Author Archives: admin

How Do You Communicate to Your Government Representation Your Most Important Family Budget Needs?

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Blogging has been around for quite a few years. If a person writes useful and thought stimulating dialog, blogs can influence the opinions of many people.

A successful blog needs to have a subject and title that causes a person to want to know what is on the inside. I started this Easy Personal Budget blog about twelve years ago. I write a blog with a different angle every month sometime before the 10th of the month. The intent of this blog is to encourage families to adopt a budget and keep refining it so it is useful in accomplishing their goals. A budget is very useful tool, it encourages thinking before you spend and the desire to seek a profession that will provide the needed family income.

Since the United States Government and the Presidency is in a state of flux with no really encouraging goals, each of us must make our desires known to our U.S. Representatives and Senators and the President and Vice President. There are websites for all those people where you can go on the internet and write to them. I have been writing to my Representatives, Senators , and the President for years. It is surprising that in recent years I have actually gotten meaningful replies to some of my letters and emails. A very liberal Senator wanted to engage me in a debate on fossil fuels, electric cars, and his proposed Green Energy bill. I responded to his arguments for those programs. I got a thank you letter back but not sure he agreed with my opinion on anything.

Writing to the Governor, City and County Officials, and School Officials needs to done also. If enough people write regularly to these people and they can see that majority of the people in their jurisdiction favor certain legislation, they will have to cave or be defeated at the polls. That is why we need a large number of people writing to them not just once but on a regular basis. Just like a person writes a blog regularly, you need to write the people you want to influence regularly to keep the subject fresh in their minds.

One method I would suggest is that you set aside a time each weekend to write to government officials. Look on the internet and copy the addresses of all the government officials you intend to write to during the next month. Set aside a weekend for Federal Government influence, a weekend for City, County, and School officials. Set aside a weekend for State officials. Set aside the fourth weekend of the month to write to government officials you feel are way off of the mark. For example Mitt Romney, AOC, the Squad, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Governors that will not enforce the law.

You say well what can I write to these people about. Some examples of subjects that need to be addressed are (1)Encourage the Congress to defund sanctuary cities because they are not enforcing the law (2)Encourage Mayors and Governors to enforce the immigration laws that exist (3)Demand that Congressmen and Congresswomen and Senators quit adding unrelated pork to all the funding bills (4) Ask the Congress to speak in unison to the President and his border Czar to quit lying and saying the border is closed and take action to close it. The wall needs to be completed(5)Encourage V.P. Harris to come out of hiding and do her job if the border is really her assigned responsibility (6) Tell your representatives your local needs that need to be included in the infrastructure funding
(7) Tell the President and and Congress not to pack the Supreme Court and get to work on the things that need to be done using the existing laws. (8)Encourage good candidates to run for office in the upcoming 2022 elections so we can get the government stabilized again. Under the present administration the people are in the dark and are foreign allies do not trust our President. Look how Israel was treated in the recent conflict. IN SUMMARY GET INVOLVED DO IT REGULARLY AND ENCOURAGE YOUR NEIGHBORS TO DO THE SAME. IT WILL HAVE A BIG EFFECT ON THE FAMILY BUDGET AND STANDARD OF LIVING IN THE FUTURE.

Protect Your Family Budget By Making Your Voice Heard

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It is surprising how few people contact their representatives in government to express their preferences and views. I am told by a Congressman and U.S. Senator only a few people tell them what they want and it is the same people after then consistently. We need to decide what our priorities are as far as living in the society we are faced with. Make a list, for example: 1) Getting the kids back in school and teaching them an honest curriculum 2) Taxation by the Federal Government and where it goes 3)Regaining our freedom after the pandemic.
4) Higher Education and their tendency to plant socialism in the minds of the students 5)Voting rights bills and the purpose behind adopting them.

The names and addresses of all the U.S. Congressman and Congresswomen can be found on the internet. Construct letters and inquiries that make clear what you want your representatives to do and that you will not take “NO” for an answer. Multiple letters in different forms may be necessary. Invite your representatives to call , email , or write you. Get a dialog going. Try to see their point and if it is not congruent with yours tell them why and ask them to change their ideas.

We have been talking about the Federal level of government but the state, local , and school government, are equally as important. Go to the town council meetings , get on the agenda and express you disagreements and tell them why they need to rethink what they are doing. Go to party caucuses and volunteer to be a delegate at the conventions. Support local candidates that will maintain your views and will listen to the electorate.

Contribute small amounts of money to candidates you are passionate about. Volunteer to help with the candidate’s campaign. If you feel you are ready to run for an office, prepare yourself financially and mentally to go the distance to the election and beyond. It takes a tough person to withstand the criticism and opposition when running for office. Ask yourself am I totally committed to carry this campaign to the conclusion and beyond. Am I willing to listen to my friends , neighbors, and opposition , if elected?

More candidates holding office need to organize their voting base so they are the salesmen and saleswomen to sell their legislation to the public.

The address to write to the President is on the internet. Write to the President often. Also write to legislators from other parts of the country than your own and solicit their support for your ideas. Be critical of representatives that are trying to slam through legislation that is damaging to society, let them know what you think.

