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November 9, 2010, at 6:00 am If you're new to BFS, please subscribe to my RSS feed. It shows me a vote of support and keeps me motivated to keep your attention. If you have any questions or comments for me, please contact me and I'll get back to you asap. Thanks for visiting! A few months ago you all chimed in on hubby’s health care options and now it’s time to tackle mine.  Here are my two health insurance options:
Option 1 – High Deductible Plan – $1.38 per paycheck or $35.88 a year
Lifetime Max Benefit – Unlimited
Annual Deductible – $2750
Out of Pocket Maximum Excluding Deductible- $3000
Office Visit – We cover 100% until $2750, then we cover 20% up to another $3000.
Coinsurance – We cover 20%.
Hospital Visits, Etc – We cover 100% until $2750, then we cover 20% up to another $3000.
Preventative Care – They cover 100%
Medicine – I would cover 100% until we hit our deductible.
Option 2 – Base Open Access Plus – $38.31 a paycheck or $996.06 a year
Lifetime Max Benefit – Unlimited
Annual Deductible – $750
Out of Pocket Maximum Excluding Deductible- $4000
Office Visit – $25
Coinsurance – We cover 20%.
Hospital Visits, Etc – We pay 20%.
Preventative Care – 100%
Medicine – $30 for one month or $75 for 3 months.
I am personally leaning towards the second, more expensive, option simply since I don’t want to worry about the cost of every doctor’s visit and my medicine is $150 for 3 months normally…
I still pay the same for extra life insurance and disability insurance either way, so that doesn’t effect my decision at all.
What do you think? Which plan would you pick?
November 9, 2010, at 5:59 am
The following is a guest post by Bob Hartzell, an inhouse editor for Master Degree Online.com. Easily find and compare graduate programs from most online masters degree programs available today.
If you’re wandering around wondering what happened to the job market and the economy that used to support it, you are not alone. The question is what to do about it. Those of us that have been looking for work for too long have to make a choice at some point and often that choice is downsizing our career expectations. One of the alternatives to taking what you can get is gulping some air and deciding to change your idea of what you want to something new that you can achieve. One of the ways to do that is through a part time, online graduate degree program. Here’s a list of five jobs that are projected by the U.S. Department of Labor to be among the fastest growing career opportunities in the country over the next decade – and what you’ll need to do to get one.
- Software Engineer: This field is expected to grow by almost 40% by 2018. One of the consumer phenomena driving this sector is the growth of mobile devices. In addition virtually every consumer product out there priced over $59.95 has an embedded chip in it. Software engineers have become indispensable for new product development in almost every area. You can get a Masters in Software Engineering online from Arizona State University or Penn State; they’ll help you with the math and statistics prerequisites.
- Accountants and Auditors: These are evergreen careers for which the growth is driven in part by increasing regulatory requirements. This field will be expanding by 22% over the next eight years. The key to a good accounting job today is CPA status; every state requires a certain number of classroom hours beyond a bachelor’s degree in order to qualify for state licensure. Most colleges have turned this requirement into a Master of Accounting degree, which is available online from the University of Massachusetts, the University of New Mexico, the University of Maryland and a whole lot of other places.
- Network Systems and Data Analysts: This is a hopelessly complicated sounding name for a wide variety of IT jobs and career paths. The message in the title is that information systems work is going to increase by over 50% over the next decade and there will be an endless variety of specialization niches within it. A Masters in Information Systems (MIS) is available online from Boston University, Syracuse University and Missouri State. You’ll need to brush up on your math for this one.
- Nursing: This field is going to add a half million new professionals over the next decade. An advanced practice nurse with a MSN degree earns in excess of $80,000 today. There are MSN bridge programs for professionals with a bachelor’s degree in a field other than nursing; they generally take two to three years to complete. Online programs for this degree are available through Loyola University of New Orleans, Drexel University and dozens of other schools.
- Counseling: This may entail school counseling, substance abuse counseling, or social work positions of many types. The substance abuse field is expected to grow tremendous growth, unfortunately. The best choice for a counseling degree is probably a Masters in Social Work, which requires substantial clinical hours spent in an internship role. The academic side of the profession can be found in online programs through Florida State University, University of Southern California and the University of Washington.
Crystal’s Comments: Once again it comes to my attention that a masters degree in Social Work may be something I need to look into since Counseling may be something I’d be good at. What fast growing jobs can you think of?
November 8, 2010, at 6:00 am
The following is a guest post from John at Passive Family Income. John is a personal finance blogger who enjoys writing about passive income, debt-free living, and financial independence. He also enjoys sharing his experiences in raising a family on a single income, while his wife stays home with their two children. Aside from writing about money, he is an avid runner and enjoys spending time outdoors with his kids.
