day 62-scrubbies

the dish sponge... how many do you have hanging out in your kitchen? three? four?

one for washing the glasses, one for scrubbing pots and one for those heavy duty jobs perhaps?

we all have them hanging out around the sink. i know i do. the big problem is knowing when to get rid of them. they seem to stay way past their expiration date around my house, which is expected. we are not the best housekeepers, but we do try to wash our dishes as often as we can.

my philosophy with the old sponges is to just use more soap. in my own mind the soap cleans not only the dishes, but the sponge as well.

after a while the old sponge disappears and a new one is there. hopefully it has a scrubby side. sometimes it doesn't. either way it's a new addition to the house and may be "with us" for a while.

this time i picked up the sponge tab. i did not realize how expensive sponges could be. i was thinking.. "hey, it's time for a new scrubbie. a buck64 has got to cover a good one right?"

wrong. again the buck64aday has foiled me in the big city. i am sure that if i headed out to my local evil wal-mart, i could find a nice dish cleaner for a buck64. not that i would go to the wal-mart for such a thing... or even anything these days, but it seems that the scrubbers are gonna cost me.

a couple of weeks ago i got a dobie scrubber, but that is for heavy duty jobs. we need the everyday scrubber.

best i could do was a dollar store pack of scrubbers that i liken to a kiddie chalk and eraser set. you know the kind. four colors of chalk and a cheap yellow spongy thing that "might" get the mash of colors off the surface.

not the best purchase ever but for a buck08 we got ten scrubbers to go through. i give us a few weeks to go through them.

i pray that one of the other roomies will get us a good one.


wrapping up


500.32 at the start


a buck8 spent


the kitty stands at 92cent





maximum spending tomorrow





2buck56





i can spend that much tomorrow





you can't stop me

day 54-latin laundry

for some reason i appear to be spatially challenged with this blog. i assure you that i in no means intend for there to be no spacing btw paragraphs. they are purely accidental and a pain in my ass. if anyone knows what i am doing wrong, then please let me know.

it's the 21st of june and i'm back in the city. the vacation is now over. back to work.

lets not talk about that.

no really. please i just don't want to talk about it.

i did though notice that since i was gone for a week and change ,it was definitely time to give the bedclothes a washing. all that heat and humidity from the past week means its time for some real detergent on the sheets and blankets.

this time i am going with "ariel" (oxi-blue). for a buck61 i think it might do me just right.

or not.

if the first ingredients are "process aids" it's a good thing right?
right?

i should get about eight loads out of it. or if i use the special instructions for guatamala i will get 16 loads. special guatamalan instructions- for small loads use 1/2 cup for every 4.5kg. right there on the label people. it's right there.

do you think that the gsa (general service administration) gave away a bunch of this stuff during their last katrina relief giveaway? if so how many cases was it? 500? valued at perhaps 500,000 dollars?

if you have not heard about this story then check it out. it seems that the gsa over valued a big chunk of unused katrina relief supplies. the error was not that big. something like 60 million bucks. so now 85 million in supplies is really just 18.5 million.

this is that stuff that "never got used" a few years back and was given away by fema to really whom ever wanted it.

hey guys i'm right over here. i could uses a life time supply of toilet paper. i mean, if no one else is going to use it. i know that many areas that we would deem in "need" did originally decline the supplies as they did not know of a need of them.

hello louisiana... your not back up to snuff yet. i would think that handing out free anything around the state would make things a little bit better. is no one paying attention?.

apparently the gsa was not. they are a government bean counting and property management agency. they manage the government and they could not even do the math.

i can see the guy who got stuck with the job of tallying the inventory. maybe he was in the men's room, maybe he was just smoking a bad cigarrette. it was an old one he found in his desk. yeah it might have smelt like weed but really.. he swears it wasn't.

all of a sudden bam. he's transfered out to the fort worth branch to oversee a couple of warehouses. easy enough right? sure. he's off the radar. out in the woods. no one likes to go to the fort worth warehouse. who is going to know if he fudges the numbers right?

apparently fema won't, and the gsa.

and how does 18 grand in toilet paper become 1.5 million. is there a magic wand you can use? i want one of those. i'd be out there on the street selling my toilet paper.

onerollatatime.

it just seems so odd to me that the agency that was created to run our government agencies and make them more efficient cannot tally up a simple inventory. it's not like the toilet paper was dived up into a thousand pallets, mixed up with cutlery and tents. it was there all by itself.

i know a guy in greensboro, north carolina. he's an audior. he could do it for you. he normally answers to the shareholders, but he might make an exception for the american people.

the other issue i have is that if the gsa did not notice, then why didn't fema notice the gsa not noticin'? notice? i would think that our uber government fema would have. after all they are the ones who are in charge when the u.s. has a major disaster.

for now i have a few points for our man "who might like to like up" out there in fort worth.

big math is not that hard. you just have to think of the big number as a small number. if 80million minus 60million looks to big on paper then try this.

