Resurrecting the $5 Stretcher Survivor Challenge

From the Dollar Stretcher article archive index: http://www.stretcher.com/stories/00/000828b.cfm

“Suppose you were down to your last $5.00 and had to eat for a week. How far could you stretch that $5.00 (e.g., buy bread at outlets, rice, etc.)? I'd love to hear how everyone did and what and where they bought items and for how much. I'll do my own challenge if and when this is printed in the Dollar Stretcher!

Donna”
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This story/article was written many years ago, and the responses back then were interesting and useful. Since more and more of us are living on the wire, I’d like to update the challenge and issue it again:

• $5.00 budget

• eat for a week, and

• no use of food stamps, food banks or soup kitchens, credit cards, cash advances or payday loans, getting yourself arrested, selling blood or collecting cans, or calling anyone to send you money. All you get is the $5.00—nothing more.

Exemptions: taxes and nutritional content.

If you had $5.00 to eat for a week, how would you spend it? Tell me. In about a couple of weeks, I’m going to forward your answers to Gary Forman, the editor of The Dollar Stretcher, to update his article.

This should prove to be interesting, given the current economy. Tell me how you’d survive, given the parameters.

Hip Deep in Millionaires

From yesterday’s AP wire: Number of U.S. Millionaires Reaches 9 Million
Deborah Brewster, Financial Times New York

“The number of millionaires in the US has reached a record 8.9m, rising for the third consecutive year despite faltering stock and bond markets.
The rise confirms a three-year economic rebound following a decline in the number of millionaires during 2001 and 2002.

The number of the emerging affluent - defined as households with a net worth of $100,000 to $500,000 - also rose slightly, to 24.5m, according to a survey to be released on Wednesday by TNS, one of the world's largest market research companies.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index did not rise much during the period. The average balance held in mutual funds dropped, by a hefty 20 per cent to $283,000.

Property was not a big contributor to the increase in wealth. This year, real estate ownership of investment properties, which include second homes and vacation properties, stood at 44 per cent, a drop of 12 per cent compared with 2004, said TNS.

The millionaires' debt fell by 8 per cent during the year, to an average of $165,000, which helped lift their net worth. That, and a reluctance to make significant shifts in strategy or asset allocation, appeared to point to a mood of caution among the nation's wealthy.

Jeanette Luhr, the manager of the research study, said: "The growth we've seen this year is largely due to measured planning and active reinvestment...overall the asset allocation of these households has not changed significantly. When asked about their investment approach over the past year, 61 per cent of millionaires said that approach has changed very little, indicating they have a strategy and they are sticking to it."

The survey was based on a sample of 1,800 households with net worth of $500,000 or more, excluding their main home.”
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What are THEY doing that WE’RE not, besides bringing home bigger paychecks? They’re KEEPING more of their money, i.e., losing less of it to taxes and debt.

Debt repayment is the fastest way to enhance wealth through improved cash flow. Deft tax planning, starting with the W-4 form and ending with the 1040 form, is the easiest way to keep more money coming in without increasing the amount of work to earn it.

How do they get from debt to deft? They understand the tax code, whether through reading or consultation with an expert. The tax code is our biggest clue on how to keep more of the money we make, and it comes by way of our own congress—they themselves don’t want to lose money to taxes either. The tax code amounts to a manual of how to get around paying more than you absolutely have to, and the more you end up paying, the less you know about or are able to use the tax code strategies.

As you can see by the story above, their investments in stocks, bonds, and homes either stayed the same or fell, so we know they didn’t make killings in any of the markets. By the looks of the statistics, they didn’t buy more of any one particular hot investment, either. Instead, they applied their money to debt reduction.

We don’t have to have a six-figure paycheck to do what they’re doing, do we? Just take the hint from the rich, and invest in your future cash flow improvement.

If you’d like some help in the “deft” department, I urge you to refer to any of Jeff Schnepper’s How to Pay Zero Taxes books for planning strategies. For help in the W-4 department, click here: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html

Frittering With Cookbooks

This is an area where we’ve all been led down the garden path of food preparation for our families: cookbooks. Pretty pictured tomes of someone else’s collected imagination for stovetop and oven use, bound in glossy paperback or wipe-clean hardback, chock full of recipes you’ll never, ever use. Boy, those pictures sure look nice, don’t they?

Of all the cookbooks in your possession, how many recipes in them do you use on a regular basis—so regular that you have them memorized? How many of the books do you actually dig into, and when was the last time you did so? On a per-book basis, how many recipes do you use, and how many go to waste?

Like the ever-famous recipes from Amy Dacyczyn’s Tightwad Gazette books, I prefer “fill in the blank” recipes, because they allow me to use whatever I have on hand, and whatever special dietary needs my family may have, instead of bending to the imagination (and ingredient preference) of a cookbook author.

When you think about it, how many recipes do you need for things like pancakes, cakes in general, casseroles, vegetable dishes, etc.? Like I said before, these books are just collections of someone else’s imagination with food—can’t you use imagination too? It doesn’t take much—just look at succotash, the combination of corn and lima beans. That didn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to invent, and neither does any other dish.

Once you know the basic components of a dish (what makes it up), then you can add, subtract, or substitute from there, creating your very own version of a dish. Believe it or not, this is fun for me. I like making “off the beaten path” recipes out of my own head, and I’ve only run into two objections for my inventions in the last 20 years.

I find the variety of the ingredients makes the dish different each time I make it, and this accounts for the lack of meal boredom and monotony, as opposed to a static, fixed recipe “that MUST be followed to the letter.” This dish is MY version, not Martha’s.

People make tons of money off their “collections” of dishes and assembly, not to mention the doctored photos of what it should look like when finished (and never does). Ever hear of food photographers? These are people who add dye, water spray, and plastic food parts to the real thing (not to mention creative editing) to make it look more appetizing, make you hungry just looking at the picture, and make you want to buy the book in hopes you can re-create it all at home (and can’t). If cookbooks ever showed how the recipes REALLY look when completed, nobody would ever buy a cookbook again, let alone cook! I don’t know about you, but I make food to EAT, not look at.

I challenge you to go through your current cookbook collection, count up all the recipes you actually use from each of them, and then reflect on how much (or little) of each book this comprises and how much you paid for those few recipes. You don’t need ingredient lists—you need basic components that you can add to, subtract from, measurements, pan size, oven or stove temperature, and baking time—that’s all. This bare minimum can be found in Amish and Mennonite cookbooks, but even then, you’re subscribing to someone else’s collection again. One benefit to those cookbooks: no pictures, or very few. They didn’t cook for show either.

Question: how many of your oven recipes use a temperature other than 350 degrees?

Answer: not many.

What I do: keep one basic recipe for each possible category of food your family eats regularly, and experiment. Let your refrigerator, pantry, cupboards, and freezer be your guide for imagination. Use what you’ve got, and don’t let someone else tell you (through a book) how to cook. Put your own special spin on dishes—you and your family will enjoy it!

This is called “whatyagot” cooking…you use what ya got! You ought to try my pancakes sometime—you’d swear they were gourmet, but I just add the equivalent to trail mix ingredients (whatever I have around) to the basic batter. Every meal is an equal celebration in kitchen experimentation around here. Seldom do I try to re-create a specific recipe from a book.

Some examples of “whatyagot” cooking: a casserole is meat, starch, vegetable, some sort of sauce or gravy, maybe some cheese, and maybe mushrooms or olives, right? So what ya got to mix together and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees? A cake is flour, sugar, an egg, some sort of margarine or butter, some milk or water, and some baking powder or soda…what ELSE ya got to put in it before you mix it and bake at 350 for 20 minutes? Even lasagna—some meat, some noodles, some sauce, cheese, but how can you make it your own before you bake it at 350 for 15 minutes? Cornbread—some flour, some cornmeal, some butter, some water or milk, and some sugar…how can you jazz THIS up before you once again thrust it into a 350 oven? My absolute favorite is salad—I use what I’ve got (including trail mix ingredients), with no restrictions and no cooking whatsoever!

This is unconventional cooking at its best. Be brave…be bold and daring. You never know what works or flops until you try. Cookbooks…sheesh! Who needs the little creativity-stiflers?

