Too many hours at work

It's been a very tiring couple of days at work. I didn't get home until nearly 4 AM Friday morning, after having gone in to work at 5 PM Thursday evening. In total, I wound up with around 10 paid working hours.

Then I went back to work at 1 PM Friday afternoon and wound up not leaving until after 11 PM. I had nearly 10 more hours then.

This would be all well-and-good if it weren't for the fact that those hours have all been mostly on my feet. I'm an old lady and that gets to me pretty easily. Part of my shift Friday was spent in my car.

I went to the bank twice. I also went to "big town" to get a replacement toner cartridge for the office printer. Then I came home to pick Brandon up since he didn't have to be at work until 5 PM. All that running in my car, with no air conditioner, really drained me.

Days like that remind me just why I want to work from home!

Term life insurance savings

There's no question in my mind that if you have a family or anyone who depends on you, you really need to spend a little money on term life insurance. This will keep that person from having to deal with so many issues that come after your death - issues that they may not be able to handle very well during the grieving time. Life insurance is a gift from you to those you leave behind, but it doesn't have to be a gift that cuts into your present budget in such a way that you can't care for them today.

Shop around and compare prices and benefits. This is too important an issue to leave to chance or to put off for very long.

A penny saved

So, now that you're clipping coupons and sending for product rebates, what will you do with that money you've saved? I know, it seems like small change, doesn't it? But, it can add up more than you might imagine.

If you clip coupons, and keep the change from what you've saved with them, you could be putting that into a jar, the bank, or under your mattress. Don't touch it for at least a year. Just let it keep accumulating. If you only saved $2 a week, that's $104 a year without even trying. More than likely, you'll save a lot more than that, though.

What can you do with $104?

• Fill your car's gas tank - twice.
• Pay the water/sewer/garbage bill.
• Buy a week's worth of groceries.
• Go out to eat someplace nice.
• Pay your cable bill.
• Buy domain hosting for a year.
• Buy someone a nice gift.
• Donate it to your favorite charity.
• Add it to your Christmas or vacation fund.

Can you think of ways you can use just $104?

Coupons and rebates

The Money Ning blog has an interesting post about Buying newspapers save me money each week. I suggest you all click over and read it. He has outlined in good detail the coupons he clipped and the actual savings, which more than offsets the cost of the Sunday paper where the coupons are found.

I've known this for quite some time but haven't always put it into practice. I do have a Sunday paper from this past Sunday, but Brandon got it from the machine outside where I work and one of his friends took all the coupon fliers out of it! It would be well worth the cost to get my own and hang onto it!

Another thing you often find in the coupon fliers is a rebate or two for products you might already purchase. I've seen them go pretty high, but they require a lot of product buying to meet the demands of the rebate. You really have to plan ahead to make it worth your while.

• Track the rebates from week to week. You'll learn which manufacturers offer the most rebates and the best return for your spending.
• Save the entire labels of products. Not the products that are generic or store brands, of course. Just the national name brands. This sounds daunting, but they can be kept in file folders. You can actually peel the printed portion off of boxes so you can throw the cardboard portion away.
• Set up a filing system. File labels in the simplest fashion, just make sure it's a system you can easily use. You can file them according to brand, according to food type (soups, pasta, etc.) or any other way that makes it easy for you to find them.
• File rebates according to expiration date. This way, you won't forget and let them pass the expiration date, thereby losing out on the rebate.
• Send for rebates as soon as possible. The sooner you send them, the sooner you receive the benefit from them.
• Be selective. Not every rebate is worth the time, effort, and postage to send for. With postage for First Class mail at .41 now, your rebate amount needs to be at least three times that. If you aren't very careful how you cut/peel the packaging, the postage could go much higher.
• Treat it like a business. If you're serious enough about saving money and getting a return for money spent, then the only way to really make a go of this is to treat it like a business or a small, part time job. Be prepared to dedicate at least a couple of hours a week filling out forms, cutting needed proofs of purchase, and mailing the rebates.
• Combine your savings. Often, the same manufacturers who offer rebates also offer cents-off or dollars-off coupons. If you're planning to purchase the items anyway, get the most bang for your grocery shopping buck and use the coupons to buy items you'll also be getting rebates for.

How do you save on grocery purchases?

Importance of good nutrition

There is no doubt in my mind that good nutrition plays a vital role in how we function at our jobs or in our home businesses. I confess that I often choose what I eat based mainly on taste or convenience instead of the nutritional impact it will have. Shame on me.

Stress can rob our bodies of nutrients and not replacing them can result in a health and energy decline. However, we can at least take nurtitional supplements to offset some of that and possibly reduce the wear that stress and long hours may have on us.

Are you taking care of your nutritional needs?

More Merchant blog

I wanted to share a blog with you that is heavy on tips for generating online income, if that's the route you'd like to try. More Merchant shares tips and information related to making money online and saving money, too. The articles are interesting and informative. I'll be testing some of his tips and tricks myself and will report back to you with my own results.

In the meantime, click over and glean from what this person has learned.