I’m OK w/ the economy as it is right now so overall it’s not gloom and doom for me. Low stock prices just mean I get to buy more. Prices at the grocery store however are a bit high. Prices at Shop N Save are similar to those I find at Schnucks at least on the name brand items.

I never thought of my house as an ATM so there’s no problems there. Fuel prices, yea they are high but not much can be done. Never understood why Americans crab about $3 gas while europeans have paid much more for a long time and hardly say a word. We are not entitled to cheap gas people. Cut back or quit complaining about it. It’s supply and demand.

I make it a point to live below my means, so my personal situation is pretty good. However, I am pretty gloomy about the future. What would it take to make me more optimistic about the future?

-Raises that at least kept pace with inflation.
-News reports about job creation, rather than job cuts and layoffs.
-Manufacturers “in sourcing” rather than “out sourcing”.
-Seeing companies managed for the long term health of the company, rather than the short term profit of a select few.
-Seeing companies offer good wages to encourage people to go into a difficult field (like science or engineering), rather than obtaining H1B visas to bring in foreigners. The imported labor not only takes a job from an American, they also lower the wages of the remaining workers and discourage new students from even bothering to obtain a technical degree.

Listen, I know “job security” is a thing of the past. But it would be nice if there were more jobs out there. It’s one thing if a company lays you off and you can pick up a comparable job elsewhere. It’s something else Entirely when you get laid off and there is Nothing comparable.

Until the job market improves, even those of us who are doing well are only a layoff/downsizing/rightsizing/outsourcing/offshoring away from disaster.

I’m not too concerned about my personal economic situation because I’m retired and have a substantial part of my savings in secure bonds. I’m also not concerned about the solvency of my Social Security account because of the political influence of other retirees like myself to insure that it keeps being funded (even if that eventually requires supplementing Social Security taxes with general revenues).

From the standpoint of the overall economy, it would be to the benefit of both workers and firms to recognize that it is to their benefit to lower their wage demands and prices in response to the reduced demand for their services that results from a “credit crunch.” The Federal Reserve injecting credit (money) into the financial system is a big help in sustaining aggregate demand, but it is just as important that aggregate supply (the quantity of goods and services offered by workers and firms at a particular price level) not be allowed to essentially shrink as workers and firms try to “beat inflation.”

As AJ indicated in post #1, some inflation in the price of energy is inevitible. Furthermore, it will increase the prices of many other goods that require energy to produce and distribute. So we had better adjust to it by using less energy and energy-intensive goods, rather than by demanding higher pay to compensate for the higher prices.

We live comfortably but it doesn’t mean that we live above our means. We are still allocating the same amount per week for groceries that we did last year and it is not cutting it. I would like to see the cows produce cheaper milk and the chickens lay regular eggs and not gold nuggets. I would love it if I didn’t have to go on oxygen everytime my sons decided to go for that second bowl of cereal. Maybe they could toss us an orange or two that isn’t costing a buck apiece , you get what I mean. Being able to feed a family of four on less than 200 dollars a week would be a real boost in my optimism that things are improving.

I’m gloomy about the economy, but I’ve been pessimistic about our nation’s future for quite some time, even when our national economy was looking quite good. A ridiculous national debt, outrageous government spending, and a republic continuing to veer socialistic does nothing to encourage me. Current events only underscore my concerns.

As long as we can personally keep our financial ducks in a row and keep ourselves above water, the state of the economy matters little to me. We spend according to needs and funds, not by sticking our finger in the winds of national opinion or fact concerning the economy. Getting debts in order is our priority. As with Gina, in our family we still spend close to, if not occassionally under our weekly food budget, as we have since we got married nearly three years ago. And I got a part time job recently(stay at home dad) to make sure that our budget doesn’t come down to scraping two pennies together as we prepare for potential family growth, not to mention immediate increased gas prices affecting our budget. We’ve never lived above our means. We don’t own an ipod, game system, big tv or brand new vehicles. We didn’t buy a McMansion craptastic cookie-cutter. We frequent Shop-N-Save, Target and the dollar store. We peruse Craigslist and Freecycle and have done this even when we had plenty of discretionary funds. And yet, if you visit our home, I’d wager most’d think we’re living above our means, at least a little.

