25 bucks dont buy much anymore

allen levine

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nursing my bad back, but feeling 10 times better, I decided to drive over to lowes and just look around at gadgets, devices, anything related to woodworking, making a limit for myself, since it was an impulse buy, not to go over 25 dollars.(just wanted to kill some time today, nothing else to do)
It didnt take me long to realize there isnt much to buy today for under 25 dollars unless its a drill bit, or some plastic ruler.
I finally decided on a adjustable 4 foot T square, since I needed one recently and didnt own it.
I thought the price sticker listed 1999, but I was looking at the wrong sticker, after going back to check, the cashier was right, 2999, but I took it anyway.
25 bucks just doesnt buy that much anymore.
 
I hear ya. In 1960, when the sales tax was introduced to Ontario, there was a $5.00 exemption for restaurant meals. In 1960 you could feed yourself and a friend, and have movie money left over, for $5. Today, the restaurant exemption is still $5, but you can't feed yourself for $5. Hell, with candy bars at about $1.50, and cigarettes at an astronomical price, I'm glad I don't smoke or eat candy any more.

That reminds me, I have to write another letter to my MPP about that restaurant exemption... :rolleyes:
 
... with candy bars at about $1.50, and cigarettes at an astronomical price, I'm glad I don't smoke or eat candy any more. ...

I quit cigarettes in 1974 partly because they were up to 35 cents a pack and partly because I needed to anyway. Nowadays, I hear people complaining about not having money to pay rent as they light up a cigarette! :dunno:
 
I quit cigarettes in 1974 partly because they were up to 35 cents a pack and partly because I needed to anyway. Nowadays, I hear people complaining about not having money to pay rent as they light up a cigarette! :dunno:

Sort of like the couple that couldn't afford a baby crib so the baby had to sleep in the box the wide screen TV came in. :huh:
 
When we managed apts. we would see tenants arrive home with big screen TV's & stereos then they would come down & say they didn't have money for rent. Well we saw you pack your new TV or stereo or what ever into the apt. These were subsidized apts. They used to be able to stay after they got in even with no income. But they stopped that. In the mean time if they said they didn't have any income we would say I see you smoke & have TV cable & long distance how are you paying for them?
 
bart, Ive owned rental properties, and I always tried hard not to look at what my tenants were purchasing when they'd call me and tell me they are a couple of hundred short on the rent.
Id ask them if they would be able to come up with it in a couple of weeks, by the next paycheck, and once my tenant told me, nah, sorry, Im going on vacation to disney, I need that paycheck for spending money.
the joys of being a landlord.


anyway, speaking of impulse shopping.........a few years back I posted about picking up cushions for an outdoor furniture set I built a few years back out of ipe. I believe I paid 5 dollars a cushion, at a closeout price.
I saw the same cushions in different colors in the same backyard store for 54.99 each........
for me, I kinda like the score I made.

and today, I get back into woodworking, gonna start a popcorn stand.
 
I thought about the train station, but Ive had enough of retail sales to last me 100 lifetimes.
giving me a chance to use up of some of that 8/4 maple that is just taking up so much wall space.
Nothing fancy, no fancy joinery, just a colorful cart for a block party.
I crawled below my house and spent 40 minutes rummaging through the old bicycles, was going to take a couple of 26 inch tires and use them for wheels. But then the bushings/bearings dont match up, Id have to start running around trying to fit them, epoxy them in, have to buy an axle, so I scratched the idea and went back to my original plan, well, the second plan. Plywood wheels, first choice was just a platform with 4 inch castors.
might have been a mistake, my back isnt ready for jointing and planing yet.
 
Interesting point you make Allen about the $25. I was packing away some old photos and memorabilia the other day and came across my a stub for my first international flight air ticket. It was to London from Johannesburg. At the time, the ticket cost R315 rands which with the Rand Dollar exchange rate at the time made the ticket $420 US (yeah sounds totally crazy in the way the bankers have us thinking today but the dollar back then was weaker than the Rand).
Today that flight will set you back around R9000 today which is around US$ 1058. Given the time span we talking about around 35 years ago thats not bad at all considering inflation and cost of fuel today versus back then. US Gasoline was around 62 cents in 1977 if we use that as a benchmark to what the airline industry would have been paying relative to what they having to pay today. Its no wonder the airlines keep on having difficulty. Of course volumes are another aspect to consider.


But all this talk of impulse buys......stand up the person who has not sucumb to an impulse buy. :D I would like to shake your hand whoever you are if you exist.
 
When we managed apts. we would see tenants arrive home with big screen TV's & stereos then they would come down & say they didn't have money for rent. Well we saw you pack your new TV or stereo or what ever into the apt. These were subsidized apts. They used to be able to stay after they got in even with no income. But they stopped that. In the mean time if they said they didn't have any income we would say I see you smoke & have TV cable & long distance how are you paying for them?


I asked this question of a neighbourhood activist when we were walking through a bad area, and I saw satellite dishes. She said, "They get them for a small deposit, sometimes with a free trial period, then don't pay, and by the time the satellite company gets around to coming for the dish, about nine months have gone by. Then they go to another satellite company."
 
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