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I just moved to Maui and came across this posting forum while searching all things Maui.
Any ideas on where to get the best deal on a used car? Or should I buy new? I'm thinking Toyota. The used car lots here have a lot of junk that is overpriced.
Also, what are your opinions on living in Pukalani, Kula, and or Kihei? I love lower Kula....took a drive today. Someone told me that Pukalani isn't safe? Really?
For the man with all the rice questions?! Is this just to have fun or do you seriously not know how to just go to Walmart or Longs and get a cooker? This isn't a brand new car! Have you never bought groceries? I wasn't sure if it was serious or for a laugh. Sort of scares me if you can't choose a bag of rice, or cook it, and you are teaching children on Maui?
If you need further 'cheap' options when I was at Long's during the mad rush of Flossie they had pasta for $1.09 and Hunt's spaghetti sauce for $1.00. Also, soup was .89! Also, south on the island as well as Kahului will have cheaper options- west side is more expensive I've noticed. Surely you can throw items in a pot and boil it?
We have bought Toyotas for decades. We buy new and keep them for 10 - 15 years. Once in awhile Toyotas have problems, but very rarely. Consumer's Reports agrees that Toyotas are very reliable. My number 1 concern with a car is reliability. If you don't have that, you're walking. The Camry has an excellent 'handling and feel' when you drive it. I've rented many other competing cars of the same class level and they don't have the great 'handling and feel', they always feel clunky and awkward. We also have a Sienna, which has a similar 'handling and feel' since it is built on the same chassis. There is a big price to be paid when you buy new with the immediate depreciation just after you buy it, but we accept that factor. Of the car buyers, only 20% buy new. We also save up for a new car years in advance and pay with cash. That's a large check with a lot of digits! But that is another way to avoid interest charges and debt from your life, which increases your ability to save more money for retirement.
There are people who mainly eat from restaurants. They often don't keep much food at home. Maybe all they have in the refrigerator is a burned out light bulb! Those people generally live at a lower standard of living because of the higher cost to eat at restaurants all the time. They tend to be in debt too, always living on the edge of being broke, have lots of credit cards that are nearly full, have a 30 year mortgage instead of a 15 year, don't try to pay off the 15 year mortgage early, letting their gas tank get below half full, running on empty, and they are frequently, but not alway overweight or obese. We have some of those people at work who have similar income level as I do.
It might be very easy for a single person to get into they lifestyle. I think a rice cooker, slow cooker, a toaster oven, and a microwave are all easy to use and are low cost to buy. You don't need to prepare elaborate fancy meals to eat healthy. Simple, quick, and easy are the keys to changing your lifestyle. Add in regular exercise and you can really change your life for the better.
Well if you want to eat healthy, don't eat white rice. Its fills you up but that is about it. It is basically just starch and no nutrition. My wife and I used to eat lots of rice but always cooked it stove-top, never in a rice cooker. Then we went on a low-carb diet and quit eating rice (and potatoes). Lots of steamed vegies, fresh fish, big salads, and fruit. I lost 35 pounds doing that, my blood pressure is down and my blood sugar and cholesterol are both way down.
Well first of all I openly admitted in a thread that I am aware I can make even simple things into a big project. I have always been like that. I over analyze everything. I have not eaten much rice in my life and now for the first time in my adult life I need to be more careful regarding my food budget, so rice is a popular solution here. I see there are 10 main types of rice and those 10 broken down into 22 categories. I want to eventually try all 22, but obviously that will take time. I could have just picked up a few and go from there but I also like to see what other people's opinions are. And yes, I could have just went with the first rice cooker I saw online or just went into a store without running the information by people on this forum. I guess if it bothers you that I am asking such questions, then skip the threads with my name on it.
As far as assuming since I do research on rice and rice cookers before making a decisions, that I may not be qualified to teach, that is absurd and offensive. I am highly qualified in many areas, it is just that my masters degree in dealing with emotional/behavior disorders, learning disabilities, and autism did not cover any rice cooking classes. We all have strengths and weaknesses. I am sure there are some things I am more of an expert on than you and vice versa.
Some people were taught how to cook early on by their parents, but due to circumstances that never happened for me.
Thanks for the car advice. Owned a Camry previously. Really regretting not shipping my two year old car as I looked around. Saw a great little year old Corolla I might spring for. Working out the kinks now and price. It was a rental car for a year so that has me a little concerned as I'm sure it went through about 50 hands in the past year! So, not sure on that one.....
My comment on the rice was just that it seemed sort of funny. I've never put that much thought into it. I go to Safeway or Costco, and pick a bag and cook it generally as a side dish. If the poor guy is that broke he should just use a regular pot, boil water, and add salt and rice. I have a rice cooker and love it, but in Maui looking for dining options like he is seems a far stretch. Especially with the buffet ideas. He is trying to bring MN to Maui, and not adjusting to what people eat here. Spam, fish, veggies, fruit, rice.....reusing, reducing, saving etc work well here! I mean if a $19 haircut is a stretch a rice cooker is like a luxury!
