Comments by "Kimberly C" (@kimberlyc84) on "Glorious Life On Wheels"
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There really needs to be a differentiation between a rant and a passionate presentation. You are definitely not ranting. Usually rants are confusing, rage-filled, and eventually get to a state of being unintelligible, bordering on gobbledygook and gibberish. I have heard neither gobbledygook nor gibberish.
We have been at a level of misinformation, disinformation, and outright deceit since the beginning of time. It has increased and gotten progressively worse with the instantaneous influx of "helping mankind." Okay, but what happened to teaching people to fish instead of giving away the fish without accountability?
Re: unaccompanied children (meaning no lineage has to be proven), I am required to enroll children IMMEDIATELY. No immunizations required (they have 30 days), no history, put immediately into housing. Yet, I make $1 a month too much to qualify for food stamps. Make it make sense.
Now, for you, Carol.
You give clear opinions, specific examples, and a disclaimer if you're not sure of something.
That's three things more than what is usually touted during an election campaign. If you can't provide something, you say it.
If you don't know enough about something, you say it.
I am proud to say not ONCE have I seen you do jazz hands!😂 (My life is great! If everyone were as perfect as me, they too could live in the land of butterflies & rainbows🤪...which brings me to the sponsor of this video...for so many years, I lived without butterflies and rainbows...but since I've been (you name it) drinking liquid tin foil...hitting my thumb w a hammer...eating mudpies every day...my life has been just filled with butterflies & rainbows!
So order your liquid tin foil, remote controlled hammer, or mudpie mix from Butterflies & Rainbows & use my code to get 2% off within the next 24 hours. Hurry! Before this humongous opportunity passes by🙄
I appreciate if you have reviewed something, you give your honest pros and cons.
And the fact that that item may work better for someone else is left up to that person.
You've helped more people with this channel in 4 yrs than some who have been in voted into positions of 'Service' for decades at a time.
Now, you just turn to your mirror, tip one of those gorgeous hats, and give yourself a bow!
😎🚐☁️☁️
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Yes! Thank you for noting that! I was getting a little discouraged because I've been looking for ANYTHING less expensive than the $1700+ rents I'm seeing. My mort is $1200, but our acreage is being rezoned for townhomes starting at $500k and the anchor 3-acre lot was just bought for $700k. I'm about 40 miles east of Atlanta. 10 yrs from retirement in my public school system and I've revamped my retirement contributions as much as possible to pay off student loans quicker (yeah...not everybody qualifies for the public workers forgiveness stuff), kids are military so, basically, nomads themselves.
It was my nephew and new family that is making this make more sense.
He's on a 20 month wait list for base housing. The stipend for off base housing is miniscule when you're budgeting like crazy, the school systems are less than optimal (esp if people don't show up...like the TEACHER🤦♀️), and your kids are smart off the charts because of homeschooling. When sending your children to a formal school dumbs them down, that is NOT a good thing.
So he was gifted an RV by a relative. The husband is no longer able to drive and wife is also incapacitated..they relocated west and found a tiny home community.
He's now got a 2 1/2 bedroom (the loft is the "1/2" separate shower, toilet (so no waiting for the shower), eating kitchen, learning room, family room, propane & electric all total comes to less than &600/month including lot rental.
They have an electric car for him to head to work. She drives the Midsize SUV for local runs and they tow it when they take vacations.
This is the most beautiful thing I've seen. He's finishing it out little by little with items from the Habit for Humanity ReStore (over 700 locations nationwide 😊) and they're able to save like never before!
Simple ideas that work for each person will always be the best option.
🎉
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Before my daughter left for college, I found & signed us up for a self-defense class that was facilitated by a female police officer (she was also a black belt). It was an hour long class held at a church one afternoon.
She gave some great tips, and moves for everyone from the youngest most agile to older people that might have mobility challenges.
It was really a good class. Although I can't remember everything, there are some definite moves and strategies that stuck with me.
I would suggest Googling something like "free self defense class near" whatever zip codes you're near.
Know how to change your tire. (I didn't say you'd always HAVE to do it, but know HOW to do it.
Learn basic parts under the hood (like the difference between the oil dipstick and the trani dipstick (if you even have one FYI: sealed tranis have a plug instead of a dipstick) so no one can throw out random "car jargon" and start "taking charge."
I have had a 16" breaker bar sheath (a hollow metal pipe that can be used to leverage over lug wrench when the blasted lug nuts are torqued too tight🙄.
