My wife and I are practicing frugality to a greater extent than ever, despite there being no pressing need by what I would guess to be the standards of most people. There has been no job loss nor huge expense. All debts are retired, and cash flow has never been better.
The reasons for this behavior are hard to understand, but are likely related to a basic affinity for some level of frugality that is in our nature, our experience in knowing depression era parents and grandparents, and the recent plunge of the middle class who were not careful with their expenditures or who were unlucky in timing and have moved to that nervous group who struggle to pay the mortgage, fuel bills, car loans, etc. etc.
So here are some money savings ideas:
1. Keep your driving to a minimum. For example, shop on the way home from work to reduce the number of trips.
2. Drive a car that sips gasoline. We put most of our miles on a Honda Civic that gets 32 to 39 miles per gallon, and usually gets 34 to 36. We also have two 4 wheel drive pickups that are driven 2 to 3000 miles each per year, only as needed to carry loads or when a second vehicle is needed.
3. I bring a sack lunch to work every day.
4. My sack lunch is double bagged. Two bags last much longer than twice as long as a single bag. Yes, I carry my lunch in the same bags for many weeks.
5. We shop at a few good stores: Trader Joe’s, Costco; Fred Meyer; WalMart, and Home Depot.
6. We do not pay interest or bank fees.
7. We fix stuff ourselves: ABS brake failures, intake manifold gasket replacements, electrical failures and additions, appliances, plumbing failures, roof replacements, adding windows, building structures, replacing engines, sweeping chimneys, etc. Sometimes we hire work done and watch the repair so that we can do it ourselves the next time. Health permitting, this will be the case with our septic system dosing pump, which was replaced last November. It cost $2500 and I can do a much better job myself for less than $1000. It will be done faster, too.
8. We live in the country, so toilets are often not needed. This saves water, electricity, and preserves the drain field, well pump, water treatment chemicals, house pump and dosing pump.
9. Top load washing machines work great and are cheaper than front load. Saving water with front load technology seems silly; our wash water is plenty dirty.
10. Pressed shirts last two days in winter, when a T-shirt is beneath.
11. Cheap Norelco shavers work great.
12. Non-name brand or bulk bathroom supplies from Costco or WalMart are good enough.
13. I do not need an i-phone at $70 per month. My old flip phone works fine.
14. Basic cable television service is good enough.
15. I buy cars new and keep them for no less than 11 years. My F-150 will be 16 years old in March.
16. We make an effort to clean and repair things to keep them longer than average.
17. We do not have trash pick-up service in this rural area. We haul our trash to the transfer station a few times per year in the old F-150.
18. We service our own water treatment equipment.
19. Reverse osmosis (RO) water is cheaper than bottled water and makes excellent coffee.
20. We essentially do not eat at restaurants.
21. Yes, we eat food that is past the pull date. We are still alive.
22. We never go to movie theatres. Our home theatre with BlueRay, Dolby 5.1, and 37 inch HD television is just fine.
23. Coffee is whole bean and comes in a 3 pound bag from Costco. It is San Fransisco brand, not Starbucks.
24. We have money for great dental care, medical care, and other professional services as needed.
24. Light colored laundry goes into a duffel bag I carried as a Boy Scout in 1967. That is 45 years ago. It has some holes in it, but they are too small still for the dirty laundry to fall through.
The U.S. Congress is spending more time on the Social Security payroll tax cut than they did debating the invasion of Iraq. As a body, they decided quickly to illegally invade a nation based on erroneous intelligence that even if correct did not justify their action. This cost thousands of young Americans their lives and left many with physical and mental injuries. It cost about $1 trillion, give or take some trivial billions.
The payroll tax cut is an allocation decision among various accounts: the national debt, the social security trust fund, and the net worth of American families. On average, all three accounts or classes of accounts are in trouble. Therefore the decision on whether to continue the lower tax rate is almost trivial.
Perhaps we should recommend that Congress establish a special commission to study how a large group of intelligent people can be stupid in their collective actions. The first body to study will be the U.S. Congress.
The following post originated on www.honeybeesuite.com and was written by Rusty. It is posted here with the author’s permission. Thank you, Rusty.
