On May 19, 10:43*am, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On May 19, 11:40*am, bob haller wrote:
On May 19, 10:12*am, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On May 19, 8:33*am, bob haller wrote:
i had a family friend who heated their home with wood, and bragged
about how much money they saved over oil heat
I then asked how much work does it take?
Oh the wood is free from a summer camp they owned
BUT they had to drive there every weekend for the summer to cut split
and haul the wood out of their mini forest. then haul the wood home
and stack and let dry for a year.
as i pointed out to them oil was cheaper.
if compared to the 3 of them having minimum wage jobs putting the same
number of hours in working at the local store, and adding in the cost
of gasoline to haul the many truckloads of wood home each weekend.
one family member admitted it started out fun but became a never
ending job he hated the constamt push to be ready for heat, concerned
all summer long...........
free heat wasnt free at all
"if compared to the 3 of them having minimum wage jobs putting the
same number of hours in working at the local store"
We often hear people say "It's not worth my time to do it myself. My
time is worth $X/hour and I can pay someone less than that to do it
for me."
That logic only works if you actually earn $X/hour during the time
that you would have otherwise been working on the project. If you hire
a guy to do it and then go sit on your butt shoveling Cheetos into
your mouth, then it didn't make economic sense to hire it out. The
money left your pocket and wasn't replaced.
In other words, unless the 3 of them actually went out and got that
minimum wage job, you can't use it as a comparison. If they pay for
the oil but don't work to offset the cost, then their cash flow will
show an outflow which might be more than the cost of the gas required
to get the wood.
I don't know that it will, because I don't know the actual numbers,
but I do know that you can't factor wages into the equation if the
wages don't exist.- Hide quoted text -
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well at minimum its a comparison of value.
to say I save 3 grand a year by heating with wood is fine
but, it night cst the proud person 500 bucks in gasoline, wear and
tear on vehicle.
so now theire savings is $2500 bucks
Now if just one person works minimum wage for a take home after taxes
SS and all the rest of 5 bucks per hour....
just 500 hours to be equal, and way more convenient no tending the
fire, no emptying ashes, no hauling the wood inside in freezing
weather.
under 10 hours a week to be equal $500 divided by 50 weeks, allowing 2
weeks for vacation
now wether or not the individual choose to work the job isnt really
revelant, this still details costs- Hide quoted text -
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Sure it details the cost, but it's a fruitless exercise. I think we
can be pretty sure that no one in that family is going to take the
minimum wage job to offset the cost of changing from wood to oil.
If the savings is $3K before gas & maintenance and $2.5K after
"operating expenses", it's still a savings of $2.5K.
You can't negate that savings by bringing non-existent (and never
going to be existent) wages into the equation and claiming that oil
would be cheaper.
Why not say:
"If you won the lottery, the oil would be cheaper."
"If Grandma leaves you $5 million, the oil would be cheaper"
"If all of the members of usenet chipped in enough to give you $2.5K/
year the oil would be cheaper"
Ain't none of those things gonna happen, just like the job at the mini-
mart ain't gonna happen, so they aren't relevant to the cost
comparison.- Hide quoted text -
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One can also deduct the cost of a gym membership to get the same
physical conditioning cutting wood gives one. In my case (I do 10
plus cords/yr) I would probably be grossly overweight or dead without
the excercise I get. I can't stand to 'excercise for the sake of
excercise' Got a treadmill, stationary bike, tread climber and
couldn't stand the boredom of using any of them.
Harry K