Matt and I decided to go to Mama Chicken´s house last night to find out what the deal is with the gringo pricing on their fabulous chicken . . . and . . . my favorite restaurant in Pisac has been redeemed, I´m happy to say.

Apparently, they do have a 4.50 sole portion of chicken – it´s an 1/8 of a chicken, a smaller portion of fries and a smaller bowl of (truly) yummy chicken foot soup. Ah, no matter that all this time they never asked us which portion we wanted. Every time we walked in, they just handed us the biggest plate they had.

Now we know. And I suppose I didn´t completely understand my new friend. She meant an 1/8 of a chicken for 4.50 soles. The smaller portion is so much better anyway! So, go to Las Gamelas Polloria for the best chicken in Pisac. They may not have a menu, but they do have two different sized portions. Now you know!

 . . . . all this time we’ve been paying nine soles for a quarter of chicken and fries. It’s good, but it always seemed a bit expensive to me.

 The other day a girl was walking down the road, pushing a bicycle cart. Just as I was about to pass her, we were coming upon a slight incline. I grabbed the back of the bicycle and began to help her push the bike and cart across the little footbridge and up the hill. I wasn’t paying attention and my foot went through the slats of the footbridge and I fell all the way up to my knee, hand still on bicycle.

Luckily, I didn’t get hurt at all. The entire situation was funny to me and I couldn’t stop laughing as I stood there up to my thigh caught in the footbridge. I couldn’t stop laughing as I climbed out and I certainly couldn’t stop laughing as the girl and I finished pushing the bike up the hill.

She stopped to make sure that I was all right. We ended up talking (even though we barely could understand one another) and walking all the way to Pisac. She’s a nice girl. We sort of became friends on our walk. We got to talking about restaurants.

I told her that my favorite was Las Gamelas Polloria. Her eyes lit up. She said in spanish, “Isn’t it a great place? And only 4.50 soles for a quarter chicken!”

Wait. Just. One. Minute. They always charge us nine soles for a quarter chicken. Ah! Gringo pricing has struck once again! I’ll go back, for sure, but this time, I’ll do some more bargaining, even if I need to take it up with Mama Chicken herself . . . .

I ducked inside the first place I found that had a bag of potato chips when I arrived into town. Potato chips in Peru are made from Peruvian potatoes, and even though they are made by Frito-Lay, they taste sooo much better than their American counterparts. I knew better than to get an entire bag because I’d be tempted to eat them all.

I grabbed the .50 centamos bag. I knew it was .50 centamos because that was the price printed on the bag. This is a rarity as nothing in Peru is ever marked with a suggested retail price because the local economy is run by way of bargaining.

I handed a one-sole coin for my chips to the traditional Qechua lady behind the counter. She handed me back .30 centamos.

I held up the potato chip bag with the printed price of .50 centamos and pointed to it. She gave me the correct change.

“Olvido,” the lady behind the counter said dryly. “I forgot.”

I don’t think she meant any malice, but I also don’t think she forgot. It’s just the way of the typical Peruvian vendor. They try to make a little more here and there where and when they can from the hordes of gringos who come tromping all up and down and through their homeland. I don’t mind if sometimes I get charged “gringo prices,” but I do try to be aware of scams and price gouging, however small it may be. It’s always my goal to pay the normal, local price for things, or as close to it as a gringo possibly can.

It’s up to the individual to cultivate the ability to bargain effectively, gringo or not, and when in this area you have to be alert. It’s not unusual in Peru for receipts to have addition errors, so it’s a good idea to double check the addition on hand written receipts. Every time I’ve found one, the error has always been in favor of the vendor. If you find an error on your bill, be nice and point out the error. It very well could have been an honest mistake.

Or not.

While on the road, I always try to save extra money in any way possible . . . so that I can stay gone longer, of course! 

If you leave your car behind while traveling, a great way to save lots of money is to temporarily unplug your car insurance.  It´s not viable for everyone or for all situations, but if you are not going to be driving your car for an extended period of time, then there´s no reason why you should pay for an insurance premium while your car sits unused. Here´s a basic guide for getting what´s called ¨non-operational status¨(non-op for short)  on your car so you can save money on your car insurance. I´m saving about $300 this year by acquiring non-op status . . . well worth the trouble.

