Something I learned recently about myself: I really like job hunting with/for other people.
I have 8 months of recent experience hunting for a job for myself. It sucked. But I learned a TON about job hunting and I want to help you by streamlining things and taking some of the suck out of it (two heads are better than one type of deal).
Completely free, not a scam, I want to job hunt with you. Because its fun for me and less stressful for you to have a partner in this. You have to be in the USA (I don't know anything about job hunting elsewhere) and over 18. I don't need your name or anything other than your de-identified (take out your name and contact info) resume and your generally commutable area.
If you're interested in having a partner on your job quest, message me. I consider this fun and I don't have many other hobbies.
Budget shopping at the most expensive grocery store in America
This post is a collaboration between me and @macgyvermedical.
Okay listen, it would be nice- very nice- to live next to a WinCo or an Aldi. But whether it’s a lack of affordable transportation or simple distance, sometimes the grocery store you have access to is not the most affordable option. And by “not the most affordable”, I mean potentially a Safeway or even, God forbid, a Whole Foods.
So today we went to a Whole Foods to see what one could potentially afford if they’re looking at the dirtiest of dirt cheap at the most expensive grocery store chain in the USA. And folks, I’ll be honest, it’s pretty bleak. Not impossible, like, you can do it. But nutritionally complete will be the only thing it will be, and you’re still going to be paying a minimum of $8-10 per day per person (if you were willing to do beans and rice and onions and frozen spinach for every meal, you could get it down to $6/day, but that would be tough).
But if it’s what you’ve got, it’s what you’ve got. And we’re here to give you some ideas as to how it might look. To get us started: The cheapest protein is dry beans, coming in at $0.75/lb (that’s after cooking, as purchased at $2.99/lb) (runner up, peanut butter at $1.92/lb). The cheapest meat is whole chicken at $2.49/lb. The cheapest starch is all-purpose flour at $0.64/lb (runner up white or brown rice, both $0.80/lb). The cheapest vegetable is carrot at $1.05/lb, (runner up, yellow onion at $1.69/lb, frozen spinach at $1.92/lb). The cheapest fruit is banana at $0.69/lb (runner up pears and plantains at $1.29/lb). The cheapest fat is vegetable oil at $2.08/lb.
There are a number of other foods we found that could work in moderation for a less expensive diet. There were a number of vegetables (among them various types of cabbage, squash, and daikon radish) at $1.99/lb. White potatoes make a slightly more expensive starch at $1.09/lb. Frozen fruit and vegetables tended to be in the $2.50-4/lb range (except spinach). Milk was $4.09/gal, eggs were $0.28 each, and butter was $4.48/lb. Shredded cheese (the cheapest version of cheese) was $5/lb. Meats other than whole chicken are almost not worth mentioning, but you could get ground pork and pork butt for $6/lb. Split peas and lentils were $4/lb. Pasta ran $1.29/lb and pasta sauce was $2.24/lb.
Notice that, like when pricing out everything for any other store, trying to put everything in the same unit price will help compare fats to fats, protein to protein, vegetable to vegetable, and starch to starch. Most of the labels at Whole Foods had a unit price in ounces, which we converted to pounds by multiplying by 16 because it was easier, especially for things like protein and vegetables, which are frequently sold by the pound.
So, here are some ideas for relatively inexpensive meals with the least expensive foods at Whole Foods. You are going to have to cook, even things like tortillas and homemade bread and other things you’d probably be able to afford to buy pre-made at other stores (bread and tortillas were prohibitively expensive here, but flour was reasonable. We didn’t look at yeast, but if you were really strapped flatbreads are good or there are many good recipes for sourdough starters out there). These are meals that would reasonably keep you spending about $8-10/day per person at Whole Foods:
Beans, rice, frozen spinach, hot sauce, onion, a banana (this is the absolute rock bottom cheapest meal I could make that was more than just beans and rice, and it works out to a little less than $2 for a third of a day’s calories.)
Mixed sliced banana and frozen strawberries for fruit salad
Homemade tortillas with beans and cheese
Homemade pasta with sauce and cheese
Peanut butter and jelly on homemade bread
Rice pudding with brown rice for breakfast
Oatmeal with cinnamon and diced pears
Baked squash with chicken
Rice and edamame with soy sauce and homemade pickled radish
Sheet pan frozen french fries and frozen cauliflower with cheese
Black bean burgers with homemade buns, cheese, and homemade pickled red onion
Fried potatoes or taro (a standby for adding calories to a meal in our house!)
Oatmeal with peanut butter and bananas
Chicken and rice stew with onion and carrot
Stir fried rice with cabbage, onion, carrot, and ground pork
Quiche with spinach and homemade pie crust
Cheese pizza with homemade crust (or bbq chicken pizza with homemade bbq sauce)
Split pea soup
Curried lentils and rice with california blend veggies
Sausage-carrot- rice casserole with homemade cream of soup
Cabbage and mashed potatoes with sausage patties
Onion soup (need to buy beef bouillon)
Mofongo
Strawberry or mango smoothie
Copper pennies (a kind of pickled carrot)
Banana “ice cream”
Taro-pork fritters
Tempura cauliflower
pancakes or waffles with fruit or jam or homemade brown sugar syrup or fruit compote
Half-read a post the other day (and then got distracted) about what vegetables the poster would plant in a garden tailored to surviving food scarcity--which, to be clear, I think is an important and not at all crazy subject. Food scarcity is a possible outcome of several converging trends in the US and elsewhere--authoritarianism has led to some of the worst famines in recent history, for example, as has a rich and powerful "aristocracy" deciding that profit matters more than feeding people (ask the Irish). And then there's climate disasters, obviously. I'm not trying to be scary. I'm trying to nudge past the kneejerk reaction a lot of leftists understandably have to anything that smacks of "survivalism" and its associated hyper-individualism. The point isn't "oh god we're fucked", the point is that concerns about food scarcity are not unreasonable, and choosing to work on your (and your community's) food independence is a really good goal for those who have the resources.
