# I have $10...



## perpetualsharon

My husband had a business trip the first week of May in Salt Lake City and he suggested I go with him since I had never been there. He said and I quote "Your kind of people live there... they squirrel away food and work on their family trees in their spare time." 

I will admit I am guilty as charged. All that week, I marveled at the close proximity of the mountains to EVERYTHING. Traipsing all over Big Cottonwood Canyon for a few days got my little head churning and a swift reminder that I am no where near where I want to be. Before the trip, I had taken $60 out of the bank for travel money. When I returned home a week later, I had $10 left. As I sat in the Denver airport drinking a coffee and proud of myself that I still had money left in my wallet, I haphazardly made a mental note to see if I could go the rest of the month on ten whole bucks. (Mind you... I am a housewife)

11 days into May and 8 days since returning, the $10 is still in my wallet. I have ran out of a few things... 
toothpaste - I have several travel sizes that we started using this morning.
parmesan cheese - meh... its a luxury
milk - nobody really drinks it that much & I have powered & evap if direly needed.
toilet bowl cleaner - bleach and vingar are still plentiful options in this house
chicken soup base - winter is over, so the need has lessened a bit 

I also have a few herbs I want to plant in my back flower bed. Today, I cancelled my cable tv and returned the box & remote to Charter. On the way back home, the nursery was calling my name. After all, if I planted my own herbs, with careful seed collection or indoor winter potting, the money spent on herbs would go a long long way. So, I stopped. I looked. I walked out empty handed with $10 still in my wallet.

Resigning myself to only having $10 to spend the rest of the month, it has made me think REALLY HARD about purchasing ANYTHING. Save A Lot has 10# bag of potatoes on sale for $1.99... I'm still thinking about it. I could can those and $4 worth of potatoes would go a long long way in this house. 

I have enough food and toilet paper to get me through the month and next month as well, lol. Nobody is gonna starve to death here. But it has got me thinking about how frivolous I have been. 

How would you spend $10?


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## Grimm

perpetualsharon said:


> How would you spend $10?


That is a loaded question.

I am also a housewife and/or stay at home mom.

I don't spend much a week outside of the bills (budgeted for each paycheck). If I have extra cash in my wallet at the end of the week I tend to add it to one of our savings plans for whatever (tools for hubby/work, vacation, prepping, emergency).

I don't do that I save it in my jewelry box til we go to the outlet mall then spend it on my daughter (clothing, shoes, toys).

The worst is if I go to the dollar store or big lots it is gone before I can blink. Or I buy artwork off etsy.com for Roo's room.


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## Balls004

Any cash money I have left at the end of the week goes into a "play jar" that adds up to a pretty good amount after a while. It might be something as simple as a night out for the wife and me, or something expensive that we want, but don't necessarily have to have.

Sometimes it takes a while for the bigger things, but it helps control impulse spending and it isn't any of our emergency funds, although it's always there if we need it.


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## Caribou

The wife took an extended trip a while back due to an illness in her family. Now, she does know who she is married to so she stocked up on some perishables. Seven weeks later I had not seen the inside of a store. I ate normal meals and had plenty in the cupboard.

Can't do much with ten bucks. Break it into two five's put them together in my wallet and hope they had babies?


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## Woody

I also squirrel away any "leftover" cash on allowance day. I put change in there as I get it. Once a year, on a nice rainy, cold winter day usually, I pour an adult beverage (or three) and sort through the change, rolling it up. Take it to the bank and turn it into larger bills. No silver in a long time but still lots of pre-'82 pennies.

I use it for whatever is not in the budget. If I am short one week, I take from it. If there is something I would like to splurge on, I check to see if I have enough to get it. It usually gets tapped pretty good in the spring, for gardening crap and seeds.

It is different from the static emergency cash and the cash in the car which are just sitting there losing value. This gets tapped pretty regularly, it is a fluid account. It makes me feel good that I do have a little 'disposable' income around if needed.


