Sue, Being retired ... ... I'm on vacation every day. Canada's best personal money management magazine recently carried an article by a guy, Derek Foster, who retired at 34. He has written a book titled, "Stop Working - Here's How You Can", which has some interesting ideas in it. I borrowed a book about borrowing at the library yesterday. Which says, among other things, that if you go into debt for consumer items now, you're giving yourself an automatic reduction in living standard in the future - for you'll have to pay interest next year on the stuff that you bought and ate this year. So - there'll be less money to live on, next year. Learning how money works - an interesting hobby. One of the few hobbies that *pays well*. And it does: learning how money works pays *really* well. Freezing rain over a wide area here Suday night and through part of Monday - 700 minor collisons (let's not call them "accidents"), and a semi blocked one of the major thoroughfares around Toronto - all Monday afternoon, and till about 2 a.m. Tuesday. My ice-coated car sat in the yard - all day. I thought last night that I should put it into the garage - but laziness has its price, quite frequently. Yard is all chewed up and mud everywhere, as landlord dug trench behind house to run power line to new shop, plus water line in another direction to the second well (the less polluted one). Hope you all have an interesting winter week. ole joyful

Over a number of years, while dealing with folks learning the rudiments of effective money management, I've suggested, with their permission, that they plan to have 3 to 6 mos. worth of income available quite readily, in case of an emergency need. For folks with variable or seasonal income, or worrying about the security of their employment, I would more likely recommend their having 9 mos. to a year's worth of money available in case of emergency, or as replacement for income if theirs were to stop, for whatever reason. Usually personal financial advisors suggest that one keep part of those assets in a savings account and quite likely some in a money market account, which pays a higher rate of interest than a savings account and is readily cashable in case of need. As clients became more aware of the complexities of managing their money, especially if they had learned the wisdom of not carrying balances of debt on their "credit" cards over the original billing period, thus incurring interest expense, I sometimes told them of some of my own approach to the emergency money issue. I don't like earning interest. Money in a savings account or money market fund (also in CDs and GICs, which, being for a specified term, aren't easily available in case of immediate need) carries the banks oft-repeated guarantee that the number of dollars, apart from the rent on the money, won't shrink. The inverse guarantee, never stated, is that, apart from the rent on the money, the number of dollars won't grow, either. The only return that those dollars of principal will ever produce relative to that period of time is produced right then. And, in Canada, that kind of income, interest (along with wage/salary, or resultant pension [apart from a certain deductible amount on the latter]) attracts income tax at the top rate. Those being the types of income earned by most citizens. As I'm older, with no kids to perhaps get sick and keep me home from work, or spouse, the same, and as my pension gets deposited monthly, I don't have to worry if my car needs repairs, including a part that must be sent from wherever, how I'll get to work for the next week ... or so. Or similar improbable problems. I have a credit card or two and in case of emergency, I can almost always pay for whatever emergency bills develop, as they arise using the credit card. As I had some certificates for mutual funds that I own (issued without fee) and stocks (issuance fee applies), I used them as collateral to obtain a fully-secured line of credit with a limit higher than several months' pay, which usually sits there unused (and the bank does not charge a fee for inactivity). Before the credit card bill is due, I arrange for a loan using my Line of Credit of the amount needed to pay the full amount owing on the credit card debt. I deposit the proceeds into my bank account, then transfer the amount due to the credit card issuer to my account with them (with no fee for the transfer, a I'm a senior). A while ago, the interest rate on the LOC was 6.25%, and back then I calculated that, if the loan were not for an emergency use, but for investment, I could pay the interest at almost nil net cost to me. Then the interest rate was lowered to 5.75%, and a month or so ago to 4.75%. But I keep the Line of Credit available for emergency use, and one to be used for investment, entirely separate, for the interest on the first is not deductible, but that on the second is deductible. My experience has been that I can usually produce enough savings to pay off that loan for emergency use using the Line of Credit over only a few months. It has been my experience that the need for such emergency loans is infrequent. In the meantime, I invested a larger amount into some equity-based mutual funds, or, preferably, into individual stocks that I bought directly, as then I don't pay a substantial annual fee to the manager of the mutual fund for his/her service. Some mutual funds develop dividend income and capital gain income annually that, though they reinvest, they declare a distribution annually to me, that is then taxable at the time, but at a lower rate than on interest income. However, there is usually a growth in value of the mutual fund ... but I don't become liable to pay tax on that, until I either sell the fund ... or die. So the tax on that growth was deferred. Then, howerver, I pay tax at only half of the regular rate. For Canadian stocks that I buy directly, some of them pay me a dividend annually, and that type of income used to be taxed at a rate much below the rate on interest, then last year a change in the rate of calculation meant that the tax rate on them was reduced even more. Some pay no dividend at all, so I am not liable to pay any tax at all relative to those stocks over the years that I own them. However, several of the stocks that I own have grown in value over the years ... and there have been some losers, as well. I am not required to answer to the income tax people for those gains during the years that I owned them. One that I owned for 41 years has doubled four times during that period (last year it was four and a half times, but they were involved in some of those stinky mortgages in the U.S. that have gone bad). When I sell those stocks, or die, I have to answer to the income tax people for the capital gains that have developed and they require that I pay them tax at regular rate on very second dollar of that growth - but I get one half of those growth dollars free of tax. Over the years, the growth produced by the stock holdings has been higher in most cases than the assets invested earning interest. Then, much of the ongoing dividend income was taxed at low rate as it was earned and paid ... and the tax on the capital gain was deferred till sale, then assessed at half regular rate. If there were losses on some stocks, those losses were deducted from capital gains on other stocks. I like that ball game a whole lot better. I'm willing to pay even non-deductible interest on an emergency fund that I borrow, for it's an infrequent situation, and is usually paid off over a term of a few months ... but the money that I'd invested as outlined above had produced a much better rate of return than had it sat earning interest in a money market or a savings account. As I said ... I don't like earning interest! Some ideas about money management that may be of interest. ole joyful P.S. Confession time ... a few months ago, I had most of a year's income readily available ... and most of it in a plain old savings account, not even in the money market fund that would have earned at a slightly higher rate! So much for the difference between theory and practice! Actually, I'd thought for some time that I'd soon be investing it ... but month by month was dragging my feet, for I didn't like the looks of the market. In addition ... the general concensus of advice is ... ... don't try to time the market!! Just invest, on a regular basis, when the money becomes available. Smart-asses (and preachers) aren't always doing what they say! Kids (when they get to be teens, especially) will tell you the same about their parents, right? o j