The feds forced me to use insecticide
. . . and ticked me off no end. Although I spend vast amounts of time and energy preaching the dangers of indiscriminate pesticide use, last week the FHA forced me to hire an exterminator and spray for non-existent anobiid beetles. I argued and pleaded, but no amount of logic had any effect on the all-knowing and all-powerful FHA. In short: no spray, no sale. End of argument.
It all started when my husband and I decided to sell a rental house we owned in downtown Olympia. The house was built in 1906 and was completely remodeled by a VA finish carpenter in the early 1980s. We purchased it in 1997 and kept it in rental service until September of this year. The house had been a great investment, but we were tired of being landlords and decided to get out.
We told our real estate agent in advance that we did not want to accept offers based on FHA loans, but he assured us it would be “no problem” so we reluctantly let him check off the FHA box. Sure enough, the first offer that came in was from a first-time home buyer seeking an FHA loan.
The problems started almost immediately when the certified pest inspector crawled under the house and photographed what he called an anobiid beetle infestation. Although neither of us had ever heard of such a creature, we studied the photos and decided he was crazy. When the carpenter re-built the house in the early 1980s he apparently found some weak joists under the floor, some of which had beetle holes. At the time he “sistered” these with new lumber. This simply means he installed new joists alongside the old ones to add strength and minimize distortion.
The photographs clearly showed the old wood with the beetle holes and the “new” (1980s) wood without a single hole or any other damage. We reasoned that if there were active beetles down there, they would have started boring into the “new” wood by this time. After all the “new’ wood is now thirty years old. Furthermore, an associate of my husband assured him that if anobiid beetles were active down there all these years there wouldn’t be a house left to sell.
Instead of listening to logic the bank was adamant. The spray had to be completed and the beetles “certified” dead. I couldn’t—and can’t—believe that a branch of the federal government would require us to spray poison in a dwelling as a condition of sale—a poison that will seep through the floorboards and into the home—a poison that isn’t necessary—a poison that the new owner will get to breathe and live with for who knows how long. I asked how this was ethical. But no one seemed to care. “Just do it and get it over with,” I was told.
So I did. It was the last thing on my list because I didn’t want to go back into that house after it was sprayed. I choose an exterminator—the $250 guy—who I liked better than the $500 guy, who I liked marginally better than the $600 guy.
Turns out, I really did like the $250 guy. He was a large man who arrived wearing a bushy gray beard and knee pads. He had a hand sprayer that he filled from a big tank on the back of his truck. I eyed him doubtfully but he managed to marshmallow himself into the tiny crawlspace opening. He spent all of fifteen minutes under there and then reappeared, spanking thirty years of dust from his fleece vest. “I’m done,” he said, “but there ain’t no beetles down there. Never was.”
I asked about the holes in the old wood. “Them’s exit holes,” he said. “No entrance holes. Dry as a bone down there.”
He went on to explain that in the old days, before wood was kiln dried, the lumber might contain anobiid beetles that entered the wood while the tree was still standing in the forest. If the wood was used in a damp environment, the beetles could thrive and you would see entrance holes and sawdust where the larvae bored back in. If you see only exit holes, the environment was too dry to support them and they died. End of story. Kiln drying kills the beetles, which explains why they are no longer a common pest.
I wrote a check and received my precious “pest certification.” As I walked back to my truck I could smell the pesticide seeping from the crawlspace. I thought of those molecules landing in the soil, washing away in the coming rains, and racing through the storm drains to pool in the estuaries where fingerling salmon try to survive their first year—all for a pest that doesn’t exist and never did. It’s so sad I wanted to cry.
Rusty
If I were to outline the chief responsibilities of any central government, I would only include three essential functions: (1) the common defense, assuring that the nation is not conquered; (2) assuring that human rights are preserved; (3) operating the government with fiscal prudence. The report card for the United States government would be:
Defense: B
The U.S. has achieved the essential objective against our enemies, defeating them and keeping them outside our borders. A higher grade would correspond to not invading countries based on bad data and without justification, and by achieving great results at less expense.
Human Rights: B+
The U.S., despite some glitches and gaffes, has done quite well in this regard. Exceptions include over-regulation (100 watt lamps as we know them are about to be illegal to produce and sell; prohibition was silly; and the internment of the Japanese and modern airport security are a few other exceptions to a good record.)
