Getting Prepared for Beginners Series #4 Getting to My Family

Just a map of an area close to where I am.

Like I told you last week, my first concern in an emergency is to get to my family and make sure they are safe and do everything I can to keep them safe.

Part of accomplishing this is know where your family is, at least the general area. I am not telling you to stalk your family. What I am saying is know where your family should be.

My wife and I both work. We work different shifts and my wife works at a hospital. In the event of a major emergency, my wife is to report to work if possible. This places my need to be at home even higher.

My work is 27 miles away from my home. Due to all of the routes that I could take, my drive time is right at 45 minutes with no stops.

There are at least 5 routes that I could take to get home, only two of them consist of only major hiways. The other three are primarily back-roads. Back-roads have benefits but they also have drawbacks. Benefits include much less traffic, not as likely to have wrecks, and normally several ways to work around problems. Drawbacks include easier to be blocked and if you do have any problems it could take longer for help to arrive.

To illustrate my point I will tell a story. Last year there was a storm coming. I left work to try to get home before the storm hit. I was traveling in my normal path when I noticed that people were turning around at the bottom of a hill. A tree was across the road. No big deal. I turn around and go home a different way.  

As the storm begins to hit, I watch a tree fall across the road in front of me. I turned around only to find a tree had fallen behind me as well. There were 4 or 5 vehicles caught between the two downed trees. Luckily, one person was pulling a trailer with a backhoe on it. He was able to unload the backhoe and move the tree off the road. 

Lessons learned from this experience:

• Have at least 3 routes to get home.
• Know all of the routes well (travel them occasionally.
• If weather is an issue, take a chainsaw with you.
• Have a backpack with basic supplies.
• Make sure your cell phone is charged.
• Be prepared for anything that is likely to occur.

Why the backpack?

Those of you who live in the southeast, will remember what some news stations called Snowmageddon 2014. There were people trapped in interstates for over 19 hours in both Birmingham and Atlanta. If these people had had some basic supplies there time dealing with this situation would have been a lot easier.

We will talk more about my backpack and what I have in it in the weeks to come.

like I said I work 27 miles away from home. if something traumatic were to happen while I am at work and with the average adult walking speed of 3 miles per hour it would take me 9 to 10 hours to get home. So, you can see that it is very important that I get as close to home as possible before I resort to walking. Every 3 miles I can drive saves me an hour of walking.

When I was in my late teens and early twenties a 30 mile road march was no big deal. I have done them. Now I am in my mid forties and even though I am in decent shape for my age, walking 27 miles would hurt really bad. Keep this in mind. Your age should play a part in your planning.

I hope this series is helping you to form your...

Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

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More Posts in this series:

#1 Why Prepare

#2 The Preparedness Mindset

#3 Priorities List

#4 Getting to My Family

#5 The Backpack

#6 Food Storage

#7 Basic Energy

#8 Water
#9 Security
#10 Medical
#11 Travel and Communications
#12 Fuel Storage
#13 Keep It Quiet aka OPSEC
#14 Building Community and Helping Others
#15 Skill Development (Home)
#16 Don't Fear the Reaper

#17 A Case for Long-Term Preparedness

If you would like an incredible ready made Emergency Car Kit, This one is tough to beat.

What is Your Mission?

Unless you are someone who believes that everything around you happened by accident and life has no purpose, you believe that you are on this planet for a reason. I know a couple of folks who call themselves atheist, who believe they are destined for greatness.

I am not going to get into a debate about religious beliefs. I have mine, you have yours and they really don't matter for the discussion we are going to have here. Having said that, we all have talents that can and should be used for the betterment of our world. 

How to Decide What Your Mission Is

I am a firm believer that over 80% of the people in the world never figure out what they are supposed to do with their lives. I am no exception. I am actually writing this to help me figure out what I was made to do. It is far too easy to get so wrapped up in the day to day, earning a living and paying bills that we never have the opportunity to discover who we really are. I am not talking about traveling the world to find yourself, I am talking about finding the career or the calling in your life that makes you feel fulfilled. 

