Anyone improving his or her diet and exercise plan, or resorting to alternative medicine?

I have been doing muscle testing with my boy -- his body isn't a fan of the whole wheat bread we bought, although he has cravings for it, and sugar is not my friend -- and am wondering what the health care, food processing and pharmaceutical industries would look like if we ate just what gives us energy and didn't consume food our bodies don't want. Note I'm not making any diet dictocrat statement here: if your body is weakened by grains or fruits, don't eat grains or fruits. If triple-processed newfangled soy products mess with your fertility, restrict soy to the traditionally fermented miso, natto and tempeh.
There are bodies that can live well without meat and dairy, but not every body can. Apparently there's at least one person whose body does well on hot fudge sundaes: in my opinion you are indeed blessed if your body can make good use of such a delectable treat!

I saw that the American Academy of Family Physicians announced its partnership with the Coca-Cola company. I want to see how they jointly spin the value of 39g sweetener (or sugar, if you drink Mexican Coke) for a body taking at most 2000 calories a day (US Department of Agriculture recommends no more than 40 grams of refined sugars daily). Or share the health benefits of aspartame. Maybe there's someone out there whose body can handle daily sugar intake in excess of 40g. I'm going to try testing my friends.

Me, I'm using stevia and honey to sweeten my beverages (tea, morning cup of joe). Hubby bought some agave syrup. I know the stevia and agave syrup are refined, but I gotta start somewhere. I can judge and work on only my own food choices.

I'm thinking no matter where you are on the topic of health care reform or what your body recognizes as energy-giving foods, as a consumer you undoubtedly want to spend less, and you trust your body and mind enough to let it make correct decisions for you, or learn more about self-insuring preventive maintenance to keep the bills down. The "weaken the nutritive value of food--sell it to the masses--tell them it's good for them--watch them get diabetes and cancer--tell them it's genetics--maintain immunity from liability suits" schtick shouldn't work.

Link du Jour: smartstops.net Oh that I had learned of this site back in August...

Smart starts
Potential long-term growth industries worth researching this fall and investing this winter:
environmental companies
low-end retailers
educational companies
infrastructure companies
biotechnology
Real Estate Invetment Trusts
tax preparation companies
asset management firms focused predominantly on retirement assets

Every road trip within 200 miles I bring The Complete Tightwad Gazette and mark in my notebook selected strategies. I wrote down about thirty, including books to send away for or trawl for (I LOVE the used bookstores in my area! We have so many readers!). It's a good month if I can save the cost of the book in that month.

I air-dried one laundry load.
I tried the 20-minute pasta cook strategy: boil water on the stove, put in pasta, bring to another boil, stir, then cover, and turn off heat. Stir once or twice during the 20 minutes.

Both of these worked well.

Some investments I made this week: more canning lids, Kerr's Blue Book of Canning, and wooden clothespins. I didn't think they were available anymore, but was surprised to see them in several areas. Shows you how little I frequent hardware stores.

I am hoping the karma bump will visit me in my jobhunt efforts fairly quickly. A company about 25 miles away, that also employs a long-term friend, is looking for someone with my skills, so I asked him about referral bonuses.

I did get a karma bump when I found most of the recipe for apple pie my mother made. You know how it seems most moms, especially the American ones, are revered for their apple pie skills? I have made apple pie but once, before my son was born, but he has salivated over my apple crisp since he was eight months old. I wonder what new levels of devotion he'll be taken to once I make the apple pie.

some notes from a July 15 Andrew Tobias column:

HOW TO THINK ABOUT DEBT

You want to owe as little as possible, especially adjustable-rate debt (because it’s hard to see how at some point inflation will not get reflected in higher interest rates).

The one big exception is a good long-term fixed rate mortgage. This is a great deal, because the lender is on the hook to you for 20 years (say), at 5%, whereas you are on the hook to the lender, typically, not at all – you can pay off the debt any time you want. So in case we had nutty inflation for a while, the $200,000 you had borrowed at 6%, which was a stretch at the time, would seem ever less daunting with each passing year.

Yeah, with 90 banks identified by the FDIC as failing, who's gonna buy my mortgage from my privately owned regional bank surviving from before the Great Depression? I did see today that a bank that issued a HELOC to a friend has gone under.

Easy Money is Liz Pulliam Weston's new book, and I recommend it to people who need checklists or informed guidance on getting their financial ducks in a row.

Readers of this blog know I tend to obsess, and reallocate, and oscillate between panic and relief. They know that my most pressing schizoid problem is attempting to save for "the basics" and saving for "hard times."

