“You’ve only got one life to live right? Money isn’t everything. Tomorrow is not promised. Love and Happiness are much more important than money. You can’t put all that money in the grave with you. Stop hording money and start living your life for today!”
You know, I couldn’t agree more with this message. But simultaneously… I don’t really agree with this message. Why? Well, my question is this. Just who exactly is this message geared towards?! The Masses? How many people do you know are in a position to horde money?
Now if you see Bill Gates in Wal-Mart telling the cashier that he wouldn’t dare spend an extra $7.99 on an extended warranty for his $39.99 DVD player, it “may” be appropriate to say, “Hey Bill, you can’t take it all with you.”
If you are $200,000 in debt and you have $5,000 saved up for retirement that is five years away and you decide to go to Italy because, “Hey… you can’t take it all with you, right?” Then you may be on a path to financial destruction!
People like to stress the fact that happiness is more important than money, even going as far as to use scriptures like the parable of the rich man to prove their point. You can’t say on one hand that money is not the most important thing, and at the same time say that you have to spend it now to achieve happiness. If living your life to the fullest is the antithesis of being frugal, then you are as big a slave to money as all of these so called rich people who are hording it (where are these people?).
The Problems
You see… we have been taught to look outside ourselves for happiness, and that is one of the problems. If you can’t be happy in a small house and you need to be in a big fancy house to achieve happiness, then what is wrong with you? If you can’t be happy in a Sentra and you have to have a Mercedes that can go from zero to a traffic ticket in five seconds to achieve happiness, then what is wrong with you? If your family has to travel to Europe, Asia, Egypt, Paris and France because they can’t have a good time at home, then what is wrong with your family?
Yeah, ok… I already know that this will be misinterpreted. I’m not knocking any of these things and saying that they are irrelevant. But if they come at the expense of you being able to live comfortably in your golden years, then how can it possibly make sense? The truth is that a big house, a nice car and a lot of other so called “finer things” in life constitute way more vanity than saving money for ANY reason.
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Cost vs price is a mystery to most people and those who need to understand it most understand it the least. Understanding what the difference is can save the buyer hundreds of dollars and stretch budgets that are already stretched thin.
When it comes to cost vs prices not many folks know there is a difference or perceive there may be a difference. I was on of those at one time. These terms seem to be interchangeable at will, but are they really interchangeable.
We shall see as we go along and you will see if you do not agree with me.
My wife has a saying of, “It only costs a little more to go first class.” The adage was almost always correct, when it came to me anyway. You see, I am a cheap skate. I will try to dodge the bullet every time when buying something. I am always looking for the “better deal”.
The “better deal” is not always the better deal. If we take buying a bicycle as an example we might be able to draw line between cost vs price.
All things being equal we must start off Even Steven. So both bicycles must be new to begin with. I know nothing of the price of bicycles so I will be working purely in the world of make believe for illustration purposes.
Bicycle A is priced at $159.00 on the sticker tag hanging on the handlebar. Bicycle A comes standard with two tires. It has air conditioning (if you peddle fast enough) and an air horn and a seat. It also has two peddles and a reflector fastened to the rear fender. And, it also comes assembled.
Bicycle B is priced at $215.00 on the sticker tag hanging on the handlebar. Bicycle B comes standard with two tires, no air horn and a seat. It also has air conditioning (if you peddle fast enough), two peddles and a reflector attached to the rear fender.
Both bicycles look very much alike and when asked what the difference is you are told $56.00 and change as far as the salesman knows.
So, for the sake of $56.00 and change you opt to get the $159.00 bicycle A.
Little Johnny or Suzy (sorry if your name happens to be Johnny or Suzy) really likes this bicycle and it looks like a good bicycle. So you carry it home in the trunk of your not so new Kia for the pack away price of $170.98 and you are patting yourself on the back and laughing all the way home over the great deal you made on this sweet machine.
If you enjoyed this first part of Cost vs Price then simply go this think to continue reading about Cost vs Price part 2. It will be the conclusion but you will Dear Reader will be writing the end of the story in your own life travels.
Thanks for reading.
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A new study is showing that many states are heading toward an economic mess. Everyone knows that California is facing a back breaking deficit. The state government decided to try and ease the predicament by increased borrowing but that hasn’t worked and they are facing astronomical deficits.
This debt will most likely indicate higher taxes, more layoffs of government employees, jam-packed classrooms, and a smaller amount of services in the nations most populated states. States facing the greatest budget deficits for the next year and many years to come consist of Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and certainly California.