Every waking hour there is work to be done. With the pandemic and so many people working from home or unemployed it is a good time to check your priorities and start involving yourself with government reform. I encourage you go get started now. It is so sad that the electorate could not see what was going to happen if we took Joe Biden at his word, open borders, no fossil fuels, “Green New Deal”, free education for all, school from age 3, cancel culture, destroying our history, defund the police. I can see nothing in Joe Biden’s platform that is positive. Write to the President expressing your dissatisfaction with his policies. People say Joe doesn’t care what you think, tell him anyway and help with campaigns to get opposition control of Congress so a lot of this non-sense can be stopped in 2022.

Supplementing Your Personal Income For Your Personal Budget

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For those that are willing there are many jobs available in many parts of the country. Many people receiving unemployment benefits have chosen to stay home and receive those benefits rather than work. Their reasoning is that those benefits in many cases pay more than the jobs available to them. That might be ok for a while but when those people that made that choice find themselves forced to find employment because the benefits have ended, the prospective employers will frown on the fact you chose not to work for an extended period of time.

My daughter who is a college graduate in dietetics had been working as a supervisor in the ski reservations area for a large ski resort company that had many ski resorts. She decided to work for the Census Bureau until she could find a less stressful job. When the Census job ended she began looking for employment. There were many jobs but not many that would pay much more than the minimum wage. She decided to lease a vehicle and work for a company that transports the elderly to appointments, does their grocery shopping , and is available to take them anywhere they want to go. She makes a decent wage and gets lots of tips. She has been selected as the employee with the most compliments several of the weeks she has been providing that service. She received a bonus for that award those weeks.

Clickbank has literally thousands of electronic systems and services in the “Marketplace”. People can find self help books that will be sent to them electronically for a reasonable price. There are a lot of services , like people finders, background checks, email locaters, and housesitting job directories available on Clickbank. I have purchased several items and have been pleased with most of them. A person can also receive a commission for selling any of the items on Clickbank. Those items can be sold by placing Bing ads at a small fee to Bing for the item you want to offer from Clickbank. There is free training by Bing and Microsoft on how to write and promote the ads. The person deposits money into their account and tells Bing what their daily limit for an ad is. For instance I set $20 a day as my limit, you are charged by the number of people that actually open your ad. When you set the ad up you put a hoplink in the Bing form and if the person purchases the item or service from your ad , you receive credit for it on the Clickbank payroll account. The person will receive payment every two weeks for any items sold from Clickbank. Each item a person wants to sell is called a campaign , I have several campaigns going at a time. This time of year house sitting and pet sitting has a lot of activity. If a person selects the vendor for that item that offers a catalog of those wanting house sitters or pet sitters and a list of those people offering their services for those assignments. There are codes to protect both the hiring people and the employee people until it is certain that they want to connect. Selecting items from Clickbank and listing them on a Bing Ad is something you can do from home and possibly make a little money. As a person gets better in selecting a vendor they want to promote they will make more money. Some people make a full time living doing just those simple procedures.

Doordash and the various food delivery services offer an opportunity to make money if you have a dependable car, a good driving record, and are willing to work evenings as well as days. Most of the food items for delivery occur between 5 P.M. and 10 P.M. so if a person does not want to work those hours as well as daytime hours, then they will probably not make it.

For someone wanting to investigate a new profession, installing laminate flooring is a high paying job in big demand in many cities. The installer for our laminate flooring hires helpers so he can complete the job quicker. He said most of his helpers don’t stay long, they can see how the installation is done and decide to go into business for themselves. Home Depot advertises that installation of laminate flooring is $3 a foot. Out installer charged $3 a foot and did 900 sq ft for a fee of $2700. It took him and two helpers 17 hours to do 900 sq ft. So you can see that is over $150 an hour. If he pays two helpers $15 an hour each that leaves $120 an hour for the contractor. Of course there is not always a job ready to go for laminate flooring every day but still it is high paying job that most men or women can master.

As you can see there are many avenues to explore to begin normalizing your income again if you find yourself unemployed or needing supplemental income.

Each day of the current Government Administration seems worse than the day before. I hope you will write and call your Congressman and Senators and ask them to insist President Biden complete the wall and close the border so the immigrants do not have to experience the discomfort and the people of this country are not stock with supporting them. Also encourage your Senators and Congressman to oppose eliminating the filibuster. Also insist that no way should they pack the Supreme Court. Our rights are being trampled on as racism is attached to everything they want to do and that is not the case for sure. The Second Amendment must be preserved for the protection of the American People. Tell your representatives there is no way the Electoral College should be eliminated. Do your part and asking your representatives to oppose those things. The Power Grab must be stopped before the country is completely destroyed.

Resort To Month To Month Family Budgets As We Experience A Bumpy Ride

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I TOOK THE HEADER PHOTO OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY WHEN I VISITED NEW YORK CITY SEVERAL YEARS AGO. IT MUST NEVER BE UNDER ATTACK!

It was not hard to predict that the stock market and the people in the United States would not be in for bumpy ride if the Liberal ideas were adopted. We are here now with new unwise ideas translated into executive orders weakening the security and economy of our country. The “Border Crisis” is one of President Biden’s own making and affects us all. It is sad for those people that no one knows what to do with. It is sad that we have to figure out how to house, clothe, and support thousands of people with little or no skills and jobs. It is sad jobs American citizens should have access two now are being offered to illegal people entering the United States of America. The illegal immigration greatly weakens our health system as well as the economic system. It did not have to be this way, President Trump was working hard and closing the borders and now they have just opened the gates. How sad!

