CRISIS For those of you about to lose your UI...

Ok, here's a plan...instead of having a slug-fest over the plight of the about to be stoney broke unemployed...let us HELP them by giving them some fast-fix pointers that will help them in the hard days to come until they can
A) find a job
B) their benes get extended
C) Jesus comes again and we all don't have to worry about this anymore.

I will start:

Ok, deep breath everyone. You have some WARNING. I did not. My benes cut off without a word of warning in November of last year, just before Thanksgiving. Nice huh?

You have some heads up. This is good.

First thing: go thru every old purse, every pocket, every couch and seat cushion and get every piece of loose change you can grab. Compile and take to a Coin Star Machine or your bank. Get this made into folding money.
(You will be surprised at how much you can get from loose change!)
Set that aside. This will become part of the emergency foods fund.

Now, make some coffee or what ever non-booze drink you like and spread out the bills. What MUST you keep current on for survival?

RENT? (of course)
PHONE
INTERNET
FOOD
MEDS

Ok, let's break it down further.
RENT
Beat the holiday rush and go to the landlord NOW and start talking. Be honest. If you're good people who don't trash up the place, chances are he/she will not want to gamble with a new face. See if you can work a decrease or offer to do chores and such for a set time.

PHONE
Ok, did you do the bundle thing with phone/internet/cable?
How much?
If your bundle is still on the special rates like $29.99 a month, you should be ok. If not...ok, can you break the bundle?
The trick is to get them all seperated so if you need to get rid of one, like the cable, you can do so without hurting the others.
In my case, our land line/internet is one bill, cell phone another and cable a third carrier. Guess which was first to go? Yep, cable.

Next, I dismantled the land line phone to local calls ONLY so that I could keep that low. I knocked down the internet to just above dial-up so that I could continue with my tribute vids on the side.

Cell phone: they would not work with me in downgrading to pay-as-go. It was more expensive to be charged the fine of breaking our contract so we kept it as it was. Besides, we needed to keep the nation-wide plans for making phone calls out of the local range. If your carrier will work with you, see if you can get at least one phone in the house on a "pay as you go" plan.


MEDS
If you have not done so before and if you can, go generic.

I'll stop for now and come back later for FOOD ideas.

Please, everyone; if you have an POSITIVE ideas on how these people can scramble to prepare for this disaster, please put them here.
If you want to just gripe at them for being unemployed, go somewhere else.
Thanks.

Call people you know who are working and ask if there are openings and if they could put a good word in for the unemployed person.

SHOW UP at any place you can, when looking for a job. Physically GO TO the fast food place and complete the app there. It makes a difference. They will dismiss an older worker's online app, but if they show up, neat and ready to work at open of business, they may at least be considered.

I have a friend that works at the local food bank. One of the things she tells me is that very few people take the food that has to be cooked. Things like rice and beans are what I am talking about. So if you don't already know how to cook these things well now while you are out of work would be a good time to do so. They would be better foods to eat as well. Then you can also get more food for your buck when you do have to buy groceries.

See if your landlord has any jobs you can do to help reduce your rent. Years ago I worked cleaning homes that the landlord rented as well as showing them for him. It did give us a rent break as well as a little spending money. And since I was a stay at home mom even earning the money didn't count against dh's unemployment. So you might think about the parent that normally doesn't work to be the one that does something else. Even if it is babysitting for extra cash.

Also check your insurance and see if you can get cheaper plans on the vehicles.

A hint for anyone applying at any food service location (restuarant, McD's, or any other fast food place):

Do NOT arrive during normal meal times (6-8 am, 11am-1pm, 5-7pm) to request or turn in an application for employment. When I managed such a place, any such applicant had a small notation made at the top of the application, and that application was promptly placed in the rotund file once the federal law was complied with (retain all applications 30 days, I believe).

Anyone who did not know enough to avoid high volume times at restaurants for bothering the management didn't know enough to be employed there. The times I noted above are the lifeblood of any restaurant making a profit...or not. The manager has other, more important, things to think about during those times and your interruption is not appreciated.

