Networking to find a job

Remember yesterday when I mentioned that you could find job offers by doing volunteer work? That is just one way to network with people to find jobs or career advancement. The volunteer work does not have to be in the same type of work that you are looking for, it is the other volunteers that you meet that are the connections you want. Of course sharing a common bond or like for what you are doing will get conversations started between you and others. Don't expect to come home from just one day's worth of volunteer work with a wealth of information, it takes time.

Where to volunteer:

• local hospitals
• volunteer firefighter
• the local animal shelter
• the boys and girls clubs
• YMCA
• your child's school
  

Writing a professional blog

Blogging as a profession has made many people happy, all the way to the bank. Those people that have made a decent living by writing blogs all have one thing in common - they never give up or become disenchanted with blogging. The are also very prolific writers.

Take for example this blog, I am a prolific writer. I often write as many a 3 blog posts a day and I average about 10 blog posts a week. I don't get tired of writing, in fact I don't even mind not having people reading my posts - but they do.

Do I make money blogging? Sure I do. You see the ads on the right? People click on them and buy those items and I get a % of what they buy. I also make some nice small change from Google by people clicking on those Google ads on this blog. For every 40 visitors I average one Google ad click. For the display ads I get at least a $100 check every month. I am only now just starting to be asked about doing paid product and website reviews. I have just finished one for Cisco and the post was done earlier today.

Bottom line is, if you want to get paid for doing a professional blog you can it just takes time to gather readers to you and not give up before your blog has had a chance.

Saving money is not an overnight affair

Learning to save money and stick to a budget is not only an art nowadays but a must if you plan on staying out of the "poor house". Saving money is not just saving up some extra cash for Christmas spending but must be done to over a longer term to prepare for retirement or a medical disaster both of which will come as we age. It is not a case of if something bads happens and we need to use that nest egg of savings but when.

Your timetable of savings should not be turned on an off like a table lamp but be a steady weekly event. Simply setting aside $20 a week in a savings account can help you. Put that money into an account that you cannot easily access to make withdrawals will keep you from spending your savings like water.

An open letter to President Bush

Mr. President,

When you took office in 2001 you inherited a 128 billion dollar surplus government budget. Right now as I type this the USA government budget is at an all time high deficit of 490 billion dollars. That's right, the USA is in the red for $490 billion.

All I can ask is what the heck were you thinking? Who handles the checking account in your family? I guess it is NOT YOU! I do believe that only someone that can handle money in their own private lives (not by hiring an accountant) should be allowed to handle the nation's budget or sign anything that has to do with the nation's budget. I guess we found out too late that you can't handle money and have had a grand ole' time spending ours.

I will not miss you when you are out of office, but I cringe at the thought of who is going to replace you.

Biofuels are not what you think

Mention biofuel and most people think of vegetable oil made from corn or canola. Biofuel is now being developed that can be made from algae. The algae can be grown is large shallow ponds and then harvested for processing.

By the way the next time you think that food prices are going up due to all the corn being used to make biofuel here is something you ought to know. The corn that is being used to make biofuel is not human grade or animal grade corn. You must also take into that fact that there are millions of acres of farm land that is not being used for anything - have you forgotten that the government still pays some farmers not to grow anything?

Rising prices today are mostly from greed not a supply issue.

The federal minimum wages increases by 70 cents on Thursday

This coming Thursday (July 24, 2008) the US Federal minimum wage goes from $5.85 to $6.55 an hour. This will affect about 13 million workers that are in states that don't have a higher rate of a minimum wage. I say that the minimum wage across the board should be around $10.00 and hour just to keep pace with inflation. The national poverty level is about $17K a year and that equals $8.17 an hour.

Getting payments on your website

How to transfer funds safely on the internet has got to be the number one concern of business owners and just hobbyists trying to sell just a few items. PayPal and Google checkout are 2 of the more well known systems in use but we often hear about flaws in their security system or disputes that have left several companies dumping them for more conventional credit card processors. Another company, authorize.net, plans on taking on PayPal with their eBay auction solutions. Like PayPal they are offering a no charge set up and similar rates per transaction. It is something worth looking into.

