But What if Your Sweetheart Loves Meat?
The vegetarian culture is one that fosters certain "snootiness" because of our insistence on pure foods. It is also easy to get a superior attitude because vegetarian living is clearly a superior way to live from a health perspective and because so often our reasons for becoming a vegetarian is grounded in moral, ethical or religious values. And this is all well and good as long as you are functioning within the vegetarian community exclusively.
But what if your sweetheart is a meat eater? If the one you are dating, engaged to or even married to is not a vegetarian, that can lead to some pretty delicate moments. The last thing the vegetarian movement is about is hostility. So we have to have some guidelines on how to live in peace and harmony if your romantic partner has not joined you in your the vegetarian lifestyle.
Of course, one resolution is for your sweetheart to become a vegetarian with you. You could go with the argument of, "well if you loved me you would give up meat." But forcing someone to join the vegetarian community out of guilt is a terrible reason to make that change of life. Your sweetheart will just resent giving up a food he or she loves and will probably cheat and eat meat when not around you. That kind of tension, resentment and deception is no grounds for a long term love affair.
A better way is to come to terms with your differences, find ways to live with them and then see if down the road, your sweetheart might convert of his own free will. The first step, as is true of any conflict in an intimate relationship, is to talk about your differences openly. Sit down and talk about where each of you is on this issue. Agree to disagree. But also agree to find compromises and not to hold the other in contempt or to mock the other for the life choices he or she has made. By reaching a loving agreement, each of you can allow the other to be who he or she is and the romance can continue as the dietary dispute is resolved peacefully.
Together you can look for restaurants that offer both vegetarian dishes and meat dishes so each of you can get what you want. Now you don’t have to go to a restaurant that shouts in its advertising "We Serve Vegetarians!" All a good restaurant needs is a few good menu entries that are meatless and you can find what you want while your sweetheart enjoys a meat dish. Most good restaurants offer a tempting salad offering that you can customize so any meat, bacon bits, boiled eggs or even cheese are left out. By working together to build a good list of restaurants both of you can enjoy, you have a compromise for date nights that will last a long time.
Finding ways for both of you to enjoy your diet of choice is a good long term step. But your loved one may have a misconception that vegetarian food can't taste good. So make a deal that he or she might try it one night. Then you can put your best foot forward by preparing a sumptuous vegetarian meal that nobody can resist. But be aware that if you do try to make such a deal, you might have to agree to let your sweetheart try to convert you back to the meat eating world with a sumptuous home made meat based meal. If that is not ok with you, don’t make the deal.
Above all, don’t mock or look upon your sweetheart's choice of diet with distain or disgust. Don’t make the "eww" face each time your date has a hamburger or a hot dog. Come to the point that you can live with meat eaters and not feel repulsed when others eat the foods you don’t approve of. After all, you would not your date to make the "eww" face when you had a tofu burger or a big plate of steaming vegetables instead of meat. So treat each other with respect and love. Over time that approach will result in the best long term love affair and maybe even see you come to a time when he or she sees the light and joins you in the joys of vegetarianism.
Vegetarian on a Budget
In many family budgets, one of the biggest food expenses is often meat. So in theory at least becoming a vegetarian should be an outstanding financial maneuver. In theory, if all you ate was rice and vegetables, you should be able to live for very little.
But theory and reality are often far apart from each other. Because the culture of vegetarian living has developed so many high quality foods to fill the gap left behind by a good steak or a plate of barbeque ribs, you can spend as much or more on your vegetarian lifestyle as you did when you were a meat eater. The high cost of living as a vegetarian is not entire attributable to gourmet foods however.
The truth is if you are going to live in day in day out and month in month out on a vegetarian diet, not only do you need some high quality foods to substitute for taking a whole food group out of your diet, you need variety. The quality is needed because its your health on the line if you don’t get the proper nutrients. The diversity is needed because if you get bored with the vegetarian lifestyle, you may quit and give up. And nobody wants that.
