Lawyers and advertising

Have you seen the latest TV commercials for cerebral palsy lawyers? The commercials encourage parents with children born with a birth defect to contact one of their lawyers. I wonder what they would do if the mother was a meth addict or an alcoholic? Who would they sue? That makes me wonder what is the next set of commercials that law offices will be advertising about. Too bad they don’t go after companies that rip off people like those paycheck loan companies that charge people 30% just to get an advance on their next paycheck. They use to call that loan sharking but it is now legal.

Just a word about franchises

When ever I hear the word franchise I think about fast food chains or major football teams when they refer to themselves as a franchise. In order to become part of a franchise you have to shell out at least $5k for some of the least expensive ones. That price is just for the right to call yourself as part of a larger company like Burger King or Papa Murphy’s. The franchise price does not include inventory, equipment or the building you need. Some people feel they need to belong to a larger company in order to make a go of a business. Only you can tell if you want to start a business on your own or as part of a franchise.

TV sets sure have changed

About 8 years ago my bother-in-law bought one of those huge big screen TV sets that took up most of the room in his family room. Everyone squeezed into his family room for the big football games and Super Bowl Sunday was a regular occurrence for several years. At the time I asked him why he didn’t get one of those pop up tv sets so it wouldn’t take up so much room. He never did answer my question. I wonder what he would say today with the large screen plasma TVs on the market. They sure do take up much less room than his 8 year old big screen TV.

One major tip on selling your house

If you really have to sell your house then you will need to make it look as empty as possible for when people look at it. Using a self storage unit is what we used in selling our last 2 homes. It also made it easier for us when it came time to move since we already had most of our items in the storage unit.

People don’t want to look at what you have when they are house shopping they are looking at the house itself. The better they can see the actual house the faster you will sell it.

The holiday layoffs continue

The layoffs have gotten so bad in the state of Oregon that the state employment department has to hire 35 more people just to handle the phone lines. They handle all of their unemployment claims in 4 major work centers. In order to file an unemployment claim you have to call into the one that your area is assigned to. Calling in can take up to 2 days of constant dialing the phone number.

Where are the bargains?

Have you been out holiday shopping yet? I was out yesterday just to buy some essential office items I have been running out of. I found many of them at the Dollar store but I still needed address labels that go in my printer. I wanted only a few sheets, not a large pack that the office supply places sell. Have you looked at the prices of those things lately? The last time I bought a package of them it cost only $3.99 for 12 sheets. I went to 3 separate places and the cheapest I found were $7.99 for 10 sheets. The prices for such an item are outrageous.

I still have several sheets of the 2"X4" packaging labels. What I am going to do is modify the template so it will print out 2 or 3 labels on each one of the packaging labels then cut them up. I just can't see paying almost $8 for 10 sheets of address labels when I only need to use one or 2 sheets.

So back to my original question of the title of this post "where are the bargains?" They are not in the office supply section, that's for sure. I was hoping that the sales that the stores are pushing would include a few non-gift items as well.

Make money by selling jewelry

Us gals have always figured out ways to sell to our co-workers. You'll almost always find someone that sells Avon or Tupperware but the more unusual items are jewelry sales and gourmet foods.

I have always been partial to jewelry myself since it takes up so little room in the home and it is great to match my outfits up with a nice piece or two.

One company that I can personally vouch for is Hy Ho Silver. They are the suppliers for Jewelry parties, online stores, eBay auctions and many retailers. I use to use their catalogs to sell high quality Sterling Silver jewelry at my own jewelry parties. I even became the supplier to one gift shop in town for a few years. If you are thinking about starting up your own business that you can set your own hours and have a very small start up budget of under $50.00 then you should look into their website, here.

The advantages of a hotmail or live account

When I first started surfing the internet many years ago I used my ISP provided email account. It was at the old long forgotten Prodigy company. I learned way back then never to use your personal email address to sign up for anything on the internet, your email addy will be on every spam email account forever.

Along came the can spam act and I can only say that I have not seen any difference in my junk mail. The only difference is that I have a hotmail and live email accounts that I use for when I sign up for anything on the internet. The hotmail account gets about 60 emails a day that offer me everything from Viagra to Hydroxycut hardcore diet pills. Needless to say I don't open them and just delete them all. I also have used the filter that they both offer to block certain domain names or email addys that are just plain a pain in the butt.

