Rule of thumb is 6 weeks worth, although some items tend to be cyclical.

Oops. Seasonal, not cyclical.

Anyway, a good book for the times is Amy Dacyczyn’s The Tightwad Gazette. Some of the numbers are out-of-date, but the principle is the same: the money flowing OUT of a household budget is just as important as what comes IN.

and I’m armed, if necessary. I hope it will never come to that, but I will not be found lacking.

My family just bought our first shotgun yesterday. Signed up for classes on Saturdays. If push comes to shove we can’t hold off the military or a mob, but we will take 1 or 2 with us when we go.

What I’m looking at is not the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market, but the long-term ability for the United States and the entire world economy to regain its footing. And, you know, the stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. You know, it bobs up and down day to day. And if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you’re probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong.

What part of the DOW dropping 1000 points a months since he took office doesn’t he understand? The productive class is saying the long term strategy is wrong. Not slow, or ineffective or suboptimal, but wrong.

Even a Harvard education didn’t teach the Miserable Failure in Chief much.

On March 4th, 2009 at 7:52 am, CJ said:

Re the pantry principle…My wife does a great job watching for sales and utilizing coupons. As part of her last grocery excursion she come home with 10 cans of kidney beans for 12 cents each (or something like that), free jars of peanut butter, etc.

On March 3rd, 2009 at 5:59 pm, BlameAmericaLast said:

And that doesn’t even start to cover the “hidden” taxes…environmental compliance reporting just to name one. Not that you didn’t comply – just filling in the stupid report which is 100% non-value added. America is not better off because you filled in the report. The town is not better off. The company is certainly not better off. NOBODY wins by filling in reports.
The list goes on and on and on.

So they always kept the basement full of food, and bought extra things when times were good. For example, if there was a sale, my mother bought 3 of what she needed, not one.

It actually has a name: the pantry principle. Stores (particularly grocery stores) offer sales called “loss leaders.” Those are the better-than-half-price items on the front page of their advertising flyers that the store offers at a loss in the hopes of attracting you to the store. They figure they will make up the loss on the non-sale items you’ll pick up while you’re at their store (milk, eggs, etc).

The idea of the pantry principle is that you buy enough of the loss leaders to last you until the next time they go on sale. Rule of thumb is 6 weeks worth, although some items tend to be cyclical. (Hamburger tends to get heavy markdowns around Memorial Day and Labor Day, ham around Christmas.)

When my kids were little and money was tight, I used to put a cooler in the car. There were 3 grocery stores in close proximity, and I shopped them all. One store had overall lower prices, but the sales weren’t as good. One store had great sales, but overall prices were higher — that one probably lost money on me since the only things I bought there were the loss leaders.

You might want to consider upgrading to a new model of rodent.

Actually, as part of my new Galtness, I’m shutting the whole server down. I’m in the process of moving my clients off it. I haven’t decided where to host my personal site yet. It’s a real concern of mine that at some point in the not too distant future, the sort of things I’m likely to write won’t be legal. And hosting it overseas isn’t much of a solution either. Kiddie porn is a-okay; blasphemy against Islam or Obamessiah is not so well received.

and I’m armed, if necessary. I hope it will never come to that, but I will not be found lacking.

There was a time when I was a boot camp instructor, we were just starting to integrate men and women together. I was giving a lecture and this little lady wanted to know WHY SHE COULDNT join a ‘certain’ group. And she wouldnt let up.

So after the lecture was over, I pulled her aside and asked her a simple question: “So you’re telling me you have no problem sneaking up on someone and slitting their throat?”

She turned and looked at me in horror and said “You mean you might have to kill someone?”

I didnt hear from her again the rest of the class.

When the purges come, its going to take less than 2 weeks for the libs to die of no water. That is IF the Giardia doesnt get them first.

Then in about 3 months (or less in winter), there’s going to be a LOT of free things to loot because the rest of the people (especially the vegans!) dont know how to acquire food. And a lot of princesses dont know how to kill, clean and prep a raccoon or snake.

[ @#$%#@%$ now how do I grow soy and seaweed in 2 feet of snow again????? ]

On March 3rd, 2009 at 6:02 pm, LauraC said:

I’m feeding the gerbils as fast as I can! LOL.

Gerbils do trend to be lazy and wear out after a few thousands laps around the Habitrail.

Theres a reason my name is what it is! You might want to consider upgrading to a new model of rodent.