Before we even get started on how to go about this, a few words of caution. Don´t ever drive without car insurance. It´s just not smart, safe or sane. Only try for non-op status if the vehicle in question will not be in use for several months or more. That means parked off the street and not used at all by anyone for the entire length of time that you have non-operational status on the car. 

First, determine if you are eligible for non-op status. Rules and eligibility will most likely vary from state to state. My car insurance is issued in the state of California, so those are the rules I follow in my example. Check with your state to find out if you are legally able to put your car insurance temporarily on hold.

Check with your insurance company to find out their policy on this matter. Thoroughly explain your situation. Get your agent as excited about your trip as you are – that way they will be more willing to help you. Don´t be afraid to ask questions. If your agent says that your insurance policy will have to be cancelled, keep asking, because sometimes there are ways to circumvent cancellation of your policy. For example, my insurance company lets me by have a theft-only policy in place for a grand total of $23 per year while I´m traveling. This keeps policy cancellation out of the equation.

So, once you´ve checked with your state and your insurance company, make sure you follow the directions of both agencies perfectly. Make sure you take the time to go to the DMV in person. Tell them exactly when you are leaving. Get any pertinent paperwork from them and fill it out before you leave town. In California, the process is very simple. You fill out a non-operational status form. This tells the state of California two things: that your car will not be in use and that your car will not be on the streets. This includes being parked on a city street.

Send the form by mail directly to the appropriate state office. When I went to the DMV, they were so busy with local stuff that I did not want to take a chance on my form getting lost. Ask the DMV personnel exactly where to mail the form. Get a supervisor´s name if possible. To be very thorough,  send the form by certified mail.

Before sending your planned non-operational form to the specific DMV office, make two photocopies of it – one for your records and one for your insurance company. Fax a copy to your insurance company. Call or email to confirm that your agent has it in hand. Send a hard copy to your insurance company. Again, certified mail is a good idea.

Try to get a DMV non-op office phone number. Follow up within two weeks to make sure that they have received your form. This is important, as insurance companies are required by law to inform DMV offices of policy changes. If they don´t receive your form for some reason and they get notice from your insurance company that you´ve dropped your car insurance, then at the very least, you may find yourself having to deal with the DMV while you are on vacation. At the most, depending on your state´s laws, you may have to pay fines. Neither of those scenarios are fun, so take the extra time and effort to do this correctly.

And last but not least, make sure your car is parked in a secure place for the entire duration of your absence, such as a garage. Parking is not available where I live, so I put the word out to all of my friends. Turns out, I have a friend with a parking space in his apartment building, but his SUV is too tall and won´t fit in the tandem space that he shares with his roommate.

This friend is a stable person (also very important) and he does not forsee moving for at least another year. This gives me plenty of time in case I decide to stay out of the country for longer than the four months I´d originally planned. Make sure you give a spare set of car keys to someone you trust who resides in the same town where you´ve left your car, just in case of an unforeseen emergency.

Last but not least, contact your insurance company the moment you return home and get that policy put back in force before you even put the keys in the ignition. I cannot stress this enough. Contact the DMV as well and let them know you are back on the road and that your car insurance is in place once again.

And if you are like me and a friend let you park your car in their garage, then bring them back a really great gift from wherever it was you were wandering!

I decided to consult a friend who is a chef regarding my trashing the tomatoes rant and his input not only surprised me, but in the end, he offered a brilliant and quite viable solution that would be easy to implement in every home and restaurant.

My friend the chef is passionate about the food he serves; it has to be perfect. He says that his number one concern is giving his customer a meal of gastronomic delight that doesn’t make them sick. In my tomato example he says that as a chef he would never want to spread any disease like Hepatitis, even though the chances of something like this happening in my example are near zero.

“I would eat the tomatoes myself,” he says, “but even if every single person in that hot dog line said, ‘Hey, it’s cool. Go ahead, serve those tomatoes,’ I would not do it. I’d throw them in my compost bin.”

“That’s great!” I roared. And it really is! “But . . . no restaurants have a compost bin.”