Also with meds...review them with your doc or pharmacist, especially if you are taking a newer brand-name med that hasn't yet gone generic. It is possible there is a similar drug out there that is generic and that you can try instead.

Look into options like Wal-Mart's $4 prescription list.

Also remember that some drug companies do have assistance programs out there for brand-name meds that haven't gone generic. Just Google "patient assistance programs" and the name of your drug to see if one is out there for you. This link is AWESOME http://www.rxassist.org/patients/default.cfm

Virgin Mobil phone service, as low as 7/mo for pay as you go cell service.
Angel Food ministries for cheaper food.

I would place electricity and water service before phone and internet.

Turn your ac thermostat higher in summer and lower in winter. If you have to, turn it off. Use fans to help cool rooms you are in. Close blinds/curtains on windows facing the sun.

Water can be conserved by taking quick showers, hand washing dishes instead of using dishwasher, and checking all plumbing for leaks--especially toilets and faucets.

Good ideas for conserving money, Minky. Thanks.

MARANATHA!

MAKE A POSITION FOR YOURSELF!

If you have the technical know how, or have a few friends that do and all are looking for work, it does not take too much to make a business out of yourself.

Start by finding a group of people that like to do what you like to do, this works especially well if they are over a fairly wide geographical area. Set up a website and a small call center and then print flyers for what you like to do. I'm going to give an example of PC repair, but almost any service from dog sitting to home/car maintenance will work. You set up the website similar to how craigslist is done, BUT BACKWARDS. It is still free to post the person's needs, but nobody outside of your group of experts gets to see the contact information. Now, when a group member sees a job that they can do, they contact you, and you send them the info. If they do the job, and the customer responds positively, they pay you $5 to $10 for the service of getting them the job (or you can have the customers pay you, and then you pay the group members). If the customer calls back negatively, then you can send in another person to do the job. Either way, you have a fairly large stream of people begging for help, so if you want, even you can take some calls and "keep the change". The only operating expenses are the website ($30/month if you look around), two pre-paid cell phones, and some flyers or brochures to get to businesses and other places for exposure. Once you do a good job, word of mouth will spread you around real well.

Go to places like Best Buy, Office Max, Staples, and other places and get their price lists for what the do. YOU WOULD BE SURPRISED AT WHAT THEY ARE GETTING TO DO "NORMAL" PC REPAIRS AND WORK!!!!! They charge $49.99 for a WEB BASED Peripheral Setup and Tutorial for a printer (NOT COMING TO YOUR HOUSE OR OFFICE, WEB BASED!). They charge $229.99 to have a person come out and install an Operating System on one computer, and that does not include the OS!

Set your prices in the $55 to $75 an hour arena, and people will be beating a path to your door. Provide services that they don't offer (or can't offer), like preventive maintenance scheduling, and inexpensive off site FULL IMAGE backups (most companies do incremental backups, and that means a lot of work to restore the full system, an image restores everything, including the OS and settings). You can even offer specialized printing services if you have a Sam's club account, and use their wide format printer for cheap large color prints. Speaking of Sam's, you might want to use their 4X6 digital photo service for $0.13 a print to print a one page "flyer" for businesses and homes to show your services.

Loup

Good thread.

Dial-up isn't dead, it's just old fashion and cheap. I've been paying $5 a month for the past 10 years just for a backup and to enjoy the great email services. A laptop that I purchased six months ago still had a phone modem as standard equipment.

Lots of employers are now requiring applications to be filed electronically. An internet connection isn't just a novelty anymore, it's a requirement for job seekers.

We use Trac-Fones for our cellular services. It worked out to about 9 cents a minute with the bonus numbers available. I don't need the internet on a device I use to talk to people. Getting a $40 monthly bill from Verizon for 9 minutes usage was what finally broke us of that. My employer actually pays for part of bill since it saves them money by not supplying a company phone.

Turn off your satellite/cable service. A good friend's wife insists on having theirs turned on, even though they have trouble paying their mortgage and are constantly behind in their bills. Why do you need a TV when you have TB2K to keep you informed?

Approach your utility to see if they offer special rates for off peak usuage. If you run any heavy loads (hot water heating etc)during those times you can save lots of money.

