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Week of November 10, 2008This is an OPT-IN list ONLY! If you feel that you have received this message in error, please follow the directions at the bottom of this email to unsubscribe. Thank you.Click Here to view this newsletter online. Navigate This ColumnGrandpa Terry's Update Welcome to The Budget Stretcher! A very special welcome if
you are a new subscriber. It has finally came to the point that I have changed the name of our Tips section in the left column from "Subscriber Tips" to "Money Saving Tips" because no one is submitting their tips. I am currently using tips submitted to me by Dollar Stretcher. 
My son-in-law sent me some information about the launch of the USS New York that was constructed by steel melted down from the World Trade Center buildings. I thought you would like to see just what Americans can do when they put their mind to it.It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center. It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions th at i nclude special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft. Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite , LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept 9, 2003, 'those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence,' recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. 'It was a spiritual moment for everybody there.' Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the 'hair on my neck stood up.' 'It had a big meaning to it for all of us,' he said. 'They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back.' 
The ship's motto? 'Never Forget' USS New York Official Site Snopes Verification Interesting Fact: Coincidentally, a previous holder of the name, USS New York (BB-34), had its keel laid on 11 September 1911, exactly 90 years to the day before the World Trade Center attack. That's all for now. Remember, I really enjoy hearing from you folks. If you have any comments, complaints, suggestions or just want to say Hi, please send me an email to tre2000@midwest.net If you know someone that may be interested in subscribing to our newsletter just copy and paste the below link into an email to them and have them subscribe: http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/confirmsubs.html Have a great week, Grandpa Terry Sponsor AdvertisementJoin the thousands who are enjoying monthly residual incomes who can now afford to spend the time doing the things they have always dreamed of and the freedom it brings. Start your own business for less than $100 with a money back guarantee! A business that you will be proud of. Represent the best products and services that money can buy but for much less. Introduce our wholesale membership program just once. The company does all the rest. They take the orders, deliver the products and send you a check. A residual check. Monthly income for a one time referral to our service. http://www.familyfirst.fourpointconsultants.com Grandpa Terry's Tip of the WeekI couldn't have been more wrong. Just couple of months ago if someone had told me gas would get below $2 a gallon I would have disagreed and probably argued the point. But, my last check of gas prices at my local station was below $2 a gallon and still going down. Why? I really don't have a clue or how long it will stay down. It almost makes you want to take a trip just for the savings. When gas was up to around $4 we could all understand why other prices were going up. It just stands to reason that everything has to be shipped and when that costs more it has to be added on to our price. So why, if gas is coming down, isn't everything else? There again, I don't have a clue. This just shows you how quickly your entire budget can be affected by our economy. If you were paying $80 a week to get to work in May you are paying about $40 a week now. But, for how long. You can't depend on the prices of the things we need to stay the same which means your budget has to be flexible. I know it was hard but we actually did make it through $4+ gas prices and survived. Where did that extra money come from? Maybe it was out of your grocery budget or your savings. No matter where you got that extra money you found it somewhere because you had to. You ad no choice. It's amazing what we can do when there is no alternative. This is why I preach that (with few exceptions) "You can make it on what you earn". All you have to do is place a sense of urgency on the task and you will probably be able to find the money. Our economy is unstable right now. It may be a good idea to put your gas savings into your savings account just in case the prices start heading in the other direction. It would be nice to be prepared this time. Sponsor AdvertisementAre you frustrated trying to get by on the money you make? Would you like to get a good view to where all your money is going? Would you like to start saving your money, or save even more? Looking for something easier then software like Quicken or Money? Would you like to teach your children about finance? Click Here to check out My Budget Planner Today Grandpa Terry's EmailHi Terry:The current rule on a Widow's benefits is that she can start collecting a reduced benefit as a widow at age 60. I am doing that. The rules for SS are on the SS site on the internet. www.ssa.gov . The supervisor for the local SS ofc. spoke to my retired federal employees group. He said that Social Security advises you to collect as soon as you can. If you don't need the money, put it in a shoe box and when you are the age where your benefits would not have been reduced, you can take so much money out of the shoebox each month and add it to your monthly benefits. You really make out by collecting early. I needed the money at age 60 with my Widow's benefits, and was thankful I could collect at age 60. My Response: Hi, Thank you for setting me straight. I went to the Social Security web site and you are absolutely correct. I didn't know that. All the best, Terry Subscribe to and be mentored by one of the greatest gramps in the cyber world (who is also a vet and raising his kids the same way!!) I've been a subscriber for a longgg time, I am currently working minimum wage minimum hours really desiring prayer and a full time job soon thanks partly to the Budget Stretcher mostly to GOD'S conviction and guidance I'm doing much better than the first time I ever sent a question to Grandpa Terry. I am grateful to his wife for her training of him (yes wives get credit behind every good man ahem). Mow the tip: be sure to subscribe and read this. I have a Budget Stretcher folder so I got lots of issues to refer to.:) Thank you for all your