Joseph asks…
What to do about AC and Electricity Usage?
We live in Hawaii but are originally from NC, so we’re used to hot, humid springs and summers. We’re also used to running central AC constantly. When we moved here, we turned on our central AC like we would have back home. The 1st month’s bill wasn’t too bad, but it was only for half the month. The next 2 bills shot up to $350-400. Those bills stated we were using about 1400 kwh electricity.
So, since we’re close to the beach, we have a pretty good breeze running through the house, so we opened the windows, bought some standing fans, and turned the AC completely off. We had no way whatsoever to pay a $350 utilities bill every month. So, for the most part, it works. It’s not humid like it is back home, so we’re ok. The hottest it can get in the house, on a breeze-free day, is 80-82. Right now, I’m fine and it’s probably 75ish.
The only problem I have with this setup, is the amount of dust, dirt, and hair in my house. We have a dog and cat, both who shed of course. We have grass in our small backyard so it helps the dog not to track in a lot of dirt, but my husband and our roommate track in dirt from work everyday on their combat boots (they’re in the army).
We have dark wood in our living room and within a day or two, it’s COVERED in dust. It’s insane. Same thing with the floor. There is dust, dog hair, and dirt everywhere within 2-3 days. I have to sweep and vacuum at least every 4-5 days. We’re planning on getting some area rugs, but that doesn’t make me feel any better knowing it’ll just be trapped in the carpet. We have all tile floors, bedroom and bathrooms too. I hate these floors so much. They’re stained a reddish brown b/c of the Hawaiian red mud everywhere and I’m always sweeping and vacuuming and it’s still always dirty, so I don’t even bother to scrub out the red stains anymore. It’s a nightmare of a cleaning to do and I’d have to do it several times a week.
My question is, since we have no way to run the central AC for cooling purposes since it’s so expensive, and the floor fans push the dust around so much, would it be worth it to try to set the AC to “fan only” for a little while and let it clean the air? Would it still be ok on price (Hawaii’s electric costs are 3x the mainland’s O_o) to do it? We’re on an enlisted soldier’s salary so we don’t have money to go out and buy a HEPA air filter/air purifier. And those are only for one room anyway.
We can’t close the windows and turn off the fans or we’d roast. But all this dust is triggering my husband’s migraines again and I can feel my sinuses all swollen right at this moment. Even the dog has been sneezing! I use swiffer dusters, but I’m planning on buying some Pledge cleaner this afternoon to see if it helps.
Anyway, would the “fan only” setting on the central AC work on purifying the air but in a cost efficient manner? If not, any ideas on what in the world to do until we can move out of this god-awful state and back home?
admin answers:
We have the same dust, & dog-hair problems in our house, too; and we live in North Carolina. We got an upright hepa filter and fan from a free-cycle trading program online in our local area. It was practically new, and was free. We run our 2 window air conditioners fan-only, a lot and it helps with the dust problems. The 2 dogs (Boxers) carry in dirt & mud on their paws, and shed and throw dander all around, and the cars on the gravel road doesn’t help either. As long as the A/C compressors aren’t running and ‘cooling the house, the fans don’t use much electricity. My wife has to vacuum every day, and she uses the ‘Orange Glo’ {for wood floors} – concentrate) -not the spray bottle – with her Swiffer mop at least twice a week. It treats the wood and looks great and doesn’t cause you to fall on your butt like pledge would do if you used it on the floor. ‘Endust’ works much better than Pledge for furniture. Year round, my Electric bill is flat $98.00/month, and I pay the diff in month 12 Last year I got some back. Set some rules for the soldiers; like ‘No boots on in the house”
Oh my, the problems one has when living in paradise. (Just Kidding) When I became disabled, I lived with my Active Duty Air Force MsSgt. Son and family in Texas. His Electric bill there was sometimes 800.00/month. Hod dusty semi desert in San Angelo. (Back home now, in NC, though)
Papaw
Maria asks…
Will redundancy affect Tax Credits?
I’ve just been told I’m being made redundant in November after 12 years. I am a single mum of 3 children and work 3 days a week and earn £15k a year. My youngest child is in nursery whilst I am at work so I get almost £1k a month in tax credits, but more than half of that goes on nursery fees. I live week to week and have no savings.