It would be the perfect solution. I thought about suggesting composting in that last rant, but really believed it was just wishful thinking. That is, until I spoke to my friend. That’s really the whole point - I don’t care if something gets ‘trashed’ in the compost bin; it’s the mindless waste and filling up our landfills that I have a problem with. Plus, nationwide composting in restaurants would create enough quality mulch to solve alot of our nation’s oil-based fertilizer problem that’s raping the planet of nitrogen reserves.

According to Lester Brown’s book, Plan B (which every single person absolutely should read in my opinion), US agriculture in 2004 produced 11.8 billion bushels of corn and used 10 billion tons of nitrogen-based fertilizer to do it. A bushel is not that big – 35.24 liters - compared to one ton of fertilizer. Incidentally that nitrogen-based fertilizer is made with – that’s right – petroluem products. This is an unsustainable model; composting on a massive scale is not only sustainable, it is viable.

This viability is key. The oil-government powers that be, who incidentally subsidized those same 2004 farmers to the tune of $4.5 billion in taxpayer dollars (to enrich their oil empire), would say that composting on a massive scale is not viable and too complicated and that restaurants would never be able to implement such a system.

My friend the chef says otherwise. He worked for two years at a four star restaurant in Yellowstone Park and they composted every single scrap available. What’s more is that the corporate restaurant he worked for actually made money in the composting business. Lots of money, according to my friend.

So, guess what corporate restaurant America?? Lots of money can be made on trash. And a four star, sustainable and massive composting model is already in operation.

So, you´ve gotten the letter from the LA City Finance Office informing you that you owe the LA city tax on earnings from a small business from a previous year. Read this post if you need information about the actual letter – including exemption and deadline info.  This post deals solely with the art of speaking to the fine folks down at city finance. You didn´t know that you had to pay a city tax and now you have to physically go to one of The City of Los Angeles Finance Offices and get this whole thing straightened out. Here are some tips that might just save you from having to pay extra money.

• Know the following regarding the ¨ignorance of the liability¨ excuse: this is the most common excuse the office hears. No matter how cute or persuasive or nice you are, if you did not send in your exemption form prior to February 28 of the year immediately following your tax liability then you will have to pay the tax itself, no matter what. (If you somehow get out of it, please let all of us know how you did it.)
• Know the following regarding the penalty portion of your liability: you have the right (no matter what the clerk at the window says) to request a one-time penalty waiver due to your ignorance of liability. A clerk adamantly insisted to me at the West LA office that I could not have a penaty waiver.
• Should a clerk refuse to give you a penalty waiver and this is your first time requesting one, then ask for his or her supervisor. Or simply go to a different LA City Finance Office, which is what I did when I was refused a penalty waiver. There are several Finance Offices in LA County.
• A penalty waiver is a request only. It does not guarantee that your penalty will be waived, but you have a much better chance of a successful waiver if you pay the back taxes on the spot.
• Try to go to the LA City Finance Office early in the morning. The people who work there have to deal with all kinds of schmuks all day long. It´s best if you talk to them before the afternoon rush of other people with problems.
• Always be nice, even if you have a bad experience with a clerk, like I did. This particular clerk was annoyed because I arrived just as the office opened and apparently I interupted her coffee conversation with a co-worker. I suspect this is why she lied and told me that I was not eligible for a penalty waiver.
• Don´t be confrontational with a clerk who informs you that you are still liable for the back taxes – the penalty waiver is the best help they can give you. Not even their supervisors can get you out of your tax portion of the liability.
• Spread the word! Inform your friends who run freelance businesses in the City of LA about this issue so that they can get their exemption forms in on time. The City of LA does not inform anyone of their liabilities until after the deadline of February 28. Knowledge is power!

Good Luck! And next year, remember to file your exemption form on time.

Running a teeny, tiny lil’ side biz in LA? Getting 1099′ed because your employer is being cheap? Then read on and save some money on your tax bill! Because, oh yes, the City of Los Angeles wants their piece of the pie and what you don’t know will cost you plenty! What you will know after reading this article could get you an exemption from a city tax liability that you probably didn’t even know you had.

Don’t expect your tax accountant to inform you of your liability with the City of LA. I love my tax accountant, but he didn’t tell me about my responsibilities with the City of LA. Learn from my mistakes and save some money!