One last hint from the Wench: pancakes are just cakes with the liquid doubled. As long as your cake batter has an egg and baking soda or powder in it, it will make a dandy pancake by doubling the liquid and pouring into a hot skillet by ladlefuls.

The Frugal Personal Library

Now when I say this, I don’t mean anything about obtaining the books frugally, or making the bookshelves frugally—that I leave up to you.

What I’m getting at is the sort of titles you’d like to keep handy for reference. Here’s what currently adorns my groaning bookshelf (and the floor around it):

• The Complete Tightwad Gazette (of course)

• The Wealth Without Risk series by Charles Givens (dated, but has good financial moves nonetheless)

• Die Broke: the Complete Book of Money (a controversial look at finances)

• The Millionaire series (The Millionaire Mind, The Millionaire Next Door, The Millionaire Woman Next Door)

• Prolonging Health

• Live Rich

• Live Well on Less Than You Think

• 101 Cost-Effective Ways to Renovate Your Home

• Turn It Off! Flipping the Switch on Technology

• How to Pay Zero Taxes (pick a year)

• Back from the Land (about hippies who returned to city life after living in the woods without amenities for years—oh the lessons they learned!)

• Make It Last

• A dozen assorted gardening books with titles like Let It Rot, Dirt Cheap Gardening, Heat Zone Gardening, etc.

• A couple of dozen assorted books relating to investing and IRA management, such as Active Index Investing, Real Estate and Your IRA, Cracking Your Nest Egg Without Scrambling Your Finances, and others.

• A zillion more books relating to real estate investment, home improvement, and alternative homebuilding to utilize free resources, such as Create An Oasis With Greywater, Rainwater Catchment for Domestic Supply, The Real Estate Cycle, The Renovating Woman, and How to Renovate Your Home for Profit, etc.

• A half-zillion more relating to forward thinking in fields such as employment, world military happenings (this relates to investment in my mind), sales and marketing, preventative health care, nutrition, natural resources, politics, taxes, etc.

• Dozens more dealing with professional nonfiction writing. Some day I intend to write for money, but wish to know more about that world before I stick my toe in (and get it bitten off)

• Books about the Amish, Mennonites, and other people who live lifestyles that are useful, yet alternative to our own

Then, of course, there’s the multitudes I once had and gave away to local libraries and people in clear financial need. I can’t even recall their titles any more.

Books are why I can write about so many diverse topics that have to do (however loosely) with frugality and preventative strategies—I’ve gotten out of the kitchen and greatly reduced my frugal fidgeting. There’s a big wide world out there, and I went exploring. It makes me think, and I want to make you think because of it.

Since embarking on my literary journeys, I have come to figure out that the way to get ahead is to actually BE ahead…in thinking, and in practice. This is what a lot of my blogs are about: getting YOU ahead with me. Since putting conventional frugal busywork behind me, I have more time to “play,” as it were. The wealthy do this too (in their huge yachts, for sure) because they’ve gotten the rest of their lives down to a science and freed up a lot of playtime. It isn’t about the dollars coming in—it’s about what you choose to do with them once they arrive, and how to keep them arriving with minimal effort and maximum security (from preventable hazards). In reading about the Amish, I was surprised at how busy they AREN’T back at the farm, even without all the so-called labor-saving devices we have here in the outside world.

Thank God I have my library. Thank God I have a universe in which to seek out new and interesting material. Thank God I have time to read and think without the distraction of kids and work. Thank God I summoned the courage to blog and clear my head (attracting readers in my wake—I thank you!). I used to say I‘d go nuts without books—now, it’s going nuts without books and the internet. With the internet, I can continue seeking out other, more up-to-date knowledge, as well as disseminate it to my readers through the Wench’s Warehouse filter of unconventionality.

The popular media says we’re going to run out of energy soon, and the lights will go out—this is where my books will come in most handy. As the unprepared general populace runs around shrieking, “What do we do? WHAT DO WE DO?” I will calmly re-read my tomes (which hold the answers) by sunlight and set examples. Someone is going to have to lead them, and it may as well be us: the informed ones.

A personal library is the best thing we could ever own, second only to a pet.

Frugal Living—The Cliff’s Notes

Found this in the attic while searching for something else...this was originally written for frugal newbies over at TMF, but since there are frugal newbies being born every day, I figured I'd air it out while I had it.
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If you are single or a single parent, it will be very hard to do--I just wanted to get that out of the way. As the sole source of income for you/your family, there is really not much to do as far as a lifestyle shift that doesn't create more work for you in the end. In a nutshell, cut back and do more by hand.

Married folks have a distinct advantage--two income possibilities. Another advantage is division of labor. They, too, can cut back and do more by hand--especially when there's more hands to do it.

The basic idea is to re-think spending priorities and streamline work, cutting out unnecessary stuff and redundancies. Do we want to be financially sound, or do we want to be socially acceptable? How powerful is the urge to be liked or approved of? The power of approval is what drives a lot of our optional spending, hence the occurrence of "keeping up with the Joneses." Do we really need that Broyhill furniture when all we really need is something padded and elevated to sit on? Do we really need Libby's on the label? After all, green beans are just that--green beans. And are the Scrubbing Bubbles the absolute least that will clean your tub? And tell us you really enjoy spending way too much on produce at the supermarket every week...do you know how much time, effort, and money it takes to grow those tomatoes? I tell you, not much compared to those prices!

If you're ready and willing (or at least thinking about it) to make the shift, I suggest you start by reading first--yes, I said READING. Go to your library or used book store and look for books that involve "voluntary simplicity" or "simple living" or "downshifting". These books will encompass just about every aspect of your life, and how it can be compressed, decluttered, reorganized, and streamlined. The books alone will tell you if you're serious about making such a shift, and this shift is lifelong, not just a trend. It involves some major thought about whether or not you can live and think this way for the rest of your life. If you aren't ready for the shift yet, don't worry--you'll only be out some time and a few bucks for the books.

Because you're young, you haven't experienced a whole lot yet--by making this shift now while you still are young and impressionable, you can bypass a lot of grief that we elders have had to endure...because WE didn't know any better. Sometimes the School of Hard Knocks is an excellent teacher, but the degree program is a helluva lot longer than 4 years!

Inflation, Hurricanes, and State Sales

An excerpt from Jim Jubak’s article titled How the Fed Lost the Inflation Fight:

“The Federal Reserve has powerful weapons for fighting inflation.

• Tool 1: The Federal Reserve can raise interest rates, making credit more expensive, slowing the economy and keeping price increases to a minimum. Businesses don't raise prices, by and large, when the economy is slowing.

• Tool 2: The Fed can gradually shrink the money supply, making credit more expensive and harder to get, slowing the economy, and keeping price increases to a minimum.

Both of these measures work to put a damper on the prices of assets like stocks and houses. Taking money out of the pockets of investors and homeowners (or at least not putting more money in their pockets to spend) works to decrease demand, slow the economy, and keep price increases to a minimum.”

original article: http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P129897.asp
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Now I have to argue with the stuff in bold up there—price increases in raw numbers have been kept to a minimum, but the shrinkage of the product hasn’t. A gallon of bleach, for example, is now ¾ gallon. Coffee, formerly sold in even pounds, is now somewhat less in measure. And all those “ultra” products we have to deal with in the laundry aisle? Sure, the water’s reduced, but so is the container size. Tuna has gone from 6 ounces to 5.5 ounces per can, while still enjoying a raw price increase.

Business will do what it must to preserve profit margins--plain and simple.

This amounts to a hidden price increase, folks. Granted, we can’t blame Greenspan directly for this (though I’d like to), but it’s a price increase nonetheless. Factor in new transportation costs to get the stuff to market, and guess what’s going to happen in the very near future?

I think Greenspan needs to brush the dust off and sharpen his tools…the economy’s going to get away from him before he realizes it. Prices are increasing everywhere we look, and not just on the shelf labels, either. Product sizes are shrinking, coupons are getting scarcer, sales aren’t what they used to be, and now we have disruptions from hurricane activity to throw into the mix.