I have been advised that I will receive approximately £7k redundancy (tax free), £3k in lieu of notice (taxable), and a retention payment of around £3k (tax free) if I stay until the end and assist with the handover to the company we are outsourcing to. Obviously this will hugely affect my annual earnings.
Problem is if I estimate my annual earnings now and call Tax Credits, they will vastly cut my weekly payment and I will not be able to live.
On the other hand, if I don’t tell them, I’ll have been overpaid and will pay for it next year.
Is there anything in place for people who are being made redundant so that it will not affect their benefits? I don’t expect something for nothing, I have always worked for a living, and the plan always was to go back work full time after my youngest child was at school, therefore taking me out of the benefits system forever, but this redundancy has scuppered that! It just seems really unfair if the people out there who are married get to walk away with a nice lump sum, but I won’t get to see any of mine as my benefits will be adjusted to take this into account.
Also, I need to get a smaller car which I have estimated will be £2k (but more economical on fuel and road tax than what I have now), and I have approximately £4.5k of debts which my ex husband left me with when he walked out. If I declare my gross earnings, tax credits will drop, I’ll pay off my debts, and have no money left, but no benefits to fall back on!
I’m in a quandary and hoping someone can shed some light. :/
admin answers:
I will take your word that the retention bonus is tax free. This will be the case assuming this payment is not a contractual entitlement.
The tax free element of your payment (ie the £10k from the redundancy and retention payments) does not count as “earnings” or “income”, so it will not affect your entitlement to tax credits. Although once its in your bank account it does count as savings so will affect entitlement to other benefits.
I’m also not sure why you are getting pay in lieu of notice, if you are also staying until the end of your contract? Surely this is your notice period, so you are in fact simply getting paid for the work you are doing in the normal way? Even if I have misunderstood, the £3k does count as income, but its relatively small, even if you find another job straight away so don’t have a break in income.
I assume you are getting Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit. Child Tax Credit does depend on your income, but you can still get it even if you are not working. In fact, you might get more! It is also not affected by any savings. Working Tax Credit requires you to be working for at least 16 hours per week. So if you lose your job and don’t get another one then this payment will stop entirely. The childcare element is part of this credit, so if you lose your job you will lose this money. Overall you might lose over half the total tax credit money if you lose your job and don’t get another one.
Practically, you don’t need to tell tax credits anything until you have actually lost your job, because nothing changes until then, and your entitlements to what you are getting now continue until then. And, as I said, its unlikely that your total income for tax credit purposes will be affected that much.
You also have debts to pay off. So you can legitimately clear those, which will use up a lot of your lump sum payments. I believe that the savings cut-off for most benefits is £6k. So if you pay off your debts you will still have some of the money left over, but not enough to affect any of your benefits. Similarly, if you spend some on a new car you will be doing something worthwhile with the cash and at the same time not affecting benefits.
Also, you might want to consider whether staying until the end is worth it just to get a £3k retention bonus. You are getting £12k a year in tax credits. If you can’t get another job that will fall by £6k. But if you have an opportunity to get another job sooner, you will lose the £3k but keep the £6k. I think I know what I would do! Obviously the best option is to get another job that starts just after you leave the current one with all the payments, but this might not be possible.
Ken asks…
Is my girlfriend lazy ( im not being a ahole this really is a question)?
*Sorry its so long guys, just really frustrated at venting i guess…
My chick and I have been dating for a couple of years on and off. We recently moved to a new city and state to raise our 1st kid. Before we moved the plan set. She was supposed to have our son, take a few months off work and put him in daycare so that she could get a gig to help out with the stuff that we’ll need because of our kid. It will also free up some of my money so that we can get a new car by the beggining of next year. She had no problems taking up the responsibilities of the house work when we were making this plan before we moved. Now that were in the new place it seems like if something needs to be done, I have to tell her. I’m not a super OCD neat freak but when I’ve been at work all day it would be nice to come home to a clean kitchen if not a hot meal. Heck, I’ll take one of the two even! She dosent wake up until after 12 on most days and she NEVER wakes up before 10am on any occasion, and she has never ever in life made the bed after she gets up. I work really hard to make sure that we have the things that we need as a young family, but recently I have been having an attitude because I feel that she is getting comfortable and complacent, and expects me to do most of the house work and keep the bills paid. If I dont do i, it wont get done, or it will be a half a** job when left up to her. She is a suburban Philly girl and I’m a cajun Louisianian, so I dont want her to feel like I’m trying to turn her into a “Southern house wife”- yes, she has accused me of trying to maker her one before, I just want her to share a little more of the responsibilities; she is at home all day every day why not suprise me and actually clean our 640 sq/ft apartment. I mean its not like this huge a** mansion you know?