My advice for the day is never to use your own personal email addy when you purchase something online or enter a contest. Get a free email account for those types of things. Google has gmail, MSN offers hotmail and live.

Free photography magazine

If you are a professional photographer or work with digital photos then here is a free print magazine for you, called AfterCapture. Just click on the link to take you to the subscription page.

New freebies

Since the economy is getting harder and harder on some folks I thought it would be great to do at least 2 blog posts a week on where to find some free stuff. This in NOT the kind of stuff that you get if you complete an "offer" of some sort. I get those types of emails all the time and I am sick of them.

Here is a free Schick Quattro Razor.


It is limited to "while supplies last" so I don't know how old the offer is.

Wrong location for craft fair

I visited a friend on Saturday. She was manning a table at a craft fair. She was there from 9am to 3pm and I found out later that she had not sold one item all day. Personally I told her that it was not the economy but the location and publicity of the craft fair.

When I arrived at the fair there were no signs on the sidewalk or at the nearest corner to advertise the fair. The fair was at a local lodge that the membership was mainly retired people. Almost all of the items were Christmas decorations and jewelry at the other booths. Other than a few quilts that she offered and some childrens items her inventory did not match the age of the customers she had which was mostly the club membership.

I don't think that her funny t shirts that she normally sells (but forgot to bring) would have even sold. She just picked a craft fair that was in the wrong place for customers and had organizers that dropped the ball on advertising it.

Lam Research is layoff 600 workers

My husband use to work at Lam Research 15 years ago and I worked at HP briefly that used the Lam plasma etchers. It has always been our experience that when Lam cuts back it's work force you can expect the whole computer industry to have massive layoffs in the next 6 to 9 months. Lam makes the machines that make the silicon wafers that is so important to the computer industry as a whole. Lam along with Applied Materials are the companies to watch for to see how the electronics industry will be for the next year.

The importance of essay writing with Essay Edge

I am always telling my daughter to make sure she keeps up on her grammar and writing skills. She will need them when she starts to apply to colleges. She will have to make herself stand out from the other applicants with an outstanding essay written about herself and her goals.

We take for granted that our words and what we meant them to say actually come across on paper the same way we speak them - but often they don't. There is a software program that will help you write essays, college papers and other long winded reports that need help. It is called Essay Edge. They also have resume' writing software for that job that you really want to stand out from the crowd with. You can get a discount with this EssayEdge coupon so you can save a bunch off of the regular retail price. The same website that has the coupon for Essay Edge also has other free online coupons for you to take advantage of so take a look around and see what else you can save some money on.

Not buying Christmas gifts this year

Our family has decided not to buy any Christmas gifts this year for each other. Instead we will opt just for a very nice prime rib dinner and a nicely decorated Christmas tree. We of course will be buying gifts for friends and relatives but not for us living under the same roof.

We have gotten to the stage of our lives that we have enough "stuff" already and we do really need to get rid of some of it. So why add more "stuff" to the collection?

The battle of the discount stores

If you have money to spend this holiday season without using your credit card you should come up with the best deals in years. Both Kmart and Walmart are taking turns with the specials.

Here is what Kmart is up to now at their online website:

• Kmart is offering big discounts to customers that shop at their website
• They have free shipping on all orders over $49 and I bet that will be lowered as the sales battles continue
• They are offering a free $25 restaurant gift certificate with clothing purchases over $50

If you need a great deal on bedding check out the Medallion Dream Comforter set. If you purchase it online before the 26th of November you get an extra 30% off the already low price. They have a really nice short sleeve ladies sweater that has an extra 10% off the sales price if you order it from the website. Of course they are having a big online sale on almost all of their clothing from kids to adults with the 10% additional discount that is available only until November 26th.

Now I wonder what kinds of discounts and sales will be happening after the 26th? We can only hope for deeper discounts and more savings.

How not to have repeat visitors to your website

One of the worst things you can do to your blog or website is make it look like a link farm. How many times have you tried in vain to find something via a search engine only to click on what you thought was a site with the information you were looking for but found nothing but links to other sites? Yes those link farm websites get lots of traffic but I bet they don't get repeat visitors. I for one will mentally remember that site and try my best not to visit it again.