Submit a press release

Press releases were a very common way to announce to the general public via the printed newspaper or magazine the goings on in your company. Newspapers and magazines would often have a space set aside in their publication just for press releases. The big bonus was the fact that press releases were printed for free so it was free advertising for those companies. Nowadays the internet has places to submit press releases. You can read all about Dennis C Carey and the press release that his company sent in. On that same page you can submit your company's latest news. It doesn't have to be about your workers but it can be about your latest product, newest store or to announce your website. Write your press release to make your readers really take an interest in you. If you don't have the talent to write a really nice press release then find someone that can. Double check your grammar and spelling before submitting a press release. Often the printed media will contact you for more information. Who knows maybe your press release will become a front page news item.

I did a press release years ago for a children's day camp that I put together. It was going to run for 4 weeks during the summer and I sent in a press release to a small local newspaper. They were so interested in what I was doing for the local community that they sent a reporter and a photographer to do a story on the children's day camp. After the story appeared in the paper I ended up with so many kids signing up that I made just over $6K profit from those 4 weeks. Press releases do pay off.

How not to blog

If you decide to make a blog for promoting a business or becoming popular enough to get some paid advertising on it there are a few things you should know. You need to post to your blog at least twice a week. The more often you post the more often the search engines will send bots to crawl your blog. On your first post you should at least make an effort, not like the blog of Dan Neumeister were he merely writes "a test". About the only thing the search engine bots are going to catch on that blog is his name. I wonder what his intentions were? Also try to keep your blog clean, meaning don't clutter it up with so many ads and widgets that it looks like an advertising collage. You want your readers to come back often to read your content, not look at the ads. The ads will be a bonus and you can add them later when you have a daily readership. Blogging is a new art form and as such an art form you can develop it as you wish. If you plan on making a living by blogging keep in mind that you have readers and those readers like what you say or present to them. Those same readers become your customers when they click on a Google Ad or visit a site that you recommend. Lastly take a look around at other blogs, what are they doing that you don't like? Chances are if they turned you off of their blog then they did the same to other readers too, don't copy them.

Watch out for scam about being a "movie extra"

There is a career scam going around the internet. Usually you will get an email like the one I got. Here it is:
To:
Subject: MOVIE [EXTRA'S] NEEDED IN YOUR AREA: 07/20/2008-ezsavingsdirect.info
From: WANTED-MOVIE-EXTRAS@notify.ezsavingsdirect.info
Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:18:06 -0700
­
Sunday, Jul 20, 2008
Want to be in a movie? All ages, looks, and types needed.....Daily pay. Click below on how you can get a part.
http://www.ezsavingsdirect.info/mvixt/index.html

The link takes you to a site called Hollywood Profiles. The site is a scam. They charge your credit card a membership fee to look at jobs in the movie industry which probably don't exist. The number one clue here is that legitimate Hollywood casting call listings are free but most people don't know that. There is a list of complaints on this web site about Hollywood Profiles.

Bottom line: If you are unemployed or looking for another job or career don't pay any agency any membership fees, listing fees or any other types of up front fees. If you go with a fee based employment agency they will charge you but only AFTER you have found work through them. They typically take the money out of your first paycheck.

Collecting and reselling

If you watch much TV you would catch the occasional comedy that showcased a hair brained scheme of getting rich or starting a business. On the "George Lopez show", George's wife started her own catering company in the garage. In "Yes, Dear", on of the characters donned a wet suit and went diving for golf balls.

Both of those examples are not bad ideas. I know of 3 women that have gotten together and started their own catering company. One does the decorations, another makes wonderful wedding cakes (she supplied mine) and the third specialized in hand calligraphy (almost a lost art) for personalized invitations.

There was a company the was featured on "Dirty Jobs" that collects golf balls and resells them to driving ranges so the golf ball idea is not so hair brained as it might seem.

Hobbies and skills

Developing a hobby into a business is one of the most common ways most successful businesses start and keep going over the years. It is the passion of a hobby interest that keeps the spark lit. Businesses that are purely started to make money usually end up going under after 5 years or less.

