Dollar store Christmas

 Im kinda torn this Christmas. I'm excited for it yet I'm not. I'm all good as far as financial and food but mentally and somewhat physically , I'm just not feeling good. (Update: let's be honest I need a job. I've tried locally and no one wants to hire me. I honestly think this has been my Christmas funk lately)

In previous years I've been more pumped. We've had our fair share of Hallmark movies to criticize. Activities as well as other Christmas traditions that fill up the holiday and make it fun.

So what's missing?

I'm not sure if I can pinpoint just one thing. I mean I am a bit stressed about money. Joe Biden is a disaster who is causing higher gas prices and higher food prices. I don't have a job. I'm not all there spiritually. I don't know.

I have motivation to work hard I just need a simple push in the right direction. Every time I say a prayer I ask for that push yet I'm not getting anything.

There's a quote by one of the apostles it goes something like this. "The lord is more willing to help those who get off the wagon and push rather than the person who sits still no matter how fervant or well the prayer is said."

I just don't know where to begin. Plus my Grandma died this year along with traditions and I may lose another member next year. The future is not so bright.

Anyways, in other news.

Last year I talked about a family down in southern Utah who were asking for help with Christmas. They had two kids and the dad was missing a paycheck. I wrote about it here.

http://viscarjones.blogspot.com/2020/12/its-ok-to-have-poor-christmas.html?m=1

Well they are back again. They were asking for some more Christmas help. Their add had been deleted so I suspect they got what they wanted but I find it interesting for 2 years they still need Christmas help.

Let me also make this statement. Over time and while writing this blog I have realize it's actually ok to ask for help when you need help. I have overtime even realized people who teach you that you need to be self reliant at one time or another received help. Sometimes the rule makers are not following the rules.

I wrote more about that here.

http://viscarjones.blogspot.com/2020/08/thats-why.html?m=1

Now let's get to why I even wrote this.

What to buy at the Dollar store if that's your only option for Christmas.

If you are super tight on cash what do you buy?

I'm not only going to add suggestions. Guess what. I actually went out and bought a gift for my wife.

So if I were this family what would I buy.

For The two year old. 

This one is the easiest. Toy cars and tracks. Puzzles. Coloring books with crayons blocks.

For the 6 year old. Puzzles again! A paint set. Colored clay, coloring books and an art set. Her own cup and plate. I would even grab a small pan and a cookie mix for her to make cookies.

For the Parents you have to think as in a theme. For example. For the wife a relaxation kit. Bath bombs a candle relaxing lavender bath soap. Massage oil. Bath salts.

If husband is into camping and survival give him.a survival kit. Rope a lighter duck tape a tarp or plastic cover. Flashlights and batteries

 They even sell pocket knives. Combine that with a bag of food.

How about a travel kit for when finances get better. Toothbrush and toothpaste snacks shampoo soap deodorant. Notepad crossword puzzles. Put in an itenerary of where you would like to go and make it a goal to go!

Shaving kits. Assured razers are not too bad. I just used one the other day.

A tool box. Pliers razer knives screw drivers wire cleaners

Cell phone chargers car chargers electronic cleaners.

Car cleaning kit. Armor all, sponges, wheel cleaners soaps wrags.

Car oil change kit. Oil, oil pan.

Seriously it really is an option. Think of it as a blessing before the bigger blessings come. 

My medicine cabinet.

 So while I was playing pharmacist and Dr. Dad in my family I thought I would share what I use and some money saving tips when it comes to over the counter medicines, pills and such

My go to pill for almost everything is ibuprofen. It's not a cure all but it's certainly my first choice. Have a cold try ibuprofen. Have a headache try ibuprofen. Nose stuffy, try ibuprofen. If that doesn't work then I move on but more than 50 % of the time, ibuprofen does work.

Now I am not one to buy name brand. That is pretty much a quick way to overpay and simply give your money away. A name brand bottle can cost 10 times that of an off brand. The cheapest ibuprofen I know of is Sam's club. 10.88 for 1200 pills. Less than a penny a piece.

I don't mind using Aspirin but don't use it that often. Aspirin is in the same family of drugs as ibuprofen but I feel it's not as effective unless it is taken with Tylenol then it's very effective. I will get into that later.