Link farms to me look tacky and show me that the person put no thought into providing any valuable information for their visitors. Unfortunately link farms are showing up more and more towards the top of many search engine results.

My favorite pet peeve with link farms is clicking on a link that leads to another link farm!

Traveling this holiday season

Can you afford to travel this winter? If you could where would you go? Most people would love to go to somewhere that has different weather than what they normally have during the winter. If you have snow you dream about going somewhere warm like Hawaii or Las Vegas. Hawaii is often too expensive for the air fare, but Vegas is closer.

I am not much for gambling so the casinos in Vegas would not be an attraction for me. On the other hand taking in one or two of the famous Las Vegas shows would do me just fine. It would be a once in a lifetime treat for me to go and see a favorite performer up close during one of their stage shows rather than in a stadium concert. I have found an interesting website that offers discounts on Las Vegas Shows as well a list of shows and reviews of them. The website is pretty extensive with lots of photos too.

If I really want to treat myself I'll just have to save up for it.

Website tip of the day

If you have a blog or website on a free hosting site and want to move it to you own paid hosting make sure you have a large readership following you before you make the move. I made the mistake of thinking that just because I had over 350 daily readers on a blog I had at wordpress.com that they would follow me to my own website. I was wrong. My readership dropped to almost nothing even with me putting in redirects to the new blog. I made that mistake about 5 months ago. Even though I love the complete control and look over the new blog I am having to start all over again with readers. I have almost 50 readers a day again. Learn from my mistake and never under estimate your visitors.

Achieving a better indexed website or blog

Being found by the search engines is what you hope to accomplish if you have a website that is selling something. One way is to have your website indexed or crawled by a search engine bot. The more times the bot finds your site the more pages will be indexed. One thing I have found out is the more pages your blog or website has the more chances the search engines will find you. If you have a blog with only 50 posts you might be found by the search engines only if you had a vast following that linked from their blogs or websites to you. One the other hand if you had a blog with 1000 posts then the chances that the search engines will find you are increased dramatically. I am also finding out that the more posts this blog has it is increasing the visitors to it. Try to have as many relevant pages on your blog or website that you can manage, it will increase your chances with people finding your via the search engines.

The Dow Jones hit the lowest level in 11 years - so what!

Don't you just love CNN and MSN for all the shouting about how low the Dow Jones is dropping? The stock market is just making a rather dramatic correction to prices just like the housing market did.

Let's look at the real side of the stock market:

• 20 years ago the Dow Jones average was around 2,000- 3,000
• The steady climb up to 12,000 began in 1992
• Around 1997 the housing market started to take off and the Dow Jones was at 7,000
• Both the Dow Jones and the prices of houses then shot upwards until 2006 when the housing market started to cool down.

What was happening is that both the housing market and the stock market attracted a lot of speculators that were borrowing money to try and make money. They ended up driving up both the housing prices and the stock market like there was no end in sight. I guess they found the end.

What everyone needs to keep in mind is just how were you doing in 1991? If you survived back then, you'll do fine now. No need to start looking for luggage or think about moving to somewhere else in the world, yet. With the world's economy is the same boat as the USA, where would you go anyway? We'll get through it. Our grandparents survived the Great Depression and we'll get through this little bump in the road.

Plans that change

It's funny how we often set out to do one thing and life takes you in another direction. Take for example one of my first blog's, it was at the now defunct Blogfeast community where you got a cut of the Google Adsense revenue generated by your posts. I wrote about my personal life with a bit of local news thrown in here and there. From there I started another blog at wordpress.com with the intention of becoming a famous blogger - big dreams I know. It was only after a few months at wordpress I found out rather rudely that I couldn't earn any money from my blog on there. So I went back to Blogfeast to read and learn more. I learned from the other blog writers how to really make a stand alone blog and earn my own money rather than rely on a blog community.

My trip in blogging has now taken about 3 years from it's first learning stages to having at last count 7 active blogs. This one is my most often posted on one. I have started at least 20 blogs over the last several years. Most of them I lacked the continued interest you must have to keep them going. I had picked subjects like treasure hunting, gambling and other assorted blog subjects just because of the high paying Google Adsense per click they would give, but I lacked a true interest in them to write in them every few days.