The Pew Center of the United States released a new study that showed double digit gaps in the budget along with mounting unemployment and thousands of home foreclosures. This study required lawmakers to take a practical look at the financial catastrophe and what measures should be taken in order to try and get the system back on track.
Although there were only 10 states that made this list they account for almost one-third of the American population. This is a huge deal and it affects every American whether you live in one of these states or not. Economies and states are so integrated and interconnected that it affects everyone.
Susan Urah stated “Decisions these states make as they try to navigate the recession will play a role in how quickly the entire nation recovers.” California is the most vulnerable state on the top 10 but fellow states face the same difficulties California does. California at this time has nearly $60 billion in budget adjustments that must be changed. This presumably means cuts to education, social service programs, temporary tax hikes, as well as stimulus spending.
Governor Schwarzenegger estimates that the deficit for this year will run between $12.4 and $14.4 billion. But by the end of this year the governor will have have a spending plan in place. But, will this turn the economy around? Because of the global financial crisis in the last two years California has witnessed general spending decrease by $20 billion. Many Californians are questioning how they will face growing taxes and how their lives will change with all of the service cuts.
The government is telling residents that they have come a long way but extreme actions are still required. Previous cuts were frivolous and affected less people, but now government has to cut necessary funding which will affect large numbers of people. These will be the most painful cuts for Californians.
Hopefully California and the other nine states will be able to make budget cuts that will affect fewer people and that will finally turn their budgets around. These states still aren’t out of the woods but with some planning and scrimping they will most likely be able to turn around and get on the road to improvement. Which in turn, will improve the economies and budgets in not only these states but the rest of the nation.
About the Author Info
Diane Johnson earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Utah and enjoys writing about current events, politics, college degrees, online education, and the office.
Diane Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Utah. She likes to write about the news, politics, college degrees, online education, and continuing online education.
You went to a local store top buy your grocery needs. You saw your regular brand of toilet paper or any other products you regularly buy go on a special discount. Smiling, you picked up one, with a thought that you are saving up money. Yes, you saved a few bucks but next week you won’t be because most probably, it may not be again be on sale.
Remember that if the item that is a necessity offers Bargain Deals, you should buy as many as you can for stockpiling. Never forget the money saving benefits of Bargain Shopping. “Stacking up” is when you buy several of the same item with less price for future use. What items does your household use the most? We go through toilet paper, shampoo, and soap faster than anything else. Your family may go through other items such as paper towels, frozen pizzas, or dryer sheets. Make a list of your most used items so you will know what to watch for on sale.
Do not limit yourself to only a few of your necessity items, if the sale is a great sale, you can stockpile even rarely used items. If after combining coupons and the sale price items are free or almost free, why not buy? I buy food we’ve never tried before when I can find it for free or around .50. If I buy five of a new soup at .18 each and I don’t like the flavor, I end up giving them away to family, trading them with friends for stuff I do like, or donating them at my son’s can food drive. Don’t be afraid to stockpile items that are almost free. Some of the most popular stockpile items are air fresheners and plug ins, just because it seems every other week with coupons and sales you can get them free.
Many people worry that they don’t have room to store stockpile items. Even people in tiny one room apartments find space. Buy an under bed container and store items there. Linen closets, under bathroom sinks, and garages are great stockpile places. Just make sure you remember where you put what and don’t forget to use the items before the expiration date. What do you do when your stockpile starts taking over the house? Throw together a gift basket of stock pile items for that new bride, college student, or struggling family down the block. If you got most of your items free or for pennies on the dollar you can afford to give some away. Selling flat rate boxes of like items will also make you some quick cash on eBay.
The next time you find your deodorant on sale super cheap, grab a few extra to stockpile. If you keep everything you use in bulk you will never have to worry about running out unexpectedly, and you’ll never have to pay full price again. If you need help finding your items to stockpile there are many sites out there that post stores sales, and WWHOW is a great resource. Leave a comment with your stockpiling tips or let us know what you plan to stockpile!
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While most major van lines and many packing services use personnel trained in packing and loading, small second rate moving companies frequently save money by hiring less well trained personnel. Some smaller moving companies will hire cheap labor from labor pools, or companies such as Office Depo to assist them in their moves. Unqualified movers like these will frequently make foolish mistakes that can cause costly damage to the goods being moved.
One time where a family’s possessions may be exposed to inexperienced moving help is during a move that is subcontracted. One recent thread on a major anti-scam moving site described this very situation. The family had moved from St. Louis to San Francisco a year and a half ago. They had hired a St. Louis moving company, who had done an adequate job. Now, on the return move, they decided to use the same company. Unbeknown to them since the move was originating from a city distant from the company’s headquarters, they contracted the first half of the move to another company. Probably, in order to save money, they hired a second rate moving company. This company, S. Movers had just gotten their license back after a long suspension.
