Who can’t appreciate Pink Floyd? In the spirit of evil I thought I’d post this song to remind us all why we set that damn alarm clock at night and get up at the buttcrack of dawn. But we only have two more days to go, for a two day respite.
Apr 26
2007
2007
Money !!
Apr 25
2007
2007
Saving Money At Home, 3rd Edition
This is the third edition of money saving tips for you to utilize at home. I don’t know about you, but everytime I have to opportunity to cut a corner, I do it. So without further ado, here we go…
Stick to basic phone service. Extra services like call waiting and call forwarding can almost double your costs for phone services.
To be honest, I don’t even have a home phone. So my satellite company charges me $5 more a month, but that’s still cheaper than a phone line. My security alarm company charges me $35 extra a month for the wireless connection, again still cheaper than a phone line.
Alternatively, I have a cellphone that I use any time I want, it goes where I want it to so I don’t miss calls, and no one has to remember more than one number. In fact, cell phones are so simple to use, most of us don’t even remember phone numbers anymore because it’s in the phone.
At first, I felt like it might be a bad idea, but I’ve been three years now without one, and haven’t missed it or needed it, and I live in tornado alley, so if anyone would need it, it would be us.
If you can live without cable television, you can save between $300 and $600 per year. If you can’t live without it, get basic service only. You can rent a lot of movies for the extra $150 to $600 per year you pay for movie channels like HBO, Showtime, etc.
I’ve been with Netflix since 2003, and they’re great, I’ve never had any problems with them whatsoever.
Or you could even get satellite, they’re very competative amongst themselves and also with cable companies, I think you’ll find that cable companies are on the higher end, and here’s what you probably don’t think about. Have you been to the cable company ever? If you have, did you see the satellites? Where do you think THEY get it from? 
Kind of a new take on the cable thing, huh?
Apr 24
2007
2007
Saving Money At Home, 2nd Edition
This new tips edition is all about saving money on your electricity bill. I think we could all use a little help in THAT department!
Install the new type of fluorescent bulbs in lights you leave on for long periods. They provide four times as much light and last ten times longer than incandescent bulbs. I think we’ve probably all already heard of these bulbs, they’re a little more expensive when you buy them than the regular light bulbs, but that’s just something you’ll notice at checkout.
Lower the temperature on your hot water heater to between 110 and 120 degrees. It’s not necessary to have it any hotter and wastes energy. Noone wants to be scalded when they shower anyways, right?
Find out if your utility company offers free energy audits, where they inspect your home for energy effectiveness and recommend inexpensive ways to cut energy costs, such as insulating hot water heaters, weather-stripping, etc. Just insulating your hot water heater could save you $25 a year. Didn’t expect that did ya?
Cut back on the use of your clothes dryer. Not only is it a big energy drain, it can also suck heated air out of your house very quickly in winter. Hang clothes on a clothes rack to dry and use the dryer for towels and other heavy items.
Use your microwave, or even a convection/toaster oven instead of your oven whenever possible and save up to 50% in energy costs for cooking. Think about it, you have to heat the whole oven to cook a 10 x 13 casserole dish full of pasta. Do you really need all that heat releasing itself into your house? Sure it smells great, but after you’ve eaten, who cares how it smells anymore?
I’m sure you’ll find these tips helpful in your day to day, I have found them useful.
Apr 21
2007
2007
Saving Money at Home, 1st Edition
Today I’m going to bring you tips that you can implement without leaving home. It’s really easy to save money in bigger things like insurance, and see the savings immediately. However seeing small savings add up over time is a little bit harder to manage.
We all have a neighborhood bulk store in our community - start using it. If you go shopping and buy only the meat your family eats each month alone you’ll probably pay the membership fee off inside of two months or less in the sales taxes you’ll save by paying to be eligible for these savings. What would be even better is if your employer offers this option as some do, which may make the membership free for you, additionally if it’s a business membership instead of individual, evaluate the additional benefits to this membership.
I have a business membership to Sams’ Club through my employer who pays for it as well, with this membership I can even shop earlier than everyone else and I avoid extra purchases by avoiding the samples. And don’t go shopping hungry, but then, we’ve all been told that. As stated previously, shopping on a list is ideal, however couple shopping on a list with buying in bulk and you have the potential to save loads of money.
Another tip, unplug the electronics you’re not using when not at home, or even when you just aren’t using them, alternatively put them on a surge protector on a switch so you can shut down all that stuff when you leave the room with a simple switch. You can save up to $20 a month on your electric bill with this one step alone. Why? You ask, well think about it, how does the TV know to come on when you push a button on the remote? Yes, a part of said TV must stay on in order to receive the signals from the remote, the same is true of any remote driven device.
These savings, we’ll average them at $50 a month, for both combined, at a rate of return at 4% in a savings account (this rate is what you can expect unless you have $5000 to put up from the word “Go”) at 4%, and let’s say you kick the fund off with that $1000 year end PTO Payout that you get, after adding $50 a month for five years you have $4535.94. You’ve made $535.94 off interest alone! As the balance gets bigger and bigger the money you make increases many times over. For example, if you continue this trend of $50 a month for 20 years, you’ll have $20561.31. After 20 years, you’ve made $7000 off your initial plan. After 25, you’ve more than doubled your money.
We all know that as we get older our financial situation gets easier so you could of course add more money to that monthly amount, or after your savings reaches a certain point, you could convert it to a bond, or a mutual fund, or a college savings 529 and start your plan over. But you DO have to start somewhere.
For those two tips alone, you’ve got a healthy start to a fat little nest egg.