Do you have a hobby or interest that you could develop into a business? If you don't have one now go back to your childhood years and try to remember what was a passion for you back then and rekindle the flames of an old hobby. Chances are you now have the knowledge or expertise to supply others with items for that childhood hobby.

Be creative

A business based on art or imagination does very well. Clothing designs are always changing so that might be a good place to start. Photo Blankets used the current technology in printing to get their desired result. Here is a photo of their product:
You can see that it is the type of product that will sell well. What kind of product can you come up with using the technology that is available today?

Ideas for businesses to start up

I know that most people are at a deadlock when it comes to thinking about what kind of business to start up. My advice is to keep it simple. If the idea or product takes off then you can make it more elaborate but when you are trying out the business waters, simple at first is best. The next few blog posts will give you some ideas of business to start.

Using misspelled words to drive visitors to your site

Search engines send bots to your website or blog to catalog it for later use. Those scans by the bots pick up everything, including all the misspelled words you have on your site. Most of the time it is good thing that all your grammar and spelling is correct but by misspelling words you can increase your visitors from searches via the search engines.

Not everyone is a good speller, nor does everyone have spell check running or surf with Firefox (which has a built in spell checker). Many people misspell words on searches and come up with only those sites that have those words misspelled. Take for example the phrase bodybuilding supplements. Some people might misspell the word supplements with "suppliments" or separate bodybuilding into the two words "body building". Another example would be the word catalog which can be misspelled as "catalogue".

Here is a suggestion - create one web page on your site that has a very small link to your home page. On that page do a short article listing all the commonly misspelled words for your products, hobby or what your website is all about. Make the article funny and interesting to read and vistors may actually become customers.

Selling handmade soaps

I know absolutely nothing about making fragrant soaps or other similar types of crafts like candle making but I do know that many entrepreneurs have made fortunes starting out selling and marketing those types of items.

I came across a wonderful article by a fellow writer at AC titled The Three Best Places to Sell Handmade Soap and thought it might help out some of my readers.

The best stock investments

The best advice I have ever heard for buying stocks is "invest in companies that you buy from". If your favorite store is WalMart then buy stock in WalMart. If you are complaining about the high cost of gasoline then buy stock in an oil company. If you buy Disney DVD's then invest in their company.

I am personally more of a mutual fund investor and I have a very nice energy mutual fund that has a wide range of company stocks including EXXON. That little beauty has earned me close to a 50% profit since first I first purchased it 2 years ago.

For some great tips on stocks I recommend visiting Motley Fool at fool.com

Bad advice from Dave Ramsey

I occasionally watch both Dave Ramsey and Susie Orman on the various cable channels to see if they dish out any advice that I could out to use. Susie was the one that turned me on to ROTH IRA’s and although I don’t have one I might be looking into one in the near future. Dave on the other hand has dished out some weird if not down right bad advice to some people calling into his show.

Last night I watched the last half of his show when this woman called in. She had taken $70K out of her 401K and giving it to her boyfriend. That was bad new enough since the boyfriend was at one time promising to pay her back and backed out of that promise. She then found out form the IRS that she owed $50K on the $70K she took out. Now I know that the IRS penalties are bad but I don’t think they are that bad. Right there Dave should have told her to get a tax attorney but instead he told her to go ahead with the sale of her house (which she had planned to do to pay the IRS back) and lower the price of it since she now feared that she was almost to the point of going into foreclosure (which she also said the lender had not notified her yet of any foreclosure action or any threat of). My biggest gripe is that this woman needed help badly and he failed to send her to the right person that could help her – an attorney with tax and financial experience. I don’t think that a person should lose their home because of what she did. I know the IRS is very happy with monthly payments of what can be arraigned.

You blew it Dave. What you need is a good colon cleanse to get the bull s*** out of your system and quit giving people bad advice.

Free calulator to find which debt to pay off first

Here is a link to Quicken's free online debt calculator that can help you figure out which credit card to pay off first. Don't just pick the one with the smallest balance or the one with the earliest term end. Use the calculator and see different scenarios about your debts.

