Food banks are getting crowded.

Thoughts today while I'm going insane trying to find my social security card.

From lessons I learned from Survivorman Les Stroud: When surviving, think within a circle. First find out what's around yourself. (Inner circle) Your home. Find out how much food you have and go from there. This very inner circle is your own personal responsibility. Your family, your kids YOUR dog come first before anything else. Your family and kids deserve a meal and their needs met before the car payment gets paid or wants are purchased. As a side note, when in a time of emergency such as we are in now sit-down and think for a second. What could I have done better to prepare for this. If this happens again how can I prepare for a future loss of income, disaster, or pandemic so my family doesn't suffer. If you can't even take care of your inner circle, why??

Is your car payment too high? Is your house payment too high? Are you taking too many vacations? Are you going into unnecessary debt?

I asked myself these question along time ago. I really reflected on them when my car broke down. 

If your first circle needs help get help but at the same time find out why. 

If you have excess beyond your first circle you work on your second circle. These would be extended family members neighbors and close friends. Take care of them before your third and  final circle. This is the donation circle. Food banks, church services, charities. If you're reasonably blessed go for it. I've warned before,make sure you know what you are donating to before you donate. As an example, a Father who has a 600 dollar Truck payment, a 300 dollar RV payment, 200 dollar vehicle insurance payment, 10k in credit card debt. A 10k gun collection 2 ATVs 2 newer Snowmobiles a brand new house 3 dogs and 4 kids needs help from his bishop with a mortgage payment and food. I know that's a little exaggerated but how about this one. A young couple one child 2 dogs 2 car payments 200 a month car insurance who took 3 trips last year. All 3 included roundtrip airfare and averaged around around 2500 each need help from the food bank. 

This does happen guys! Irresponsible spending creates a healthy market but as an adverse effect it creates a horrible situation if the market goes down which I and others have been sounding the alarm for years. Have some preparation in place for your future self. Reduce your spending. Realize car payments are a horrible way to buy a car. The only winner is the car dealership, the loan company, and insurance companies. Pets are great companions but when does the responsibility fall on you to feed and take care of them? If you're not able to take care of them in both good and bad markets, consider making your financial life better before getting a pet. Dogs are not human.  Just FYI.

More to come.

The Virus is just the beginning guy's.

There is A- L- O- T on my mind and I mean alot. I too am sick of all this virus talk but since this is my blog I need to give my opinion.

Before this became an emergency situation, my wife told me we should probably just grab some toilet paper and some feminine hygiene products. We actually just bought a Sam's club pack of toilet paper and we're good for a month but she wanted just one extra pack just in case. I ordered one on Amazon and am glad we have that extra pack but as a dirty little secret, I'm not using t.p. at the moment. Nope I have been using a cut up t-shirt. Even my wife doesn't know and I plan on not telling her or using toilet paper until we can easily get some.

So moving on.

Let's real quick talk about the economy. Guys I'm not going to sugar coat this. It's bad. Now remember you can read back on my blog and find one of my biggest complaints about the last economic crash was the fact that NO ONE even remotely tried to prepare. Now this is a generalized "no one." I understand that some people did actually prepare and made it through all right. But a good portion lost their houses their cars and buisnesses relying heavily on the economy not realizing that economies crash sometimes and if your not even remotely prepared you're soon in a handout line living in a million dollar home driving a 75k vehicle. Yeah that makes sense!

So what to do now? Well first don't panic, survive. If you're in any position to invest, you will have opportunities soon. If your not. It's time to hustle. If you're one of those stock market investors who listened to other investors to keep your money in and lost 30%, yeah it's unfortunate that your money was in their best interest, not yours. If you have a car payment, get out of it asap. 500 dollars a month buys alot of basics. 

That's it for now guy's. I think I'll keep my post basic and to the point for now on. 

How to get a half pound burger for less than 2.50

I love food. And it shows. 

Anyway, here is another secret that probably won't gain any traction which is great for me.

How to get a half pound burger for around 2 dollars 40 cents

Me personally have got it down to 2.28.

And yes 12 cents does add up 

Step 1 download the Burger King App.

Step 2 go to a gift card resale sight and buy a Burger King printable gift card for up to 20% off. This may require a slight investment and commitment to future BK purchases. Me personally I love burger king so I'm more than ok purchasing a 5, 10, or 20 gift card at a 20% discount.

Step 3 go to the offers section on the BK app and select the 3 dollar double Whopper. Select restaurant order. 