The couple had made it clear they wanted the movers to use furniture pads on the bike and the antique wooded furniture. Because they were already in St. Louis, they couldn’t supervise the packing. As a result, the contracted rouge company failed to use any furniture pads at all. Instead of using padding on the antique furniture, they used packing tape, which subsequently tore off the paint, when it was removed.
When the couple later raised their complaint on the anti-scam bulletin board they discovered how complex moving packing can be. Movers will usually charge 1-2 dollars per pad and 5-10 dollars per roll of packing tape. On expert told the couple that it wasn’t’ enough to order the movers to use the packing supplies, they were negligent in failing to include the cost of the packing supplies in the budget! Now, the couple is not sure if they can even recover damages.
One way to avoid these types of heartaches is to use a combination of a packing service and a mover container or pod shipping company. With this combination the goods will be packed by the trained packers and loaded into locked containers. Only the householder will have the key. At the destination, the householder unlocks the containers and either unpacks his own goods or hires a packing service on the back end of his move to unload the goods.
Packing Service of Fl, is one honest packing company, They are dedicated to protecting their customers form moving scams , They come to the house before the day of the move and give a flat fee guaranteed moving and packing cost estimate . They recommend trustworthy container shipping companies. They only use employees with a minimum of one year experience in the moving industry.
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If you’re finding it difficult to pass the time because of financial uncertainty and are stressed, then possibly this article may have the answer for you! All you need is access to the Net and do what you always do……search!
The following is an article about an incentive scheme that can help ease your pain during these uncertain times. Instead of using hard earned money on luxury items, why not get them for free and put your money towards paying off your mortgage and debt?
Swag Bucks is a search engine powered by Google and Ask. When you use their search engine you receive points that can be redeemed for prizes like gift cards, clothing, iPhones, video games and consoles, DVD boxsets and much more.
If you already use Google or Ask as a search engine, it would be a good idea to switch to Swag Bucks because it is the same as searching the Net|Internet using Google except that you receive points while you are using it! Swag Bucks is a reputable program. It will not ask for any personal information such as your phone number or credit card number and your email address will be kept private as required by law. Swag Bucks gives points and prizes in order to keep you as a user of their search engine, therefore a greater chance of advertising revenue hence the ability to “give away” free stuff.
If you refer your friends and family to join, you also end up receiving bonus Swag Bucks! You can earn up to 100 Swag Bucks for referring a friend. Given that a bottle of Calvin Klein Eternity cologne is only 275 Swag Bucks, it was be a wise decision to make refer friends to Swag Bucks today! The main ways to get more Swag Bucks as listed on their site is:
- Search the Internet
- Trade in Mobile Phones and video games
- Refer friends as I mentioned above
- Submit a user poll
- Comment on the blog and much more!
Some other hints to maximizing your Swag Bucks include:
- Shop through Swag Bucks to earn SB on purchases.
- Follow @SwagBucks on Twitter for updates on new Swag Codes. (enter these in the left-hand column on your Swag Bucks account page)
- Download one of the various Swag Bucks browser plugins to earn for the searches you normally do.
- Read the Swag Bucks blog for updates on new updates as well as info on Swag Codes.
You should consider joining during the month of September 2009 as Swag Bucks has launched a number of changes to enhance your experience! These include:
- A brand new Swag Bucks Toolbar. The new toolbar has just been released and is compatible with IE, Firefox and Safari. Members will be able to log into to their account and track their points through the new toolbar.
Additionally, they will release a special “Swag Code” through the toolbar every day in September! The only way to get the code is by having the toolbar installed. By the end of the month, if you have installed the toolbar you should be able to rack up 30 FREE Swag Bucks!
- SWAGGO! Swaggo is Swagbucks.com answer to BINGO! During the month of September, you will be sent a special SWAGGO piece whenever you order selected prizes through the Swag Store. If you collect all the pieces in a row, you will be awarded 1000 Swag Bucks!
- A New “Back to School” Section in the Swag Store. This section will feature everything your child may need as they get ready for the new school year. The “Back to School” section will feature an assortment of goodies for all ages!
Here is the link to register:
Swag Bucks Registration
Register at this link and you will start off with 3 free Swagbucks!
Just fill in the boxes to the right hand side and you’ll have your account. Unfortunately this is only open to the countries of US, Canada and UK. If you live outside of these countries, you will be unable to participate in this program.
I hope this helps some that are struggling during these uncertain times.
