I was astounded - today really - when I started thinking about the staggering amounts of money I have spent on groceries in just the past 5 years. I was writing yesterday about my visit to Fry's Food Stores and the manager's agreeing to replace rotten chicken sight unseen. I said something about the conservative estimate I had spent at the place in the 5 years I have been going there - $25,000.00.
Perhaps one shouldn't look at food in such terms, but my gosh. If I really came up with an accurate amount, it would be much more than that in counting visits to other grocery stores such as Walmart Supercenters; Bashas; Safeway and occasionally Albertson's and Fresh & Easy. Did I throw in Smart & Final? Which also doesn't count the lunch I normally eat at work which is, normally, bought at Subway.
How much more have I spent, really? Double the amount I said - 25k - probably is more realistic.
I have had thoughts in the past about getting a freezer and buying meats when they are on ridiculous sale and freezing them - hopefully being able to get them wrapped for long-term freezing - this is something I am definitely going to revisit. In fact, I am definitely going to start looking. Meats are easily the highest cost food I buy. Lots of chicken and ground beef - and whatever else may be on sale.
I have bypassed pork for some time now - for whatever reason, it's extremely high priced per pound and I just don't believe pork should cost more than steak.
Long interlude. I got distracted, went outside and started pulling weeds - all the rain has caused weeds to sprout up everywhere. Gunshots just went off, 6 of them, somewhere near here. Last time I heard gunshots, I called the Phoenix police who gave me a hard time about it, as if I don't know the difference between a car backfiring and 6 shots from a handgun going off. I did not call this time. Why bother if they aren't going to believe you anyway.
The weekend is over. As normal, weekends fly by as if they never started. I'm not complaining, I love my weekends off. There is work to be done tomorrow, but I totally put it out of my head to the point that I don't remember what was in the truck routing system at work. I have a lot on my mind these days - time goes into a black hole somewhere and disappears. I am getting over the sickness - thank God - not 100% but definitely feeling better. I realized I got it from the new people wh have been sick since they got here. Their explanation - offered not asked - is that people get sick at the food pantries and such and don't go to doctors to get help, thereby handing the sickness out to everyone else because of close proximities at times to everyone else.
Well they are out of that situation so I hope they get better soon and all the coughing and hacking will disappear.
Anyway, I'm done for the day,
g'nite.
ben
Sunday, February 14, 2010
1 More Leaving.........
.............heading to Craigslist soon enough to start another tenant seeking campaing. This time, the one that's leaving is the ex-Marine. He is going to move in with his buddy that he is always hanging out with. Hardly unexpected, still undesirable. There is no such thing that I have found yet in keeping tenants. They are all temporary, they are in-between one thing and another.
Not the end of the world, especially since I have until the first of the month to find the next victim to live in my house : )
The downside is that that room is unfurnished. It seems much easier to find new tenants when having a furnished or near-furnished room than an empty one. Never-the-less, I have a couple of weeks to find this person - whoever he may be - and yes I totally prefer male tenants at this point in having a slew of bad luck with female tenants and ensuing chaos in several cases.
So, anyway, that will occupy time and my mind until I get a firm commitment on the room.
Today's doings will include at attempt to get the new paneling started in the trailer. It has become obvious - to me anyway, that the front of the trailer is going to take much longer to finish than the rear section that we have been working on. It's larger, there is flooring to replace and there is much more area of paneling to be replaced. I have also determined that every single window in that thing is going to have to be unscrewed pulled out and fresh caulking put on the metal frame between the window and the trailer's skin. The windows have been obvious leaking points from rain water getting in.
Fortunately, there is this modern miracle called a cordless drill. It takes those screws out in a hurry. Pulling the window away from the metal it is mounted on is pretty easy stuff, already did it on one window. There are fully 7 windows in that camper. The windows themselves are all in great condition - one of the selling points for me in getting that camper. Replacing those windows would be a pain at the very least.
I will say that the guy living in the thing is motivated to get this done. He is not, however, confident in installing the paneling and isn't even going to attempt it. That's okay by me, I am somewhat of a perfectionist and I would hate to have spent that money on that stuff only to find a half-@$$ed job done of installing it. the trailer is really a challenge - something different to do - that I am keeping tabs of how much money I am spending on the renovation. I am not going to have those people living in it forever. The man is a worker - he simply cannot find a job right now. Sooner or later, he will find one and hopefully make enough money to get their own apartment or something - and then I will be coaxing them out of it.