The Covid-19 immunization distribution is a a disaster. I have been on the list for four weeks and am told it may be another four to eight weeks before my wife and I who both are over the age of 65 can get the vaccine. We were promised that we were on the list and someone would call and give us an appointment in six to eight weeks. We live in Arizona.

The effort to destroy names of places and historical monuments that many people in the United States cherish is very sad. We have baseball teams re-naming their teams, Dr. Seuss books being banned , statues being torn down. All in all it is destruction of cherished and valuable property all over the United States.

The talk of paying people that had family members serve as slaves that Liberals classify as of white slave owners is sick. There have been and always will be some problems and inequities but after they are solved like the abolishment of slavery, you move on and make further social progress, you do not further divide our country with retributions. Those white people they are targeting did nothing wrong, so why make them pay.

THE PEOPLE THAT CANNOT ACCEPT THESE RADICAL CHANGES IN THE FIRST SIX WEEKS OF THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION NEED TO START RIGHT NOW GETTING CANDIDATES TO THE FOREFRONT TO RUN IN 2022 FOR THE HOUSE AND SENATE. WE NEED CANDIDATES THAT CARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY AND WILL REVERSE THIS CRAZINESS. STATE AND CITY ELECTED OFFICIALS NEED TO BE REPLACED IF THEY ARE A PART OF THIS SAD SYSTEM THAT HAS ATTACKED THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WE MUST REPLACE ALL THE BAD CANDIDATES IN THE NEXT TWO YEARS SO CONGRESS CANNOT RATIFY BAD LEGISLATION, THEN SELECT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES THAT WILL BE WORKERS THAT REPEAL A LOT OF THE LEGISLATION THAT IS DESTROYING OUR WAY OF LIFE.

YOUR FAMILY BUDGET is difficult to predict over several months or a year with a roller coaster government that is causing deep concern in the stock market. MONTHLY BUDGETS SHOULD BE PREPARED BY THE LAST WEEK OF THE PREVIOUS MONTH USING WHAT INCOME AND EXPENSE ITEMS YOU ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING. WHO KNOWS IF YOU WILL GET ANOTHER STIMULOUS CHECK, THE GOVERNMENT IS JUST PLAYING WITH YOU LIKE THEY ARE GIVING THIS TO YOU. IT IS YOU GIVING TO YOU , BUT THEY ARE GIVING TO FOREGN GOVERNMENTS , AND GOVERNMENTS IN THIS COUNTRY THAT ARE BANKRUPT. A VERY SMALL PORTION OF THE PROPOSED STIMULOUS BILL ACTUALLY FINDS IT WAY INTO THE HANDS OF THE MIDDLE INCOME AMERICAN TAXPAYER. MOST OF THE BILL IS LIBERAL FAVORITE POLITICAL PAYOFFS TO STATE AND FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS AND PROJECTS.

It is great that baseball is up and running. I am enjoying the Spring Training games on MLB TV network. For $129 you can subscribe for the whole season and watch many televised games in Spring Training and the regular season. They do black out games in your home area, but a lot of those games are on network stations so the people may be able to see them. College basketball is winding down but the limited number of fans takes a way from a lot of excitement of the games.

I am an avid bicycle rider that rides several miles every day. I photograph a lot of the things I see on the country roads and put them on Facebook. It is interesting to note that the price for an economical and expensive bicycle has gone up dramatically in recent months. That price may go up even more with dramatic increase in gasoline prices. I buy and sell bicycles on Craigslist and Offerup.

Keep the faith. If you are Christian pray for the people of America and the leaders to make good decisions. If you are of other faiths pray to the one you have faith in for peace, success, and good health.

Your Family Budget and the Current Administration

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I have a genuine concern about the new Administration and their lack of concern about the lower and middle income people of the United States of America. I had all of my income tax information ready two weeks ago to file my taxes for the tax year 2020. I completed my Federal and State tax returns on Turbo Tax and and a message appears, that Turbo Tax will hold your return, the IRS is not accepting any returns until after January 27th. So that did not completely shock me. Then President Biden comes out the next day and says I want to delay taking any tax returns until after February 14th because we have too much to do with a Stimulous Package and an immigration policy on the table. Plus he said those programs are more important than collecting taxes. Can you imagine the chaos with a six week back up in tax returns before they even begin to process refunds for the year 2020. Also think of the delay in getting tax money for the Federal Government to operate for the returns that would have normally come in in late January and early February.

As predicted the President says he wants to cancel the Trump tax cuts after saying throughout the campaign that he would only raise taxes on those people making over $190k or something like that. So President Biden is raising the taxes on the working class regardless of their gross income.

The COVID-19 vaccine distribution is going very badly and the President wants to increase the number of shots given daily. His request to increase the vaccine inoculations to high number daily is only to try to make him look better. The vaccine is not there , the manufacturers cannot make it fast enough to meet the current scheduled brackets. I am over Seventy Five and have not been able to even get on a list in my area. If I were to go to Phoenix they have 24 hour sites and I might be able to get a shot. Safeway, Fry’s , Walgreens, and CVS Pharmacy have received no vaccine in this area and are not even taking applicants. Some of my neighbors have gone to their primary care physician and gotten the vaccine. Apparently the doctors get it before the public locations. The whole roll out is a disaster and the current administration is making it worse. They say that soon the Administration is going to require that all flying passengers have the vaccine or they cannot fly. I can see why that might be good if there was enough vaccine that any one needing it to fly could get it, but that is not the case. Also there is such a shortage that the second shots are being delayed in many areas beyond the 21 and 30 day recommendation. One doctor here said on TV it will be ok if they get the second shot within 42 days. The manufacturers are behind on producing the vaccine for the second shot and the distribution is totally disorganized to get it to the right place at the right time.