Entertainment expenses seem to be one of those categories that gets cut first on a monthly budget when times are tough. After all, entertainment is something that we can all live without. When it comes down to putting food on the table, clothes on your back, and shelter to live in – entertainment will almost always lose out.
There are actually several ways to keep your entertainment budget low and still enjoy having fun with your friends and family at a reduced cost. The key is to have a plan and don’t get caught off guard. Here are 4 simple ways that my family has been able to limit the amount of money we spend each month on entertainment. Some of the items take careful planning while others take a bit of sacrifice.
1. Reciprocal Memberships
Not all memberships are created equal. Most memberships need to be used more than twice in order to recoup the costs. If you lose interest and become bored with the membership, there is a good chance you will not be able to justify the costs.
Reciprocal memberships, however work a little differently than traditional ones. A reciprocal membership allows you to take advantage of agreements between similar locations like zoos, aquariums, and museums. For the price of one membership, you can enjoy visiting multiple destinations throughout the year and only pay once.
Our family has had many fun weekends traveling to nearby zoos and museums just from having our reciprocal memberships. They have more than paid for themselves and we get to see different parts of the country. Since there are plenty of zoos and museums that participate in these agreements within a few hours driving distance, we can enjoy the fun without becoming bored and wasting our money.
For more information on the reciprocal agreements, check out – Cut Your Entertainment Budget With Reciprocal Memberships.
2. Get to Your Local Library
Even with budgetary cuts and closings, libraries are one of the best free resources for entertainment. From DVD rentals and books to free activities for the kids, your local library can help keep your entertainment budget in check.
Be sure to get a schedule of any free activities or classes that may be offered through your library. In addition to books and other media, most libraries also provide computer access and free Wi-Fi in case you don’t want to pay for either of those resources at home.
My wife and I have not rented a movie or paid to watch one in over three years because we always make use of our library. The only downside is that you may be put on a waiting list on new release books and movies as they are in more demand. If you are willing to wait and make this small sacrifice, your pocket book will thank you.
3. Coupon Books and Discounts
Have you seen the Entertainment Books for sale around your town? These are the books that cost around $20 and have tons of great deals on restaurants and other venues in your area. My son actually was selling these for a fundraiser at school. The coupon books were full of awesome buy-one-get-one free specials at many of our favorite restaurants. For the cost of $20, we will make our money back after using just two of these coupons.
Can’t find a coupon book in your area? There are other discount options available to find restaurant and entertainment coupons. For example, Restaurant.com is a popular site that provides discounts. Another option that has become very popular is Groupon. Many similar sites are popping up all over the country that cater to your local area.
Dining out doesn’t always have to put a strain on your wallet. Do yourself a favor and look for a coupon and plan ahead before going out to eat next time to help save money.
4. Free Local Events
Chances are there are probably free events in your town and you may not even know it. From free concerts and plays to parades and carnivals, there are probably plenty of no cost events in your area. Often the problem with these events is that they are not widely publicized, so you may have to do some digging to find them.
Check with your city or chamber of commerce for a calendar of free events they are hosting and sponsoring. Ask friends and neighbors if they know of events that may be going on around town. Pick up your local newspaper or look for free ones around that advertise local festivals and concerts. Another way to find free events for the family in your area is to run an online search using Google.
Our family takes advantage of free events hosted by the local YMCA and the city that we live in. It seems that almost every weekend some type of event is being hosted that is either free or very low cost. The key is to explore the resources that are available to you and take advantage of them!
Final Thoughts
The reality is you don’t have to spend a ton of money to entertain yourself and have a good time. With a little careful planning and some small sacrifices, you and your family can still enjoy many of the same things that others are paying full price for. The list above is just a few of the many ways that our family is able to stay on budget while enjoying spending time together.
What tips can you provide to help cut down on entertainment expenses? Have you used any of the suggestions from the list above?
November 7, 2010, at 6:00 am
During the Yakezie Alexa Ranking Challenge, you helped BFS soar from an Alexa ranking of more than 8 million in March 2010 to 49,852 on October 31, 2010. Thank you!!!
After posting my first ever Blog Statistics and Income Update, it is obvious that we need some new goals, lol. It’s also obvious that everyone else is as nosey as me and enjoys a peek into another person’s stats, hahaha.
Goals for New Year’s Day
So without further ado, here is what we are shooting for by New Year’s Day – January 1st, 2011:
Alexa – Maintain a Ranking at or around 50,000
Visits – 35,000
Feedburner Subscribers – 300
Twitter Followers – 200
Update
Here is where we are at today:
Alexa – 49,844 (On Target)
Visits – 24,100 (10,900 To Go)
Feedburner Subscribers - 194 (106 To Go)
Twitter Followers – 153 (47 To Go)
We are well on our way! I’ll be posting these updates every week and hopefully we’ll blow the targets out of the water just like we did with every other goal we have set since March!