Tips for your business

When you think of a small start up business the common thoughts run to a desk with a computer or the kitchen table as the site of your first assembly line. As your business grows you will need better work areas like a real office, Lab Furniture or work benches. I really like the professional look of stainless steel for work areas for assembling even the simplest item. The lab furniture often has sinks built in so that access to water for cleaning will come in handy.

Storage will also be a factor in your business needs. I would stay away from storing any item for sale in the garage because of the odors that might leach into it. Speaking of odors, make sure your items, if they are made of textile, have no odors to them. You may have to get a neighbor or friend sniff the items for you since we are often so use to our own household odors we will not notice if the smell is offensive to others.

Scam warning - fake rescues

If you are the type of person that likes to donate to a good cause here is a warning.

There have been several people all over the country claiming to be a dog, cat, horse or other type of animal rescue when in fact they are not. Some of them don't even have any animals. What they are doing is copying legitimate animal rescue websites (in some cases word for word) and changing the names. They then ask for donations. They are also advertising on craigslist.com that the sale of their items will benefit a certain animal rescue. When that animal rescue was contacted about the craigslist listing they did not know anything about it.

Check out throughly where your donations are going to and don't let your heart be softened by the scammers.

When big companies goof up

If you have a small company and you are in the process of trying to invent or redesign a product you know how frustrating it can be. Once you think that you have that perfect product and the general public rejects it you now know how the shoe giant NIKE feels. NIKE recently came out with a new athletic shoe for horseback riders (top photo). I don't know where they got the idea that the equestrian clothing market needed a new line of riding boots but they designed one. The new riding boots will be at the 2008 Olympics and so far the design is a disaster.

The traditional riding boot has the zipper located at the back of the boot and the main reason for that is to prevent rubbing of the zipper on the stirrup. The last thing that a rider needs is sores on the tops of their feet due to zipper rub.

Now on to the customers reactions. When NIKE first announced the new boot there was a mixed reaction until the more experience riders started to point out the design flaws of the boots. The look was not so much an issue but safety and comfort were. The spur located at the back of the boot was considered hideous and not needed. The heel was too small and there were concerns as to the safety of keeping a rider from having a foot caught in the stirrup due to the heel size.

Right now I think that NIKE has a lemon on it's hands with this boot, so we will see what the general publics' reaction to the boot will be come Olympic time.

Debt management and bankruptcy

Bankruptcy can be an ugly word and it puts fear into many people. From a been there done that person I can tell you that bankruptcy is not all that bad. Our family had over $50K in credit card debt and was drowning in a sea of bills. At the time I also had a small business and if it wasn't for the business we would have surely sunk. The business also enabled us to file for chapter 13 bankruptcy rather than chapter 7. Under chapter 13 we were on a payment plan and had to pay back our debt but at a lower % than we owed.

Prior to filing for bankruptcy I called several companies that specialize in Debt Management and was told that we owned too much (as in cars) to qualify for their system. For us bankruptcy was the only option available to us. A friend of mine went though a debt management company where she was able to get her bill collectors to stop hounding her. She did not own her own home so she qualified for their services.

Before jumping into any type of program such as bankruptcy or debt management, investigate your options fully and understand the programs they have to offer.

Split up your bank accounts

After the closing of IndyMac Bank you think that people would learn not to put all their eggs (money) in one basket. First find out if your financial institution is federally insured. The amount in each account is typically insured to $100K tops. If you have $150K, like one poor sap on the TV news said he did in IndyMac, he will more than likely not see that $50K again. If he had only took that extra $50K to another bank or credit union he would be OK.

You have got to learn and treat banks just like the stock market and diversify your accounts. The banks will tell you it is easier to do all of your banking with them but protect your money and have several banks.

Don't keep you money where it doesn't work for you

How many of you have PayPal accounts? Raise your hand. Now how many of you keep more than $100.00 in that account? Now the plain fact is that you are not letting your money work to make more money for you if you let it sit in a PayPal account. A PayPal account is not a regular bank and as such they do not have to follow banking rules which protect your money. They can charge outlandish fees whenever they want or close your account at their whim.