I am a big fan of writing things down. If you are truly trying to figure out what you were meant to do you will need to list your talents. By talents I mean the things that you are really good at. Here is the problem. A lot of people think they are great at something when they really are not. If this were not true there would not be so many people who show up to the American Idol tryouts that the entire country makes fun of. Some may go just to be on television, but others truly believe that they have what it takes to make it in the music industry and they are actually tone deaf.

How do you list your talents honestly? That is tough. But here goes an honest attempt.

1. Ask for input. Don't ask your mom. She is likely to tell you that you are the greatest even when she knows you are not. Ask your spouse, ask a true friend. A true friend will tell you if you stink at something. They may not do it very tactfully, but they will tell you.
2. What do you like to do? Okay, I know that there are tens of thousands of teen age boys and sadly even thirty something men that would list video games as number one, that is fine, but list more than just one thing. In fact, list at least 10 things that you like to do. If possible list 10 things you love to do.
3. Be honest with yourself. I have wanted to be a lot of things throughout my life. I have wanted to be a farmer, an attorney, a singer, a musician, even a college professor. But I have to admit I did not have the discipline to be a singer or musician. I got to know too many attorneys and couldn't be like that. I am not willing to go in debt enough to become a college professor. 

A professor is still a desire, but I am not willing to feed the beast that is the system. Let me explain. At the time I am writing this I am 44 years old. I have a Bachelor's degree, but in order to teach I would need a minimum of a masters degree. It would cost me a minimum of $52,000 to get my masters degree. Even if I started next year, I would be 47 before I graduated. That means I would have 18 years to pay off $52,000 of student loans, depending on where you live that could be as much as an additional house payment. Not going to happen.

List your weaknesses. If you do not like children you are not going to want to be a day care owner no matter how good the money is. Again be honest. I would like to think that I have no weaknesses, but if I said so I would be lying.  I love creating, but maintenance? That is different. There are times I have to force myself to get things done that I know need doing. Oh and I hate paperwork, HATE IT. So maybe a college professor wasn't the best idea after all.

Look for Alternatives

Okay, so a traditional teacher is out of the question. No big deal. I can be a non traditional teacher. I have held demonstrations for school teachers, children, and even the elderly. What can I teach? Lots of things. If you are good at something and enjoy it (yes I said and, believe it or not there are people who are really good things they do not enjoy) do some research and see if there is a market for that skill. If there is not a market is it game over? No. Dig deeper and see if a market can be created. People don't know they want something if they do not know it exists. The same is true for learning. A person doesn't realize all of the things they do not know.

There are people who are making their living teaching people how to make soap and selling the very soap they make while teaching the class. Get creative.

Start Small

Unless you are creating a brick and mortar business, it is best to start a business without any debts. That sounds like common sense right? Well, its not. There are people shouting at you from every corner about small business grant and loans. Nearly any business you can imagine can start small and part time. Machine shop? Yup, it has been done. Cabinet shop? Yup. Hair salon? Yup. Tutoring? Yup. If you start small and get some satisfied customers out there, it gets easier. Think of it as a cottage business.

If something is your mission, it will also be a passion. A mission, once you find it is something that helps you feel fulfilled. You really want to keep doing it, not just because you should. Once you find your mission you cannot honestly see yourself not doing it. How do I know this? I know this by talking to people who firmly believe they have found their mission in life.

You Cannot Just Use Logic

I know. After all of the things I have covered so far you would think that this is counter intuitive. It is not. Pray, meditate, do whatever you do to calm your mind. Search for peace in an idea before you pursue it. I am not saying to not do something til you have complete confidence, if you wait on that you may never do anything.

Here is a story that I heard that rang true for me and I believe applies to any mission in life. 