The "hard times" crowd I run around with are big believers in gold, commodities, foreign currency, and selling the house.
That's fine when one's house is in tip-top condition. My house needs some love, and yet, threatened with an uncertain economy, I do not have the cojones to face down the stigma of borrowing against my house to improve it.

Anyhow, on page 126, Chapter 7: Buying Homes and Cars, Ms. Weston outlines her idea of how people should prioritize their financial goals:

1. Retirement needs to be a top priority.
That means contributing as much as possible to a Roth IRA and contributing 10 to 15 percent of the gross income.

2. Sufficient insurance coverage: health, life, disability, home, and auto insurance.

3. University education for children.

4. Paying off the mortgage.

Before reading that, my goals look more like this:
1. Home Improvement.
2. Sustainability. (Who's gonna buy my house when utilities are freaking high? How'm I gonna afford my other goals when my energy costs spiral upwards?)
3. Emergency fund.
4. Retirement.
5. Osaka.
6. Paying down the mortgage.
7. Replacement car.
8. University education.
9. Insurance (outside of what work covers).

Aside from Osaka and sustainability, I believe most items on that list are what ordinary (the bottom 80% of income earners) Americans have on their financial wish lists. I'm supposed to be saving 45% of our gross income meeting these goals -- eep! Time for me to learn to love the humble bean and shivering at night.

I looked at the Consumer Expenditure Survey for 2005-2006 and was surprised to see that every region suffered an increase of liabilities to assets in 2005-2006. Not so surprised to see the West's liabilities jumping up by $36K (quick! in what region can you find Stockton, Riverside, Henderson, Las Vegas, and Phoenix?)

I also saw some sort of map (believe me, I'm trying to look for the URL) today and noted that most northern counties in my fair state, plus Detroit's county, plus the northern tip of New Hampshire are the only border areas that have suffered moderately heavy foreclosures. Now, if you look at counties close to the other border, you see something akin to a crisis. Nobody wants to be near Canadians in their senior years, unless you count the snowbirds in Florida. I smell retirement home investment opportunity as climate change accelerates.

1. Organic Food. For sure. I am a localvore, more or less, relying on foods caught, raised and grown within my state. The Food Labeling Act of 2006 has led me to distrust food labels on supermarket shelves -- it was lobbied for by at least seven out of nine food processing companies California Attorney General Bill Lockyer tried to sue two months before Rep. Michael Rogers of Michigan drafted the bill. Nobody in my family has an advanced degree in chemistry to help us ascertain how many additives or preservatives can be safely ingested or for how long to prevent cancer, and seeing as food is one of the few variables I can control for preventing cancer...

2. Lunches out.

3. Dinners out.

4. Hair. I was floored to read that most families spend under $60 for personal care a month. With careful budgeting, I can manage under $100. I believed that what I paid was the going rate for haircuts and hair colour because that's what the salons I went to were charging.

5. Internet and Cell phone stuff. I don't know how people develop tolerance for cell phone spam via texting or autodialing -- I can't fathom wilfully paying for such garbage. I look forward to the cessation of our contract.

This is a bonus. I unplugged the television and other peripherals downstairs.

The city wants us to discard our old refrigerators and get newer, more efficient ones. I may do this.

I challenged myself to come up with ways where I have saved thousands of dollars a year. Here are some:

1. We have only one car. Insuring, maintaining, fueling and paying for another car would cost us $5K.
2. My child grew out of full-time daycare.
3. We drive the car mostly on weekends, with two wee (5-mile round trip maximum) errands during the week.
4. Contributing 10-15% to 401(k) plans.
5. Refinancing has, on average, saved us over $4K a year.

Update: I enjoyed Heather Havrilesky's 4-18-2008 Salon article; there's so much I could identify with. Growing tomatoes, baking bread, buying food in bulk, making bean soup, shopping the natural food stores for bulk beans. It's worth reading the comments for some yummy bean soup recipes.

I invited the Realtor who helped us buy our home in 1999 to come over and give us ideas for what we can do to "upgrade" our house for the cost of what we would have spent to sell (about 11% of the current value, which she sees as higher than what Zillow tells us). Our house and property are a mess, thanks to years of child-tending, depression, laziness, distraction, full-time day care and retirement money-growing. But now, of course, with the market in a tailspin, and credit markets seizing up, I have an emergency fund and some cash to invest in the house. Score one for timing Ms. Goddard! That's up there with giving birth three weeks after 9/11!