That post is long gone from my dash, but I do remember it mentioning lettuce and tomatoes and corn, and me thinking that honestly those would NOT be my picks for a survival garden. Like, I want to be clear, I grow those things, and those are good things to grow! But lettuce produces almost no calories and relatively few nutrients. Corn...corn has caveats. First, it has to be planted in large blocks in order to be pollinated, because it's wind pollinated. You can't just plant a row or two. Also, if it's sweet corn, it's very highly perishable, and if it's a dry corn, like a dent corn meant for flour, it requires processing. More on that later. And tomatoes kinda combine the above problems--large, not a ton of calories, and highly perishable, PLUS they take a bit of skill to get good yields (source: me. My tomato plants always suck ass.)
I think everyone's veggie picks are going to vary wildly based on their eating habits and growing conditions. But when I think about survival gardening, I think about calories per area. That is, in a given area, with a realistic yield, how many calories you can expect to get out of a crop. Because in a survival situation, what you need more than anything is calories. Nutrients matter, but I'll be honest, if you're really suddenly eating mostly unprocessed plant foods, along with what weeds you can forage (which is quite a lot where I am), you might be doing better nutritionally than pizza and tacos. And when it comes to calories per acre, potatoes and sweet potatoes (which are not actually related botanically) are basically the undisputed kings in temperate climates.
There are a bunch of other things along those lines that I would choose to grow--beets, turnips, carrots, onions, and things less known now like skirret and salsify are the calorie-dense vegetables that my European ancestors ate before the Columbian Exchange. Everyone once again say thank you to Precolombian agronomists and farmers for potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, squash... Or there's sunchokes, which take a little getting used to in the kitchen, but in most places they absolutely cannot be beaten for plant it and forget about it perennial food.
If you do have more space, the dry corn really is a good idea, but you need some means to grind it or nixtamalize it, and that and getting it off the cob, etc., are going to take time and energy. Another crop that takes a lot of space but has a great yield of calories and easy processing is winter squash, like pumpkins. The big advantage of those is that if you pick the right varieties, these will store for months, in their original form, if you just put them someplace cool but not freezing. You can have a hubbard squash in the garage until March and then cut it up and have food in half an hour. Also, as we all know from all the adorable zoo videos, a whole lot of animals will eat squash, including chickens.
Anyhow. There's a million things you could grow, including more nutrient dense greens like mustard or collards, herbs to make staple foods more palatable, etc. But when I think gardening for food security, I think calories.
Skirret is a delightful multi-rooted perennial member of the carrot family! Harvested fall through winter, and propagated by seed or crown division. I've become a huge fan and proponent.
I’ve spent the last three days trying to feed myself adequately because I’m having a medium-to-severe (for me) gastroparesis flare up. Gastroparesis is where your stomach doesn’t squish like it’s supposed to, and it leads to very slow digestion- as in 1-2 calories per minute actually getting into my system. This leads to me having fewer mental and physical spoons because I’m constantly under-fueled, and also spending way more mental spoons figuring out what my body will let me eat. Needless to say, I’m a little behind on housework. Nothing drastic, but not where I’d like to be. Here’s how I’ll deal.
While sick, I do what I can, prioritizing tasks that will get really bad really fast if I don’t do them, like cleaning the cat litter, taking out the very full garbage, and wiping the kitchen counters. A couple days ago, all I did was feed the dog, take out the garbage, and shower (showering takes a lot of spoons for me). Smaller things that could be delayed, like sweeping, vacuuming, tidying/organization went totally out the window. Today, I’m alternating rest and work. I’ve pretty much figured out what my stomach wants this time around (milk, cheese, and protein shakes), so now that I don’t have to spend much energy on that, I’m playing Fallout 4 during my rests. Every time I complete a section of a quest, I get up and do something, either a housekeeping task or eating. At times when I’m feeling physically good but less motivated, I do a task every time I kill something.
Once I’m feeling mostly better (or at least I’m back to a reasonable level of daily spoons), I’ll start getting more tasks done. To gauge how I’m feeling, I’ll start with low spoons tasks, like sweeping the kitchen. If that feels fine, I can do slightly more intense tasks, like meal planning or sweeping the porch. All the while, I’ll continue prioritizing tasks that get bad fast.
@blip-bloop-bloop asked: How to make healthy food fairly cheaply, when the spoon bank is closed and you have no freezer
Thank you for this blog’s first ask!
Since you need food that’s low spoons and freezer-free, you’ll need food that’s preserved in ways other than freezing. That leaves you lots of options, mainly canned, dried, and pickled.
Pickled is pretty obvious- you can get a number of veggies pickled from the store, and they add great flavor/color/variety to meals without needing any prep other than taking them out of the jar. They can be relatively expensive, but they tend to last a long time since they’re so strongly flavored that you only need a little at a time. I’ll do another post on making your own pickled veggies. In order to encourage my family (of two) to eat more pickled things, I sometimes put a small dish of pickles out on the table for meals. If you do dishes by hand or the dish is otherwise spooniful, skip it and set the jar directly on the table. If you find that you really like adding pickled foods to your meals, ethnic grocery stores often have different kinds of pickled foods than your standard western grocery. Budget tip- don’t buy refrigerated pickled food unless you really like them and can afford them; the canned stuff is almost always cheaper.
