Video games. Unless it's a game I play with friends I typically wait for it to drop in price significantly.

I met my wife dating online. Before that it was brutal. Lots of ignored messages. Lots of messaging that just ended (often on the woman's end, but sometimes on my end). And plenty of first dates.

When I first started dating I wasn't picky. Basically any girl interested in me, I'd show interest. Eventually I actually applied myself to dating with purpose. This helped a bit as I was often times being the one to make the decision whether or not to even meet up with a woman. I made sure they met my criteria and wanted the same things as I did. And doing this required that I was honest with myself. I didn't want to party, I wanted children, I wanted someone who would challenge me and call me out on my bullshit, but I also needed someone who wasn't overly sensitive as I am often quite blunt and speak without thinking.

Basically I had to shift from wasting my time with anyone to getting right to the point and making sure our values and trajectories in life aligned. This filtered out a lot of women. Either immediately because we didn't want the same things or because they were put off by my directness.

The firearm is called the great equalizer for a reason.

That doesn't say anything about lethal range. It just says they won't allow it to be lower than the ISS's orbit. It could be because of "lethal range" or it could be that they want as little crap in the way of routes to and from the ISS.

I looked over the article (albeit very quickly) just in case you didn't quote enough of the article on accident and I didn't see anything about lethality. I could have missed it or I'm not reading between the lines (maybe missing their meaning in the article).

I noticed the fire and I noticed the tent. I was too distracted by the hands to notice that the fire was in the tent... What has AI images done to me? Haha.

Because people finance their phones with AT&T, usually without realizing it. "Free" phones and discounted phones are not usually free or discounted. You're forced to stay with them to get the discount off each month. I hate it because I'd rather just pay for my phone outright and be done, but then you actually pay more.

I'm pretty sure this is all Steam Deck users on Steam. But I could be wrong.

Yeah. The title actually made me think they had rolled out the ability for Google to remove an app from my phone when it's been removed from the Play Store.

Replace "a month" with "per month"

It's probably due to ice and wind. Ice freezes on power lines and the wind causes the lines to "gallop." Look up some videos of galloping lines. With more infrastructure going underground where it can, this is becoming less of an issue obviously. But it's not just inches of snow and temperatures that cause the problems.

I have the Boox Onyx Note 3c. Its a color e-ink and its okay for comics. But I mainly use it for note taking. The colors are helpful for more detailed notes. The eink display makes it easier in my eyes especially for long days of note taking.

I agree with all of those. Some of my favorite clothing I've gotten thrifting. I've been able to find never worn brand name clothing for way cheaper. Heck. I recently got a pair of Eddie Bauer shorts, never used (still had the baggie with spare buttons attached to the waistband), for $5.

Not having Netflix and the like does not make one dirt poor. That is such an entitled view to have. Literally first world problems if your mental health can't handle not having the latest entertainment. Go to a library for goodness sakes.

We're talking in circles. You think I only mentioned Netflix. I didn't. I also said fast food. You also think I said poor people. I didn't. My suggestion is for everyone.

If you can't afford luxury items (and I include fast food and streaming services in that category) then you shouldn't spend your money on them.

I would no sooner suggest someone to purchase Netflix over feeding themselves and their family. And that's what you could end up having to spend your emergency fund on if you lose your job. But you place these luxuries on the same tier as necessities and that's just simply irresponsible.

Go ahead and tell all your friends and family, "Don't worry, I know money is tight, but you shouldn't save for future emergencies by cutting corners today. I think you should give that money to McDonald's and Netflix. They clearly need it more than you do. I mean, you can always just put it on your credit card and pay 30% interest!"

Keep in mind that the cops don't have to provide you with their reasonable suspicion in order to demand ID. It's not until court that they have to provide their reasonable suspicion. So they have plenty of time to come up with justification after the fact.

Also, on the Fifth Amendment I thought I had read somewhere about a case where a man simply remained silent and never once invoked his right and it didn't end well for him. I cannot remember the details, but for some reason I thought that you still had to invoke the fifth even if you have not yet answered any questions. I'll have to look back into this later and post back if I find the story.

This is how my library was with Funimation. Entirely from physical copies. I still canceled my Crunchyroll account and listed this move as my reason. Probably won't matter one bit since most people will go right on subscribing even after the price hike.

