21 Things Your Burglar Won’t Tell You

1. Of course I look familiar. I was here just last week cleaning your carpets, painting your shutters, or delivering your new refrigerator.
2. Hey, thanks for letting me use the bathroom when I was working in your yard last week. While I was in there, I unlatched the back window to make my return a little easier.
3. Love those flowers. That tells me you have taste… and taste means there are nice things inside. Those yard toys your kids leave out always make me wonder what type of gaming system they have.
4. Yes, I really do look for newspapers piled up on the driveway. And I might leave a pizza flyer in your front door to see how long it takes you to remove it..
5. If it snows while you’re out of town, get a neighbor to create car and foot tracks into the house. Virgin drifts in the driveway are a dead giveaway.
Electronic Watchdog, Barking Dog Alarm
6. If decorative glass is part of your front entrance, don’t let your alarm company install the control pad where I can see if it’s set. That makes it too easy.
7. A good security company alarms the window over the sink. And the windows on the second floor, which often access the master bedroom – and your jewelry. It’s not a bad idea to put motion detectors up there too.
8. It’s raining, you’re fumbling with your umbrella, and you forget to lock your door – understandable. But understand this: I don’t take a day off because of bad weather.
9. I always knock first. If you answer, I’ll ask for directions somewhere or offer to clean your gutters. (Don’t take me up on it.)
10. Do you really think I won’t look in your sock drawer? I always check dresser drawers, the bedside table, and the medicine cabinet.
Door Security Bar
11. Here’s a helpful hint: I almost never go into kids’ rooms.
12. You’re right: I won’t have enough time to break into that safe where you keep your valuables. But if it’s not bolted down, I’ll take it with me.
13. A loud TV or radio can be a better deterrent than the best alarm system. If you’re reluctant to leave your TV on while you’re out of town, you can buy a $35 device that works on a timer and simulates the flickering glow of a real television.
14. Sometimes, I carry a clipboard. Sometimes, I dress like a lawn guy and carry a rake. I do my best to never, ever look like a crook.
15. The two things I hate most: loud dogs and nosy neighbors.
Fake Security Camera with BLINKING LIGHT
16. I’ll break a window to get in, even if it makes a little noise. If your neighbor hears one loud sound, he’ll stop what he’s doing and wait to hear it again. If he doesn’t hear it again, he’ll just go back to what he was doing. It’s human nature.
17. I’m not complaining, but why would you pay all that money for a fancy alarm system and leave your house without setting it?
18. I love looking in your windows. I’m looking for signs that you’re home, and for flat screen TVs or gaming systems I’d like. I’ll drive or walk through your neighborhood at night, before you close the blinds, just to pick my targets.
19. Avoid announcing your vacation on your Facebook page. It’s easier than you think to look up your address.
20. To you, leaving that window open just a crack during the day is a way to let in a little fresh air. To me, it’s an invitation.
21. If you don’t answer when I knock, I try the door. Occasionally, I hit the jackpot and walk right in.
FakeTV Burglar Deterrent

Here’s an idea…
Put your car keys beside your bed at night.
If you hear a noise outside your home or someone trying to get in your house, just press the panic button for your car. The alarm will be set off, and the horn will continue to sound until either you turn it off or the car battery dies. This tip came from a neighborhood watch coordinator. Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think of this: It’s a security alarm system that you probably already have and requires no installation. Test it. It will go off from most everywhere inside your house and will keep honking until your battery runs down or until you reset it with the button on the key fob chain. It works if you park in your driveway or garage. If your car alarm goes off when someone is trying to break into your house, odds are the burglar/rapist won’t stick around. After a few seconds all the neighbors will be looking out their windows to see who is out there and sure enough the criminal won’t want that. And remember to carry your keys while walking to your car in a parking lot. The alarm can work the same way there. This is something that should really be shared with everyone. Maybe it could save a life or a sexual abuse crime.

$1 Fruit Smoothies at Burger King

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  This Labor Day Weekend  Burger King is offering small Smoothies for a dollar.  Enjoy

  
  

Homemade Taco Seasoning

In an effort to help stretch your food dollars here is a recipe for Homemade Taco Seasoning.

What you'll need:

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation:
In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients. Store in an airtight container. When ready to use, add 1/4 cup of water to 1 pound of browned ground beef, steak or chicken. Immediately sprinkle with 2 1/2-3 tablespoons of seasoning. Stir to combine. Simmer until liquid is absorbed.


Serving size: 2 1/2 - 3 Tablespoons per 1 pound of meat.


The recipe comes from http://starneslifefamilylove.blogspot.com

Budget Notebook

Another way to budget from Sarah at http://www.memoriesoncloverlane.com

A couple weeks ago I shared my really simple notebook daily planner. I use a similar system for my budget. I have tried different fancy-pantsy budgeting tools...on-line thing-a-ma-jiggers that give you all sorts of serious bar graphs and pies and tabulations and what-have-you. I hated them, and they did nothing for me, and I thought they were so much more work than I thought my notebook system is. I explained in the daily planner post how I need to put pen to paper to have my brain work correctly...a computer screen just doesn't do it for me.  Continue reading at http://www.memoriesoncloverlane.com/2011/09/budget-notebook.html

4 Things I Do to Keep Our Grocery Budget at $200/mo. for a Family of Four

This idea comes from Lydia Beiler blog http://www.parents.com/blogs/thrifty-frugal-mom/2012/05/03/must-read/4-things-i-do-to-keep-our-grocery-budget-at-200mo-for-a-family-of-four/

 This $200 also includes all toiletries, cosmetics, cleaning supplies, diapers/wipes, paper supplies and any sort of item like that.