Canned food may end up being a staple for you, and that’s not a bad thing. There are a wide variety of canned foods, and if you find that one particular type fits your budget really well, you can dress it up into different dishes in almost infinite ways if you have the spices. Canned food also does well in the microwave, so it can be very quick to prepare. I’ll include a couple of can-only recipes at the end of this post.
Dried foods are underappreciated, in my opinion. They include things like spices and beans, but you can also get meats (chipped beef, beef jerky, squid snacks), mushrooms, and veggies. Dried foods do take longer to prepare; options to decrease meal prep time include soaking overnight, using an instant pot, or getting a crock pot and letting it cook all day. Some instant pots also have slow cooker options.
Meat might be your biggest issue since it’s expensive to buy in small quantities. I’d encourage you to check out what dry and canned meats and fish you have access to and then learn about how to stretch those into multiple meals (I’m also planning a post on this). If frozen meat is cheaper than fresh, remember that you don’t have to keep it frozen for it to stay good. Lots of meat that we buy “fresh,” especially fish, has been previously frozen, then thawed in the fridge. To do this yourself, just put the meat in the fridge and keep it there. It will probably make a puddle, so putting it in a container or on a plate is a good idea. For fresh (or previously frozen) meat, instead of trying to stretch it into more servings, you may want to go ahead and eat bigger portions of meat but eat meat at fewer meals. For example, stretching meat might look like making a can of mackerel into four meals instead of one by having mackerel salad, creamed mackerel on toast, mackerel fritters, and mackerel doria; bigger portions of fresh meat might look like buying a pack of four chicken breasts and having chicken (prepared in different ways) for dinner three nights in a row plus a lunch in there, then switching to beans or tofu for four nights. Having a decent collection of dried spices can really help with having to eat the same thing “over and over.”
Meal ideas:
Tuna or chicken salad from canned meat on salad, bread, crackers, wraps, flatbreads
Green bean casserole (microwave)- two cans of drained green beans, one can of cream of mushroom soup, a handful of fried onions (the common brand is French’s in the US; onion powder will work if you don’t have fried onions). Combine in a casserole dish and microwave till hot. This recipe divides and doubles well too.
Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast
Dried mushroom and bean stew (all the recipes I can find have fancy ingredients that you don’t need to buy like pine nuts. Do a google, pick one you like, and ask me for substitutions if you need to!)
Fish fritters- one drained 12-oz can of fish (we find mackerel is the cheapest for us), one or two eggs, and enough flour to make a loose dough (holds together but sticks to your hands). Heat any oil you like in a pan on medium heat, make the dough into discs about the size and thickness of your palm, and fry till golden brown on both sides. Flip them as many times as you need to.
How to cook dried beans: https://www.tumblr.com/tightwadspoonies/764918865665949696/dry-beans-on-the-stove-in-a-pressure-cooker-and?source=share
Black bean soup from cans:
2 cans black beans
1 can corn
1 can chicken broth
1 can diced green chiles
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp taco seasoning (or to taste)
(My husband assures me that this image does not look like AI. I hope it's not.)
Hi! New blog here! This blog is for all the stuff about home that you want to know. How to organize without breaking the spoon bank. How to eat healthy food on a budget. How to budget. How to get that weird stain out of your carpet.
I’m queer (pan, nonbinary, and my husband is trans) and disabled (depression, ADHD, gastroparesis, hypermobility, 27 food allergies). My husband and I live in a moderate to high cost of living area on one income.
We’re able to make that work because of all the skills I learned as a teen and young adult. I was in the christian church at the time, and had the benefit of tons of generational knowlege passed down to me by the older women I interacted with. Although I’m no longer christian (I’m a firm agnostic), and I definitely don’t subscribe to the idea that homemaking is a woman’s ideal job, I will forever be grateful to the women who taught me all these skills.
So, humans of all kinds, ask me questions! This blog is for all genders, all family structures, all ages. What do you wish you knew about homemaking?
Sometimes little pleasures in life are loadbearing. Whenever someone is like "If you'd just give up tea and coffee and sugar and--" im like I'll stop you right there. Because if you finish that sentence i am going to kill everyone in this building and then myself. If i have to face the horrors of the world without my little jar of caramel flavoured instant coffee i am going to go full American Psycho. Believe it or not, my main priority in life is not to have perfect teeth or be an Olympic athlete or look like a supermodel, but to actually enjoy living, because I spent far too long not doing that and it royally sucked. And boy, some people don't like hearing that. Particularly dentists
Eggs used to be a cheap protein, but even the inexpensive eggs are going for nearly $1 each where I live. This post is not about why that is, but it is about what you can do reasonably to make a dozen last longer.
First, understand that refrigerated eggs last a long time. Like a month past their expiration. So don't go throwing out (or quickly using up) eggs just because they hit the expiration date. If you're getting a few weeks past the expiration date and are worried, crack each egg individually into a bowl before adding it to a recipe, just in case one has gone off. You will absolutely be able to tell by look and smell of the egg goo, so don't worry about using eggs from the same carton as one that has gone off, as long as you've checked.
Second, replace every egg you can in recipes. Eggs don't need to be in baked goods as long as there is an adequate replacement. For this, you can use about 3 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of any of the following: mashed banana, unsweetened applesauce, ground flax or chia seeds in water, yogurt, tofu (blended), nut butter, or aquafaba (the liquid in canned chickpeas- yes you can use this in recipes too, not just whipping it).