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## perpetualsharon

Balls004 said:


> Any cash money I have left at the end of the week goes into a "play jar" that adds up to a pretty good amount after a while.


I have two play fish bowls, one for pennies and the other for silver coins. With the debit card invention and the hubby's corporate card, no much loose change flows my way much these days.



Caribou said:


> Can't do much with ten bucks. Break it into two five's put them together in my wallet and hope they had babies?


Maybe they need to be rubbed together vigorously. 



Woody said:


> I also squirrel away any "leftover" cash on allowance day. I put change in there as I get it. Once a year, on a nice rainy, cold winter day usually, I pour an adult beverage (or three) and sort through the change, rolling it up. Take it to the bank and turn it into larger bills. No silver in a long time but still lots of pre-'82 pennies.


ok.. uninformed question: pre-'82 pennies?

When I was a kid my mom always harped on me for not standing tall when I walked. I was always staring at the ground... looking for money. My Aunt Ree used to always say, "Head up, heads down, they all spend the same in town." Once we were at the car wash to rinse the mud off the truck and someone had cleaned the change out of their car. There was 78 cents in nickels, dimes and pennies in a little pile next to the wash dial. That little bit of change someone didn't want went straight in my bowls when I got home.

This $10 thing has kind of become a game. What can I buy? Do I really need it? How far can I really make it go? How long will I keep it? When I worked full time in sales, we were always told to ask, "Is this the highest and best use of my time?" Now I'm thinking about my $10 this way.


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## LincTex

perpetualsharon said:


> ok.. uninformed question: pre-'82 pennies?


Pure copper. Each penny is actually worth about 1.4 cents or so. 
The melt value is higher than face value!

After '82 they are copper plated zinc.


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## Cotton

perpetualsharon said:


> As I sat in the Denver airport drinking a coffee and proud of myself that I still had money left in my wallet,
> How would you spend $10?


I always wondered why they called it the Denver airport when they built it in Nebraska&#8230; Sorry but $10 won't get you a cab to Denver from the Nebraska airport...


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## perpetualsharon

hahaha yep, I was quite surprised to look out the terminal window and see parts of Kansas and Nebraska. The city of Denver was sooo far away! Hubby & kids used to ski there. Airport to top of the mountain at Winter Park on a good day - 2 hrs. Salt Lake City airport to Brighton, Alta or even Snowbird - 40 minutes tops. Gimme SLC any day and I don't ski!


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## perpetualsharon

LincTex said:


> Pure copper. Each penny is actually worth about 1.4 cents or so.
> The melt value is higher than face value!
> 
> After '82 they are copper plated zinc.


hmmm so what do I do with my 1972 penny collection if I wanted to "cash in"?


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## Woody

Pre 1982 pennies are 95% copper and 5% zinc, after that they are 'clad' coins with very little copper. Currently they are 'worth' $0.0199 each in 'melt value'. They are worth almost twice as much melted as they are to spend. Does that mean I am going to melt them all down into a glob to sell as scrap? No. But in 1964 who would have thought that dime would today be worth $1.18 in 'scrap' value.

For every penny I put away, I figuratively double the value of it. Does that mean they ARE going to be collectible, like silver U. S. coins are? Maybe, maybe not, but it costs me only a little idle time to sort them. And by going through the change you never know when you will find a few coins someone grabbed from 'Grand Pa's' coin jar or from his coin collection to buy a Slushie with. A small investment to buy and read through a coin collectors value book is a wise investment. As you are going through your pile, a date or mint mark might cause you to pause, put it aside and check through them later. A worn or modern coin might be worth much more than face value to the right crowd.


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## Woody

perpetualsharon said:


> hmmm so what do I do with my 1972 penny collection if I wanted to "cash in"?


Spend a little time, bring a few to your local coin shop and check what they have and their prices. Have them make an offer and maybe trade them for something while there. A purchase goes a long way to making friends.