Fiscal Prudence: D
By not creating a surplus within ten years, we are counting on inflation to reduce the ratio of debt to GDP. This is so bad that it is essentially a failure to even admit the magnitude of the problem, always the first and essential step in solving one. This D has a good chance of becoming an F if it leads to the result that is increasingly probable, a decline in the wealth and power of the United States.
News concerning debt ceiling negotiations recently mentioned three plans by Mr. Obama to cut the deficit. The most aggressive, and offered as such, is a $3 trillion cut. He did not say that we will cut $3 trillion over ten years, or an average of $300 billion per year. Assuming an equal cut per year, a big leap, this is only a 20% cut in the current deficit, reducing the deficit to about $1.2 trillion per year. And it is quite likely the majority of the cuts will be delayed to affect future administrations. Thus, the unsustainable and profligate spending will continue, providing substantial annual additions to the $14.3 trillion debt of the United States. The Republicans are correct that this level of deficit reduction simply postpones more instances of raising the debt ceiling in the future. Also, cutting the deficit the same amount each year over ten years is not in the interests of Mr. Obama because delaying the cuts helps his chances for re-election.
Stated differently, the current debate is not about reducing or eliminating the debt of the United States. It is about finding an agreement on the appropriate rate at which the debt should increase! If the United States eliminated the deficit, there would be no need to increase the debt ceiling.
Paul Krugman and many Democrats argue that this is not the time to cut government spending because we need to create jobs. They are right, except that the U.S. government cannot afford to do the best thing. We spent too much during good times and bad since World War II, creating a huge debt load.
The Republicans are against raising taxes. They are wrong. Taxes must rise to resolve this. They should agree to a ten year tax increase, with a sunset provision and a tax trigger, causing the application of the tax only if deficit spending is at or below an agreed annual target. Cutting Social Security benefits is within the authority of Congress, but they should not do it for anyone who is paying social security taxes. We are relying on Social Security for our retirements and will need much of that income to cover medical insurance costs, especially if we retire prior to attaining the Medicare eligibility age of 65.
News organizations should be more factual in reporting what is happening, clarifying when someone refers to a reduction over a ten year period and leaves the period of the reduction out of the statement. News organizations should be clear that the debt will continue to rise irrespective of which party dominates the outcome. And finally, news organizations should simply stop reporting on these negotiations daily. The budget, tax law, spending, and debt management are under the exclusive control of Congress and Mr. Obama. They made this mess; they need to solve it.
The average citizen is simply stuck with what passes Congress and is signed by Obama. Congress and Mr. President, please do your job and tell us the truth about what you are doing. We don’t hold the power to decide this issue, but you may not get re-elected if you continue to screw this up.
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- New Lock, and Handle in Locked Position – Exterior View
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- New Lock, and Handle in Unlocked Position
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- Locking Bar Positioned Through Rail – Guide Adjusted to Hold Door Closed Snugly
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- Interior View – Locked
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- Interior View, Unlocked
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- Old Low Security Tee Handle
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- Old Key – This key is simple, could be inserted upside down, and is consistent with a low security lock that is easily picked.
Locks for non-automatic garage doors can simply be inadequate on a modern house, as mine was. It had numerous shortcomings:
- It had a low security key, indicating the lock could be picked easily.
- Removing two Philips screws and turning the tee handle and the flange together allowed entry without a key.
- The old snap latch became smooth with use allowing the door to be opened when the latch slid over the catch even when you thought the door was locked.
- The snap latch was sharp and the shaft of the tee handle protruded on the inside, snagging skin and clothing.
- I wanted a higher security key, one that matched my other five locks on the house, cabin and pump house.
My goals in security are few and simple:
- If someone is at home, an intruder must spend enough time and make enough noise prior to entry so that the occupant can be armed and ready to stop the intruder.
- If no one is at home, there must to be visible damage to the house so the owner can understand the method of entry and, preferably, know something is wrong before entering.
The instructions for the new lock only included replacement installations, not those for a new installation. Based on the instructions and the lack of seeing the system I installed on newer homes, I suspect many homes without automatic garage door openers have low security garage door locks similar to the one I replaced. The new lock and handle remind me of how the garage doors worked in the houses of my youth, houses built in the forties through the sixties.
There are several feature that are convenient with the new installation:
- You can see whether the door is locked or not from a distance. This is convenient for the owner, but a bit of a risk if a potential burglar knows the door is unlocked from afar.