Third, I know everyone has always talked about eggs being a cheap protein, but they're not anymore, so really understand that you're going to have to piece together new protein options. Possibilities include dry beans (allow adequate time for soaking and cooking), sausage, tofu (cheapest from Asian grocery stores), and chicken leg quarters (or even whole frozen chickens). Look into prepared proteins too, like frozen beef/chicken/sausage patties, frozen chicken nuggets, and prepared whole chickens from the hot foods section at some grocery stores.
Fourth, you can freeze eggs. If you get a dozen and you know you want them to last a really long time (or you get a ton from dumpster diving or something), crack each egg into a snack baggie and freeze. Thaw when ready to use, cook, and they come right back!
Do you have issues with sharp things (either from self harm or intrusive thoughts or other issues)?
Me too!
Here’s a neat solution you might be interested in: Montessori knives.
Basically, plastic serrated knives designed for kids that cut food but not people. I am currently using them and while they’re definitely not perfect, they cut significantly better than butter knives, up to about “onion” level food hardness.
They look like this:
These are a real game changer for me when my metal knives need to be locked up. They’re the best alternative I’ve found so far.
To give some context, both my wife and I are recently out of work, and likely to be for at least several months while she does CNA training and while I am in partial hospitalization for schizoaffective.
We are housing secure and otherwise okay, but we need to get our flexible spending (the kind of spending we have control over, so basically everything except housing, utilities, medical care/meds, and phone bills) down to as close to zero as possible, and that includes food.
My wife currently volunteers at one of the best food banks in the area (an Asian-specific one), and today she signed us up as clients. This post will take you through some tips and tricks to using a food bank, and some ideas of what to do with the food you might get.
Tips and Tricks:
Know when the food bank is open. It might be that they are open only once or twice per week, or even just on the 1st Thursday of the month. Even if they don't have a website, they probably have a facebook page you can look at, or flyers posted on community billboards that will give you this info.
Know what documentation you need, and bring it with you. Some are on the honor system, some will want proof of residency in their service area. Some might want proof of income below a certain amount. This is also info that might be on a facebook page or flyer. If not, see if they have a phone number, or better yet, show up during the distribution time and ask (preferably before you need the service).
Speaking of, start getting food at a food bank before you run out of food. One food bank can't generally provide all the food you need, so first try to use them to stretch your food budget as much as possible (use money or programs like WIC or SNAP to buy perishable food you generally won't find in food banks, and use the banks to fill in your non-perishables).
Again speaking of, don't be afraid to use multiple food banks. They generally aren't checking (unless the same organization runs multiple banks), and you will probably need more food than one food bank can offer you.
If you're more than a 1-person household, find out if the bank has special rules. You might be able to pick up twice or more for larger households. If the bank doesn't have a policy for this, you may be able to bring other household members (or just friends if on the honor system) and pick up more food.
Get there early to have access to the most variety.
Find out what other services your food bank offers. Some have connections to community services you may also want to use. Never be afraid of using services, because the more people they serve, the more money they tend to get. You're rarely, if ever, taking resources from someone else just by using a free service like a food bank.
You might get expired food. That's okay and you're gonna have to get chill about it. Check the chart below to see how long after the expiration date the food is still good:
Some food banks offer special perks if you also volunteer there, like access to the food they can't otherwise give away. For example, we got a 22lb frozen turkey they'd been trying to give away since thanksgiving.
If it's your first time, bring your own bags. Some banks offer bags, some don't.
Know that a lot of them are volunteer run, so don't expect customer service like you might at a store. Also, be nice. The volunteers may not know everything and that's okay. If you really need something or feel you're being treated unfairly, you can ask to speak with a volunteer coordinator, but that's probably as far as it will go.
What kind of food will you get?
Well, it is different food bank to food bank and week/month to week/month. It's very much a "take what they will give you and figure it out later" kind of situation. Individual items may not be in the quantities you would normally buy (for example, you might get a single apple or 2 small potatoes per person, per visit), but you might also get small amounts of lots of different foods.
Most will give you primarily non-perishable foods like canned vegetables, soups, and boxed mixes and cereals. Some food banks will have limited fresh items. As stated above, if you can, use limited money/WIC/SNAP on fresh foods and use the food banks for your pantry staples and non-perishables.
Bigger cities tend to have more and better banks, as they have access to more grocery stores which donate their near-expired food to them. There also may be more individuals donating in cities just because there are more individuals in general.
Sometimes, as in the case with us, there are ethnic-specific food banks in places like chinatowns and other places heavily populated with people of a particular ethnicity. Generally you don't have to be of that ethnicity to partake. The amount of food might not be different, but it might give you some variety if you've been eating a lot of oatmeal.
My methods as someone with schizotypal (feeling of constantly being judged disorder)
1. Even if you do something embarrassing AND someone judges you AND talks about it to others, you really haven't done anything but improve their life. People like bonding over interesting stories. If I'm at the mall and I look strange or act weird, people at best don't care and at worst have a little story to tell their friends.
2. Talking about people is part of life. You probably have done it to others. What comes out of people's mouths when you're out of the room doesn't necessarily reflect their true feelings. Getting words out of your head can be how you check if they're true. Many people might say something mean so they can come to a more neutral understanding. We often think "said behind my back = true feelings" but it isn't true.
3. If someone is actually consistently talking behind your back in a cruel, mean way and being two-faced to you, that's actually them being in the wrong. You aren't responsible for that. You don't have to burden yourself worrying that you're doing something that would make someone act this way. You can operate as though everyone is being upfront and honest and not make concessions for passive aggression.