Great thread, Minkykat! Following up on what kilagal said, hubby and I have one small rental house. There have been quite a number of times through the years that we have approached the tenant or the tenant has approached us about doing some work, usually painting, in exchange for rent. We are VERY open to this, but not once has the person actually done the job. They have started a few times, but never even came close to finishing. If you will actually do the work, I think you'll find at least some landlords open to such.

ETA: Even those of us who still have jobs might want to think about going ahead and doing some of the ideas on this thread in order to save money in anticipation of possibly losing our jobs.

minkykat said:

Ok, here's a plan...instead of having a slug-fest over the plight of the about to be stoney broke unemployed...let us HELP them by giving them some fast-fix pointers that will help them in the hard days to come until they can
A) find a job
B) their benes get extended
C) Jesus comes again and we all don't have to worry about this anymore.

I will start:

Ok, deep breath everyone. You have some WARNING. I did not. My benes cut off without a word of warning in November of last year, just before Thanksgiving. Nice huh?

You have some heads up. This is good.

First thing: go thru every old purse, every pocket, every couch and seat cushion and get every piece of loose change you can grab. Compile and take to a Coin Star Machine or your bank. Get this made into folding money.
(You will be surprised at how much you can get from loose change!)
Set that aside. This will become part of the emergency foods fund.

.

Click to expand...

First of all, THANK YOU for starting a thread like this!


We need to BUILD UP the folks who are out of a job or grossly underemployed. Not critisize them for whatever faults they might -- or might NOT -- have.


Now, about the idea of bringing change to CoinStar.


If I remember correctly, for every dollar in change you put into their machines, they return 85 cents. The rest they keep as a fee for changing your coins to dollar bills.


Many banks and credit unions will do this for free!


Every bank I have dealt with would do this for free, as long as you roll the coins up for them. Alot of places do require that you have an account with them to do this.


So, before paying CoinStar 15% in order to get the other 85% back, check and see if you can find a bank or even a friend/relative who will do this for free.

My sister made up flyers and put them around her neighborhood. There are a lot of older folks living there. She offers to do anything for them: run errands, cook meals, clean their homes, drive them places, grocery shop, whatever. These small "gigs" add up and are "underground" income. You can water plants, house sit, take care of pets, walk pets, check on the elderly, weed gardens, wash cars, mow lawns, clean out the garage or basement - anything they can think of that needs doing. Charge reasonable rates and they'll keep calling.

How bout I link this here..

Need a Job? Ideas to create one

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=365107

and best wishes to all in need!

I know alot of people that got jobs from temp agencies. May lead to permanent.

WOW!
Great responses, EVERYONE!!

I got lucky and got a family in here and made a sale.
(Comish only stinks unless one actually makes sales!)

Let me get caught up and I will post about how to lay in some food while you still have money.

What's the cheapest internet service you can get if you don't have cable tv or a landline?

The cheapest I've been able to find it is $42 a month from Comcast.

Just want to add that, yeah! The utility bill should be right there in the list!

(embarrassed that I forgot that!)

Now SOME companies do have hardship programs. It's that extra dollar or so you've been paying into for years now. Well, now you should benefit from it. Check into this, do it TODAY.

Back with food in a jiff!

Hansa44 said:

What's the cheapest internet service you can get if you don't have cable tv or a landline?

The cheapest I've been able to find it is $42 a month from Comcast.

Click to expand...

Dial up in most areas runs between $8 and $15 a month. Add that to around $20 to $27 a month phone service and you should be able to have what you need for communications for under $50 a month

That is the logical choice for people that have already lost their job and are looking. And Dial up will work good for what they need (they don't need to be looking at youtube videos or playing games, but e-mailing resumes out).

Loup

Another thing to look into doing is sharing a house with others that have lost their jobs. As more and more houses get foreclosed, more and more people will be looking for a place to live. If you know someone, you can set up at least a temporary room or two for them, and they can help pay your mortgage or rent. Hey, if the illegal immigrants can get away with it, so can we.