On the 2020 tax return it is really a wake up call that it is required that you put the amount of the Stimulous money you have received and even the amount you have not received. I received the last $600 Stimulous payment in January 2021 in my bank account. The program used by Turbo Tax requires you put that payment like it came in 2020 or the IRS will reject your return for not having it on there.

The new Johnson and Johnson vaccine is estimated to be only 75% effective and is only one shot. If they could get an effective one shot vaccine that would sure speed things up , but 75% is not very good odds.

AS FAR AS MAKING A FAMILY BUDGET, IF YOU ARE UNEMPLOYED AND NOT SURE IF AND WHEN YOU WILL RECEIVE UNEMPLOYMENT CHECKS OR YOU ARE WORKING AND NOT SURE WHAT YOUR TAKE HOME PAY WILL BE IF THE TAX CUTS TAKEN AWAY, A SHORT TERM BUDGET IS ABOUT THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN GO AT THIS TIME. An approach would be to estimate how much you think you will be receiving from income and or unemployment benefits , and how much you estimate your expenses to be month by month. If you are paying rent and the landlord has followed through on the request by the government to defer receiving the rent, technically the landlord can come after you to collect the back rent after the government mandates expire. There are a lot of jobs available most places at this time but many on unemployment receive more money than they were earning. That was a gross error on the part of our legislators to create that situation. With the minimum wage going up to $15 as proposed that will help some people re-enter the workforce while others will lose their jobs because the employers cannot maintain the same number of people after the minimum wage increase.

Our government is in a state of flux while our Congress and Senate waste time over impeachment of a person that is not even in office. The American people are only pawns for government mandated programs as we move backwards.

Photography is a fun hobby for many people. I will furnish a link to an Instagram photography listing. This site allows a person to place photos on their site and people can decide if they want to purchase your photographs for commercial use. You get emails that tell you when people are looking at your photos and their comments about them. Selling access to your photos can be lucrative but it takes work to get people to notice your photos. The person can organize the photos into themes and genre to target certain people. The person can keep adding photos to their site.

The cost of the system is only $37 and is 46 pages long. It is very detailed and explains what you need to do to post your photos. It gives you the choice of selecting photo choices in the areas you prefer so it is interesting for you. There are many sample photos and listings that show you how others have listed their photos. You can use your phone , or other computer device to post the photos. The vender for this system does not try to sell you a lot of add on items , $37 is the total cost of this system. I do not think a person could make enough income immediately to support their family but as you add photos and learn the system I think this system could make a contribution to your family income. If you enjoy photography and have photos you can post this could be a profitable system for you.

Take a look at the ad for this system and if you like it , try it , it is inexpensive, honest , and a positive detailed program. The descriptions have written instructions and photos that show you what to do. You do not have to be a computer genius or a photography expert to get started.

If you would like to look at the ad where you can subscribe for this system and see if it looks like something you would like to do CLICK HERE

Some Suggestions Of How To Supplement Your Family Budget During the Pandemic

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If you are frustrated trapped at home during the pandemic and need a little additional income and something to keep your mind functioning, here are a few suggestions. It seems that everyone in most families like riding bicycles. There are many degrees of dedication to bike riding from just a few leisure rides every week to the ardent rider that rides daily and accumulates many miles in a weeks time.

If you like to read there is a book called “Bicycle the history” that can be purchased on eBay used quite reasonably for somewhere between $6 and $10, it originally sold for $29.95. The book is loaded with old actual photos of bicycling dating back to the 1860’s when inventors were working on an iron horse to replace horses as the mode of travel. For many years there were cycles called “Velosipede” which required the rider to use their feet on the ground to move the cycle , it was not until the late 1800’s that bicycles were made that look anything like those we have today. The high wheel bicycle which had a really large front wheel up to as much as four feet and a small back wheel and foot hoist that the rider would use to propel themselves onto the seat near the front of the velosipede. That style of bike was prevalent for about ten years after the civil war. Bikes were used for pleasure , deliveries, and travel.

I have been riding a bicycle since I was nine years old. I got a paper route at age eleven that required riding over a mile to pick up the papers and another mile to where the route started and four miles on the route at 5 A.M. every day. The distance did not phase me one bit at that age. But now you mention to someone do you want to ride five miles just for fun they panic and think that is too much. I had paper routes for four years and then worked in the mailroom of a newspaper for three years. I traveled many miles on a bicycle for my paper route and running errands for my parents.

You ask what does that have to do with making extra income and the pandemic? A bike ride every day to alternating locations even for just a couple of miles or so can raise the spirits of a person. I started a bike riding group at a 55 and over mobile home park in Arizona. I named them “The Wild Javalina’s kind as a joke after the movie “The Wild Hogs” came out. We had as many as twenty people riding every morning at 7 A.M. One day we took lightly traveled roads towards Superstition Mountain and back to the park, the next day we took lightly traveled roads from Apache Junction , Arizona to Mesa Arizona. We traveled a little over three miles on each of these round trips. In Mesa there are parks with nice sidewalks that we would ride on and enjoy the park. I put odometers on my bikes and encouraged the people riding with us to do the same. It is funny that when you know how far you have traveled it encourages you to want to travel just a little bit further each time. In six months I put one thousand miles on my bike just going on short rides.