Frugality and common sense will see most anyone thru even the worst national economic slump. And a little economic hardship every now and then is good I think for teaching a little humility and wisdom to the general public to concerned with self-interested pride and desire.

#4 - Where the heck do you shop for groceries? My family of four eats well for maybe $100 a week, and most weeks it’s a lot less. That may change of course when they all become teenagers, but still.

If people payed less attention to the crap newspapers and the networks spew out about the economy, global warming, and other fake horrors the media sensationalize to sell ad space, they’d realize there is actually very little to be gloomy about.

American Accountability!
Yes . . . Americans holding Americans accountable is the only thing that seems like it will translate economically in the Global Economy. stop bailing out Wall Street at the expense of the Greenback.

time to storm the castle . . . or the country club.

I bought an 18 ct carton of eggs (to dye for easter and then turn into deviled eggs) 4.50$ one

gallon of milk 3.88$ I have a family of 5 two of them are teenagers 100$ dosen’t cover jack-sqaut oh and get ready to pay upwards of 5.$ a pop for a loaf of bread how absurd!

#6
sounds like your wife is hiding the real grocery bill from you, I’ll pose you the same question where the heck do you shop for 100$ a week?

As always, when the costs of products and needs rise, income always lags behind. Thus there’s bugetary and economic problems in the interim until income can meet the demands of cost. Equilibrium. Barring some extrodinary negative events to affect the US economically we should see a typical rebound within a year or so I’d think.

But with so many things tied together it’s like looking at a house of cards or a domino display on the verge of just the wrong nudge.

The housing market is still wobbly and was caused by greed, stupidity and sometimes downright lies. 10 years ago it was the tech/dot.com market. Something else will be the new bubble in a few years. I’ve heard rumors it’s bonds. Compound this with a government so deep in debt it’s unfathomable, and lo and behold, China owns a lion share of our debt. Our dollar is worth less, but it isn’t worthless. Yet. The world’s continuing and growing distrust in it cannot help the dollar to regain strength and worth. Then there’s oil, as prices rise yet production isn’t increased and we continue to restrict the development of facilities here that could ease such burdens. And to top it all off we have Russia and China waking up. I see China taking further actions after the Olympics. We have a Presidential election occuring this fall and Islamic terrorists who while greatly wounded are still a great threat. Between Iran, Al-qaida and the potential cells here in the US, I can only hope that we don’t have a Spanish election on our hands, or just as bad, a Beslanic day across America. Between the terrorists and oil, I don’t doubt someone will try to affect voter turn out and trends. Not to mention if we get Clinton or Obama in office, no telling how bad it could get not only abroad, but here if they were to go thru with an immediate, announced withdrawl.

Doom and gloom? Concern? You bet. Our economy is merely the tip of the iceberg, one that is interwoven with so many aspects. We don’t have the Titanic bearing down on us. We’re out in open water, in the shipping lanes as it were, and we’re no longer the big, big dog on the street that we were 15 years ago.

# 9 - Save A Lot, Shop n Save, Costco, and a produce market when our garden isn’t in. We also hunt and fish.

Being as I do the most of the grocery shopping myself, I know exactly how much we spend. We make a menu each week, base a shopping list off of it, use coupons when available, and don’t buy useless, overpriced items like bottled water, junk food, or name brands. We buy produce that’s whole and in season. The prepackaged and washed stuff is a rip-off. It’s really not that hard to peel a carrot or tear up a head of lettuce.

As our kids grow older the costs will obviously increase, but our strategy for staying on a budget won’t.

Logus #5: “Frugality and common sense will see most anyone thru even the worst national economic slump. And a little economic hardship every now and then is good I think for teaching a little humility and wisdom to the general public to concerned with self-interested pride and desire.”