I will also continue posting monthly and yearly blog statistics and income updates from here on out, so stay tuned to BFS, Crystal Clear Thoughts, and Dog’s Life For Me at the beginning of every month to get a complete breakdown including what income each site brought in!
Feel free to ask any questions below. Thank you all for helping me reach my own personal goal of blogging full time by 2012!
Additonal Info
In case you didn’t know, Alexa traffic rankings are determined by the numbers of hits a site gets by people with the Alexa toolbar. If you want to be part of this ranking community, you can download the Alexa toolbar here.
If you don’t already, you can follow me via RSS or Twitter by following those links.
If you are a Yakezie member and don’t see yourself on my member list, please send me an email or leave a comment here to be added. I copied the list originally in early March and updated it in mid-June. Please let me know if you are still missing. Thanks!
If you are interested in seeing how I went from an 8 million plus Alexa rank to about 50,000 in less than 8 months, you can see My Blogging Schedule, which breaks down everything I do related to blogging.
THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING THE BEST READERS EVER!!!
November 6, 2010, at 6:00 pm
The following is a guest post on behalf of Money Supermarket.
September saw petrol and diesel prices fall for the fourth consecutive month but UK car owners are still paying an average of 115 pence-per-litre for petrol and 118 pence-per-litre for diesel. So should more motorists be making the switch to LPG?
The AA’s monthly fuel report for September highlighted current trend of falling fuel prices but also outlined how this could be about to change through a combination of increased wholesale prices and a 1 pence-per-litre rise in fuel duty.
And a check of fuel comparison site petrolprices.com shows how, even within a 10-mile-area, prices can vary by up to 10 pence-per-litre with some stations charging as much 127.9 per-per-litre of diesel.
But, with an average price of just 61.7 pence-per-litre, the cost of a ,litre of LPG is around half of that of petrol or diesel. So why aren’t more motorists making the switch?
One reason could be because many motorists aren’t really sure exactly what LPG is.
What is LPG?
LPG, or Liquid Petroleum Gas, is a bi-product of the refinement of crude oil and it has the unique quality of changing to a liquid state when mildly compressed and so a large amount can be stored in a relatively small space.
It lends itself well to the oxidization process needed to power combustion engines and its higher octane rating means that it burns more cleanly than petrol or diesel and benefits from producing less CO2 than these fuels whilst producing none of the harmful compounds of benzene, lead or any of the particulates associated with diesel engines.
However, LPG has a lower energy density level than petrol or diesel and so the equivalent fuel consumption is higher meaning that the fuel economy of engines running on LPG is actually about 25 per cent lower than petrol or diesel engines.
But because the pump price of LPG is roughly half that of petrol or diesel then a car fuelled by LPG will cost about a third less to run than a standard petrol powered car.
One further benefit of running on LPG is that it can reduce engine wear and prolong the life of exhaust systems due to the removal of acidic combustion products that are used to aid the combustion of petrol and diesel.
In addition, due to the lower CO2 emissions then LPG powered cars can benefit from a reduction in road tax and some insurers even offer reduced rates on car insurance. To find out which insurers offer special rates for LPG converted cars then it’s worth checking out comparison sites such as Moneysupermarket.com or Confused.com.
So if LPG is a cleaner and more cost efficient fuel, why aren’t more motorists using it to run their vehicles?
Perversely, cost could play a major part in this because, whilst LPG is an inexpensive fuel, it does require an expensive conversion process with prices ranging from anywhere between £1,000 and £3,000.
This means that, even with the savings you make at the pump, you’ll have to cover 14,000 miles within the first year of a conversion to ensure that you recover the cost.
There are also issues regarding a decrease in the performance of cars fuelled by LPG with many motorists complaining of a loss of acceleration or top speed. This is due to LPG having a lower calorific value than petrol when vaporized which means that drivers have to put their foot down more to achieve a comparable rate of acceleration or speed.
Another cause for the decrease in performance could be due to the added weight in cars that have been converted to run on LPG. Conversion requires an additional fuel tank to be added to the car – something which often results in a loss of boot space – and this tank adds considerably to the weight of the car which, in turn, will have a detrimental affect on performance.
Also, LPG tanks are often smaller than petrol tanks and cannot be filled to capacity – they can only be filled to 80 per cent to allow for gas expansion – and this means that they must be refueled more often.