When I looked at the people riding with “The Wild Javalina’s” and their bicycles, some of them had horrible bicycles and would give up riding with us because they could not keep up. When I returned to Colorado I decided while in Colorado Springs I would purchase a bike on Craigslist for me to ride at my son’s home when we ere visiting there. When I went to pick up the Diamondback Insight bicycle I had to meet the person at a storage shed he was renting. He had nine bicycles in the shed, another fellow across from him had a big shed and had over twenty bicycles in his shed. The person getting the bike for me explained that his wife spent more than he made as an engineer and he needed supplemental income so he decided to buy about ten bicycles a week on Craigslist at prices he considered low for the bike and resell them at a price $30 to $50 more than he paid for it. He said he made twelve to fifteen hundred a month , he added the guy across from me works at selling used bikes full time and made over thirty thousand dollars last year. These two men did have an advantage that some people may not have, Colorado Springs is a town with a large military presence. Military people are transferred out on short notice and want to sell a lot of their possessions quickly at a bargain price. I decided right then and there I was going to sell used bikes at the 55 and over RV park where we lived in the Fall and Winter in Arizona.

I rented a storage unit to store the bikes because RV parks will not let people run businesses in the parks. I purchased nine bicycles, some men’s and a few women’s. I sold seven of the first nine rather quickly making an average of about $30 a bike. I would only buy bikes that did not need work on them, I was not a bike repair person. Also I learned that people are not as receptive to some makes of bicycles as others. In a six month period not really pushing it, I sold about seventy bicycles to the surrounding parks and general population averaging about $35 profit on each one. That was five years ago. I printed photos of my bikes and put them in self service laundries and on the RV Park bulletin boards.

Times have changed. The prices for many bicycles have increased quite a bit in the last year in particularly. Also the quality of the bicycles has declined for new lower price bikes at Walmart and the big box stores. I bought a Roadmaster bike at Walmart and road it on a three mile ride, that was the worst bicycle I have ever ridden. I took it back the next day. Case in point, if you decide to try buying and selling bicycles, stick to known brands that people like that are better quality for a low priced bicycle. I only buy and sell Schwinn, Diamondback, Trek, and Specialized bicycles that are in very good condition and are priced right. As you look through the bikes shown on Craigslist or Offerup, there are a lot of very high priced bicycles that listed for several thousand dollars. There are others selling for three hundred to a thousand dollars. Then there are people that explain that the bike was sitting in their garage for several years and they need to get rid of it, those are generally the people that are willing to sell their bike for a low price and possibly negotiate the price. I have purchased bikes that look brand new and really are brand new because they were never used, a person got them as a gift or bought the bike and did not like bike riding so the bike sat in the garage. Just yesterday I purchased a bike for $80 a Schwinn Link series City 1 , the owner apologized because he said you might have to replace the back tire it is flat. I took a tire pump to pick up the bike pumped the tire up and the bike looks like it just came off the showroom floor. I took photos of the bike this morning and listed it on Offerup for $135, over twenty people have looked at it but no buyers yet on this one. That bike originally sold for $319. I sold a Kent bicycle I purchased new five years ago for $70 using Offerup two days ago.

Warning about Craigslist, the technical support at Craigslist is totally unresponsive. In this area if you click on the contact block at the top to get contact information you get an error message and cannot see the contact information, consequently people are not able to respond to your ads even though they let you put ads on Craigslist. They have a form to report problems and there are many comments and articles about the problem with the contact button. They tell you to clear your cache and it will work , eliminate cookies , use FireFox as your browser, none of those things solve the contact button problem. I tried it on five different computers and for Craigslist in Phoenix, New York City, and Colorado Springs the same problem exists for the whole Craigslist system. I have sent three messages on the Craigslist website form to technical support over the last two weeks and got no response.

We went through the garage last week and my wife’s three wheel Joy Rider tricycle was taking up a lot of space out there and she never rides it. That trike is currently selling for $995, when we got it they were selling for $750, that is an example of how much prices have increased in recent years on quality bikes and trikes. We purchased the Joyrider for $350 five years ago used, it looked like new. I listed it on Craigslist and got no replies because their system has not been working. I listed it on eBay and got a reply right away from a person in Phoenix that wanted it for her 96 y.o. father. We live fifty miles south of Phoenix in Casa Grande, the lady’s husband borrowed a pickup and came and got the Joyrider a week ago, we sold it for $360. The 96 y.o. father came with his son-in-law to pick it up. The elderly man pulled out a photo he had been saving for fifteen years of a Joy Rider that looked exactly like the one we sold them. He said he had been looking for one all that time and was so excited when his daughter saw that the one listed on eBay was so close to them and was still available. There is up to a four month waiting period for a new Joy Rider. I guess they do not make a lot of them?

We had a Solo Fire Pit Ring still in the box that had been given to us. We cannot have open fires in our backyards in this HOA so the fire pit just sat in the garage. I looked up on the internet to see what that model was selling for. It was on sale for $189 for the Christmas holidays, so I put a price of $110 and listed it on Offerup. Fifteen minutes after I put it on Offerup I got a response from a gentlemen that lived fifty miles from here. He said he wanted it and would come pick it up now. He was a younger fellow with little kids and said his kids were very excited to have a fire that evening.