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## perpetualsharon

Hubby asked me this morning if I still had my $10. Yep. I told him how hard it's been to choose something worthwhile to spend it on. I explained the need for toothpaste and told him it just irks me to no end that it costs $3.79 a tube. I told him he may just have to use baking soda. To which he pointed out that we still had a full bottle of mouthwash so the baking soda and mouthwash might be tasty & work just fine.

My '72 penny collection is something my daddy started for me when I was born. I'll probably never get rid of it. I don't know where he found it, but on my wedding day he put a brand new '72 penny in my shoe for good luck. But like you said *Woody*, a good relationship goes a long way. I'm sure he talked the local bank teller into 'saving' it for him since they don't have any coin shops where he lives.


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## ZoomZoom

I've heard of coin collections but not one for pennies on a particular year (1972). Did they make a bunch of different pennies that year or were very few made that year making them collectable or ???

When you were in Salt Lake City, did you have a chance to check out the Salt Lake Tabernacle (aka Mormon Tabernacle). It's one of the most acoustically perfect buildings in the world.

Did you swim in Salt Lake? It's so salty anyone can just float on the surface.


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## LastOutlaw

Balls004 said:


> Any cash money I have left at the end of the week goes into a "play jar" that adds up to a pretty good amount after a while. It might be something as simple as a night out for the wife and me, or something expensive that we want, but don't necessarily have to have.
> 
> Sometimes it takes a while for the bigger things, but it helps control impulse spending and it isn't any of our emergency funds, although it's always there if we need it.


If you have a couple of years of long term stored food and needed supplies and gear then you might want to put that "PLAY" jar money to use purchasing some gold and/or silver just in case rather than dinner out.

Just a suggestion since you stated you didn't see the need for PMs.
It's another form of insurance.


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## perpetualsharon

ZoomZoom said:


> I've heard of coin collections but not one for pennies on a particular year (1972). Did they make a bunch of different pennies that year or were very few made that year making them collectable or ???
> 
> When you were in Salt Lake City, did you have a chance to check out the Salt Lake Tabernacle (aka Mormon Tabernacle). It's one of the most acoustically perfect buildings in the world.
> 
> Did you swim in Salt Lake? It's so salty anyone can just float on the surface.


All of my '72 pennies look the same and, as far as I know, not rare. 1972 just happens to be the year I was born and so my daddy started a coin collection for each of us kids in the year we were born.

In Salt Lake City, I did not go inside the Tabernacle. I did visit the Family History Library and did a bit of research. I didn't find what I was looking for but the library is really cool if you're into genealogy.

I didn't swim in the lake, either. The brine flies were hatching and swarming like crazy. Columns of flies coming up out of the ground and every where!! I did spend an afternoon on Antelope Island and another day we drove out to the Bonneville Salt Flats. very cool. Unusual but beautiful in it's own way.

I have to say the numbered grid street system makes it very easy to get around once you understand it. However, I found it very hard to comprehend addresses such as this 2000 W 400 N, Salt Lake City, UT. lol It took me a couple of days to figure out that WEST was not the direction the street traveled but rather the location of the street to the Temple. North of the Temple and 4 blocks West of the Temple and W 400 N and W 400 S do not intersect anywhere.

But there is an intersection of W 400 N and N 400 W. So there's that...


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## Starcreek

ZoomZoom said:


> I've heard of coin collections but not one for pennies on a particular year (1972). Did they make a bunch of different pennies that year or were very few made that year making them collectable or ???


I'm guessing that's the year P.S. was born. Am I right?

$10... hmmm..... Reminds me of when we were still homeschooling, and we read the Little House books. In Farmer Boy, Almonzo was celebrating the 4th of July at a big shindig in town, and some of his friends were buying lemonade. He went to his father and asked if he could have a dollar to buy lemonade for himself and his friends, and his dad held out a dollar and said, "You can buy lemonade today, or you can use the same money to buy a sucking pig. You decide." He gave him the dollar, and after much thought the boy bought a sucking pig. Next year, she had a litter of piglets, and his father's point was made: Buy something that produces more, not something that's used and then gone.

ETA: Cross-post! I AM right.


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## TheLazyL

perpetualsharon said:


> ...How would you spend $10?