Another option, speaking of the banks, is to go to the banks and offer your services to help upkeep on the different foreclosed homes in the area. A house with weeds and grass to your elbows, dirty windows, and other problems, will not sell well.

Market yourself at whatever is NEEDED by others.

Loup

Get food stamps.

When ex left two years ago I took one bill everyday and called them..

I called the phone company and told them I needed to get my phone bill as low as I could because I was out of work..They took off caller I.D. and "since I was such a good customer" cut my phone bill in half for six monthes!!!! This phone company starts with Q..

The cable company did exactly the same thing and threw in three monthes of free HBO...

Car and House Insurance raised deductibles to $1000 and got the bill substantially down..

Garbage ordered a smaller can and squish more...

Electric Bill emptied the freezer and it took 8 kwh a day off the bill..Started hanging clothes out side, and watching the lights..Got my average pay from $105 per month to $85 per month and in December got a refund of $125...

By combining errands to town you can substantially cut your gas bill..

I got rid of the paper and just google the local news or watch it on t.v. If you really need a newspaper go to the library and read it..They also have movies you can check out..

No meals out unless there is a coupon..

So theres a few, hth..

Food, glorious CHEAP Food

Now, I am sure that like most folks on the UI budget, your food allowance is already tight.

Well, it's about to get tighter, no lie.

Let's begin by looking on the bright side; it's summer. It is hot, it's humid. Folks don't want to eat so much when it's like this so you can get away right now with serving up simple soups and salads for lunch and dinner and just cold cereal for breakfast.

Figure out just where in the budget you can cut back more because you need to be able to strip out at LEAST $15.00 to $20.00 a WEEK out of that to get you stocked up.

Or maybe less. Figure up how many weeks you have left and then go from there. Maybe all you need to strip out is $10.00 if you have time.

Ok, so let's say we've got our change money, we've got our $20.00 from this week's food money. Let's go shopping.

99 CENT STORE
Or Dollar General or Dollar Tree, what ever they are called in your area, 99 + a million thanks to the person who came up with this store because it has saved my butt for 2 years running now.

No, it's not just plastic doilys and out of date makeup. Most of the 99's have PRODUCE, they have FROZEN GOODS and diary and lotsa canned stuff.
(note on the canned stuff: avoid anything canned in CHINA. Just put it down.)

Now, just to be a prudent shopper, check out the sales in the big markets that week and see if your veggies and such aren't cheaper there this week. For the most part tho' this is going to be your source for carrots by the bunch, lettuce, bell peppers, yellow squash and what ever else.
Here, you can save money for salads and get extra veggies for both pickling and for stock making and also broths and soups.

VERY IMPORTANT:
Spices! Your repasts of rice and beans day in, day out is going to get old. Get a variety of spices and seasonings that can pep things up a bit. Get some hot sauce, get some thai sauce.
More on how to use them in blah foods later.

BUTCHER
The butcher is your friend. He has something for you. He has bones with meat on them still. He has carcasses of chickens and turkeys. Here is ground zero for STOCK.
For pennies a pound, you can work a deal where you buy his carcasses and bones from the day and take them home where with our 99 cent store veggies they can go into a pot and become STOCK.

We make the stock, we freeze the stock and resurect it for soup later when the weather has cooled.

COSTCO
Big deals, folks. 2 Foster Farms chickens for about $10.00 per two pack. Cut them up and freeze them or just keep them in package and freeze them.
They have all kinds of meats that can be cut up, slit up and frozen.
Do yourself a favor: Get the GOOD quality freezer bags. No sense in your investment getting freezer burns.

Try to get a couple of chickens or pork chop sets each week and toss them into the freezer. Write the date on it so you can rotate properly. Do not touch them until the time comes.
Next:
Questionable cluckers or shopping at the ethnic market.

Adventures in dining: the ethnic market

Yes, our friends from many lands have many different food stuffs that perhaps you have not thought of. I am not suggesting for one minute that you go and boil yourself a tongue or some pigs trotters. Start slow and grow from there.

The markets I speak of generally cater to the Hispanics or Asians in the area. Here in the South Bay, we have Top Value that serves mainly the Hispanics and Marukai which serves the Asians. Both are just brimming with good, CHEAP stuff.

