Have you ever done a budget?? Have you ever sat down and kept track of where you spent every dollar that month? Most people haven't. There are many places that we spend a few dollars here and a few dollars there that add up to big money at the end of the month.
On your way to work, did you stop for food and coffee? $6
You smoke a pack a day? $5
you go out for lunch? $6
Did you Super Size? $2 more
Snack from the vending machine? $2
Energy drink? $2 each
Beer for the game tonight? $12
munchies for the game? $8
Pick up dinner on the way home? $???
All this stuff adds up quick. For example:
Smoker, buys lunch everyday, snack from vending machine 2 times a week, energy drink in the morning. . . OVER $400 DOLLARS A MONTH!!! Poof, gone, and whatcha got??
ok, ok, you don't smoke. . .
NON SMOKER, Monday night football beer and munchies, coffee on the way to work, buys lunch half the time, energy drink in the afternoon to keep going. . .ALMOST $300 DOLLARS A MONTH!!
Now what could you do with all that money if you didn't piddle it away everyday?? I don't know anyone that would turn down that much money each month. We have bought into all the advertising, and think this is normal because everyone else does it. We throw our money away every day and then wonder where it all went. Well this is where it goes.
Save that $300 a month and you have $3,600 at the end of the year!!! That is a mighty nice vacation, or a good chunk more in your retirement. Save it for a couple of years and you have yourself a down payment for a house or a brand new car, with that new car smell and everything!! All for what, taking your lunch to work, making your own coffee, not buying beer every week, not crashing from an energy drink and then buying another one to get you back up and going. . .
Think about it. Think about it hard. Look at what you buy every day for a few dollars that you could stop and not spend money on. You will be surprised at how much more money you have at the end of the month.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Home Loan, what can you afford??
There has been a lot of articles written about this but no one seems to read them. This is why are whole economy is in the, well you know. . . the thing you sit on when you have to take a . . . So I am going to write about it too and hope a few people read it.
First rule! The most important rule!! Numero Uno!! If you can't afford a FIXED INTEREST 30 YEAR LOAN you can't afford the house!!
If they try to talk you into a variable interest loan, with balloon payments every few years, don't do it. They will say that you will be earning more 5 years from now and can afford the increase in payment. What will happen is when the payment goes up you will lose the house! An interest only loan is bad too. They try to get you into them saying that the house will go up in value and you will then have that equity when you sell, but you might as well rent. If the market goes south, like it is right now, you still owe the full purchase price and are stuck with the house. These loans are not made for the home owner, they are for investors that are going to fix and flip the house before the loan goes bad!
Second Rule!! A house costs about 1.5% of Its total cost each month. SO, this means that if your house cost 100K then it will cost about $1500 a month for house payment, electricity, water, trash, taxes, fixing things, lawn care, trips to Home Depot. . . everything. You put the extra you didn't spend into a savings account for the big stuff like Air Conditioner, New Shingles, New Siding, Heater, Oven, Water Heater, Pest Control for Termites, New Stove. Then when you need to, you have the money for the big stuff.
Third Rule!! The monthly cost for your house should be less then 50% of your income. So if we stay with the example used above, a 100k house that costs $1500 per month to maintain, you should bring home per month at least $3000 AFTER TAXES! If you get a house that is more then 50% you end up "house poor" because you pay too much of your income to the house and have nothing left, or the house is neglected and becomes run down. You don't want your biggest investment to get neglected and loose value do you.
When I say that your house should be less then 50%, I should say you total monthly DEPT TO INCOME RATIO should be less then 50%. They will try to lend you more, but don't take it!! And when you figure your debt to income and owe on Credit Cards figure in at least 3 times the minimum payment. If you use Pay Day Loans often just forget it, you can't afford a house. Get your life back in order first, then look at buying a house. If you are in debt with Credit Cards, School Loans, Car Payments or anything else you should not go above 50% of your income including your house. Pay off your other debt first or get a cheaper house!! You can get in over your head real fast and loose everything if you go over 50% with a house.