1. Choose to do Without
While choosing to do without is not really popular or even always a fun, it honestly is probably one of the biggest ways we save.
Some of the ways we do without are:

• Vince takes sandwiches in his lunch almost every day to work. But he has insisted that he doesn’t need both meat and cheese so most days he just has a meat and lettuce sandwich. At first I felt bad but he really doesn’t mind and the savings of not buying all that cheese does make a difference.
• Speaking of cheese, we hardly ever eat cheese just by itself. I use it in cooking but we rarely have it just to eat as a side or snack. Do we not like cheese? No, actually we all love cheese! But it is something we’ve decided to consider a luxury around here to help keep our spending low.
• Orange juice is a splurge item that I get only when I can buy it for $0.99 or less. Again, we all love orange juice but it’s not something we need to have and we can easily eat fruit and get our recommended serving that way much cheaper.
• We don’t buy lots of snack foods. Talk about a fast way to jack your grocery spending up- this is one of them! We actually don’t eat many snacks and if we do they tend to be more things like raisins, nuts, fruit or homemade cookies and granola bars. I still buy chips and crackers sometimes if I can get them for a great price but they are not things that we always have on hand.
• We do several different things to save money on meat. But one of the big ways that we save is simply by not buying expensive cuts. In fact I have a maximum buy price of $2.00/lb. for meats (and actually for cheese too) which means that we don’t often eat things like bacon or steaks. But so far we haven’t suffered and I think we still have a great variety!

One of the side benefits to choosing to do without some things is that you learn to appreciate what you do have even more. For instance, because our sandwiches typically consist only of meat and lettuce suddenly a sandwich with meat AND cheese becomes a real treat and we enjoy it immensely. Somehow I think doing without helps us appreciate some of the little things in life more fully.
2. Don’t be Brand Snobs
When I began using coupons I started realizing that I could save a lot if I chose to be open minded about trying brands than I didn’t typically use. You don’t have to be very smart to figure out that if your usual brand of spaghetti sauce typically costs $0.99 on sale but you can get another brand for just $0.50 using a coupon that you are going to save a bundle! I’ll be honest, there are still a couple of products that I am a brand snob about but overall I purchase whatever I can get for the least amount of money.
3. Cook from Scratch
I grew up in a home where my mom cooked mostly from scratch so I was used to this. And fortunately I enjoy cooking and baking. But it was still convenient to buy pre-packaged things to save time. It didn’t take me long to realize that it also was often a quick way to blow money.
Yes, cooking from scratch might take a bit more time but with a bit of planning ahead I’ve learned that it can be relatively fast too. One of the things I do that helps save time is to cook up large quantities of ground beef and chicken and then put it in the freezer in smaller portions. That way whenever I need a pound of ground beef or 2 cups of chicken for a recipe, I’m saved the time of having to cook it up. I also often make double recipes of a dish and then freeze half of it. Making twice as much of something doesn’t take much longer at all and when I have an usually busy day it’s so handy to be able to just pull dinner out of my freezer. I also apply this same principle to baked things like bread, rolls, cookies and biscuits.
4. Have a Price List
This might seem a bit silly but it does really help. By keeping track of which stores have the lowest prices on certain items I have been able to save a lot. And it also helps me know when something is a good stock up price too. It’s something that takes a minimal amount of time and effort but does pay off.

Date Night at Home

Check out: http://www.themomcrowd.com/30-ideas-for-a-date-night-at-home for some great ideas for date nights at home

Old Wives’ Tales For Homemakers

This post comes from Tipnut:   http://tipnut.com/

This is a read that gives a look at superstitions from back in the day.


This collection is a little different than my regular lists of vintage tips as some are superstitious (though there are practical nuggets here too). It’s hard to say how old any of them are, how they came about or why they were considered worthwhile to know.
Old wives tales were a simple way to impress upon someone the importance of doing (or not doing) a particular thing, in a manner which would be remembered and easily passed on from one generation to the next. Sometimes you have to interpret the hidden nuggets (ie. maybe salt stopping evil in its tracks was code for pest control, or the dire warning of accidentally boiling over the milk was more about taking care of precious food stores).
The stories could be regionally important, culturally significant, spiritually necessary (in the minds of those who repeated them), or vital to the health of the household budget (remember there was a time when the prices of salt and other pantry items were quite dear).
I’m not claiming these should be taken seriously or are vital information, I just find them interesting and in some cases useful to know. I pretty much kept the collection light, avoiding the death warnings and the evil eye or witch fears…though if you’re interested in that, stock up on sage and salt STAT, lol…nothing too dramatic in this bunch. I hope you enjoy them and they pique your interest as they do for me .