I received a letter from the City of Los Angeles back in June regarding a possible outstanding tax liability from the past three years, but I was on the road and couldn’t do anything about it. The reason I write this boring tax post is for all you creative type people out there. If you are anything like me, you are too busy worrying which color looks best with that background or wondering how in the world you are going to hang the stars and moon – literally – for that demanding client. Or you could just be receiving 1099 income for doing some independent contractor work within a creative field in Los Angeles.

Whichever the case – be aware and informed! (Regardless if you are in a creative field or not) If you -

• Have a schedule C on your federal taxes (ie, small business expenses) and/or
• Are 1099′ed for independent contractor work

then you are liable for the City of Los Angeles small business tax.

Ready for the good news?  If your gross receipts (the income before your write-offs) total to less than $100,000.00 then you are EXEMPT. But in order to receive this exemption, you must file for the exemption with the city of Los Angeles before February 28 of the following tax year that you’ve incurred your tax liability. In plain speak, that means if you have any Schedule C income for 2008, then you have to file the exemption with the city no later than February 28, 2009. The exemption is really quite easy to file; it’s just another hoop to jump through down at the LA City Finance Office.

Now for some Q & A:

Q: What if I don’t inform the City of LA that I’ve been 1099′ed or have a small business (Schedule C) on my federal taxes?

A: Well, they will find out . . . like they did with me – there’s some sort of computer program they run/information exchange they have in cooperation with the state. And then, you will still be liable for the back taxes plus a monthly penalty.

Q: But, what if I didn’t know?

A: Crying about it to them down at the Office of Finance won’t help. (I tried that – and I’m convincing.) You still have to pay it.

Q: But that’s not fair! I still have to pay the penalty, even if I didn’t know about my liability?

A: A lot of stuff in life isn’t fair, but you can request a one-time penalty waiver due to your ignorance.

Q: I already have to deal with this issue and I’m already late. Do you have any advice on how to talk to the people at the City of Los Angeles Finance Office?

A: Yes, I do. Click here to read that post. Trust me, you want them to like you. You want them to like you – A LOT. If not, they could make your life miserable and you might have to pay more than you should.

Q: I just received a letter saying that I owe for 2009? I don´t understand.

A: Make sure you file your exemption form with the city of LA (if your gross receipts for this year end up totaling less than 100,000.00) between January 1 and February 28, 2010 and you will be exempt!

So, now you’ve read the article. Now you know. Save some money. Get your butt in there and file that exemption form so that you don’t have to shell out hundreds or (if you did really well in your small business last year) thousands of dollars of Los Angeles City taxes that you technically are not liable to pay – if and only if you file that god-damned form in a timely manner.

A conversation with a friend of mine has prompted me to take a look at the history of an ordinary household product – paper towels. Her complaint was that paper towels, along with many other household goods, have become very expensive. Although I couldn’t agree more, I was a bit confused by the comment. While I do always have a roll of paper towels on hand, I personally don’t have need to buy them regularly because I use old kitchen rags for everyday uses like soaking up spills and cleaning.

The conversation caused me to wonder how many rolls of paper towels the average American household purchases in a month and what they use them for. I’ve decided to compare paper versus cloth products in price, usage, convenience,  aesthetics and sustainability.

First I dug up some interesting history on paper towels. The invention of the paper towel was actually a serendipitous accident. In 1907, a rail-car shipment of the wrong thickness of paper was delivered to the Scot company, the premier toilet paper manufacturer in the US. The president of the company remembered reading an article about a school teacher who gave a small, soft square of paper to each of her students as an alternative for wiping their hands on the communal bathroom cloth towel in hopes of stopping the spread of colds in her classroom.

Instead of taking a loss on the errant paper shipment, Mr. Scot decided to introduce the concept of a disposable sanitary towel, which was marketed to the medical industry. It’s of great interest to me that the actual consumer grade paper towel was not introduced to market until nearly twenty-five years later, in 1931. The simple fact was that people had no use for such a product because they used washable cloth rags.