A young man was attending a church service. He went to church every opportunity he had. One night when the minister offered the call to pray, the young man went to the alter and told the old preacher that he felt like God was calling him to preach. The old preacher asked why he thought that. The young man said "I don't know for sure, I just feel like it is what I am supposed to do". 

The old pastor gave the young man some advice that he did not expect. He told him to run from the call to preach. "Don't do it. It will break your heart. You may never have any money. Everyone will look to you for help. You will be held to a higher behavior standard than everyone else."

The young man didn't know what to say or think. He was expecting encouragement, that was not what he received. The young man did as the pastor told him, he ran from the desire to be a preacher. He was miserable for months. Finally, he went back to the old preacher and told him that he didn't care what the old man thought, he was supposed to preach and that he had been in terrible shape since that night. The old pastor smiled and told him that if he could have avoided the call to preach then he wasn't supposed to preach.

Once you realize what you are supposed to do in your life, you will not be happy until you have at least started down the path to what you were destined to do.

I am Still Struggling

I wish I could tell you that I have found exactly what I am supposed to do with my life, but I haven't, or at least I don't think so. I do a lot of things that bring me joy. That is very important. I love writing all of the articles for all of you and I believe that this is part of what I am supposed to do, but I do not think this is all I was created to do.

What is your mission? Do you know? How did you figure it out? I would really like to know. Maybe you sharing your experience will help me and maybe, just maybe countless others.

I wish you all

Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes.

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The Personal Economy Revisited and Expanded

Two years ago I wrote this article as a way of sharing what our aunt went through and the advice I gave her. It  first was written when I first started this blog and as a result was not seen by many people. I had a conversation the other day that brought this back to mind. So I am re sharing with expansion. I hope you enjoy.

The Original post with grammar changes to make it past tense.

My wife's aunt lost her husband to cancer in February of 2012.  Some ,hopefully, well meaning friends were basically trying to take over her finances and trying to make decisions on her behalf when it came to the possessions of her late husband.  She was really torn up emotionally over selling his car and now then were pushing her to sell other personal items that he held dear. One of these friends had even gone so far as to take items and have them appraised, without her permission. I fear this happens far more often than we realize. 

I was talking to a gentleman this week that was going through a similar situation. His wife had died and his children were pushing him to sell many of their mother's possessions. Once again, I think they meant well, but this is not the way things should be done. In both of these situations neither of the surviving spouses really needed an inflow of cash. Both spouses that passed had life insurance that was able to cover burial expenses and more. 

So why were they being pushed to get rid of their spouses' things? In my aunt's situation I honestly think one of the people pushing liquidation wanted several of the items. I would not put it past him to sell several items and keep a couple, you know as a fee. I do not think this was the children's motivation or strongly encouraging their father. I think they saw it as an opportunity to get rid of things before their dad died too so they wouldn't have to deal with them.

FYI Two years after my aunt's husband passed away his office still looks like he just walked out and will be back any moment. My aunt has found peace by still having a lot of his things around. Time is what people need. No one should force a person to get rid of things. If a person wants to create a shrine for the one they loved they should be able to do so.

The advice I gave both was this. When you get ready to start selling or giving away your spouses things, I don't want you to just let people take them. I want you to take each item in your hands, physically touch each piece. Then ask yourself these questions; Do I need this? Do I want this? Will I be sorry if this is gone? If you cannot answer no to all three of these questions, you are not ready to give up that item yet.

Talking to her got me thinking. Why don't I modify these questions and apply them to my everyday life. The modified questions would look something like this. Do I need this? Do I want this? If I want this, why? Will it improve my quality of life or make me more productive? Will this item make me more secure? Will this item help me grow as a person? If I cannot answer yes to at least two of these questions I will not purchase the item.