How we as a country are ever going to survive the wrath of Katrina and Rita, I don’t know. I’m wondering how I’m going to survive my next trip to the grocery store and gas station! Nobody seems to know how anyone’s going to pay for anything.

On that particular note, I received a humorous e-mail from my brother-in-law: Bush supposedly sold Louisiana BACK to the French for $250 million—we could only hope! I replied to him that we need to find buyers for CA, NY, and the spare Carolina, Dakota, and Virginia we have…maybe THEN we could get back on track with our economy. :)

Desperation and the American Dream

Home ownership—the American Dream. Everyone is under the giant spell that owning a home is a ticket to freedom from rent, decoration restrictions, and the way to gain maximum control over your living and financial arrangements. People are in such a scramble to buy, buy, buy that they go to extraordinarily bizarre lengths to secure a mortgage.

Back about 20 years ago, there was a mortgage product called “creative financing” for those who wanted more house for less monthly outlay. Now, this “creative financing” has grown and twisted into an ugly root system that defies death, because of the sheer numbers of desperate people wanting IN the housing market at nearly any cost. The American Dream of shelter security has morphed into the American Dream of the big payday at sale time. Our shelter has become our retirement account, and our equity has become our savings account. Picture a house as a slot machine—pull the handle, and money comes out through a slot in the siding.

Examples of the desperation:
• Interest-only mortgages
• ARMS of all types
• Balloon mortgages
• Option payment
• Piggyback loans
• Low doc/no doc
• 40-year mortgages

All these examples serve to do nothing for us except allow us to buy a house we really can’t afford, and nobody likes to be told NO. When interest rates rise again, or you lose your job, the area suffers a natural catastrophe, or whole occupational fields move out of the area, suddenly that affordability and assurance of rising property values you were counting on goes right out the window—along with your credit—and you have nobody to sell to.

I’m here to tell you the American Dream is a myth—a nightmare—unless you make a good deal of monthly income and don’t ever move. Mortgage, insurance, and property taxes are just the tip of the home ownership iceberg. With the recent run-up in home prices and property values, renting actually gets you more shelter for less monthly outlay than does purchasing these days. Along with renting comes the freedom of not having yard work, maintenance, and responsibility demands.

Today’s job market requires you to be as flexible as you can be with hours, location, and sometimes job duties. You can’t do all that while tethered to a house without making maneuvers that can be more headache than benefit.

Home ownership indentures you to a second job of lawn and garden care, interior and exterior maintenance, appliance upkeep, security of contents, and of course the siren call of those “fix-up” shows on TV that steer you into projects you neither need nor want. Home Depot and Lowe’s also get into the act reinforcing the siren call to DO IT YOURSELF, even though you don’t really know what “it” is! Then, the inevitable happens—you get well into your “it” project, only to have to call an expert in to finish the job correctly.

All this maintenance, yard work, and those “it” projects suck lots of money out of your wallet, and you don’t even feel it leaving—those orange aprons have a way of buffering the pain with the glee of shopping. The same effect goes on in mortgage lending offices across the nation, as lenders buffer your borrowing pain with these outlandish mortgage creations…anything to make a buck.

The garage or shed is the biggest black hole in the whole home ownership saga, second to the costs of getting the house in the first place. All those extra jobs around the house are just that—jobs—and you already work full-time just to pay the mortgage and eat. On your only days off, these other jobs beckon you to attend to them, and they beckon you to go to that orange apron place and buy-buy-buy tools, equipment, parts, paints, assorted fluids, organizational aids, and storage accessories (with financing, of course) to deal with them. These other jobs don’t PAY you—they just demand your time and money. Paying others to do them only compounds the problem!

Home ownership used to be called the American Dream because having shelter nobody else could evict you from was a dream in this country, and ownership in general was a dream for people migrating from other countries (where ownership wasn’t even a possibility). Recognition of property rights still doesn’t exist in some countries, and some people are eager to come here just for the chance to own something of their very own. What nobody tells them is to watch out for the black holes…hell, nobody tells US to watch out for them, or even how to identify them: unscrupulous lending practices, constantly-escalating taxes and interest, and constantly-deteriorating deduction and write-off benefits due to tax code adjustments.

Next time you think you might want to own a piece of this so-called “dream,” think again. The upkeep is another job that doesn’t pay you until the day of sale, and even that isn’t a foregone conclusion with the real estate market rollercoaster. Ask yourself what you’re taking on, as opposed to what you’d like to divest yourself of, and what it is you REALLY want in for—is it for the chance to make a quick profit, or just to be able to paint walls any color you like without restrictions? If all you want to do is mow a lawn and plant flowers, go to work for a landscaping service and get paid for the privilege. If you want to make money, there are other cleaner simpler ways to save and invest your money without all the extra demands on it and you.

The REAL American Dream is to make enough money early in life to own a house outright, so you can effortlessly hire someone else to be the “honey-doer,” while you concentrate on what you do best--making more money. For now, most of us will settle for the illusion of getting our bills paid on time and in full. Rent is as close as some of us are ever going to get (or want to get) to the Dream.

The Flood Insurance Primer (L-O-N-G)

Flood insurance eligibility:

• To be eligible for building/contents coverage or contents-only coverage under the PRP (preferred risk pool), the building must be in a B, C, or X zone on the effective date of the policy. The flood map available at the time of the renewal offer determines a building's continued eligibility for the PRP. NFIP map grandfathering rules do not apply to the PRP

Occupancy:

• Combined building/contents amounts of insurance are available for owners of single-family, two- to four-family, and non-residential properties. Combined building and contents coverage is not available for other-residential (apartment complexes and boarding houses)

• Contents-only coverage is available for tenants and owners of all eligible occupancies, except when contents are located entirely in a basement

What flood insurance covers (30 days after policy purchase):

• Structure damage due to water and/or mudflow—up to $250,000 for residential property, and up to $500,000 for commercial property

• Contents coverage up to $100,000 when a rider is purchased separately or in combination—either by the property owner or renter

What flood insurance does not cover:

• Wind damage as proven by an absence of water marks

• Other structures on the property unless they are included in the original policy

• Any damage done in excess of the $250,000 maximum payout—this is covered by supplemental insurance through private companies

• Contents—you must buy a separate contents policy or combination structure/contents policy

• Combined structure/contents coverage for apartment complex properties

Who flood insurance will no longer cover (prior claim history):

• 2 flood insurance claim payments, each more than $1,000; or

• 3 or more flood insurance claim payments, regardless of amount; or

• 2 Federal flood disaster relief payments (including loans and grants), each more than $1,000; or

• 3 Federal flood disaster relief payments (including loans and grants), regardless of amount; or

• 1 flood insurance claim payment and 1 Federal flood disaster relief payment (including loans and grants), each more than $1,000

Exclusions to the “preferred” risk pool:

• The PRP is not available in Special Flood Hazard Areas or in Emergency Program communities

• Other residential properties are not eligible for building coverage

• Contents located entirely in a basement are not eligible for contents-only coverage--however, contents located entirely in an enclosure (such as a shed) are eligible

• Condominium associations, unit owners, and their tenants are not eligible for the PRP, except for:

- A townhouse/row house building insured under the unit owner's name;

- A detached, single-family dwelling insured under the unit owner's name

- Contents-only coverage for tenants occupying townhouse/row house buildings or detached, single-family dwellings

The value of flood insurance:

• It’s cheap relative to the value, meaning that for a few hundred dollars to $1000 per year, you can get up to $250,000 worth of structure replacement (depending on property location and risk zone)

• You can also get up to $100,000 worth of contents replacement with a separate contents rider (for renters) or in combination with the structure insurance

Now knowing the full value of flood insurance, you can see why people are all too happy to build and live in places where they shouldn’t—the insurance is cheap (about $1000/year for the maximum coverage amount), and the remaining policy costs are subsidized by the taxpayer. With a certain number of flooding incidents under your belt, FEMA can raise your risk rating from the “preferred” pool (low rates) to a higher-risk category, available only from private insurers. At about $3000 yearly for slightly less than $200,000 of coverage, this is the price you pay for continuing to build or live in an imminent danger zone.