Tylenol is a pill I try to avoid. So many warnings and I've even heard that Tylenol is just not good for you. If I'm not having success with ibuprofen or Aspirin I will alternate with Tylenol. I did this recently at Disneyland. What could have ruined my vacation was stopped with Tylenol and ibuprofen. I typically won't use Tylenol by itself.

Because I don't use it often I typically buy a Tylenol off brand at the dollar store. 

Aleve use to be my go to pain reliever until it stopped working. The problem with Aleve is that you have to wait 12 hours before taking another pill. Let's say you have a headache and you take two pills. 2 hours later your headache still hurts and it feels like Aleve is not working. Well unfortunately you have to wait another 10 hours before you can take another pill. With ibuprofen you can take up to 4 pills and take them every 4 hours. If the pain doesn't subside in the first 4 you can redose and try again.

I'll say this too. If this does happen I would be taking Tylenol after 2 hours. Then alternating every 3 hours after that.

Again I don't even have Aleve in my medicine cabinet but if I did I would purchase it at the dollar store. Typically I think it's 12-15 pills for a dollar.

Off brand is called naproxen and it's in the same family of pain relievers as Aspirin and ibuprofen

Excedrin. I love Excedrin. Yet I don't have it in my medicine cabinet nor do I buy or use it often. You get a similar effect by alternating ibuprofen and Tylenol. If you're not familiar with what Excedrin is, Excedrin has 3 ingredients. Aspirin, Tylenol and Caffeine. You can buy all 3 ingredients at a dollar store. This is why I don't have Excedrin in my medicine cabinet because it is alot cheaper to make it than to buy it. Even Aspirin and Tylenol sold at the dollar store comes with caffeine!

Now after doing some research it seems that Walmart does have the cheapest option at just a dollar for 24 pills for 4 dollars you can get 200 pills. At the dollar store you would buy 60 aspirin and 40 Tylenol which works out to be around 80 pills for 2 dollars. The dosage for an adult is 500, mg of aspirin and 500mg of Tylenol. Aspirin comes in at around 325 and Tylenol is 500 in one pill. I'm fine dosing higher with two pills with aspirin but again Tylenol is one I stay at or below dosage.

I also have about 7 pills that are locked up in a safe of Percocet. These are simply for pain emergencies. It is so hard to get these now days and thankfully I haven't needed them. I keep them because I have had to wait 12 hours in #10 pain to get to a Dr only to write me a prescription for this and some antibiotics. I'm not addicted and I don't have any addictions. (Except soda!) These are simply to remain functional until I can get to a Dr if pain is at that level again.

I'll talk about 2 other drugs I take and quite honestly the rest of my cabinet is mainly stuff I take every once in a great while or my kids take it. For example Allergy medicine. It's not very effective with me and overtime my allergies have subsided quite a bit but on a really bad day I do take some Benadryl. I have several options and they all have their potency.

Pseudoephedrine is a decongestant. It is only available across the counter. You cannot buy it off the shelf. For colds this is an awesome decongestant. Not to be confused with phenylephrine which is more common in cold medicines and sucks

Lastly Day and Night time cold relief. I take these every once in a great while yet again these have ingredients that I don't like such as phenylephrine and Tylenol (acetaminophen) I'd rather take pseudoephedrine with some ibuprofen and make Tea with honey and lemon for my cough.

As a bonus I like to keep zinc on hand. When you start to feel the first symptoms of sickness, take some zinc every few hours. It has been proven to minimize colds. I did this while having Covid. You can believe what you want but for me it helped.

Oh and one last thing I want to mention. You've heard of an aspirin regimen? Taking a low dose of aspirin to prevent a heart attack or stroke. I have practiced something similar when it comes to vacations or strenuous activity. I don't know what it is but like I mentioned above I do get these very painful headaches on vacation. Typically they only last 24 hours and I'm good for the rest of the vacation but they knock me out. Similarly hiking or in one trip taking a handcart across the Wyoming desert can cause some unwanted pains at night so here's what I do and what has saved alot of vacation time. I start taking 400 mg of ibuprofen every 8 hours a day before the vacation starts till about day 3 or 4 OR after a sign of a headache. Trust me. This has been a lifesaver.

Why does Arizona get to keep Their Easter Pageants?