- There is no obvious way to defeat the lock without damaging the door.
- You can re-key the lock to match your other house locks.
- You can close the door without having the door latch each time. Closing the door and locking it are two separate actions.
The installation is a bit tricky. Install the new tee handle first. It is retained with a spring washer. Then install the sheet metal cam that has the notch for the bolt. Use washers for a tight fit, then install the inner handle and the pin to lock the inner handle in place.
Then mount the interior lock bolt assembly. Make sure the bolt fits in the cam slot well and that the cam clears the interior bolt assembly through its range of motion when the bolt is within the assembly. Remove the bolt assembly, draw a line on the garage door that connects the centers of the two top holes and mark the center of the line. Measure from this center point on the lock bolt assembly to the center of the lock operator, where the cylinder bar will enter the bolt assembly. Mark this spot on the door. Do not drill the cylinder hole at this point. The bar is not at the center of the cylinder. Measure the offset of the bar from the center of the cylinder, and transfer this measurement to the door. The new mark will be above the lock operator mark. This will be the center of the cylinder. Double check all measurements and visualize the relationship of the cylinder with the bolt assembly. Use a punch to dent the door to receive your hole saw drill bit. An error on drilling the hole for the cylinder will require installation of repair plates, not a pretty outcome. Measure twice and cut once. Doors that are thin will require a firm backer piece for the handle, cylinder and lock. A good piece of hardwood will stay in place if secured by the tee handle and fastened to the door with two carriage bolts with the nuts on the inside for security.
I found the parts on line, but had to call the outfit to get what I needed – the website was light on detail and parts information. The long bars come in sizes for 8 and 9 ft. doors, assuming a center handle mounting. Mine is a double wide garage door, so I just used one bar. I used the other hole on the disk or cam for the spring. If you use two bars, attach the spring to one of them. Stretch the spring slightly when the door is unlocked, so that the door becomes unlocked smartly with spring force when the locking bolt is withdrawn. Do not forget to order the spring; they are made for this application and you may not find one at your local home center. Also, ask for the pins that connects the long bar with the disks or cam. The vendor forgot to include those in my order.
My wife commented that some of the big companies, like Wells Fargo, serve us quite well and that some of the local shops disappoint. Except for noting that Wells Fargo wouldn’t seem so good if we paid the fees for bouncing checks, I had to agree. Some businesses we like:
Costco: Narrow selection of excellent products at great prices. They do the hard work for you; if a supplier raises prices excessively, they drop the product. Their return policy has been a life saver in those rare instances when we buy a lemon.
Nordstrom: Too expensive for us in general, but the only place to buy a man’s suit. You get what you pay for. Their adjustments give you the look of a tailored suit.
Harbor Freight: Great prices on all kinds of tools. Sometimes the quality is low, but care and study will usually be a sufficient guide for you in deciding what your needs are, as long as you do not make the mistake of assuming low quality correlates with low price. It is not necessarily so at Harbor Freight.
Wells Fargo: Great service and good terms on accounts. You save money if you do not break the rules, such as bouncing checks. They give the best mortgage statements in the business, providing you with the remaining principal owed each month.
Home Depot: Pretty good, but not exemplary. Great hardware stores tend to go out of business because they must carry weird stuff that gives the store low margins. Home Depot falls short on specialty fasteners and high quality (commercial grade) door hardware. Also, to get help, I have to start cutting my own rebar or climbing on their shelves, at which point someone admonishes me for increasing the store’s liability. Then they help me.
Fred Meyer: Great vegetables, great variety of groceries that includes lots of organic food. Speeding the check-out lanes, ceasing inquiries about the store discount card and even eliminating the stupid things would be a further improvement.
Trader Joe’s: The best little grocery store I have ever visited. Great wine at great prices, always free coffee for the customers with samples, great bread and I like the frozen Mandarin Chicken dinner. Great chocolate at good prices, too. If you need to gain a few pounds, this is the store for you.
Amazon.com: Fast, easy, free shipping for orders greater than $25, and you can get all kinds of things from them. Recently I ordered a $12 garage door lock. My wife said I needed to add to the order to get the free shipping, so I asked for the $125 Honda Civic Service manual. Free shipping. The manual arrived and we are still waiting for the lock.