Ok, thats not even the wrost part, so yea she had our kid like 3 months ago and she has shed some pounds but she still has a ways to go. Instead of being a a**hole I try to do and say things like how about lets all go for a walk. We live in a cool safe neigborhood thats easily accesible to a ton of cool stuff, and its South Texas so we’re still in short sleeves weather. She agrees but after we walk like a block shes all like “can u carry the baby carrier now”. I mean I want to be there to help but alot of the times I feel l like she needs me to help her with EVERYTHING, I just want her to be a little more self sufficient, be more proactive and take more INITIATIVE to get her self back into shape and also start looking into getting a gig. That being said, she is now debating weather or not she wants to even go back to work because she says she wants to start on a book or some sort of playwrite and get it published and cuz she says she dosent trust daycares. I feel like she’s talented enough to do it but she lacks the discipline that it takes to work at home, mainly because she dosent do much of anything now besides play with the baby, nap, and play xbox. Everytime I try to tell her how I feel she gets super offended and says stuff like, “I clean up behind you all time, I just picked up your work socks by the bed!” and ” I feel like you dont think I’m good enough for you!” and ” If I brought up all the crap that bothers me about you we would always be arguing” Shes so extra that it turns into a huge clusterf*ck argument everytime I bring it up. If I didnt think she was good enough I would never ave gotten with her, I mean I graduated h.s and got my bachelors degree by 20,she dropped out of hs and got her ged at 20 and yet we’re together still. I want us to work out but Im afraid her lack of hard work, messyness, and all out lack of hygiene some times grosses me out. We have not been intimate in about 5 months and Im startig not to even careabout having sex- with her that is.
I want us to work out especially since we both have altered our lives to be together. I know shes not intentionally taking advantage of me but I sometimes wonder…
P.S Shes not depreseed or postpartum or anything like that, besides the issues I mentioned above we have a pretty open relationship so we talk about stuff like that and have family time atleast twice a week. She’s alot happier than I am I can tell you that. Shes a really good mommy but outside pregnancy and giving birth she’s never had to work hard in her life, I’m afraid I might resent her if things dont get better.
***I didnt mention our education background to suggest that I am “better” than her. It was meant to convey the fact that she dosent commit herself to hardwork or anything demanding and she quits when things get hard. She is a brilliant, intelligent woman, but I feel that she dosent push herself hard enough. The same is not said for how she takes care of our kid…i think.
We take turns feeding him throught the night,so he’s not up crying while shes sleep ofcourse. And hes a baby so he sleeps most of the day anyway. She may wake up to stick the bottle in his mouth and change him but she dosent get out of the bed to do either. My point is he sleep a ton why not get some work done while he’s sleeping? It dosent have to be the work that I want done it can be something that she NEEDS to do like take a shower, or atlest start on this book that she claims she wants to write. So take it easy on me ladies
admin answers:
You may not recognize her behavior as depression, but I think it is. This could possibly have been avoided if she had breast-fed the baby (it promotes bonding). Come to think of it, if she’s staying at home, why isn’t she breast-feeding the baby?! Also, if she stays home then she needs to do ALL of the baby-care at night and let you sleep.
That said, the best advice I ever got for after the baby comes is “when the baby sleeps, you sleep.”
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT leave any of your mess for her to clean up (like your socks). A housewife/stay-at-home-mom is NOT THE MAID!
Honestly, do you really think nagging will help? If the tables were turned, how would you feel about being nagged? It sounds like you need “marriage” counseling.
David asks…
I want to become an actress in Hollywood?
Yes, I know what your thinking.. I’ve heard it a million times 
Here’s the story ladies and gents:
I’m 17 years old and have wanted to be an actress for as long as I can remember. Over the past 7 years I’ve participated in various acting classes and have had supporting, as well as a few lead, roles in theater productions in my area.
Next year, I am starting university. I’m going to get my Bachelor of Arts in Drama which will take 3 years to complete, and I’m studying at a specialized Film and Theater University that is a full member of CILECT (Meaning all degrees are internationally recognized).