continue reading: http://tipnut.com/old-wives-homemakers/

How To Tell If A Watermelon Is Ripe

This article comes from the Hillbilly Housewife web site:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/


Summer is the time for cookouts, picnics, and watermelon. If you’re like me, you can’t wait to break open the first watermelon of the season.
Sometimes your rush ends up in disappointment because the watermelon you’ve chosen just isn’t tasty, which means it just isn’t ripe.
Let’s discuss how to tell if a watermelon is ripe so when you crack it open, it tastes like summer.
The trick to finding a ripe watermelon is to go beyond its appearance. Unlike some fruit, you can’t rely on your sense of sight to determine if you’re about to buy a nice, ripe, juicy watermelon. Take a banana, for instance. If the peel is yellow, chances are it’s ripe. With a watermelon you also have to call on your sense of sound and your sense of smell.
Watermelons, no matter what variety – small round or large football shaped – have a particular sound when you knock on them. A ripe watermelon will give you a “thud” sound when you knock on it with your knuckles. Hold the watermelon close to your ear by cradling it in one arm, then knock on it with your opposite hand; like you’re knocking on a door. You should hear a dull sound, not a high ringing sound. Do this to several watermelons until you get the sound that doesn’t resonate a lot; it sort of disappears into the watermelon. This may not make any sense until you actually thump a few!
The watermelon scent is very distinctive and is another clue to a ripe watermelon. Once you’ve chosen a watermelon with the right sound, you need to use your sense of smell to finalize the deal. Take your watermelon and walk away from the bin so your nose isn’t confused by too much watermelon scent. Get your nose close to the watermelon end and sniff. You should get a delicious watermelon scent.
If your nose is still confused by all the watermelon aromas, walk over to the coffee aisle and do the old wine tasting trick. Clear your nostrils with a whiff of coffee scent. Wait a minute, then sniff your watermelon.
Now that you know how to tell if a watermelon is ripe, dive right into that beautiful pile at your grocery store or farmers market. Bring home a ripe, juicy watermelon for your family today and enjoy the fruit that says “summer is here!”

9 Reasons Debt is Bad for You

A little debt won’t hurt, will it? That’s how it starts. You make a small purchase on your credit card and the next thing you know you have thousands of dollars in debt. But, what exactly is wrong with having a little – or a lot – of debt? A lot, actually.

Debt encourages you to spend more than you can afford.

There’s something about debt that can continue to make you spend, even though you can’t really afford the payments. Part of the allure of debt is the fact that you can get the emotional high from getting new things now, without having to part with the money now. In fact, it can feel like you’re getting something for nothing. But eventually, that spending will catch up with you.

Debt costs money.

Even though debt feels free when you first create it, it’s not really free at all. In general, you pay a price for the debt you create. That price comes in the form of interest. The higher the interest rate, the more you’ll end up paying for your debt. Also, the longer it takes you to pay off and the higher your debt load, the more interest you’ll pay. The only exception is an interest-free loan or credit card promotion.

Debt borrows from your future income.

Anytime you take out a loan or charge something on your credit card, you’re simply borrowing from the money you hope to earn in the future. Do you really want to spend your money paying for something you've already used up and don't get much value from any more?

High interest rate debt causes you to pay more than the item cost.

If you buy a $2,000 on your credit card at 11% and only make the minimum payment, you’ll end up paying more than $3,400. That’s $1,400 more than the furniture actually cost. Even if you raised your monthly payment to $100 and paid off the balance, you’d still pay close to $220 extra. On the other hand, you could save up $100 a month for 20 months and make the purchase with no extra cost.

Debt keeps you from accomplishing your financial goals.

Monthly debt payments limit the amount of money you have to spend on other things, not just retirement, but the trip you always wanted to take or Christmas presents for your family. The more debt you accumulate, the more your monthly payments will be and the less you have to spend on everything else.

Debt can keep you from owning a home.

Credit card, auto, and student loan debt are all considered when you make a mortgage application. If your other debt payments are too high, you may get turned down for a mortgage loan. That means, you’ll be stuck renting until you pay off some of all your other debt.

Debt can lead to stress and serious medical problems.

When you have debt, it’s hard not to worry about how you’re going to make your payments or how you’ll keep from taking on more debt to make ends meet. The stress from debt can lead to mild to severe health problems including ulcers, migraines, depression, and even heart attacks according to a poll done by Associated Press and AOL.

Debt can hurt your marriage.

Debt puts unnecessary pressure on the household’s finances and creates a lack of financial security for your spouse and your children. You may argue about who’s creating debt, how much debt is too much, and who’s responsible for the debt that’s accumulated. These fights can escalate and lead to a breakdown in the marriage.

Debt hurts your credit score.

Part of  your credit score – 30% to be exact – is based on the amount of debt you have. The more debt you have compared to your credit limits and original loan balances, the lower your credit score will be. Even if you’re not shopping for a credit card or loan, your credit score affects your life and the cost of other products and services, like auto insurance.

Written by LaToya Irby.

Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time

Thoughts from Elder Quentin L. Cook