My dad gave it to me when I got my license in '86. It fits right in my drivers side slot between the door jamb and the seat. Hasn't slipped in any of my cars and I've only used it once...but Im not afraid to use it again.
I also keep "reinforcement" sharpened and easily accessible. My key ring has pepper spray on it (just be mindful if you are going into a courthouse to leave it. (our tax office is in the same building so I know to leave it behind or the deputies won't let me in through the scanners)
I keep a tazer in my car right in front of my gear shift cubby. I got a combo at Academy Sports.
I researched reviews and both come in the same packaging for about $25 total.
My pepper spray is aqua and my tazer is hot pink and charges via usb.
I test it every month (not on living things, but to at least see the spark).
My best friend is an IT tech and he says that for charging phones, if you're going to use a port at a rest stop or waiting for tire/repair where it offers the plug.or a port, plug in a wall adapter, use the wall adapter with your plug. It creates a "break" in the direct access to your phone. It doesn't always happen, but if you use the direct port it opens a vulnerability to your information on your phone. If you ever have to be out of your vehicle and in a hotel for some reason, where they have the USB ports on the nightstand, use your plug/adapter. Hotels are PRIME for data breaches. And by now we've all gotten at least one letter from some place we went to EONS ago stating that our information had been breached...gee, thanks for letting me know...decades later 🤦♀️
If I'm walking out of a store first and there's a 'viber' (someone who makes my conscience think twice, even for a split second TRUST YOUR INTUITION!) and especially if they are double timing your steps, I'll either step to the left/right, whichever has more room, immediately and let them pass me by and not think anything of it or I will turn around immediately and go right back into the store. I'll step over to the side and watch where they go.
I also get my $$ and grocery bags situated BEFORE leaving the store. Especially if I'm coming from a store like Aldi's (or I guess Sam'sCostco type places, too. Places where it's not unusual to not have grocery bags.)
Aldi doesn't provide grocery bags unless you buy them. I can't tell you how many times I see women who will have their baby in the shopping cart, and then they have a cart full of disorganized groceries, they get to their car, put up their back hatch to start loading and rearranging.
You can get empty boxes of all sizes for free that they have for the customers and you can situate all of your items BEFORE you leave the store. That way you can just put it right into your car or your van, return your cart, then put the baby in the car and leave.
I've seen cars that just drive through grocery parking lots and I get the distinct feeling they're there shopping for victims.
Before you head out of the grocery store, step to the side and look out. Look to your left and your right to see what you might be dealing with as well. Have your keys out even if your car has a passive entry (where you just touch the handle to open.). I'd rather be able to set off the alarm than be shoved into my car.
If I think of other things I've developed a habit of & that I've learned, I'll post again.
~Safe wishes for all of us
🚗☁️☁️
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We've had a standalone shopping supermarket that closed about 12 years ago.
On the other side of the parking lot is a Goodwill, a Chinese food restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, and a hair supply store. That's it.
Big rigs used to be able to park there overnight just to get some rest.
There is a waffle house that stands alone within walking distance on the other side, about 500 ft away
The parking lot was never trashy, always tidy, never overrun, and the trucks usually stayed at the far end by the closed supermarket.
They didn't take up any parking spots at the waffle House or the Goodwill at all. Even before the pandemic.
Now, at least a third of the parking lot has been fenced off. There's still room enough for at about 5-7 big rigs to park horizontally and not take up any space away from the Goodwill parking or the waffle House parking. But it is more noticeable.
But now they can no longer Park overnight. And the WM one block away does not allow them to park overnight. It is across the street from a huge apartment complex where there are consistent evictions.
I do EVERYTHING to avoid that WM. There is consistent trash all over the parking lot, loud music, the store has a "garage" floor (NO tiles now for over 5 yrs), just an unpleasant environment all around.
I have a 10x better experience at the Goodwill parking lot than at the WM.
Imagine if that closed down supermarket would split into a place to get a shower, maybe work and have some wi-fi, get a decent meal, and just a place to rest... But I guess that would be too much like right. It's just going to continue to be an abandoned supermarket, I guess 🤷♀️
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We are definitely not alone! After a 21 year tumultuous marriage, I made my Exodus. (Please, no "I should have just left, I'm an Id10t, I'm weak, etc..just save it 🙄). Everything that had been agreed upon, including him selling the marital home and getting all of the vehicles except one etcetera was not adhered to.
I had one of the marital cars and it broke down 60 mi from my 3rd attempted rental, with my daughter in it.