If you have crafts or items someone in your family constructs, Offerup is good place to list them. It gives the person the option of paying what you ask or making an offer. When it comes to selling used bicycles, the bike I purchased in Falcon , Colorado near Colorado Springs was delivered. The guy I bought it from said when I told him I wanted it that he would deliver it within two hours. He was 55 miles away in Woodland Park, Colorado. When he came he had two bikes on the back of an old car. He took the Diamondback Insight off which I had purchased and I gave him $100, he was only asking $90 but I told him that he gave such good service that I would pay him $100. I sold that bike last year for $125. The fellow that sold me the bike told me he had been buying and selling bikes full time to make a living for three years. He explained when I put in my ads that I will deliver, the sale is usually a closed deal at that point, when I arrive with the bike they give me the money. He said when people list bikes and have people come and see them the person worries about how to get a bike on their car and haggle over the price and walk away. He said it can take a long time to sell a bike that way. He said 90% of the people that call me buy a bike from me and only a small number say they do not want it when I get there.

Photography is a fun hobby for many people. I will furnish a link to an Instagram photography listing. This site allows a person to place photos on their site and people can decide if they want to purchase your photographs for commercial use. You get emails that tell you when people are looking at your photos and their comments about them. Selling access to your photos can be lucrative but it takes work to get people to notice your photos. The person can organize the photos into themes and genre to target certain people. The person can keep adding photos to their site.

The cost of the system is only $37 and is 46 pages long. It is very detailed and explains what you need to do to post your photos. It gives you the choice of selecting photo choices in the areas you prefer so it is interesting for you. There are many sample photos and listings that show you how others have listed their photos. You can use your phone , or other computer device to post the photos. The vender for this system does not try to sell you a lot of add on items , $37 is the total cost of this system. I do not think a person could make enough income immediately to support their family but as you add photos and learn the system I think this system could make a contribution to your family income. If you enjoy photography and have photos you can post this could be a profitable system for you.

Take a look at the ad for this system and if you like it , try it , it is inexpensive, honest , and a positive detailed program. The descriptions have written instructions and photos that show you what to do. You do not have to be a computer genius or a photography expert to get started.

If you would like to look at the ad where you can subscribe for this system and see if it looks like something you would like to do CLICK HERE

How Refinancing Your Home Can Affect Your Family Budget

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Interest rates for home financing have declined to new lows and many people are refinancing their homes. If you decide to refinance your home, there are many considerations. Do you want to shorten the loan period with the interest savings and have an increase in your house payment resulting in saving a lot in interest costs? Do you want to keep the same loan term and have more money available for your family budget?

On the surface refinancing sounds like the best thing to do for most people, particularly if you can save several percentage points from your existing loan with the new loan rate. We are in the process of refinancing our home. When we bought the home two years ago from the time we looked at the home and decided to buy it to the closing date it was less than a month. That is not the way loans are now. With COVID-19 and the influx of refinancing going on, it can take several months for the loan to be completed. There has to be an appraisal in most cases and the property owner has to pay for the appraisal outside of the loan. The appraisal cost was $500 and our home had increased in appraised value by over 18% in two years. The borrower has to supply all the previous tax year returns along with the supporting data, like W-2 forms and 1099 forms, the id verification of the property if it is a modular home, and verification from the HOA that all dues are current. If the home is not on a foundation, a tie down inspector is necessary which costs $500 and if a tie down is necessary it can cost as much as $1,200. A termite inspection needs to me made and reported to the loan originator. Flood plain verification has to occur to determine if you have to have flood insurance.

The closing costs for our loan are going to run over $4,000 which is added to the loan. We changed from a 30 year fixed loan to a 15 year fixed loan. Our equity declined by the $4,000, it will take about four years before we return to the equity level we currently have under the existing loan. After that the equity per month begins to be higher than we currently have and the loan will be paid off in fifteen years. Our house payment went from $525.00 a month for the loan payment, property taxes and insurance, to $628 per month for the fifteen year period. Of course the house payment can be adjusted annually by the financing bank to assure that there is enough in the escrow to pay the property taxes and insurance along with the loan.

It has been over two months since we began the process and the loan originator said she hopes to have our loan by the end of December. The first month after a refinancing there is no house payment which helps a little bit. The bank locked in our rate when we first applied at 2.75% which turned out to be a bad move since interest rates continue to decline. This morning I got an email with the current interest rates for home financing, the average rate for a 30 year loan is 2.41% and the average rate for a 15 year loan is 2.25%. Even if we did not get the lowest rate of 2.25% , we probably could have gotten a rate of at least the 2.35%. In this case we should have said we do not want the rate locked in we want to go with the market.

I investigated getting a GI Loan which they advertise was being very advantageous for veterans. I have never used my GI Loan which is a one time offer. A veteran can only get a GI loan one time. There is a $2,000 fee changed for Vets getting a loan plus the normal closing costs. In other words it would cost $2,000 more to get a GI loan than a conventional loan. The only advantage for a veteran with the GI loan is that they can buy a home with zero down payment.

They tell you to shop around when refinancing. We are refinancing using the existing loan company we had on the soon to be old loan. I looked on line at some of the other options but some of them look pretty shady. When they say no closing costs and no appraisal be careful there are other fees and charges hidden in the loan in most cases.

I hope this example has helped if you are considering refinancing. If you decide to refinance good luck in the slow process and changing interest rates. Also we do not know what the policy of the new administration with be that affects refinancing.

