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How to Budget Personal Finances : The Envelope System for Managing a Budget

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 02:21:14 +0000

Professional budget advice you can’t miss! Learn how to use the envelope system to manage a budget for personal finances in this free online video tutorial.

Expert: Alfred Loughmiller
Bio: Alfred Loughmiller is a Multimedia Communications major from Utah Valley State University. He worked a number of years in advertising and television production.
Filmmaker: Danny Loughmiller

Duration : 0:2:7

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Credit Card Debt, Bankruptcy,& personal finance for doomers

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 02:21:13 +0000

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Options for people in debt

Duration : 0:19:14

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How to Organize Personal Finances : How to Make a Personal Budget

admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:54:43 +0000

Learn how to put together a personal finance budget in this free video on managing money.

Expert: Lamont Stewart
Bio: Lamont Stewart is a Financial Adviser with over 10 years of investing experience helping individuals and small business owners plan and save for retirement. In addition, Mr.
Filmmaker: Akita McCulloch

Duration : 0:2:46

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The Importance of Keeping Focus

Mr. Imperfect — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:11:11 +0000

Just a quick reminder to all of us trying to get and stay out of debt. This time of year is the most difficult for us to remain focused on our goal of debt elimination. It is very easy to get persuaded (by yourself or others) that you deserve that $4000 vacation, or new landscaping, or a new vehicle, etc.

In order to become debt free (which will allow all of the above to be completed with cash) it is vital that we stay the course that we have set for ourselves.

“Keep you eyes on that brass ring.” We apologize for the infrequency of posting-a regular schedule will start soon.

We hope that you are all having a great week, that you may have a wonderful Easter weekend! As always thanks for reading and have a great day!

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100 Ways in 100 Days-10: Turn Off The Auto Dry on Your Dishwasher

Mr. Imperfect — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:14:39 +0000

Welcome! This is our 100 ways in 100 days series on saving money by reducing your expenses. If you are new here, consider subscribing to our RSS feed to get post as soon as they are available. Not sure about RSS feeds? For a description, and a brief tutorial, check our RSS Page.

This is another simple process that will take little to no time, but will show dividends on your next electric bill. For those of you without a dishwasher-hopefully our next article will help you. For those with a dishwasher-lets go.

Most dishwashers that are in production today have an automatic dry cycle at the end to dry the dishes. The way the dishwasher accomplishes this by heating the inside of the dishwasher via a heating element. Now, if you think that sounds like an oven you are 100% correct. We know what a energy hog a conventional oven is, and this is the exact same process. The temperature settings vary slightly between diswasher manufacturers, but Federal law requires all new dishwashers to have a no dry option.

The prelude has led to this-“If your dishwasher has an air-dry setting, choose it instead of the heat-dry setting. You will cut your dishwasher’s energy use from 15 percent to 50 percent.” Now that is a significant reduction. If by chance your model does not have an air dry option, simply open the door after the last rinse cycle.

Well, we are one tenth of the way through this series. We hope that you are receiving some help and we would love to here any measures that you have tried to reduce monthly expenses. We are also working on a resource page for this material as well as other things.

Have a great day!

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100 Ways to Save Money in 100 Days-5: Switch to CFL’s or LED’s

Mr. Imperfect — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:00:42 +0000

This one (as with many of the other tips that we have shared) has been preached all over the internet. We are simply trying to place all of these ideas into a single location, while picking the ones that we feel are the most relevant and the ones that we have tried.

When it come to electricity, I would say that this step was easily the third biggest energy saving tip that we tried. We have covered one already, and we will cover another in the near future. The price has come down considerably in the last year, and you can now get a quality CFL (compact fluorescent light) for around a dollar.

We have tried several brands, and most have worked fairly well as far a light output compared to incandescent bulbs. There is a difference to be noted though. For example, a sixty watt incandescent bulb was comfortable for us to read by; that was not the case with the CFL, and I hear that the LED’s are even a little fainter than the CFL’s. That was the bad news. The good news is that we now get the equivalent of a 100w incandescent bulb, and only use 23w with our CFL!! Now that may not sound like a big deal to some of you, but lets do a little math pertaining to our situation.

We have 37 light fixtures in and around our house. Some of these almost burn continuously, while others-such as in closets-rarely if ever get used. After doing about a half a month of collecting data, we discovered that we averaged around three hours a day per bulb. Now, that is 37(bulbs)X100(watts)X3(hours)=11100w per day average. That equals 11.1 kilowatts per day (1 kilowatt=1000 watts). In our area we only have one municipality electric system to get service from, and they charge an extortionate (compared to other companies just a few miles north of us) rate of a little over ten cents per kilowatt hour. That equates to roughly $1.10 per day just for lighting. The same figure with our replacement CFL’s [37(bulbs)X100(watts)X3(hours)=2550w or 2.55kw per day]? That would come to 26 cents per day! A savings of $25.20 per month!!

Action point: We highly recommend trying to change as many of these bulbs as soon as possible. Congress has already passed a bill that will do away with the incadescent buld by 2012 if I remember correctly. Only replace what you can afford to, but even if it is just one buld every couple weeks in a high use area, you should see the difference fairly quickly. Thank you for reading our articles, and have a great day!

For an interesting book on creating you own electricity, and even selling some back to the electric company Click Here!

100 Ways to Save Money in 100 Days-4: Wash Only Full Loads of Laundry

Mr. Imperfect — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:00:48 +0000

Hello again, and thank you for reading our money saving tips. It is our greatest desire to see you decrease your monthly expenses by at least 20% with these 100 money saving ideas.