 So I'm kindof mad tonight. 

I'll keep it brief and to the point although trust me I could go off the rails with this topic.

With the reopening of the Mesa Arizona temple I wondered if Arizona will resume pageants. I guess I didn't get the memo that they are indeed next year going to resume the Easter pagent.

I mean that's good news! ….For my friends in Arizona. But why do they get to continue their traditions and quite honestly can I say this their CULTURE, if we in Utah cannot!?

Mantis pagent gone!

Clarkson pagent gone!

Hill Chamora gone!

Church's Statement on pagents

Three pagents still remain. One I can understand continuing the other two quite honestly feels like favoritism.

The 3 that remain are The British pageant, The Mesa pageant and the Nauvoo pageant. I would be fine if they hacked all the pagents leaving the Navoo and the hill Chamora. I don't get why Mesa Arizona still gets their Pagent and Utah gets absolutely nothing?

"Larger productions such as pageants are discouraged"??

Lately we've been talking alot about cultures. Mixed cultures accepting other cultures. Why can't we as Latter Day Saints continue our traditions and cultures. We love these pagents as much as those do in Arizona yet. The leadership of the church probably went to several of these pagents with their families but me and my family??

Sometimes I wonder if it's simply to do with growth. Because we the future generation, just missed the good times. Instead we are told to "learn at home" It feels as though God is just Cramming as many people as he can down here on earth. Streets are packed the beautiful hills around me are now littered with houses. Even the grocery store has traffic jams.

I don't get it.

Look I actually have no plans to leave the church.

I will admit this though. I dislike my ward. I actually wrote hate and felt that was too strong of a word. It's growing so rapidly 2 Sundays ago, we ran out of seats. The gym was full! How is that fair to anyone? I mean I look at our Churches and wonder why they were even designed the way they are. We should be having church in an auditorium with how much growth we've been getting or at least have a different design where we sit above the person in front of us. I don't feel welcomed anymore. Lately I have been going for one hour and that's it. I can't stand a packed priesthood meeting or a Sunday school.

I'm done ranting and have work in the morning.

Good night.

It's called Compounding Cashback

 At my previous job, my boss or coworker (not sure what he was) asked me what my hobbies were. He was confused when I told him I am into cash back and gift card collecting.

If your not sure what that is I'll explain, and explain a little history.

When I was getting out of debt using strictly credit cards I noticed I began to get cash back every month. Because I was paying off my credit card statements in full I would get around 20 bucks a month. Back then 20 bucks helped alot. This in turn would be credited back to my account giving me an extra debt payment that to me was free. I wondered what other secrets are out there so I studied up on maximizing my credit cards through travel blogs. I didn't travel at the time but all the information they had to travel for free I could use to pay off debt. I learned about cash back categories different cards to use and eventually applied for alot of credit card. Today due to unforseen circumstances (and by choice) I'm in healthy debt. I control it so well my neighbors wonder how. My debt practically pays itself off.

Now unfortunately it would take me pages and pages to explain everything but let me give you a few pointers.

-Credit cards typically give cash back up to 5%

-Gift card resale sites sell gift card at up to 55% plus off. (Adding a credit card gives you cash back plus the discount)

-theres also Cashback websites such a Raketen. Your credit cards may have deals through their website such as capital one. These work the same as Raketen where you make a purchase and your card is reimbursed. On Bank of America Chase and Wells Fargo cards they have deals you can add that will pay you a percentage back on your purchases. For example last week I made a purchase at McDonald's and received 20 percent of my money back through a deal.

I mean it's honestly great yet you Begin to realize there is strategies to improve your game.

For example I just made a purchase on my Amazon account. I had three options. First of all I could have used points from a credit card. I could also use points from my Amazon card too. These both would have cost me more than if I would simply use my Amazon card. Why? The one card, a chase card would have charged me a 20% fee to use it. I mean it may seem free because your using your points but your still losing a fifth of your money!