Prior to a 1994 revamp, FEMA would just keep rebuilding and rebuilding as long as you had the annual coverage for it. This was the insurance loophole favored among the wealthy—they would continuously and knowingly build or buy homes in coastal waterfront flood zones because they were cheap to insure and cheap to rebuild—it was like getting a brand-new house every year, courtesy of Joe Taxpayer. After 1994, FEMA tightened some loopholes so that after X number of flood incidents (listed above and on their website), you got bumped to a higher risk class and higher premium price through a private insurer. You were no longer FEMA-eligible.

According to FEMA, everyone is prone to flooding of one sort or another, and I have to agree with this, having been a victim of weak plumbing myself. The only thing that saved me from a summertime exploding bathroom water inlet hose was my flood rider from Allstate. Because of a breach in a $5 plastic plumbing hose, my entire first floor level was submerged under about 1” of water. I lost carpeting, Pergo® flooring (impervious to water it ain’t), and linoleum, not to mention stuff I had in boxes awaiting a mover’s truck in the next two days (another hazard of stocking up). Normally, this insurance doesn’t cover pipes, but because it wasn’t a wintertime freeze incident, it got accepted.

When I first bought the house and went to get insurance, I had to prove I wasn’t situated inside a 100-year flood plain, or even a 10-year one, because that would deny me insurance altogether. Several calls and one Planning & Zoning map later, I had recorded geological proof of the lack of flood risk. Nowadays, the rules are such that you absolutely have to get flood insurance if you have a mortgage. I recommend it, since I know firsthand about flooding striking from within.

My insurance covered the flooring repairs and replacement, the inventory of soggy and damaged stuff in moving boxes, and a new front door threshold (where the water exiting the house rotted the wood). It took a year to receive payment from Allstate, but they DID return my house back to original shape—I just had to pay for it myself to get the work done right away. By the way, I actually made money on the deal—the estimates to replace the flooring and waterlogged belongings were higher than the actual cost to replace them due to some very advantageous sales at Home Depot. By waiting to buy replacement Pergo® on sale, I saved $700. By replacing the bedroom carpeting right away, I caught a big sale on some in-stock carpeting that was of better quality than what I originally had. Some paint for the walls and kitchen floor, and I was back in business—all for about $1800.

Having this work done long distance was also fun…I thank the universe for an extremely understanding and cooperative real estate agent, who supplied the general contractor and supervised the project to its superb results. Because of her attention to finished detail, we were able to snag a buyer for our house three days after it went on the market.

As for my soaked moving box contents—well, they either got replaced with used and/or heavily discounted items, or I just learned to go on without them. The food items I replaced on the other side of my move, and no longer stock up to the degree I used to.

Holiday Dinner Rip-Offs

From the REAL mailbox:

Madison Avenue has done it again…at least in MY neck of the woods.

After receiving my weekly Tuesday Junk Mail batch, courtesy of the U.S. Postal System (which nobody can opt out of), I scanned the latest offerings of a local grocery store. Their idea of promoting Thanksgiving “bargains” goes like this (directly from the ad itself, complete with bullet points):

Sept. 21st-Nov. 15th
• Shop 6 of 8 weeks
• Present your Thanksgiving Dinner Card, MVP card, and spend $45 per visit
• Collect 6 different weekly tickets
• Redeem your 6 tickets for your *$20 Gift Certificate
*See official rules at store office for details. Redeem tickets by 11/22/05

Now sitting here in the comfort of my own home, not having looked at the official store rules, I can tell you that this is a very complicated and very expensive “bargain.”

First of all, the ad doesn’t even state what this “dinner” consists of—just the turkey, or some sort of fixings to go along with it. This store usually wants you to jump through flaming hoops just for the turkey each year.

Next, they want you to cut out these “tickets” which look like manufacturer coupons from their weekly ads for up to 8 weeks, PLUS spend at least $45 per visit—this means store receipt verification, so more paperwork keeping on our part.

Lastly, by obeying their own rules as stated and doing some math, 6 visits at $45 each comes to $240 minimum just for a $20 gift certificate toward a turkey dinner! This is the saddest and sorriest excuse for a holiday “sale” ad I’ve ever seen. I wonder what a $240 turkey dinner tastes like.

The really sad part of this is that lots of neighborhood residents will take this grocery store up on this offer. This store’s ad agency is preying on the ignorance and/or complacency of the clientele. All it does for me is show the degree of desperation the store is in for making any money at all this holiday. I can hardly wait to see what they dream up for Christmas dinner advertising.

I’ll keep you posted.

Updated: Betting On Wal-Mart--The Hubbert’s Peak of Retailing

This archive entry has an update at the bottom.
________________________________________________________

Some sage old investment gurus talk about investing in what’s in the fridge…or house…or driveway, but is that such a safe bet these days? Is betting on what’s in the pantry or closet any better?

If you’ve been keeping an ear tuned to the financial news lately, the answer is a resounding no. Even Wal-Mart, the die-hard shopping mecca among middle-of-the-road frugalities, isn’t a safe bet these days.

I’m not about to tell you what IS a safe bet, or how to invest in general, because I’m not qualified to do so—but what I will tell you about is the sad tale on Wall Street about Sam Walton’s brainchild. Lately, it has missed earnings expectations quarter after quarter (including this past one), missed “execution” (I’ll explain later), and missed some fashion targets (and that’s where the astute shoppers have been going—Target). It also missed some inventory timeliness by not stocking winter coats before the season hit last year.

I heard the company giving negative guidance for the rest of the year, and that customers are complaining about the ho-hum stock selections. I ask the customer: What do you expect for the lowest price? You’re after a bargain, and it doesn’t come with frills! You can’t have a Cadillac for the price of a Mini Cooper.

Looking at all that, I’d say Wal-Mart has hit the Hubbert’s Peak of retailing in the U.S., and we’re witnessing the slow downhill descent into oblivion. What is Hubbert’s Peak, you ask? This term is used to describe the state of oil demand and supply as told by Dr. M. King Hubbert, a geophysicist back in the 50’s. He saw the future decline of oilfields back then, and predicted the long, slow, downhill demise of oil supply relative to demand as we now know it, starting in the 70’s. Fast-forward to today: the oil-producing countries are currently pumping flat-out, with no spare capacity available, and demand still increases in spite of this.

Wal-Mart has similar problems--stores running flat-out with no spare capacity (meaning no place for cost-cutting, as well as the inability to open many more stores without running into serious opposition), and demand still increases for its style of business (in China and elsewhere outside the U.S.). Executives are spending so much energy (both physical and mental) on conquering China that they’re losing focus back home, and this is where “execution” comes in—execution meaning making a plan, and carrying it out to fruition. Retail execution involves making a merchandise selection, a marketing plan, nailing down adequate supplies for the upcoming season, and making sure inventory flows (uninterrupted) from the supplier, through the warehouse, to the stores. Wal-Mart is failing in this department, and customers (as well as investors) are noticing and voting with their wallets at Target stores.

I’m not faulting Wal-Mart for making friends with China, or even the rest of the world, but if you’re going to juggle, you have to know how many balls you can keep in the air safely. I think now the company’s executive branch is finding out they have a few too many balls in the air to handle safely to still call themselves jugglers. They’re not impressing Wall Street, that’s for sure!

Their whole system of enterprise rests on absolute maximum efficiency, from creation to consumption, and there really is no place for them to cut back and still maintain a meaningful image—their employees are already the lowest-paid in the field, the inventory suppliers are already squeezed until they can’t breathe, and Wal-Mart’s systems themselves are engineered beyond tolerances for efficiencies. Layoffs cannot commence, because they need all hands on deck to handle the massive influx of daily shoppers. Suppliers cannot be changed, because they already have the lowest cost price-points coming in. So where are the possibilities for cutbacks? Simple: there aren’t any unless you look uphill (at management), and nobody’s willing to do that. Other than that, there isn’t much to jettison should things continue to go awry company-wide—except whole stores and projects in the building phase.

I stated before that I won’t tell you how to invest, but I will make one recommendation here—avoid Wal-Mart for anything but your own shopping needs. Have a backup plan just in case the company follows the path of oil and collapses in a demand heap.

Most of us who do invest do it for the expectation of performance, not familiarity. Wal-Mart is no longer the performer it once was, though you might miss it at shopping-cart-level.

