Double To A Million Plan: Double A Penny - Step 19 - The Ups and Downs

Double To A Million Plan

Double Your Way To A Million
DTAMP
Starting with Nothing, Ending with a Million Dollars.

Author: Xinfinitum

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Double A Penny - Step 19 - The Ups and Downs

How To Double Your Way To A Million In 28 Steps
The Official Blog for the "My One Million Friends" Website


Not much has been happening (stake wise) so there hasn't been a good reason to post anything.

I managed to find a bit of change on the ground since then, fifteen cents ($0.15).

I did have a job to fix a computer but was a little slow in picking it up and they were able to find other ways to get it fixed.

Unfortunately, I have not been doing to well. My feet have slowly been going bad on me for the last five years and I recently tried physical therapy, which kind of made it hurt worse. Last week my doctor put needles (medicine) in my ankles which helped a little, but I am still in alot of pain.

Pain in your feet seems to make you very exhausted and I have had to sleep alot more than usual.

I have been moving a lot slower these days. Which is a problem in this day and age with everything speeding up in the world at phenomenal rates. It is hard to keep up anymore.

I am still trying to figure out how I am going to compensate for the 62% increase in my home heating bill just from last year. Since moving into our home four years ago the cost to heat it has increased nearly 400%.

This is the second and last energy crisis I will be going through. Back in the 70's I started looking into Alternative Energy, in fact I use to get Mother Earth News when it was just a tacky, couple a page newsletter and my very first job was with a now defunct company that sold Alternative Energy systems for Wind and Solar.

I was about 16 then and I answered a classified ad for them. They were looking for an engineer and I thought "I can do that job". Cocky teenager!

The president of the company was so surprised I had the "Audacity" to answer the advertisement and that I had a pretty good experience with electronics, he gave me a job as a technician.

It was a good job, though as a stupid kid, I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have. I eventually had to give the job up because my (1962?) Sunbeam Alpine, that I traded with someone for my Honda 360 motorcycle, never would start and it was difficult to get to the job. It was a fun little car, could go from 0 to 80 in about 5 seconds or so, if you could get it started and the electrical system didn't catch fire or the throttle wouldn't stick, giving you the terrifying ride of your life.

Sunbeam Alpine


Anyways, I have always wanted to have a totally self sufficient home, what they now call a Zero Energy home. But it was difficult back then to do it, never really had the money, so I have been basically trapped in the standardized home purchasing or building cultural structure. I always thought everyone was building way to big and wasteful but it was too expensive to do otherwise, and alot cheaper to build like everyone else was although I kept building or buying smaller and smaller if possible.

I have always been an Ultra-Frugaler and have managed to reduce dependency as much as I could within the framework I was forced to operate within but......

I regret not fighting harder to go Alternative, and especially now with energy costs going through the roof. But perhaps it just wasn't time. I have started to do a lot more research and I will definitely be going Alternative in my next home. Passive solar, active solar, geothermal, if possible, Hydrogen generation systems or any other system I can find that will get me away from conventional sources that can fluctuate at the whim of someone else.

If I can do that, make this home, I will have finally fulfilled the dream I have had since the time I was that cocky teenager, but perhaps just a little less audacious and a little more wiser after 30 something years.

Present Stake: $1610.98

Motto: It is only "one" found penny.
Slogan: As Simple As Finding A Penny.

Regards,

Xinfinitum


This Double a Penny Blog is based upon the Doubling Plan "How to Double Your Way to a £Million in 28 Steps". It is an attempt to "Double Your Way to a Million" by going from one penny to one million dollars, starting from nothing. At the beginning you start by finding a penny and then double a penny until reaching $1,000,000.

How to Double Your Way to a Million in 28 Steps
D.T.A.M.P. - Double To A Million Plan

"For The Next Chronological Post Click Here"

2 Comments:

Blogger Rachel said...

The idea of being self sufficient in the home is very tempting. I would love to have enough means of generating power to not have to buy fuel and enough room to grow veggies and have animals! It is a bit of a dream for me but lets hope that you can make it a reality for yo. Good luck.

Thursday, June 26, 2008 10:41:00 AM  
Blogger Xinfinitum said...

Thanks Rachel.

I have decided to start planning over the next ten years, so that when it is time to move, if not sooner, I can build a zero or near zero energy home.

I am hoping over that time the resources to do so will be available at reduced costs due to more widespread markets and distribution.

Usually the more people are buying something the cheaper it gets to purchase it. So hopefully energy related products and systems will become more popular as energy costs rise.

With a passive solar home I am thinking of using the (solar)area to start seedlings for planting in the spring.

I thought about a greenhouse but it sounds like you may need to be really good at growing things to have one be functional and I am not exeptionally good at it. (Non Green Thumb).

Take Care,
Xinfinitum

Thursday, June 26, 2008 11:09:00 AM  

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