I am so glad I invited her over: she was honest as a real estate professional could be, yet optimistic that we'd have s shorter recessionary/depression stint given our state's export strengths and tendency to be last in/first out in economic downcycles (except for the dark Boeing years of the mid 1970s?). Inventory in the county is at near ten months, but in my price range it's more like three months. She gave us names of the professionals she uses for remodeling and landscaping. This will be a multi-year project, which means that relocating is probably out of the question this year. Maybe in 2011...

In the meantime I'll see if I can raise our HELOC to $60K or as low as $40K. I read on Mish's Global Economics blog an article excerpt where a woman with a $168K HELOC on her Newport Beach, CA property had found it reduced to $10,000. She had never used the HELOC and found her limit cut to 6% of what it was formerly. I myself would be irritated/squawking like a wet hen if my HELOC was reduced to $1,071, and yes entitlement has a mighty squawk to it. I'm wondering if Citigroup's nervous condition has anything to do with the 94% pruneback.

Mish supports Citigroup's stunning move:
Look at this from Citigroup's point of view.

• She has decreasing home equity, most likely no equity.
• California is in decline with a long way to go before houses can be considered affordable.
• The US is in recession.
• People are losing jobs.
• She does not know the difference between money and credit.
• She does not understand the difference between her money and someone else's money.
• She spent $55,000 trying to "make a baby" (mentioned in the article).
• She is about to adopt a child instead (also mentioned in the article).
• Her cash went down and her expenses are clearly going to rise as a result of the last two points. (Yeah, if FT daycare is now 105% that of a mortgage payment, not to mention diapers, and baby food...)

Yet she had $300K to put down on a home and rental properties. How do people with this kind of thinking get money? Stock options? Inheritances? Rich partners?

What will I do if I can't raise the HELOC? Probably just renovate the bathroom for now, pay it off in four months, see if I can get my MSFT contract renewed for another 12, and if yes, then I'm doing the kitchen.

There's my cue to go get disability insurance, because I can't count on using the HELOC for an emergency fund. Truth be told, I had been doing exactly that since June 2006, using the money only for the windows, which added at least as much in value to the house as I had spent on them, and paying it back at the rate of $1400/week.

I dug holes for two strawberry plants purchased this afternoon: Shuksan and Tristar.

I'm going to restrict the garden beds to two for now, and try some garden ovals in the back and in the front, and move the roses somewhere sunny. Maybe the roses can have an oval to themselves in front -- they do a good job at getting me out in the sun and talking to the neighbours.

A. Gardening
1. Bought one start of English thyme. Why? Because it can be grown year-round.
2. Bought one start of Cupani sweet pea. Why? Because I like the smell of it.
3. Bought one bag of potting soil. Why? To start potting some herbs.
4. E-mailed Seattle Farm Company to help me with my urban farmscape.
5. Am sterilizing my plastic pots with a vinegar-water solution.

I am not kidding myself so much to believe I can tend a backyard garden by myself. But I would like to grow tomatoes (I've read your comment, lostindebt: last May at Mother's Day I got two tomato plants, and they were pumping out succulent fruit like it was nobody's business).

B. Exercise
1. Reserved my spot for an introduction to yoga class.

C. Being sociable/good neighbour.
1. Agreed to donate blood. Now must go buy some iron and some Vitamin C tablets.
2. Paid for tickets for school auction.
3. Strongly considering attending an ice cream social at a community club.

Learned through the Hsh.com calculator that we need an income of $63925.57 to afford our mortgage payment. This is some relief.

Counted forty-four homes for sale as we arced from the Fremont neighbourhood back to our home. Who knew Fremont, Phinney Ridge, and Greenwood areas to be so crappy that people would be rushing to sell early in the year? Or are the looming ARM resets responsible?

Had a nasty dream this morning: in my dream I had a memory of us as a family doing something fun and leisurely in July 1978, and the bills accumulated and came to me in payment this year, as my mother had passed on almost a decade ago. "$16,000? Okay. $37,000? For one little trip? That's pricey, but I can manage." and then a third bill for $310,898. "Holy moly! I can't pay that!"

I think $314098.92 might be very close to what we would eventually pay for our house, with principal and interest. Blood rushes from my head to think about what bill my son would be looking at for our collective short-term fiscal myopia... he might never leave our house.

Okay, so from the intertwining of post topics and shared reading over the past few days, it looks like my brain has entered an intentional community with that of lux living frugalis. I'm glad my brain can do one good thing on occasion.

A follow-up on "I Ask Myself, How Much Do You Commit Yourself" and my Insurance Bill musings, especially after V's comment about targeting and planning charitable giving: I am reading The Better World Handbook and on page 266 is the suggestion of setting up a giving budget.