*Update—it would seem Wal-Mart has hitched it’s wagon to politics and the oil market, and it, like OPEC, is slowly becoming irrelevant. They cannot meet demand, and the people will go elsewhere (if they haven’t already). All power is lost, because they cannot adequately meet demand, and there are so many other retail choices, including the choice to stay home. Hurricane Katrina has put a serious crimp in their business with higher energy costs to us AND them, and eventually their house of cards built on so-called “consumer demand” will collapse…in THIS country. Don’t be surprised when you start hearing “Welcome to Wal-Mart” in Hindi, and start seeing Buddhist statues wearing blue vests. We’ll be hearing the greeting of “Bienvenitos!” soon enough due to CAFTA.

From the Mailbag: The “Sell” Phone Deal

“Dear Wenchypoo,

I ordered cell phone service for my teenage daughter with Cingular thru an SBC representative and was quoted a price of $59.99/month on the package I chose; But there was a promotion and she told me it would cost only $49.99/month. When I received the cell phone contract, the price said $59.99 so I called to ask about the promotion I had been promised.

When I received my first bill, there was no discount. Cingular and SBC reps I've talked to since then said there never was a $49.99 promotion on my package. And my first bill came "conveniently" just 3 days after the 30-day cancellation period was over.

And there's more: I ordered the text messaging package (200 messages/month) when I activated the phone. The Cingular rep told me about a "promotion" and said that text messaging was unlimited for the month of July. Naturally I told my daughter to take advantage of this while it lasted, and she did. The first cell phone bill came with charges for 850 text messages! When I called Cingular, I was told I never signed up for the text messaging package, and there was never a promotion with unlimited text messaging.

My daughter and I had both called Cingular during July because she was having problems with her texting. Both times during the call we were told that we had the smaller text messaging package and they gave us a sales pitch for the more expensive package.

Of course I want to cancel my contract but there's a $300 early cancellation fee. I've filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau against both SBC and Cingular to get this fee waived as I've never encountered such outrageous and blatantly dishonest business practices.”

Dear Sell Phone Victim,

Right off the bat, I have to ask you WHY YOU FELT IT NECESSARY TO BUY A PHONE FOR YOUR DAUGHTER? Can she not yap mindlessly with her friends for free at school, or cheaply with a landline or dial-up internet service with IM?

Another question: did you NOT bother to shop around first before you chose to go with your local carrier for this service? At last look, Verizon offered a much better deal for the same thing. The very LEAST you could’ve done was go to Google and look up “cell phone plans.”

You ask me, you did this to yourself—you wanted convenience for a kid, you didn’t bother to compare plans, and you trusted the word of an underpaid service-sector lackey before you got any fine-print paperwork to read over. It will cost you dearly now for spoiling your sprog. The least you could do is ask her to get a job to help pay for this self-induced nightmare!

Frugalites…What Are YOU Missing?

We chose to be frugal for the sake of finding and saving excess money from our daily lives, but what are we missing out on by doing this?

Some have suggested that by saving now for future expenses, we’re missing out on things such as:

• visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY due to admission price
• taking that once-in-a-lifetime luxury cruise
• driving that black two-seater sports car while we’re still young enough to enjoy it

I can tell you that the people who indulge themselves in these and other activities are missing out on a decent savings account, a retirement account of meaningful proportion, and peace of mind…unless they’re filthy rich to begin with.

As for me, my life isn’t over yet, and I still have time to do plenty of stuff. My problem is that I’ve already done a lot, and a lot else doesn’t grab my fancy—logic has told me that a lot of things don’t make sense and are merely societal pressures. Why should I partake in these activities if they don’t make sense for who I am, regardless of life stage?

Speaking of societal pressures, I’ll use home ownership as an example. “Been there, done that” fits here, and I won’t be going back any time soon—it makes no sense now, knowing more about the Great American Dream myth. Buying a hybrid car is another example—the pressure hasn’t mounted to a fever pitch yet, but it will soon. To that I yell, “Hypocrisy!” as I shake my fist, knowing the truth about hybrids and supposed energy savings. Thank God I haven’t made THAT mistake yet!

The Met will never be graced by MY presence because of the location (NYC), not the admission price. As for the luxury cruise, I’ve read that a cruise ship makes a better nursing home than an actual nursing home, so I may retire to one—Gopher and Isaac can be my personal caretakers. As for the black sports car, I owned a blue ’67 Camaro in my youth, and it was better than anything cranked out by car manufacturers today—I’ve already felt the rush of power from eight unassisted cylinders (no turbo or fuel injection) running on regular gas (smog control exempt), thank you.

Tell me…what are YOU missing (or missing out on) in order to save for a better, more secure future? I’m missing out on a lot of mindless shopping, sleepless nights, panic attacks, and stress-related health problems myself.

Contrary Thoughts on Contributing to 401(k) Plans

It seems everyone from Suze Orman to your mother-in-law preaches advice on contributing the maximum amount to your 401(k) plan at work every year, but is it always the wisest thing to do?

Here’s a contrary idea to put up against the conventional wisdom of maxing out your 401(k): only contribute the minimum amount that will get you the maximum employer match. Retirement funding heresy? Perhaps, but what else is a person to do when there is only one paycheck and several demands on it—none of which is unreasonable or frivolous?

At this point, you’re probably scratching your head. “But Suze Orman always says…” is undoubtedly ringing in your ears. Suze doesn’t have kids to feed, utility bills to pay, or a car payment to make—she’s already set for life, but you aren’t. Why bother parking your excess contribution money in the plan when there are other ways to use it?

I’m speaking of an individual retirement account, either taxable or non-taxable. Going outside your employer-chosen retirement plan offers you greater flexibility of investment choice and contribution amount.

If a greater need for the money exists at home, then by all means, do use that excess money to pay bills off completely. Debt reduction is the fastest way to earn a large return for your money, and piece of mind to boot. Those psychological dividends are hard to beat!

Once those bills are gone, though, you do need to harness the discipline to invest that excess money for your retirement years, whether with your employer or not. You also need to harness the discipline to quit racking up bills again in the first place. Having the money disappear off the top of your check may help keep YOU in check with debt—through your employer’s 401(k) plan or an automatic deposit to a mutual fund or index fund outside your work place.

Remember what happened to the employees at Enron? This is why you don’t want to tie up every penny of your retirement money with your work plan—because one day, work won’t be there any more, meaning you’ve lost everything or can’t access any money you’ve ever contributed. After that horrible public lesson in mindless investing, countless people STILL throw their entire retirement savings AND matching funds into company plans which usually use it to buy company stock and nothing else, doubling their own risk.. Oh, and let’s not forget the lockouts—those times when employees can’t access their money to shift it or remove it, even though corporate officers are dumping their shares like smelly garbage. Executives talk up the stock and encourage employees to buy more, propping up the share price. One quick look at Morningstar will tell the whole performance story, and it would’ve saved many an Enron employee from such debacles.

Another scenario that would cause you to lose access to your own money: what if your company’s fiduciary officer dies without a succession plan for the future administration of the retirement funds? In this instance, the plan itself ties up your money because fees haven’t been paid to the administrator. The only way to access anything then is to quit your job and transfer your assets.

Something else to consider when choosing where to put your retirement funds: how much does it cost? Employer-sponsored plans are for the most part expensive relative to the performance of the plan offerings. Administrative fees can eat up modest contribution dollars quickly, whether in or out of a work plan. No-load mutual funds, index funds, or even I-shares have the lowest administration fees because the assets are passively or minimally managed—meaning minimal turnover per year by administrators. The less you pay in fees, the more the market is left to guide the performance of your chosen assets. The more you pay in fees, the more involved the asset manager is in guiding your assets to perform—either well or poorly, take your pick. The asset manager, in effect, is a third party between you and the market—an unnecessary one, in my opinion—and he/she can’t do any better than the market itself.