More about FreeStuff4Free
FreeStuff4Free is a website that specialises in finding free samples. The site is visually compelling and easier to navigate than text based free sites. The site is updated daily and dead links removed regularly. There are no scams and all freebies are 100% legitimate.
In a time of crisis, where people are suffering from the global economic meltdown, there are sites out there trying to help out those less fortunate. One such site is www.FreeStuff4Free.com, which offers a large selection of freebies.
Many companies are still willing to advertise and so to show that their products are superior than their competitors they are eager to offer samples to trial hoping that consumers will enjoy their product and convert into future purchasers.
Whilst these may only be of sample size, the number of manufacturers offering such free samples is substantial, therefore an average person can receive over 20 free samples a week just by signing up to different offers, thus saving you and your family precious money, which is so important during this time.
By trialling a product, an informed decision can be made whether it works for you. Traditionally, companies will just market by having attractive packaging and if you were sucked in and the product itself was not what you expected, you wasted your money. This approach to advertising removes that waste.
Freebies can range from magazine subscriptions to food giveaways, coupons offering savings on your favourite brands, to baby samples and competitions. Pretty much something for everyone!
Legitimate freebies DO NOT require any credit card details and the team at FreeStuff4Free.com spend many hours scouring the web to find the best legitimate offers around. As free stuff and free samples are wildly popular, often links to these great deals become inactive after a few days. Therefore to reduce the number of dead links, www.FreeStuff4free.com update their list every day! So there will always be new free stuff appearing all the time.
They also have a special section called cheabies, which is quite an clever term. Anyone who’s come across freebies before knows that there are some offers which aren’t technically ‘free’. There may be a minimal cost for postage and the like. A cheabie, is a hybrid word of ‘cheap’ and ‘freebie’. There is a dedicated section of these sort of offers on the site, which is a great idea that I think other freebies sites will start utilizing as well.
Each month, FreeStuff4Free gives away a prize to one of their mailing list subscribers. This is an easy way to stay in the running for free gifts. In the past they’ve given away iPod speakers, Nintendo games, concert DVDs and iTunes gift cards.
This is a legitimate form of marketing for companies wanting to promote their products. Product trials have proven successful and will continue to be so. If all this interests you, I suggest you go to www.FreeStuff4Free.com and spend some time exploring the site. You never know, you just might find something that you like!
Are you looking for more free samples? Then let us introduce you to FreeStuff4Free.com! A neat looking site, FreeStuff4Free features many ways for you save money (coupons), win prizes (giveaways, sweepstakes), and best of all, get free samples! When it comes to prices, nothing beats free!
This site groups offers according to your area of interest: baby, beauty, books, food, health, house, kids, magazines, money and pets.
If there’s a product that you’ve been wanting to try, but you don’t want to spend money on something that you may not find userful, then you should check if there is a free sample offering for it. FreeStuff4Free lists many free samples that you can apply for; and best of all, they’re free to try! On the Samples section, you can find free samples for products such as Acuvue contact lenses, Aveeno shampoo and conditioner, Tampax Pearl, Hunt’s ketchup, and more! This is a legitimate form of advertising for companies wanting to promote their products. Product trials have proven successful and are here to stay.
FreeStuff4Free also has a section called Competitions, which features giveaways, surveys, and sweepstakes. And the prizes are massive! You can find listings for giveaways such as an iPod Touch or Nintedo Wii! The more you enter, the more chances you have to win!
If you are a penny pincher, then this is where coupon clipping comes in! The Coupons section features coupons from many brands and retailers, including Planet Hollywood, Little Caesars, and Nicorette.
Legitimate freebies DO NOT need credit card details and the team at FreeStuff4Free spend hours scouring the web to find the best legitimate freebies on the net. As free stuff and free samples are wildly popular, often links to these great deals become inactive after a few days. Therefore to limit the number of dead links, they update their list every 24 hours! So there’s always a selection of new freebies to choose from.
They also have a special section called Cheabies, which is quite an innovative term. Anyone who’s come across freebies before knows that there are some offers which aren’t technically ‘free’. There may be a small cost for shipping and the like. A cheabie, is a hybrid word of ‘cheap’ and ‘freebie’. There is a dedicated section of these sort of offers on the site, which is a great idea and I think you’ll see other sites starting to use this phrase as well.
Each month, FreeStuff4Free gives away a prize to one of their mailing list subscribers. As long as you are on their mailing list you continue to be entered into each month’s draw. In the past they’ve given away iPod speakers, Nintendo games, concert DVDs and iTunes gift cards.
Visit FreeStuff4Free.com, I think you’ll like it.
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