"On January 1, make up a list of your values. Then find organizations that are working to make those values real in the world. Don't let your giving be dictated by who sends you a request in the mail[, or who makes unsolicited fund-raising calls]. Do some research to find the best organizations and the ones that best represent your ideals. The last step is to set up dates and the dollar amounts that you plan to send to those organizations. A giving budget keeps your charitable giving at the forefront of your mind throughout the year so that it doesn't take a back seat to all of the other ways you want to spend your money."

I like this because it seems to me that groups will try more than annually to get additional contributions. This way I can record my contributions, collect receipts, keep records, and say to those who have their hands out for more: "sorry, my funds have been allotted for other organizations at least as fabulous as yours."

Consider also that charity begins at home: national and global organizations like Unicef and Doctors Without Borders do good, yet making additional room in your giving budget for donating to local non-profit organizations has the added benefit of local community improvement, a difference you can see.

Not only that, but making a list of one's values can be wonderfully focusing for how one chooses to budget time and money for maximum impact. We budget for what's important for us. Time is also valuable -- we should budget time to allow us to accomplish what we want.

GuideStar - Non-profits and charities search
Charity Navigator -- how effectively do organizations put ra...

My next car will emit fewer than 6.8 tons of carbon monoxide annually. It will get better than 25 - 31 mpg, which is different from the numbers on a manufacturer's official EPA MPG claim sticker, and it will have at least a four-star safety rating from SaferCar.gov

It's funny that the car I'm driving now, which is scratched and probably worth $1500 at best, is decently safe and has better mileage than popular automobiles made ten years later. It will be larger than the car I'm driving now, as I will probably be hearing "Mom can you drive us to..." by then. I've had it for 114,000 miles and will probably have it for 57,000 more or until some distracted-by-tech-gizmo egomaniac driver plows into me on a crowded highway.

The Nissan Altima 2007 looks good, as do the Toyota Camry 2007 and the new Nissan Versa 2008 (should check safety ratings).

FuelEconomy.gov

What clever savings strategies do you have for a homeowner/full-time working mother who doesn't shop for food at a grocery store? These strategies should take less than fifteen minutes a day to do and not risk bodily harm and physical discomfort.

USDA Food Plans: Adobe Acrobat Format in case this helps with your budgeting.

Budget categories we should cut down to be at national average for our income, according to Mvelopes:

Water/Sewer/Recycling
Groceries
Allowances
Auto Maintenance
Home Maintenance

Budget categories we should raise to be at national average for our income:
Donations
House furniture
Clothing

Where we rule:
Savings
Electricity

I was pleased to see that the nation was spending 22% of its net income on mortgage/rent... ours came to 21.1% but we have a twenty-year mortgage. So we're "just right" with our three bedroom house with yard in the city.

I don't know what to do about the water. We don't have a dishwasher, and we have aerators and low-flow toilets. I looked into tankless water heaters but was convinced that they would cost us more money rather than save. I do crave my hot baths once a month, and even more frequently in the winter... Could it be that my area charges more for water/sewer/yard waste/recycling than others? And my area is dirt cheap (third lowest in the nation) for electricity?

Ready to try it yourself? Here's the link

Off-topic:
Oh yay. Stock up on the nonperishables and the silver.

Are you tired of me mentioning my area is expensive?

Food: $786.97 (includes eating out, vitamins, cod liver oil, spirulina, booze, pet food, four major food groups groceries)

Housing: $2379.20 (includes mortgage, household operations, apparel, services, furnishings, utilities, savings plan for new roof)

Transportation: $1257.20 (includes savings plan for new car, FlexCar usage, maintenance, gas/oil, parking, public transport, taxis, insurances, lube jobs, license fees)

Living: $883.54 (includes healthcare, entertainment, warehouse store membership, allowances, toys, games, birthday gifts, cards, stamps, personal care products/services, veterinary costs, reading, education, miscellaneous, cash contributions)

Subtotal:$5813.35
Savings: $ 948.69 ( 16.3%, includes IRA)

I received these numbers from a 2005 Survey of Consumer Expenditures, used mostly numbers from the second-highest quintile, and multiplied by 1.21 to account for stealth inflation, and for the attempt of reducing expenses by 10%.

I might have said this before, I will say it again: I want to meet local people who earn what we earn and manage two cars and home maintenance and have $2K left over at the end of the month after post-tax retirement contributions.

