Barbecue Blog

Getting ready to move and the place i’m moving to it’s about the same to rent a 3br house as it is a 3br apt. My question is which would be cheaper utility wise? And most apartments down there do not includes utilities.

If you rent an apartment, One of the few good things about it is the utility bills are cheaper. The reason why is because the apartment next to you keeps your walls warm, if it’s a 3 story building the 2nd floor is the best on heat. The top floor on a multi-floor apt. building is always the worse. The wind blows in winter & makes the building feel like it’s swaying, also the top floor is the hardest to get out of in case of fire. Air-conditioning in summer is cheaper also, the next apartment is a great insulator & you don’t loose much air. There are other good points, lighted drives, lawn up-keep, snow removal, no property taxes & generally cable is ready to go. With house payments & rent being so close in price, it’s hard to beat owning though, what ever improvements you make are yours. Just make sure you can afford the payments, utilities & taxes…Good Luck & God Bless

I have a main email address that is web based and is with Utility Warehouse.

I also have an old BT Yahoo! email address that I don’t use much anymore but is still live so I have to go in there to clear it out occasionally. It also gives me access to Answers so it is quite invaluable!

I have just bought a new computer and have got Microsoft Office 2007 installed with Outlook 2007.

I have heard that it is possible to use Outlook as your email tool to view and answer web based email accounts such as the ones that I have described.

Can anyone explain how this is done to me in simplified way, (I don’t really understand too much jargon!).

just add or create another account, as long as you know the servers ie POP3 & SMPT plus passwords your ok. Outlook will pull them all at the same time, most servers are mail.server.com ie mail.yahoo.com for both incoming and outgoing?

So, I make a pretty good amount an hour, but have carnote, pay daycare for 2 kids, plus clothes, my half of all expenses from rent, utilities, cheap cell phone bill, blah blah blah…….. I am getting child support so that makes it alot easier, but there are sooooo many things that seem high dollar that I need to get done…….I need to make a dental appt (which I know will be about $200), belts replaced on my car engine (up to $400), a new catalytic converter on my car (upwards of $1000 possibly more. Had to afro-engineer it last year to get thru marta), my car painted, get insurance on my car (down payment will hurt on that one – have a high insurable car) and pay off alot of other bills (not big amounts, just small) ………..I need it all done NOW, but I dont know what to concentrate on, I feel like if I do one, then another will bite me in the butt…….any suggestions?

First off I want to say I’m sorry for what you are facing. That is a big load to carry and I tip my hat to you for all you need to do. Well I’m assuming you need your car to make money. If this is the case you need to focus on the mechanical issues first. Painting it should be last on the list. If you can then get it fixed, gt insurance. If you cannot get it fixed, let your insurance lapse and while using public transportation take the extra insurance money and save it to fix the car and get your teeth fixed. Then start making bigger payments on your other debts. The best thing you can do right now is not get overwhelmed, take things day-by-day, don’t miss out on the wonder of being a mother by worrying about tomorrow. You can and will make it through this and you will be stronger as a result.

Observing a Science Program on Tee-Vee, Centered at one of NASAs’ Laboratories. The Exercise made use of an immense Cray Supercomputer.This Machines’ components filled several floors of a warehouse! The Objective of this magnanimous number – crunching event : to achieve an up-to-date, visual model of the Entire Known Universe.Taking into account all x-ray ; telescopic & satellite visual-light photographs & stored digital and analogue data;infrared and ultraviolet;audio;laser etc.& etc of any and all Scientific utilities Until a proportional 3-D map was configured. I stood silently amazed at the Image…There it was! A Molecule began to emerge as the Model came to-gether. The Whole of the Universe……..is a Complex Chain Hydro Carbon Molecule. Query : Would the Scientists involved in this most intriguiging of Scientific endevour ; Put the ‘ol Cray to the Task of possibly identifying this Grande"Molecule". Lest it stay forever an intriguing Illusion?

Yes they can Identify it but they don’t know how to capture it as yet. If and when they do, they think they might find the answer to cold fusion, thus most of our energy woes will been fixed.

I recently answered a question with this but I think it deserves it’s own spot for proper focus.

A minimum wage job pays about 13k annually (before taxes) IF they get a full 40. So after taxes they have about 900-980 a month depending on filing status and children.

The cheapest apartment I could find locally was a 2 room efficiency for $375 a month (note not a 2-bed, a 2-ROOM)

food will cost at least $100 person per month

Utilities would be cheaper for a small apartment so lets say $150 for electric & heat. $20 for water.

If you have a job you’ll need a car so $200 for a car payment and $30 for insurance throw in $40 for gas

$25 for a phone (cheap for a landline)

let’s see I’ve covered rent, utilities, food and transportation what’s left? Oh clothes, toiletries, cleaning supplies and other little things, hmm…. we’ll go cheap here to and say $20 a month.

What do we have so far …. $960 a month to live in a 2 room hovel and eat raman noodles on a regular basis.
How would someone in your area do with a budget of $900-990 a month?
HA, food stamps that’s a good one. A single person making minimum wage doesn’t qualify for food stamps.

And I’ll tell you My family of 4 has an income of about $1200 a month (barely above minimum) and we get a grand total of $225 in food stamps a month. So there ya go family of 4 on $1425 a month, do that budget. Find a place to live locally for a family (we need a 3-bed as my kids are the opposite sex) and make a car payment on that. If ya want to try adding in a job for me but don’t forget childcare costs and a second car.
Oooooo…. college education, good point there, I have an accounting degree (assoc. for now and 10 classes from a BA)

To finish my degree I need about $3600 a semester and FA will pay $2050 of it. Don’t forget the child care…..
Oh, I’m not talking about immigrants here, I’m talking about Americans who have no where else to go and are trying to compete with the illegals.

