Unemployment benefit seeker levels have reached their highest total in 25 years at 3.8 million. Only 491,000 of those seekers have actually been claimed. Many people I know, including myself, are in that demographic or have not filed for benefits yet. We are now forced to sell our possessions and cut our spending in every possible way. This past weekend I sold most of my CD collection and many of my favorite DVDs. In order to mitigate the financial problems most of us face, I am listing a few ways to help you cut back on expenses.
1. Apply for a Gas Card.
A gas card with a decent cash back bonus can cut back on your fuel expenses between 60 cents to a dollar per tank depending on the size of your fuel tank. Be sure to use it just for gas though, and be sure to pay it off every month.
2. Buy in Bulk
Buying in bulk is one of the best ways to save money on stuff you would normally use whether it would be daily, weekly, or monthly. When you see a great sale on something like toothpaste, shampoo, or even a non-perishable food item consider buying several of them. When beef or chicken is on sale, don't be afraid to buy a lot of that either. You can always freeze it to cook later. It's better to have it already at a low price than having to go out when you need it when it's more expensive.
3. Don't Buy Garbage Bags
When you go shopping, what do the groceries and miscellaneous things that you purchase get put in for you to carry them home easier? A plastic or paper bag! You're getting a bag to put your garbage in for free! Now that might not be a whole lot of savings, but you'll probably look at the garbage bags and laugh at why you buy them now.
4. Cook for the Rest of the Week
After you go to the store to buy groceries, cook enough food for the rest of the week or at least the next couple of days. Not only will this save you money, but it will also save you time from cooking during the rest of the week. If you're cooking on the stove, it will save you money on your gas bill if you cook one time with a bunch of food then a couple of times with little amounts of food.
5. Monitor your electric and water meters by making a spreadsheet with the values of each in a list. You'd be surprised to see how much electricity and water you use in a day, even when you're not awake. This can help you find potential breaks in your water line which can cost you a lot of money! There are also many appliances and devices that use electricity when you think they are shut off.
These are just a few ways to save money. There are many more ways out there, and I would be glad to list more in the future with your help. I will be turning this into my own website in the very near future, so there will be feedback options and a forum to post your thoughts. Until next time!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Who's in Your Sportfolio?
I went to my local Ford dealer to get my oil change yesterday. There were some stacks of pre-election and pre-World Series magazines on the table so I decided to flip through them and read whatever looked interesting. Some ninety minutes later I happened to stumble upon a short little piece on a girl making some money trading shares of athletes on a virtual stock market.
Oneseason launched a little over a month ago and it already has over $5 million of value in it's online athlete stock market. The shares of players are called Synthetic Ownership Interests or SOI for short. There is no real ownership like the stock market, but these SOIs can be traded just like any other stock on the major indexes.
Membership is free, but they do charge a 1% commission on the value of the stock that you're trading. If you do the math, it turns out that the more profit you make, the less of a percentage of the profit is actually taken out as commission. You even get $10 to start just by joining.
With the DJI and NYSE taking big hits and catching big gains in the volatile world of stocks, this brings an interesting new way for people to invest their money and have fun while doing it. I've done a lot of homework on the stock market for the past few months and have owned a few stocks that have been hit hard before I actually found a good one to stick with. This new “Sportfolio” is a lot less stressful and definitely easier to manage than anything on the major indexes.
If you're interested in sports and want to “own” shares of a particular player, be sure to stop by this site and sign up. It seems like a great place to put money during these tough financial times. If only the service department took that long every time with fascinating stuff like this to read about!
Oneseason launched a little over a month ago and it already has over $5 million of value in it's online athlete stock market. The shares of players are called Synthetic Ownership Interests or SOI for short. There is no real ownership like the stock market, but these SOIs can be traded just like any other stock on the major indexes.
Membership is free, but they do charge a 1% commission on the value of the stock that you're trading. If you do the math, it turns out that the more profit you make, the less of a percentage of the profit is actually taken out as commission. You even get $10 to start just by joining.
With the DJI and NYSE taking big hits and catching big gains in the volatile world of stocks, this brings an interesting new way for people to invest their money and have fun while doing it. I've done a lot of homework on the stock market for the past few months and have owned a few stocks that have been hit hard before I actually found a good one to stick with. This new “Sportfolio” is a lot less stressful and definitely easier to manage than anything on the major indexes.
If you're interested in sports and want to “own” shares of a particular player, be sure to stop by this site and sign up. It seems like a great place to put money during these tough financial times. If only the service department took that long every time with fascinating stuff like this to read about!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
A "Safe Halloween"
Halloween in 2008 has come and gone, and so has the droves upon droves of children dressed up saying "Twick o' tweet." Actually there was a lack of children walking down the road from house to house. I've thought about the idea of "safe Halloween" for the past few years, and how it has sucked out the enthusiasm for me.
Now, I know I'm almost 25 with no children and this shouldn't have an affect on me. Being in my twenties could mean more excitement around Halloween because of all the parties at bars and all the sexy costumes that girls where out. However, I find it depressing with the lack of children out trick or treating. Hold on, I'm taking you for a "way back when" ride.
Anybody who has ever watched E.T. probably remembers the scene where E.T. dresses up as a ghost and goes trick or treating with Elliot. There were dozens of children marching in the streets trying to get as much candy as they can so they can stuff themselves sick when they get home. Even while I was sixteen and I thought I was too old for trick or treating, there were still plenty of children out there.
With the new "safe" trick or treating going on, I feel less enthused about Halloween. This was my first year of actually being around and handing out candy. It was 4 PM on Friday night and Teri wasn't home from teaching yet, so I had to pass out candy to the neighbor children when they stopped by. That made me start wondering why they would start so early. It's only safe, because nobody is home to pass out candy! More so, there is nobody home to take their children out at this time! I don't know what time or what day trick or treating was for you, but that was the situation for me.
