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It's a small, small world...

fuzzbean — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 17:05:28 -0800

If you had $1600 USD/mo in after-tax income, absolutely no debt, $15K (US) in savings, and a job that allowed you to work from anywhere in the world with a net connection, where would you live? I'm thinking about moving. I have a job (based in Boston) that I can do from anywhere in the world, as long as I can get an internet connection (wireless or otherwise) for at least 20 hours a week. I have a US passport+citizenship and Canadian citizenship (working on the passport). What cities meet the following criteria?

I can live comfortably (reasonably) on $1600/mo (food and rent+utils+net; nice if I could get an evening out every so often. I'm pretty frugal.)
Easy internet availability
I can get by speaking only English (I could probably pick up enough French to manage in a relatively short time, if I had to.)
I can access a first-world level health care system quickly and easily (this is absolutely a must-I don't plan to need it but it HAS to be there; my family has quirky biology.)
I can get around without a car (either walking or public-transit)
I am reasonably unlikely to be raped, kidnapped, or murdered (skinny white chick here)
Good weather. I left Boston because of the winter, so noplace with worse winters than that. Especially nice would be if there is regular sunshine, not too hot, and you can do stuff outside.

Thus far I've lived in Louisiana and Boston. I've visited NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Ottawa, and Los Angeles. My favorite thus far has probably been Ottawa (except for the weather thing) and Boston (except for the cost-of-living thing and the weather thing). I'm okay with doing a three-months-here, three-months-there transient existence for a while. I looked at this thread and there were some interesting suggestions, but I'd like to see if the hive mind can provide some ideas more applicable to my immediate situation.

Vancouver? Paris? Auckland? Toronto? Bangkok? Dublin? Syndey? London? New Orleans? Give me an itinerary, people!

When to toss canned food out?

Mutant — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 03:50:27 -0800

I've got some food that's past it's "Best Before" dates. Can I safely eat it? I'm a pretty frugal person (except for holidays and such), and purchase most of my "eat in" food in bulk and almost always when it's on sale.

I keep maybe three months worth of dry goods on hand, typically because I've taken advantage of a sale. I rotate stuff pretty well but somehow messed up and now I've got some pasta, canned tomato sauce and fish, all with "Best Before" dates in the May to November 2004 range.

Can I safely eat this stuff? I think the pasta is a no brainer, I'm a little shakey on the tomato sauce, and downright fearful of the fish. It's no big deal if I have to discard, but I'm curious as a couple of times GalPal and I went into a feeding frenzy as the expiration dates approached. We're talking about fourty cans of tomato sauce and the same number of fish.

FWIW, the tomato sauce has those little safety buttons and they are flat (for now).

I need some ideas for Frugal Christmas decorations.

Shoeburyness — Wed, 10 Dec 2003 12:46:23 -0800

I need some ideas for Frugal Christmas decorations. We're quite strapped this year (due to unexpectedly having to move when our landlord sold our rental house out from under us), and buying a tree would mean cutting into the meager budget for the children's presents. We're forgoing presents for ourselves or anyone else, or at least delaying them until the new year when our financial situation will be better. I have lights, ornaments, garland and such from years past, but what can I do with them with no tree to put them on? Does anyone know how I could cheaply make some sort of a tree-like thing for hanging the ornaments on? Or some sort of way to display them? I only want something 3 or 4 feet high that I could put in my bay window.