Step 4 let the register person know you have an app coupon. 

Step 5 pay with the printable gift card.

Here's how the math breaks down. 

Gift card was purchased at a 20% discount. 3 dollars at a 20% savings equals 2.40.

To get a slightly better deal try using a credit card with cashback or cash back bonus. One of my quarterly cash back bonuses was 5% for PayPal. Because one of the discount gift card websites accepted PayPal as Payment I was able to get an additional 5% cash back on an all ready discounted gift card.

Shortest day of the year

I thought for this winter solstice I would write a letter to myself 10 years ago being that it's the end of a decade and I did. Then I deleted it. After writing it I found it did very little to achieve the winter solstice meaning which is to leave the dark of your life. Something that is bothering you and bring in more light which is what starts to happen tomorrow. So for this historical winter solstice being the last one of the decade I am going to TRY to let the past go. Especially the last 10 years. They were some of the hardest financial years I've had. Although I think 2008 was my worst year financially. I learned alot from the last decade. One is to stop being so independent. Another is to be more giving. I'm sorry I'm not "there is no try" kindof guy. I will try as practice and will do later. The next decade is a mystery that I'm excited about.

Brighter days ahead guys. Literally.

Enjoy the shortest day of the year.

Thoughts on my new phone purchase.

So my phone is BEYOND its last leg and it's time for a new one. Here's the problem. I obviously want new tech but I cannot Justify buying it. I don't get it. Someone tell me why you need to pay a thousand dollars for a new phone. Hell, even half that price is too much.

So I thought about it. Thought about what I want and need did some testing of a few different phones over the summer. Here is what I came up with.

I need a functional phone that has good screen quality a decent processor, and at least 32 gigs of storage space. A decent camera for shooting simple photos would be nice too. I DON'T need a payment plan that takes two years to pay off. I don't need a camera that can capture the stars. I don't need the latest tech.  Do I want it? Honesty no. I find more happiness navigating around the "Jones's" not keeping up. In my experience the "Jones's" are heavily in debt, the economy crashes, and eventually they declare bankruptcy. They then lose their house and eventually the cycle repeats..

Anyway,

My final dilemma was whether or not to upgrade from my current phone. I actually slightly downgraded. My final cost. Around 70 dollars for a refurbished google pixel.  An up to date phone perfect still for 2020. Saving me over 200 dollars. 

That's the key people. Finding ways to continually save money helps you prepare for an uncertain future and provides more financial independence.

Tabernacle Christmas Choir New and Better Ticket Process!

So It's that time of the year again where I ponder and look up what The Church of Jesus Christ Tabernacle Choir (formerly known as the Motab choir for short or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir before our new prophet instructed the members to remove "mormon" and "LDS" From our definition) ticket process will look like for this year's Christmas concert. I for one am excited. 

According to the Tabernacle Choir blog The title reads 

"New Christmas Concert Ticket Process Gives Equal Chance for All"

I'm not sure how it's new compared to what they ended in 2015 but I am glad they have returned the so called "mormon lottery" 

Before I give my commentary on their blog let me give you my history trying to get tickets to theTabernacle Choir Christmas concert. In doing so, I hope you can understand why I have my opinions on what the church and ticket office could be at least considering in future decisions on ticket distribution.

This will be a quick version. 

  

In 2008 my wife and I moved to Utah from Arizona. My mom let us know about the concert and how to put in for a chance to get tickets. My wife and I put in our first request for tickets along with my mom and my sister. Back then you could request a max of 6 tickets. Non of us drew tickets that year. We made new friends who were able to get tickets through Parents who worked for the church. 

We tried our luck the next year, 2009, Again, no tickets. We also tried to get Devotional tickets and our bad luck prevailed. It was after this failed attempt that I started to do some blog spying. I wanted to find out how people were able to get tickets when I wasn't. This bad luck continued 2010, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Thankfully in 2013 we did get Christmas Devotional tickets but Christmas Devotional tickets our not as highly sought after as Christmas concert tickets. In 2010 David Archelletta had over a million request for tickets.(from rumors I heard) I believe it was 4 times the normal request for tickets. Our friends who's parents worked for the church once again got tickets.

Just a side note, when I say friends parents I mean our friends were a husband and wife couple. The husbands parents are "their" parents. So, Husbands parents, wife's in laws.