I have a PayPal account to simply receive payments from eBay auctions or items that I have sold through my website. I don't not keep more than $150.00 in the account at any one time unless I plan to make a large purchase online such as technology items like memory cards or a battery for one of our laptops. The money is transfered to my savings account to grow so that I can then either transfer it yet again to a money market account or to buy into a mutual fund.

I make sure that my money does not just sit around for long, it works for me to earn interest no matter how small. Something is always better than nothing.

Using medical keywords to add to your blog revenue

The highest paying keywords for Google Adsense are medical and legal words. Using those types of words in your blog will display Google ads with higher paying click revenue. For example the phrase charlotte cosmetic dentist might allow for dental related Google Ads or it might latch on to the word "cosmetic" and either display ads for makeup or surgery. The surgery based Google Ads tend to pay higher click through rates. At the same time Google could grab the word "charlotte" and display travel ads or ignore the word entirely. You will have to experiment with different words and phrases to get the higher paid Google ads to appear on your site. Those higher paid ads mean the difference between getting paid .01 cent a click or $10.00 a click.

The 4 day work week

You have probably seen the news stories (video of one is below) about how many companies and local governments in the USA are know courting the idea of the 4 day work week. Now would it surprise you that the USA is behind the rest of the world when it comes to working hours and work conditions? For example in Australia the average work week is 38 hours for full time not the 40 hours that is common in the USA. Here is the current labor law in Australia that will take affect in 2010:

10 National Employment Standards
Labor has proposed 10 National Employment Standards, to replace the Howard Government's Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard, covering:

1. Hours of work, mandating a 38 hour week, with reasonable additional hours.

2. Parental leave guaranteeing 12 months of unpaid leave, plus the right to request up to an additional 12 months of unpaid leave, which can only be refused on "reasonable business grounds".

3. The right to request flexible working arrangements for parents until their child reaches school age, refusal only permitted on reasonable business grounds.

4. Four weeks' paid annual leave.

5. Ten days' Personal / Carers leave, plus 2 days compassionate leave, plus 2 days unpaid leave for family responsibilities.

6. Community Service Leave, for example, unpaid leave for participation in State Emergency Service and paid leave for jury service.

7. Public holidays.

8. Employers must provide all new employees with a Fair Work Information Statement which contains prescribed information about the employee's rights and entitlements, including the right of the employee to choose whether to be or not to be a member of a union and where to go for information and assistance.

9. Termination of Employment & Redundancy, including minimum notice of termination and minimum redundancy pay.

10. Nationally consistent long service leave entitlements.

The Standards will apply to all Australian employees regardless of their industry or occupation from 1 January 2010. The Standards will operate in addition to award provisions. The Standards cannot be removed or replaced

Now compare that with the government laws in the USA covering vacations or sick time. In the USA most of those items are up to the employer only. People that are in the lower pay range cannot afford to be sick or take time off from a labor intensive job in order to recuperate because they won't get paid for it. Maybe it is time for some labor reform to come to the USA since the rest of the planet seems to be passing us by when it comes to taking care of humanity.

For more information on how other countries have defined their "work weeks" go to wikipedia here. I found an interesting little tid bit of info on there. The page points out the fact that the rest of the Western countries in Europe have a mandatory 4 to 6 weeks vacation from their employers, I would love to see that enforced in the USA. The page also goes into great detail about how the USA use to have shorter work weeks and the impact of the longer work week has on inflation.

More about using keywords on your blog or website

Some of you new to the realm of blogging or websites will wonder what IS a keyword. A keyword is a word on your blog or website that a search engine will use to sort out your site on searches. The word "the" is so common that unless the person is using it in a complete phase in a search the search engine will ignore it. Major shopping keywords are discount, sale, wholesale and free. Of course the use of the words that fully describe what your website is all about is what you need to use on your website - frequently. For example if you have a website or blog about model airplanes but fail to put other words that fully describe them as models you will not only get lots of people looking for full size aircraft but lots of visitors that simply surf on and off your site in a matter of a few seconds. That is the negative part about using keywords but there is a plus side too.

The great thing about using keywords is that you can make money from them if you have Google Adsense on your blog or website. For example if I use the words Diet Pills on a blog post I can expect a Google Ad to show somewhere on the blog about diets. Knowing what is the higher paying Google Ads (money that you can earn by people just clicking on them) you can then cater to using keywords that will have those higher paying clicks. I am told that medical and legal terminology is the highest paying per click ads.