Last Rule!! If you do the math, the first three rules work out to this last one. The house that you can afford works out to be about twice the amount you earn in a year. So, the example we used this whole article, you need to earn at least 50K a year and have very little other debt to afford a 100K house. If the house you want is more then this, find a cheaper one. Find a smaller house. Find an older house. Buy a manufactured home, or a trailer.
When you live in a house you can afford, life is much less stressful. You have the money for repairs when they are needed. You have the money to save for retirement. You don't live with the stress that you might not make the next payment. No stress that the interest rate is going up again and that will make the house payment just too much.
And the most important benefit of picking a house you can afford!! You won't become ONE OF THEM people that got in over their heads and then defaulted on their loan and destroyed our economy and hurt everyone else!!!
First rule! The most important rule!! Numero Uno!! If you can't afford a FIXED INTEREST 30 YEAR LOAN you can't afford the house!!
If they try to talk you into a variable interest loan, with balloon payments every few years, don't do it. They will say that you will be earning more 5 years from now and can afford the increase in payment. What will happen is when the payment goes up you will lose the house! An interest only loan is bad too. They try to get you into them saying that the house will go up in value and you will then have that equity when you sell, but you might as well rent. If the market goes south, like it is right now, you still owe the full purchase price and are stuck with the house. These loans are not made for the home owner, they are for investors that are going to fix and flip the house before the loan goes bad!
Second Rule!! A house costs about 1.5% of Its total cost each month. SO, this means that if your house cost 100K then it will cost about $1500 a month for house payment, electricity, water, trash, taxes, fixing things, lawn care, trips to Home Depot. . . everything. You put the extra you didn't spend into a savings account for the big stuff like Air Conditioner, New Shingles, New Siding, Heater, Oven, Water Heater, Pest Control for Termites, New Stove. Then when you need to, you have the money for the big stuff.
Third Rule!! The monthly cost for your house should be less then 50% of your income. So if we stay with the example used above, a 100k house that costs $1500 per month to maintain, you should bring home per month at least $3000 AFTER TAXES! If you get a house that is more then 50% you end up "house poor" because you pay too much of your income to the house and have nothing left, or the house is neglected and becomes run down. You don't want your biggest investment to get neglected and loose value do you.
When I say that your house should be less then 50%, I should say you total monthly DEPT TO INCOME RATIO should be less then 50%. They will try to lend you more, but don't take it!! And when you figure your debt to income and owe on Credit Cards figure in at least 3 times the minimum payment. If you use Pay Day Loans often just forget it, you can't afford a house. Get your life back in order first, then look at buying a house. If you are in debt with Credit Cards, School Loans, Car Payments or anything else you should not go above 50% of your income including your house. Pay off your other debt first or get a cheaper house!! You can get in over your head real fast and loose everything if you go over 50% with a house.
Last Rule!! If you do the math, the first three rules work out to this last one. The house that you can afford works out to be about twice the amount you earn in a year. So, the example we used this whole article, you need to earn at least 50K a year and have very little other debt to afford a 100K house. If the house you want is more then this, find a cheaper one. Find a smaller house. Find an older house. Buy a manufactured home, or a trailer.
When you live in a house you can afford, life is much less stressful. You have the money for repairs when they are needed. You have the money to save for retirement. You don't live with the stress that you might not make the next payment. No stress that the interest rate is going up again and that will make the house payment just too much.
And the most important benefit of picking a house you can afford!! You won't become ONE OF THEM people that got in over their heads and then defaulted on their loan and destroyed our economy and hurt everyone else!!!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Solar cooking for $5
What would you say if I told you that I have an appliance that costs under 5 dollars and can save you hundreds? That this appliance will make you healthier, cleaner, and help the environment all at the same time? And guess what, I am not even going to try to sell it to you!! But I will show you how to make it!!
"Solar Cooking" has been around for centuries. People have used the sun to dry and cure their food so they could store it for winter and periods of drought and hardship. The solar cooking we do today is a little different. Basically what we do now is collect, concentrate, and trap the energy from the sun and use it to cook food like an oven or crock pot. One utility company did a study and found that in summer for every dollar used to cook in your kitchen you will spend 4 dollars running your AC to get rid of the heat that cooking produced!!