Any time we are thinking about making a large purchase, my wife and I talk about it. We  research the item. We see if we can get the same or similar items somewhere else for a better price or at the same price with a better warranty or of better quality. In the process we are waiting. No purchase of a sizable amount should be made on impulse. Time should pass so you can be sure that this item is what you really want.

What is a sizable purchase? Well that depends. If you are a multimillionaire, you might have to make it all the way up to the price of a car before it would be considered a sizable purchase. If you are living on a limited budget you may have to think before spending $50.00 on a used dehydrator. It is all a matter of scale. There will always be the "Well, if I wait someone else may buy it." Yup, that is true. But you can only spend money once. As soon as it has left your hand it is no longer yours. You are no worse off if you do not get the dehydrator.

Honestly, if we all ask ourselves these questions how many things would we not purchase? How much better would our personal economies be?

On another note - sometimes a person's death spurs people to action. My grandfather died this past April. Both my wife and I wrote posts about him and our family after his death. His death served as a wake up call for several members of my family. He had taught all of us, my whole life anyway to be as self sustainable as possible. When he died he left a hole in our family. My dad and step mom moved in with my grandmother to help her cover expenses and to take care of her. Dad retired and has gone to farming full time and doing a fairly good job of it. He is teaching everyone he can how to take care of themselves by taking care of the land and so am I. 

My grandfather knew he was dying. Before he went into the hospital for the last time he started handing out things. He did this to make sure that who he wanted to have something was the one who got that item. I have so many things that I cherish that my grandfather gave me and I would not try to begrudge any of my family of the things he gave them. If you find yourself in a situation similar, remember to think of what the person who has gone would have wanted, but also remember the ones who are still here are the ones that are hurting. 

Other Posts you might enjoy:

I hope this post has given you something to think about and I hope it finds you well. May God grant you your 

Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

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Choosing The Chainsaw For You

Another name for Fall could be chainsaw season. It does not matter if you cut wood as a primary or backup heating source or prune trees or shrubs. Just being ready to deal with fallen branches or trees- a chainsaw makes a lot of jobs easier. 

This brings me to my topic of which chainsaw should you own. I have helped people choose a chainsaw many many times. When I have helped these people I see two distinct groups. Group one are the people who want the biggest, most powerful chainsaw they can afford. Group two are the people who want the smallest, cheapest chainsaw they can get. Which one is right? Would you be surprised if I said neither? I didn't think you would.

Before you decide on which chainsaw to buy figure out what kind of work you will really do with it. I use my chainsaw a couple of times a week. We use wood as a secondary and backup heating source. We have a solid chord and a half of wood waiting on cold weather. I am of the opinion that wood heat is going to grow in popularity in years to come and I am not alone. As other energy resources continue to get more expensive people are going to return to wood, in fact there are tax credits available for those who use "approved" wood stoves. Wood heating is a personal choice and I am not trying to talk you into wood heat, but if you are thinking about it that will be a factor into what type and size of chainsaw you need.

There are lots of choices. Several name brands and multiple sizes of each name brand. The first chainsaw I ever operated was a Homelite with a 6 inch bar. It was my first job to cut off small limbs after the tree had been fallen. As I got a little older I was allowed to run my dads McCulloch. It had a 20 inch bar and was very heavy. I used to own a Homelite with an 18 inch bar, but I lost it in the April 27th tornadoes (actually I was told that it was looted before I got to my business where I had it stored). I have also run a Sthil and a Husqvarna and currently own a Poulan, and they have all done their jobs well. So I believe as long as you take care of your chainsaw, name brand is a matter of preference.

This is the chainsaw I currently own.

All of the affordable chainsaws have 2 stroke engines. This means you must mix 2 cycle oil with the gas. Depending on brand and age of your saw, your saw may require 32:1, 40:1, or even 50:1 gas to oil ratio. Be sure and read your manual to get the mixture right. If you do not mix the oil with the gas your saw will not last long and you will burn up your saw. If at all possible find a place that sells 100% gasoline. Most older chainsaws are not designed to run on ethanol blends. Ethanol greatly reduces the lifetime of your saw. You will also need to make sure to have bar and chain oil.