Uncertainty Is Prevalent Regarding Your Family Budget for 2021

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With the election results in limbo and the House of Representatives and Senate majorities from different parties, it is difficult to predict how your family budget will be affected for 2021.
With the pandemic still a serious problem, it probably is a certainty that 2021 will not be like a normal year we experienced before 2020

With the Federal Income Tax rates set for 2021, there is no guarantee if the presidency changes parties that the tax code might not change even for your 2020 tax return. There are some Democrats recommending that the stimulus money be included in your income on the tax return and taxed. That seems like a cruel thing to do when so many people are having such a difficult time financially. The final tax rates and tax code changes usually are not announced until mid January of the following year , or January 2021.

There is also uncertainty for the stock market. If the Democrats win the Presidency and the President changes the tax rates retroactively to 2020 for individuals and corporations, it would probably have the affect of setting off a selling wave on the stock market and retirement accounts would decline. If that philosophy is continued throughout the next four years , it could have a very shocking affect on 401-k’s and corporate stock prices. Talk to your financial advisors after the first of the year and see what they recommend. With a second wave of COVID-19 in progress it is doubtful the economy will fully recover in 2021.

Families should take great precaution in trying to avoid COVID-19. Many stores are offering delivery to your car in a designated area of their parking lots with orders that have been entered on line and paid for with a credit card. The instructions at those sites include asking you to stay in your car and have the door opened where you want their employee to place the groceries. The buyer texts the number given for the order and the store employee brings the order to the car. There is no close contact between the customer and the employee. The drive up windows at fast food restaurants many times have a credit card processor you place your credit card in the processor and remove it. There is no physical contact. Dining in restaurants are a mixed bag, some are allowed 25% occupancy and some 50% occupancy, with sections roped off, masks are required to enter and exit the restaurant but not at the table. Restaurants that were previously dine in are now strictly take out. Some restaurants have added outdoor seating socially distanced to attempt to regain seating lost from the inside restrictions. Big stores like Home Depot require masks and social distancing , and have marked spots on the floor where customers must stand when they are waiting to check out. Some businesses allow a very limited number of people in the store and others must stand outside and wait until the door monitor allows them in. In Arizona , health clubs were allowed to open last month, I still do not feel comfortable going to the health club I have a membership to. When I think of the sweat and wiping down everything it seems like it might be a place to get infected. THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT ADJUSTMENTS THAT BUSINESSES HAVE MADE IN HOPES TO RETAIN SOME OR ALL OF THEIR NORMAL BUSINESS LEVEL.

Amazon and Ebay have been flourishing with the pandemic because they offer a no contact way to purchase just about anything a family needs including groceries. Also Amazon delivers most items in one or two days so there is very little wait with no shipping cost if the customer has Amazon Prime. Walmart, Target , and Kmart are advertising their products on line. Other companies and suppliers have seen a great increase in orders placed on line.

Churches have had to make significant changes. In Arizona , only fifty people socially distanced with masks are allowed in a church. Some churches have increased the number of services. Several churches in this area allow fifty people in each of three services , and stream one of the services to their Facebook account so people can stay home and experience the service. That church normally had about 1,200 people total attendance at three services. The pastor of a large church in Casa Grande Arizona announces each week on the podcast that they have had viewers from all over the United States and Canada just from watchers forwarding the website address to their friends, relatives and neighbors. The pastor also mentioned that with the contributions from the podcasts that they were staying within their budget.

I have fallen for a large number of supplemental income ads that I have received in my email. Virtually all of the ones I paid for offered big income almost instantly but only if you upgraded from the original amount you signed up for. Pretty soon the site takes the cost from possibly $37 to hundreds of dollars and they want to assign a coach to you that gets a percentage of what you make plus a fee. They all say we will refund your original $37 if you do not make money in ninety days but they may have sold you email lists, had you pay for postage sending out letters, and when you are through it has cost a lot of money and no income. Several of the systems I have purchased never paid me any commissions even after I had earned them, it was a scam. Some of these get rich quick systems are illegal and could result in being charged with a felony if you did what the system recommended.

I am going to give you a link at the end of this blog to the photo sharing system that I am recommending. The cost of the system is only $37 and is 46 pages long. It is very detailed and explains what you need to do to post your photos. It gives you the choice of selecting photo choices in the areas you prefer so it is interesting for you. There are many sample photos and listings that show you how others have listed their photos. You can use your phone , or other computer device to post the photos. The vender for this system does not try to sell you a lot of add on items , $37 is the total cost of this system. I do not think a person could make enough income immediately to support their family but as you add photos and learn the system I think this system could make a contribution to your family income. If you enjoy photography and have photos you can post this could be a profitable system for you.

Take a look at the ad for this system and if you like it , try it , it is inexpensive, honest , and a positive detailed program. The descriptions have written instructions and photos that show you what to do. You do not have to be a computer genius or a photography expert to get started.

If you would like to look at the ad where you can subscribe for this system and see if it looks like something you would like to do CLICK HERE

I hope this system makes you as happy as it has me.

Could Your Photos Add Income To Your Family Budget?

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I took the photo of the mirror lake image two years ago at Taylor Reservoir in Colorado. Do you have photos you would like to share and possibly make a few dollars?

Just about everyone has a cell phone that takes photos. Most people also have digital cameras, tablet computers, possibly a laptop, and in some cases they have a stand alone computer in their home. With some or all of these photo devices you can save and send photos to social media, your family, email contacts, and several more places.