Amazom points are slightly different. They are worth dollar for dollar but here's the issue. I call it compounding cash back. You've heard of compound interest right? This is the same thing through purchasing! Your cash back can make additional cash back! For example. I have a hundred dollars worth of Amazon points. The total value of those points is a hundred dollars. It cannot purchase more than a hundred dollars. But if I direct that money through a different avenue say cash it out and pay off my hundred dollars I just put on the Amazon card now it's worth 105 dollars! I just made 5% on free money! Take that 5 dollars do it again and I have 25 cents do it one more time and I have an additional Penny making my compound cash back 105.26

Doing this over and over again really does add up.

Other cards that I strategize on is my Citi double cash card. This too has several ways it will try and lure you to cash in your points. Just recently I had almost 500 dollars worth of points. This card rewards cash back two ways. Buying and paying. Had I simply asked for a statement credit I would be missing out on 5 extra compound dollars. Always cash out then pay towards the balance.

What about gift cards you ask. I can get a gift card and use that at my favorite restaurant or store. Well unless your card doesn't offer cash back I would advise against it. Gift cards normally are the exact same dollar for dollar. You might as well cash out and pay a credit card you used at that store or restaurant. There are credit cards that do not offer cash back or don't make sense to make more in cash back. In those cases get what you can get. 

One last thing I want to mention is to check gift card resale sights. I'm mentioning this again because you may be tempted to cash out your cash back for gift cards. You might find those same gift cards at up to 50 % off. Most of my favorite restaurants are 20 percent off. Even airfare is 10-20%

Moral of this post. Always cash out then direct your cash back to it's proper place. For the most part don't use your points for anything else.

More lessons learned on vacation

 So this is my once in while post about what I learned from my recent vacation. Very short vacation but I still learned a little.

First of all wow! I have forgotten the power a weekend getaway can do to your mind. I was going to say and body but I just ate like crap all day. So it didn't much help my body. It was nice to just get away. My kids are at that age each of them can take care of themselves. When it was time to pack each kid packed up there stuff and we were in the car ready to go in no time. It's nice to finally have an independent family.

Second we forgot something and had a hard lesson. After eating alot of junk food drinking soda and playing hard my daughter wakes up in the middle of the night throwing up all over herself. We've warned her in the past to take it easy and forgot this time. She's fine if she eats this way before 4 but after 4 her stomach has a bad reaction. So... two things: one prevention next time and two a bucket or bag to catch the puke. You can only do do much but more preparedness equals a better trip. This is why I have a list and stick to it.

Speaking of that!!

So we were at a popular falls in Idaho when turning around in a parking lot a woman holding a boy glares at me for no reason! Her family does the same! I say toy wife "bet their from California" they weren't. I believe they were from Nevada. First of all why are you so angry? Your on a trip with your family! Your luckier than most Americans! I'm just going to say this. I wonder if preparedness could of helped. Did they forget something or not have a plan? Unfortunately unplanned quick trips are not very fun if something goes wrong. You may be like me back in the day and just not plan ahead. Live for the moment. Trips are expensive! Unexpected events can cause more expense than needed. Cutting cost where you can will not only help your mood it can create a closer family unit. Being less rushed and eating sandwiches at a park with yout family out of a cooler will be more beneficial than relying on cash to buy burgers and fry's to eat in the car. I've gotten so prepared, I sometimes pack my table top grill and have burgers or hot dogs at a park.

Quick story then I'll call it good. My first Disneyland trip was somewhat ruined. Why? Being unprepared. I had such a massive headache one night it ruined my night out with just my wife. Had I started a pain relief plan as soon as I felt the pain or before the pain started my headache would have been under control. Why didn't I do that? I didn't think to pack it. Now days if the trip is very important I'll take ibuprofen every 10 hours to prevent a headache. 

So in closing I'm sharing 3 items I pack every trip that you may not think of.

First ibuprofen. This is a very good cheap multipurpose pain reliever. I do pack Tylenol too but only use Tylenol to alternate with ibuprofen. 

With prices at less than a penny a pill it is best and a great money saver to not forget this Vacation Saving pill. Buying this on the go is a rip off! My wife forgot to pack it once and ended up paying 7 dollars for FOUR PILLS! IF you need to buy it on the go look for a dollar store.

Second Ziplock bags. Guys you'll be amazed how much you use these on a trip especially if you have kids. Packing lunches. Keeping food water tight in a cooler, collecting sea shells or having a place to gather all the crayons on the car. Pack them you'll see what I mean.

