How to infuriate your wife: Lesson 1

[Howard]

I'm glad I wasn't drinking coffee when I read that...

[e-mail]

[Mark Jerde]

The wife of a CPA told me it stands for "Cheapest Person Around." ;-)

-- Mark

[mel]

And I'm watching the specialty shops around here. Already got two possibilities for things that seem to be selling well and wouldn't take too long to set up for batch production runs every now and then.

Care to share what these possibilities might be? I've been cutting cedar porch brackets, building gable louvers and exterior shutters for new home builders.

[Dan]

On Mon 23 Feb 2004 04:18:27p, "mel" wrote in news:T_u_b.5738$ [e-mail]:

Actually no. I wanna experiment with it before I shoot my mouth off. But I'll share the third because I can't set up for it now. I was in Cost Plus getting my obligatory Secret Santa present, and sizing up the 44-bottle wine racks on sale for 35 bucks. Man, were they were _cheap_ looking. Pine sticks stapled together in a framework that held bottles. Solid pine top. No finish. Looked like they were thrown together by drunk monkeys.

People were buying them in twos and threes. They were lined up four deep at four checkouts, congratulating each other on the good deal. I've gone back since Christmas, and they're not selling as fast as that, but they're still selling. I figure if a guy set up with the right jigs, he could work up to cranking those out at least five or six a day, maybe ten, that were ten times more solid than that and a lot better looking too. I'd make up some stock and see if I could find wherever those folks hung out. Maybe it would work, maybe not. But from what I could see it'd be worth the trouble finding out.

Dan

[Upscale]

It's amazing what people will consider buying. A single bottle of wine can easily be worth many times the cost of one of those racks. The chance of it collapsing and losing a sizeable chuck of cash in the process probably never occurred to one of those anxious to buy purchasers.

[Silvan]

Good grief, you just spent my entire pre-tax salary on "pocket money" every week.

We have a similar arrangement, but divide it by 10.

[Phisherman]

And here my near total monthly living expense amount to $370 a month, and that includes property taxes, food, car insurance, and utility bills. I had to take a roommate to help split the bills. Not enough money for medicine nor health insurance. Hey Bush, I need a job! :-(

[Mapdude]

Yeah, I have a hard time going through $200 in a week. Since I work "downtown" from my house, I end up eating out for lunch most days, and at $7 to $10 average a day, I can easily spend $50 to $60 (with tip) a week just on lunch. Anything and everything I want to buy for the week comes out of that money (beer, magazine, carwash, movie ticket, etc.)

I usually only end up spending about $100 a week, if that much. The rest just goes back into the bucket until I need it.

Silvan wrote:

[Silvan]

If it's some kind of eatery where a tip is expected, I can't afford to eat there. Our idea of fine dining is one of those rare trips to Burger King. :)

Oh well.

[Charlie Self]

Silvan responds:

You might want to check your lunch time costs in a place that needs tips. Fast food these days is not cheap.

Charlie Self I don't approve of political jokes. I've seen too many of them get elected.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Eating out can be expensive. I see more and more truckers carring their lunch. Many of the rigs have fridges and microwaves in them now, but some just carry a cooler.

My lunch is usually leftovers. We intentionally cook extra so I can make a lunch for the next day or so. Aside from the fact that there is little to choose from near work, it is cheaper and I eat better.

[Mapdude]

I tried bringing my lunch, but that got old. Got tired of leftovers. Don't eat sandwiches. Low carb diet. Cafeteria downstairs at the office has marginal food at best. Mostly tastes like cardboard.

So, the alternative is eat out at restaurants downtown. You get waited > Mapdude wrote:

[Silvan]

I have. It's still considerably cheaper. Especially after factoring in the

15% tip that today's wait staff expects.

Not to mention all the places around here that need tips are standing room only. 75,000 college students and many of them stupidly going into debt hand over fist with their shiny new credit cards. (Been there, done that. Oh the stupid things I paid thousands for in the end.) The only time a real person can get into a decent restaurant is when the damn college students have gone back home to D.C./NoVA.

[Silvan]

I carry a cooler myself, and I keep enough of a stock of dry goods in the truck to survive for several days.

SWMBO is the one who goes for the leftovers, but then she has a microwave at work.

[Mark Jerde]

Are you old enough to remember Earl Nightengale's "Our Changing World"? (I wish he was still around.) Always good food for thought.

I've invested several thousand $ in "self help" etc. tapes over the years and have profited greatly thereby. When my car was broken into I noted to the police that several low $ items were stolen but the theives left the tapes series (on time management IIRC) on which I'd spent over $250. It was really ironic -- they left the HIGHEST value items in the car. ;-)

You write well, therefore you think well. You can leverage this into income, some how, some way. People who can think are valueable.

The most valuable self-help materials I have are written by Christian millionaires / billionares. I know that probably freaks you out but I have plenty of "secular" books & tapes too. Ping me offline & I'll send you a copy of Napoleon Hill's "Think & Grow Rich" if you're interested. It's good brain food. ;-) I'd also be willing to lend (not give ) you a Earl Nightengale tape series.

I clearly recall about 15 years ago when our finances improved to where going to McDonald's occasionally wasn't a budget buster. Though 2002 and

2003 were challenges in the post-dot-com-crash world I've always had cash on hand to pay a couple months bills if all income stopped. (It did a time or two, too.) 2004 is (finally!) looking pretty good. It's still February and already I've earned 50% of the total I made in 2002.

My financial prosperity has come from what I've learned in church, books & tapes. Why not take me up on my offer? ;-)

-- Mark

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Where I work is one block from downtown. Downtown is two blocks long, has a pizza shop and now a Subway. There is even a traffic light right in the center of downtown. To get back and forth from work, I have to drive right through downtown. At rush hour, I've already hat to wait two changes of the light to get through the intersection. That gets me PO'd because it then takes me 34 minutes to get home instead of 33.

OB woodworking: There is a lumber yard around the corner. Great place if you need a 2 x 4 or sheet of plywood. They even carry three sizes of nails. Ed

[Silvan]

Our town is a bit larger, but there still aren't too many places to eat downtown. Domino's, Pappa John's, Subway, a local deli (imagine that... a non-chain restaurant!), a Burger King.

To get to the food, you have to move out to the edge of town, where I live. Used to be nothing out here but trees and farms. Now everything is out here excecpt for TGI Friday's and Ruby Tuesday.

The lumber yard here is over in town proper. Really inconvenient to get to from here because of the 30 minutes spent waiting at stoplights to go five miles. They don't stock much, and their prices are anything but cheap, but they have walnut, and that's all it takes to keep me going back.

[Phisherman]

I have not ate at a fast food restaurant since 2000, and then it was a Subway. But, I stopped eating lunch altogether since 1992 and exercise for 40 minutes, but I do eat one piece of fruit before lunch time.. My weight is down 35 pounds and no major sicknesses (nor flu) since. Not only saved on lunch money, but medical expenses.