not discounting
them; in fact, two related entries—Indeed Resume and Monster.com Interviews (for iPhone)—secured spots in the tally, but not for job searches alone. For job
boards, we targeted industry-specific sites that cater to our readership:
AdMonsters for advertising, Dice for technology, and mediabistro.com for media,
journalism, and publishing.
JobVirtue.com (http://www.jobvirtue.com), a professional network created especially for job seekers to keep in
touch with each other and to search for jobs, and for employers to post those
jobs.
Need a new picnic table? You''ll be amazed at the
variety of designs that you can build from free plans.
Fresh herbs will last longer if you place them in a dry
paper towel and then in a plastic bag before refrigerating them.
ToolCrib.com searched the web to present all of the best DIY picnic table plans available. They came up with an amazing selection of thirty-two different designs and seperated them into different categories: Award Winning Picnic Table Designs; Hexagonal and Octagonal Picnic Table Plans; Classic Picnic Table Plans; Benches Separate from the Table; and Picnic Tables For Kids.
They also added DIY picnic table building videos, hints on what types of wood to use and information on exterior finishes for your table.
See all of the picnic table plans >>>
( http://www.todaysplans.net/use-toolcrib-free-picnic-table-project-plans.html )
ToolCrib.com searched the web to present all of the best DIY picnic table plans available. They came up with an amazing selection of thirty-two different designs and seperated them into different categories: Award Winning Picnic Table Designs; Hexagonal and Octagonal Picnic Table Plans; Classic Picnic Table Plans; Benches Separate from the Table; and Picnic Tables For Kids.
They also added DIY picnic table building videos, hints on what types of wood to use and information on exterior finishes for your table.
See all of the picnic table plans >>>
( http://www.todaysplans.net/use-toolcrib-free-picnic-table-project-plans.html )
Lowe’s offers free work shops, including just for kids
You should grill meat a few minutes on each side before
basting to make sure you do not contaminate the brush with bacteria.
Mom and Pop Stores Can Teach us about Success
The secret to long-term success isn’t figuring out
what works -- it’s figuring out how to keep things working when conditions
change, as they inevitably do.
Few understand the importance of responding to change
better than the owners of small businesses. New competitors... changing
consumer tastes... and the endless ups and downs of the economy can cause a
small company’s profits to disappear almost overnight. Unlike General Motors,
mom-and-pop companies can’t count on a government bailout when things go wrong.
Veteran business journalist and corporate historian
Robert Spector took a close look at dozens of successful small businesses to
find out how they continued to survive and even thrive in the face of
potentially ruinous changes. He discovered that what works for small-business
owners often can work more broadly in people’s professional lives -- and even
in their personal lives...
Furst realized that if he was having trouble with his
suppliers, other small flower shops must be having the same problem. He
launched a wholesale flower distribution business to serve small florists and
solve his own shop’s supply problem in the process. Furst’s wholesale division
is now large enough to import flowers directly from South America, a sure sign
of success in the flower industry.
Lesson: If you feel
powerless to stop a change that’s working against you, either organize other
victims of the change into a group... or, better yet, start a business to serve
other victims’ needs. Together the group might be powerful enough to flex some
muscle. If nothing else, speaking with others who share your problem can be a
source of ideas and moral support.
Lesson: Build as large
a circle of acquaintances as possible. This starts with remembering people’s
names and greeting them as friends each time you meet. People who feel a
personal bond with you are likely to remain loyal to you and support you.
Galco’s owner, John Nese, realized that the only way
to overcome this price disadvantage was to offer products that the supermarkets
and discounters did not stock. If he could find a product so distinctive that
it was not available anywhere else in the region, the demographic changes in
his neighborhood wouldn’t matter -- customers would go out of their way to find
him.
Inspired by the success of microbrew beers, Nese began
stocking a wide variety of sodas -- more than 450 from small independent
bottlers -- and changed his store’s name to Galco’s Soda Pop Stop. This
distinctive product line led to strong customer loyalty and national media
attention, and Galco’s soon returned to profitability.
Lesson: Following the
pack is not the safe course when a change is working against the pack. Better
to be known as the only one who does something special. This distinctive status
provides a degree of immunity from change.
Sanford Restaurant in Milwaukee has survived for two
decades, in part because it has minimal debt and low fixed costs. Owners Sandy
and Angie D’Amato opened the restaurant in a vacant building owned by their
family, and they lived upstairs, so they had no rent or mortgage payments. In
the early days, they ran the entire restaurant by themselves, when necessary,
so they didn’t have to pay salaries on slow nights.