The worst part of all this is the monthly statements written in gibberish, that don’t explain a darned thing about where your money is, what it bought, or how it’s doing. Why take a chance on possibly losing ALL your retirement savings from a work plan, when you can spread it around among different places, along with the risk (not just market risk, but employer risk as well)? Access cannot be denied with an independent plan, as it can with a company plan. Performance can be gauged through a third-party site like Morningstar for free, so you always know how your money’s doing. Get your plan’s stock and bond ticker symbols (or those of your mutual fund or index fund’s holdings), enter them into a mock portfolio on Morningstar, and watch your year-to-date (YTD) performance any time—it’s that easy. Then you will know how your money’s doing, when to shift your money, and where to shift it.

For maximum control with minimal risk of loss, at least consider lowering your contributions to the minimum amount needed for maximum employer-match (so you only put half the account balance at risk) while parking the rest of your retirement money away from the company. Why go through your own private Enron-style employee hell if your company ever hits the skids?

The Perils of Stocking Up

As frugalities, we all know the importance of getting a bargain, and getting it with today’s dollars rather than tomorrow’s dollars. We also know the importance of keeping the cupboards full by getting as much of that bargain as the budget will allow.

But there are times when it makes absolutely no sense to drag home truckloads of a certain item no matter how cheap it is, or how often you use it. Issues like perishability and changes in health concerns can turn stockpiles of certain items into a nightmare of wasted money…a white elephant in your pantry, so to speak.

Items like pre-made baking mixes, brown sugar, baking powders, some kinds of powdered spices, liquid colorings and flavorings, and bulk-bought grains can become buggy, hardened, solidified, or moldy from humid climates just by sitting on a cupboard shelf. Produce, which already has a short lifespan, becomes waste matter when it sits in the fridge, especially in one spot, never being turned or moved. Another peril is when you have so much of one item that it never gets rotated before new stock is placed in front of the old—resulting in overstock and a trip to the trashcan for the oldest of that product.

Trashed products = wasted money. Buying more product than you can easily use by the expiration date is running a risk of trashed product. Why spend good money feeding the local dump?

If you don’t have a family size that enables you to use product stock before the expiration date, you don’t plan on home canning or preserving, or you don’t have (or can’t find) the storage space to keep those bargains (such as a NYC studio apartment), then don’t drag home truckloads of that fabulous bargain! In these cases, it makes absolutely no sense to try to cram a year’s worth of anything into your cupboards or pantry, no matter how cheap the price.

In the case of changing health concerns, let’s say you‘ve just been diagnosed as hypertensive and need to seriously cut back on your salt. You go home, open your pantry, and start reading labels--only to discover that every single thing in your brimming food collection is salt-laden, and now you have a tight sodium restriction! Welcome to the world of the white elephant pantry. Now you get to decide if you risk further damage to your health by using up your stock, or risk damaging your wallet by giving or throwing it away while you find replacement product for your new diet restrictions. I’ve been here, and it was painful to say the least—plenty of “oh god” moments in front of the fridge, too, as I read more labels.

Let me throw another curve ball at you: you’ve just been promoted at work and now have to move across the country to your new position. The cupboard and/or pantry food will pack fairly easily enough, but what about the three months’ worth of stuff in the freezer? I’ve been here too, and painfully survived it with a few neighborhood BBQs before I left.

Another moving tale of horror was when professional movers informed me they weren’t allowed to pack perishables, chemicals, soaps, powders, flammables, light bulbs, batteries, or opened packages—basically anything that might make a fire or mess if it spilled or broke open in their truck during the move. I can’t tell you how many pounds of sugar, flour, baking soda, laundry detergent, oven cleaner, bleach, dishwasher detergent, rubbing alcohol, window cleaner, and hair care products I had to throw away because they were in canisters or otherwise opened! As long as the original containers were unopened, they could pack it, provided I put everything possible into zippy bags to prevent possible bursting and mess along the route—so I spent a fortune on gallon-sized bags I wound up throwing away (during pre-frugal days) when I got to my new location.

I have since learned how to deal with some of these items with such stringent moving restrictions on them. Needless to say, now I’m very careful with my food product dollar these days.

Knowing When to Hold ‘Em

From the ’00 archives of The Motley Fool—Living Below Your Means
Author: “memupp” post #67688

“…I've become too frustrated with friends, relatives, acquaintances who are all dying to know the key to financial security. We begin to talk and sooner or later I see the glazed expression that accompanies the painful facts of frugality, systematic investing, and self-discipline.

For example, I don't know how many people I have given advice to and how many financial magazines I have given away - NOBODY CHANGES. They don't even bother to read. But hey, that's cool - it's their decision and their life, but I will no longer waste my time dispensing unwanted (apparently) advice.

It reminds me of when people ask how I stay slim. I mention the E-word (exercise) and the D-word (diet) and the conversation comes to a screeching halt. Nobody wants to put forth any effort to achieve the goals everyone seems to want - to be rich and skinny. (Not that I am either).

So, next time the conversation turns to money and someone starts moaning because they work so hard and have so little to show for it except a 3,000 sq. ft. home, designer clothes and 2 car payments..........I'll change the subject!

Is it just me? Anyone else out there frustrated?”


Several years later, I answer you, ‘Mupp. I, too, have long since become unhappy with beggars of help and advice, only to be shut down before I finish my sentence. I recommend books and other reading material, but nobody has the time to read any more. I recommend things to do and people to see, but nobody wants to have to do anything for themselves—they all want a push-button 800-number solution to their woes.

One of my biggest complaints about the board you used to inhabit, as well as other frugal living chat rooms and discussion areas, is that people want a “now” answer rather than bothering to do any research into what it is they seek. Questions like “Where’s the cheapest _____?” or “How do I _______?” or “What’s the best ______?”got asked all the time, instead of consulting conversation indexes, topic clusters, or Googling devoted websites. We were all supposed to be geniuses at solving every dilemma all the time—no matter how trivial.

Those who read my blog either already know me by reputation, or found me on Google. This means they made an effort to find me or just something more, and I applaud them.

Time and time again, I found myself asking “Is this all there is?” to the pathetic juvenile-level content of these places. I needed more intelligent, loftier stuff…certainly stuff that pertained to life OUTSIDE the kitchen and grocery store!

Now, my favorite response to these beggars has changed from “I don’t know—look it up and tell me” to a silent shrug and loud exhale while I continue walking. I have no patience for people who refuse to try to help themselves, or are too ignorant to know when they need help.

This is why I no longer hang out at frugal living chat rooms and discussion boards (even to lurk)—there are no thinkers there, only demanding consumers of old, low-level, rehashed information. Try as I might to turn the topic of conversation to a more intelligent note, I would consistently get shot down, loudly protested, then ejected from the site for harassment. Asking people (even moderators) to think is just too much—it makes their heads hurt.

Believe it or not, I have been deemed too controversial to submit messages on many sites, so I opened my blog. As far as I can see, the only controversy is that too many eyes and minds refuse to open up to the possibility that commonly-accepted conventional wisdom (mostly from their own extremely limited information circles) may be entirely wrong. Discoveries are being made every day, and the frontier of information is limitless—why should wisdom be stuck in the conventional realm of was and what’s accepted by the masses? Why should new ideas become old ideas while waiting their turn at the “generally accepted” trough? More importantly, why should I be forced (by threat of banning) to repeatedly slog through the mud of old, tired topics with board denizens when there’s so much more to talk about?

When it takes too much of your energy to fight off the clueless masses, just keep your cards to yourself and let them learn that stupidity is often painful, and that ignorance is an expensive commodity—just hold ‘em, and let the idiots go on being idiots. They’re always going to out-number us anyway. Information is an asset of untold value, and we don’t want to waste ours on just anyone.

Sometimes, the solution is just to let people wallow in their own misery until they themselves grow tired of it, and find their own way out. When I hear the familiar phrase, “If only I had known/done this years ago…”, then I know I’m with a person who wants to learn to fish, and I share my cards. I am proud to say that I am NOT my brother’s keeper--I have ceased being a glutton for punishment.

I hope you too have found greener pastures, ‘Mupp.

Frugal Emergency Preparedness (L-O-N-G)

Don’t think you can afford to be prepared in an emergency? Here are some items useful for sheltering in place or for bugging out on an extended stay—or just going camping!