You don’t, especially if you have children,that’s why i’m living with family right now. I was making just a little above minimum and after struggling,starving and selling everything I had, I couldn’t do it on my own anymore.

When I graduated high school, I went away to college on my own dime. It was 70 miles away and I only talked to my fam like once a month on the phone. I loved the freedom and responsibility. But as a full time college student I couldn’t afford it and had to move back home after freshman year. For the last few years I’ve been going to community college and working full time.
I just turned 22 and I will have my associates degree this fall. I am going to a real college in the spring and going to get a real degree in finance most likely. I started a home business early last year and its continually growing but right now things are a bit iffy with it. Sometimes it takes all of my time and it certainly takes 60 hours or more a week to actually GROW it.
I have to go full time to college to stay on my parents insurance. Self employed insurance is too expensive. So I will most likely go full time just to save the $200 a month on insurance. To move out, I would have to rent a house OR rent an apt plus warehouse storage. I have to much inventory to fit in an apt, but not enough to overload a average house. I am pretty fed up with the way my family lives and would love to be own my own again, but its risky when I do not have a *job* but only a ebusiness that only makes me $2000 a month or so right now.
So should I move out and pay $1200 a month for a decent house plus all the utilities and extra food to equal $1500 a month or more. Or should I mooch this free ride at home until I have a degree or I manage to grow the business to $5000 a month+.
One other thing is that I am pretty sure I’m going to propose to my gf within the coming months. It adds to the problem of if I should move out now or to wait until marriage and move in together and mooch until then. At earliestttttt I wouldn’t get married until next summer.
Income – $2000-3000 a month. Savings – $5000
monthly bills currently – $250

It’s perplexing me beyond belief. I feel I could possibly get more work done in my own home alone, but I don’t think I’d get sooo much more work done that it would equate to $1500 more income.

*there were no good categories to place this question but I figure the married folks section would yield better responses*

move out when you’re ready…

My partner and I have just moved into a flat in the greater manchester area with gas and electricity meters. I have never use these meters before as most of my rents in the past always include utility bills. We have to buy pre-pay cards for both electricity and gas (from the local shops) to enable cooking, heating etc. We use the gas for cooking and central heating, although i do alot of cooking and has to keep the home warm for my baby. It seems these meters are quite expensive to run and sometimes runs out unexpectedly. so I am thinking of changing to a standard billing system. Is the meter system cheaper than the billing system.

Secondly, if the billing system is better, please can someone recommend a cheap gas supplier to me (for greater manchester area, postcode M15 6DE), thanks.

The meter cards are horribly expensive compared to paying by DD monthly.

Have a look at Uswitch.com for price comparisons.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7533389.stm

What I found typical, was the statement: "With immediate effect".

When/if the prices fall, it would be months before the cuts were passed on. Market forces or not, what blatant, profiteering hypocrisy.

Source(s).

Greed.

Okay I am in ohio right near michigan and we are looking in michigan because the taxes and utilities are cheaper. Do I just need to transfer my drivers license and insurance or are there other things and do I have to take another test. I want to be prepared in case we find a house soon

no test if u have a current lic…just gona cost money

Dispute over electric bill?
I am currently with Utility Warehouse for my gas and electric and have been for 3 years. I have never had any problems till now!!!
I pay direct debit every month for my gas which is £40 a month and electric is £30 a month, they always give me a monthly usage which is never over what i pay, give or take a couple of pounds..
I always give them meter readings every few months and nothing has ever really changed.
I recieved my feb bill yesterday and my usage for electric was £99!!!!!!! i have checked the meter readings on the bill and it stated from 31-12-09 till 14-01-10 meter reading was 22890 and units used was 680!!!!
I have taken my meter reading myself and it was 23181!!! yes it higher then what they have put but workng out the units used from 14-01-10 at 22890 and the reading i took on the 13-02-10 (a months usage) is only 290 units for the month…
I have contacted utility warehouse and questioned as to why in a month would i use £99 worth of electric, i havent used or changed anything new and i live alone…
There answer was from the estimated readings and from the actual meter reading they took on the 14-01-10 means i have used £99!!!!
This startled me because my meters are kept outside in a locked shed ansd i only have the key!!!!! so no one has been to my house to take a reading..
they started to argue this with me and said " well someone else who has access must of let them in"!!! I obviosuly stated thats impossible as i live alone and there isnt anyone else!!!!!
They wouldnt listen and said end off this is what i have used!!! even when i mentioned for the month of 14-011-10 to 13-02-10 it was only 290 units used so how can i go from one month using 680 to then next only using 290!!!!!
Can someone give me some advise because they were not interested in speaking to me

Estimated readings are based on the fact that they could not get to your meter to read it. So they estimate then the next month if they read them and they have over charged you they deduct that amount. It happens all the time if you live in colder and inclement weather towns and cities.
They must have acces to your meter to read it, if not they estimate they have no other choice.
Actually I wish I had that amount to pay for lights and heat. WOW that is very cheap. Our heat alone is 350 bucks and the lights are 150 a month. Nut if you do have a discrepancy with your reading cal them and ask them to send some one and read your meters while you are there and have the previous readings as well. This way there can be no mistake on the readings.

Good Luck