4. If you talk behind people's backs a lot and operate in a judgemental way to others, try cutting back on that behavior. It honestly helps you feel less scared of others talking about you.
5. If your friend group talks a lot behind people's backs and judges or harasses others for fun, try to discourage that behavior or step away. Seeing people obsess over others isn't good for your health, and those people's behavior isn't normal. Same with hanging out on dramamill websites etc.
6. If you actually concretely find people actually talking behind your back a lot, analyze why. It could be that it's bullying, but it could also be that people don't feel safe telling you their feelings. Think about how you treat others.
7. There's always a risk of being judged and hurt by others, but the rumination on the possibility of it being the case is going to hurt you. The goal should be to live life in the moment and deal with cruelty when it actually emerges. Constantly being on guard for tragedy doesn't actually make it any easier, it just makes you really tired.
One thing that has made me a much more well-adjusted person is a clip I once saw of Hank Green saying that anyone can be in amazing shape as long as being in amazing shape is one of their top three priorities.
(This is obviously a generalization that isn't true for everyone. But it is true for most people and I'm proceeding from there.)
This "top three priorities" framing has genuinely reduced my tendency toward jealousy and self-comparison a lot. Now when I feel envious of someone’s spotless, aesthetic home, I think to myself, “Having a spotless, aesthetic home is probably one of their top three priorities. It’s definitely not one of mine, so I shouldn’t expect my home to look like that.”
Or when I see an influencer with a body that takes a ton of work to maintain: “Maintaining that body is obviously one of her top three priorities, because it’s her livelihood. My livelihood is my brain, so I’m never going to prioritize my body like that.”
It also helps me to identify areas that I actually DO want to prioritize more. I realized in recent years that my envy for my friends who prioritized writing more than I did was NOT going away, so I started to prioritize writing more. (Not top three, but higher priority than it has been in the past.)
I like this. It's also a reminder that as long as I have a full-time job and young children, two of my top three slots are filled and I only have space for one other high-priority thing in my life.
recipe request: my household is 5 people with varying tastes and restrictions. These include:
- no meat, fish is fine
- no milk or cheese, some butter if it’s cooked into something is fine
- no beans, mushrooms, fruit, asparagus, brussel sprouts, although most vegetables are fine if they’re cooked into a dish
thanks!
These aren't recipes, but they are ideas if you need to diversify your diet:
Baked potato bar with vegetarian "bacon" crumbles, vegan cheese (or make your own with cashews), malt vinegar, caramelized onions, egg-based homemade sauce like tarter sauce or mayo
Scalloped potatoes with cheese made from nuts (look up vegan scalloped potatoes)
Roasted potatoes dipped in mayo or other sauces
Dolmades (vegetarian with rice, nuts, and spices)
Fish stew with acceptable veggies
Fish tacos
Noodles with peanut sauce (look up gado-gado or pad thai)
Homemade sushi (can be done with veggies (like sweet potato) or fish- mke sure fish is sushi-grade if you put raw fish in it)
Canned salmon fritters with a salad
Baked onions
Salad topped with hard boiled egg
Egg salad sandwiches
Nut based sausage crumbles (basically chopped walnuts and spices) or as an egg cup
ok I know the cold is bad but like, the way that Tumblr is treating it rn is pissing me off, it happens almost every year and yes it’s dangerous but suddenly this year it’s so bad we have to scare people and give really bad tips that could kill someone. These are my tips as someone who worked on a preservation railroad all winter as a kid in Wisconsin, these are things I’ve gotten from family, friends, and old railway workers, I’ll try and be as firm and rational in this, I don’t want to scare anyone, that just makes it worse.
“don’t wear cotton or denim because it will kill you if you get some snow on you, just a warning”
like no absolutely wear jeans over your leggings and a tee-shirt under your jacket and sweater, hell wear a cotton sweater. Cotton will keep you warm and denim [but not stretchy denim like skinny jeans] will not let wind onto your skin or other layers. Aslong As as you don’t roll around in snow or drench yourself in liquid you are fine. But if you do get wet in jeans or your shirt or sweater does get wet, try and wrap yourself in a blanket or something that will keep the wind off of you, get to a warm safe place [your car, unless you live in it, is not a warm safe place unless you are more than 25 minutes to somewhere warm] and take those layers off asap.
“don’t touch metal you’ll stick to it”
Ok you can touch doorknobs and cardoors, or even a shovel, it’s ok but not recommended with bare hands. If you have really sensitive skin or you sweat in your layers, wear gloves at all times outside. If you don’t have gloves, a pair of old socks can be worn on your hands, if you are just going out for the mail or to get something from your car, you will be fine without gloves if it’s within 500 feet of the door. Also don’t lick things, it’s not fun, trust me. If you do get stuck don’t call 911 you will lose a limb [or tounge] waiting that way, get someone to pour warm [not hot or cold, WARM] water on the spot you are stuck, this will unstick you and get Inside as fast as possible.
“Boil water in your house to heat it up”
This is a two way street, if it is already warm in your house, like over 72 degrees warm, this is really good as it will make the air less dry from the hot Furness air and more comfortable. The opposite is worse for you. If your house is cold, like under 60-65 and you make it humid, the cold water in the air will cause you to feel colder, you could even get sick because of the cold water clinging to your skin, I know I have for an example.