I had one blog get over 18,000 visitors in one day simply because someone didn't like what I wrote about (it was a critical piece about a local horse trainer that was convicted on sex charges) and I got 20 comments and over $40 in Google revenue. That same blog now only gets 20 visitors a day over 2 months later. I learned that controversy does make money.

I have tried have a blog with the funny animal pics like ICANHASCEEZEBUGER, but I just lack the continued interest and talent.

What interests me is getting ahead, saving for my family's future and just plain living without worrying about bills and how to pay them. So this blog was born. After the first few months I actually started making money from this blog. At first it was from Google Adsense ads followed by various companies that pay you to write reviews about their websites. Next came text type ads with links in them and finally affiliate ads.

Apparently my daily readership went up and now this blog qualifies for all sorts of ad listings. For those of you new to the blogging thing, some advertising companies won't even let you join them to get paid for advertising on your own blog unless you have an "XXXX" amount of daily visitors.

So there you have a brief short tour of my learning to blog and ending up here. I am still learning and hopefully this blog will be around for some time to come.

Forget Black Friday, the sales have begun

if you have been waiting for Black Friday to do your Christmas shopping this year you can just about forget it. Many retailers have begun the price slashing already and no doubt it will continue until way past Christmas.

Sears will be having their Sears Super Saturday Sale this coming Saturday on November 22 instead of waiting until after Black Friday. The doors open early at 7am and the sale will only run until noon. Will Sears be offering any real bargains? Well they will be cutting prices on their fine jewelry another 15% off of their previously reduced 40%-70% off prices. If they keep on going with those prices we might be soon paying close to wholesale for jewelry. About 30 years ago I worked in the accounting department of a huge department store chain and the mark up on most fine jewelry was 500%. I wonder what the mark up is nowadays?

Of course they are having 60% off on outerwear right after I just bought a winter coat for my daughter. That timing never does fail does it? Of course she needed a coat and the weather would not wait for the prices to come down.

They are limiting the sale to stock on hand so there will be limited quantities. That means no rain checks on any item. That is actually good news, it means they might be lowering their prices even further.

When the big stores like Sears start the sales rush early you can bet the other stores will be following right behind them.

Advertising dollars are up

The last few weeks I have noticed that one part of our economy has profited. It is the advertising industry. I have gotten more offers to write product reviews on my other niche blogs than ever before. The price of the offers have gone up from $10 to $35 on the average too. Several more online video advertising companies have gotten bigger. Companies are paying more for advertising online than in newspapers and TV ads.

At least I am getting some of those advertising dollars this holiday season.

Career fying pan and fire options

Career planing is almost like walking a tightrope today. If you get a wonderful job offer while you are still working at a job do you take it in the hopes that the new job will last? Does the job you now have on shaky ground? Is there an exit sign you should be looking for?

I think that many people are staying put right now in their current jobs because they are afraid of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire so to speak. Most people are aware that when companies have layoffs it is often the employee with the least seniority that goes first. The last 10 years or so that is not always the case anymore. Companies are now pickier than ever before and tend to keep only the best of the employees that have not caused the company to have any problems and get along with everyone.

I have noticed that some companies are using the down turn in the economy to have small layoffs when in reality they are merely clearing house. Make sure you are not considered a throwaway employee. Take some courses to improve your skills and build your career outlook.

Arguments for and against the bail out of the big 3 automakers

Last night the argument about the bail out for the big 3 automakers hit our living room. A heated discussion between my husband and myself started during the NBC Nightly News.

I am against loaning them any money and he is for it. We ended our discussion with the plain fact that we both had valid reasons for our positions but we still disagree with each other on the bail out. Below I have listed both his and my reasons for and against:

Me (against):

• The automakers have not produced any better MPG vehicles than they did 20 years ago.
  
• They have not made any new innovations in smaller lighter engines or even thought about using something other than steel.
• Their lack of customer care after the purchase often sucks and the government usually has to step in to order recalls.
• They have not stopped their assembly lines and retooled to meet the customers demands for more fuel efficient cars but keep turning out more heavy SUVs and trucks.
  