I priced a roll of Bounty paper towels at $2.50, while a pack of white bar rags are about $10/dozen and you only buy them once. The paper industry needs you the consumer to absolutely believe that their product is not only indispensable but also that there is no alternative. Check out this old Bounty commercial. How many diners do you know of that rely solely upon paper towels to address their cleaning needs?

Watch Old Bounty Paper Towel at EncycloMedia.com

Ads are aggressively marketed to create a *perceived* convenience factor, but in the long run, the boasted conveniences are really an illusion – we the consumer throw that paper directly into our over-taxed landfill system. And don’t forget that a tree was most likely chopped down to make the pulp for that paper towel and millions of gallons of chemical-laden waste water was flushed directly into the water supply from the paper towel factory.

Kimberly-Clark is the global giant of the paper industry and also the leader in setting standards for paper industry sustainability, so I decided to check out the Kimberly-Clark 2007 Corporate Sustainability Report. K-C spent millions in 2007 to update the water systems at their factories and to convert their power systems to utilize methane gas from local landfills. They also buy virgin wood only from reputable sources to ensure that their raw materials aren’t coming from the rainforest. I applaud Kimberly-Clark’s efforts, but their report isn’t completely undisturbing.

In 2007, the company used 31% recycled paper, so that means that nearly an alarming 70% of all the material they require to make paper towels, facial tissues, diapers and dinner napkins came from trees, otherwise known as ‘virgin wood resources.’ Also, their most water conserving plant, located in Beech Island, South Carolina, recycles 60% of it’s water. They only flush a mere 40% of their waste water into the Savannah River, which is an important public water source. And another note of extreme interest to me is that the K-C’s Emerging Market division has it’s sights set on changing the way that half the world’s population views the use of paper products. Here’s a direct excerpt from the report:

We are seeing our fastest growth in developing and
emerging (D&E) markets in Asia, Eastern Europe and
Latin America. Within these markets, we continue to
focus on the BRICIT countries (Brazil, Russia, India,
China, Indonesia and Turkey). The BRICIT countries
represent half of the world’s population, but only six
percent of K-C sales.

 Our range of semi-durable paper towels,
developed to meet cultural norms in Latin America where
disposable paper towels are rarely used, have been highly
successful.

I suspect that families with small children use the most paper products, because a busy Mom will tell you her *perceived* truth – that it’s just less hassle and more sanitary to throw a snot-covered paper towel away rather than wash a cloth. That’s one way the utilization of paper becomes the norm within a household.

The Bounty website helps perpetuate the modern trend of American germophobic thinking by encouraging the belief that  rags are a breeding ground for billions of household germs that are just lurking, waiting to attack. While hygiene is truly of utmost importance, germs are not only ubiquitous in our world but a necessity for the existence of life. Be smart instead of fearful; washing your kitchen rags and towels regularly will keep you out of harm’s way.

I urge you to look at your household habits. By making the switch to durable cloth rags, dishtowels, napkins and handkerchiefs, you will not only save more green paper from your wallet, but you’ll be using a lot less in the way of resources. I *perceive* that a few extra hundred bucks in your household could go a long, long way.

Lately I’ve noticed everyone’s buzz word is ‘the economy.’ I’m always looking for small ways to save money and resources, so I’ve decided to regularly share some tips that work for me with my readers.

“The economy” this and “the economy” that. Many people I know who never used to question their purchase power at common places like the grocery store are starting to feel a pinch in their wallet when purchasing what they consider to be their basic needs. It’s my belief that yes, our economy is slowing down, but that these market fluctuations give us a chance to re-evalute the items we spend our money on – both big ticket items like cars as well as everyday goods like paper towels.

I have certainly noticed price increases over the years and especially this year. I’ve made it a life-long habit to always take the time to think through trends, ask questions, comparison shop and utilize creative solutions when it comes to what I need in my life. As dorky as it sounds, I really like comparing ounces and prices at the grocery store – many times the opportunities I find to save are astounding.

Being raised by my grandparents gave me an insight into running my household in older, simpler (and many times more effective!) ways too. An added bonus is that often times, simpler equals not only money saved, but also resources saved. We as a society need to try to save resources and encourage thrift, even if those endeavors are not currently valued, supported or demonstrated by our government and big business.