Pretty good teachable moment here. I am concerned and my personal situation is pretty good. Debt is what I think about. But I made the decision to buy an old house and invest my money there. I don’t regret it (in fact, I love my house and south city neighborhood), but I didn’t realize the commitment that it is. Huh, they aren’t kidding when they say “for better or for worse.”

Ryan, some debt is good debt and on average, having a mortgage is traditionally good debt. As long as people don’t get starry-eyed when they’re looking to buy a home.

Heh, we just bought a used car. It’s not what we really wanted, but it will work better than not. We’d looked around for a while and decided to scale back what we were looking for. The same day that we were going to look at the vehicle we bought, I’d seen another vehicle for sale that made me drool. It was within our budget and probably in nicer condition, but it was higher miles, an older model and a European vehicle as well as being just a wee bit too small for our needs. We decided it would be our fallback if the car we looked at didn’t cut it. I knew we could afford to buy the BMW, but I also knew it might be too small for our needs and more importantly that any future repairs would be quite a bit more expensive than for the Taurus we bought. As it is, I get to tinker with a non-working heater and a nonworking door glass on the Taurus. And lastly on cars, my dream has always been to own an early 70s MGB, but common sense and our budget tells me that we’ll have to shelve that desire for quite a bit more, if not disregard it altogether.

When we first started looking for a home we considered our dream of owning a large piece of land out in the country. In fact it looked budgetarily feasible, but we were never satisfied with what was within our range (a lot of ratty doublewides! yech). Thus we reorganized our plans and are working on a “step” plan. In this way we hope that in 5-7 years the market might be good enough as well as our financial standing that we can sell this home and then not only afford our dream, but get something that we can accept and like.

Hopefully you don’t wind up spending more money on the house than it’s worth, but even then, as long as you’re satisfied and enjoy what you’ve put into it, so what! As long as you realize that you might not be able to recoup some of that expenditure. If you look at some of your spending as for personal pleasure instead of future investment, it might not matter so much. Instead of buying that big screen tv, you want a marble countertop instead of formica, even though you might not be able to recoup the cost if you sell the home… if you can afford it, it fits in your budget and it makes you happy, so what?!

I would be happy if Democrats would stop lying to the American people. On Sunday two weeks ago, I watched as Democrat politicians avoided direct questions about their presidential candidates’ qualifications, etc., but said we need to talk about how the American people are suffering with high food and gas prices and can’t pay their mortgages. So what did the Democrat presidential candidates do? You guessed it. They had just voted to raise taxes on the middle class. Thanks Democrats. Does that make any sense? The political mouthpieces forgot to mention that.

Obama’s AGI was $983,826 and he got a $40,856 refund which he applied to next years taxes. Nice. Gotta love America. Wonder how the dems will spin this? Come on, tax the rich.

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/files/obama_2006_tax_return.pdf

I got back $80 from the feds, paid the state $28 and had to pay the city $86.

The economy is just fine for me. I’m pretty well insulated against down-turns, inflation, etc.

Others are not so fortunate. Look at the credit-card debt the average family has. It is horrendous, Some 30 percent are 90 days in arrears, and 20 percent of borrowers are making the minimum monthly payment. What were they thinking?

That will be our next crisis.

I share some of your views about frugality and moderation. I don’t waste money. I live out on the peninsula of a beautiful lake, lake view in 3 directions, in a home I have built with my own two hands. It is solar heated, and geothermal cooled. It is a 1400 sq foot house. My cost to date is $38,000..

If is plenty big enough for my Lady of Interest and I to live in and entertain. > Entertainment is an essential part of her position with the central office of a Banking mini-conglomerate. (Banks in 3 states)

At the bottom of out steps down to our dock is a 52 foot houseboat That has a 200 hp gasoline powered engine. Everything else is solar powered. for heat, and cooling.