Another reason that the cost of vegetarian eating is often higher than a "normal" diet comes from the fact that vegetarians are still in the minority. So prepared vegetarian foods and vegetarian only restaurants are rare. And to be able to make a profit, these specialty stores must charge a lot because they are specialty stores. Unfortunately, even though we see the vegetarian community as a supportive one, if you are going to be able to afford the vegetarian lifestyle, you are going to have to learn to cut costs.
Cutting costs means eliminating shopping at "boutique" vegetarian markets and no more eating out. Or at least it means cutting down on the eating out significantly. You can buy fresh vegetables and fruits at farmers markets or grocery stores that are just as valid as vegetarian options as any you get as a specialty store. Using a good food processor and other means, you can chop, dice, boil and puree just about any kind of vegetarian meal that you might be able to imagine getting in a restaurant. And at a much lower cost. Not only that but the leftovers can go into a compost pile to make fertilizer for your garden when you can grow your own vegetables next spring.
That "grower to consumer" market that often surfaces as a farmer's market is a great way to save lots of money also because you are buying your produce directly from the farmer and you cut the grocery store out of the loop entirely. One way to make sure you capitalize on every opportunity to buy inexpensive produce is to work as a community. Get about a dozen vegetarian families working together to always be on the lookout for a great buy. One might find a small farmer's market or roadside stand that is selling produce far below grocery store prices. Another might find a farmer who will basically give his food away just to clear the field. With some coordination, you could field an army of vegetarians to grab those bargains while they are fresh and stock everybody's kitchen with low cost fresh produce.
These are just a few of many ways you can find to save money on your vegetarian groceries and still have just as much quality but without as much cost. By shopping smart and shopping for bargains, you can live the vegetarian life and feel good about it because you are not only healthy, you are smart.
The Passion and the Hobby of Vegetarianism
It is going to take some effort to make the transition to a meat free lifestyle and to be able to proudly say "I am a vegetarian." But instead of feeling intimidated by that prospect, what is called for is for you to not only make living healthy and without meat your passion in life, make it your hobby.
The distinction between a passion and a hobby is important. Your passion in life is what drives you to learn all you can about your new lifestyle of vegetarianism. When you first make the transition or are preparing for the transition, it is natural to become obsessed with not only the reasons for becoming a vegetarian but the lifestyle you will enjoy when you finish making the change. You should allow yourself to let being a vegetarian a true passion of yours.
It’s also easy to let your vegetarian lifestyle be a passion when you start to spend time with "die hard" vegetarians. Their enthusiasm is contagious and their devotion to what they are doing is apparent. Not only are the health reasons for making this change enough to make a zealot out of any of us, the ethics of not eating animals and the morality and even religious rationales for eliminating meat from your system can make your vegetarian lifestyle as important to you as love of family and devotion to God.
Now everybody who becomes a vegetarian gets to the zealot stage. But it is a lifestyle that is so full of rich culture and the fun of exploring that culture as well as learning to cook and eat the vegetarian way can become something that you want to think about all the time. When you get to that stage that you are living and breathing vegetarianism and that you are actually having a lot of fun learning about your new culture and lifestyle, then you will have gained the momentum to make the leap into a vegetarian life that will carry you to success.
A hobby is like a passion and many of us get very passionate about our hobbies. But along with allowing your new meat free life to be your passion, make it a hobby. The difference is that over time you can sustain your devotion to a hobby but at a more steady and measured pace. Think of other hobbies like model building or bowling. Devotees genuinely enjoy the time they spend in their hobby. And for the most part that hobby is something they probably will be involved in for life. But it isn't all they live and breathe. It is part of life not all of life.
Over time, your vegetarian lifestyle will move from a passion to a hobby. But it should be such a integral part of your life that it can be a great hobby and one you go back to weekly if not daily to enjoy partaking in your lifestyle. There is a lot of diversity in the vegetarian lifestyle that will keep you fascinated for months and years. Between the shopping for great ingredients for your next dish to the cooking, preparing, presentation and dining experience to the quest for the next great recipe to the time you spend with other vegetarians, it really is a lifestyle as well as a diet choice. So let it be a great hobby as well as your passion in life because the life of vegetarianism will make such a huge contribution to your quality of life that it will be worth your devotion to it.