The two major ways nations kill is by execution pursuant to criminal laws and through war. Osama bin Laden was not killed by the United States because of his criminal acts; he was not tried, convicted or sentenced. All of these processes are prerequisites to execution. Instead he was declared an enemy combatant by the executive branch and killed by the same branch of government. The only legislative involvement with Osama’s death was the passage of the Uniform Military Code of Justice into law long before he was shot. There was no court or judicial check on the use of executive authority.
It is quite clear that nations have the authority to defend themselves from attack by military invaders. The executive branch would argue further that it can initiate combat operation without a declaration of war under many broad circumstances. Interesting questions follow from this. Should the United States and the Commander in Chief kill those, like Osama, who are unarmed, not a member of a uniformed military service, and not engaged in espionage against the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government during time of war?
I make no argument that Osama was not depraved, not evil, and not a perpetrator of heinous acts. That is established. But that Osama was an enemy combatant and could be declared such and then executed by the president of the United States without a check on that power is like the authority vested in British kings many hundreds of years ago. We revolted from a system with more protections for those being killed at the hands of the state than that.
The budget fight continues. Here are a few myths and observations:
1. It is the wrong time to fight the deficit and debt. Creation of jobs is what is important.
This is catchy. It is correct, except that we are essentially out of money. Indeed, the U.S. would be brilliant to spend any surplus on re-vitalizing the economy. The problem is that the U.S. already expended the funds and cannot afford to stimulate the economy as much as it should.
2. We should not cut spending for public radio because U.S. spending for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is trivial compared to the deficit and debt.
Most spending that is wasteful or that should be reviewed for cutting is trivial compared to the enormous debt of the U.S. This argument applied to all expenditures dooms to failure the frugal and diligent who believe spending is too high.
3. We are making cuts to the wrong programs.
The parties need to first agree on the magnitude of the cuts, then they can fight about where the cuts should be taken. There are two issues. There is no reason to disagree on the cuts, but where they should be made is a natural area for controversy.
4. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. New taxes are not justified.
The first sentence is true. However, the hole we have dug is too big to fill without new taxes. The only questions should be against whom should they be levied and how much should they be.
5. We have a budget deal that kept the U.S. Government open for business. Isn’t this wonderful?
Right. Congress cut the budget about 1% and spending is more than 40% greater than income. Great work.
6. We need to close tax loopholes for corporations.
This is not so. It is far better to use the Individual Income Tax as a tax for individuals and keep corporations in the U.S. by not taxing them at all.
There is no one to bail out the U.S. in case we default or otherwise need financial help. It took years to create the current mess and will take much diligence and pain to reverse the trend. The analogy is to the family that is spending at the rate of 140% of its income; a lot of good expenditures must be cut to make the finances work in the long term.
BBC World News is reporting this situation well, distinguishing between the debt and deficits of the United States and regularly comparing our debt to GDP ratio with that of other nations struggling under mountains of debt. When people know the amount of debt we have per worker the political pressure will increase on our leaders. This debt level makes every major spending decision, such as funding a huge stimulus package or war effort, a Hobson’s choice. We gamble with not addressing a present need or risk economic collapse because of excess spending and debt. This is not a path to a world leadership position and is unacceptable.
My Australian Cattle Dog
September 18, 2011
Miscellaneous Comment
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He is named Q2 (for Quimby II)
The veterinarian said my ACD will be a good dog. I take this to mean she well understands that this four month old pup isn’t good yet; the old negative pregnant. Of course, her assessment is correct. The dog is remarkable in many ways, and many of the good behaviors are quite surprising in a young dog. He comes to us reliably; he walks with us with or without a leash; he sits and lets us connect or disconnect the leash; and he can successfully play a formal game of fetch, abiding by the commands: sit, stay, fetch, and give (me the ball). He is untied all day and doesn’t leave our property. He helps us move water and air hoses, and releases them with the command “give.”
But his bad habits are frustrating and taking a toll. He is destroying our drip irrigation piece by piece. He still jumps on us to greet us. And he loves to chew our Adirondack chairs. He also likes to herd us, nipping the back of our legs, then running in circles and barking with great energy, even right after a four-mile walk.
Despite the problems, which my wife and I are working on diligently, he actually is a good buddy.