If you are just starting out with a blog just use lots of different keywords in your blog posts to see what kind of Google Ads show up. To find which keywords pay the most (and they are constantly changing) do a search on "highest paid Google Ads" and you should come up with a long list of sites to check out.

Using keywords to drive traffic to your blog or website

The great majority of website or blog owners have no clue how they get their visitors from search engines. They assume that people are looking for what they have to sell or the information they have on their sites is what people are looking for. They are far from the real truth. Their visitors are arriving from search engines because they typed in a word or phase that matches what they were searching for. Some websites have actually used that to their advantage and added keywords or phrases to their site just to get visitors. For example if you had a health foods blog or website you might add the phrase "a diet pill that works" just to get people to land on your site that had typed in that phrase. Sometimes the words or phrases that will bring the most visitors are the words "wholesale" or "discount". The most common word typed into the search engines when people are shopping for something is the word "free" or "free shipping". The more keywords you use on your blog or website that pertain to what your site is all about the more visitors you will have from search engines.

Foreclosures are still on the rise

Today CNN announced that for the first 6 months of 2008 a total of 343,000+ homes have entered foreclosure or have been repossessed by lenders. This in a 136% increase over last year at the same time during 2007. The biggest states to show an increase were Oregon, Arizona and Nebraska.

Prices of some technology products are coming down

Have you noticed that when household spending is no longer a free for all the prices of certain items come down? Food will always be in demand but that items that most people can do without such as MP3 players, designer handbags and jewelry are coming down in price. The electronics products are the first to come down in price because the manufacturers and retailers know that those types of products quickly become outdated if they are not moved out of their inventory fast. You can take advantage of those lower prices and really shop around for some great deals right now.

The bicycle is making a comeback

If you are old enough to remember the long gas lines at gas stations during the 1970's then I am sure you will remember the shortage of bicycles at the same time. The resurgence of bike riding as a way to get to work or school is making a comeback. I personally would like to see an end to moms and dads taking their kids by car all over the place like school and soccer practice, make the kids use their bikes instead. If more parents did that then there would be less traffic on the roads and more bikes thus lowering the incidences of traffic related bike accidents. Also more and more children would end the possibility of ending up as obese adults.

It looks like the rise in gas prices might have been a blessing in disguise. It is causing people to get out of their cars and either bike or walk more. A healthier lifestyle might be in the offing.

Finally a cordless vacuum cleaner

Vacuums are a sore spot with me. Mine are always breaking down. Our household replaces our vacuum cleaner about every 3-5 years. I have owned a Bissel, 2 Dirt Devils, several Eurekas and our latest one a Hoover. None of them thus far has been the ideal vacuum cleaner for me and I refuse to pay $400 for a Dyson.

One of my biggest grips about vacuum cleaners in general is the fact that you have to find an outlet to plug them into wherever you go. Some of my outlets are located behind heavy furniture and I am generally not in the mood to move furniture around just to plug the vacuum cleaner in. If it was that much easier to use then maybe the rest of the family would not be so reluctant to use a vacuum cleaner.

Dirt Devil finally saw that us household cleaners (I refuse to say "housewives" because a "househusbands" can also do some cleaning too) could use a cordless vacuum cleaner. I wonder when that bright light went off in their heads? Probably when they realized that drills and other "manly" tools are also cordless. - duh! Now I wonder if the cordless version has as much suction power as a plug in vacuum cleaner. Now the new Dirt Devil cordless vacuum also claims to have the first Energy Star rating of any cordless vacuum cleaner. Sure, that will make it energy efficient but does it suck? With that last line I could certainly get into a long line of vacuum cleaner jokes, but I won't.

I haven't seen the new Dirt Devil cordless vacuum cleaner in person so I have no way to evaluate it. Let's hope that other vacuum cleaner manufacturers get on the band wagon for cordless vacuums and maybe the technology will improve faster than it has in the past. Competition is the fastest way for us consumers to benefit from technology.

