@NEStalgia Yeah, those old chairs were nice and comfy - 17 years old this summer and are still rock solid structurally - but the material finally gave on all of them. First 1 went 4 or 5 years ago, been sitting in the corner ever since, last one a few days ago. So I bought 6 "steel" stackable ones at Target for $15 each. I'll be impressed if they last 5 years. 3 years and I'll be ok. Since they are stackable I will store them every winter in the shed so that should help extend their life a year or 2. The blue is nice.
Debt is a good thing if you're wired that way. My wife knows a divorced women who barley works who has 2 kids and is always traveling places on vacation. We have no idea how she does it, her ex doesn't have much either. My brain is just wired to live within my means, like you. I only added the 2nd bath b/c I'm pretty sure when we sell the house we'll get an extra $20k for 2 full baths rather than 1, so it kinda paid for itself. I'm having a very hard time justifying $40k for a new kitchen though. It might add $10k to the selling price. It's ugly, but it functions fine. Id' rather borrow the $40k and take the family to Paris and Rome, or Disneyworld. But if we get the house paid off in 2 years we'll probably borrow the $40k and redo the kitchen then. Or just sell the house and move. Who knows.
Someday we'll find it
The rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me
@NEStalgia Yeah, the whole cost of living thing already occurred to me, after we were having the in my opinion cheap chicken fillet discussion. I suddenly remembered a long time ago, when I visited Sweden, and found out that the cost of living there was about twice as much as in the Netherlands, but the people that live there, also make twice as much money, so for them, the prices are the same as for me in the Netherlands. It's just that if you look at these prices as a foreigner, they seem ridiculously high, or at the very least too expensive.
As for adding tax/VAT: that's only for imported goods and/or stuff like cigarettes and alcohol. The prices
I mentioned before, are net prices we pay in the super market. There's not going to be any added cost, when I pay at the checkout.
It is funny though: I always thought, as I mentioned before, that the situation in the States was a bit better.
When I see the news, I even see rather average families living in houses bigger than mine, and having kitchens that you can live in, but apparently, that's only a very small part and particular of the States, and not representative of the country as a whole.
I suppose we could look at average numbers, such as average wages, average rent, and so on, to verify that apparently, living in the States (although it appears in smaller houses) is on average still cheaper than in the Netherlands, and/or people are making less money on average.
For reference's sake: the average monthly net income over here is around € 2100 ($2343.25), and the average monthly rent is about €700 ($781.08). And over here, we also have pension plans and other basic benefits included in the wages, so besides having to take care of insurance for your car, your house and your health, there are basically no other primary costs to take care of.
Well, other than having to buy the monthly groceries, obviously.
If that's what they're called in your neck of the woods, then yes. Except mine are completely made of plastic,
so no such problems like rust and all that. You do have to put them away, or put them under a cover, because eventually they will get weathered by the elements. Mine look a bit like these:
Except with the added leg part, to make them look more like the ones you posted earlier.
Is that second picture at the pool actually from your chairs, or just an example?
I do feel for you and NEStalgia, though, having to eat so unhealthy all the time. No amount of oriental meditation and/or exercises in the local library is going to help your body to deal with all that built up waste, that processed food causes...
But in all seriousness: like @Tyranexx, I also really only cook a couple of times a week, and the rest gets divided into portions and put into the freezer, serving as stock/supply, for the month to come. But any and all meals are prepared mainly with fresh produce, so even though I basically live off of what I've got stocked in the freezer, none of it is junk food or bad stuff.
But, like any man, I do of course eat the occasional pizza, burger and fries, or go to a Chinese restaurant or something, but other than that, it's all of my own making. I used to be quite the sports type, but haven't been anymore for decades, so I have to compensate by at the very least eating healthy and trying to minimize my unhealthy goods intake, such as sugar and unnatural fats, otherwise my current 10 kilo overweight might double up in no time flat...