“take a hot shower if you get wet or have chills”
Taking a hot shower can feel nice at first, but will most of the time put you into shock. The hot water will even cause pain if you are cold enough, it’s the same reason why you don’t put a hypothermia patient in with hot water or next to a hot fire. If you get wet dry off and put on a few layers of pajamas, wrap up in a blanket, if you get chills it’s the same process but make sure you slowly add blankets. Drinking something warm, not hot, will also help. Eating something can also help but not to much, chills could make you throw up if you eat a lot.
If you do need to take a shower after being in the cold
Take a lukewarm shower and slowly turn up the heat if it starts to feel too cold, do not go above hotish warm. This is only if you get covered in mud or something that clings to the skin and will make you colder and colder if it stays on you[or if you are so dirty a warm washcloth won’t be able to clean it all]. Always dry your hair completely and make sure your skin if free of drops, do not go back outside for a few hours, the moisture in your skin and hair will make you more likely to get chills.
“always keep a karoseen heater in your car for when you get stuck”
In theory this is great but lighting up a heater that runs on gas in your car is one of the most dangerous things you can do. If you have a light warmer that runs on battery in your car that’s great, if you don’t keep a blanket and hand warmers in your car. Another tip that can also help is keeping your car over 1\3 of a tank full, in my experience this keeps you from a.) Getting stranded, and 2.) Running out of heat right away if you get stuck. If you do get stick turn down your heat and be diligent at only keeping it warm enough not to see your breath, this will give you more time with heat waiting for rescue. If your stuck in a snow drift or on the side of the road it’s ok if your windows fog up aslong as you keep your hazzards on.
For your car in winter
In winter you want to be aware you need different gear in your car for emergencies, here’s a list I recommend. I don’t carry all of this all the time but things in bold are what I carry at all times.
A few cans of canned food you don’t mind eating cold [pasta rings, corn, ect] if you get stuck and hungry these can be warmed up slightly and eaten, hand warming packets [at least 25, the more the better, use these to warm you and some food], a few warm blankets [you can get fleece blankets Walmart for 2.50], extra bright flares, extra gloves, a backup hat, an old jacket, water bottles [pour some water out so they don’t burst in the cold], a shovel, a small bag of sidewalk salt [this in a trunk can also help with grip to the road, but don’t over do it], and some rope or pulling chains
This is all I can think of right now, just remember that when the weather is bad, being calm and rational will all ways be your biggest life saver, if you are ever stranded in your car call someone close to you or your city’s non emergency number, 911 will either direct you to the non emergency number if there is no major problems such as injuries or crashes, or you can bog up the system, cold weather is when the most calls go to 911 lines. If your [gas] heat goes out call your gas company or city office, they will help you as soon as possible or can tell you if there is a widespread gas issue, if you can’t pay your gas bill, calling your gas company and working out a deal is your best option, if you have minors or elderly in your household you may be able to get a few months of free gas service [in Wisconsin they cannot shut off heat to a house with minors, or at least that was the policy last time I checked]. If any damage from weather occurs either call your insurance company if you own your house to see if they can do anything, or if you rent call your landlord and renters insurance.
Please stay safe and warm this winter, and every winter!
Here is a skill that many of us are going to need for survival: how to tell if someone is offering to let you lie.
The tip-off phrase is "If [circumstance] was true, then we/I could do [helpful thing.]" This is not a guarantee that the person is offering, but it should tell you "I am being informed of a way to improve things."
Your confirmation phrase is "What documentation would that require?" This is essentially asking them "if people come asking me to prove this, will I be able to? Or will they not come at all?"
The answer you are hoping for with the confirmation phrase is "Just tell me if it's true, and I'll put it on the form." Note that this is not a direct instruction to lie, because they can't tell you that.
If they didn't mean to extend an offer to lie or this is a situation where they can't, then they'll list off something like your paystubs or your birth certificate. Your response back in that case is "Thanks, I'll tell my friends who qualify." This clears you of any concerns that you may have been considering lying.
The more complex answer is when they answer by giving you a form on the spot. Your job, in this case, is to scan the form and see if what they are asking you can be meaningfully verified by an official source.
Things that can be verified by an official source include, but are not limited to, your age, legal sex, income, veteran status, and place of residence. It's not generally a good idea to lie about these on official documents.
Be smart, and be practical. Do what you need to in order to stay alive, and keep an ear out for the people offering to help you do so.
"This medication is covered for FREE if you are quitting smoking. Are you working on quitting?"
*me, thinking about how I quit smoking in 2018 and it is now the year of our lord 2024* "Oh yeah, still working very hard. You know how those cravings can hit."
*please note, how I omitted the truth in the example. I didn't ANNOUNCE it been 6 years SINCE I ALREADY QUIT. I said that I was working hard because cravings are still a thing (6 years later not said out loud). The fact I haven't have a SINGLE one in 4 years [I was Weak during lockdown but could not finish a cig anymore] is irrelevant. The doctor asking me was *nudge nudge wink wink* pointing out that labeling my cig use as "not quite quit yet" would cut some costs on medications.
Sometimes the 'lies' you are being an opportunity to nod along for are just ommissions of truth. Like- still being an active smoker for easier access to other treatments or random pains being worse than YOU personally find them. "If X is true, Y could be an option for you" is a way to allow you to snip off details to make X TECHNICALLY true. They are asking you to be a VAGUE fuck- not a pedantic one. For BOTH of y'all's plausible deniability.
"So these symptoms prevent you from doing [X, Y, Z] activities?"
Even if YOU think you are mildly inconvenienced at best, 'OH YEAH- the generalized fatigue/nagging pain/light headed feeling just makes it so hard to [whatever activity you just find more choresome in those circumstances]!'