80-60=20. then just put your eggs back in the basket.

then again, you are probably out there managing a fema super secret supply tunnel that runs from new york to chicago. just you and that guy from tulsa who got caught in the bosses office wearing his wife's underpants. the two of you will never see the light of day again.

wrapping up
513.54 at the start
a buck61 spent
the kitty stands at 1cent short of 2bits

maximum spending tomorrow

2buck13

i can spend that much tomorrow

you can't stop me

day 43- what did you say? oh.. it's time to clean out the ears

i never seem to have these things around. i buy them... they run out, and i forget to buy some more. it's a good thing most people keep them out in gandy little dispensers in their bathrooms.

that's right i'm not just using your facilities when i come over. i might be cleaning my ears too.

q-tips are one of the most versatile hygiene products ever created in my opinion. not only do they clean up the yuck from the ears better than anything else ever invented, but they are good for detail cleaning of just about any small area around the house. absolute genius.

only problem with them. they should not be placed inside the ear.

it's dangerous to do so.

it could result in severe injury

or death.

"huh? sorry, i didn't hear that. you see my ears are all clogged and if it was safe to use a cotton swab in my ear i wouldn't have this nasty wax blocking up the works. i'm afraid to put the cotton swab in my ear because the label says it's dangerous." says scary guy wearing the tin foil hat.

that's right.. check the label. those things are dangerous. killers.

i am sure a few people over the years have died, or been seriously injured using a q-tip, but i don't think it's that dangerous. these things have been around for almost 90 years.

when was the last time you heard of a bathroom q-tip incident?

if you are afraid of the q-tip then there is always the candle wax remover. to me that is a little scary, and gross.

after i clean my ears i am going to do some detail cleaning of my remote controls and computer peripherals. many of them are getting a bit gritty. i think it's time.

for a buck83 i can use a whole bunch of them and make one of those monster faces in the mirror... just like lane in better off dead. ok not just like him.. i am sure he was using "real" "q-tips". not some store brand, but as you know a buck64 only goes so far.

i also look forward to the good feeling i get when i clean my ears.

you know you like it too.

wrapping up

531.88 at the start

a buck83 spent

the kitty stands at 57cent

maximum spending tomorrow

2buck21

i can spend that much tomorrow

you can't stop me.

day 35- now its time to scrub out that burnt pot.

these little guys are champs when it comes to cleaning up. they totally beat out any "non abrasive" scrubber i have ever seen. my parents swear by them and so do i. so will my kids and their kids.

if you bought one then you might too.

here is the story and inspiration of the dobie scrubber purchase and how it pertains to a buck64aday.

last week i bought a mini bamboo steamer for making up some dim sum at the pitt. if you are going to have some dim sum you are going to need some pork sung too right? after you steam your dumplings and you commence to the eating you are going to remember to shut off the burner so all that water doesn't boil away.

right?
wrong.

i left the burner on and all that water boiled away. they say nyc water is clean and healthy. a good friend of mine, who worked for the d.e.p. , always told me this. so then how come when the water boiled away it left this crazy burnt residue on the bottom of my pot?

ok maybe it was particles of the dumplings that fell into the water, but might it have been from the croton water that flows down to the lower east side?

it might. in the fall my water turns a brownish green color. it's the algae in the water. i am told it's safe.

send in the dobie scrubber. a little soap, water, a bit of elbow grease and the residue is gone. no muss, no fuss. thanks dobie. for a buck92 you kept my pot from being a throw away.

these thing are great not just for dishes, but for any kind of cleaning. they are even good for the exfoliating. it's a bit of a painful scrub down, but still very effective. with your dollar shrinking it's best to find ways to make do with what you have. no more disposable lifestyles.

we cannot afford them environmentally or monetarily.

really i would not throw away a pot until i was sure it is not salvageable. it's just not my way. actually i have a hard time of getting rid of most things. for some reason i think i might need it later. this is a great idea you would think, but although i save, save, save. my organization could use a little help.

really we should think about what we are throwing away and where it goes when it hits the curb. what is the impact?

it's easy to forget about it, and most people do. when you put your old couch out on the curb it usually disappears like magic in the next two hours. what about the junk? the stuff no one wants? it heads right off to the landfill with the baby diapers, the pringle cans and all those other non recyclables. take the time people. put it in the right place. give it to the right people. we can do it if we try.

its a good thing our lifespans are only 70 or so years. if we lived to be 200 we would all get to see the planet wrecked. the majority of the human race would sink into depression. visions of all the trash they "mishandled" running through their dreams like a kid's nightmare boogeyman.

think about the lcd tv revolution. last christmas i walked around brooklyn parts and everywhere you looked you saw big screen tv's on the curb, the packaging for the 32 inch lcd tv next to it like a beacon to anyone who might want to break into your apartment.

those tv's are piled high somewhere and mixed in with the tubes and wires are the coffee grounds and the diapers.

what a mess.

we really should have thought about tv disposal better. sure there are places you can drop off your old tv, but it would have been really cool if we put them all in one place. in the desert. lined them up as far as the eye could see. someone could have called it t.v. land. people would have come, they even would have bought tickets. i know i would.

your old tv has it's uses. turn it into a planter, a fish tank even a coffee table. i am still hanging on to my old tube. i don't need hdtv yet. i'm not there.

when i am, i'll dispose of it properly. i just wish the government would make it easier.

wrapping up.
545.13 at the start
a buck92 spent
the kitty stands at 61cent

maximum spending tomorrow

2buck25

i can spend that tomorrow

you can't stop me.