Let's play a mind game.

You are given a prepaid Visa card with $10,000 on it. It comes with rules. You can't use it put money in the bank, or to pay off any existing debt - you must spend it on merchandise not services.

What do you buy?

I'm pretty boring in my plan:

New Oven $1500
New Dryer $ 500
In-Home Oil/Wood Furnace $5,000
New Old Pickup Truck $2000
Drip Irrigation Supplies including hoseline and pressure tank $1000

Off the top of my head, I would buy:

New aircleaner for Motorcycle : $ 50.00
Swamp cooler for house : $600.00
Water Pump for Cooler : $120.00
Lumber and Duckting for cooler: $100.00
Steak and beer for friends
and family to istall
swamp cooler : $ 50.00
Used Pickup Truck : $1500.00
Firewood : $1000.00
Food and clothing for a friend
And his family : $6580.00

The last one is all I could think of for the remainder of the money.

-Joe

Ammunition.

Pay off credit cards - $6000
Small nest egg - $2000 (roughly one month salary)
Uh... I dunno for the rest. Downpayment on new (used) car? Fix my current one? Engagement ring? A bunch of Surefires?

Re-Read the rules

Since we can't live w/out water I would expand my current water system.


- 2x 2500g Water Tanks & Plumb (one on a 10' platform, so material to build this.. concrete, and decking, I have the beams) $2500

- Add a 2nd pressure tank $500

-Extend my deck to cover entrance to basement, and repair other parts of my dcek. - $2000

- Purchase & Adapt/Setup new to me diesel generator. $4000

- Diesel storage tank & transfer to genny tank. $1000

That is of coarse assuming I finish the inside of my house soon... if not I'd spend $5k to do the upstairs bathroom (GUTTED now).

Then just do the water and deck covering for now.

3M security/solar films for all our windows. At $6-$9 per square foot there probably wouldn't be much left over.

Hmm, hopefully there'd be $600 or so left for a new suit.

-Blast

I would use some of it towards getting some of the firearms (and accessories/ammunition) that I've always wanted, but have put on the back burner.

The rest would go towards living expenses during the school year. i.e. Paying for rent, paying for food, paying for gas, ect.

A sapphire-platinum ring.

If keeping it in cash was not an option, then I would use any unspent amounts to purchase pre-1965 U.S. coins, often called "junk silver." Pre-1965 coins are 90% silver. A bag with coins having a face value of $1,000 is the standard size sold and would probably cost about $12K right now.

Otherwise, a pre-1974 pickup truck and parts would be high on my wish list.

Jeep stuff!!! Mainly, a cargo rack ($1000), a small lift kit ($1500), a decent set of tires ($1000). From there, likely some ammo (we'll say $500 worth, to keep it even). I live in an apt building, so I cannot build up my home base...likely spend the rest on gold, I suppose.

* Get some care packages together for my ill-prepared family members with food supplies, guns/ammo, etc
* Get our pickup truck and work vehicles in tip-top shape
* Take a trip

Other than that, there is nothing I really want or need right now. Life is good.

you say we can't use it to pay off debts, but can we use it as a down-payment on a new item? or would that be too close to cheating?
Volkswagon or Volvo stationwagon.
new house

or:
Adventurbilt Deluxe in beaver felt with a Kingdom bash. $400
G&B goatskin Expedition $500
Tilly Endurables T4 $80
a year worth of MREs probably a few thousand dollars

is there a time limit? and would college tuition and fees count as merchandise?

and a firearm or 2.
Seriously though I'd look for some very rural land to build a cabin on.

One years worth of freeze dried foods, MREs and provisions.
One years worth of meds for wife and self.
The remainder on ammunition and gear.

I'd buy me a couple guided hunting trips, probably Alaska for Kodiak bear and Moose or Caribou, maybe a fishing trip if there's enough to cover all three.

Land, bug out site.

Ultimately all of our money goes to caring for sick animals. If it isn't a dog with some odd, but expensive disease, it is for care of my wife's horse's broken leg.

Anything left over goes to buy camping gear. :-)

Geez, one little apostrophe and a couple letters...

OK, well apparently I get to start all over!
$1000 on "toys" - A surefire T1A ($250), a Fallkniven F1 ($125ish), gunsmithing on 2 of my rifles to improve accuracy (figure drop the remaining money on these parts and labor)

$3000 on a trip to Africa, the country my girlfriend did peace corps in.

$1000 on a summer trip to Alaska. Visit areas I haven't seen, go camping for a bit

$3000ish - might still get that engagement ring. It's an investment even if she says no (and probably cheaper in the long run too! LOL)

In combination with trading my new car, the remainder on a new/pre-owned car. Probably some sort of SUV or truck.

Tough one.

Used Outback, call it $4000
New desktop, call it about $500 for parts
10/22, good ammo and accessories, call it about $500
$5000 towards a new roof for my folk's house

Well, I need furniture, so I'd probably buy some nice antique furniture instead of the cheap stuff I would have bought, and I've been planning to buy a motorcycle.