It is my experience that meats will be cheaper at the Hispanic place, especially what they call the "picnic pork roast". You get two big mounds of meat for about $7 to $12.00 for the pack. Take this home, rub some Kosher salt onto the meat, make slits and insert garlic or some class of herb in the slit. Put in pan, roast.

You can serve up the roast on Sunday and then start recycling the meat for the next three days in soups, carved up on top of top ramon noddles, tucked into red beans and rice....use your imagination! Look up recpts. for left over pork online.

Now, the chickens at these places tend to be a bit salty in taste. I don't know what the heck they are injecting them with. I don't mind the taste but some do.
With this chicken, I would say use it more in chicken salad, (the mayo disgusies the salty taste) or grilled and cut up in salad or for chicken wraps.

What else is cheap and good there? Eggs. Eggs there are cheaper. Veggies can be cheaper than the 99 cent store at times. Fruits in season can be cheaper here too.

Chocolate! The mexican chocolate is cheap and can be chopped up for making chocolate chip cookies or homemade mousses. Cheaper than toll house chips.

Asian goodies; HON DASHI!

Allow me to introduce you to the greatest little bit of seasoning the world has ever known. HON DASHI!!!

These are Bonita Fish flakes, just a little tap of the container will do ya and BAM, talk about an explosion of taste and flavor!
Plain rice takes on a delicate taste of the sea. Use it in popcorn, use it on rice or bean thread noodles; especially use it in soup or stews. Just a touch, that's all you need.
This item generally runs about $2.00 for a box of it or for 20 packets of it.

Other toppers: toasted seaweed. Yes, seaweed.
It comes in sheets. You can crumple it up over rice, crumple it into the soup. Lay down a sheet and spoon some cheap small shrimp into it and roll.
Put the sheets on bread with mayo. Instant sanwhich!

Your Asian market will tend to have fresher fish at a lower or comparable price. You can get more rice for your buck here too.
And Spam. Oh, yeah, the Japanese in my area love them some Spam! The store puts it on special all the time. Load up on it 'cause you can sneak that salty product into a LOT of things that will stretch your food dollar.

Be careful of frozen veggies from the dollar tree, they are from China. But at some point if all I could get was veggies from china, that I would get them.

Judy

LoupGarou said:

Dial up in most areas runs between $8 and $15 a month. Add that to around $20 to $27 a month phone service and you should be able to have what you need for communications for under $50 a month

That is the logical choice for people that have already lost their job and are looking. And Dial up will work good for what they need (they don't need to be looking at youtube videos or playing games, but e-mailing resumes out).

Loup

Click to expand...

How can I tell if my laptop is compatable with dial up?

Judy

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?p=3787774&posted=1#post3787774

Follow the link to a thread about pickling eggs!
99 cent store eggs...meet the pickle jar!

nomifyle said:

How can I tell if my laptop is compatable with dial up?

Judy

Click to expand...

Either look for a modem port (telephone jack) on the side of the laptop (the modem jack will have 2 or 4 conductors, this is what you want. The Ethernet network jack will have 8 conductors), or go to:
If you have anything under this topic, it should look something like this:

Modems
PCI Data Fax SoftModem with SmartCP (or something similar)

This is your modem. Find a telephone line, and then check either your phone book, or contact your local community college for a few good Dial up ISPs.

I have one with Verizon, as well as another one with a local company, just in case I can't get anything else to work when I am traveling.

Here are a few Dial up ISPs to look into for starters:
http://www.ezisp.info/
http://www.ezisp.info/service/louisiana.html

http://www.lanset.net/dialup/louisiana-isp.php
_____

BE CAREFUL OF "FREE" INTERNET DEALS AS THEY USUALLY PUT SOFTWARE ON YOUR MACHINE THAT YOU REALLY DON'T WANT! Tracking and commercial pop-up software is the least of your worries with these guys.
_____

ETA: And if you need a modem, you can find USB ones for under $50 (under $30 if you look around).

Loup

Another link for cheap eats!

Right here on TBK!