• They are still spending millions of dollars on advertising to push trucks and large cars to the public.
• They could save millions by putting a halt on all advertising until they have reorganized their business plans - and quit making gas guzzlers until there is a shortage of them and they are in demand again.
• If the big 3 go under or close to it then other more innovative car companies will take their place. They maybe foreign or domestic but they will probably be based on new technology.
• I have a funny feeling that the oil companies and the automakers are somehow in bed with each other which is not good for any of us.
  

Hubby (for):

• If the big 3 don't get a loan them it will put many people on the unemployment line.
• If the big 3 go under then it might throw us into a massive depression.

There you have our little discussion in a nutshell.

Investing in metals

I remember when the price of gold use to be $35.00 an ounce before the average US citizen was allowed to own it as an investment. Sure you could have a gold coin here or there but not gold bars or bullion. Since then the price of gold has risen and fallen a few times here and there. Here is a chart to show you what the price per ounce of gold has been since 1975. Right now it is back in the $750 range.



Platinum is another metal that has people investing in. It is not that much talked about. Here is it's chart for the price per ounce.



Both metals make good investments for the long term.

Jewelry made from either of those metals tend to keep their value over the years. Pure platinum tends to keep it's shape and is stronger than gold, which is a softer metal. You can have more pure platinum in platinum jewelry than you can have pure gold in gold jewelry. Because of that fact you might want to consider getting a platinum engagement ring or wedding ring over a gold one for long term investment.

Small businesses are shooting themselves in the foot

In my previous post I mentioned how Walmart was packed on a Sunday with real shoppers that were buying. On my way to Walmart I had to travel down our small town main street and I pass several small shops. There is a furniture store, a gift shop, a music store, a candy store, a florist, 2 antique shops and several thrift stores. All of them were closed because it was a Sunday.

Now I am well aware that people do need a day of for either religious reasons or because they are open the rest of the week, but when are businesses going to cater to times when their shoppers have time to shop? I for one work 40 hours at a regular job so my free time is limited to either after work or on the weekends. I can't possibly shop for everything on a Saturday and often Saturday is reserved for other events other than shopping, that leaves Sunday.

Different businesses need to cater to their customers. For example a feed store would need to be open early so someone could buy feed for their livestock. Farmers and people that own animals are often up early in the morning to take care of those animals so going to buy supplies for them early in the morning would make sense. We have a feed store in town that doesn't open until 10am and closes at 5pm and is closed on Sunday. Gift shops would do a better business if they had later hours to cater to shoppers that need to pick up a gift on the way home from work. Their customers would also be the type that shop on Saturdays and Sundays.

If you have a small shop and you are currently closed on Sundays or in the evenings consider what customers you are losing because of that. You might want to reconsider your current hours of operation. Don't shoot yourself in the foot by having your doors closed at the wrong time.

The Chistmas shopping season is doing better than we are lead to believe

I have heard that this Christmas shopping season, which in my humble opinion was started much too early, is down by at least 20% in some areas of the USA, if not more. Now I wonder where those reporters are getting their information from? I was in Walmart yesterday (Sunday) and the place was packed with holiday shoppers that were BUYING! This was not the looky loo crowd anymore that do a lot of looking before the official holiday shopping season starts, no these people were buying.

I was noticing what they were buying too. Large purchases of home counter top appliances, electronics, toys and little stocking stuffers. I did not see a lot of clothing purchases, sporting goods or home decor.

When you think about it, those purchases make sense in a slow economy. People will make due with clothes that they have even to the point of adding a decoration to a top or pants to hide a stain or a tear. Sporting goods like camping equipment would be considered a luxury item since the sport often entails a trip somewhere to use the item. Home decor items would be low on the list to buy for one's own family but might be a purchase for someone else. I don't know if it would be considered an insult to injury to give someone a home decor item to someone that just had their home foreclosed on or not.

Electronic games are always a good selling item for the winter because not many people have a chance to get out side to do something in the colder climates. The Wii did announce that it is experiencing a 50% increase in sales this year so there are some items that are selling fast.