@ThanosReXXX Yeah, the tax thing, I hear drives Europeans nuts here. Here you always add state or state + municipal tax at the checkout atop the sticker price. And in some places it's confusing, such as fresh unprepared food like the chicken not being taxable but things such as salad dressing being taxable, so food is even more particular. In general retail it's 5%-12% additional at checkout versus sticker depending on location, but also depending where, it doesn't apply to all items...so unless you're running a lot of calculations in your head, you find out the price after you check out. Which used to cause people a ton of time. Now everyone except me pays with plastic so they really don't know how much they paid even after checkout. I sit there counting pennies like the good old days.
If you go by TV, you'd think everyone lives in these gloriously large houses that's always modern and up to date with the latest trends. Heck the Nintendo commercials always showed this nice "lifestyle brand" living rooms.....where nobody actually lives Though I wonder what news they show there? Here you always see these ghettoland crackhouses on the news... but the commercials show everyone living in lifestyle communities.
Of course around here half the houses do have those kitchens you could live in (and they never use them except for entertaining parties, they order restaurant food the rest of the year), but here isn't most of the country...here is some luxury retreat for finance brokers and corporate VPs..... It used to be farmland of course.... I see more NY plates than local plates year after year, though I've heard that's happening everywhere in the country, like rats leaving a sinking ship (sorry @rjejr ) See, it's attractive here, because for a mere $800,000 you can buy a house that would cost $1.4+M up there! A BARGAIN! So they make their bucks there, spend it here, then drive the costs up for those of us that were already here.
Of course it depends what part of the country the news is from that you're seeing. If it's CA most of the houses probably are that big.....because most of the rest of the population is sleeping in cars.
"For reference's sake: the average monthly net income over here is around € 2100 ($2343.25), and the average monthly rent is about €700 ($781.08). And over here, we also have pension plans and other basic benefits included in the wages, so besides having to take care of insurance for your car, your house and your health, there are basically no other primary costs to take care of."
That average is definitely a bit above the national average here (probably below the local average here by few miles though.) But it comes down to the other fees as well. (That's a problem for a country this size, they talk about national averages and I feel like they're talking about Morocco. They'll talk about an average income and I'm thinking, around here you couldn't even buy the can of arsenic to poison yourself with on that. Average rents are probably $1100-1300 around here for tiny apartments. But as you say, yeah there's all those other costs built in you guys don't have.
Sad thing is for ownership, the taxes alone.....your annual rent is less than just the SCHOOL taxes I pay for my kitchenless hovel, and that doesn't even include real estate taxes, that doesn't even cover actually paying for the home, maintenance, etc.. So assume costs of quadruple or quintuple. And that doesn't cover utilities, trash, sewer, medical, SS, and Medicare deducted from that gross pay, and you're supposed to be stock and fund investing for retirement (yeah right.) Meanwhile grocery product sizes keep going continuously down while the prices creep slightly up. They like to introduce Euro style living and costs here without factoring in all the other costs we already pay...then it becomes luxury. Thus, Whole Foods.
Those school taxes...they go up every year....and they keep building luxury schools that look like hotels. But those incoming NY finance brokers want the best (free) schools for their kids, and get their own kind on the school board to make the spending decisions, and everyone has to pay for it!
So they like to boast how much we make here and that our taxes are lower than Europes, but they neglect to mention we pay a lot more for a whole lot of things that you guys don't, and that our income tax is lower, but we have dozens of other taxes from all sides that adds up, probably, to more, and of course, no pensions and a failing SS ponzi scheme so we know when were old we'll be packing boxes in an amazon warehouse for minimum wage when real companies don't want us anymore
@NEStalgia Well, what I watch concerning the States, is news, and America's Funniest Home Videos.
Especially from the latter, I was under the impression that I might expect the wide variety of houses visible in that show, to at the very least be somewhat of a representation of the average American house...
And I used to watch that show about two brothers/contractors, who remodel the homes of "average" families with small to medium incomes... Then again: knowing it's from the States, over half of it is probably staged/directed to look as such.
