Sunday, January 27, 2008

Addressed Postage Paid Envelopes

In the process of opening this months mail, It dawned upon me that I had received an overwhelming amount of Credit Card, Magazine, Timeshare, and Insurance offering with the famous Prepaid Postage Envelope.

It seems a waste to not use these nice envelopes.

Sort of like all those address labels you get in the mail. You know the ones, from every organization that is trying to raise money. (The Secret Order of the Salt Shaker, The Sow's Ear Handbag, The Fraternal order of Space Aliens, and the Society for the Prevention of Abuse to Video Game Addicts to name a few) I have a envelope I put all these in and it is overflowing. If I did not receive more of these stickers and wrote three letters a day for the next 13.2 years the labels would finally be used. Let alone the Postage would be staggering.

That spurned an idea, why not use them on the Postage Paid envelopes. That way the purpose of both are in use. The person that sent the envelope wants it returned, or they would not have made it postage paid. The people with the stickers want them used, or they would not have sent them. (Although the sticker folks never include prepaid postage on their envelopes) (Special Note: These stickers are great for Raffle Tickets, you know at the School Carnival where you get 10 for $2.00, slap that label on and you saved yourself from Writers Cramp- And who said the internet did not have good ideas.)

From an earlier incident I have learned that you do not fill the envelopes with anything, like sand, flour, etc. But that is another post.

So my trusty mail carrier will have a box full of letters when he visits the Redbird house this week. Hello City Bank, Bank of America, Wachovia, Time, US News, Geico,Delta,Airtans, Sheraton, etc. Be by your mail box, the Redbird's letters are headed your way.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Price of Gas, Groceries and other necessities

$3.15 last night for gasoline. Grapes near $4.00 per pound. Milk at 2.89 a gallon. The everyday price of things aregoing up at a ridiculous rate. The government has a lulled into thinking there is a 2 or 3% inflation rate. They need to step out in the real world.

This last week I went to a popular restaurant. 14 tables it was 11:40when we entered 1 tables of three, we added another 3 and that was all in the whole place. By noon a table of two had come in. I do not know how they kept the doors open.

The only time you see anyone in the Morton area restaurants for lunch is on Friday. Guess it must an escape valve from work on Friday.

We are paying by my estimates on what I see about 20 to 25% more for food. If you notice this is really evident in packaging. If you buy bulk you will notice that there are not as many rolls of paper towels for the same price point. I was in the Spaghetti sauce aisle and the price of Pasta and sauce has risen quite sharply. You rewally need to review the ads to get the values. But how much shopping can you do with $3.15 per gallon gas.

We have limited our traveling to shop. We now go out 1 day a week for our shopping and try to get it all done by planning ahead.

We were faced with a huge electric rate increase in January of last year here in Central Illinois. The legislature rolled some of that back but sooner or later it will rise again.

Arriving in the mail the other day was the IRS forms. I would predict that this will be a record year for People getting basically a payday type loan on their anticipated income tax refund.

You see the headlines about Credit Card debt, low levels of personal savings, Christmas spending down. Do not have a Crystal ball on the economy but it looks like some lean months for the stock market, even though it is an election year.

Looking around Mid America these are not the same signs that the New Yorkers and Washingtonites are talking about in the national new media. It is the real world out in the Heartland, the real world is not the Big Apple or inside the beltway.

It seems to me that there should be a ground swelling from the voters about the economy. The soundbites from the candidates are anything but about the basic human needs of the voters.

Maybe it needs to be a paradigm shift by the consumers. Do we need to ask ourselves "Is this the highest and best use for my money", as we look at buying that new HDTV or (You fill in the blank).

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy New Year- Welcome 2008

2007 ended on a cold note. It will start with one of the coldest windiest days of the year.

I look forward to the New Year, it will involve some Graduation Ceremonies, and some Weddings. Do not think I have had so many family things in one year. It will involve a trips to San Francisco, Homer, IL, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Atlanta, Charleston, SC, Norfolk, VA, Dublin, VA.

It should be a great year.