Anne- Thank you for your kind words; and I hope you don't find my answer discouraging. Even though I'm certified to teach home canning, I no longer use canning as a method for food preservation for a number of reasons. Cost of utilities. Not only the heat processing for the canning, but also the air conditioning necessary to cool the house off because you are talking about peak summer months are also peak canning months. I don't have enough produce from our small garden to have the quantity needed at any one time to fill a canner. If you can't process a whole canner full of jars, it's not cost effective. If you have to purchase the produce you can, you are losing money. I doubt that you can compete with the prices of canned goods at Aldi and finding good sales and stocking up. I find home canned foods nutritionally inferior for the time and money you invest to prepare them. By the time people harvest and process produce, nearly half of the vitamins may be lost within a few days unless the fresh produce is cooled or preserved a.s.a.p. Do you have an extra refrigerator for keeping produce while you get enough accumulated to process a whole canner full? The cost of the extra refrigerator and the utilities to run it should also be factored in. The heating process during canning destroys from 1/3 to 1/2 of vitamin A and C, thiamin, and riboflavin. Once canned, additional losses of these sensitive vitamins are from 5 to 20% each year. Do you have a stove you can safely do canning on? Some of the smooth glass-top stoves are not capable of canning (check the user's manual or the manufacturer). In some cases the canners have fused to the surface. Article: Home food preservation may be more expensive than expected. http://apps.caes.uga.edu/gafaces/index.cfm?public=viewStory&pk_id=3499 Article: Cost of Preserving and Storing Food http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/cost-of-preserving-and-storing-food-8-704/ Article: What You Should Know About Preserving Food at Home http://www.uaex.edu/publications/pdf/FSFCS02.pdf --- I'd like to suggest you take the Self-Study Coarse for home canning at the National Center for Home Food Preservation - http://nchfp.uga.edu/  This will help you get a better idea of what you are needing to do for successful and safe home canning. --- I currently do a lot of dehydrating for food storage, which is inexpensive. There is a learning curve for making and using dehydrated foods, and it doesn't appeal to everyone. ---What I would suggest, and what I'm going to do, is to save money and purchase a home-style freeze-dryer like a Harvest Right: https://harvestright.com/#sthash.ENrByuNZ.dpbs I'm hoping there are more companies entering the market and the prices go down. Until then.... I'm saving my money, and these are the ways I save my cash: The 52-week savings plan where you save $1 the first week of the year, $2 the second week, $3, the third week, etc. At the end of the year you have $1,378. If you Google - 52-week savings plans - you will find charts you can copy and follow. I save my $1 bills. I've always saved at least $500 and as much as $1,000 each year. We are "cash" people when it comes to day-to-day spending, and this plan works best if you are. I cut my own hair, and so I REALLY save the money, I budget and pay myself $20 a month - so that's $240 a year added to the Christmas/Emergency Savings Account where my savings are deposited once a month. I'm up for more discussion or questions, so fire away. ;-) -Grainlady

I heartily agree with a recommendation to replace frequently-used incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents. But I cannot recommend the Union of Concerned Scientists. Some of their science and methodology is not well-thought-through, and anyone reading their recommendations would do well to do so with a grain of salt and a fair shot of common sense.