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=365252

GOOD ideas, everyone!

LoupGarou said:

Either look for a modem port (telephone jack) on the side of the laptop (the modem jack will have 2 or 4 conductors, this is what you want. The Ethernet network jack will have 8 conductors), or go to:

Start
Right click on "My Computer" or "Computer" (depending on Windows version), and select "Properties".
Once the "Properties" window pops up, select "Device Manager" (You may have to select "Hardware" first) and look under "Modems"
​

If you have anything under this topic, it should look something like this:

Modems
PCI Data Fax SoftModem with SmartCP (or something similar)

This is your modem. Find a telephone line, and then check either your phone book, or contact your local community college for a few good Dial up ISPs.

I have one with Verizon, as well as another one with a local company, just in case I can't get anything else to work when I am traveling.

Here are a few Dial up ISPs to look into for starters:
http://www.ezisp.info/
http://www.ezisp.info/service/louisiana.html

http://www.lanset.net/dialup/louisiana-isp.php
_____

BE CAREFUL OF "FREE" INTERNET DEALS AS THEY USUALLY PUT SOFTWARE ON YOUR MACHINE THAT YOU REALLY DON'T WANT! Tracking and commercial pop-up software is the least of your worries with these guys.
_____

ETA: And if you need a modem, you can find USB ones for under $50 (under $30 if you look around).

Loup

Click to expand...

I've got one with two connectors.

I'll try those dial-up ISPs you suggested. Like you, I want a back up, especially since I'm moving to the country and haven't decided whether or not to get satelite hook-up. Money will be close as I will be living on my ss, which I am very greatful that I get. DH might pay for it though, he's still working.

Judy

Around here the Aldi stores are generally the best pricing for foods. They have canned chicken breast for I think 1.59 for 11 oz. We generally only get boneless chicken breasts when they are on sale. Aldi also has canned beef stew for 1.79 a can. It has a lot of meat in it, and is very good tasting. We usually use it for making vegetable beef soup, and one can will flavor a large pot of soup.

For cheese, we usually get Kroger's sale cheese, which works out to about $3 or less per pound, and we have never been disappointed in it. We got ice cream for $1.88/ a qt and a half. When we last got ice cream at a DQ, it cost us over $6 two sundaes.

On the job search: I have a friend who was laid off from his job a couple of decades ago. He started going around and picking up shipping pallets from companies, and recycling them. It was something no one was doing, and he noticed a need there. Today he is retired, and his sons run a business that employes a number of other people. They have recently expanded, and are now using semis instead of a pickup truck. Who woulda thought? Sometimes initial setbacks are stepping stones to greater things.

Maybe we are too focused on landing a "job" rather than meeting a need in the market place.

regards,

Garryowen

Let people know that you are willing to take anything and do anything. Sometimes it comes back.

Example: there is a lady at the gym that we talk to all the time and joke with--we share the same handyman--she called and asked if we had heard from him (he's been gone for a while) and mentioned that she was looking for someone to come in and clean house for an hour or so a day (light vacuuming, cleaning the litterbox) since she can't do a lot while waiting for hip replacement surgery--grabbed that at $25 a day

Next: friend called on way home from work yesterday--coworker had brought in a bunch of garden produce--since friend is single and couldn't eat all of it, she dropped some by--we ended up with a dozen ears of corn and a couple of huge tomatoes

Next: friend goes out of town and we watch the three kitties--charge a minimal amount, but she always leaves a ton of stuff in the fridge for us to have or give away as she won't be back before it goes bad---score fruit and veggies that way

Next: friend found a place to pick wild blackberries and let us know about them--hot outside, but free blackberries are a good deal

There are options, you just have to look.

RESPONSIBLE KIDS can earn their own pocket money by taking seeds from flowers, herbs OR MOLDY BERRIES and planting them in paper cups or empty cans with a hole punched in the bottom and tending them till they grow a raspberry, blackberry, or strawberry plants, CHIVES, calendula, or other flowers, and having a PROPERLY LABELED plant sale or asking to JOIN a neighbor's yard sale with your card table full of plants for sale.