Some of these items are already around the house, others you might have to get—it doesn’t matter how. Purchasing, borrowing, finding, trading, or dumpster-diving, take your pick, because nobody will know the difference. Here are some ideas:

For general use:
batteries, AA, C and D
folding chairs/collapsible table
rope/string
paper towels
hammer
utility knife/duct tape/scissors
staple gun
shower curtain liners/small tarps
first aid kit
buckets w/lids
canopy/tent stakes
old Boy Scout manual or field manual
battery-powered radio or other news-gathering device

For cooking/kitchen use:
camp stove
Coleman fuel/propane bottles
can opener/kitchen knife/serving spoon
pots/pans/broiler pan top/grill type rack
dishes/cutlery for eating
cups for drinking
scrubber sponge
soaps for hands/dishes
dish drainer
BBQ tools/potholders
cutting board/large bowl
zippy bags (all sizes)
tea bags/sugar
spices
cooking oil/spray
dish towels/paper towels
garbage bags
gallon jugs of water
aluminum foil (HD)

For personal/laundry use:
ditty bag w/hygiene items
TP
clothes pins
towels for bathing
first aid kit
table cloth
clothing
spare shoes/socks
sleeping gear
extra sheets/pillows/blankets
bug spray
tent

For lighting use:
flashlights/candles
lanterns/spare mantles
mirrors (for reflecting light)
hurricane lamps/lamp oil

For fire:
concrete stepping stones/old car tire rim (for ground fires)
fire poker
wire cutters for small branches
axe/shovel/hand saw
charcoal/kindling/starter fluid
matches/lighters/grill lighter

For pets:
crate carriers
adequate wet/dry food and supplements
dishes for food/water
blankets/sheets for sleep/privacy while in crates
comb/brush for comfort
copy of papers for an emergency vet visit
litter/boxes/shovel

Some of my own makeshift items:
1. Two laundry baskets inverted on top of each other, laced together, make an animal crate.

2. A foil turkey roaster pan, a little charcoal, and an oven rack over top make a dandy sidewalk BBQer.

3. Two colored shower curtain liners, pinned together at the top and draped over a low curtain rod, then staked down at the bottom make for a “quickie” tent. One shower curtain liner pinned to a normal clothesline and staked at the bottom make an excellent shelter or shade canopy.

4. Mirrors placed behind lit candles or other light sources double the available light. Use whatever mirrors you have, or place the light source close to immoveable mirrors, such as large wall-mounted, standing, or closet-door-mounted ones. Home Depot carries boxes of mirror tiles (12” X 12” size) for about $10, and these can become a permanent part of your stash in case of evacuation.

5. During an extended power outage, I boiled water for dishes in a large stew pot, turning my refrigerator’s vegetable crisper drawers into “sinks” for washing and rinsing dishes.

6. After three days without electricity, my chest freezer became my refrigerator—keeping things cold instead of frozen.

Some tips:

• Food in the garden that survived your particular emergency is still fresh food as long as it stays on the plant until absolutely needed for meals. This is food you never have to refrigerate unless there are leftovers.

• Get a fire going in the morning, and keep it going all day. Hot water or hot food needs are going to come up throughout the day, and fires take time to start and get hot. Use ground litter to feed it if necessary—leaves, twigs, branches, chunks of bark, mulch, whatever. Sending the kids out after kindling, and having them help break it up into small pieces, will help keep them busy and entertained.

• If you can or preserve food at home, this is an ideal situation for you to use some of your stocks. They need no refrigeration unless you have leftovers.

• If you own a Food Saver, these sealed bags are wonderful substitutes for zippy bags, and some are even boilable—great for pre-made meals.

• Food can also be heated by putting it into a canning jar with tight lid, then immersing the whole thing in boiling water for a few minutes.

• I’ve read Amish stories about refrigerating leftover foods in canning jars immersed and stored in buckets of cold water, but I haven’t tried this myself to see if it works. I suppose items saved in plastic food storage containers or Food Saver bags would work just as well.

• In the list, I recommend an old Boy Scout manual. I say “old” because the ones published in the 80’s and beyond rely heavily on pre-manufactured gear and foods, and these items are expensive if bought new. An older boy Scout book, Field manual, or even an Army Field Survival Guide will be sufficient for information pertaining to fire-building, shelter-building, foraging, poisonous plant and animal identification, signs and signals, rope tying, direction finding, open fire cooking, etc.

• Dehydrated items like pasta, rice, beans, oatmeal, teabags, and drink mix powder can be had cheaply from any dollar store, poured into zippy bags, and included in your emergency stash. Spices and sugars can also be kept in zippy bags in the stash.

• Water can be stored in clean milk jugs, and gotten from the tap when times and water are good. Parmalat® and canned milk also work well in emergency stashes—they need no refrigeration until opened.

• Basically, if you can camp, you can pretty much survive an emergency where you lose power and possibly the use of your home for a short time.

Frugalites can build a collection of supplies one item at a time, starting now. Whether things are bought, salvaged, traded for, or dumpster-dived, it makes no difference. Just having the items at hand are what's necessary, and nobody's going to inspect the supplies for quality and newness.

Making a list of needed supplies, and acquiring them throughout the year will soon amass into quite a stockpile of emergency supplies that were previously thought of as unaffordable. By next hurricane season, they will come in quite handy.

If solo collection is not fruitful enough, band together with relatives, neighbors, and/or friends and divide the load--make a list and decide who is responsible for providing what to the supply pile. Then, decide where the supply stash is to be kept (hopefully at a pre-determined place of shelter, perhaps at one of the band's homes).

Now that the supply stash idea is complete, let’s look at the setting aside of money. Small amounts, stashed throughout the year, add up to some "bug out" money for gas, hotels, food, etc. Even the paltry figure of $5/month adds up to $60 in a year--not quite hotel money, granted, but serious gas money for evacuating, at the very least.

Here's a way to amass canned food: when items go on sale at say 3/$5 or some other multiple, put the third one (or whatever number extra) into the supply stash.

Kitchen utensils, pots & pans, oven mitts, and barbeque hibachis can do double duty in the disaster kit. Same for folding tables, folding chairs (director chairs work especially well), and dish drainers (yes, you will be doing dishes by hand during the emergency period). I find those small round tables with the screw-on legs to be most space-efficient.

Need I go on? Use what you have, and can get easily throughout the year, and assemble it well before disaster strikes. You can do quite well for yourself using a little information and a lot of imagination. How do I know all this? I just described most of the contents of my own "bug out" chest to you.

From the Mailbag: The Dish on Satellite TV Offers

“Dear Wenchypoo,

Several types of ads all list the latest deal for Dish Network having a recordable box (DVR) in their special. I had the Dish installed and had noted some shows to record. When I finally had the chance to sit and watch a program or two, I realized that they had not recorded anywhere. As I was looking through the instruction manual, Dish Customer Service happened to call to check on my service. Of course, I told the first agent that I couldn't find where the items had recorded.

After consulting someone in the background several times, she told me that was because I didn't have the DVR model, and it was going to cost me $50 more to have them come and exchange these boxes. After asking to speak to a supervisor, I ended up with 'Sal' who told me that I should have known which piece of equipment I had received and that he would not transfer me to anyone else. I could either pay the $50 or not. He didn't care. When asking for a phone number and/or address for further resolution, I was given a PO Box and the same 800 number listed for Dish Network.

You can bet as soon as that 1-year contract is through, I will never use Dish again.”

Dear Dished,

Did you ask the installer for a demonstration on how to work all your equipment? Asking how to work the missing DVR would’ve alerted you to the fact that you didn’t have a DVR in the first place. A lot of those satellite TV ads are way too good to be true, and now you know why.

Question: I don’t have the pleasure of owning a dish network, so I’m asking--would a standard VCR suffice until you suffer your way through your dish bondage?

I remember the good old days when EchoStar would come and wire up your entire house and as many TVs as you had to its 500-channel dish for an obscenely low price per month, but then it got bought out by Dish Network. Now Dish has to rip off its customers with a bait-and-switch DVR box scheme just to stay in business…how shameful. How desperate.

Didn’t the 125-channel cable offerings serve your TV needs? Weren’t they more dependable and less aggravating than these supposed discount dishers? You get what you pay for, and you were led by price, weren’t you?