I'm reading Bill McKibben's Deep Economy and this NY Times article from 2006 about happiness. I am sad that my lifestyle is not sustainable, and I wonder if I'm going to downscale gracefully enough to remain "above water." What I want is, if my net worth should tumble down 10-15% next year, to be able to shrug my shoulders, do a kickstep, and shuffle down the road, thinking "big deal. As long as I'm happy."

Also, a link to a clue as to where my head has been for the last nine months.

Goal: $16,956.44 in 'Savings' by Feb. 21.
'Savings' = CDs, Savings Accts.
Savings right now: $15,532.20

(I shall look for work from Feb - May, in addition to starting a garden.)

Thanks, 'Another Goal' commenters
Having read your comments, I don't feel quite so alone. Physically removed, because I am touched enough by the comments to want to give hugs, but not alone.

Anyway, some links on frugal eating I found interesting:
Scrumptions Sprouting for Your Meals

Five Foods I Grew Tired of Buying and How I Quit
Food Stamp Nutrition Connection: Recipes Finder -- not just for people on food stamps!

This one is on healthy eating, which could be frugal if it means fewer healthcare costs. I recommend it to people who are into cancer prevention diets: Dr. Mercola's Food Facts

I wonder if I should post this on the forums, because other people might benefit from it, but right now it seems self-centered:

I am now a wee bit ashamed of my ennui last night. We were prepping for a major windstorm: I put smaller garden items in the shed and in the garage, our 17 city-block-radius area was out of power for over three hours. Large tree limbs blocked the sidewalk. I saw a smashed wood trellis toppled over a neighbour's shrubs. That was anti-climactic compared to November/December 2006's nasty storm.

I made a list, on the bus this morning, of ways I could have used my time better last night. I could do this stuff whenever "there's nothing to do."

1. Household inventory
2. Put items on Freecycle
3. Plan meals (I actually did some of this, for it was CSA box pickup day)
4. Thaw food for the next day's dinner
5. Clean laundry area
6. Clean pet area
7. Start a price book
8. File financial statements
9. Shred stuff
10. Write a letter
11. Sell magazines on eBay
12. Clean outdoor pots.
13. Go through closets and get rid of torn, small, rarely worn clothing.
14. Read up on PNW gardening.

What else? The Simple Dollar has suggestions.

Before last week I would not have considered my shower/bath unit to be fraught with danger. Two reports of freak shower accidents causing death and disability to women my age too closely timed to each other have jolted me. Yeah. No rape, murder, or left-turn collisions, but rather SHOWERTIME is a risk. How freaky is that?

baselle offered this comment
and yes, in the darkness of Seattle autumns and winters a frothy tub of fragrant suds is wonderfully restorative, maybe even with some lit candles, chilled Aqua Libra tubside and some Puccini or (The Real) Tuesday Weld playing nearby, and then the scrubdown with a large, soft towel, and the layering of fragrance: body lotion, powder, eau de parfum... oh yeah baby...

However, for those mindtweak moments (which for some reason always happen two-three days before my period) where I feel I will never catch up to where I believe most Seattleites are ("OMG! Look at my plane! My stock options! My Subaru Forester/Legacy/Outback with politically correct activist stickers on the bumper!My Ph.D! My big house overlooking the water! As long as I have the big bucks to keep driving my vehicle to work I don't ever have to vote in the interests of the masses for wider, cleaner, cheaper mass transportation options but in every other way I am oh so green"), I delude myself into thinking cutting down on my water/natural gas expenditures is going to PUT ME ON THE ROAD TO WEALTH.

Here is the text from Dr. Bronner's 18-in-1 pure castile soap label. One can use pure, toxin-free soap frugally to maintain American standards of cleanliness the following way:

Enjoy only 2 cosmetics, enough sleep & Dr. Bronner's 'Magic Soap' to clean body-mind-soul-spirit instantly uniting One! All-One! Absolute cleanliness is Godliness! For facial packs, scalp & soothing body rub, add dash on bath towel in sink of hot water. Wring out. Lay over face & scalp. Massage with fingertips. Repeat 3 or 4 times 'til arms, legs & all are rubbed, always towards the heart. Rinse towel in plain hot water and massage again. Breathe deeply! Health is Wealth. Within 9 minutes you feel fresh, mint-clean, saving 90% of your hot water and soap, ready to teach the whole Human race the Moral ABC of All-One-God-Faith! For we're All-One or none! All-One! All-One!

To simplify & enjoy life more, dilute 1/2 oz. or 2 squirts of this pure castile soap with 2 gallons or sinkful hot water, then towel massage a facial pack, then wring towel out & fingertip massage your hair & scalp. Enjoy the creamy emollient lather on baby, bath, beach, body, dentures, mint deodorant, shaving, mouthwash-silk-wool-pets-diapers-car-hand & foot soap.