I have been researching reliable affordable cars on my school clerk salary and I found a 2009 vehicle for under $10,000 with a payment and jumped on it. I then use my little prepaid legal from my job and apply for bankruptcy to get out from under the legal obligation of the home that he was supposed to sell and he would keep all the proceeds from. Instead he let it go into foreclosure and it still had my name attached to it.
I excluded my car from the bankruptcy and when I got in front of the hearing officer, he looked at it, flipped the paper over, and asked me where are the rest of my debts..
I said I don't have any. I said I paid my portion of the bills. I said but nothing was in my name except that house and I have to get out from the financial obligation because ex has not paid on it for 4 months and he's not going to.
I had worked with NACA for about a year to try and I did succeed in getting the interest rate lowered. But you have to not pay for 3 months, be 3 months behind for their plan to work. So you have to trash your credit for them to seem like they're coming to the rescue.
No way. I paid the payments on time and after 9 months I was able to get it reduced from the predatory interest of 10% down to 6%. Hubs still didn't think that was good enough. More abuse followed. So it was time for me to go.
The day that bankruptcy discharged, what's the day that the house went up for auction on the courthouse steps.
He proceeded to bash me online about me abandoning the situation etc.
The day that the house is being sold was the day that I was undergoing a double mastectomy for breast cancer.
He had no clue.
I had never felt more free, more alive, then when all these situations came to a head.
I was also fighting for the $300 a month child support for two children... Total, but $300 for two children...... that's $9/day....38 cents an hour...the price of a an overpriced cup of coffee.
I applied for and received an unsecured credit card and put my water bill, $30 on it, ONLY. With this, and the car, I was able to rebuild my credit. All food was through food pantries for three yrs.
The bankruptcy gave me such a sense of failure. But when I went back in my journals and I saw the times that when I would deposit money for bills he would take it out and buy things like scuba gear, and go to places without me like clubs, while I'm taking groceries back to the store because he had taken money out and was going to bounce the account, it wasn't anything that was my fault.
I utilize free counseling and it took me awhile, but I came to grips with the fact that people are going to do what they're going to do but not everything is my fault.
I'm a cookie home-r too, have taken my lunch and breakfast now for the past 32 years, can I have 9 years to full retirement from my elementary school Clerk position..
I will let you know though, if you have grandchildren that go to an elementary school, and you're close enough to eat lunch with them, the teacher bar has some pretty good selections! Can you get a choice of between two entrees, full salad bar, baked potato, or a sweet potato, fruit sides, veggie sides, lemonade, sweet or unsweetened tea all this for $4! It used to be $3 for the past 18 years but inflation...🤔 I let all the grandparents an older relatives know. And they don't have to get a full lunch. Imagine getting a baked potato with all the toppings, a side salad that you fix yourself, and a drink, those count as 40 cents a piece/a la carte! $1.20 for a full meal!
They get a chance to visit with their grandchildren, and they get a good filling meal.😊
Just another option to think about.
~Best to all!
🚗☁️☁️
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We have quite a few co-ops here.
They used to restrict You by ZIP code, but since the pandemic, every Tuesday when I'm coming home from school, I can see the line around the corner of people waiting in their cars for a box of food.
They are absolutely the best thing that ever happened.
It hurts my heart when they run low. I just remember how much they helped me when I made my Exodus with my kids having to start over.
At that time, they were renting the corner of a church parking lot in a double wide trailer.
They were able to assist with up to $150 toward a bill BUT you had to come with the rest of the money if your bill was over that.
And they made you get the utility company on the phone right then and there and you had to come with your portion, if it was a check, they made you get on the phone with the bank right then and there to make sure that it would not bounce, or if you had the remainder of the money, you have to count it out right then and there.
My daughter's and son's Scout troops did service projects where they collected toys or dolls, or something year-round and toiletries and they prepared birthday boxes in accordance with ages.
So when we were going through our transition and their birthdays came around, they also gave to us.
About 9 years ago, they were able to purchase a 3-acre plot of land, and build a brick and mortar building where they also have a community garden.
The building is a lot more secure than the trailer was.
And I am so proud to say that within 3 months of them moving in, they were able to burn the mortgage!
They had been saving & serving for well over 25+ yrs in the trailer until they could build a secure location.
Lots of the kids also volunteer there to add to their community service hours for scholarships. I often see military reservists helping out as well.
A food pantry might be able to help. Some churches also might have food give aways throughout the month.