How to calculate your lease payment
Understanding how to calculate your monthly lease payment makes it easier for you to make an informed decision. Yet, most of us shy away from the “complicated” math on our lease contract, leaving it up to the dealer to do the payment formula.
Actually, it’s not that difficult! Once you understand all the figures involved in calculating your monthly payments, everything else falls into place. These key figures are:
MSRP (short for Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price): This is the list price of the vehicle or the window sticker price. Money Factor: This determines the interest rate on your lease. Insist on your dealer to disclose this rate before entering into a lease. Lease Term: The number of months the dealer rents the vehicle. Residual Value: The value of the vehicle at the end of the lease. Again, you can get this figure from the dealer.
Now, let us calculate a sample lease payment based on a vehicle with an MSRP (sticker price) value of $25,000 and a money factor of 0.0034 (this is usually quoted as 3.4%). The scheduled-lease is over 3 years and the estimated residual percentage is 55%.
The first step is to calculate the residual value of the car. You multiply the MSRP by the residual percentage:
$20,000 X .55 = $11,000.
The car will be worth $13,750 at the end of the lease, so you'll be using:
$20,000 – $11,000 = $9,000
This amount of $9,000 will be used over a 36 month lease period giving us a monthly payment of:
$9,000 / 36 = $250.
This is the first part of the monthly payment, called the monthly depreciation charge. The second part of the monthly payment, called the money factor payment, factors the interest charge. It is calculated by adding the MSRP figure to the residual value and multiplying this by the money factor:
($20,000 + $11,000) * 0.0034 = $105.4
Finally, we get the approximate monthly payment by adding the two figures together:
$250 + $105.4 = $355.4
To recapitulate, the sample formula looks like this:
1. Monthly Depreciation Charge:
MSRP X Depreciation Percentage = Residual Value MSRP – Residual Value = Depreciation over lease term Depreciation over lease term / lease term (number of months in the lease) = monthly depreciation charge
2. Monthly factor money charge
(MSRP + Residual value) X Money factor = money factor payment
3. Sample Monthly Payment:
Depreciation charge + money factor payment = monthly payment
Keep in mind that this is a simplified calculation that does not take into account taxes, fees, rebates or any other incentives. The calculation gives you a ballpark figure or a rough idea of what your lease payments for the vehicle in question should be.
The Residual Value of Leasing
If you are in the market to lease a vehicle, you will hear the term “residual value” recur like a leitmotif. A residual value does not only affect your monthly payments, but is equally used by leasing companies to determine any penalties should you break your lease early and how much to pay if you decided to buy the vehicle at the end of your lease.
Let us first start by looking at the meaning of residual value. The term “residual value”, refers to the value of something after it has been used for some time. In leasing lingo, it refers to the depreciation of the vehicle’s value over the life of its lease. So how does it exactly affect your monthly payments? When you lease a car, you pay for the car’s value that you use over the lease length. Suppose you leased an $18,000 car for 2 years: the leasing company needs to estimate the value of this car in two years time in order to know how much of the car you will be using during your lease term. That’s where the “residual value” comes into the equation.
If the residual value is estimated to be $13,000 at the end of your lease, then your monthly payments will be calculated on the $5,000 you will use over 24 months, giving an average monthly payment of $208.3 (plus interest, tax and fees). How about if the car is expected to lose half its value over the same period? In this scenario, you will be using $9,000 over the same period, leaving you with a higher monthly payment of $375 (plus interest, tax and fees).
As you can see, residual values are a key factor in determining how much money to pay on your lease and the higher the residual value, the lower your monthly fees. This works in reverse if you build a bond with your car and decide to purchase it at the end of your lease. If we stick with the same example above, the lower monthly payments in the second scenario come at the cost of paying substantially more to buy your car at the end of the lease.