The real scoop on layoffs

Everyone wants to know if their company will be having a layoff or not. Often company layoffs are not announced even to their own employees. I found out that the company I work for had a layoff last month of 10 employees. I didn't even find out that until I asked where one of the women I knew was, since I had not seen her in 2 weeks. I thought she was on vacation but it turned out she was one of those laid off.

So how can you find out what is going on at your company? I found a website that might be of help, it is called Layoff Gossip and it is an interesting place to search around at. Hopefully your employer is not on the lists but if they are you can get an idea about what is going on.

Sears is now offering layaway

It looks like Sears has jumped on the band wagon with offering layaway. They have all the details on their web page at Sears Layaway. They don't offer layaway options on appliances, home electronics or computers which I think is a failing on their part. Since there is a downward slide on home electronics sales I would think they would be more than happy to offer layaway on those items.

I am not too interested in buying clothes on layaway but I am sure if my husband caught wind of the Sears layaway plan that included Craftsman tools he would be over there drooling about what he wanted for Christmas. That being said I am going to keep the layaway plan a well kept secret from him. I just only hope they don't start advertising it on TV.

We do need a new coffee maker but in the price range I was looking I don't think I need to put one on layaway. I do wish they had a layaway plan for the January specials they will be having. Who knows maybe they will continue the layaway plan after the end of the year.

Where do you get your recommendations?

If you are like me you ask around for recommendations of restaurants, doctors, veterinarians, auto repair shops and other service related businesses. It is about the only way for me to learn what businesses to avoid as well. Nothing is worse for a business to have someone that knows a lot of people and make bad recommendations about a business.

When it comes to home or auto repair we are often pushed towards the business our insurance company recommends us to use. Usually I stay as far away from those businesses as possible simply because I know the insurance company doesn't have my best interests at heart but their bank accounts.

Two years ago I had a car hit my car and left some minor damage. It turned out we had the same insurance company and agent. I was not familiar with any local car repair shop so dumb me asked the insurance agent for a recommendation. She told me that most of the claims got sent to a small local auto collision repair shop and gave me the address. Since I did know of any other place I took the car there. Long story short - yes the car got fixed but the repair shop damaged another part of the car in the process and it was not discovered until 3 days later. It was only after the fact did I find out that the place have a bad reputation among the local residents.

At the link above is something that I should have checked into when I was looking for a local auto body repair shop. The link takes you to a review site of auto collision repair shops all over the nation. Almost like a 1-800-dentist if you will for auto repair.

Making the government stick to a plan

OK I want a show of hands here - how many people are totally upset with the US government changing their minds on what and where the $700 billion bail out will be spent or given to? In the past week alone the head of the treasury department has announced changes to where the money is going and right now it seems every large corporation in the USA wants a part of it including the big 3 auto makers.

It almost seems like the sharks are circling the boat looking for blood in the form of the bail out money.

What job markets are flourishing in today's economy?

Almost every day now we hear of companies shutting their doors forever or huge layoffs of once booming companies. I think by now we all know that a job in the construction industry or the automobile industry is pretty much shaky at this point in time. So what industries or careers are flourishing? The medical field seems to be doing just fine provided you are a certified, licensed or highly educated individual in your chosen field. There has always been a shortage of nurses. I remember when I worked in a major hospital in California some years ago the hospital was recruiting nurses from Canada. Even if you were a CNA working at the hospital, the hospital would pay part of your education to further your nursing career. I knew several CNA's that took advantage of that program.

Since the hospital had one of the nations top cancer treatment and research facilities, many of the nurses there held master's degrees in clinical nursing. One thing I didn't know at the time was that a nurse with a bachelor's degree could get a MS nursing degree online from Saint Xavier University's School of Nursing.

Another job field that seems unaffected so far is machine maintenance in a food processing plant. I would imagine that many auto mechanics would be wise to look into industrial machines to maintain in industries that are not related to construction, autos or electronics. Just think when you have that industrial accident you will be taken to the hospital where the nursing shortage will having you thinking "I should have become a nurse". Yes they do have male nurses and I worked with a few of them.

One way to increase your website or blog traffic

When people use search engines to find something they put in a word or phase which best describes what they are looking for. One of the most often used words people will type in is the word "free". If your website or blog offers anything free you will notice a spike in traffic once you put that offer on the net. It could be a free newsletter or a list of links to free downloads or free myspace layouts.