But yeah, I already read @rjejr's reply about all his costs and debts, and then your replies to him and me, and all of that already gave me a headache just thinking about it, so I can only imagine how I'd feel actually living "the dream". An assumption that's still being made over here, by the way: America, the land of making it big, and making your dreams come true. Not the land of tiny and/or cramped and expensive houses, so small that you'd think that you'd accidentally landed in Japan instead...
But hey, at least your petrol is still cheaper, so a lot of you can still afford to drive around in your gas-guzzling classics, or humongous, 3 feet off the ground monster pickups...
On a side note, and you're gonna love the second part: Today, I used that cheap chicken fillet I bought yesterday, and decided to make my own Mediterranean dish with it, which constitutes of stir frying the chicken, and a variety of fresh, Mediterranean-type (hence the name of the dish) vegetables, such as zucchini, mushrooms, shallots, carrot, parsley, various types/colors of paprika and sun-dried tomato, and then letting all of that simmer in a tomato-cream sauce.
And just for fun, and a bit out of curiosity, I decided to make it with just one burner, and I placed and prepared all the ingredients on two feet of counter space, so it actually IS possible, my friend.
It took me a leisurely day, but I just finished up and drove 10 miles. New plugs, wires, distributor cap, distributor rotor, air intake gasket, and a throttle body so clean it’ll make Henry Ford blush.
Now I see that there’s a minor valve cover gasket leak. Oh, and I need to replace the o ring on the heater hose return....because I didn’t pay attention to what I kept leaning on. @bimmy-lee
#MudStrongs
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@ThanosReXXX Wait, is America's Funniest Home Videos still on? Or is it old reruns from the Bob Sagat era? That's the last time I actually saw it. I have a feeling the only people willing to send videos of their homes to be aired on (inter)national TV is people who feel pretty confident about the size of their....uh...homes....
I know HGTV is like the most popular TV network here. Most of that thing is paid for by the sponsors from tool companies and real estate companies and the like. Home Depot had skyrocketing earnings last year and they attributed it largely to the influence of that forsaken network. It fuels "keeping up with the Joneses" like no tomorrow. I used to watch the ones on PBS like This Old House...though that was always about historic mansion(esque) homes normal people couldn't come close to affording. We all mostly watched to see Norm make Bob Villa appear as clueless as he was. I watched Norm's show for a while where he made furniture and taught you how, assuming you happen to have factory-sized auto-lathes sitting in your garage. I haven't watched much of the newer stuff, though I see it in passing and cringe. Of course it does represent my area, but my area doesn't represent the country (or myself ) Imagine if you were to work in a company, and you set up your cubicle in the middle of the executive floor of a Fortune 500. You're up there in your little cube, and everyone around you is wearing Armanis and Rolex's and rode in in their Bentleys, to sit in their big leather chairs and cherry-wood desks. They talk about their 100ft yachts and the difficulties they have mooring it at the resort pier near their third home. You know you have nothing to relate to these people at all but you have to smile and nod and pretend you don't despise each other. That's where I live. Except then they make me pay for their kid's schools.
Oh I'd much prefer Japan. It saddens me that if you're not an English teacher or some specialist in some very scarce trade they need it's hard to really be accepted there for anything. There's a lot about there that I love. Honestly I think I'd feel more at home there, were it not for the fact that a foreigner is just a foreigner. Their culture has more of the aspects of what ours used to have than what this new Chinese-like culture we've adopted is. I'm already equipped for the tiny living, too!
Though the perception there isn't wrong. It still is the land of making it big and making your dreams come true. If you have the opportunity and the contacts and can seize that opportunity and win, it's all that and more. The problem is that if you don't make it big, you're completely effed. And if you never had the contacts and opportunities to start with, you were effed before you started. That's the problem. It's like the Olympics. For every triumphant come behind champion on the podium there's 30 people that spent their entire family's savings for the chance that go home with nothing but a dozen broken bones and jetlag. It's that maximum risk is mandatory, and inability to take risk is guaranteed failure that's the problem. But if you do make it big, you can go bigger than anywhere.