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I don't have heated seats, but before I saved enough in Receipt Hog and Fetch points, I bought snazzy unique oversized tee shirts (thrift store had best prices and beautiful selection) and popped off the headrest, slipped it right over, tuck the arms, then replaced the headrest.
I also put a fleece remnant (although there are plenty of full size fleece throws on clearance) on the seat to keep me toasty while I'm heading out in the morning.
I keep my vents closed so the cold air isn't flowing in.
I also keep a Dollar tree set of gloves, earmuffs (there are thin ones now), sunglasses (you KNOW nobody actually cares if there's an M.K. glued to the frame, right??🙄), and socks (ever stepped out into an invisible puddle... it's horrible 😵💫). All take up very minimal space and come in handy when I'm freezing!
With all the construction around my area, I have also resorted to putting a pair of slip-on jeggings and a pullover top in a small packing cube & putting it under my seat.
I'm not the only one who has discovered a flat tire from the ongoing parking lot construction (which started two years ago...and is STILL ongoing🙄).
But I seem to be the only one who knows how to change my tire. (Although I have AAA, the wait is always over an hour after 4 when we get out of school.)
I can change my tire in 30 mins and then get to a Discount Tire for them to either patch it or replace it free before they close. WM around me usually stops taking at around 3...good help is almost non existent! Fix-a-flat is my last resort.
I saw something online called "second skin" to add as a layer to the headliner in the car. It says that it's supposedly cuts down on your cool air escaping more... I'm going to look into exactly what it is and see if I can make my own.
I read that blasting the AC can reduce fuel economy by more than 25%.
I'm not sure if this second skin is intended to go underneath the headliner. I have no intention of ripping mine off but maybe I can create some kind of 'barrier' using magnets that are strong enough to adhere through the car headliner as an extra layer.
I also make sure I keep my hatchback cover thing is in tact. It seems to reduce the heat back there. (At least until this horrible ATL heat kicks in🫠)
This is so inspiring even if you're not a van lifer!🎉🎉
~Thank you.
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Ooohhh!!
Thank you so much for this! This is what I was thinking of doing. But most of the people I speak with tell me it's either all or nothing. Says who?
I am less than 10 years from two pensions at the public school system I work in. I work in the front office doing the scheduling, county, state, and federal compliance, discipline entries, SpEd, ELL, graduation credits, etc. So I work through the summers. But I do get to take vacation time at different intervals throughout the year in addition to the spring and winter breaks.
My last little birdie just flew the nest. I am decluttering and downsizing.
Builders are knocking down trees left and right and encrouching on our acreage. I've put up the good fight but I cannot fight the freeway.
So what I thought about doing was, if I am forced to move sooner than later, I would find a smaller, maybe already established home with a short commute to my job, but further away from the urban sprawl. But I would look into a comfortable motor option to take extended school breaks up to the mountains where I intend to retire. Maybe stake out a couple of areas that I haven't been to yet to see how things are at different times of the year.
~You are truly a blessing! I love how you give so many options for this choice of living!
🚐☁️☁️
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I recently saw a news story of a gentleman who took about $19k of his own money, bought land, went through all the hoops for zoning & was approved.
He built about 20 tiny homes, partnered with job resources, etc. to help people get back on their feet.
The community housed about 50 people, families combined, single and couple, etc.
Then, within the year, some councilman, or mayor, came around and actually had them all towed away and destroyed. Saying that it violated some kind of ordinance.
So giving people dignity, a place to stay, and resources, is a violation of an ordinance??
Yet that head honcho didn't have any other viable solution other than to put those people back under a bridge or out in the open on a sidewalk...BRILLIANT😕
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Our school district, in accordance with the McKinney-Vento Act and No Child Left Behind criteria defines homeless students are those who "lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence."
This is my 19th year as a registrar at my elementary school.
I always wonder, then, if a family does not pay rent but they find permanent shelter with a relative, if they can still be considered homeless. The answer is yes. So we have had people that have registered their children starting in kindergarten who are now in 5th grade who every year apply as homeless and are accepted as that status and they are residing with Grandma or an aunt.
The status automatically entitles them to free lunch as well as other resources.
I do have issues though with those that are milking the system as homeless.
If you have been residing with someone specifically five or more years, I find it hard to believe that you are homeless.
They are not doubled up, the situation is more than acceptable, and they have no intention of leaving.
There are also subcategories such as doubled up, hotel / motel, vehicle, or unhoused.
It just seems unfair to those who are truly homeless. (House fire, job loss, couch surfing, etc.)
Just my opinion.
🚗☁️☁️
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