#11, no offense, but you boasting that you only spend 100 dollars or less on groceries is a giant crock and you know it! It you are eating 3 meals a day, at least 6 days a week like we are, you have got to be spending more. The only day we fast food is Sat. mainly because I need a break. My husband brown bags it for lunch my kids eat breakfast and dinner everyday at home but have a choice of eating lunch on campus or at work. Most times they brown bag it too. Being that we don’t hunt and fish I guess I am justified in adding on a little more to my bill there and I sure do like my cleaning products. Have you included the gas money you are spending running all over town to save the 10 cents on the generic mac and cheese box? Have you included the fast food money you spend instead of eating at home? Have you included the cost of your kids school lunches? Don’t judge until you really sit down and honestly figure out not only what you are spending at the grocery store but add in all the extras.

Gina,

I doubt he is including several expenses, like the cost of eating out to cover meals he and his family don’t prepare themselves (including work lunches). He also is probably leaving out basic essentials that are purchased at the grocery store, but aren’t food – like toothpaste, paper towels, toilet paper, etc. I live with 3 women (my wife and two daughters) and let me say, the cost of TP is not insignificant. But then again, maybe he and his family eat like birds and live like Sheryl Crow (wipe with one square).

But I agree with you, $100 a week in groceries for a family of 4 seems low. I know my family and I go through about 4 gallons of milk a week (we don’t drink soda) and that’s $13.2 (at $3.30 a pop) alone.

PS – about Carlton at #3 – he makes the assertion (and I am paraphrasing) that he’s not concerned because he has SS benefits coming, and they will be paid to him because the old people have political clout and will ensure that the working people are taxed enough to cover his expenses. He then goes on to assert that the working people should learn to be more frugal, rather than ask for a raise to cover increasing living expenses.

To this I say, You can tax the workers as much as you want, but if they don’t make diddly squat, then the tax revenue will only be diddly squat. In other words, If your plan is to live off money taken from those who work, it behooves you to ensure that those who are working actually make some money.

Hey Fish.
Your a real renissance man, just the fact that you have all that time to shop and hunt every week , oh and buy the way once your kids are old enough to read the days of the no-name products goes right out the window! Your story dosn’t hold bottled water……………….but you do seem to be pretty proud of yourself! Oh and grow your own food I forgot about that ! Are you a farmer? Something smells well Fishy.

Is it really necessary to call me a liar Gina? The other things you list, like meals out, gasoline, the kid’s school lunches, non-food items, etc are completely irrelevant. I was talking soley about food we buy and prepare ourselves.

We brown bag too - often using leftovers from previous meals. We don’t drive all over town to save 5 cents. We tend to do as much as possible in one trip. As I’ve stated twice already, I fully expect that average to go up as our three kids get older and eat more.

Chill out a little.

Fish,
So is it a family of 4 or 5 I am asuming you are married you mention 3 kids, thats a family of 5 for 100$ or less a week? What happens if you don’t catch any fish or its not hunting season,…I’ll bet there aren’t alot of pigeons in your neighborhood!!!

If your not married how does a single parent find the time to hunt ,fish, garden, work and shop! I’m sorry what year is it anyway, the gas you spend just drive to a lake or forest must be astronomical, unless ofcourse you live on this land, but then the gas to get into town would come into play so ……..

# 19 - Compared to a juvenile little troll, yeah, I guess I am.

My family of 4(children 3 and 6) most definitely spends less than $100 a week on groceries. Maybe we are one of those crazy wacked out families, but it is the case. $15.00 of that is the milk bill as we go through about 5 gallons a week.

We do a lot of shopping at Save-A-Lot, have a well stocked deep freeze and only occasionally go out for food.

#21, you could take your kids fishing and it would provide a nice life lesson if you showed them how to plant a garden.

Well Fish, I guess I just don’t understand your logic. I am telling you that all inclusive I spend on average 200 dollars a week on groceries at a grocery store.. If I were spending 200 at the grocery store and let’s say another 50 at resturants or wherever, that would also then become a part of the food budget allowance. This economy has dramatically changed the prices at the grocery store is all that I was saying in my original blog. You took it to the extreme of saying that I must not know where to shop. Believe me after 27 years of being the sole grocery shopper in my family I am pretty much an expert on food prices. My food bill of today has gone up at least 20 dollars a week from last year that is all I am trying to point out. I am sorry if you took offense.