Jeff Bezos, richest man in the world was just your average Wall Street broker from an Ivy League school at a big firm before risking it all and following his dream to become the United Earth Emperor. Of course if he never had the Ivy League start, the Wall Street career, and the parents that could randomly loan him a meager few hundred thousand to start his business, he'd be packing boxes in a Sears.com warehouse for minimum wage today.
Oh no, around here it's not the gas guzzling classics and moster trucks. It's the Porche SUVs! And a handful of Teslas and Volts for the showoffs (that keep the BMW SUV at home for winter.... ) But you spend 40 minutes of your day idling in traffic and burn all that fuel
Haha, as for if it's possible, back in the day I could run around you in circles with commercial level production..... I could make a foccaccia from scratch that would be served in any restaurant with a mound of caramelized onions, etc. Of course the house was thick with smoke, and my back was sore from hunching over the floor......but still.... I just don't have the tolerance for it all anymore! But I do miss doing it. Not just the eating of it, I enjoyed the whole process. I made some crazy ridiculous overdone things. Gourmet level things. It's possible...just not practical (and second hand smoke is probably a bad idea )
@NEStalgia Bob Sagat? Was he a brother of that guy in Street Fighter?
No, it's actually new episodes, recognizable by HD footage, and vertically filmed smart phone clips...
Although, much like over there in the States, they also LOVE reruns over here, from just about everything, especially around the summer time, so that's something to look forward to in the coming months...
And Porsche SUVs? Those ugly "Cayenne" things? Wouldn't even WANT to own those, even if I did have the money...
But I was more talking in general, not so much about you specifically, since you already described the vehicles in your area looking like a Forza starting grid, so that pretty much told me that your area wasn't the average. Or maybe it is, what do I know?
As for that smoke while cooking: I don't know of any way to create smoke while cooking, other than actually burning and ruining the food. All I ever get is steam and a bit of grease on the wall and cabinets, so even without decent ventilation, nothing I'd prepare would set your house on fire or create smoke.
But I do remember a couple of you mentioning all kinds of unhealthy/unsavory, greasy and buttery things from Pizza Hut earlier, oil and fat-soaked stuff that fits rather nicely with the picture that many Europeans already have of most Americans, as predominantly being fast food eaters, or large eaters, and having at the very least one or two obese family members, if they aren't the one themselves...
Preparing such foods would definitely create smoke and stuff, so I'd imagine you wouldn't want to have that in a non- or poorly ventilated home.
By the way: I looked up that home remodeling show that I used to watch, and it was actually a Canadian show called Property Brothers. Don't know if it was aired in the States, so you probably don't know it. (edit: it would seem that the show actually WAS also aired by HGTV, so you may have stumbled upon it once, after all)
Another one I used to watch, was Extreme Home Makeover, but at some point, it all became kinda samey. At least they actually did also help the less fortunate, something that I could appreciate and enjoyed watching far more than all those "rich getting richer" and "looking for an even more expensive house" shows...
@HobbitGamer - Nothing like replacing everything halfway down only to find something else even deeper you hadn’t anticipated. Auto care is an exercise in anger management. You can only laugh. I respect your skill and aptitude. A VCG leak is really common. If it’s minor, and pooling/burning up on the block, you can definitely ride it out. It’s probably been going on a while. Well done on the tune up. I hope you lost at least one socket, that’s what good mechanics do.
@NEStalgia - Any given scene from This Old House:
“Hey Norm, I see you guys are taking measurements for the new vanity.”
“Nah Bowb, couldn’t be more owff. We’re actually in the garage, see the cah pahked right thea. We’re making sure this centah support beam is plumb. Why don’t you stand in the cornah and clean my drill bits.”
@bimmy-lee Nope, didn’t lose a socket but I did shear the head off a bolt connecting a throttle plate. It’s okay, the rest of the torque bolt stayed in place 😂. I love that all they did for the 318 magnum was essentially add efi parts to the carb body haha.
The leak definitely is minimal, and only got noticed because I disturbed the crud around the edges. I’m gonna slap a bead of rtv gasket till I get to replacing the vcg, which does look very straightforward. There’s no additional mounts on my covers, just a pcv on one and breather on the other.
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