- RT @kristinbrianne: Get Talk and Txt Unlimited Cell Svc w/ Free Phone for $10 per month by joining DNA for Free. http://tinyurl.com/yyg5ohn #
- RT: @ChristianPF is giving away an iPod Touch! – RT to enter to win… http://su.pr/2LS3p5 #
- 74 inch armspan and forearms bigger than my biceps. No, I don't button my shirt cuffs. #
- RT @deliverawaydebt Money Hackers Network Carnival #111 – Don't Hassel the Hoff Edition http://bit.ly/9BIAvE #
- @bargainr What would it take to get you to include me in the personal-finance-bloggers list? #
- Working on a Penfed application to transform my worst interest rate into my best. #
- Gave the 1 year old pop rocks for the first time. Big smiles. #
- @Netflix @Wii disc works well and loads fast. Go, go gadget movie! #
Disclosure
I’m not terribly commercial, but I do enjoy making money.
As such, it is safe to assume that any company, entity, corporation, person, place, thing, or other that has a product, service, post, or link has in some way compensated me for said product, service, post or link. That compensation–direct or indirect–may be in the form of money, swag, free trips, gold bullion, smurf collectibles, super-models, or just warm-fuzzies. That list is NOT in order of preferred method of compensation.
To reiterate: If it’s commercial, and it’s here, I’m probably being paid for it.
Saturday Roundup: Evil Dead
- Image via Wikipedia
Last night, my wife and I went to see Evil Dead: The Musical. I’m a die-hard zombie-movie fan, and the Evil Dead Trilogy is among my favorites. I don’t recognize a difference between Candarian demons and zombies, so it still fits the genre.
The musical beats either of the first two movies, hands down. I was rolling. If you are in the Minneapolis area tomorrow, check it out at the Illusion Theater. If you are elsewhere, watch for it. It’s entirely worth the time and money.
Best Posts:
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Carnivals I’ve been in:
AAA – Save Some Cash was included in the Festival of Frugality.
The Spending Styles of the Rocky Horror Picture Show was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance.
Crack was included in Foodtastic Favorites.
If I missed anyone, please let me know. Thanks for including me!
Funeral Costs: How to Keep it Inexpensive, Without Being Cheap
The average funeral costs $6500. Many people die with absolutely no savings. Even if there is life insurance, it takes weeks to get the money, while a funeral is completed within a week.
Funeral homes have an easy sales pitch. Nobody wants to sully the memory of their loved ones. The tiniest hint of a guilt trip will have most families upgrading to the silk pillow in a second. Here’s a secret: Your loved one doesn’t care. I’m not recommending using garbage bags and a dumpster. By all means, treat your loved ones with care, but don’t go overboard.
Not everyone is comfortable with cremation, and some religions don’t permit it, but it is probably the least expensive way to process a body. It costs approximately $1400 to cremate a body and you can get very attractive urns for under $100. Compare that to a $3500 casket and storage & transportation fees, and–from a strictly monetary standpoint–the choice is clear.
Don’t worry too much about decorating. Flowers aren’t cheap and florists don’t tend to offer discounts to people who aren’t emotionally prepared to negotiate and who are in a time crunch to find the flowers they need. Get a few bouquets for a small display around the casket or urn, and let the rest take care of itself. Many of the guests will bring flowers, so the entrance will soon be decorated for free, and that’s the part that makes the first impression.
Shopping online can save you a lot of money on an urn. Funeral homes will try to sell you a $500 urn, which may include a 1000% markup. If you buy online, you will have to pay for overnight shipping, but that’s a small cost compared to the standard markup. You can also find a huge discount on attractive caskets by shopping outside of the funeral home. Federal law prohibits funeral homes from requiring that you buy a casket from them or charging you a fee for getting one elsewhere.
This may be the most ghoulish part of this article, but you can dig the grave yourself. It’s probably not worth it for a full-size casket, but for an urn, you can save hundreds of dollars. An urn generally only needs to be buried 18 inches deep, as opposed to the 6 feet required for caskets. Just be sure to check with the cemetery and get the burial location right. If you think it’s ghoulish to dig the grave, just picture digging it up. Not fun.
Planning a funeral is never enjoyable, and it’s often expensive. Nothing you do will make it fun, but it is possible to make it affordable.