Natural Disasters and Home Replacement Costs

After a disaster or other occurrence has struck, damaging your home, you’d expect insurance to kick in and replace what you’ve lost—just as it was before or better. The sad truth, however, may be something totally different unless you insured correctly.

When you take out a homeowner’s policy, you can either insure for market value (what the home is worth on the open market--spmetiomes way over or under true replacement cost) or replacement cost (what it would cost to rebuild the home from scratch--sometimes more valuable than market value). Forgoing the contents of your home and focusing on structure only, there’s what’s commonly known as “fire insurance” or a “rental policy”, which only protects the roof, floor, and walls (both interior and exterior)—usually from fire, electrical, plumbing, or demolition (like a drunk driver making a wrong turn into your living room, for example).

The folks who lost their homes during Hurricane Katrina will face a double whammy—trouble getting rebuilding supplies due to high costs and low availability, AND a shortage of labor to actually do the rebuilding!

Items like Tyvec brand house wrap, asphalt roof shingles, certain kinds of insulation, vinyl siding and windows, and some flooring products are made from oil and oil derivatives. Since the hurricane interrupted our oil supply lines and put temporary limits on who can use how much, costs for these items already in stock are going to skyrocket, since restocking will be difficult at best. Manufacturing more will remain a challenge as long as supplies of raw materials are limited.

Items like concrete, which were already at peak demand with little supply, are going to be the biggest supply and cost hurdles to overcome. Plywood and drywall factories, thankfully, underwent major modernization overhauls a few years ago, freeing up their own supply/demand bottlenecks. Katrina rebuilding may create another demand problem on the various building supply industries, however, and homeowners everywhere should be prepared for cost increases throughout the country. This situation will only get worse as the oil demand/supply problems grow in the future.

Then there’s the transportation of these necessary items to the affected region—even throughout the country—as the port of New Orleans is destroyed, and entrance into the Mississippi River is limited at best, creating additional transport costs as shipments are diverted to other ports, then trucked or railed back on course to the original shipping routes. Cargo ships, trucks, and trains all take time and fuel that’s in short supply just now. Delivery of materials to the job site is also part of the fuel demand cost.

Construction site generators for operating large machinery (concrete tumblers and asphalt heaters), as well as backhoes and bulldozers, also take fuel that’s in short supply.

Insurance at replacement cost may pick up the tab for these price differentials, but be prepared for whopping policy premium increases to offset these cost jumps. In some instances, the replacement cost you paid for will not actually pay to replace everything you once had, resulting in less house for the payout. That check you receive (perhaps as much as a year after the fact) may not cover all your true replacement expenses as they stand here today, and some sacrifices will likely have to be made: do you sacrifice square footage, materials used, kick in your own money to cover the difference, or forego rebuilding altogether--pay off the mortgage, clear and sell the lot, and live elsewhere?

Looking past the materials, let’s now think about the labor involved in restoring a domicile to functionality—with the major building bonanza apparent in Katrina’s wake, how many construction workers of any ilk are going to be available throughout the country for YOUR projects? Answer: not many, not even in the local gulf coast region. It’s a high personal-risk and labor-intensive occupation, and labor costs have climbed while demand is dropping off for the year (no off-shoring or H-B1 workers in this field!). Many construction workers bugged out of the region, and some will elect to stay out, possibly venturing into other lines of work for more reliable income. With winter inevitably approaching, these seasonal workers will likely have moved onto another field of employment until spring. This is the normal cycle of construction work.

Once the domicile again graces your property, be prepared for the sucker-punch of a homeowner’s policy on the new digs: you are now in a new risk class, and your policy costs will reflect it. Remedies such as specific building methods for withstanding certain types of disasters (such as building to the hurricane or wildfire code, for example), or the use of certain materials when building (such as masonry, Hardi-board® siding, stucco, porcelain tile, metal roofs, or concretes in interior work—think “indestructibility”—depending on your most likely disaster potential) can net you a series of discounts on your policy. By using products that are harder to damage, thereby reducing risk of destruction, you’re saving your insurance company money by reducing their likelihood of paying out for replacement or repair. Those savings are then passed right back to you in the form of policy discounts.

You might want to take these things into consideration when doing simple upgrades or remodeling—it might pay you in the end to have an up-front conversation with your insurance representative to see which materials and building methods would best reward you come payment and claim time before you head out to Home Depot. An example: homeowners in California wildfire country who chose to use stucco siding and clay roof tiles often had the only homes standing untouched in their neighborhoods when a fire blazed through the area--those materials are fire-proof. When the upgrades and remodeling are complete, do call your insurance company and amend your policy to reflect your home’s changes—you want your hard work covered when disaster DOES strike!

For my insurance money, I’d forego including the contents of my home simply because I could replace it all used (it's already used), costing much less than insurance to buy it all again new. Anything I specifically valued as being irreplaceable would get a separate rider on it, and I’d also store it somewhere safer than the on the immediate premises.

Prepare to Button Up for Winter NOW!!

In the wake of the Katrina disaster, oil and gas supply disruptions have abounded, leaving gas stations throughout this country with limited supply and higher prices at the pump to slow our demand. Heating oil and natural gas are also going to be problematic for fulfilling this winter’s demand for heating sources.

Around this time of year, refineries usually make a slow switch from refining oil into heating oil instead of gasoline, supplying stocks and reserves to be used by companies to satisfy customer demand, but Katrina put a big kink in our normal oil works: chunks of the supply pipeline have been damaged, as well as a few refineries themselves forecasted to be inoperable for the foreseeable future. With refinery numbers down, this means the supply of heating oil created will also be down, and prices are forecasted to go up as much as 13% this winter.

Natural gas, on the other hand, has an even worse forecast: since we still have a burning lake in the middle of drowned New Orleans, that represents natural gas going right out the pipe and into the air as flame—in other words, it’s now waste matter we’ll never get back. The pipeline infrastructure is in deep disrepair, with no timetable or guesstimates as to the restoration of function. The natural gas supply line to the rest of the country has been interrupted, and will not resume normal capacity for some time even WITH donated stocks from outside countries. Natural gas prices are forecasted to rise as much as 70% this winter.

Nobody is willing to venture a guess about jet fuel stocks and supplies, so no big and hard numbers are being bandied about for the amount of increase in flight travel costs this winter.

This probably goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: food costs are definitely going up, because the port is still torn up and cannot receive major shipments of food, and those shipments that get diverted will face increased costs to get the deliveries back on track to their intended destinations, via truck and rail, and these modes of transport take fuel which is already in constrained supply.

It may sound like a Chicken Little cry, as some of us are still deep into air-conditioning season, but if you use either of these products, I suggest you start laying in your winter supplies NOW before the large increases take effect. Those who wait will suffer their fate.

Now would also be a good time to re-insulate, re-caulk, replace single-pane windows, get storm doors, unroll thick area rugs for chilly floors, locate and wash all the sweaters, sweats, quilts, and heavy blankets (checking for condition as well), and chop firewood in preparation for a bleak and expensive winter. Checking your fireplace damper and securing extra portable electric heaters may not be a bad idea. You may also want to look into having your car winterized early and beat the rush. Ordering wool socks, thermal underwear, and flannel shirts NOW may also be a prudent idea, since it IS still summer, technically.

You might also want to begin thinking about food stocks, the holiday season, and making plans for celebrating under such circumstances.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I hope things will have returned to near-normalcy by this time next year.

From the Mailbag: Radar Caught Off Guard

“Dear Wenchypoo,

I received a phone call last week from Discover asking if they could send me information about "AccountGuard," which is credit card life insurance in the event of certain events. I specifically stated that I did not want to enroll in the program and the "solicitor" specifically stated that I was agreeing to receive information about the program. I reluctantly agreed while making a mental note to watch for enrollment charges.

I just received a "welcome package" from Discover for the "AccountGuard," but when reading the information, I couldn't tell if they had enrolled me or not. I combed this paperwork for five minutes or more and the wording was horribly ambiguous. So I called the number and the representative said that I had one of those 30 free enrollment periods and billing would start after that. For as sharp as I am about spotting the sly sale tactics, this got in under my rada