Dabbling Divas

Do you know how much you spend on groceries each week? Each month? Well the government has an idea as to how much the “average American family” spends. There is an online calculator to try out here. I calculated mine and it was almost $900 a month!! I have NEVER spent $900 a month to my knowledge. Try it out. How much do they think you should spend? Leave a comment and check out our discussion boards.

The thought of Black Friday brings strong emotions to many people. Some are filled with excitement and the thrill of a good deal, while others cringe in horror at the thought of rising at 3AM to fight a horde of people and possibly in up in a fight. For those that are brave enough to attempt Black Friday (and no it’s not really all that bad) here are a few tips to make things run smoother.

1) Check out the sales. You can look at www.bfads.net or others like it for an early glimpse of store sales. Some stores have the sales on their sites or you can wait and pick up a newspaper on Thanksgiving when all of the sales flyers are sent out.

2) Compare prices just like any other time. Determine which sales prices are the best.

3) Get a buddy. It’s always safer to travel in pairs, however, with this season being as tight as it is people may be a little meaner. Keep your cell phone handy and charged in case you and your buddy get separated.

4) Plan your strategy. Which stores open first? Which have a limited product only offer? What order are you going to visit the stores? Make a list of items and prices and what stores they are at.

***Special note for the “While supplies last”. Be prepared to be there first. I noticed a Walmart ad for a flat screen tv for only $398 on Black Friday. The ad audibly said “while supplies last” but the small print at the bottom it said “only 5 per store”. No joke 5 per store. So figure out if it’s worth your time and the stress if you’re not able to get one.

5) Don’t expect to be able to run in and run out. Even if you’re only purchasing one thing you may have to wait to check out. Have fun. Grab a cup of coffee. Expect long lines and a few cranky people. You’re all in the same boat so take a deep breath.

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This isn’t about who you vote for it’s about a woman’s right to vote. Did you know that women didn’t get the right to vote until 1920? The movement started in 1848. “The women’s suffrage movement”
Do you know how much women really suffered because of picketing the White House for the right to vote? I didn’t either until I read this:
Women picketing for the right to vote were arrested and by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden’s blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of ‘obstructing sidewalk traffic.’

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating,choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the ‘Night of Terror’ on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson’s White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women’s only water came from an open pail. Their food–all of it colorless slop–was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

Why is it that you won’t make it to the polls this year?
We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn’t matter? It’s raining?

Last February HBO released the movie ‘Iron Jawed Angels.’
It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that you and I could pull the curtain at the polling booth. Here’s a clip, I have to warn you it is disturbing.YouTube – Iron Jawed Angels- Psych Ward/Force Feeding

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