Upgrade lathe and mill to CNC, start taking in more paying sideline work - should leave a few K for tooling to go with the upgrade

Do that kind of women take plastic? :->

NG backup generator ~$3k
Replace one NG Fireplace with wood burning and chimney for emergency heat ~$2k
Small emergency/backup solar array with storage (hand built and installed panels can save about 80% of cost) - $4k in materials
10/22, ammo - $500
shotgun & handgun ammo - $500

I can't get away with diesel gen/tank here, hence the need for solar (can't do wind either). I figure if NG and Electrical both stop flowing, I probably don't want to be here long. :-)

Sinn watch 3500.00
Engagement and wedding band for wife 2500.00
Trip to where ever she wanted for annivesary 2000.00
9mm springfield xdm for her 600.00
Marlin 30-30 lever gun for me 700.00
Spyderco Military 150.00
Rest in ammunition, please and thank you.

-Bill Liptak

A camper or a ATV (4-wheeler)- or both. A BOB on wheels!

After two kids, my wife wants a tummy tuck and a b**b job.

That seems to be common, maybe we can setup a group buy

Do you mind posting more info on this stuff? Maybe a new thread to talk about?
Is it security purpose only or does it reflect sunlight to prevent heat / cold? Or what. I`m interested now!

Everything you need to know. I saw them at a recent hurricane workshop. These are multilayer polyester sheets designed to prevent glass from shattering (cost ~$5.50 per square foot), block sunlight (~$7 per square foot), or both (~$9 per square foot).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8v01rwsSR4

Due to their incredible toughness and cut-resistance they are not a DIY sort of project. Professional installation is strongly recommended.

-Blast

If I had a spare 10 grand I would use it to pay for the windows I had installed this morning and the new roof that will be done if it ever stops raining!

Mike

A large generator, and a storage shed built like my storm room.


Edit: Maybe spelling and typing lessons also.

$10K is about right for what it cost us to replace the windows here with new thermal efficient windows. Great investment -- cooler in summer, better heat retention in winter. Here in SOCAL we've left the furnace off the past two years and the windows help a lot.

Finish up my 10/22 build $150.00
Two AR builds $3000.00
Ammo $1500.00
Camper for truck $1300.00
Vacation $1400.00
Emerson HD7 $300.00
Rock River .308 $2000.00
Emerson Super SOCFK $250.00
Streamlight TLR-1 $100.00

Scratch the Gen. Set. I just started pricing what I want. $10K would be the down payment, and I am not going into debt ever again.

Shed just got bigger!

Power your whole house and more: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=192

Needs some electronics but well under 10k$ total. And that will last FOREVER as primary home power or backup Also sips the fuel compared to normal home systems.

It's no cheap HF China junk, it's rebuilt from the railroad industry.

There are a lot of other companies that rebuild them too from 3k to 6k... barebones to 100% complete w/mufflers and fuel tanks.

Def. the way to go to power your house and garage.

I plan to get one in the way future... solar is first

After two kids and a lifetime of bad eating habits, my wife needed gastric bypass, a tummy tuck, and a b**b job. Insurance paid for the GB and the tummy tuck (after losing that much weight, the tummy tuck became a quality of life issue). I am still paying on a $12,000 b**b job, but like John Candy said, they're fun for the whole family.

Interesting, I had wondered what was up with those.

Back a ways I got interested in Lister clone diesel engines. They run even lower RPM, run forever and are very quiet. However, they are made in India, so you really had to be on top of the quality control. At some point, the few people that where importing them ran into a brick wall with some customs issue WRT misapplied emissions standards.

It would be cool to run one of these on used veggie oil for electricity and also use the heat in the winter.

What do I google for to find more about them?

Hmm, one of those and I could set up my own little neighborhood power company. Diesel is easy to store and the unit would be too big to steal easily...

-Blast

Get yourself 10,000 gallons of fuel and you could run it non-stop for half a year. The fuel costs are always the most expensive part by far. For that, they ought to just give the darned gensets away for free, dontcha think?

This reviving an old topic, but...

Firearms and Ammunition, $4000
Kitchen Upgrade $6000 (got to compromise in a marriage)

I'll play too. A new used vehicle, big enough for the whole family to bug out in.

Liberty Lincoln 50 safe: ~$3500
AR in .308 & .243 ~$3000
Generator & installation ~$1000-$1500
Start block wall in back of garage (other three already block & roof is concrete slab) & fill cells w/ concrete as req'd

Rolex Milgauss with green crystal -$6000
LaRue OBR 5.56 completely setup - $3800

Two 55-gallon drums to hold water: ~$200
Take down two pine trees in front yard: $350
Put chestnut tree in front yard: $200
Add more fruit trees to back yard: $150
Assorted preventative maintenance on vehicles: $1000
Hire maid: until whatever $$$ was left ran out.

-Blast, pretty much prepared for anything at this point.

By the way, saw Sheriff Blasts's comment and I needed to ask a relatively dumb question. I need to get a clean 55 gal drum to hold water. I live in Los Angeles. The local hardware stores dont seem to have them. Where would I look?

thanks,
Pete2

Emergency Essentials has the best price overall of anywhere I've found them because their shipping rate is only like $9. I've ordered assorted stuff from this company in the past and they are okay price-wise and good at customer service.
-Blast

Pete,You may want to try: Major Surplus in Gardena,on the corner of Gardena & Figureoa,I was there last week poking around,& they had 50 gal.food-grade white/blue barrels going for $99.99-Good Luck!

I would upgrade my two Toughbooks to the newest model.