Lastly baby wipes. My youngest is not a baby. We don't pack these automatically anymore. While on a trip recently one of my daughters got a bloody nose. We had nothing to give her. Eventually we had to use a bottle of water and a shirt to clean her up. Baby wipes are such a great universal cleaning wipe. We now keep a pack up front ready to clean up any mess while driving.

Well that's it guys. I'm getting close to another trip. See ya.

Are we utilizing our streaming services.

 So a couple of weeks ago I learned a little bit more about myself while being restricted on internet usage. I thought my unlimited plan would at least give me some internet at all times but within a week, my internet completely shut off. Dora and Danial tiger could not be streamed non stop and we needed to restrict other forms of internet usage as well. I knew my unlimited plan truly wasn’t unlimited but at the same time I didn’t think my plan would completely shut me off, which they did. 

Within a week our internet usage became severely limited. We had four phone plans. 2 were “unlimited” and the other 2 combined had 14 gigs. My wife learned that her Tik TOK usage was not good after using 7 gigs on her 10 gig plan within a week, plus she learned her phone constantly disconnected from the Mobile hotspot. Eventually 2 days before our trial was over, we had no way to stream movies. We got our old vhs’s out and started watching them. Picking a show became easy with only a handful to pick from.

This brings me to my point. Are we utilizing our streaming subscriptions or our we just throwing money away?

Let me try another approach to prove my point. 

When I was introduced to RedBox, I was excited. For just a dollar you could rent a New release movie. At Blockbuster that movie could cost 4 times as much. Their selection was slim but it was kinda nice to find a cheap movie on a Friday night, order pizza and before having kids my wife and I would have a cheep date at home. It was even cheaper because I knew a code that would get me a free rental every night. Eventually that code was tracked to a credit card and became useless.

There was something Redbox didn’t offer that Blockbuster did. I found this out while renting 2-3 movies out at one time. Blockbuster lets you return the movies 3-4 days later. Redbox does not. In fact I believe blockbuster gave you one night per rental. So if you had 5 rentals you had 5 nights to watch them. If you have 5 rentals at red box and it takes you 5 nights to watch them, what you thought would cost you 5 dollars now cost 25! Right after that mistake I found it best just to rent one dvd at a time. It wasn’t worth the risk to have more than that.

There was this one time where my wife and I were in line at a Redbox (a rare sight these days) and a mom and her kids were deciding what to watch. At one point she had. 5 dvds in her cart and she was planning on renting all 5. What I did next probably saved her a lot of money over the years. I mentioned to my wife that Redbox gets you by enticing you to rent more than one rental. It’s just best to rent one dvd at a time, return it and rent another. Who watches 5 DVD’s in one night?

I saw the wheels turning in her head she thought for a second and reduced her cart to 2-3 dvds instead of 5. My guess is her kids watched a movie and she watched one herself.

So this brings me to my point. Are we simply paying too much for all of these streaming services? Currently I have Amazon Discovery plus Hulu and Disney plus. Amazon unfortunately is a business decision Aand, I get it for half off because uhm, I’m poor. Disney plus was a Christmas gift and we don’t have to pay for it. We usually don’t have Netflix simply because a lot of the shows are MA which in most cases stands for trash. The two shows we do like are still producing shows so we probably won’t have a subscription until October or November of this year. I purchased Discovery plus because of Expedition Bigfoot. I’m done with that and now find nothing I like. So is this like my Redbox analogy where we are renting 5 DVDS at once but not getting the value? These streaming services are so low priced that we either don’t care, or we don’t notice how much we are paying. And quite honestly it’s probably not much but if your like me where you want to save whatever you can, and get the most value, you’ll fine tune your finances and your wants and feel your not only watching all your favorite shows, you’ll be paying less while doing it!

So how do you do that? Here’s my suggestion. Just like the “rent one return one” Redbox strategy do that with these streaming services. Rent one per month then cancel and move on to another one! You could also share passwords and just have someone else pay for your subscription👌. With limitation you might be finding something you do like in which you’ve always passed over. My wife and I have found a love for dumb cheesy movies especially around Christmas time. Every once in a while we find a gem. Last year we added a new unknown Christmas movie to our must watch list. There’s also free streaming services to give a try like the Roku channel. Limiting your choices may give you more freedoms Improve your mood and even increase gratification.