By the time I’ve finished university I will have starred in at least 30 student films (It’s required that you star in at least 30 before completing your degree, and the people studying Directing need to use people studying drama for their student films).
Throughout university I plan to audition for anything happening in my area, as well as save up around $3 000 so I can pay a few months rent when I move to Hollywood while I look for a job (not necessarily an acting job – I’m not that naive to think I’ll be discovered in 2 months).
Throughout university I also plan to take various short courses in nails, beauty and secretarial jobs so that, when I move to Hollywood, I can find a job earning more money than say, a waitress.
I will also need to organise a working Visa because I am not American.
So here’s a few questions I hope you can shed some light on:
-Will I be able to use parts of my student films in a demo reel? Or does a demo reel have to consist of only paying jobs?
-Is it better to become an established actor in this country before moving on to Hollywood? It may seem obvious that the answer is yes, but the clock is always ticking and every year spent not in Hollywood is another year older. And we all know what happens to old actors who aren’t established in Hollywood, yeah?
-Speaking realistically, how long do you estimate it will take before I get paid for acting? Now, I’m not talking about multi-million dollar deals and lead roles, I’m talking more like small roles in independant movies. Obviously there are a lot of variables, but is it realistic for me to give myself a time limit – Say, 5 years, before packing up and moving back home? I would stay as long as possible, providing I can financially support myself.
I hope you can see that I’m very, very serious about this and I’m willing to be a ‘nobody’ in Hollywood for as long as it takes. I’m not fooled by the perceived glamor and money – I want to be a serious actress and I’m willing to devote the rest of my life to perfecting my craft.
If anyone has any tips, or if there’s anything I’ve left out that you think would help me, please feel free to share.
I’m sorry this has been such a long read, but I felt it necessary to give as much background information as possible.
Thank you for the answer Sumon3, but judging by the content of your reply I think it’s safe for me to assume you did not read my question at all.
admin answers:
Self belief and applying yourself.
The first thing you should concentrate on is seeing your battle not based on the outcome but your victory in simply going to battle.
May sound a bit wanky but here’s an example:
Today I was at my local market and their was a film crew filming a new cop show – totally didn’t expect it. I don’t have an agent at the moment, didn’t have a resume or headshot with me but didn’t want the opportunity to pass me by either. So I approached some crew who weren’t busy and asked if it world be possible to speak with the ad (assistant director).
We chatted for a little while and I gave her my details I wrote down on the back of a card. She said she would pass my details on.
Whether she does or not is completely outside of my control – that doesn’t matter I won by applying myself. Losing would have been walking away and living with “what if? If only”.
DraMuse, here because you need it 
Lizzie asks…
INQ Chat 3g or Blackberry Curve 3g?
Which one should I get? I basically use my phone a lot to take photos (so good pic quality is definitely high on the list), twitter, skype, facebook, blog and surf the internet. I also call overseas quite a bit, which I can probably use skype credit for… (thus skype is quite important) I don’t use that much standard/local calls or text so it’s not really an issue to get unlimited calls to 3 or Vodafone in my plan.
INQ Chat 3g on 3 Network (Australia)
(minimum cost $456)
$19 for 24 months
Add $5 for unlimited skype to skype calls and 100 minute international calls
$70 included value
Included100MB data
Includes $70 calls to 3 or Vodafone
3.2mp camera
No wifi
Free unlimited Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Linkedin & Myspace
Link: http://shop.three.com.au/mobile-details/INQ-Chat-Postpaid
Blackberry Curve 3g on Vodafone (Australia)
(minimum cost $696)
$29 for 24 months
Free $10 blackberry email and internet browsing for first 12 months
$180 included value (includes standard and international calls)
Included 200MB data
Unlimited calls to 3 or Vodafone
2mp camera
Has wifi function
Link: http://shop.vodafone.com.au/mobile-details/BlackBerry-Curve-9300
Can anyone shed some light on this? You might point out something I’ve missed! ^^ Thanks a lot~
admin answers:
Well there a lot of good phones out there that have a better quality camera on them. Many phones now come with 5-8. There are many unlocked phones that you can purchase from MobiCity and you will probaby find some phones that better fit your wish list.
Http://www.mobicity.com.au
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