[UCGal]

I agree! Miraculous.

[UCGal]

I used to use Murphy’s oil soap when I had wood floors. Now I have ceramic tile – so pinesol works better.

At least in my perception.

I usually just dust with microfiber rags – no pledge or furniture polish.

[UCGal]

I don’t know about that soap – but the only commercial cleaning product I buy (vs my home made cleaning products) is the old school pinesol. (Not the fancy “meadow scented” versions). Something in pine tar (the basis for your soap and pinesol) is magic. Plus it’s enviro friendly, safe for grey-water systems, safe for septic (and pump systems which we have)….
Sometimes the old traditional products ARE better.

[UCGal]

I will admit – whenever a post gets too long or too boring… I scroll down to the next post.

There are lots of threads here that *seem* super long but can be skimmed over fast via the “virtual ignore” technique. Several regulars get skimmed by me.

I’m sure people do that to my posts too. (I can be pretty long winded.)

Accuracy is good. But sometimes it’s not worth the drama to engage in a flame war on the inter-tubes.

[UCGal]

I went away a few days and this thread blew up. We have some long winded folks, heh heh heh.

FWIW – our household budget (including taxes, health insurance and OOP medical expenses, etc) is $84k/year for a family of four.

Unlike the fictional family in the OP – we have a paid for home and paid for cars… but we still have to insure, maintain, and pay taxes on them. We’ve lived on this budget for several years… so it’s doable and still have a very upper middle class lifestyle. We *choose* not to eat at restaurants a lot because we like the food we cook.

I could definitely cut costs by cutting out organic meats and produce. We’ve already cut out most processed food. We do a lot of things for “green” reasons – that coincidentally save money. Like the shop towels Brian mentioned above, rather than paper towels. I make my own chemical free cleaners (vinegar, baking soda, tea tree oil.) I dry about half of my laundry on the line.

I also repair rather than replace whenever possible. This includes mending clothes, fixing appliances and autos, etc. Again – the motivation is to consume less, to be more green – but it ends up saving money, too.

I’ve found the more I conserve (as in resources) the more I conserve (money). Not bad for a liberal like me. LOL.

[UCGal]

[quote=harvey]Amazon Fire TV has a lot of the HBO stuff.[/quote]

Question about Amazon fire tv…. I haven’t looked that closely at it. Does it stream the prime stuff? What’s the form factor? (Similar to chromecast or roku – like a usb stick – or is it a separate device with hdmi cable to the tv.)

I’ve tried streaming prime by casting from my computer to the chromecast – but it’s glitchy… so I usually just watch on my laptop. I might consider fire – if it solves my problem with getting prime to my tv and is cheap enough.

[UCGal]

[quote=Hobie]Nice job UCGal. Would sure like this kind of real world analysis and everyday living examples taught to our kids in school.[/quote]

I’m actually running a “money” course with my 13 year old, at his request.

I went over saving, trade offs in spending and savings, and compounding.

I think the problem that most people on a board like this have is that they consider “extras” as essentials. I know my eyes have been widened by my classmates at a class I’m taking at City college. The one girls rent is an example. She’s able to take a full load on 3 nights a week of waitressing. Her boyfriend has a part time gig, and they have another roommate. She and her boyfriend share a car. Most of my classmates take the trolley or ride the bus to school. They don’t buy food in the cafeteria – they have refillable water bottles and fruit stashed in their backpacks.

As for school supplies. I saw a huge mindshift when I put my kids in an inner city school vs a more suburban school in the same school district. (Roosevelt middle vs Standley middle). They are not required to provide ANY school supplies at Roosevelt outside of paper and pencils. Not the case at Standley. It’s because some of the kids at Roosevelt couldn’t possibly afford extra supplies.

As for internet – yeah… add $35/month. (That’s what I pay w/time warner after bitching them out. It’s not turbo… just standard… but it works.)

It’s definitely possible to live on less and plenty of people do. But we have to really drill down on what is an essential expense. Cars are often not essential. Rent and/or mortgage in a non-high end neighborhood is much more affordable. And as my classmate showed – there are pockets of affordability in some of the higher end neighborhoods (mission hills overall is not cheap – but there are pockets that are cheap.)

[UCGal]

They would qualify for subsidized health care if they have 2 kids. (I think subsidies start at 67k for a couple… so 60k for a family would qualify.) Probably qualify for subsidy (premium assistance) as well as cost sharing silver plan. I’m guessing insurance would be about $250 with subsidies.

I’ll take a swag at their budget:

Rent on a 2 bedroom apt – kids can share a room. I have a classmate who’s renting a 2br off of Reynard in Mission hills – she and her roommates pay $900 total.

Utilities – no cable (that’s an extra), ting or other discounted no contract cell phones – $50/month for 2 phones. SDGE bill average $50/month (small apartment, gas heater, no pool, etc.) Landlord pays water.