If you use wood as a heating source and are planning on cutting all or even most of your own wood, I would say a 16 inch bar is the smallest size I would consider and is the size that I own and use very often. The reason I like this size is it is very maneuverable, not very heavy, powerful enough to do everything I need to do, and I can cut almost any tree that I want with very few exceptions. I wouldn't mind having an 18 inch bar, but for me it was not worth the extra cost.

If you are only going to use a chainsaw for the occasional dropped limb or for pruning of a few fruit trees I know a lot of people who have chosen a battery powered chainsaw and are quite happy with the results. These are small, very light, and have a limited time of operation, but are very maneuverable and easy to operate. Note: You will still need bar and chain oil. Of the people that I know the most popular battery powered chainsaws is made by Black & Decker, pictured below.

The most popular battery powered chainsaw around here.

Another option for very small properties and small jobs are the electric plug-in chainsaws. These are very light, but you are "tied" to the cord so there is not as much flexibility. Most still need bar and chain oil. I only know a few people that have this type of chainsaw, but in their situation most are happy with their choice.

A chainsaw can be a very dangerous tool. I am not going to cover safety because there are hundreds of videos on youtube.com on the subject. If you have never operated a chainsaw before, please read the manual and learn about the safe operation of this tool.

Many times you can find good quality used chainsaws in the local classifieds, craig's list, or fairly often at a local pawn shop. Being frugal is always a good idea.

The more you can do for yourself the better off you are. Always Remember to.....

Keep It Rural

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DIY or DIFM?

Are you a Do It Yourself person or a Do It For Me? Most people are a mixture of both. I know I am. I am very dominate DIY, but I am very willing to admit when I need to become a DIFM. There is nothing wrong with paying someone else to do something for you if you do not have the time or expertise to get the job done. If you are anything like me you have several projects going at the same time. Plus you have several more waiting to be put in the line up. How do you determine which ones to do yourself and which ones, if any, to hire out? We are going to take a look at how an asset manager would consult a business on which projects to subcontract and which to do in house.

First things first. We must prioritize our projects. There may be projects that seem critical, but may not be important. I know that sounds confusing so I will explain. There are things that instantly grab your attention, they almost scream at you "I need to be done!!". But does it really need to be done? Some things that are urgent are not important. If some children have rolled your yard (thrown toilet paper into every tree) you are not going to be able to ignore the fact that there are streamers of Charmin everywhere. Most people are going to want to clean it up immediately, it is urgent to clean that mess up, but is it really important? If you were to leave the toilet paper up there for a few days would it damage the trees or the yard? No. Does leaving the paper out there create a health risk? No. So is it really important? No, it really isn't, but it is urgent. (My wife after reading this said "But we would have to clean up the toilet paper right away."

If we take this lesson and apply it full scale things that are urgent and important will be done first. Things that are important will be done second and things that are just urgent will be done third or later. I was first introduced to this concept in a book by Stephen Covey 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This book was the first time I had heard this concept explained in such a way. This was an incredible observation and I can tell you when I practice this things work out better. People sometimes get upset because what they see as urgent gets put off, but the result are incredible.

After we have prioritized out projects and determined which ones are important and urgent, which ones are important but not urgent and which ones are urgent but not important we have a clearer picture of what needs to be done and in what order.

Many times I will hire help to complete a project rather than hire someone to do the job for me. There are a couple of reasons I would rather hire assistance. (1) I can make sure that the project is done exactly the way I want it to be done. If the project is something I know a lot about I can hire someone with little or no experience and save some money as well as help teach someone how to do things. (2) If it is a project that I do not know a lot about I can hire someone who has more experience that I do and I will learn from them. I love to learn from someone who really knows what they are doing. When I can get an expert to help work with me on one of my projects I not only get the project done I gain knowledge.

