BAIT AND SWITCH: how to buy a new car below dealer cost
 

Watch for newspaper ads offering to sell you a new car for thousands less than sticker price. if the ad keeps running head for the dealer. you can cash in on their bait and switch. my last new car purchase was for $8788.
window sticker more than $13,000+.

Expect to be told to go away. if that happens go home and call the manufacturer, and the newspaper running the bait and switch.
a couple of weeks later you can buy at the advertised price. I have bought new proteges, a sentra, and a ford montego this way.

another opportunity for no haggling new car purchase is to watch for a dealer to write in big letters on the windshield a bargain price.

small cars have improved safety. if one suits you it will more than pay for itself in fuel savings. my $8788 sentra goes 40 mpg. compared to 20 mpg the savings on gas would be about $l0,000 on l00,000 miles at current prices.
japanese imports are so dependable ive spent nothing on repairs now
having 109,433 on the odometer, it has never failed to start and go.

davos
b 1936
dx 2000
stage 2-3

The best car
 

If you can find one, I recommend the Toyota Avalon. It is a full size sedan that seats five comfortable adults and gets 35 mpg - the best in its class. Mine is a 1996 and hasn't given any trouble.

Use the web to search within a half day's drive. And look for areas where businesses have dumped a big lease on the local market. I drove 300 miles to Atlanta because a big company had saturated the market and there were a couple of dozen in the north part of the city's used car lots.

I've just move to a city from a small town. I'm close enough to the stores that I can take my bike now. I just need to attach a two wheel cart so I can carry more if I need to. I actually find it easier to ride my bike than walkig sometimes. I ride a Seniors bike, low center bar and easy to ride. My gas saving is a bonus. I live alone, so when I cook, I cook enough so I can split it into two or three meals.

Max

victory gardens+
 

Remember victory gardens, which almost everyone grew during wartime, regardless of yard size? For some time, we have made small garden plots in our yard. Even in Texas where we live, we can grow a lot of things. The best is fall/winter, when I plant the chard, kale, kohlrabi, beets, broccoli, cilantro, and the like, even I was surprised what all we could grow during those months. Spring and summer are beans, peas, tomotoes, cucumbers, melons, and lots of herbs. Be prepared to fight the coons and squirrels, though, and they are very persistent. And if we grow it, I find our kids are far more likely to eat it.

A tip if you grow basil: we usually have a bumper crop of this stuff, far more than we can eat and give away....so, passing along a tip a friend gave me, here's what to do with all of those leaves:

gather all the extra basil leaves and wash
cut them up into small pieces and place into a ziploc bag
pour enough olive oil into the bag to thoroughly cover the herbs
with the bag flat on the counter, carefully press all the air out of the bag, then seal and place in the freezer (date the bag if you like with a sharpie)

The bag should not be thicker than about 1/4 of an inch-if it's too thick, it will be too hard to use. To use this stuff, just take the bag out of the freezer, open it up, and break off the size chunk that you need. So easy.

We do this and typically have enough basil to last well until the next year's harvest. You can use this in pasta sauces, salad dressings, pizza, anywhere you use regular basil, and the flavor is unbeatable.

One year our basil crop was so prolific (we planted 72 seeds and every one of them sprouted and grew like a weed!) that we actually took the thick stems from the plants and used them as skewers for grilling...waste not, want not.

Your local county agriculture extension agent can help you with what you can grow and when for your area. You can also find more information than you could ever read online, but again, plant for your area to avoid disappointment and waste.

If you are interested in gardening, try to get organic seeds, and heirloom varieties at that, to be sure you aren't growing some genetically modified version. We have saved seeds from one year to the next, with some success, but I usually buy them. Cost for a season's crop is usually less than twenty bucks.

If you don't have the space or energy to garden there are farmer's markets which I have found to be fresher, better tasting, and less expesive than produce trucked in from three thousand miles away. And it supports the local farmers, who use far less gas to get their produce to me than the farmer in California. A win-win all the way around.

Going more extreme...