So, since the residual value is so important, how do I know which one is best for me? Well, it all depends whether you want to purchase the car at the end of your lease. If you don’t want to make a large down payment and you want low monthly payments, then a car that holds with a higher residual value is a good deal. If you are thinking of purchasing the car at lease-end, then you need to balance low-monthly payments with a moderate residual value.
Using Lease Calculators
Want to calculate your monthly lease payment? Consider using a lease calculator
If you are considering a car lease, then you might want to know some key figures involved in the deal: the monthly lease payments, the overall cost of the lease and how much savings can be made compared to purchasing the vehicle.
A lease calculator relieves you from the stress of having to know the complex underlying lease formulae used in calculations. You simply plug a number of figures into the calculator and hey presto! You get a detailed rundown of detailed payments, taxes and total lease costs.
Figures you need to get from your dealer about a specific lease you’re interested in include: capitalized cost, estimated residual value at the end of the lease, the number of months in your lease and the money factor. Make assumptions and change some of the figures to see how it affects your lease payments. For instance, residual value is an “estimated” value of what the vehicle will be worth at the end of the lease. You can input different estimates to cover different scenarios and assumptions.
As a final note of caution, bear in mind that lease calculators only do calculations and check the accuracy of abstract mathematical formulae. They do not tell you whether a lease is good or bad.
An Exhilarating Adventure Vacation in Daytona Beach
For those people who are living in congested and noise-infested cities across the globe, an adventure vacation would be a super. Imagine you need not worry about anything but bask in the sun and lie out in the beach a couple days off. When given a chance, most people would opt to go to a place where they can have peaceful surroundings. But, there are also those who crave for the ultimate adrenaline rush like those people who go to Daytona Beach in Florida.
Considered as one of the world's most famous beaches, the Daytona Beach is home to thousands of people who are looking forward to an adventure trip of their lives. A very famous city in Volusia County in Florida, Daytona Beach is considered as the most famous year-round resort area, and houses some of the high rolling Universities in the country like Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach Community College, and Keiser College Daytona Beach Campus.
Daytona is mostly known for its fancy motorsports events, with both Daytona International Speedway and the classic Daytona Beach Road Course having hosted several high profile races for more than century now. Daytona, if you want it to be called accurately is a seasonal town, with large groups of out-of-towners descending upon the city, like ducks flying south for the winter, they come for the various motorsports events, and one of the most notable is the Speedweeks in early February.
Aside from the motor sports events, the place is also visited by many people because of its natural charm. People that are living within the area are friendly and hospitable which makes the tourists come back season after season of each year.
Off to the world's most famous beach
In the recent past spring breakers would flock the beach every single day, but since there is a shortage of services that can be offered at times because of the overwhelming demand, some would flock to Panama City instead.
Still, the city and its beaches continues to attract over 8,000,000 tourists each year not to mention businesses So far Daytona Beach is also the home to some hotels, motels, condominiums and houses that line up along the beach front. Competition has allowed a wide variety of price range, most of the year the hotels and motels are typically fully booked except during special events, where they make room for more guests.
Daytona Beach is also known for its high security measures around its main hotel locations, some are armed with multiple cameras for filming hotel and beach areas. Daytona Beach is one of the few places in the world where a family car can be used on an ocean beach. Most other driving beaches require 40-wheel drive or other special equipment.
But, what really makes the Daytona Beach an ultimate adventure destination aside from the "Speedweeks"—where Daytona 500 NASCAR race and the Rolex 24 sports car races, and others take place—are the "Pepsi 400 NASCAR" race on or around July 4 which is traditionally called the "Firecracker 400," the Daytona Beach "Bike Week Daytona 200" motorcycle race in March, the "Biketoberfest" in October.
The "Turkey Run" car show and events during Thanksgiving weekend which is also traditionally called the "Turkey Rod Run," the "Black College Reunion" or BCR, and the "Spring Break" as a getaway for so many college students out there.