Here are the reasons that I would advise hiring a project done:

1. A contractor can do a superior job
2. The job can be completed more quickly
3. The job can be completed more cost effectively 
4. Hiring a contractor frees you to do something else or even work on another project.

Now for my words of warning. I would never advise someone to hire a project done if they need to borrow money to complete the project. If you would have to borrow money I would advise to either wait on the project till you can save up the money to pay cash for the project or do it yourself a little at a time. I do not like debt. 

I would never let a contractor work on a project of mine unless I am certain that they have a full understanding of what I want done, what time table I expect and can communicate back to me what I want. Several years ago I hired a gentleman to do some excavation work for me. We sat down and talked out everything that I wanted done. I drew out a map of how and where I wanted everything. This project included putting in a drive and building up a raised flat surface as well a preparing a building pad. The day the excavation was supposed to start I worked all morning and was expecting to see some progress as soon as I arrived after work. Nothing. I was late when I got in so I thought I would give them a day or two to get with me. The next day the equipment was there but no work was done. The third day I could tell a little earth had been moved, but I needed this part done before I could get anyone else on the site. I called the operator and several times and did not get in touch with him. After a week of gradual progress on my site I took a day off of work to be able to see what was going on. 

The guy I hired finally showed up to start work at around 10 am. He worked for about an hour and a half and left. About two hours later he came back and worked for about an hour. He was getting ready to leave when I walked up on him. I do not remember the excuses he gave me, but he no longer worked for me. I hired another man to do the work who charged more per hour, but was finished with everything in three days.

The moral to the story is do your homework. Know what you want done and be able to communicate the scope of the project to a prospective contractor. Ask around for a recommendation for a contractor and above all else watch your contractor as closely as you can. 

Think big, plan well, pay your bills, and work hard. Above all .....

Keep It Rural

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By Gregg Carter

The Light Bulb Efficiency Lie

 

With the economy still in questionable shape and people's real income stagnant, people are still looking for ways to cut their expenses. If your budget looks anything like ours, utilities are in the top five most expensive monthly expenditures. We are going to look at lighting of the home as a part of this expense. We are going to discuss how much of my family's electric bill goes to lighting and how little changing the bulbs in our home will effect this.

I will quickly admit that this was not the article that I was expecting to write. I was expecting to compare the different types of bulbs and tell you how long it would take for us to save the difference in price. After doing the math I have realized that lighting is the smallest part of our electric bill. I will still go over the savings, but not with the same zeal as before.

There are some terms we need to be familiar with when shopping for light bulbs.

Lumen: Quite simply a measure of brightness. The higher the number the brighter the bulb. Incandescent bulbs produce around 16 lumens per watt. A 100 watt incandescent bulb produces 1600 lumens.

Kelvin (K): This when used with light is the color scale. Interestingly Kelvin is a measure of temperature. The lower the number the "cooler" the color. A bulb with a 3100 K color will be called a soft white bulb. For me, the soft white looks very yellow. A bulb with a 6100 K color will be called a natural daylight. To me the natural daylight looks sort of blue. The natural daylight bulbs appear brighter even though it uses the same amount of energy.

Kilowatt Hour: Your electric bill is measured in kilowatts or kilowatt hours. A Kilowatt is 1000 watts. A Kilowatt hour is the amount of work 1000 watts can do. For the purpose of our discussion we will treat them as being exactly the same thing. A 100 watt incandescent bulb will burn a kilowatt in 10 hours.

Our electricity costs us 7.7 cents per kilowatt with a minimum bill of $14.50. To find what you are being charged per kilowatt, take your utility bill and look at it closely. Some of the bills will tell you exactly what you are being charged by kilowatt. Some you will have to figure yourself. You take the amount of your bill, subtract any taxes and fees. Then you take the amount that is left and divide it by the number of kilowatt hours used that month. This will give you cost of each kilowatt.