I live in Lake Sherwood my kids and I fish alot we enjoy fishing so much we always throw them back! So you can take your life lesson and stick it were the sun don’t shine!

I don’t belive your story either.
its hard to plant a garden when you live on a lake.

Gina,
Is fish feeding a family of 4 or 5 could you clear this matter up ?

Bzztt wrong try again #25. You just answered your own question.

You: “How does a single parent find time to hunt, fish, garden, and shop?”
You again: “We fish so much we throw them back.”

Maybe spend some time planting a garden instead of one day of fishing is how you find the time.

Not asking you to believe my story, your’e an anonymous web poster.

Fishing and hunting go in the entertainment budget. The bounty of each pursuit is a bonus that decreases the amount of food budget. Understood?

I’m going back to my apparently make believe world where I can feed my family on a hunert bucks a week, you folks feel free to continue moaning about food prices.

Sorry, you were referring to fish being a single parent. If that’s the case, you take the kids fishing and out in the garden to plant. It’s more fun that way.

#27

?????????????
I don’t eat fish moron I’m semi retired moron I have all the time in the world to fish moron I have been married 20+ yrs moron whats your point? Ah I know your one of those tightwads that is a proud of it, I ‘d hate to be the waiter or waitress that waits on you. Now run along to the make-belive land inside your head.

#29. A waitress waited on me last night and got 20% for so-so service. I hope that was enough for your wife to buy your next pack of Marlboro Lights while you sit around bitching about the price of gas and bread.

Now take your metamucil you putz.

#30
Just because I mentioned I was semi-retiered you asume I ‘m up there in the yrs …………life has been better to some of us than others I’m 44 I sure hope you diden’t blow your budget for the week last night at dinner, or the local game beware ………….its a lovely afternoon I think I’ll pour myself a glass of tea and sit on my deck over-looking the lovely Lake Sherwood ahhhhhhhhhhhh now this is the life you’d be amazed!

Sorry about that I have a shared lap-top looks like ole wifey forgot to log out now were was I oh yes that tea lap-tops are a buetifull thing!!!!!!!

I’m 48 and earn about $63,000/year, but am very frugal. I shop at Dierbergs for my wife and myself and for one 11 year old girl. We spend appproximately $33 a week on groceries and health and beauty supplies. We only buy the loss leaders and sale items. We generally have 5 bags of groceries each week for that $33 we spend. We are just very conservative at home at what we use being raised in a Jewish family. We spend about $75 a week eating out.

Our bill— 1 gall organic milk—$3.50
1 loave wheat bread 1.50
1 gall orange juice 2.00
2 bags froz. veget 3.00 (lasts 4 meals)
2 lbs beef 5.00 (2 meals–sloppy joes, spagh & meatballs)
4 chkn breasts 4.50 (1 meal)
4 pork chops 4.50 (1 meal)
1 can salmon 2.50 (1 meal croquettes)
mostaciolli 2.00 (2 meals)
2 pkg toilet paper 4.50
TOTAL: $33.00

breakfasts out $25.00 (5 days a week) daughter’s cereal $2.50/wk
lunches out $50.00 (5 days a week) daughter’s school ($10.00/wk)

We also have extra fruit on hand as well as yogurt and bagels for light lunches for my stay-at-home wife. My wife eats fruits and bagels for breakfast as well. She is very fit and weighs 138 lbs. We purchase our shampoos and soaps and detergents about once every 3 months at Dierbergs also which costs an additional $25 every 3 months.

Harvey,
The bagels and yogart and fruit are not on your grocery list? Frugal and diebergs contridict each other, if you shoped a shop-save you might cut that 33$ in half. I have a family of 5, 3 kids two of them teens the other is 10 but he eats like his 16 yr old brother, very healthy kids, just keeping up with the fruit these kids put away is enought to break the bank! One orange is close to a 1$ I don’t by the off brand my kids won’t touch them so I’m not really saving any money now am I? So my bill hovers around 160$ to 180$ depending on the pets we also feed 2 large dogs a cat and a canary so with all considard I’d say I shop pretty well.