KIDS- Don't neglect getting permission for setting up a refreshment stand at your neighbor's yard sale BUT DON'T OVERPRICE YOUR STUFF, you make more from ten 8 ounce cups of kool aid lemonade sold for 25 cents each than only 2 cups for 50 cents each. (buy cheapest, but NOT smallest, paper cups) If you can get hot dogs for $1 a pack of 10 and buns on sale for $1 then don't ask more than $1 a hot dog and you will sell them all for an $8 profit rather than sell only two dogs for $2 each and only make $2. Sugar, Oatmeal and peanut butter cookies are the cheapest to make and will sell well if you make a respectable size cookie for a quarter each. EVERYBODY loves chocolate chip cookies but they don't want to pay what you would have to charge to make a profit on them, so I would either skip them or really skimp on the chocolate chips to make a double batch with one bag instead of two bags of chocolate chips.

Same thing with sodas. sitting in a bin of ICE..generic is perfectly good enough for everything (orange, root beer, lemon-lime,ginger ale etc) EXCEPT COLA...people are rabidly loyal to pepsi and coke- and you can often catch a sale on generic soda of four 12 packs of generic soda pop for $10 which makes them 21 cents apiece. Diet soda sells better. If you sell them for 40 cents each THEY WILL SELL LIKE HOTCAKES because nobody can resist a bargain and you will probably sell them all and make a $9.12 profit on the 48 cans of soda pop. Jack the price up only ten cents to 50 cents each can and you will be lucky to sell 3 or four and lose your shirt on the sale. Charge 50 cents each can for Pepsi and Cokes, but make sure you got them on sale for $3.50 or less a 12 pack.

A smart kid can corner up to $50 profit from plant and refreshment sales on one weekend.


ANOTHER opportunity is GROWING BAIT WORMS for fishing. They sell commercially for $2.50 for a dozen nightcrawlers. Kids willing to raise and sell them for $1 to $1.50 a dozen will soon have no lack of pocket money. Fishermen pass the word around as to where to get cheap bait. Another way would be to charge the same $2.50 BUT GIVE THE BUYER A DOZEN AND A HALF OR 2 DOZEN worms for the price. Save soup or other cans to put the worms in that are for sale. DON'T SELL OR HANDLE WORMS IF YOU ARE SELLING OR HANDLING REFRESHMENTS. GAA..ug...nobody wants that. Hire your little brother to take care of those sales at another table.

We have a land line phone but we bought a Sam's Club phone card for all our long distance calling it cost $20 for 500 minutes.

For work I have placed an ad in the local paper offering classes in Brain tanning, Friction fire, Plains Indian hard sole moccasins and other survival skills. So far I have gotten one student and the ad hasn't been published yet, the student is the publisher of one of the local papers. The other local news paper wants to do a feature article on me.

I was also contacted by Discovery Net work about doing an up coming program.

All of this happened since my wife's unemployment ran out last week and we didn't know what we were going to do. Some how God always opens a window when the door closes.

If you have skills in anything offer to teach them to others. Gardening, raising chickens, carpentry, canning vegetables are just a few of the things people might be willing to pay to learn.

For making stocks (veggie or meat)

I save the ends that I cut off
Carrots
Celery
Onions
Peppers

I put these in a bag in the freezer & when I want to make stock, I take some out and cook them in whatever broth I am making.

Since you generally dispose of these veggies after making stock. So I use waste and after straining take out to the chickens and they love them.

Check out hillbillyhousewife.com/ you will find a menus for cheap and how to use them. I really like that sight.

Jo

I didn't see this anywhere, but I use coupons at the grocery. Depending on where you live, some stores double or even triple. When we lived in SC, it was nothing for me to pay half or less for my groceries. Some stores (like Publix) accept coupons from other stores. Harris Teeter sometimes has triple coupon days. CVS and Walgreens also have good coupon programs. Target has printable coupons on-line that can be used WITH a manufacturer coupon.

I know some people don't like to clip their coupons, I pilfer through the neighbors recycle bins to get more. Plus, there are sites that you can get coupons already clipped sent right to your door.