Yeah. The color definitely isn't a replacement for an actual comic or graphic novel. It's good enough to give you an idea of what it should look like. And I agree. If you have no need for the color, then black and white is going to be much better.

Ditto. They also smelled worse too. We found that the Target brand diapers when Target has their gift card deals was the time to stock up on their whipes and diapers.

It was the mid 2000's. And people spend a lot more than $15-30/month on fast food and streaming services. For the people whose finances I've seen, it's usually closer to 30% of their monthly income that goes to pure wants.

Also, someone can absolutely survive in today's world without a smart phone. It definitely makes things easier to have one though. Not really comparable to today anyway. You can get a basic smartphone for free nowadays. Couldn't do that back in the 2000's. The equivalent today is getting a flagship versus a cheapy phone.

I agree that water is a need. I'm talking strictly fast food, eating out, and things like Netflix, Spotify, etc.

This the second time you've put words in my mouth. I may have misunderstood what you said initially. But first you're saying I'm like that avocado toast guy (when I'm not saying people can solve their poverty), and now you're saying I'm a college was cheap for me guy.

Costs are higher than they have ever been and that's why it's even more important these days to control your spending. Costs are high. Wages haven't kept up. It's the sucky reality of the world we live in and telling people to keep spending their money irresponsibly in the name of comfort is just going to damn them to worse conditions as they go into debt when real problems arise and that debt puts them in even worse conditions where now they absolutely cannot afford their true bottom of the barrel needs without more debt.

Oh jeez. I completely forgot about Frontpage. That just brought some memories back.

You are minimizing how much people spend on streaming services and fast food.

Average spending on eating out in the US is over $300/mo. https://www.statista.com/statistics/237215/average-away-from-home-food-expenditures-of-united-states-households/

What do you suggest people do? What would you tell someone who is scraping by and doesn't have an emergency fund to do? Would you say they should carry on and not worry about emergencies? How should they deal with it when one does come along? I'm genuinely curious what your suggestions would be

I wish everyone could live the perfect most comfortable lives all the time. Seriously I do. But you can't ignore that the reality is that's not the world you and I live in and sometimes it comes down to survival...

We cancelled all our streaming services this month except Disney+ which is credited back on our credit card each month.

We had Netflix, Prime, and Crunchyroll that we cancelled. We don't really watch anything on Prime. On Netflix we just watched reruns for background noise while doing other things around the house. And Crunchyroll removed Funimation's digital library after acquisition so I canceled them on principle even though that was easily the most used service.

He's the creator of the Dragon Balls. Without him, they are powerless. :(

I wish you the best of luck. It isn't easy. Getting out of debt and having a fully funded emergency fund is a great feeling.

There are other ways to cut expenses too. I'll bet a lot of people (not all, but a lot of them, maybe even a majority) are paying for things they don't need when they're living paycheck to paycheck. Things like Spotify, Netflix, fast food, car washes, probably even car payments on a car that is beyond their means or at the least way more car than they need.

Every friend of mine I've helped get to a financially stable and responsible point in their life could do it without having to increase their income. Obviously an increase in income makes it a lot easier to do this, but if you don't have the behaviors down, then you're just going to creep your lifestyle when you make more money.

...this is exhausting. I said my suggestion is for everyone. Not that everyone spends $300/mo.

I'm done with this conversation. Several times now you've either put words in my mouth or taken what I've said out of context. I figured at first that you just thought I was targeting or speaking ill of poor people. Or that I thought "this one simple trick will guarantee that you're not poor" or some other such nonsense. I figured that maybe a little back and forth would help clarify my position.

Clearly you think people spend a lot less than they do and that there's no point in even trying to improve one's situation.

They give you a discount per month. So for example, a $1000 phone is on sale for $600, but they don't give you $400 off up front. Its a $11.11 per month discount for the next 36 months. You pay $16.67 per month until its paid off. If you pay it up front you pay $1000. If you leave early or pay it off early you lose the $11/month discount on the payment for the phone

Its intended to lure people in for an advertised cheap or free phone, but then you're stuck with them paying for the device.

HTPC wasn't a Windows thing though Microsoft did have Windows Media Center, which was a pretty slick interface for HTPCs

I used to use XBMC, which is now Kodi, for an interface. Before that I just used a PC running Mandrake Linux with a wireless mouse and keyboard. Haha.