We’re at $1250 a month.

Food – if you eat a decent amount of beans, rice, lower cost meats (chicken wings/drumsticks vs steak) – you could easily feed a family of 4 on $500/month.

Clothing. You can shop at target, thrift stores, sears… You can probably average about $150/month on clothes. That may be a high estimate – I average about that because I hate shopping.

Savings: Lets assume they put in 5% to a 401k (to get a match). $250/month

We’re at $2150/month out of a $5k budget.

Bus passes for the parents – $72/month * 2. $144 month.

Or if they have cars – lets hope they have paid for beaters – $500/year liability only insurance, $100 month gas. Lets add another $150 towards maintenance/replacement fund… round up – we’ll call it $300/month.

Still have money left to pay taxes. They’ll be in the 15% tax bucket (or lower) Lets call it an effective tax rate of 10%. $500/month

That’s $2950/month out of $5k month for a rental.
If they don’t go to starbucks, eat out, etc… they can save $2k/month towards their home. When they purchase they’ll have 2900 available towards housing.

But as owners of a condo – they have mortgage, HOA, probably larger utilities, etc.

I know folks who make it on $60k with a little extra to spare… but they don’t buy large house, don’t have new cars, don’t spend on stuff like new books (vs library), or eat out a lot.

[UCGal]

[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=UCGal][quote=CDMA ENG]

Ahhhh… UCgal with your usual wisdom… How does one so young get so wise?

CE[/quote]

Not so young…
(Older than scaredy, but I think maybe younger than BG)
and often wrong vs wise… But I’m freely willing to learn from my mistakes.[/quote]

51.5

My little one is 12 today!

If you want to keep separate property separate, don’t mix it together. For instance I brought 3 valuable comic books to the marriage. If my wife had a comic collection I would not put our books together in one pile I’d keep them safe and separate.

as I have done so for 21 years. ALL MINE!!!![/quote]
Yep. I was right. 53. Youngest is almost 12. (I was really old when I got married and started having kids.)

[UCGal]

[quote=CDMA ENG]

Ahhhh… UCgal with your usual wisdom… How does one so young get so wise?

CE[/quote]

Not so young…
(Older than scaredy, but I think maybe younger than BG)
and often wrong vs wise… But I’m freely willing to learn from my mistakes.

[UCGal]

[quote=AN]I know many 20s and 30s who have some form of cable TV. 5 years ago, before I experienced whole home DVR, I think it would have been much easier to cord cut. However, today, I would hate to have to deal with rabbit ears not have my shows recorded to watch later. I rarely watch things live anymore. I have all the shows I want to watch recorded and watch it later.[/quote]

We have two tivos. You can feed any signal into a tivo (cable, antenna, etc.) I would not give up DVR.
I can transfer content between the two dvrs (whole home).

It’s still a monthly bill (for the scheduling) but I get value from the dvr/scheduling/wishlists/etc.

[UCGal]

My understanding of things is the pre-marital separate assets became joint as soon as he co-mingled it in a jointly owned asset.

I’ve been told that premarital separate assets, or inherited assets, need to be kept separate – as soon as you comingle them, they’re joint.

I’m assume the title of the house was joint tenants. If the title was tenants in common, his percentage is laid out there.

[UCGal]

My understanding is that the oil extracted from the Canadian tar sands will be refined in Texas. Then it will be put on ships and sent off to other countries. My understanding is that the US would not be end consumers.

One issue with the Keystone XL pipeline is that it puts the burden of cleanup, when it is eventually discontinued, on the land owner…not the oil industry. This is a potential economic nightmare for the land owners. And it’s being done by imminent domain… farmers aren’t being asked about the pipeline crossing their land. Think about how expensive it is to clean up former gas station sites… Or for anyone who’s ever had an oil furnace – and had to replace the oil tank – it’s an expensive, toxic process to clean up.

Currently the US is net exporting oil. Why do we need to transport oil obtained in Canada, across the US, to be shipped overseas?

Finally – it is not at all clear to me that this doesn’t involve some kind of government subsidy or tax break. I’d rather see our tax dollars go elsewhere.

These are the reasons I’m cynical about the Keystone XL project.

[UCGal]

Is there a time period on the relo package?

If so I would still urge you to rent (even if it’s a short term rental) while you get to know the areas, the traffic patterns, etc.

I’ve done 5 out of state moves… In one I had a full relo package – but it had a 1 year expiry date… I rented and was able to make a MUCH more informed decision on target neighborhoods, but still take advantage of the employer paying closing costs, inspections, etc…

[UCGal]

If you’re doing short term rentals (less than 30 days) you also have to pay transient occupancy taxes… and charge them to the renters as well.

We looked at this when we were deciding whether to long term lease or vacation rent our casita.

More info for San Diego
http://www.sandiego.gov/treasurer/taxesfees/tot/

[Author]

Posts