The next most popular search words are iPOD, MP3 and music downloads. It looks like if your website or blog has links to free music downloads you will be in heaven for traffic. I am not saying you can make a great deal of money from those visitors but at least you will have visitors.

To find out more about the most popular searches on the web currently go to Google Hot Trends.

Email marketing

I really can’t tell you if email marketing really works or not. I know that there are several claims that email marketing is the best thing since the invention of the light bulb but I do know that from my own experience that email marketing does not work that well with me. I don’t send out emails pushing a product or with affiliate links in hopes that someone will buy a product advertised in them and I get a kick back. I do know that when I get an email from an address I don’t know or a subject line like Viagra, colon cleanser or "you have just won a laptop", I just delete the email without even opening it.

I am sorry to say that email marketing just doesn’t work with me. I don’t know if I am like the majority of the internet users or not when it comes to reading junk email. I even go out of my way and have a hotmail email address just for signing up with websites knowing full well that the hotmail address will be sold from those sites to marketing sites. I use the hotmail address strictly for my junk mail. Lately I have been getting lots of “adult rated” emails in my hotmail mail box so I know the email address got sold to some marketing email list somewhere. The one advantage of having the hotmail addy is the fact that I don’t have to list my real name or address so I can keep my identity safe from hackers and identity thieves.

Text messaging jargon

In my last post I talked about internet terminology terms and programing jargon. This post seems appropriate to follow that one. Text messaging has opened up a whole new realm of shortened typed language. Here are some of the commonly used terms:

• LOL - laughing out loud
• ROTFLMFHO - rolling on the floor laughing my fool head off
• WTF - what the f***, NOT, "wow that's fantastic"
• BRB - be right back
• G2G - got to go

I am sure that you know at least 20 or 30 terms if you text message regularly. A word of warning to the parents out there. You children will have many not so nice terms that they use and will tell you they mean something else.

Website and internet terminology

As the internet has grown so has the "geek speak" for technical jargon grown. How many times have you wondered what SSL and RSS meant? Do you know what HTML looks like? Or do you even care?

If you have a blog you should know what the "style sheet" of your blog says. You should be able to change the HTML in order to remove elements that might be stealing your visitors like website addresses that are embedded in your code that you didn't know were there.

If you have a website or blog that you sell things from you must know what SSL means and how it will affect your customers.

If you are totally confused by now I don't blame you. Most of what is now very familiar to me is goobilty gook to someone new to setting up blogs or websites. I have found a webhosting blog that can explain lots of those terms and more. Their in depth articles are a wealth of information to those who are new to the technical aspect of blogging, domain names, websites and more. Even if you thought you knew about some of those terms you can still find out more about them - I did.

Sticking to a food budget

The biggest weekly expense at our house is the food bill, it use to be the gasoline purchase but the price of gas has gone down in the last month - thank goodness. I stick to a grocery shopping list that I take with me to the store. I normally shop alone and on a full stomach so I am not tempted to by extra snacks. I have gotten it down to almost a science to by almost all of our groceries for the week for under $60. Last week I made the mistake of letting my husband accompany me on the once a week grocery trip. What normally was a $60 shopping trip turned into a $125 shopping trip and lots of me saying "put that back, it costs too much". I won some of the battles but I gave in too many times.

My advice to all families, have one person do all the grocery shopping. That person must be able to stick to a strict food budget. The family must agree that what ever is bought must be eaten with no arguments or snide remarks.

Gifts from businesses

It’s that time of the year when businesses want to promote their business with promotional business gifts. The usual ones are pocket sized calendars stuffed in their early Christmas cards, a card offering a 10% discount off of their services, refrigerator magnets, pens with their name on it and key fobs by the dozen.

Most of that stuff is useless junk that is often discarded at first step of decluttering the house. How often do you remember to shop somewhere because you have a pen laying around with their phone number on it? Most of the time when the pen runs out of ink, it is tossed and not kept for future reference.