At 7.7 cents per kilowatt it costs us less than a penny an hour to run a 100 watt incandescent light bulb. With an average daily usage of 4 hours for several of the fixtures in our house and most of these having 3 bulbs per fixture. This means we are spending $25.87 a month only on lighting. I was quite shocked that this number was that small, but I figured it 3 times. This was figured on 28 bulbs running 4 hours per day, if you operate more lights than this the savings will be greater.

Incandescent: Incandescent bulbs have been the standard for a very long time. Incandescent bulbs have the shortest lifetime of any of the bulbs we will talk about today. They burn hot, so hot in fact that when I was a child I would melt crayons on the bulb of the light in my room. If there are any children reading this...Do Not Melt Crayons On Your Lamps. 

Halogen: Halogen bulbs have a slightly longer lifespan than the incandescent bulbs. A 100 watt equivalent burns 72 watts. If you changed out all 28 of the bulbs to halogens in my example, the monthly cost would go down to  $18.62 per month. Halogens burn very hot, so hot that I have considered changing all of the bulbs to halogens during winter because I believe the heat they produce would decrease heating costs. I would most certainly take any halogens out during summer months.

Compact Florescent (CFL): Compact Florescent bulbs have become the standard bearer of energy savings. They burn cool, last up to 3 times longer than an incandescent and a 100 watt equivalent only burns 24 watts. If we were to change all 28 of the bulbs to compact florescent bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs the price of lighting would go from $25.87 to $6.21. This is a significant savings. The biggest drawback for me is most of the CFLs contain mercury, which if not properly disposed of can be very damaging to the environment.

LED Light Emitting Diode: The newcomer to the market is the LED. LEDs are the most efficient, burn the coolest, and last the longest. Most of the models claim to be able to last 25 years. A 100 watt equivalent burns between 14 and 20 watts. For a bulb that would fit in most standard fixtures, we would need the 20 watt version. Changing all of the bulbs from incandescent to LEDs would drop the electricity cost for lighting from $25.87 to $5.17. This sounds great until you realize that a standard looking LED that would fit in most fixtures cost ranges between $33 and $50 each. If you have the money to drop on these bulbs it would be best for the environment and you wallet if you are willing to look extremely long term. Some estimates say that it will take 8 to 10 years to make up the difference in cost. My estimate is right at 4 years with the exact same usage as I figured. In our household this is not possible because our lighting usage goes way down in the summer so this number would be much greater.

Conclusion: The 100 watt light bulb being phased out is a way to act like you are doing something without actually doing so. For most households lighting is the smallest part of their electric bill. If you are wanting to really reduce your electric bill adjust your thermostat. Heating and cooling is estimated to be as much as 20 percent of your total utility bill. Be aware of how much television you are watching. The average electricity a television uses is 300 watts per hour. Use a clothes line to dry some of your clothes.The average clothes dryer uses 4400 watts per hour. There are more and better ways to save on your electric bill. Having said all of this, I am still looking forward to the price of LED bulbs coming down and I want to have them in my home, but I am not willing to pay the difference.

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Marketing strategies (How commercials Influence)

I,like many thousands more, did not watch the 2013 Super Bowl. I waited til the next day to be able to watch all of the commercials. As always there were winners and losers. This started me thinking. No one wants to have the worst Super Bowl commercial. Every company that placed an ad during the big game believed their ad would represent their company well and that they would see increased business as a result. Each of the companies that had even a single spot during the big game spent millions of dollars to try to tell you something. To make you see their product or company in a more positive way.

The days of basic information to help you make a more informed decision are long since gone, if they ever were at all. Every television and radio ad is designed to ellicit a response. Each company chooses the response they want to create. Ralph Lauren for example has always promoted a lifestyle through their advertising. They would lead you to believe that everyone who wears their clothing line is young, good looking, as comfortable in the great outdoors as they would be on the ocean or in the boardroom. This is the image they portray.