Always dilute for Shave-Shampoo-Massage-Dental-Soap Bath!
Peppermint is nature's own unsurpassed fragrant deodorant!
1% & 99% hot water = facial pack, shampoo, hair conditioner!
A dash in glass water = breath freshening Peppermint Soap!
For massage, dilute 1 part in 10 parts hot water! Not oil!
Apply Peppermint Soap undiluted, to clean ant-mosquito-tick-fly!
Dilute with hot water to clean & freshen from head to toe!
Peppermint Oil Soap for Dispensers-Uniforms-Baby-Beach!
3 dashes in water rinse most Sprays off fruit & vegetables!
2% soap in water sprays-cleans flowers & fruit trees!

This reads like a testimonial for Dr. Bronner's. It probably is. I don't get any money for it. A nine-minute visit with hot water, washcloth and Dr. Bronner's seems cheaper to me than four months in rehab or a funeral.

I got these from a forum on Another F@cked Borrower. I may be smug about underconsuming, but comparing my family to that of another American family in a SFR is no big deal. There are still many things we could do, and although I'm in no clear danger now, I'd rather not have to rely on the grace of a divine power to get me through the Depression to come, and I'm dissatisfied with how little we save.

My problem is that my family wage-earners are lazy, scatter-brained and overworked at the same time. The problem USED to be how expensive childcare was.
I can see now where the temptation is to have a maid service, an au pair, a gardener, a landscaper...

#1 live within your means. Get rid of the credit card if you can (I haven't had one since 1998, when I got into trouble with it and had to get a loan to pay off the debt). Consider getting an Amex card, where you have to pay it off in full every month. Unless its a medical emergency, chances are you will survive if you don't have a brand new x,y,z...

#2 Know exactly how much money is coming in every month and how much is going out. Sounds, well, D'Uh!, but I've been amazed when my penchant for magazines has risen to $20 a month because I've neglected to keep an eye on peripheral spending. BTW, if like me you love magazines, consider selling them on eBay after you've read them. Seriously. I have a small eBay business doing just that. I may not make much money, but it pays for itself. There's a lot of collectors out there missing that particular issue of 'Wired' for instance, who will be more than happy to take it off your hands.

#3 Drive an older car that you have paid for. My current car is a Nissan Sentra, almost 10 years old, 70K on the clock. It goes like clockwork and I make sure its regularly serviced. I love pulling up next to a 2005 Hummer, seeing the conflicted sneering/'what if they dent my new car' look on the drivers faces...The same goes for clothes, shoes, eating out, groceries etc...maybe I'm just contrary, but I don't see the point of buying from Abercrombie & Fitch, when there's something equally as nice at Target.

4# Stick all the pennies you've saved being frugal into Tax-free/high interest rate accounts and watch the compound interest grow. Americans as a whole save less than any other Western Country. Which is astonishing, considering the amount of people who come over here (my husband and myself included) to make money.

If I did these, and more, perhaps I'd be too involved and too comfortable to be bothered by the expectation that I and fellow in the black as well as the more fiscally conservative folks are to help bail out people whose choices are made from greed, fear, and innumeracy. (I hope the innumeracy isn't typical of public school education here.)

The good news is that my state population is reducing its gasoline consumption. In fact, not since 1968 has it been the gas consumption per capita been this low: 7.9 gallons a week reported in 2006.

It's ironic that I came across this news item the morning after I did a marathon search and retrieval for Road Tunes to take with us. I feel a little guilty, but then again, what about the entertainers using up fuel and energy to bring "Live Earth" to the masses? Although my vacation is certainly more selfish. I don't want to have many regrets post August about places I didn't see or trips I didn't take. Besides, we went on two coastal trips in an air-conditioned Cadillac in an age of inflation and gas sanctions, so I want my son to live the good part of that for two weeks: "Here's what it's like to plant your toes in Redondo Beach. This is an observatory. This is an homage to excess. This is the country's finest martini---"well maybe not the martini part for the boy.

It does seem to me that we (I speak of my family only) are actually stepping up our gas usage: I'm in the car more frequently, but we're all in the car 80% of the time. I think for zoo visits or family events, my family should be going by bus as often as possible: we have only three months of free ridership for our boy.

I also have started a survival budget worksheet, with which I plan to apportion cyclically funds for things like landscaping, home energy, new roof, replacement car, gold, silver, and mortgage payoff.