Cutting the cable bill

 This is another fine tune your finances fine tune your life segment brought to you by the bacon McDouble and the hot n spicy, because that is what I just ate

Ever since I’ve moved to Utah I have had issues with my Internet provider. When I called them to set up internet, I was surprised to learn that they were 10 dollars more than the internet provider from Arizona.. When I brought that up to the phone salesman, he stated the market was different in Utah thus the price increase. I’m sorry to me it doesn’t make sense. Maybe I need to take an economic class. So this goes on for years. At first I get the economic package then they convince me to get the t.v. Package. When the contract expires, I again downgrade to the economic package. At one point I had 10 cable channels for free then they put something on my line that stopped that. When I upgraded again I told them something was on my cable preventing me from getting t.v. They basically said that’s impossible and 2-3 weeks later I had the install credited back to me because I was right.

Anyway that’s the back story. 

Lately this internet provider has been on my CONTROL list. I’ve been able to reduce my phone bill from 120 to 40 dollars a month my Amazon has been cut in half as well as others. This internet seems like it just can’t be controlled and they are getting more bold and smarter. For a while you could simply tell them I’m quitting and they’d offer you a better rate. THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN ANYMORE. 

Let me show you how this dishonest company operates.

First they offer a low rate on your internet. As of right now the lowest they have is 19.99 a month. So you call them and tell them I want internet for 19.99 a month. If your an existing customer forget it. They will not offer that to you. If your a new customer they will entice you with a combo offer. If you chose internet you might as well get cable for 15 more a month. Heck you say. I can’t even get cable for 35 a month. So you say sounds good. The next month you get your bill. It’s over 60 BUCKS. You look through it and notice a 19 dollar “tv” charge. Yep a tv charge. Now your bill is DOUBLE what you thought it would be.

Well finally after all these years I finally beat them at there games. At least temporarily maybe permanently. How? Well after discussing it with my wife and really narrowing down our needs vs wants we came up with a few solutions. First of all we switched to a cheap unlimited phone plan. We have another phone number along with it unlimited data on 2 lines for 40 bucks a month. Now this adds 35 dollars to our monthly bills because we were already paying 5 dollars for my daughters line. This reduces our current internet bill by 50 dollars a month. It’s still a adjustment game but my daughter is still streaming shows on our Amazon account. Yes our internet is slow at times but honestly for the most part it doesn’t bother us. We are willing to sacrifice a little now for a lot later. Here’s another tip they may help if someone else wanted to survive off a unlimited phone plan. Try downloading your movies and shows onto you tablet during slow internet or using public Wi-Fi then by using a usb to HDMI adapter watch it on your t.v. When there a will there’s a way. Unfortunately cutting expenses is not in everyone’s goals. 

So I’m saving the best news for last. While researching what internet plans and my next strategy for negotiating with my provider, I came across a low income option for internet. Now because my thoughts have changed when it comes to utilizing any help you can get I decided to have my wife apply. She was accepted and guess what we will now have high speed internet (half the speed we used to get but still plenty) for less than 10 bucks a month. Granted it is that when I get my first bill.

One more note to include. Not everything worked as plan. One issue we ran into was our cell phone provider completely cut off our unlimited data after 18 gigs were used. I believe we would have had enough internet IF we didn’t watch so many shows. We actually were on limited internet for a weekend. We watched old video cassette tapes as well as DVD. It was actually kinda nice having only a handful of options to watch rather than an entire Amazon Library.

Reason 2B to use assistance programs

 It's about 1:15 a.m as I start writing this. Why am I up so late or up so early per your preference? I now have a job where I work graves. It is just a job to me. It is not a career or a job that will continue to brainwash me thinking that if I search elsewhere I will be bankrupt with medical bills. Not true and for now and forever I will reserve the right to quit a job if I so desire to. Right now I want to give this job a chance and even though my feet hurt and my back is sore every night I still have much to learn.