My thoughts are simply, if the job is done well enough on that trailer, can I turn a profit on it, even a small one, to make it worth trying it again? Maybe. At the price, this trailer was really a find. The roof, exterior metal and windows were all in good condition. I found a lot of trailers that were in crappy condition - leaking roofs to be precise. That is a deal-killer for me. A roof that has been leaking is going to take much more work in both fixing the roofand the damage it has done to the ceiling and everywhere else the water has gone.
Of course, if I found one that had a leaking roof but still has potential - at the right price it might be worth acquiring. It's neither here nor there, but as some readers know, I am always looking for legitimate ways to increase the fatness of my wallet. Right now it's pretty thin.
Anyway, this tenancy business is a constant battle. I did get a reprieve with the last 3, it was a good little while that I had 3 of them paying regularly and no-one leaving.
Umm, I have more I wanted to write about but - I want to get over to Craigslist and get the first ad published, it's just an urge that needs to be quelched.
C'yall later.
Oh, and thanks to Fin for turning me onto Feedjit - I saw it on his journal quite a while back and wanted it on mine. In recent times, I have seen the flags - on Feejit - from all sorts of different countries around the world and am attempting to be able to say which flag is from where before I put the cursor on it to tell me. Pretty cool, really.
ben
Not the end of the world, especially since I have until the first of the month to find the next victim to live in my house : )
The downside is that that room is unfurnished. It seems much easier to find new tenants when having a furnished or near-furnished room than an empty one. Never-the-less, I have a couple of weeks to find this person - whoever he may be - and yes I totally prefer male tenants at this point in having a slew of bad luck with female tenants and ensuing chaos in several cases.
So, anyway, that will occupy time and my mind until I get a firm commitment on the room.
Today's doings will include at attempt to get the new paneling started in the trailer. It has become obvious - to me anyway, that the front of the trailer is going to take much longer to finish than the rear section that we have been working on. It's larger, there is flooring to replace and there is much more area of paneling to be replaced. I have also determined that every single window in that thing is going to have to be unscrewed pulled out and fresh caulking put on the metal frame between the window and the trailer's skin. The windows have been obvious leaking points from rain water getting in.
Fortunately, there is this modern miracle called a cordless drill. It takes those screws out in a hurry. Pulling the window away from the metal it is mounted on is pretty easy stuff, already did it on one window. There are fully 7 windows in that camper. The windows themselves are all in great condition - one of the selling points for me in getting that camper. Replacing those windows would be a pain at the very least.
I will say that the guy living in the thing is motivated to get this done. He is not, however, confident in installing the paneling and isn't even going to attempt it. That's okay by me, I am somewhat of a perfectionist and I would hate to have spent that money on that stuff only to find a half-@$$ed job done of installing it. the trailer is really a challenge - something different to do - that I am keeping tabs of how much money I am spending on the renovation. I am not going to have those people living in it forever. The man is a worker - he simply cannot find a job right now. Sooner or later, he will find one and hopefully make enough money to get their own apartment or something - and then I will be coaxing them out of it.
My thoughts are simply, if the job is done well enough on that trailer, can I turn a profit on it, even a small one, to make it worth trying it again? Maybe. At the price, this trailer was really a find. The roof, exterior metal and windows were all in good condition. I found a lot of trailers that were in crappy condition - leaking roofs to be precise. That is a deal-killer for me. A roof that has been leaking is going to take much more work in both fixing the roofand the damage it has done to the ceiling and everywhere else the water has gone.
Of course, if I found one that had a leaking roof but still has potential - at the right price it might be worth acquiring. It's neither here nor there, but as some readers know, I am always looking for legitimate ways to increase the fatness of my wallet. Right now it's pretty thin.
Anyway, this tenancy business is a constant battle. I did get a reprieve with the last 3, it was a good little while that I had 3 of them paying regularly and no-one leaving.
Umm, I have more I wanted to write about but - I want to get over to Craigslist and get the first ad published, it's just an urge that needs to be quelched.
C'yall later.
Oh, and thanks to Fin for turning me onto Feedjit - I saw it on his journal quite a while back and wanted it on mine. In recent times, I have seen the flags - on Feejit - from all sorts of different countries around the world and am attempting to be able to say which flag is from where before I put the cursor on it to tell me. Pretty cool, really.
ben
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