I'm canvassing, informally, for good American literature to read on the road. Maybe to kill time in motel laundry facilities, or when somebody has a bathroom break, or in a line to visit the Mystery Spot or at Pink's. Here is my list of candidates so far:
Rabbit, Run -- John Updike
American Pastoral -- Philip Roth
The Penderwicks -- Jeanne Birdsall
Book of Common Prayer -- Joan Didion
Ishmael -- Daniel Quinn
The Public Burning -- Robert Coover
The Burnt Orange Heresy -- Charles Ray Willeford
Pale Fire -- Vladimir Nabokov

and one piece of British Literature:
Middlemarch -- George Eliot, simply because my Virgo friends have read it and I have not.

Feel free to add your suggestions.

I attended a local community group that is aware of the threat of dwindling global oil supply. I have been aware for close to a year, but kept 'blipping out' on the monthly meetings.

It was very good to be there -- I felt welcome, and not crazy.
What can I do to prepare myself and my family?
1. Get out of debt. Eliminate credit card debt first.
2. Imagine your house during a rolling blackout. How could you make it more livable?
-- I think "imagine your house with no power in December" and "imagine reducing your oil and gas consumption by 80% over the next five years."
3. Keep some clean water and non-perishable food around the house.
4. Keep a week’s worth of cash in the house.
5. Get to know your neighbours. Make friends with them.
6. Find a way to use mass transit, or, consider moving closer to work. -- DONE
7. Buy a share in Community Supported Agriculture. -- DONE
8. Learn how to save, store and repair things instead of throwing them away.
9. Consider learning how to garden organically and save rainwater--IN PROGRESS
10. Keep a year's worth of mortgage payments in the bank.

And really, even if things don't get that bad, or an asteroid comes and knocks us out of our orbit, is it so wrong to do any of the above?

It pays to read as much as one can, as widely as one can, about "green" energy alternatives. It's a hot topic, and shameless hucksters will present a dramatic statistic and not be forthright about how it applies to one's microclimate.

For instance, my state has very inexpensive electricity. The carbon dioxide emissions from electricity production per kilowatt hour in our state is 0.25, compared to the U.S. average of 1.34 (for years 1998 - 2000). Electricity costs are $25/month for us. Natural gas is more like $80/month. Several alternative energy suppliers may make much of the savings in energy, but if I'm spending I'm hoping the window replacement will take care of some of this. As I opened my natural gas bill, I did read an insert from my utility offering rebates (up to $300 or 50% off) for additional energy efficiency measures like duct sealing and insulation, floor/attic/wall insulation. Taking advantage of the rebates will reduce the payback time, and increase the internal rate of return. If an energy efficiency measure performs better than 12% a year, it makes sense for me to choose it over traditional investment vehicles.

We're consuming 55% - 70% of what the average family consumes in energy, in our antiquated house, but I think we can do better. I'm aware of the law of diminishing returns, however. I just don't recognize the savings until there's a 10% reduction in cost or energy use on my bill. Since the same period last year, we haven't seen a reduction in either.

Book information
The Carbon Buster's Home Energy Handbook: Slowing Climate Change and Saving Money, by Godo Stoyke.
New Society Publishers: Gabriola Island, BC, Canada; 2007.
Website Carbon Busters

I kind of joke. I have been reading The Power of Intention because I know I have been spiritually starved over the past two years. For eight months I hosted a disabled, ill friend who in turn made me feel needed and mitigated much of my depression.

She's giving me a chaise longue, and another friend is giving me an upright piano. The Forces That Be are dropping hints that my kid take piano lessons -- yesterday we entered a store we'd never visited before, to buy a tea strainer, and spoke with a man who taught piano for eighteen years...

This summer I will finally get rid of, somehow, my recliner and ottoman, and the tot's crib, and perhaps the secondary refrigerator. Perhaps they'll turn someone else's life around.

1. Sent my brother's diploma via global express to him. $38.00

2. Bought three LUSH gift certificates for my kid's preschool teachers for Staff Appreciation Week. $60.00

3. Coworker's spouse died suddenly. $5.00 for flowers and card.

4. Got coveted lottery-drawn spot in a class. $20.00 cash deposit. Remainder cost, $40.00 due later.

Introducing the Hipster PDA

I've been obsessively writing these lists on spiral-bound notebooks I scatter in cars and rooms. Now I can just write them once, put them in a binder clip, and carry them around in my purse. When I get distracted: "buy uranium! invest in Canada! get another ETF!" I can look at my cards and remind myself that "hey, this investment just isn't in the cards for me."