Had a TV tuner, acted as a DVR, and also could play my library of SNES and NES games through it.

Do I have to register or affiliate with a party before I vote in the primary?

No. A registered voter is not required to pre-register or take any steps towards affiliating themselves with a party before voting in a party’s primary election. (§162.003)  Additionally, when a person registers to vote in Texas, they do not register with any kind of party affiliation.

This is all on that same source that you accused the other user of not reading...

Oh I agree completely. The problem is that when talking about this stuff in the scope of changing minds, if you neglect information people too easily dismiss it.

I figured as much with death being one of the options. Haha.

It's been fine for me too. But I would guess they mean carriers being slow to adopt it.

I'm not saying Netflix and fast food are keeping people poor like that guy about avocado toast.

I'm saying that if you can't afford an emergency, that's an emergency itself.

Buying fast food and Netflix (and all the other things that go with that) instead of saving up so you can afford an emergency is irresponsible.

Not being able to afford Netflix and/or fast food isn't being "slightly better quality of life than if they were dirt poor." I may not have been dirt poor. But I was buy expired milk and bread to freeze, can't afford minutes for my flip phone while my friends have smart phones, poor. And my quality of life wasn't "slightly better" than "dirt poor." I had a furnished apartment, a color TV, and was able to borrow videos from the library for entertainment.

Makes more sense to do it after if you're going to do this. Usually after a disaster you have to do something with the roof, electric service equipment, and even the electric utility equipment. These are also things that need to be touched when you're just simply adding solar. So if there's going to be aid following a disaster, it makes logistical sense to tack on solar since the overall cost of doing it with everything else should, in theory, cost less.

Obviously the costs may not be kept lower if there's a way for contractors to game the system.

And yet somehow you're still able to rip video from places like Netflix.

There's always a way around it. It's simply a cat and mouse game.

I've never had the roundabout one either. But I do often get ones where I'm on a rural highway and it will give an alternative route to exit the highway, take this long twisting road that dumps me back on the highway ahead of me, adding a needless 40 minutes. Haha.

I agree to your last comment about it being refreshing that he's not some elite like so many others. Sorry that wasn't clear.

I never said everyone. I never made that assumption. I only suggested that everyone should prioritize saving for an emergency over luxury.

I would suggest you do other things for your family to make them happy that doesn't involve spending money. Go to the library, parks, etc.

It's not in the name of money that you temporarily withhold these things. It's in the name of survival and making sure your kids aren't obligated to take care of you in the future.

Your mentality is one of denial and defeatism. You don't want to improve your life because you'd rather have a few nice temporary things in the now.

What should someone do when an emergency comes along and they don't have the money to afford it? You're not thinking ahead.

It's not about the money. Without an emergency fund, you are stuck going into debt. If something happens to you or your family and you have to go into debt, what then? Do you still keep eating out and go further into debt? So you never retire? You force your daughter to have to help support you when you're older and no longer able to work? All because you didn't want to change your situation? Because it's just a few bucks and won't make a difference?

I'm not going to call you a liar, but do you actually track your spending? Is it really $20/mo on eating out? Every single person who has told me they only spend a few bucks on eating out was proven wrong when we went through their spending.

I think you give a fair explanation of Dave in this comment. I definitely think much of his "baby steps" needs to be updated. Just for example, $1000 in savings is just going to cause someone to get further into debt when an emergency comes up.

I like the 20/30/50 rule for budgeting (20% saving, 30% fun and 50% needs). If you have bad debt (consumer debt, bad auto loan, etc), then minimize your fun spending the most you can in order to wipe out that bad debt as quickly as possible. But of course also save up at least on month of needs or your largest deductible (whichever is greater). Then once the bad debt is gone save up a 3-6 month emergency fund (according to your personal risk/comfort level).

I also think it's important to not be too hard on yourself. Some months you'll be over budget and some months you will be under. That's why I think it's important, like you said, to leave some room in the budget and not get caught up in zero dollar budgeting.

And this isn't universal either. For example, Culver's will bring your food out to you but you don't tip. So I would add that if you're waited on and pay for the meal AFTER eating and being waited on, then you tip.