Here is what I would like to see businesses offer as a promotional gifts:

• From the vet or the local pet shop – a dog pooper scooper with their info on it.
• From an auto repair shop – a flashlight I could keep in my glove box for emergencies.
• From the loan company that keeps wanting me to take out a loan on the house – a calculator with a payment option calculator built in.

Yes those items are not cheap but considering they are wasting their money on poor promotional gifts anyway, what’s the difference?

The high price of rentals

I was recently reading a local paper when I came across an advertisement that stated, “with the amount of foreclosures going up, the cost of renting will go up too”. The ad went on to try and explain that there would be a rush to find rental housing for those who are displaced by the foreclosure crisis. The ad concluded with “rent with us today before all the vacancies are gone”.

That ad in my opinion could not be farther from the truth. Yes there will be people looking for rentals but “affordable” rentals. You must keep in mind that the people that lost their homes to foreclosure were not making the payments as it was so they could hardly look for a rental home in the same monthly price range as they were paying. Also keep in mind that the price of rentals is based largely on the loan amounts owed on the rental plus a profit margin for the landlord. Also many renters were displaced by the foreclosure crisis because their landlords didn’t pay the mortgage. The price of the rental if too high will help keep it vacant.

Another item often overlooked by people writing those types of ads is the fact that landlords will run a credit check on their prospective renters. If a bankruptcy or credit problems are found then they would be rejected as possible renters. The rental market would have to adjust not only the price of rentals downward but ease up on the credit restrictions just in order to have a rental bringing in money.

In my humble opinion, I think that most of the people that have been affected by the foreclosure crisis have moved in with relatives or friends, thus easing the so called shortage of rental properties. Their credit history is now shot so finding affordable housing can be tremendous problem. Their next hurdle will be finding a job that pays well so they can crawl out of their debt hole. The only problem with that is that employers also run credit checks on prospective employees.

Get free stuff if you vote today

I you are voting today don't forget to pick up a free Starbucks coffee or a free scoop of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Those are just 2 of the giveaways that are going viral all over the internet right now.




Here are some other free offers for today only:

Krispy Kreme




The Chick-fil-A at 241-A West Shore Plaza in Tampa plans to reward customers with a free chicken sandwich on Tuesday if they are wearing an "I Voted" sticker.

Free body piercing if you live in Kirksville, MO

Please go out and vote then treat yourself afterwards.

Health care expenses

I am only 2 payments away from paying off my dental bill and now it looks like I need new eyeglasses. It has been 4 years since I got my last new pair of prescription eyeglasses so I know I need to break down and get a new pair. One of my pet peeves is that not many medical insurance policies will cover eye exams or glasses. The policy I have through work covers the first $100.00 towards eyeglasses. That is not much if you need bifocals or want them to be scratch resistant. I know my husband's last pair of eyeglasses cost over $300.00 2 years ago because he has a wide face and the wider frames were more expensive.

I am actually thinking about getting my next pair of eyeglasses through a discount store like ZenniOptical.com They have a pair of glasses on their website that I use to have several years ago and I really liked them. They had a magnetic set of sunglasses lenses that would magnetically attached to the frame. They have a pair for $27.00 which is $200 less than what I paid for the same ones over 6 years ago.
It pays to shop around so before I buy any new eyeglasses I check out all the possibilities first.

Tell me why a person living on $120K a year is broke

My brother earns about $120K a year and this year is having a hard time with his bills. Quite frankly I am appalled at his money management skills - he has none. Almost every year he comes to visit us, he has a new car or truck. The last few years he has gotten either giant SUV's or trucks. He lives in suburbia, he doesn't camp or haul stuff, no going anywhere he might need to use 4WD but he does like showing off what "toys" he can buy.

He is one of the many that owe more on his home than it is worth. With his income he should have paid off the house by now since he bought it originally for $230K over 10 years ago. When I was unemployed a few years ago and needed $200 to buy groceries for the month of December (forget Christmas gifts they were a dream) I asked my dear brother for a loan (I told him I would pay him back), he said no but had to take mom to Hawaii for a vacation. Well it now looks like the tables have turned and now he is the one that might come begging.

As his big sister I will probably help out since I have always shared what little I have and I just happen to have learned how to live off of very little. I only wish that people like him would learn to manage their money since us poorer folks have learned how to do it for years.