Marla–The fruit and yogurt and bagels I buy in bulk—

Bagels cost $2.00/wk
Yogurt costs $2.00/wk
Fruit–Bag of apples and Bag of oranges and grouping of bananas cost $7.00/wk

Adding another $11.00/wk. Most times the apples and oranges last 2 weeks though.

Dierberg’s is 1/8 mile from our house–closest store–saving on gasoline.

Some good comments above. There are some serious disconnects in the economy that are setting up a potential collapse. The huge amount of consumer credit that is out there, the number of people who are maxed out on credit is a disaster waiting to happen.

My primary concern right now is the cost of education. I’m one who believes that it is MY responsibility , as a parent, to educate my children. My deal with my 3 daughters always was, I’ll pay for the bachelors degree, after that, it’s on you. It is simply not possible to save enough for a college education these days. It’s not possible for an average family to provide higher education to their children without taking on debt. This is my reality. I’ve been paying college bills for 9 years, with 3 years to go. I’m really, really looking forward to the last college check in the spring of 2011. That’ll be the biggest pay raise I’ll ever see I’ve always encouraged them to dream big dreams and go after them.

By the way, the older 2 are both in graduate school, and will eventually both will have PhD degrees in their chosen fields of study.

The cost of energy will snowball across the economy in a myriad of ways, and eventually a new equilibrium will develop, just not for a while. I’m noticing lots of Escalades and Expeditions on the used car lots…which says something about the price of gas. I shake my head and wonder what people are thinking, lots of the time. The home builders who think a starter home is 2500 square feet with a bathroom for every bedroom and a huge kitchen with granite countertops aren’t building a starter home for someone like me. The car builders who think ‘good’ gas mileage is 25-30 mpg aren’t building cars for someone like me. The hotel operators who think an affordable hotel room is $250 a night aren’t inviting me to stay in their place. And so on. And, the people who are trying to buy that 2500 sq ft starter home, and the monster SUV, and take annual trips to Disney with the kids on a 2 earner, $12 per hour income each aren’t speaking my economic language.

hs, my children are 3 and 6. They both have more in college investments at this age than I had at 18 when I was walking out the door on my way to college. All of which was contributed by my wife and I. However, I am not one that believes it is my responsibility to cover their BS. In fact, they will be raised as if I’m throwing them out at 18.

The last time I checked, no college courses meet for 16 hours every day of the week. EVERY college student that isn’t a trust fund baby, should have some level of employment. Be delivering pizzas while school was in session and building retaining walls in the summer, I gradeeeeated from a state school completely debt free.

Lunacy, all of them worked as students, and during the summers. They aren’t trust fund kids, not by a long shot. I’m not going to go into a rant about the current college funding mess, as I said, I’ve been living it for the last 9 years. Good for you for setting up education funds for your kids at their young ages.

Just one mini-rant: I got this year’s FAFSA Student Aid Report back a week or two ago. It says that I can “afford” a heck of a lot more for my ‘expected family contribution’ than the numbers that are in front of me suggest. The formula they use basically demands that you have (a) no savings and (b) very high debt before you qualify for any form of need based aid. By the way, even if you ‘throw your kids out at 18′, unless you can prove that you provide absolutely zero financial support (help with rent, medical insurance, car insurance, a car payment) for at least a year in most states, they won’t qualify for financial assistance on their own. The formulas take the parent’s financials as the majority contribution to the kid’s education.

Our last child is a Freshman at SLU and thank the stars he is there on his brain cells or we could not of afforded that college. For all three kids the deal was four years were on us, higher education would be on your backs. The price of education is sky high and heading for the moon. You just cringe when you think of the debt most kids will be carrying by graduation. All of the above discussions have just made me feel gloomier!! Back to sticking my head in the sand for now.

Amazed–your state school cost how much…back in which decade? A few thousand a semester?

Today, a private college is $50,000 a year….Why should you give your kids 4 free years? And not much you can do with a Master’s Degree but waste another 2 years and $100,000.