Products I would like to see

Attention inventors: there are some products I would like to see made and produced. Some of them the technology already exists but needs to be made better. First up is more products utilizing solar energy. I am not talking about just using solar panels to produce energy but the battery storage system to store the energy - the batteries need to be smaller. Second, I would like to see all disposable batteries for toys and other hand held devices come to an end. The production, manufacturing and disposing of them is costing us money not to mention the effects on the environment. Third, I would like to see a more efficient and cost effective way to print a color photo or document other than using $50.00 printer cartridges. Those color ones run out of ink in less than 3 months and I don't use them that often so I wonder if they are drying out or ?

So what are you waiting for? Go and make improvements.

Frugal does not mean "cheap"

Living frugally does not mean you have to do without or buy less than good quality items. Frugal means you shop around and make the best decision on what is available. Here is a great example: my teenage daughter wanted to be like her friends and they all had ipods. Of course an ipod is not cheap and she wanted the upgraded one that she could watch videos on it. I told her I would see what I could do and looked around on the internet for what was available. What I found was an MP4 player on Overstock. She took a look at it and was thrilled. The fact that it only cost $80 and free shipping was great too. We ordered it. That was almost a year ago and the last time we looked on Overstock they no longer had the MP4 player she bought. We had just lucked out on that buy.

It does pay to shop around and you can buy items that are on clearance at the local store or online. Being frugal does not have to mean going without as my daughter will testify to with her MP4 player.

Hair styling professional

When I was in high school I was always styling my own hair. That included cutting and perms but not coloring , I was not "into" the coloring aspect of it at that age. Those were the days when coloring your hair was limited to become a "bleached blonde" or covering grey hairs. I had no desire to do either. In my senior yearbook I was labeled as the next great Vidal Sassoon.

Well I never made it to becoming a hair stylist but I know many women who did. They make a really good living at it too. One of my nieces works in salon in San Fransisco and she specializes in the emo look. One of her necessary tasks is straighting hair with a ceramic flat iron. As a sideline she also does body piercing for clients.

She has proved that you can make a living at a profession that in some areas has had a downturn in clients if you adapt. Too many salons still try an cater to the elderly women who in some cases are fast becoming among those on shrinking incomes. The older teens and twenty year olds tend to have more disposable incomes and you should think of them as potential clients.

The 4th of July aftermath

I hope you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend. Not many people were traveling far from home this year. Our family's celebration consisted of a fire in our backyard fire pit with hot dogs cooked over it and smores for desert.

Now comes time for shopping after the 4th. Yesterday I hit the grocery store to find that the place was almost empty of people! What a treat for me. Today I have to go out again since I forgot a few things. That is not like me to forget items since I usually make a list. I can blame it on the fact that I did not have a shopping list with me yesterday since all the pens in the house (at least the ones I found) did not work. A box of pens is now on my mental shopping list for today.

Normally I would not worry about forgetting something at the store but now it will cost an extra $3.00 for the trip since the price of gas has gone up.

Firework sales down?

Celebrating the 4th of July has become the great summertime outdoor party. Topping off a day of barbecues and outdoor games is the trip to town to watch the fireworks or invite friends and family over to enjoy your own backyard firework display.

Has the general rising costs of food, gas and other items put a damper on the July 4th celebration? Many local cites in central Oregon have canceled their annual public fireworks display due to costs. They just can't afford it anymore.

Two years ago a large box of fireworks bought at the local WalMart would cost about $50.00 or less. The display shelves would empty out rather rapidly and if you had not bought your fireworks at least 4 days before the 4th you would just be left with the leftover pickings to choose from. Last year that same box would be around $69.00 and they were still leaving the shelves fairly fast. This year the price has jumped to $99.00 and a larger box selling for $150.00, needless to say they are still on the shelves with just under 3 days to go.

This year it is boiling down to "do I want to buy fireworks for $100.00, or spend that money on food and gas?". People are now deciding on how to wisely spend that money celebrating this July 4th. Do you want to see $100.00 go up in smoke in only 20 minutes or take a day trip somewhere for that same $100.00? I think that many people have decided to forgo fireworks this year.