A potential drawback for anyone that often travels to the continent is that only cars that have been converted to run on LPG, even those converted by an approved installer, are not permitted to travel through the Eurotunnel and it is only cars that have been manufactured to run on LPG that are allowed through.
And, on the subject of approved installers, it is vital that any conversion is carried out by an approved installer and whilst prices may be higher, going for a cheaper conversion can lead to problems, not least a misfiring engine or a reluctance to start on cold mornings.
So whilst the considerably lower cost of LPG can make it seem like a no-brainer when compared to the cost of running a standard petrol or diesel engine, there are a number of factors that can make seem a less attractive option and so it’s worth doing your research as to whether or not it’s for you.
But if you cover over 14,000 miles per year and don’t mind a slight reduction in performance then the savings made through running on LPG should far outweigh any negatives.
Crystal’s Comments: When you are looking at how to buy a car, you could keep this in mind. I had not heard of LPG before this…what do you think?
November 6, 2010, at 6:00 am
My Favorite Posts this Week
Guest Posts on BFS
Thanks for the guest posts and the day off! I loved the fact you all covered so many subjects that I neglect. Thank you.
If you would like to guest post on BFS, please send me an email with your idea or post and I’d love to have you over for the day! If you are a business, please email me for more details. Thanks!
Blog Carnivals that Included BFS
Carnival hosts, please email me if BFS is included in your carnival so I don’t miss it in my roundup, thanks! I know how much time these things take, so as always, I am truly grateful!
Other Info
- I am also a staff writer at Sweating the Big Stuff. You can see my posts every Wednesday – this week’s was Entertainment Budgets
Top 25 Referring Sites to BFS during October – THANKS!
- Free Money Finance
- Wisebread
- Grumpy Rumblings of the Untenured
- Yakezie
- Len Penzo dot Com
- Punch Debt in the Face
- Frugal Dad
- Everyday Tips and Thoughts
- Frugal Scholar
- Squirrelers
- Sweating the Big Stuff
- Funny about Money
- Money Reasons
- Invest It Wisely
- Until Debt Do Us Part
- Budgets Are the New Black
- Swagbucks
- Credit Card Chaser
- Financial Samurai
- The Saved Quarter
- Money Crashers
- Engineer Your Finances
- Canadian Finance Blog
- The Simple Dollar
- Money Crush
Feel free to email me if you have any suggestions. I’d love to add a few more blogs to my regular reading list or at least give a shout-out for great posts or contests.
As always, thanks to all the bloggers that teach me something new every day. Thanks to all my commenters for making this blog the community I want it to be. Thanks to all my “lurkers” too.  I hope everybody is enjoying this as much as me!
To check out new content, please also check out my other blogs,
Crystal Clear Thoughts and Dog’s Life For Me!
If you would like to join an exercise-oriented group with weekly goals, consider joining the
Crystal Light Challenge!
November 5, 2010, at 6:00 am
*A Few Spoiler Alerts for “What Lies Beneath”, “The Ring”, and “Paranormal Activity” (the first one)…probably will be some in the comments as well…I just mention a few scenes in this post – no endings*
I love scary movies – the ones that make your heart beat faster and have those DID-YOU-SEE-THAT moments. I do not enjoy gore, so slasher flicks are out. I love those pure moments of “OH CRAP!” that come out of great suspenseful, scary movies.
Before 2002, my favorite scary movie was “What Lies Beneath” with Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford. I didn’t see the bad guy coming – I had no idea. Looking back, I feel silly, but come on…did you think it was who it was? All the little moments you see the ghost in reflections really creeped me out too.
Then I saw ”The Ring”. Between the scene showing the scared dead girl in the closet and the one when that little evil child came out of the tv screen…you could have knocked me over with a feather! I completely freaked out. That skyrocketed to my #1.
Then, last year, I saw “Paranormal Activity”. Every time I heard that low rumbling noise, my body froze up. I nearly had a heart attack during that one part where the woman gets out of bed, walks to the other side, and just stares at the guy while he is sleeping for hours!!! How about when she is dragged out of bed by an invisible entity and dragged away?! Let’s just say, “Paranormal Activity” is at the top of my scary movie list.
I’m writing this Friday, October 29th. I have plans tonight to see “Paranormal Activity 2″ and hope it it just as great!
UPDATE: I thought Paranormal Activity 2 was pretty great but not as good as the first one. I also missed a hundred tiny details apparently, so now I’m just going to have to see it again when it comes out on DVD. Shucks…
Do you like scary movies? What’s at the top of your list?
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DISCLAIMER I am not a professional or a financial advisor. BFS posts are informational opinions only. Please make your own financial decisions based on personal research or see a financial advisor.
Also, there are paid links on this site. There is no obligation on your part to purchase any products advertised on this website.
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