How long will it take before trick or treating is phased out completely? Isn't this hurting the candy business? Does anybody still pass out candy after the set hours for trick or treating? Daylight savings time has also been pushed back a week which would put the safe trick or treating hours earlier in the day than usual.
Am I too crazy for thinking that I would let my children stay out later to trick or treat? That would assume that it is still around when my children are old enough to go out by themselves.
Now, I know I'm almost 25 with no children and this shouldn't have an affect on me. Being in my twenties could mean more excitement around Halloween because of all the parties at bars and all the sexy costumes that girls where out. However, I find it depressing with the lack of children out trick or treating. Hold on, I'm taking you for a "way back when" ride.
Anybody who has ever watched E.T. probably remembers the scene where E.T. dresses up as a ghost and goes trick or treating with Elliot. There were dozens of children marching in the streets trying to get as much candy as they can so they can stuff themselves sick when they get home. Even while I was sixteen and I thought I was too old for trick or treating, there were still plenty of children out there.
With the new "safe" trick or treating going on, I feel less enthused about Halloween. This was my first year of actually being around and handing out candy. It was 4 PM on Friday night and Teri wasn't home from teaching yet, so I had to pass out candy to the neighbor children when they stopped by. That made me start wondering why they would start so early. It's only safe, because nobody is home to pass out candy! More so, there is nobody home to take their children out at this time! I don't know what time or what day trick or treating was for you, but that was the situation for me.
How long will it take before trick or treating is phased out completely? Isn't this hurting the candy business? Does anybody still pass out candy after the set hours for trick or treating? Daylight savings time has also been pushed back a week which would put the safe trick or treating hours earlier in the day than usual.
Am I too crazy for thinking that I would let my children stay out later to trick or treat? That would assume that it is still around when my children are old enough to go out by themselves.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
New Blog
Ok, I decided to start a blog for just my personal stuff. Myspace seems to be very slow at times and I can't stand everything that is being added. Same thing goes with Facebook. I might copy stuff over to those sites as well, but we'll see how things go.
I've been dating Teri for almost eight months now, yay! Things are still going great. Weekends are starting to be a little frantic as we are both inviting each other to weddings, parties, showers, etc. I guess that's what happens when you grow up and find somebody you like spending a lot of time with. We started a bolwing team up in Lisle where we are currently in last place. At least we get more money back in last than we would in second to last! I've also been playing softball up in Bolingbrook with her father and some of the guys that she went to school with. Playing softball wasn't too much of a hastle since I was in Joliet for work anyway.
My time as a sales representative at John Deere Landscapes has come to an end. Last Tuesday I was told that my last day would be last Friday. That didn't leave me a whole lot of time to prepare, but I had an idea that it was in the works. I was priveleged enough to see the sales volume and the end of day reports for the company and things weren't looking good. They were doing everything they could to keep me on and they were even looking into possibly moving me to another division of John Deere. My application and resume have been sent to two other divisions, so we'll see if I get a call sometime soon. In the meantime, I have applied to many other jobs and even have an interview with Fastenal tomorrow over the phone. Wish me luck!
To make money, I am using Cha Cha. Cha Cha is a website that takes text message questions from people and sends them to a guide to be answered and sent back to the sender of the original message. You get paid ten to twenty cents for each answer depending on how good you are. If you want to join, please use my personal E-mail as a reference if you are priveleged enough to have it. I also use Homepages which is a search engine powered by Yahoo! to perform searches and earn money from it. Take a look and if you like it, be sure to sign up. These aren't very lucrative ways to earn money, but it definitely helps.
Currently in the works:
A blog site for Josh, Todd, and myself for posting our opinions on movies, games, music, investing, finances, and anything else we think of. We are getting pretty serious about it now that jobs aren't safe anymore. Look for updates about that in the near future!
That's all for now, be sure to check back again soon!
I've been dating Teri for almost eight months now, yay! Things are still going great. Weekends are starting to be a little frantic as we are both inviting each other to weddings, parties, showers, etc. I guess that's what happens when you grow up and find somebody you like spending a lot of time with. We started a bolwing team up in Lisle where we are currently in last place. At least we get more money back in last than we would in second to last! I've also been playing softball up in Bolingbrook with her father and some of the guys that she went to school with. Playing softball wasn't too much of a hastle since I was in Joliet for work anyway.
My time as a sales representative at John Deere Landscapes has come to an end. Last Tuesday I was told that my last day would be last Friday. That didn't leave me a whole lot of time to prepare, but I had an idea that it was in the works. I was priveleged enough to see the sales volume and the end of day reports for the company and things weren't looking good. They were doing everything they could to keep me on and they were even looking into possibly moving me to another division of John Deere. My application and resume have been sent to two other divisions, so we'll see if I get a call sometime soon. In the meantime, I have applied to many other jobs and even have an interview with Fastenal tomorrow over the phone. Wish me luck!
To make money, I am using Cha Cha. Cha Cha is a website that takes text message questions from people and sends them to a guide to be answered and sent back to the sender of the original message. You get paid ten to twenty cents for each answer depending on how good you are. If you want to join, please use my personal E-mail as a reference if you are priveleged enough to have it. I also use Homepages which is a search engine powered by Yahoo! to perform searches and earn money from it. Take a look and if you like it, be sure to sign up. These aren't very lucrative ways to earn money, but it definitely helps.
Currently in the works:
A blog site for Josh, Todd, and myself for posting our opinions on movies, games, music, investing, finances, and anything else we think of. We are getting pretty serious about it now that jobs aren't safe anymore. Look for updates about that in the near future!
That's all for now, be sure to check back again soon!
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