In 2016 they changed the ticket process from the "Mormon lottery" to a first come first serve. Finally! I thought I had a chance. At 10:01 a.m. I struggled for 5-6 minutes just to get 2 tickets. Every time I refreshed more and more tickets sold out. By 7 minutes every ticket was gone. I wasn't crushed but I did question why? My question was to God. Why are Missionaries, why are my friends, why are employees of the church, and why are choir members able to get so many tickets year after year and I am not able to?

2017 It was the same system. First come first serve. Before the lottery draw I decided to take advice from a sister missionaries blog I read. I  prayed for help. It worked for her when she wanted tickets, maybe it would work me. 

I felt it was an unfair advantage to pray for help. God loves us all. Yet I read in several blogs how people's prayers were answered while my attempts to get tickets kept getting kicked aside. 

So I prayed. 

I finally got tickets.

Yet the story does not end.

Because the ticket process is still unfair 😁

I loved the concert. It was awesome. When we sat down a group of 8 people sat by us. A kid around the age of 14 looked like he didn't care to be there. He wasn't dressed in formal clothes and he was non stop looking at his phone playing a game. I wondered how and why they were able to get 8 tickets while the max I could request was 4. P.s. I got 2.  After ease dropping in on their conversation I found out they had another 8 people in their group who were seated behind us in the lower balcony. Again I asked myself, how is it that this family was able to get 16 tickets when it took me 10 tries to get 2! Soon the answer was clear when they were trying to find a relative in the choir. 

A choir members was able to get 16 tickets.

Here's my question. Is that fair?. Given the circumstances that so many people want to go to this concert is it fair that the choir gets so many tickets? I get it. A person who is performing should have tickets for their family. But how many is fair and how can the ticket office get more people WHO HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED the Christmas concert a chance to go. At least consider my suggestion.

First let's go to the Tabernacle blog and find out what new changes are able to give "equal chance for all" 

Just wondering. Does "All" refer to family members of the choir, general Authorities, or Employee's of the church?

From the blog.

"Hundreds of thousands of ticket requests are received each year. In order to give everyone an equal chance to get tickets, in 2019 the Event Services Ticket Office which distributes tickets for Choir events will use a random selection method for ticket distribution."

So it sounds like we are back to the old "lottery" system. But it does get better.

"Your registration will automatically enter you in the random ticket selection for two (2) tickets. The concert date for the tickets will be randomly assigned for either Thursday, Friday, or Saturday"

Did you get that? No more requesting more than 2 tickets.

I LOOOOVE THIS!

I really do. This will allow more households an opportunity to go. Some might say they can't bring their kids. I would have loved to go as a kid but I'm going to tell you. In my opinion. The concert is a perfect adult dating place. Kids are not going to appreciate the concert as much as two people in love.

Lastly.

"Registration is limited to once per household.

Patrons registering with an address other than their principal home address or registering multiple times may have all their registrations canceled."

2 tickets, one household. YES!!

Ok so now here is my suggestions on making the ticket process even better.

1. Reduce the amount of tickets that each choir member is allowed to have. Each household is only able to request 2. Can we at least get more tickets from these wonderful people in the drawing so more households get an opportunity to go?
2. Stop. Please stop giving tickets to church employees. Unless they are part of the production of the Christmas concert, they should have the same "fair" chance the blog claims everyone will have. They should be registered for the drawing like everyone else. 
3. I have not come across one blog that said a general Authoritie gave them tickets yet it's just common assumption that leaders of a church probably get tickets and maybe the best tickets. Middle row up front. I don't know. I'm just assuming. To this I leave this simple thought. Didn't president Monson come home from Germany shoeless?
4. Lastly, why are politicians getting tickets every year? I mean I get it. They are public figures. It makes sense to invite them to a public event but every year? Just my opinion. Unfair.

That's it for me. I am going to put in for tickets this year. I have never won at the Mormon lottery. Maybe this will be my year.

How to save on Netflix

Quick saving money tip.

Have a netflix account that only allows one screen limit? Here's how to get 2.

Simply download the show you want to watch on your mobile device. Once it's downloaded watch it while your netflix account is being watched by someone else

Problem solved.

Now the question is is it worth the 4-5 dollars saved each month. Eh It's t.v. Come on you can't sacrifice a little bit on t.v.

Want to get 5% cash back on your netflix bill?

lf you have an Amazon Credit Card with an Amazon account, Simply purchase a netflix gift card through Amazon, have it e-mailed, and upload the code. Your credit card will reward you with 5% cash back.