I have also had it happen at random coffee shops. Or vape shops.
"How much cash do you have on you? Conveniently this is on sale RIGHT NOW for you for 5 dollars less than that IF it happens to be your birthday. It's your birthday... RIGHT??????"
Is the exact same concept. "You have a coupon right?" "And you saw the BOGO deal and remembered to mention it, RIGHT? Cuz mentioning it before I complete the transaction will make these BOGO..."
You all ever seen that scene in the Incredibles where Mr. incredible basically tells this little old lady to get her stuff approved? It’s a cartoonish example of what happens all the time in real life.
You ever seen a cashier conveniently forget to ring up baby formula for a single mother, and then wish her a lovely day?
Sometimes, people look out for each other. Pay attention and let them. The world is spooky out there; we’re all in it together.
This is a good read and worth paying attention to. The human urge to help out other beings is strong, and people are prone to trying to indicate things like this to you.
This post gives some good steer on tasting if that's what is happening, a good read.
Another example I was just thinking about was when I brought up switching from t shots to gel at the doctor (I didn’t end up doing it for other reasons). She was like. “Well insurance won’t cover it, unless you have something like a phobia of needles. *Which people can sometimes develop after a while of doing shots*, if you want me to mark that on your file”.
Also I can’t think of any specific examples but I know I did stuff like that when I was working at a nonprofit. There’s a lot of stuff you can’t ask people directly, sometimes it’s not even lying at all it’s just something the person wouldn’t think to bring up or phrase in the exact right way. Like i can get you money to help pay rent if you can tell me how saying housed will help you stay in school. It’s stupid bureaucracy, but knowing how to play the game is important.
Could you explain Tariff's , like who pays them and what they do to a country?
Well, I can definitely guess where this question is coming from.
Honestly, I was pretty excited to get this prompt, because it's one I can answer and was part of my studies focus in college. International business was my thing, and the issues of comparative advantage (along with Power Purchasing Parity) were one of the things I liked to explore.
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At their simplest, tariffs are an import tax. The United States has had tariffs as low as 5%, and at other times as high as 44% on most goods, such as during the Civil War. The purpose of a tariff is in two parts: generating revenue for the government, and protectionism.
Let's first explore how a tariff works. If you want to be confused, then you need to have never taken an economics class, and look at this graph:
(src)
So let's undo that confusion.
The simplest examples are raw or basic materials such as steel, cotton, or wine.
First, without tariffs:
Let us say that Country A and Country B both produce steel, and it is of similar quality, and in both cases cost $100 per unit. Transportation from one country to the other is $50/unit, so you can either buy domestically for $100, or internationally for $150. So you buy domestically.
Now, Country B discovers a new place to mine iron very easily, and so their cost for steel drops to $60/unit due to increased ease of access.
Country A can either purchase domestically for $100, or internationally for $110 (incl. shipping), which is much more even. Still, it is more cost-effective to purchase domestically, and so Country A isn't worried.
Transportation technology is improved, dropping the shipping costs to $30/unit. A person from Country A can buy:
Domestic: $100
International: $60+$30 = $90
Purchasing steel from Country B is now cheaper than purchasing it from Country A, regardless of where you live.
Citizens in Country A, in order to reduce costs for domestic construction, begin to purchase their steel from Country B. As a result, money flows from Country A to B, and the domestic steel industry in Country A begins to feel the strain as demand dwindles.
In this scenario, with no tariffs, Country A begins to rely on B for their steel, which causes a loss of jobs (steelworkers, miners), loss of infrastructure (closing of mines and factories), and an outflow of funds to another country. As a result, Country A sees itself as losing money to B, while also growing increasingly reliant on their trading partner for the crucial good that is steel. If something happens to drive up the price of B's steel again, like political upheaval or a natural disaster, it will be difficult to quickly ramp up the production of steel in Country A's domestic facilities again.
What if a tariff is introduced early?
Alternately, the dropping of complete costs for purchase of steel from Country B could be counteracted with tariffs. Let's say we do a 25% tariff on that steel. This tariff is placed on the value of the steel, not the end cost, so:
$60 + (0.25 x $60) + $30 = $105/unit
Suddenly, with the implementation of a 25% tariff on steel from Country B, the domestic market is once again competitive. People can still buy from Country B if they would like, but Country A is less worried about the potential impacts to the domestic market.
The above example is done in regards to a mature market that has not yet begun to dwindle. The infrastructure and labor is still present, and is being preemptively protected against possible loss of industry to purchasing abroad.
What happens if the tariff is not implemented until after the market has dwindled?
Let's say that the domestic market was not protected by the tariff until several decades on. Country A's domestic production, in response to increased purchasing from abroad, has dwindled to one third of what it was before the change in pricing incentivized purchase from B.
Prices have, for the sake of keeping this example simple, remained at $100(A) and $60(B) in that time.
However, transportation has likely become better, so transportation is down to $20, meaning that total cost for steel from B is $80, accelerating the turn from domestic steel to international.
So, what happens if you suddenly implement a tariff on international steel? Shall we say, 40%?
$60 + (0.4 x 60) + 20 = $104
It's more expensive to order from abroad! Wow! Let's purchase domestically instead, because these prices add up!
But the production is only a third of what it used to be, and domestic mines and factories for refining the iron into steel can't keep up. They're scaling, sure, but that takes time. Because demand is suddenly triple of the supply, the cost skyrockets, and so steel in Country A is now $150/unit! The price will hopefully come down eventually, as factories and mines get back in gear, but will the people setting prices let that happen?