So here's another reason I am ok asking and or applying for benifits. P.s. just a disclaimer here. I 100 percent qualify for every program I have applied thus far. I may not soon because of my job status but I havn't lied on any application. My income was within the limits they set. We only use the medical benifits if we need them I actually get letters reminding us to take our kids in for wellness checks. I don't believe I need to do that! They are not sick they are healthy and I dont need a doctor to tell me that. I've already been through that. I myself have been in once and my wife….well she has not gone once. So trust me we use the doctors sparingly. If we notice an issue we will go. I hope and pray we won't.

So I don't know if anyone out there have watched any polygamy shows. There's Kody and his sister wife's who will eventually be heading for financial disaster because they suck at money. There's my 5 wives. They were only on 2 seasons but much more likeable than sister wives in my opinion and then you have this other show on Netflix called 3 wives one husband. Now Let me ask you something. These are religious people who through commandments are following teachings of God to have multiple wives and have lots of kids. You would think God would provide a way for them to eat. Right? Yet 2 of the 3 mentioned above have been on food stamps as well as multiple bankruptcies!  AND I am putting an accusation out there that 3 wives one husband's does use them too! I believe most if not all sects here in Utah are on social welfare including those who live close to me. I'm not saying they don't work hard I am saying they have alot of mouths to feed and probably cannot afford it all. 

If I'm saving a car payment and paying less for my lives expenses than someone else who is driving a new car and has a snap card why should I be punished? I'll take a snap card too if I qualify and pay an extra thousand off my debts or into my retirement. Yes they give me a thousand dollars a month and yes I agree it's rediculous.

Reason 142 I went on public benifits.

Here’s another one.

I have A lot!

Any new parent may find it a shock that infant formula is so expensive. Now you can go on and on about how it takes research to get the formula just right but in the end that doesn’t make sense unless they are CONTINUALLY CHANGING THE FORMULA! and besides that other off brands do sell it ALOT cheaper so that again holds no merit. It’s kind of like Apples excuse of why their airPods are over 200 dollars. (They cost 150 to make...) NO THEY DON’T!! The reason they say that is because the people who are involved making them make 50 k a month. They make that because the consumer pays them!! It would be like if I were to start a shirt printing company and decide I want my wages to be 50k a month. So now my shirts are 5k each because it cost 4950 to make the. The actual cost would be more like 5-10 dollars per shirt!

Enough ranting. Actually my whole blog is ranting.

So why is formula so expensive? Do a quick google search and you’ll find a great paper/article done by someone at Hawaii university who basically spells it out. Government. The reason I barely could afford it and even sold plasma to pay for it is because of the WIC program. They pay a quarter of what they sell it in the store. What I know now I wish I would of just dropped my pride back then and joined wic.

This is another reason I’m ok with assistant programs. Yeah. Don’t need them but I just bought my first brand new sectional because of them and oh it’s so comefortable.

Reason A on why I chose to go on public benefits.

Ok it’s official. I hate iphones. After trying one out for a while it is blatantly clear, I don’t like it.

Moving on

And what the heck is up with this bold lettering above?? Again iPhones fault.

So I mentioned before that from time to time I would self indulge in my own reasoning of why I am on public benefits and why I feel entitled (crap did I say that word) yes entitled to some benifits. Look I think I explained it before it’s not about entitlement but more of who’s making the rules. Definitely not me and when I follow someone else’s rules I get screwed.  So what’s today’s reasoning of why it’s ok to maximize my public benefits?

Well we will get to that. Let me tell you something interesting I found out while following a crime investigation. This is one of the many

reasons I threw in the towel and became a public dependent. If you haven’t heard of her there is a very evil woman named Lori Vallow. Long story short Her and her husband chad had her two kids killed and burned. During the investigation it was found that Lori was getting  OVER 6 THOUSAND DOLLARS in survivor and some other benefits a month TAX FREE!! The other benefit was some type of income for her younger son that has autism. Again 3 GRAND a month for WHAT EXACTLY?? I mean I get the survivor benefit. From what I read that’s around a grand. How is it she is getting 3 Grand per kid??? No wonder she’s been able to travel ALOT. My brother in law also is a survivor benifitor. What’s strange is he has struggled financially while on them. HOW?? From what I gather he probably makes close to 4 Grand between 3 kids and makes up to 5 grand a month!

So again the rules are what? Let me know. College grants are ok survivor benifits are ok. Food stamps are not? 

Some where in this interview it mentions how much tax free money Lori was getting.