I would put it in the Bank.

Wife would then withdraw $11 for cat food, Vet bills, gifts, hobby 

My Roosevelt dime collection I gave to my daughter when she was in Junior High. She never mentioned the collection and I've never seen it since, so I reckon the dimes were put back into circulation.  

I'm glad I didn't give her my Mercury dime collection too.


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## Grimm

TheLazyL said:


> I would put it in the Bank.
> 
> Wife would then withdraw $11 for cat food, Vet bills, gifts, hobby
> 
> K would buy fast food for lunch then again on his way home from work. Then when he got home he'd throw way the lunch he packed and waste fresh fruit, cold cuts and yogurt. Don't get me started on the fact I would have baked bread just for sandwiches for his lunches!
> 
> My Roosevelt dime collection I gave to my daughter when she was in Junior High. She never mentioned the collection and I've never seen it since, so I reckon the dimes were put back into circulation.
> 
> I'm glad I didn't give her my Mercury dime collection too.


I regret spending the coins my grandpa would send me every year as a kid. I didn't realize til I was an adult that those coins were all silver and I blew my future preps on crap!


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## LastOutlaw

Grimm said:


> I regret spending the coins my grandpa would send me every year as a kid. I didn't realize til I was an adult that those coins were all silver and I blew my future preps on crap!


LOL... A number of years ago when my son was a child I caught him sneaking my old coins that I had in a box in my drawer out to buy ice cream off the ice cream truck for his friends.
Tore his butt up!
Made me wonder if all ice cream truck drivers have nice coin collections for that very reason.


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## ZoomZoom

Y'all are making me feel guilty about the $9.97 I spent this morning on a can of cashews.


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## perpetualsharon

Starcreek said:


> I'm guessing that's the year P.S. was born. Am I right?


yep yep



TheLazyL said:


> I would put it in the Bank.
> 
> Wife would then withdraw $11 for cat food, Vet bills, gifts, hobby


oh lordy! I've done that a time or three... I recently left my job to be a housewife again and even though our income was cut almost in half, we realized we were spending my income on frivolous stuff. :eyebulge: Eating out all the time, vacations, a truck, a new car, clothes, expensive cable tv. All that was well & good except we only really spent time with each other on vacation. He works days Mon-Fri and I worked 2nds Thurs-Mon. The money was nice but life kinda sucked a bunch. So the last year & half I worked, my money paid off our debt except the mortgage. I'm still learning my $$$ lessons.



ZoomZoom said:


> Y'all are making me feel guilty about the $9.97 I spent this morning on a can of cashews.


Aww, I don't mean to make you feel bad. I'm just trying to think of ways to spend it appropriately. I've never really consciously thought about my $10 purchases. The $50+ purchases, yeah I think about those a lot. This has been an exercise in do I really need it, want it, gotta have it. And so far, nothing has really seemed worthy of my ten bucks.


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## ZoomZoom

I was kidding. I really don't feel guilty. 

I have cut way back on frivolous stuff as well but money still seems to burn through my pocket.

Yesterday, I ran into town to do some errands. _First time out in quite awhile...
_1. Stop to get my new trailer registered. $250.
2. Get the truck washed. $12.
3. Go to the eyeglass store since my lenses developed internal cracks. Luckily I made it in 5 days before my warranty expired or they would have been $688. While there, I order another pair of glasses. $270 was my payment after insurance.
4. Lowe's for a quick plumbing part. $10.

So, my quick trip into town cost me $542. :scratch


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## NaeKid

mike_dippert said:


> I spend $15 a week on just gas to drive between work and home. A $10 bill _might_ last two days in my wallet.


If I ride my motorbike from home to work and back home again - it is $10/day. In the wintertime when I can't ride my motorbike and I have to drive my 4x4 .. its about $30/day ...