Lesson: Debts and
expenses that seem affordable when times are good can become anchors that pull
us under when our finances or the economy takes a turn for the worse. Those
with little debt and low expenses find it much easier to stay afloat.
Lesson: No matter what
changes, exceptional quality always is in demand.
Thanks to Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Robert Spector, a business historian and journalist based
in Seattle. He is author of The Mom &
Pop Store: How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy Are Surviving and
Thriving
The Nanny State Updates…
Without Intent: How Congress Is Eroding the Criminal
Intent Requirement in Federal Law…PDF outlining
the criminalization of everything - must read.
President Ronald Reagan once famously said that a
stack of $1,000 bills equivalent to the U.S. government's debt would be about
67 miles high.
That was 1981. Since then, the national debt has climbed to $14.3 trillion. In $1,000 bills, it would now be more than 900 miles tall.
That was 1981. Since then, the national debt has climbed to $14.3 trillion. In $1,000 bills, it would now be more than 900 miles tall.
What will happen when the USA defaults? Here you will find some likely scenarios:
Treasury Secretary Geithner sent a letter to Congress
earlier this month with some of the answers. In it, Geithner describes a
scenario in which …
A broad range of government
payments are stopped, limited, or delayed, including military salaries, Social
Security, and Medicare payments, interest on debt, unemployment benefits, and tax
refunds.
Interest rates and borrowing
costs move sharply higher, home values decline, and retirement savings for
Americans are reduced.
Geithner even warns of “a financial crisis more severe
than the crisis from which we are only now starting to recover.” Read more here:
A teen in North Dallas found $2000 in a parking lot and dutifully turned it into the police. City officials told her if it went unclaimed
for 90 days, it was hers. After the time
had elapsed, the city told her they decided to keep the money and put it into
there general fund. Public outcry was
such that one citizen donated $4000 to the teen and the negative PR made the
city finally turn over the rest of the bounty.
A Massachusetts teacher refused to display a student’s
American Flag drawing because it might offend a classmate who is a
Jehovah’s Witness. The flag was drawn to
honor his brother in the military…the flag is a form of idolatry for these
folks - a pox on that teacher!
Police in North
Carolina arrested a man and held
him in jail for four days after police thought the 91 pounds of tortilla dough
in his truck was cocaine. A cheese
enzyme delivered a false-positive on a drug test. It took them four days to figure it out?
Instant potato flakes can be used to thicken gravies,
chowders, soups and stews.
The Parting thought…More tricks
to save money
Free
and nearly free is a powerful concept for most of us. We all want it for nothing. We always suggest borrowing something vs.
buying it whenever possible. We’ve
thought long and hard about buying a used truck or van as we seem to have a
perpetual need to haul stuff! Upon
closer review, it’s kind of dumb for us to buy another vehicle.
The
cost of insurance in MI is a killer and certainly provides roadblocks to the
economy here. There used to be a time
when you could find a ‘beater’ car or truck cheap as many would drive those
during winter months. After the ‘cash
for clunkers’ fiasco (most people did not buy a fuel efficient vehicle) the
supply of cheap vehicles dried up, and remaining used vehicles went sky high in
terms of price.
In
the past, we rented a truck through Enterprise.
Nice truck and good service, but it’s close the $300 for a weekend
(don’t even waste you time and money with U-Haul). Few of our friends own trucks any longer as
they opted for more fuel efficient vehicles.
Still, the need for a truck arises as would happen this past weekend
while attending an outdoor auction.
We’ve
been searching for a small sofa bed for our cabin and got one for $1 – yeah, a
buck and it is a name brand in excellent condition. We paid a fellow we met at the auction $10 to
haul it to our home. Upon speaking with
the fellow we learned he’s willing to haul our stuff for us – a lot cheaper
than renting a truck and we made a new friend.
He’s a part time meat processor nearby and has offered us deals on
locally raised beef and game…what a deal.
As
an aside, if you can’t get something cheap or free, consider buying a slightly
damaged version of the item and you’ll usually save a lot more money. Don’t forget to look on Craigslist.org too as
you can frequently find free stuff!
Finally,
here’s another way to get the goods without breaking the bank (you can start
your group too at this site)…Neighborgoods allows users to easily share their
stuff. Visit:
Another
very useful site (called eBay of swapping only better) for barter-trade is:
Yours for living better on less, the Poor Man
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