Fragrance companies, along with many others, use sex to sell their product. Every colonge or perfume ad is about sexual attraction. To be honest I cannot think of any other way to sell these items. If these companies were not allowed to use attraction as a selling tool they would have to turn to a lifestyle model, no one would buy a cologne simply because "it makes me smell good".

If we were to want to promote a product, we would have to decide what our target market is. A target market includes things like age group, education level, income range, and even occupational type. Once we have decided on the target market, we would start working on our ad. If we are wanting to excite our target, we would want our announcer to talk fast, probably use a movie voice. Depending on what we are advertising show quick clips of our product in action. If we are wanting to appeal to our markets ego, we would talk very smooth, imply that our market deserves our product. We would say something like "you have worked hard. Can't you see yourself with... (insert our product here).

If just listen to a commercial, you can tell something about the target market. Car company commercials on the radio are the best for this. If the announcer is shouting, the target market is the lower education levels or people who are on a very tight budget. These people have so much to worry about that an ad has to break into their thoughts to even be heard. Luxury autos are very smooth, talking about performance and "how you would look in this car". A friend of mine from work gave me the best description of car ads. A BMW ad shows a beautiful person driving a beautiful car in a beautiful landscape. A KIA commercial shows an urban landscape and their car driven by hamsters (thanks Renee).

Another method that is used is packaging. Companies do research to find out what colors promote their product, where to place their product on the shelf, and even at what price point people will buy their product at enough profit. Take food for example. Things packaged in green we believe are more healthy than the same item packaged in another color. Packaging can be very powerful.Another friend at work said he was at a drugstore and he saw a generic cold medicine.It was packaged in black, red, and silver, his favorite color combination. He admitted that he started to buy the medicine even though no one in his family was sick. (thanks Josh) Remember advertisers are trying to sway your buying decisions.

If I could work my will, every person who reads this would ask themselves these questions when they find themselves being influenced by an advertising blitz. (1) Am I the target market that this company is trying to reach? (2) What is this company really selling? Are they selling the product or a lifestyle, confidence, or are they stroking your ego? (3) What does this ad say that this company thinks about me? (4) What does this company think about my values, my world view, and my intelligence level? After we answer these questions do we still want to deal with this company?

By thinking a little more critically we can reduce the influence outside people have over us and we can better learn how to

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The Personal Economy

We had a birthday party for my mother in law just the other day.  Her sister was in attendance, she lost her husband to cancer in February.  Some ,hopefully, well meaning friends are basically trying to take over her finances and trying to make decisions on her behalf when it comes to the possessions of her late husband.  She is really torn up emotionally over selling his car and now they are pushing her to sell other personal items that he held dear. One of these friends has even gone so far as to take items and have them appraised, without her permission.

The advice I gave her was this. When you get ready to start selling or giving away your husbands things, I don't want you to just let people take them. I want you to take each item in your hands, physically touch each piece. Then ask yourself these questions; do I need this, do I want this, will I be sorry if this is gone? If you cannot answer no to all three of these questions, you are not ready to give up that item yet.

Talking to her got me thinking. Why don't I modify these questions and apply them to my everyday life. The modified questions would look like this. Do I need this? Do I want this? If I want this why? Will it improve my quality of life or make me more productive? Will this thing make me more secure? If I cannot answer yes to at least two of these questions I will not purchase the item.

We are not prone to overly wasteful purchases. Our last fairly large purchase was a tablet for my wife. She researched for about three weeks. She was having trouble justifying a nearly $300 purchase. If she had just wanted the tablet because it was the latest and greatest I would have agreed with her, but she uses it for school, scheduling, eBooks, and music. I use it from time to time and the kids use it while traveling. We have lots of files on it, in short turned out to be a very good purchase. Honestly, if we all ask ourselves these questions how many things would we not purchase? How much better would our personal economies be?

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