Have you had to coordinate a funeral? Did you take the funeral director’s recommendations, or did you cut some costs?
Is That The Best You Can Do?
If you are a typical, hard-working American, you probably feel that there are not enough hours in the day and not enough money in your pocket!
It seems life is busier and more expensive than ever before. In the midst of a global economic recession, the price of daily living is increasing, with higher utility bills and food prices.
It is difficult in these hectic times to be alert to other available options and yet with so much competition between rival companies, you may find a better deal elsewhere.
From mortgages to loans to gas suppliers and everything in between there are numerous options out there that could be highly beneficial for you.
So how do you go about finding the best deal for you? After all, your circumstances are totally unique and what works for you will not be the same as for someone else.
This is why taking advice from family or friends is not always the wisest move. Naturally their intentions are good, but the information they have maybe outdated or incompatible with your circumstances.
Comparison shopping can provide you with the details necessary to make an informed decision, whatever your circumstances. By researching the options available, you can find the perfect product or supplier.
Perhaps you are a young professional looking for your first mortgage, an older couple thinking about retirement funds or maybe you simply want to reduce your mobile phone bill.
Investigating the options available will help you clarify when you are being offered a great deal and what conditions or benefits may be attached to an agreement.
Mobile phone providers, for example, often try to tie you into a long-term contract by tempting you with the latest phone. Many consumers will find this offer irresistible and sign up without thinking the implication through.
It is financially more astute to calculate the cost of the contract against the cost of buying the phone outright and finding a lower priced tariff from another provider.
Credit card companies will offer 0% or lower interest rates on balance transfers, so spend a little time comparing providers to see how much you could shave off this debt.
Even if you have a low credit score it is worth comparing credit cards for bad credit to get the best deal for your circumstances.
Often, credit cards companies offer additional benefits when taking out one of their cards, such as discounts at certain stores or money-off vouchers, travel or car insurance and fraud protection.
If you are planning a family vacation with Disney for example, taking out a Disney credit card can provide additional benefits. Credit card holders benefit from 10% discount at their shops and $50 credit on cruises.
There may be other factors that influence your decision, such as the charitable ethos of a company. Many firms favor certain causes and will donate a percentage of profits to charity.
So invest some time in researching better deals to suit your circumstances or use a reputable price comparison site to do the research for you. Then all you have to do is to enjoy your savings!
Post by Moneysupermarket.
Two Reasons to Save And One Reason Not To
I’m a fan of saving money. I’m not doing as much of it as I’d like, but that’s because I’m focusing on killing my final credit card, first. I postpone saving, knowing that it’s
something that I need to do the moment my credit cards are paid off. It won’t wait any longer than that.
Why do I care so much about saving? It’s because I’m risk-averse. If I can avoid risk, I do, in most situations. I don’t want to risk going hungry if I lose my job, and I don’t want to risk eventually(very eventually!) having to fight the cockroaches for the right to drink my fiber supplements.
There are a couple of excellent reasons to save:
1. Peace of Mind. There is a certain calm that comes from having enough savings to weather a few storms. If your car dies when you’re broke, it’s a tragedy. If it dies when you’ve got some cash saved up, it’s a minor inconvenience. Knowing that the vagaries of fate aren’t going to shatter your life against a cliff is a reward all its own.
2. Cheap nursing homes suck. When I get old, I want to live in a comfortable nursing home. One with extended cable, nice beds, and attractive coeds in charge of the sponge-baths. That’s not too much to ask, but I have to save up for it now. Medicaid doesn’t cover homes like that. Those are strictly a private affair. To make that happen, I need to save and invest now, or I won’t be able to enjoy the fruits of my labors then.
And, of course, there is one shining reason not to save:
1. You’re living your life now. Saving everything you’ve got, to the detriment of your current life, isn’t healthy either. Life is short. Do you really want to be curled up in bed, trying to enjoy a sponge-bath, shivering at the regrets you’ve built by denying yourself everything? I’m certainly not suggesting you waste all of your money on coke, hookers, and video games, but it is important to take the time to build some memories, or your final years will be hollow.
You have to find the right balance between your future and your present. Every moment of your life is important, not just the ones that haven’t happened, yet.