Our food budget went from $100 a week to only $20 per week with nothing but coupons, Angel Foods and using a good country butcher.

Donate plasma.

www.angelfoodministries.com

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=317414

Thanks minkykat for starting this thread.

Coin Star Machine = not a good value.

Heck why not pay in those very same coins

For a while I was getting half dollars because it made me slow down.

"My money talks to me; It says goodbye!"


I setup a magicjack phone line, I have it running on a vonage phone box now so I don't need my pc running lower power bill.

The magicjack will is $40 and the other stuff was $60, I now have a 'landline' for $100 for the FIRST year, and $70 more gets 5 [five] more years ... with free calls in the USA, and Caller ID works!!! And MJ emails you your voice messages.

I now send faxes daily to congress -- hint: set your fax machine to run one speed below the fastest setting.
So what it is free to send a fax.

PM me if you want help setting this up.

There are other VIOP services out there for pennies to connect or even 'free' after a very low monthly / yearly fee.

Why this rambles? You can get DSL service for $20/month with no 'taxes'
http://www.att.com/gen/general?pid=11575
DSL Direct Basic = DSL without a phone line

The above combined with a magicjack or two will get you phone service [x2] for cheap.

Prepaid cell phones IMNSHO Tmobile pay-as-you-go = 'Gold Plan' is the best deal.
$100 gets you a 1 year @1000 minutes WITH a $10 roll over of the unsed minutes for the next year(s) -- good for those of you who don't yak.

Hint: don't give any company that send out bills your new phone numbers.


Food wise:
Tuna is not the best price per pound for protein. @ 80¢ for 3.5 ounces [drained of water]. That's $3.65 per pound! for your protein.
Convenient yes, a value? No. And I notice that fish is not a very satiating protein.
If you are not allergic PB is the best value. ... Costco has a great price on the organic PB and it does not contain sugar and replacement oils like the other brands.

I find shopping at SAMs / Costco / BJs in most cases a good value BUT you need to now your prices because sometimes the local store has better prices with a smaller container.

Remember to freeze all you grains /cereals / pastas for at least 4 days before storing them in the pantry, this includes those pet treats! The hard freeze kills the weevils / grain bug eggs.

Learn to cook from scratch, see TB's Granny's Forum

At this point I strongly suggest you buy food only produced in English speaking countries or European countries. Or stuff that is certified Kosher.


Energy:
The best cost saver is to turn off what you don't use.
Unplug those wall wart charges when not in use -- we have them in a power strip with a timer switch.
Home Depot sells a windup timer wall switch. Install that in a nice 'heavy duty outlet box' + a computer power cord with the end cut off [have lots of these] + an outlet + an industrial cover + a crimp grommet [screw type] + rubber feet. [I'll take a photo later]
The timer runs for 1-3 hours and the widget is charged and you don't forget to turn it off.

Each of those wall wart use 7-15 watts, they add a whole lot of phantom loads.

Turn off your computer when not in use!
Put a switch on all your appliances that don't need to be on -- they are ghost loads.

Since you don't have cable any more, the VCR & TV don't need to be powered on constantly to store your channels


Entertainment:
Your library has videos you can check out for free, imagine that
You can use that cheap internet connection to download movies via hula.com and others. or if you do have some spare change $5 gets you netflix and their downloads - not the most current movies but your not going to be up to date anymore

enough for now.

If you live near farms that raise food for canneries.... go to their field right after they harvest... pretty much the same day and pick potatoes, corn, and other veggies. Have done that many a time. But be careful, some farmers don't take kindly to people takin' "scraps/castoffs" from them, tho the farmers don't try to harvest it. Some farmers will disk their fields right behind the harvestors.

Volunteer to help at CSA's or farmers or people with large gardeners. They will let you know if they have abundance. You have to be observant tho.

Go to canneries. Ask for dented cans.

Can't have a garden in the dirt...get some buckets... food can be raised in them.

Come folks, look around your community.... some, most won't, groceries will let you take produce out of their hopper. Most of the time it isn't perfect but very usable. Our local grocer allows it. What does it hurt to ask, but do it privately... most grocers don't want it out what they are doing.