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## gabbyj310

This thread got me to thinking a LOT. I can go through money like a train wreck,and do.So with that in mind I had already decided to change some of my very very bad spending habits. Everytime I come back from overseas I bring a ton of "gifts" home for the entire family.I put everyone on notice that unless they have the money for me to buy something I won't buy it for a gift or for that matter" Oh I'll give you the cash when you get home".... that doesn't work either)! Yep my whole world is changing as is my lifestyle.I'm not cheap or a tightwad but from now own it more about MY needs and my prep!When TSHTF I will be prepared because I saved my $10 and then some!
I have to say if I put 4 $5 together could I have a litter????


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## *Andi

I'm not going to go there ...


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## perpetualsharon

gabbyj310 said:


> This thread got me to thinking a LOT. I can go through money like a train wreck,and do.So with that in mind I had already decided to change some of my very very bad spending habits. Everytime I come back from overseas I bring a ton of "gifts" home for the entire family.I put everyone on notice that unless they have the money for me to buy something I won't buy it for a gift or for that matter" Oh I'll give you the cash when you get home".... that doesn't work either)! Yep my whole world is changing as is my lifestyle.I'm not cheap or a tightwad but from now own it more about MY needs and my prep!When TSHTF I will be prepared because I saved my $10 and then some!
> I have to say if I put 4 $5 together could I have a litter????


My husband has a couple of splurges throughout the year. The Indy 500 & his annual ski trip. I don't ski so that saves us quite a bit of money, but he loves it and I won't take that away from him. The Indy 500 is a family tradition. His father hasn't missed a race in 45 years and my husband has been going since he was 12... so 30 years lol anyway... we used to buy 4 tickets just for us and the kids. When the kids stopped wanting to go, we had two left over... there was always somebody who wanted them or we could sell them on race day to a bystander on the road. It finally got to be a pain in the rear because we buy tickets a year in advance and rent our block of rooms for the next year. After having friends and family back out at the last minute and not breaking even two years in a row, I cancelled two tickets. He was furious, but my thought is if they want the ticket, they can buy the ticket. It's not my responsibility to be committed for them. Making the pilgrimage every year is a lot simpler now that we only have to worry about the two of us. 

Cut the dead weight, I say!


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## LastOutlaw

gabbyj310 said:


> This thread got me to thinking a LOT. I can go through money like a train wreck,and do.So with that in mind I had already decided to change some of my very very bad spending habits. Everytime I come back from overseas I bring a ton of "gifts" home for the entire family.I put everyone on notice that unless they have the money for me to buy something I won't buy it for a gift or for that matter" Oh I'll give you the cash when you get home".... that doesn't work either)! Yep my whole world is changing as is my lifestyle.I'm not cheap or a tightwad but from now own it more about MY needs and my prep!When TSHTF I will be prepared because I saved my $10 and then some!
> I have to say if I put 4 $5 together could I have a litter????


It's funny how your priorities change once you awaken to the need to prep.


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## Grimm

LastOutlaw said:


> It's funny how your priorities change once you awaken to the need to prep.


This is sooooo true! When K and I first got married we'd go to dinner a handful of times a week, had the premium cable set up and spend over a hundred dollars on dvds and video games a paycheck. Now we go out 2-3 times a month for dinner at the local diner and buy one maybe 2 dvds a month for Roo since we don't have cable anymore. It helps that we have a Netflix account.


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## perpetualsharon

Our entertainment is pretty much Netflix and the internet in general. Taking the Taco out on a Saturday once or twice a month to go traipsing around the hills and 4-wheeling a little. Playing Civilization 3 and ruling the world. We only eat out when we travel. I have celiac disease so it's just easier to cook for myself and know what I'm ingesting. Though I have been thinking a lot lately about canning meats & veggies in pint jars so I have smaller portion travel foods that don't require any cooking. A lot of truck stops/gas stations have microwaves to knock the chill off my food. Though most things I would probably just open the jar & eat.


