I hate unwanted callers. Telemarketers are bad but I really, really hate bill collectors. I can see why, if you don't pay your bills, these people would be annoying. You see, I thought I'd never have to battle with them because I never have any problems paying my bills. I pay them well in advance just so I don't have to worry about anything. When I moved into my own house, I got a new telephone number. Along with the new number, came these harassing calls from a Sallie Mae and Portfolio Recovery Group. At the beginning it was about 2-4 calls per day which is very, very annoying, as you can guess. My phone company (VOIP.com) allows you to add phone numbers to a call rejection list. When the unwanted caller calls, they get a message "The party at the number you have dialed has decided not to take calls from your number at this time. Goodbye." To say the least, this is much nicer than I express my dislike of these calls to these callers.
Every couple of weeks, they somehow get new numbers and bypass my blocks. Today I got another call from the Portfolio Recovery Group looking for a Patrick McCarthy. However, most of the calls come in to Victoria Swoyer... why am I outing these people? Because I want these calls to stop! Call Sallie Mae and the Portfolio Group ASAP! They're ruining my quality of life.
Today, I had a 2.5 minute conversation with the Portfolio Recovery Group. This time, they were nicer than usual. Here's a bit of a transcript of today's call:
Them: "Hello"
Me: "Hi"
Them: "Hi, is Patrick there?"
Me: "No, I'm sorry. He doesn't live here and neither does Victoria"
Them: "What's your name?"
Me: "Andrew, but what does that matter? I pay my bills and I don't know who these people are that you're looking for."
Them: "Could you put Patrick on the phone."
Me: "Didn't you hear me? I don't know Patrick or Victoria and I don't like these calls. In fact, I've been blocking the numbers minutes after the calls end... so I'm not sure how you even get through."
Them: "How long have you had this number?"
Me: "Thirteen months and you're still calling for Patric and Victoria."
Them: "What's your last name?"
Me: "You don't need my last name, I pay my bills."
Them: "How can I get a hold of Patrick."
Me: "I get these calls all the time and you guys never let me speak to your supervisor and I cant be removed from the list. So my only choice is to block these numbers. I pay my bills and my name is Andrew. I don't meet your criteria. I don't know why you still call, even though every time your company gets through to me, I tell them the same thing. I want to be removed from your list because I hate having these conversations three times a day."
Them: "We don't have a list. Hold one minute while I remove your number from our system."
Me: "Is that going to do anything? Because I swear I've already been through this situation."
Them: "Alright, You've been removed from our system. If you get a call from this exact number, disregard it."
Me: "Sounds like whatever you did was pointless. Talk to you tomorrow."
Here's the list of phone numbers I have blocked so far... after 13 months of having my new number:
18663120375
18664012140
18008830613
2154413000
18776087675
12026072932
16103785373
18666332684
18883595392
12016764545
16029576261
18664606632
18007721413
18012576155
17579613544
18773038757
17579613547
18669407640
18666723304
18667771207
18666723304
18668115719
18668342446
18668975308
18668115719
16032143541
18666150531
18007221300
16206628870
18476789710
17312158010
Everyone who knows me, should know by now that I'm cheap. I'm openly cheap and I don't have any issues at all with being that way. In fact, I've been cheap way longer than this recent recession/depression. Everyone who has increasingly been feeling the effects of the poor economy and has recently turned cheap, has got absolutely nothing on me! 
In addition to being cheap, I am all about being natural and green. I drive a car that gets 37mpg regularly, take my own bags to the grocery store, and now, make my own laundry detergent. It's really simple. You get a bar of soap that you like, shread it up using a cheese grater or a food processor and mix it with Borax and washing soda using a wooden spoon. I'm on my second batch and really recommend using the food processor, because it takes like 20-30 mins to manually shred up a bar of soap!
In addition, it works great in a front load, so called high efficiency washer. I use 1 tbsp for normal loads and 2 tbsp for extra dirty loads. The reason it works well in the front load washer is because they require a low sudsing soap, which is exactly what this recipe yields.
Ingredients:
1 bar of soap, shreaded
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup washing soda
Here are some links that I've found useful in my quest for cheap, all natural, functional laundry detergent.
http://diynatural.com/simple-easy-fast-effective-jabs-homemade-laundry-detergent/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Laundry-Detergent