There are many different ways to collect and trap solar energy. For solar cooking the most common way is to build a reflector to focus the sun into an enclosed box or bag to get the temperatures needed for cooking. You don't need to buy an expensive solar oven to do this. You
can make one with aluminum foil and a card board box!! I have reached cooking temperatures of 300 degrees with both of the ovens I have made. Just 5 dollars and about 3 hours for most people and you have a solar oven and cooking for free!!I am not going to Post the plans in this blog but I will tell you where to get them.
solarcooking.org
I got both my designs from this web sight. They are good people. There is soooo much information on this sight that I want you to go there and read it. You can purchase one from them if you want or you can build one from the many plans they have. They have all the tricks to make building
your solar cooker easier. Just way too much into to put in this blog. I just want to sell you on the idea of solar cooking.My introduction to solar cooking was a crash course. Some friend, my wife, and I had a camping trip planned. It was summer in Arizona and most of the time there is a fire ban in place because we are so dry here. So I started thinking, how am I going to cook? Well, I had heard of solar ovens before and knew a little about them. So I started researching them on the internet. I read, and read all about them. Then I built my first one, the box oven that is in the picture. My mother was coming over for a reason I can't remember the first day I was cooking with it. We ate some biscuits that I had made. We weren't the greatest, but they were cooked!! Just by setting this contraption I made from a box and foil out in the sun the food was cooked! Well I was hooked. I like cheap. I like saving money. I like the outdoors. I like helping the environment. And I just found a way to do all at the same time!!!
Since that first set of biscuits I have cooked just about everything I could think of. Bread, pies, steak, roast, whole chickens, cakes, brownies, lake trout, cinnamon rolls, potatoes, omelets, lasagna, vegetables, "Hard boiled" eggs. . . well you get the idea.
This is a great project for the kids too. Kids like glue, cardboard, and foil too. They will be amazed when you finish building it and eat the brownies you cooked in it!! Plus it is a good lesson on solar energy the power that you can get from it.
So go to the web site, read more about this wonderful idea, build your own solar cooker, and wait to be amazed at your new appliance that you don't even have to plug in!! No batteries included because you don't need any! And enjoy your home cooked food thanks to the sun!
Enjoy this wonderful world that we have, don't waste it. Leave it better then you got it for our grandkids to enjoy too!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Martini Henry?? NOPE!!
First time I ran across one of these I thought that the British had gone nuts building a junker that I was looking at. Well, they didn't build it.
The Martini Henry was THE rifle of the British Empire. Adopted in the 1870s, it was used all over the world. Throughout their empire this rifle saw action. The Zulu wars were fought with this rifle. Africa, Asia, Australia, these rifles are everywhere the British went. Well there were and still are copies made. The Kyber Pass area in Afganistan has produced copies of this rifle for many years. Known as a "Kyber Pass Martini" they can look nice from the outside and fool even experienced collectors that they are British made. These guns are NOT safe to shoot. Not even with mild black powder loads. NEVER shoot one of these guns, NEVER!!!
Open one up though and you can see that most of the parts were hand made and not machined. The fitting is sloppy to just plain bad. You see the tool marks that look like it was done with a chisel. The metal on the example I was able to look at was very soft. It took a wonderful blueing, and was a nice high polish on the outside. They live up to the saying of what you get when you polish a turd. . . well you get something that is nice and pretty on the outside but on the inside all you have is. . . .well you get the idea.
So I found one, actually ordered one that was advertised as a real british Martini Henry, and took the thing apart and took pictures so maybe someone else won't get scammed by picking one of these up thinking that they have the real thing. So here is what to look for-
I have never seen a british gun with these part markings or proof marks on the lever. These were repeated on most of the parts in the Rifle. Also a "D" was stamped on most of the parts too.
Bad stamping of the receiver markings. The crown is crude. There is no period after the R in V.R. The Enfield stamp on british guns was one whole stamp. This one you can see where they stamped each letter separately and didn't stamp them even. This example was a short lever Martini, and the 1890 date is wrong for the version of the rifle. There is no Armorer stamp under the date.