Five year plan

Investment
* Foreign Bonds
* International Small-Cap
* Clean Energy
* Precious Metals and Mining
* Gold (ownership)
* Natural Resources
* Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities
* Water

House
* Garden: pruning
* Garden: raised beds
* Garden: planting (vegetables)
* Double-paned, energy-efficient windows
* Fireplace Insert
* Insulation: attic, maybe basement

-------------------
Homeland Security

Accounts
* Savings
* His Roth
* My Roth
* I-Bonds
* Gold
* E*Trade
* TD Am.
* Tot Coverdell
* Tot Stock
* Prosper.com

Health
* Bicycling
* Yoga
* Gardening
* Organic food
* Walking

Things That Will Happen Before Social Security Faces a Short... - Center for Economic and Policy Research, Dean Baker, June 2005.

I sense I'm in a "Red Queen Syndrome" running faster and faster to stay in the same place. If people are wealthier, as evidenced by the nicer cars and larger vehicles and electronic gadgets and trips, how can it be that the average equity in mortgages is going down?

I've also decided that it is not good for my sanity to assume that all the Americans know what I am just learning about food politics, natural living, cancer prevention, climate change, stealth inflation, federal unrepayable debt obligations, and have an unfair comparative advantage. And it's not good for my sanity to assume that all the American middle-income families (except mine) are easily managing "the 60% solution," "the 50% budget," or whatever nifty savings meme some personal finance authors and editors tout, and assume that I'm the one doing something wrong. I'm going to pretend I have the unfair comparative advantage and share what I learn online. Then if I am going down the wrong road, I am sure people will jump on me with corrective statistics, and not ideology. How well does ideology feed and prepare one, anyway?

"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?" -- Rabbi Hillel

From The Book of the Bath
and Simple Pleasures of the Home

Pine Bath Oil
-- skin softener. Pour a little into your bath under running water.

1 cluster pine needles
1 cup baby oil

Put pine needles in a glass container with a lid. Cover completely with baby oil, and cover the container tightly. Store in dry, cool place for 4 weeks. Strain the oil and decant into an attractive glass bottle. You can add fresh pine needles for decoration. Makes 1 cup.
----------------------
Facial Sauna
2 drops fennel essential oil
2 drops lavender essential oil
2 drops lemon essential oil
2 drops orange essential oil

Mix oils together and pour intoa bowl of steaming water. Drape a towel over your head and the bowl and sit, allowing the steam to penetrate your pores. Be careful not to put your face too close--this should be a luxurious feeling, not a painful one.
-----------------------
Soothing Lavender Bath
1/2 ounce dried lavender flowers
1/2 ounce basil
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 pt. witch hazel

Make a powder of the herbs in a mortar and pestle. Steep them in the witch-hazel for 2 weeks. Strain and add to warm bath water as desired. May also be used as an after-bath splash.
-----------------------
Jasmine Bubble Bath
1 Tbsp. mild liquid soap
2 tsp. oil of jasmine
2 tsp. witch hazel

Combine ingredients and add directly to fast-running bath water.

Jasmine bath #2
2 drops oil of Jasmine
1 cup distilled water

Combine ingredients and add to warm bathwater. Float camellias or gardenias on the surface of the water.
-------------------------
Lavender Facial Steam
1/4 cup lavender
peel of 1 lemon, dried
2 tsp. rosemary

Add the ingredients to the porcelain bowl, pour in boiling water and steam for as long as you wish.

If you think we're heading for a recession/depression, but not an all-out collapse. I really hope we don't have a collapse. If we do, at least we have memorized the movie "Modern Times" to know that a person can live creatively and intelligently on next to nothing, and a sunrise is just as beautiful whether you're a multimillionaire with your own movie studio or a shabby vagrant.

Keep in mind that this list is plagiarized. When I find a source I'll attribute it.

1. Rail investments.
2. Oil and gas drilling service companies. Their equipment is going to be in high demand.

3. Uranium companies, especially ones that are building mines. Uranium companies in Canada and Australia would be best.

4. Solid gold and silver. Can't be nationalized. Will grow in value as the cascading collapse of the world's financial system goes forward.

5. Mortgaged properties. During the Depression, the U.S. made laws that said that people who go bankrupt can't be evicted from their homes.

6. An orchard in an agricultural area where there is a regional shortage of the fruit.

7. Insulation for your home.

8. A green house or hydroponic grow room for your home. Nobody can steal food that is grown indoors as long as they don't come inside.

9. A law degree. After the crash, civil lawsuits will skyrocket as people start defaulting on all debt.

10. A medical degree. There will always be demand for doctors and nurses.

11. A High-efficiency motor vehicle.