Of course, I understand that people don’t want to compromise their modern lifestyles in any way. The good news is that you don’t have to! It’s my belief that people genuinely want to learn small ways on how to spend less and use less, but often don’t know how or where to start. That’s because most of us were raised in a generation that hasn’t encouraged thrift.

We all just need to help re-educate one another in small ways. While a post on saving money with cloth towels vs. paper towels might seem over-simplistic, I’ll bet that there’s at least one person out there who maybe never thought of the difference between the two. That’s why I’ve started this category.

So, I don’t like to get into discussing politics too much, mostly because I feel like all sides are in it for themselves first. I generally believe in voting for the lesser of all evils. But dammit, I just have some things to say and some observations to share from the various communities I’ve encountered during this campaign debacle . . .

McCain’s campaign posted ads this morning claiming McCain’s victory in this evening’s upcoming presidential debate. What??!

It’s been interesting being on the road during the pre-election time. I don’t know what Kentuckians are thinking because we didn’t talk too much about any kind of politics. Those folks are just trying to keep food on their tables mostly. I saw disturbing signs of economic turmoil out in the country – restaurants slashing their operating hours, unemployment, fuel unavailability – all in an isolated area without alot of money or prospects to begin with. They do, however, really like tractors and Jesus. So, I bet I know how the voting will go – at least for those who will vote, and you can bet that many will not.

Texas, where our current village idiot in the White House is from, actually has a broad base of Obama support – at least in Austin where I’m staying, so that’s nice to see.

In Illinois, the heart of Obama’s campaign, my grandma said, “Hey, how do you like our upcoming lady vice president?” I just grumbled a response and she followed with a surly reply of “Well, then I just won’t talk about how I’m voting.”

As my friends and I sat around last night drinking beer and living the good life and seriously discussing the crumbling economy, someone piped in that the bailout is basically the current regime’s plan to spend all of the upcoming administration’s funding before they have a chance to use it. That made sense to me. Someone else suggested that since Congress wants to bail out America with $700 billion, that they could just cut a check to every single American. I think that’s a nice idea.

If you’d like to read quite possibly the only instance of The Onion newspaper telling the truth about something, check out their editorial expose on Palin. Lots of laughs, but unfortunately, it is all indeed true.

All of you folks who joked four years ago about jetting to Canada – did you ever think it could possibly get any worse? I thankfully don’t watch the idiot box  TV, but every once in awhile I’m in a room with it and this morning I heard a reputable news channel playing in the background and the circus and sensationalism sounded more theatrical than a movie trailer – because my dears, that is exactly what it is. Oh, what we are being sold.

Yes, there are real problems with our economy. The enormous growth we’ve seen in the past decade plus has been built upon a hollow foundation. A market will always correct itself. Problem is, our growth was way too fast to ever be sustainable. Kinda like every facet of what’s happening on our planet. The current trend of humanity is to think in a linear way, ever wanting to grow and expand, never thinking of the circular nature of things. Kind of like the whole concept of when you pick flowers, you never pick them all, you leave some behind to re-establish the population for the next time you gather. Well, not only have we picked every single flower, but we also have over-extended the credit of many years of flower-picking, if you get my metaphor.

I have a real bad feeling in my stomach these days. A feeling that in one year, two years, twenty years . . . who knows . . . that the truth will come out and it will stink even more than Enron . . . and that the pockets of many on the top of this giant pyramid scheme will be fattened yet again at the expense of everyone else.

And so it goes. Status quo. We’re all still kinda fat and mostly happy, and this is enough to keep us hooked in to allowing them to do . . . whatever . . . they . . . want. And the Republicans basically think/believe/want to bring about the second coming of Christ. Seriously, it’s part of their version of Manifest Destiny.

So, I say in the spirit of my friend Kurt Vonnegut, let’s go ahead and let the excrement hit the air conditioning. Because one of these upcoming days, it’s going to anyway, so let’s see how we all can deal with hard stuff . . . ’cause I sit and listen to my grandma (yeah, the one who’s voting badly) talk about growing up during the Great Depression. We don’t know what hard times are. I don’t want to see them per se, but I’d really like to see more Americans with the testicular fortitude to see beyond what we’re being sold and to do something about it instead of simply allowing the circus to perpetuate.