So industries that have begun to rely on international steel, which had come to $80/unit prior to the tariff, are facing the sudden impact of a cost increase of at least $25/unit (B with tariff) or the demand-driven price increase of domestic (nearly double the pre-tariff cost of steel from B), which is an increase of at least 30% what they were paying prior to the tariff.
There are possible other aspects here, such as government subsidies to buoy the domestic steel industry until it catches back up, or possibly Country B eating some of the costs so that people still buy from them (selling for $50 instead of $60 to mitigate some of the price hike, and maintain a loyal customer base), but that's not a direct impact of the tariff.
Who pays for tariffs?
Ultimately, this is a tax on a product (as opposed to a tax on profits or capital themselves, which has other effects), which means the majority of the cost is passed on directly to the consume.
As I said, we could see the producers in Country B cut their costs a little bit to maintain a loyal customer base, but depending on their trade relationships with other countries, they are just as likely to stop trading with Country A altogether in order to focus on more profitable markets.
So why do not put tariffs on everything?
Well... for that, we get into the question of production efficiency, or in this case, comparative advantage.
Let's say we have two small, neighboring countries, C and D, that have negligible transportation costs and similar industries. Both have extensive farmland, and both have a history of growing grapes for wine, and goats for wool. Country C is a little further north than D, so it has more rocky grasses that are good for goats, while D has more fertile plains that are good for growing grapes.
Let's say that they have an equal workforce of 500,000 of people. I'm going to say that 10,000 people working full time for a year is 1 unit of labor. So, Country C and Country D have between the 100 units of labor, and 50 each.
The cost of 1 unit of wool = the cost of 1 unit of wine
Country C, having better land for goats, can produce 4 units of wool for every unit of labor, and 2 units of wine for every unit of labor.
Meanwhile, Country D, having better land for grapes, can produce 2 units of wool per unit of labor, and 4 units of wine per unit of labor.
If they each devote exactly half their workforce to each product, then:
Country C: 100 units of wool, 50 units of wine
Country D: 50 units of wool, 100 units of wine
Totaling 150 units of each product.
However, if each devotes all of their workforce to the product they're better at...
Country C: 200 units of wool, no wine
Country D: no wool, 200 units of wine
and when they trade with each other, they each end up with 100 units of each product, which is a doubling of what their less-efficient labor would have resulted in!
The real world is obviously much more complicated, but in this example, we can see the pros of outsourcing some of your production to another country to focus on your own specialties.
Extreme examples of this IRL are countries where most of the economy rests on one product, such as middle-eastern petro-states that are now struggling to diversify their economies in order to not get left behind in the transition to green energy, or Taiwan's role as the world's primary producer of semiconductors being its 'silicon shield' against China.
Comparative advantage can be used well, such as our Unnamed Countries (that are definitely not the classic example of England and Portugal, with goats instead of sheep) up in the example. With each economy focusing on its specialty, there is a greater yield of both products, meaning a greater bounty for both countries.
However, should something happen to Country C up there, like an earthquake that kills half the goats, they are suddenly left with barely enough wool to clothe themselves, and nothing for Country D, which now has a surplus of wine and no wool.
So you do have to keep some domestic industry, because Bad Things Can Happen. And if we want to avoid the steel example of a collapse in the given industry, tariffs might be needed.
Are export tariffs a thing?
Yes, but they are much rarer, and can largely be defined as "oh my god, everyone please stop getting rid of this really important resource by selling it to foreigners for a big buck, we are depleting this crucial resource."
So what's the big confusion right now?
Donald Trump has, on a number of occasions, talked about 'making China pay' tariffs on the goods they import into the US. This has led to a belief that is not entirely unreasonable, that China would be the side paying the tariffs.
The view this statement engenders is that a tariff is a bit like paying a rental fee for a seller's table at an event: the producer or merchant pays the host (or landlord or what have you) a fee to sell their product on the premises. This could be a farmer's market, a renaissance faire, a comic book convention, whatever. If you want to sell at the event, you have to pay a fee to get a space to set up your table.
In the eyes of the people who listened to Trump, the tariff is that fee. China is paying the United States for access to the market.
And, technically, that's not entirely wrong. China is thus paying to enter the US market. It's just the money to pay that fee needs to come from somewhere, and like most taxes on goods, that fee comes from the consumer.
So... what now?
Well, a lot of smaller US companies that rely on cheap goods made in China are buying up non-perishables while they can, before the tariffs hit. Long-term, manufacturers in the US that rely on parts and tools manufactured in China are going to feel the squeeze once that frontloaded stock is depleted.
Some companies are large enough to take the hit on their own end, still selling at cheap rates to the consumer, because they can offset those costs with other parts of their empire... at least until smaller competitors are driven out of business, at which point they can start jacking up their prices since there are no options left. You may look at that and think, "huh, isn't that the modus operandi for Walmart and Amazon already?" and yes. It is. We are very much anticipating a 'rich get richer, poor go out of business' situation with these tariffs.
The tariffs will also impact larger companies, including non-US ones like Zara (Spanish) and H&M (Swedish), if they have a huge reliance on Chinese production to supply their huge market in the United States.
If you're interested in the repercussions that people expect from these proposed tariffs on Chinese goods, I'd suggest listening to or watching the November 8th, 2024 episode of Morning Brew Daily (I linked to YouTube, but it's also available on Spotify, Nebula, the Morning Brew website, and other podcast platforms).
Here's a much better/more detailed explanation of tariffs, explaining why tariffs are A) not a tool for making domestic prices lower, and B) not a way to get a foreign country to pay taxes to you.
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