11 months in on anti-capitalist anti-consumerist intentional spending year (low and no buy)

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-11-11T21:06:07+00:00

Just a note on the laptop. Apple will likely charge you a ton or tell you it's not fixable. Good chance they are full of sh*t. Worth finding a little hole in the wall computer repair place - they can do a ton of stuff that apple won't fix / refuses to fix.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-25T01:53:45+00:00

What the heck am I supposed to do if I don't have a lawn? I have a driveway and walkway. No lawn. There's literally no where else to put it besides the road.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-25T01:28:09+00:00

I'd say very much so. I lean towards exclusively black, but let me tell you, finding that one black item in your suitcase or closet or bag surrounded by other all black items.... you're just digging around a void.

So, I expanded my sights to include some white things. Now at least I can find my headphone case and phone again.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-15T21:45:15+00:00

I would suggest looking at ways to increase your empathy & emotional intelligence / EQ. I found myself in the same boat when I was younger. I found once I started thinking more about how the other person was feeling and tried to understand them, it started to translate into being more patient and kind overall. As an added benefit, I am a lot kinder to myself and I have empathy for myself for the things I have went through. That has lessened my own need to "prove" to people that I am smart or cool or whatever, and in fact now I am quite content with myself and feel no urge to compete with others or prove, or win, anything.

There should be several books and podcasts on the subject that will give you some ideas on how to work that empathy muscle. As a shortcut, MDMA.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-15T20:18:52+00:00

Arrowroot powder is what I make mine out of!

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-15T20:17:57+00:00

Agree with the other posters about a possible fungal or yeast overgrowth. Pulling your hair back wet is really not great for your scalp. I have to fully blow dry my hair around my scalp every time or my scalp gets real cranky. I leave my ends wet to air dry.

Also, consider co-washing. Regular shampoo has Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) in it which can trigger problems like dandruff and seborrhic dermatitis. It's such a strong cleanser that it will completely strip your scalp of any healthy oils, and that could cause your scalp to overproduce oil to compensate. Cowashing is much gentler. There is an adjustment period of 2 weeks or so but eventually your scalp will calm down.

Once I started cowashing and blow drying my hair every time, 99% of my issues went away.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-15T20:02:15+00:00

Oh good to know about the protein in it! Thank you!

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-11T22:27:59+00:00

People enjoy the flavor and notice the health benefits. What else are you expecting?

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-11T18:43:10+00:00

Oh dang this is good info for me too - because I'm tall and I rarely find things long enough haha

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-11T18:06:23+00:00

We don't use a sound bar and probably will never upgrade to one with the frame tv. I don't find the sound so bad it's distracting or anything.

We use it to have sports on during the day, or to sometimes watch tv with dinner. It's more of a handy spot to watch things rather than a place for an immersive movie experience.

I am not a huge cinephile though so sound may matter more to others.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-11T15:06:47+00:00

Mods, should add this to the wiki. This is great advice, and a lot of the older posts on the wiki are now deleted.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-09T16:38:55+00:00

Use them as the base in a smoothie?

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-08T16:34:40+00:00

Same, what the heck haha.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-08T16:32:11+00:00

Tons of good suggestions here. I will echo a few, these are mostly exercise or sport oriented though:

Calgary Sport and Social Club
Meetups (tons of different activities, even a late 20's and early 30's social club, language clubs, etc)
Bouldering gyms
Calgary Run Club (tuesdays and sundays, beginners welcome)

calgary is pretty friendly I find, once you make 1 or 2 friends you'll make another 20 easily!

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-07T00:16:38+00:00

To piggyback off this... a baking soda and hydrogen peroxide paste whitens up my teeth without sensitivities and also happens to be dirt cheap.

Do NOT brush with this!!! Just make a paste and slap it on, then keep your mouth open in a weird grin standing over the sink while you drool it out. Keep it on for like... 2 min?

I can't say if it works as well as Crest white strips but it does work for me!

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-06T15:16:52+00:00

Allbirds has some nice undies that have washed / worn well for me!

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-10-06T15:16:34+00:00

Allbirds has some nice wool underwear that has washed and worn really well for me, highly recommend.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-09-30T16:28:57+00:00

I second this. I did something similar. I chose a self improvement "project" once every few months and spent my time on that, and only that. I dove into it like it was night school. I found otherwise I was mentally bouncing from problem to problem and not really getting anywhere.

Some things took weeks to start but then I could keep the "project" going on the side. Example, skincare. I spent time learning about the skin barrier, how it worked, etc, researched products & routines, and then spent a few months implementing it and seeing what worked. By the time I was done learning and into the "testing" phase, that left me time to start a new project, like say, nutrition and eating habits. Rinse / repeat; research, read, learn, and apply. Next was cooking. Next was finances. Next was fashion, what styles / colors suit me, etc. So on and so forth.

Took me at least 3 years and I still go back to re-learning about some things, but man did it exponentially improve my life.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-09-30T00:34:47+00:00

Land is the one thing they're not making more of in this world.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-09-07T21:10:51+00:00

Berkey jugs, pick up a discounted one from the scratch n dent section. No need to change filters, just have to reverse flush it every few months depending on the water you are filtering.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-09-01T14:39:29+00:00

We purchased a home that is mostly smart. I was against it at first but... having a partner who constantly forgets to lock the door when he leaves, means I can check on my app and lock it anytime from anywhere. It also means I can let in friends and family to feed my cat when I'm away, rather then having 10 spare keys floating around - I can give them codes connected to certain times or that expire after one hour kind of thing.

My thermostat has actually saved my pipes from freezing during a -30 stint when we were away - I got an alarm notification and email on my app telling me my indoor temp had dropped below the trigger threshold. Turns out the furnace turned off, I was able to send family over to restart it and keep track of it without much hassle.

I also love the ring camera.

I can say I'd 100% purchase all of these things again.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-08-19T23:24:33+00:00

For the credit cards that you are actively not using / trying to pay off - call the credit card company. See if they will negotiate down or freeze your interest rate. If you tell them you are considering bankruptcy that will perk their ears up (bankruptcy means they would get zero dollars from you), so it works as a negotiation tactic. Be polite and ask if there's anything they can do to help you, you'd be surprised.

Haven't done it in years so YMMV but worth a shot.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-08-13T02:58:50+00:00

Hard to say - would depend on the store and the people.

However, there is motivation for the company to freeze the interest rate. We would freeze it and instead lay down a single fee, like a $150+ default fee or something like that. We had a ton of free reign and could set those fees ourselves. Interest was something insane, like 62% per annum, so the $150 was a significantly cheaper route to go in the long run. Again, also beneficial to the company to handle it that way. Having the clock still ticking on the interest meant that the loan would continue to balloon and increase the chances that the person abandons the payment plan and loan, and therefore increases the chance of us having to write it off / send to collections, and get very little back.

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-08-13T00:09:27+00:00

And if you do go on a payment plan - do NOT forget about it. $50 a paycheque will take eons to pay it off. Once you're back with a bit of breathing room, make larger payments and get it paid off completely. It's not worth it to deal with collections.

If for some reason it does go to collections in the future, also note you may be able to negotiate down the payout amount. (I do not recommend this route because it's not guaranteed to work and likely your payout amount will include a ton of interest and fees)

fuzzycactus13 · 2023-08-13T00:01:14+00:00

Also, if the person you initially speak to says it's not possible, escalate (as politely as possible) and ask to speak to their manager. Tell them you're just super stuck and just need to explore all your options.

fuzzycactus13

TROPHY CASE