If graduating around 27, they’ll have spent enough money to have purchased a $300,000 home free and clear with no mortgage payments–ever! How would you like to be in that position?
All you would have to worry about would be utilities $220/mo and food $400/month. Anybody can earn that much doing something they enjoy. And in 20 years the house would be worth upwards of $900,000.

Being “thrown out of the house at 18″ sounds down right mean. Your tots are only 3 and 6 right now, poor kids….you think that low of them now?

I’m chuckling at the image of go-fish’s kids being frog-marched out the door at age 18 with a bankbook in their pocket.

A couple other things about the financial aid rules as they exist today (and will certainly be worse 10 years from now, when fish’s kids are needing them).

If you have a joint savings account with your child, the system counts the money in that account as the PARENT’s asset. Same as with stock investments, etc. Using a state-defined plan helps, but even then, the money in the account is defined as a parent’s asset, not a child’s asset. Since in most states, a child cannot open a bank account in their own name until they are 16, even resetting the account to the child’s name alone at 16 won’t help: they look at the history.

Regardless, I’m pretty pessimistic about the economy. At best, I see my earned income staying constant or decreasing relative to inflation for the next 10 years. I’m worried that my retirement fund (a combination of 401K and an employer provided ‘cash balance’ pension), being entirely dependent on the stock market, could collapse at any time. I’m worried that my kids will have trouble finding employment that will pay them enough to live on.

hs and others….At no time did I say I was frog marching my children out the door at 18. They will be raised as if there isn’t a pile of money there for them to go to school on even though there should very well be a BIG pile.

I love this. I say it cost me a few thousand a year to attend a state school and ole Bill replies back that PRIVATE schools average about 50,000 a year. Then goes into a tirade about being in debt forever after attending a private school.

Bill, in about 5 minutes researching their sites, I found that SEMO will cost an undergrad 10-13 grand a year, Missouri State would be about 13 and Missouri a little less than 20. Granted there will be incidentals that would add to the overall cost, but I see AFFORDABLE educational opportunities in our great state of Missouri. Also, any able bodied 18-22 year old that can’t earn 5, 10, or 15 grand a year is a lazy bum or a spoiled brat.

Lunatic, our economy’s so bad now, there’s a lot of able-bodied, single parent families out there who can’t find jobs that pay more than $15,000 a year, let alone a teen. Communiy junior college is a struggle for them.You must live in a dream world.

Better stay in school a little longer then there fella. 15 grand a year is about 7.50 and hour for full time work. Delivering pizzas in college in 94-96 averaged me about 13 bucks an hour. In the summers as a landscaper, I usually averaged 12 an hour working for someone else and as much as 100 bucks an hour when I worked for myself. In one summer of 94, I made a little less than 17,000 by building retaining walls in West County subdivisions. 3 months of 12-14 hour days 6 sometimes 7 days a week and I was able to make enough to pay for a year and half of school. It can be done.

As long as you continue to make excuses, “the economy is bad, single parent wha wha wha” people have no need to work through a struggle. I hope to god(no particular one) that our country slows are constant decent to nanny government.

our constant decent not are. Duh I guess you get what you pay for at a state skool.

and I can’t spell descent.

Point is, work hard and you will be ok. Got it Slu?

I will quit typing now.

I’m not worried at all. Soon we will have a newer, smarter political leadership. Also, if things get really bad, commodities-wise, I assure you that there will be no shortage of squirrel burgers to be had, here in the burbs.

Weekly Free Love Horoscopes…

The TrackBack specification was created by Six Apart, who first implemented it in their Movable Type blogging software in August…

2006 Weekly Horoscopes…

As a result, TrackBack spam filters similar to those implemented against comment spam now exist in many weblog publishing systems….

Free Horoscopes For Teenagers…

…

Mortgage Calculator Currency Conversion Financing…

I didn’t agree with you first, but last paragraph makes sense for me…

tramadol pictures…

tramadol 20online…

Basketball Play Basketball Games Soccer Moms…

I didn’t agree with you first, but last paragraph makes sense for me…

Civil Engineering News Best Firms…

One notable blogging tool that does not support trackback yet is Blogger.It has since been implemented in most other blogging tools.A…

china cereal bowl…

This is similar to comment spam but avoids some of the safeguards designed to stop the latter practice.A Trackback is one of three…

All about Digimon Adventure Online Game. Digimon Adventure Fans Blog….