During this pandemic when so many people have had their income stream interrupted they are looking for work or a way to make a few extra dollars. If photography is one of your hobbies or you would like to make photography a hobby and make some money as a result of that hobby , it is a possibility. Let me explain the reality of how photography could bring in some income.

Instagram is one of the most popular photo sharing social networks. By using Instagram to post your photos and a photo marketing app on your computer device you can have your photos viewed by thousands of people every night and day. Some people choose to buy the photos that are displayed on these sites. You are paid on one of the sites the first week of every month for the preceding months sales. If you market photos exclusively on Instagram you will be paid at the end of each quarter, March, June, September, and December. The commissions are deposited into your PayPal account.

I have fallen for a large number of supplemental income ads that I have received in my email. Virtually all of the ones I paid for offered big income almost instantly but only if you upgraded from the original amount you signed up for. Pretty soon the site takes the cost from possibly $37 to hundreds of dollars and they want to assign a coach to you that gets a percentage of what you make plus a fee. They all say we will refund your original $37 if you do not make money in ninety days but they may have sold you email lists, had you pay for postage sending out letters, and when you are through it has cost a lot of money and no income. Several of the systems I have purchased never paid me any commissions even after I had earned them, it was a scam. Some of these get rich quick systems are illegal and could result in being charged with a felony if you did what the system recommended.

I am going to give you a link at the end of this blog to the photo sharing system that I am recommending. The cost of the system is only $37 and is 46 pages long. It is very detailed and explains what you need to do to post your photos. It gives you the choice of selecting photo choices in the areas you prefer so it is interesting for you. There are many sample photos and listings that show you how others have listed their photos. You can use your phone , or other computer device to post the photos. The vender for this system does not try to sell you a lot of add on items , $37 is the total cost of this system. I do not think a person could make enough income immediately to support their family but as you add photos and learn the system I think this system could make a major contribution to your family income. If you enjoy photography and have photos you can post this could be a profitable system for you.

Take a look at the ad for this system and if you like it , try it , it is inexpensive, honest , and a positive detailed program. The descriptions have written instructions and photos that show you what to do. You do not have to be a computer genius or a photography expert to get started.

If you would like to look at the ad where you can subscribe for this system and see if it looks like something you would like to do CLICK HERE

I hope this system makes you as happy as it has me.

Ways To Cut TV Costs For Your Family Budget

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I am sure you are familiar with Dish Satellite TV and Direct Satellite TV both of these services are quite expensive. I know our TV bill with Dish was the 80 channel choice , plus local channels, and a local sports channel so I could get major league home games for the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies when we were in Colorado. That combination cost us $125 a month. We had no premium channels.

In the search to find a combination of items to get the channels we wanted I put together a combination of services and am now paying much less. The first thing that you need is an unlimited internet service, a service that does not restrict the usage without throttling after you use the limit or you are required to purchase extra megabytes. Century Link and Air Beam are services in this area that do not limit usage. There is a problem with those services if they do not give you at least 10 mb’s of internet speed. The service will greatly restrict your ability to run TV services if it does not offer 10 mb’s of speed. Trepec offers 10 mb’s in speed for a very affordable price of $55 a month and is consistent with a very low down time. Cox also offers this service in some areas. You have to pay for internet services anyway so the cost of the internet is really not an expense of your TV service.

First you need to get a TV antenna that has sufficient strength to bring in the local channels and an array of other channels. There are good antennas that are effective up to 100 miles from the source for less than $100. I purchased an antenna shaped like a flying saucer for $89 and it does fine for us. We are forty miles from most of the transmission towers in Phoenix. We get all the network stations NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and about thirty five other channels. If you have Dish or Direct TV you can just disconnect the cables that go to the satellite dish and use a connector or splitter to connect the antenna to those cables and you will not need to string any cables within your home.

Next you need to purchase a Roku at Walmart, Amazon, or other sources. A standard Roku costs about $25. If you have two TV’s you would need a separate Roku for each TV. The new TV’s have Roku built in so in that case you could not need to purchase the Roku. With Roku you get some free channels and movies. You are able to get Netflix and Amazon Prime using the Roku if you subscribe to those services. Netflix costs $12.99 a month and Amazon Prime comes with an Amazon Prime membership which costs $120 a year. Those two add ons provide a lot of entertainment. I also have MLB which costs $120 a year for all of the in market major league baseball games during the baseball season. In addition we have Sling TV which offers about fifty channels which includes Fox News , CNN, and MSNBC. By going into Sling, I can change my package from Orange to Blue as many times as I want and then get all of the ESPN channels. But when I change to the line up for ESPN , I lose the line up that has Fox News, so I change it back to the line up that includes Fox News when I am through watching a sporting event on ESPN.

You ask what does all this cost. I do not think you would include the cost of antenna because they charge $100 for installation for cable services so that is what you would spend on the antenna. Sling TV $40, Netflix $12.99, Prime TV $10, or $63 a month and a one time charge of $25 for the Roku. Wow what a savings $62 a month. The Roku operates off of your internet service so that is why you need unlimited usage. Also there are other choices on Roku that are free and have free channels and movies. One of those choices with many channels is Pluto. If you want MLB it would cost you the equivalent of $10 a month additional. None of the services we have involve a contract that requires you to keep the service for two years like Dish and Direct TV require.

Good luck in cutting your entertainment costs during these difficult times.