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## Grimm

perpetualsharon said:


> Our entertainment is pretty much Netflix and the internet in general. Taking the Taco out on a Saturday once or twice a month to go traipsing around the hills and 4-wheeling a little. Playing Civilization 3 and ruling the world. We only eat out when we travel. I have celiac disease so it's just easier to cook for myself and know what I'm ingesting. Though I have been thinking a lot lately about canning meats & veggies in pint jars so I have smaller portion travel foods that don't require any cooking. A lot of truck stops/gas stations have microwaves to knock the chill off my food. Though most things I would probably just open the jar & eat.


I can relate about the Celiac. I have a mild case related to my hypothyroidism. Since K was diagnosed with hypothyroidism recently we switched the whole family to gluten free foods. Since it is a mild reaction if I watch my diet all day I can manage a meal out once in a while. A lot of places do offer GF options.

I use to think I just issues with something else when I'd have a reaction. Thank goodness I have an endocrinologist that wanted to make my quality of life with hypothyroidism better.

But I am thinking that $10 in my wallet might get spent at the feed store this weekend on some more chicks. I have OCD...

Obsessive Chicken Disorder.


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## Balls004

Just a little trick that we used to use on the railroad that might come in handy when you're travelling, we used to heat our meals by laying them on the manifolds of the engine before starting on our trip. An hour or so later, dinner was ready. 

I don't know how this would work with glass canned stuff, but it worked great with cans and tin foil meals that just needed some reheating. Should work with a car or truck if you can find a spot where it will stay.


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## ZoomZoom

perpetualsharon said:


> Taking the Taco out on a Saturday once or twice a month to go traipsing around the hills


What's a Taco?


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## TheLazyL

mike_dippert said:


> I have a 7 mile commute.


I've got 3 miles. Takes me 55 minutes to walk it.


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## cowboyhermit

perpetualsharon said:


> ... Playing Civilization 3 and ruling the world...


Been a long time since I heard anyone mention playing that, I certainly got enough value for the dollar on that game... over the last 15 years or so  I almost never play computer games these days but that is a keeper.


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## NaeKid

Balls004 said:


> Just a little trick that we used to use on the railroad that might come in handy when you're travelling, we used to heat our meals by laying them on the manifolds of the engine before starting on our trip. An hour or so later, dinner was ready.
> 
> I don't know how this would work with glass canned stuff, but it worked great with cans and tin foil meals that just needed some reheating. Should work with a car or truck if you can find a spot where it will stay.


We do something similar offroading, but, we call them "manifold burritos", and it works well for tin-foil-wrapped hotdogs, tin-foil-wrapped sandwiches (think grilled-cheeze-n-ham) and such. One guy went so far as to use the heat from the exhaust running through a heat-exchanger "oven" to cook pizza's ...


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## perpetualsharon

cowboyhermit said:


> Been a long time since I heard anyone mention playing that, I certainly got enough value for the dollar on that game... over the last 15 years or so  I almost never play computer games these days but that is a keeper.


I still haven't won each playing scenario, so I figure if I never buy another game I still have about 25 years of Civ left. :droolie:



NaeKid said:


> We do something similar offroading, but, we call them "manifold burritos", and it works well for tin-foil-wrapped hotdogs, tin-foil-wrapped sandwiches (think grilled-cheeze-n-ham) and such. One guy went so far as to use the heat from the exhaust running through a heat-exchanger "oven" to cook pizza's ...


~makes notes on iphone because pc doesn't off-road very well.

I figured out what to do with my $10.










I found these in my garage:









glad I didn't buy the plants at the nursery the other day!


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## LincTex

LastOutlaw said:


> LOL
> Made me wonder if all ice cream truck drivers have nice coin collections for that very reason.


I have often wondered the same thing!!



NaeKid said:


> In the wintertime when I can't ride my motorbike and I have to drive my 4x4 .. its about $30/day ...


YIKES! When I have to work 6-day weeks, that would be $720 a month! Uh-uh, no way on that. No wonder you are wanting to downsize!

Now that gas is up to $2.39 a gallon, I spend about $3-$4 a day on gas. When I get my Softail fixed, it'll drop down to about $1 a day.


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## bkt

Put that $10 to paying off any debt you have.


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