help and advice over the years!! By the way hope your son is doing well. rose HI grandpa Terry... Just wanted to give you a heads up to a cool thing I'm following lately. it is "I AM BOSSY"'s blog. I have been a reader of hers (Not NEARLY as long as YOURS)...and on her side link is a "Daily Poverty Party". She has a list of bloggers who are linking to their own stories about Debt Reduction. http://www.iambossy.com/poverty-party/. I personally don't like the "Poverty Party" emphasis, as I prefer thinking more positively, but she encourages readers to save receipts, KNOW their debt..You know..THe stuff YOU have been preaching for YEARS!! Thanks for all you do !! Donna Mid Michigan Featured Author's ArticleView This Article OnlineBy Jill Cooper and Tawra Kellam http://www.LivingOnADime.com/ After laying down my last women's magazine telling me how to be less stressed during the holidays, I'm even more confused and stressed then ever. On one page I'm told to take time for myself and indulge in a lovely spa bath. That sounds great, but I can hardly find time for a shower on a slow day in June let alone take a spa bath the week before Christmas. As I turn the page, I'm told to give all my friends and family homemade ornaments to which I have lovingly glued 500 beads, each the size of a grain of sand. OK I'll admit I'm not a rocket scientist, but I am baffled when I try to imagine how I could accomplish these two things even if I didn't have an ever growing list of Christmas preparation tasks. Hmmm. Maybe I could lay in my spa bath carefully gluing on beads to ornaments throughout the night. Oh, it gets better. As I read on, there are articles telling me how not to gain weight at Christmas parties. Isn't that like telling a three year old to not get dirty while making mud pies? Oh! But it gets better. They then tell you to eat a meal before you go to the party. What? Is that some kind of new diet where you lose weight by eating two meals in the evening instead of one? If it is then I'm all for it. I mean really - who eats four carrot sticks and five pieces of celery at home then arrives at a party where they have pecan pie, five different types of fudge, 10 dozen cookies and egg nog and says " Oh no, I really couldn't eat a thing. I'm sooooo full..?" Excuse Me! Doesn't anyone live in the real world any more? I think to top it all off (and the part I like the best) is after they tell us how to get rid of stress and not gain weight, they give us 10 pages of recipes for Christmas cookies made with real butter and cream that are decorated so elaborately in the pictures that it probably took a trained kitchen staff of 10 a week to make one cookie. If you are like me and can't stand that kind of stress, try some of these Christmas ideas from www.LivingOnADime.com to help you have a relaxed and Merry Christmas. Don't over-spend - It may be tempting to fixate yourself on the sparkling look in little Johnny's eye when he sees that $300 play car under the tree. Advertising people are really good at feeding many parents' fantasies of their children thinking that mom and dad are the peaches and cream for shelling out the cash and looking fondly back on the moment for the rest of their lives. The reality of it though is that most kids have lost all interest in that particular toy long before the credit cards are paid off. When we were growing up, my mom pulled out all of the stops at Christmas to make it as wonderful for us as she possibly could. The funny thing is that now that we are grown, the things we remember the most fondly are mom's red jello salad (made with red hots - yummy!) and sitting together and reading the Christmas story before opening our presents. I can't remember what presents I received, but I always look back on the Christmas story. Do a few things well - Instead of trying to do everything and ending up depressed with how it all turns out, focus your energy on a couple of things that are the most important to you. You may be tempted to extravagantly decorate every room in your house, but if you don't have the time or energy, focus on one room, like a living or family room. If your entire house is beautiful but you have to go see a therapist when it's all over, the romantic mystique will be lost. Trust me, I know about this one from personal experience. Limit activities - Think of the holiday season as triage for activities. Don't commit to do too many things. One or two parties during the holiday season will make you get all tingly in that "It's a Wonderful Life" kind of way. One or two parties a week may send you over the edge, especially if you have kids. (Refer to my therapist comments above.) This also applies to all of those appealing looking activities around town like Victorian Christmas events, Christmas celebrations at the zoo or winter carnivals. One or two can be a lot of fun, but too many will ruin the fun. Limit cookie baking. Don't try to make 15 different kinds of cookies like Martha. She may look like she is super woman, but did you know she has a lot of people that help her? How much help do you get with your baking? I mean real help, not your five year old who makes everything twice as difficult for you. This is great for grandma, but you have to see your daughter every day and grandma can send her back when the house is sufficiently covered in flour. Again, pick your two or three top favorite cookies to bake and celebrate the fact that you had few enough priorities that you remembered to put the sugar in them. Everything doesn't have to be homemade. I know that we advocate making your own stuff, but Marie Callendar's makes some great pies that you can pass off as homemade if you want to soothe your guilty Martha Stewart conscience. In 20 years, your kids will look fondly back on it as the best pie they ever had. But seriously, if you are making things homemade just to save money, remember that some things like candies and pies are often more expensive to make homemade, especially if you cut your finger while slicing the apples. Don't ask me how I know, just trust me on this one. These aren't the only things you can do to reduce your stress, but if you stick to doing a few things well, you can truly relax and enjoy the season with your family. In the end, they would rather have fond memories of their time with you than memories of how strung out mom was after she burned the cookies. Jill Cooper and Tawra Kellam are the authors of Not Just Beans. Not Just Beans will help you shop smarter, by cooking simpler meals and by making your own basic cleaning products. For free tips & recipes visit http://www.LivingOnADime.com/ |
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