Washing only full loads of laundry is kind of like a double edged sword when it comes to slashing your utility bills-it cuts both ways! First, you will save on your water bill. By only washing full loads of laundry (or at least setting your washer to the correct water level) will lower the amount of water you use per article of clothing. Also, it will prevent extra time spent using the dryer (if you decide not to take action point three.

After we started doing this, we noticed about three loads a week difference in our laundry room. That saves water per wash cycle, and electricity for not only the dryer, but the washer motor as well. It will also save you some of that commodity that we are all too short on these days-time. That was an additional nine trips to the laundry room avoided (three to put them in the washer, three to place them in the dryer and three to get them out and fold or hang up), and also time saved by placing more clothes in their proper place at one time.

Action point: For the next four weeks only wash full loads of laundry.

I know we say it often, but we really mean it: Have a great day!

For an interesting book on createing you own electricity, and even selling some back to the electric company Click Here!

100 Ways to Save Money in 100 Days-3: Air Dry Clothes

Mr. Imperfect — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:00:53 +0000

This action will only apply to those of you who do your laundry in-house. If you use coin operated laundry, or a laundry service (why are you doing this if you are trying to save money?), this will only help if you someday begin to do your laundry at home. If you can not use this tip, read no more; just be sure to check back tomorrow!

Now, for those of us who can benefit from this. Your clothes dryer is one of the most energy eating appliances in your dwelling. Whether it be gas, or electric, drying your clothes naturally will make a tremendous difference in your utility bill. Remember how we told you that we had gradually brought our electric bill down by $45 over a five month period? Well, the month that we started doing this caused an $18 drop. Nearly half. Now I will grant you that our dryer is not the newest, most energy efficient model, but I know that you will see a noticeable difference if you try this as well.

One thing that we found though (just a personal issue) is that we could not tolerate the way the clothes felt so stiff after being air dried. We tried fabric softener in the rinse cycle, but nothing seemed to help. We eventually compromised and let our clothes air dry most of the way, then we placed them in the dryer with a dryer sheet for about ten minutes just to soften them a little. Drying for ten minutes is still a lot cheaper than drying for an hour a load. Let us know how it affects your bill once you start implementing some of these actions.

Action point: For one month hang clothes either on a line outside (if available), or on door jambs, shower curtains, etc. inside the house and see the difference in your utility bills. Another aspect to consider is that during the winter time, due to the drying of your inside air by heat, this will add some much needed humidity to your dwelling. In the summer time, this same humidity is removed by your air conditioner! Have a great day!

For an interesting book on creating you own electricity, and even selling some back to the electric company Click Here!

100 Ways to Save Money in 100 Days-2: Filters

Mr. Imperfect — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:00:46 +0000

Welcome back to this series. One thing that is often neglected, or delayed too long is changing your air/heat filters. These filters are relatively non expensive, and the time to change one generally takes less than a minute. For people with severe allergies, look for specific HEPA filtration standards on the label. Install these and notice the difference within 48 hours.

OK, entertain us for just a moment. Once you have finished this sentence, place your hand over your mouth and try to breathe deep, slow breaths….how did that feel? You would have to work hard to maintain the proper airflow into your body, would you not? The same is true for your air/heat system. The harder it has to work to get and force air, the more electricity it will use.

Action point for today: Check your filters and clean/replace the ones that are in need. There really is not a set time to change these filters, as different environments will have different requirements, but I would check them at least weekly and change as often as needed. Once again, we would like to encourage your comments on this series, as well as any suggestions you may have for the site in general. Have a great day, and we will see you tomorrow!

For an interesting book on creating you own electricity, and even selling some back to the electric company Click Here!

Selling on Ebay: One Way to Make Extra Money

Mr. Imperfect — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:13:46 +0000

Most, if not all of you, are familiar with Ebay. We have used Ebay several times to earn some extra money on items that were just laying around. Granted, we have not looked at it as full fledge business opportunity as some have (and done quite well), but we have made a few extra hundred dollars a year. Here are some of the tips and tricks we have came across and used.

Do your market research. This is the most important step when considering to sell an item on Ebay. If you have a one of a kind thingamajig that was worth $75 the last time you had it appraised, and no one is looking to buy it, it will not do any good.
Set an appropriate start price. Do not set a low price to encourage bids or have a lower insertion fee. If you have done your research, you will know how much your item has sold for in past auctions. By setting to low, you can risk losing money by the time you pay for packing material and all the fees associated with selling an item on Ebay.
Take great photographs of your item. Create a picture gallery that belongs in the Louvre. To do this it is imperative that you have a good, solid background, and light from every angle. Even if you are selling an item that a stock photo is offered for, I would still recommend taking your own pictures. This way people actually see what they are getting.
Choose your listings title carefully. Avoid things like “L@@K at this GR8T” deal (these actually exist). Keep your title accurate and to the point. Ask yourself how you would search for this item if you were looking for it. Again, your market research will show you how others have listed similar items.
Try to end your auction on Sunday. Where people are usually home on the weekends, items that end on Sunday are more likely to sell, and sell at a higher premium.
Be as descriptive as possible in your listing. Describe all your items features in as much detail as possible.

Here are some links to help you get started if you so choose:

What to sell on Ebay.

Ebay seller tools.

Ebay pulse lets you know what is hot right now.

As we said, we are not generating any steady income from Ebay, nor has it made us wealthy, but we have made some extra money. That always comes in handy. Have a great day!