Also, my current housemate worked for DOE in a specialist position (don't want to give a lot away) and said it was so horrendous she quit mid-year. Her co workers were great, as well as her boss. The work load, confusion, horrendous benefits were what drove her out.... as a single person she paid over $300 for her health premium, $100 in union dues, 6% in pension automatically, and that's all not including state, local, and federal taxes..... she ended up with like 40% of her pay! So upper 40s ended up as only 2k a month in take home pay!
Anyway, you all have great ideas and suggestions. Happy aloha Thursday!
I guess my over attention to detail paid off when I researched the three companies that ship cars from the mainland to Hawaii. Even though I had some complications driving my car from the Twin Cities to Tacoma, it was a no brainer to do the drive and pay the $1100 to have it shipped. While waiting for my car, I found a cheap rental car company and then for the second week for an even more affordable rental car company. However, even my car will likely have rust and issues in a few years due to the salt from the ocean. For now, I will enjoy my 40 MPG ever-so-reliable Toyota Echo. And since I sold or donated most of the items I had in Minnesota (it was hard going from a full house of belongings down to filling only 4 luggage items and keeping a few bins in storage back in Minnesota), it is nice to still have something I am used to.
A number of people have purchased new vehicles from the West coast states and had them shipped over - and still paid way less than buying new here.
Another option is to buy used on Oahu and ship it over by barge. That runs about $300 or less depending upon vehicle weight. Since Oahu has so many more vehicles to choose from, pricing is more competitive. however, new vehicle pricing on Oahu is ridiculous, which is why people buy from the West coast instead...
I just moved to Maui and came across this posting forum while searching all things Maui.
Aloha, and welcome to the forum.
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For the man with all the rice questions?! Is this just to have fun or do you seriously not know how to just go to Walmart or Longs and get a cooker? This isn't a brand new car! Have you never bought groceries? I wasn't sure if it was serious or for a laugh.
Usually we stick to the standard list of "Moving to Hawai'i" topics, like the pet quarantine, the high cost of housing, the high cost of gas, the high cost of food, and the alarming size of Hawaiian cockroaches. In this case we have a recent arrival whose new teaching job (and paychecks) don't start for a few more weeks and he's struggling with a few things, so a few of us are trying to help him get settled in and headed in the right direction.
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Surely you can throw items in a pot and boil it?
Never assume! We hope to address this issue in the very near future.
As far as cars are concerned, I am no auto maven myself, but I would urge you to pay close attention to the advice you get from residents with experience who have previously given solid advice on the topic (like mdand3boys and whtviper1) and discount the advice you get from non-residents. There are a lot of things about buying and owning and servicing cars in Hawai'i that are simply different from anywhere else in the country, and sometimes in very surprising and unexpected ways.
I mean, you can say the same about almost everything in Hawai'i, but the differences really show up when it comes to cars. A particular brand could be a good choice on one island but a terrible choice on another simply because of where warranty service is available, and where it is not. We even heard from someone who had shipped his leased Lexus here without notifying Lexus of America, only to find that Hawai'i is not in their sales territory and that he was in violation of the lease. Whoooops!
Well if you want to eat healthy, don't eat white rice. Its fills you up but that is about it. It is basically just starch and no nutrition.
I hate broad statements like this which so totally overlook the obvious. There is nothing inherently unhealthy about white rice, and it supplies an essential nutrient, carbohydrates for energy, which is required for life, especially active life. And when combined in the diet with legumes, like beans, it is used by the body to create protein. It is the staple food for over 3 billion people on the planet.
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A nutrient is a chemical that an organism needs to live and grow or a substance used in an organism's metabolism which must be taken in from its environment.[1] They are used to build and repair tissues, regulate body processes and are converted to and used as energy. Methods for nutrient intake vary, with animals and protists consuming foods that are digested by an internal digestive system, but most plants ingest nutrients directly from the soil through their roots or from the atmosphere.
Organic nutrients include carbohydrates, fats, proteins (or their building blocks, amino acids), and vitamins. Inorganic chemical compounds such as dietary minerals, water, and oxygen may also be considered nutrients. Nutrient - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
That said, there are clearly health deficits to eating too much white rice too often, or to letting it displace other essential nutrients, but there is a very good reason the classic plate lunch formula in Hawai'i includes "two scoops rice." Because for people doing hard physical work, that kind of concentrated carbohydrate intake is required to keep you going. Matter of fact, when I was doing an analysis of someone's meal plan on another thread, both for figuring what it might cost in Hawai'i, as well as looking at the nutritional content, it looked reasonably balanced, but to answer another's criticism of the low caloric content not being sufficient to support a grown man with an active life, I suggested adding a cup of rice as an easy, inexpensive boost to that essential element of nutritional requirement.
Now, having said all that, I certainly understand that brown rice has MORE nutrients than white rice, and that it causes a slower glycemic rise than white white rice does, and that it has more fiber for better digestive system health, and all of that. That's why brown rice is a staple in my own diet. But I don't refer to white rice as "unhealthy," and I still prefer it when I eat sushi.
joenorwood77: Don't fret. There is no requirement to eat rice in Hawaii. Eat what you want.
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