…Digimon is a small virtual pet. You can download and play an online RPG in the Digimon universe. It looks and feels like 2D graphic RPG adventure. You can train and level up your Digimon, make hundreds of quests, and travel through a huge universe a…

Shag Hairstyles and Haircuts…

shag hairstyle basically gotits name from the word “shaggy” since …once the hair is cutand layered it gives off a shaggy look. The shag hairstyle has always been apopular hairstyle, and there are plenty ofshag hairstyles to choose from…

Huge exhibits of Arbonne Skin Care Products…

Arbonne International is one of the main companies in the world when it comes to beauty and skin care. Its skin care product line is one of the best in the world that many women. The products of Arbonne skin care products are manufactured in Switzerla…

Huge exhibits of Arbonne Skin Care Products…

Arbonne International is one of the main companies in the world when it comes to skin care. Its skin care product line is one of the best in the world that many women. The products of Arbonne International skin care products are formulated in Switzerl…

Male celebrities shags…

Stylists of the those celebrities are miracle makers, capturing each of their personalities and presenting them in sophisticated fun loving shag haircuts. Let’s hope we’ll see more and more celebrities take our breath away with their gorgeous shags….

Male celebrities shags…

Stylists of the above celebrities are magicians, capturing each of their personalities and presenting them in sophisticated fun loving shag haircuts. Hopefully we’ll see more and more celebrities take our breath away with their gorgeous shags….

competitive mortgage rates…

If you are thinking about a mortgage refinance, you should take into consideration a lot of mortgage refinance program types. For example, you can look into a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage refinance program. In this case your mortgage payments are a bit …

mortgage index…

If you are thinking over a mortgage refinance, you should consider a lot of mortgage refinance program types. For example, you might want to look into a 10 year fixed rate mortgage refinance program. In this plan your mortgage payments are a bit higher…

Fashion printable paper dolls…

Fashion printable paper dolls - are dolls designed to reflect fashion trends or just fantasy play. The dolls are made of vinyl or another plastic, and are made both as for play and for collections. They are enjoyed by many people around the world. The …

J Tobacco’s aims…

All kind of tobacco is harmful, no matter how it is packaged, said researchers. For example they found that smoking tobacco described as ‘light’ and ‘mild’ is not better for health and is not safer to smoke compared with smoking regular tobacco. do…

Tobacco Epidemic in China…

All kind of cigarette is harmful, no matter how it is manufactured, said researchers. For example they found that smoking tobacco described as ‘light’ and ‘mild’ is not better than regular cigarettes. doctors announced that the tobacco industry has…

Mobile phones are more harmful than smoking…

Doctors stated in a study that heart attacks are hitting the overweight people more than a decade sooner than “normal” weight….

Swine flu vaccine side effects…

Recommendations to avoid spread of the virus among people include using standard infection control against influenza. This means frequent washing of hands with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand sanitizers, especially after being out in public….

The hottest short hairstyles…

Kylie Bax has a very cool new short hairstyle with lots of layers that is very short at the back….

online medicine offers…

Scientist stated no relative afferent pupil defect indicating that the right afferent pupil order premium viagra online pathway was intact and localised the lesion to the right efferent pupil pathway. The differential diagnosis was therefore Adie’s to…

2009 short hairstyles trends…

A short hair style may expose some facts about your face that you are not quite like. That’s why, this is something to keep in mind for those who might be more introverted about some of our facial features. It is also noticed that it can take time to …

premium viagra sales…

The child’s home life needs to order viagra online support his or her educational goals. An organized, quiet study area is needed. A balance between weight loss, rest, play, and study should be maintained….

äåìîíòàæ çäàíèé Ïåòåðáóðã…

äåìîíòàæ çäàíèé Ïåòåðáóðã…

medication…

pharmacy…