If you have the space, also consider a bee hive. Bee populations are plummeting (a whole issue in and of itself, you can google this to read about how bad the problem is...but suffice it to say, no bees, no food as most everything we grow to eat has to be pollinated) and many online suppliers offer beekeeping supplies. Our famil's thought was just to buy a beehive starter, plunk the thing down in the back of the backyard, and leave it alone (after telling the kids to stay far, far away!).

One other thing we have not done but are considering for this fall: chickens. Not to eat, but for eggs. Check your deed restrictions to be sure you can have them on your property, research what breed(s) you are interested in, and whether they can live in your area. We found several places online that offer "organic" egg laying chicks, we just have to get the habitat ready. We've talked to some families that do this and it is complicated, so you have to do your research first and have everything ready before you get the chicks. But once you get it going, you can have fresh eggs whenever you like. And the chickens can scratch around in your garden plots, eating the bugs that might otherwise be a problem. I read they eat ticks, too, which is reason enough alone to have a few in the yard. Some of the families that do this in our area actually sell the extra eggs for two to three dollars a dozen, which beats the six bucks a dozen that Whole Foods charges...these are usually listed on craigslist (if you have access to that site) and are local, so again, less expensive and fresher.

Hope this information helps!

To help with grocery costs, many of our members are using Angel Food Ministries. They buy in volume and pass the saving on. You get $65 worth of groceries for $30. It's for everyone, not just low or no income.

http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

"smart cars"
 

you guys dont have these little rodent size cars in the states yet. They run on diet coke and an aspirin....well not quite, but they are showing up in increasing numbers on the roads, but have to stay off any roadway that goes more than 80 kph -sorry can't translate that into american equivalent, Maybe someone with more brain cells left than me can. They are so small they can park two to a street space alloted to one economy size car or skip parallel parking altogether and just put the front of the car parked toward the curb. In other words they are as long as the average auto is wide (Hummers are not average). I want my kids to buy me one so I can drive on the sidewalks. They say that they will not post bail if I become a menace to society....oh, I'm off topic. It's the brain disease ya know. Back to the donkey. I liked the bait and switch idea. Rick: I would be hard pressed to find 4 people who would get in a car with me if I was driving. Well Carry on ....some good suggestions and gets our grey matter moving.

what about food stamps..
 

these got a whole generation of welfare recipients through. I know that "welfare" is a nefarious word, but you only have to grovel for a few minutes at the ss department.
It was worse when it was worse. Welfare worker wanted us to sell our furniture before they would give us a penny more. My mom cried a river until her brothers stood up and picked up the tab for feeding us.

dearest cs...
 

dear cs my friend, :p
they havent changed much...I put 500 dollars in a savings acct.
and they sent me a official excuse me - we are going to take some -
benefits from you - you have 500 dollars in a savings acct...
you are suppose to be poor...
so I removed it from savings...
and bought frivilous things with it like food, shoes,toothpaste and hid the rest somwhere in a shoebox... ;)
yours truly,
tena

TRAVEL CLUBS...like staying at grandma's and cheaper
 

A european tradition now in the usa...members offer a safe comfortable room and breakfast to other members. PRICELESS but membership only about
$60 a year, $l5 single $20 double. members may or may not offer to show you about but will guide you to restaurants and sights to see.

i had thanksgiving dinner at a member's home in fla. stayed in a dozen
homes and hosted about that many. two are lifetime friends. all were
different except one couple i visited in fla came to tennessee.
one member in manitoba complained they had no guests. some are happy welcoming guests. members can accept visitors or not and the usual
stay is 2 or 3 nights. a host may have only several guests a year.

this is not a home exhange and obviously not a mercenary thing.

thanks to all neurotalkers....I'M ASTOUNDED !!!!

davos
b l936
dx 2000
stage 2.5

The AVALON is so quiet
 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
A friend took a trip with her sister in the family AVALON...impressed she had to have one too.

davos ...... PS Thanks for the idea of showing data.
b 1936 ..... Also info on meds and supplements you take.
dx 2000.... I'm taking most of the same plus isradipine an
stage 2.5.. simvastatin already needed for high cholesterol
.............. and hypertension.