Proof mark on receiver is wrong. There should be a VR under the crown, not an E and then it should have a set of crossed flags with a number under it. Also the proof marks were in the wrong spots. They Should be on the left side, top, front. This gun was marked on both sided on top and bottom.
Hammer forged stock screw made by blacksmith!?!?
My favorite, the odd chisel marks in the rear of the receiver where the stock attaches. Quality workmanship right here!!
Also, the barrel had no barrel proof mark or the assembled rifle proof mark. The rear sight was welded onto the barrel and the front sight was just a blob of weld filed down a little.
So there are the pics of the fake Martini Henry. I will edit this post and add pics of how a real one should look. I just need to take them.
The Martini Henry was THE rifle of the British Empire. Adopted in the 1870s, it was used all over the world. Throughout their empire this rifle saw action. The Zulu wars were fought with this rifle. Africa, Asia, Australia, these rifles are everywhere the British went. Well there were and still are copies made. The Kyber Pass area in Afganistan has produced copies of this rifle for many years. Known as a "Kyber Pass Martini" they can look nice from the outside and fool even experienced collectors that they are British made. These guns are NOT safe to shoot. Not even with mild black powder loads. NEVER shoot one of these guns, NEVER!!!
Open one up though and you can see that most of the parts were hand made and not machined. The fitting is sloppy to just plain bad. You see the tool marks that look like it was done with a chisel. The metal on the example I was able to look at was very soft. It took a wonderful blueing, and was a nice high polish on the outside. They live up to the saying of what you get when you polish a turd. . . well you get something that is nice and pretty on the outside but on the inside all you have is. . . .well you get the idea.
So I found one, actually ordered one that was advertised as a real british Martini Henry, and took the thing apart and took pictures so maybe someone else won't get scammed by picking one of these up thinking that they have the real thing. So here is what to look for-
I have never seen a british gun with these part markings or proof marks on the lever. These were repeated on most of the parts in the Rifle. Also a "D" was stamped on most of the parts too.
Bad stamping of the receiver markings. The crown is crude. There is no period after the R in V.R. The Enfield stamp on british guns was one whole stamp. This one you can see where they stamped each letter separately and didn't stamp them even. This example was a short lever Martini, and the 1890 date is wrong for the version of the rifle. There is no Armorer stamp under the date.
Proof mark on receiver is wrong. There should be a VR under the crown, not an E and then it should have a set of crossed flags with a number under it. Also the proof marks were in the wrong spots. They Should be on the left side, top, front. This gun was marked on both sided on top and bottom.
Hammer forged stock screw made by blacksmith!?!?
My favorite, the odd chisel marks in the rear of the receiver where the stock attaches. Quality workmanship right here!!Also, the barrel had no barrel proof mark or the assembled rifle proof mark. The rear sight was welded onto the barrel and the front sight was just a blob of weld filed down a little.
So there are the pics of the fake Martini Henry. I will edit this post and add pics of how a real one should look. I just need to take them.
First Blog
Well I have decided to try something new, Blogging. I am not what you would call a "computer" guy. I grew up in the "garage" or my nose in a book while my little brother grew up in front of the computer. So this is new to me. I wanted to start a blog because I like to do many things and also like to learn and then teach what I learned. I see so many people today that don't know how to do anything. Change the oil. . . fix a leaky pipe. . . grow a garden. . . shoot a firearm. . . camp or know how to survive. Nobody knows these skills anymore, ones that were common 50 years ago. We have all become too wrapped up in our little areas of expertise that we don't know how to do anything else but that one little thing. We have become to specialized.
So I want to share my life as a tinkerer, show you what my newest project is, what I learned from it, and hopefully inspire a few people to just try something new. If it is broke and you are going to throw it away what do you have to loose to try to fix it!!
So, Welcome to my adventure of life. . . Hang on, it is just a little scattered and sometimes confusing even to me!! And have fun. . .
So I want to share my life as a tinkerer, show you what my newest project is, what I learned from it, and hopefully inspire a few people to just try something new. If it is broke and you are going to throw it away what do you have to loose to try to fix it!!
So, Welcome to my adventure of life. . . Hang on, it is just a little scattered and sometimes confusing even to me!! And have fun. . .
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