<$Wednesday, February 13, 2008$>
Discount Diabetic Supplies
| In all fairness to my husband, one reason we spend so much on food is because he's diabetic, which requires some specialty shopping, especially given our current "lack of a real kitchen in which to cook real food" situation. This, of course, is not the only area where diabetes is expensive. Monitoring his glucose runs up a pretty good-sized bill, too. The monitors themselves don't tend to cost that much, but the manufacturers make up for that by charging out the wazoo for the testing strips. Take One Touch Ultra Strips, for instance, which retail for $52.99 for a box of 50--more than the meter that uses them. American Diabetes Wholesale has them going for only $34.65, which is a little more like it. All of their diabetes supplies are sold at pretty steep discounts, which has to be great news for the uninsured, especially given how widespread Type II diabetes is becoming in the US. Of course, the best way to save money on this stuff is not to become diabetic in the first place--something I have to watch out for in myself, because my doctor suspects I have a predisposition towards it. One of these days when we get ourselves that real kitchen, I think it will become a lot easier for us both to cook healthy meals and control this stuff through lifestyle and healthy eating choices (and to save money on food, too). But even then, staying on top of Husband's glucose levels will be key. These are supplies we'll most likely need for the rest of our lives. Even with insurance, it's good to find more affordable options. Labels: food problem, healthy living, resources, shopping |
The Food Problem: Keeping track of sales
| It's New Grocery Flier day. I'm not planning on buying any more groceries this week, but my husband has a habit of calling me up at the last minute with a list of things to pick up on the way home, so I want to be armed and ready with a list of what's on sale to steer him towards if he feels we absolutely must have more food in the stockpile before next payday. I've been having good luck with My Grocery Deals. It's similar to The Grocery Game and Coupon Mom, except that unlike the former it's free, and unlike the latter it's a lot more streamlined and easier to navigate (at least for me), and unlike either of the former it actually includes most of the grocery stores in my area. Once I registered and selected the stores where I prefer to shop, it started e-mailing me updates whenever any new sales prices get posted. When I log into the site it lets me organize deals by category, or by store, or I can search for specific products. Also, like both of the others, it includes a printable coupon gallery. It's pretty ADD-friendly, what with the e-mail notices, so that should keep me from forgetting all about sales and coupons. Slowly but surely, I'm getting on top of the food problem. Oh yes, I am. Labels: food problem, resources, spending |
<$Tuesday, February 12, 2008$>
Wikinvest
| Something else I lack confidence in is investing, especially in the stock market. Trying to make heads or tails of it all just makes my head hurt. I can't even figure out whether now is a good time to jump in and get started or not, what with the market fluctuating all over the place. If you're one for braving the market, though, you might want to check out Wikinvest, the investment wiki with plenty of info and research on just about every aspect of the market. The research articles on various companies provided there are pretty informative. Their research on Best Buy, for example, tells me everything I (or, more likely, my financial adviser) would need to know to make a decision about investing with the company, including a breakdown of their sources of revenue. Of course, it's no surprise that their biggest revenue source is consumer electronics at 41%; but I would have expected services such as Geek Squad and home theater installation to generate more than 6% of overall revenue. See? Shows how much I know. This site looks like a pretty good source with which to educate myself about the stock market. I'm way too risk-intolerant to try that kind of investing now, but maybe in time, after the economy, the market and my finances all become more stable, I'll be willing to give it a try. Labels: disclosure, educational, investing, resources |
<$Wednesday, January 30, 2008$>
This is why I love the internets.
| In the same vein as yesterday's post about free online image editors, there's a great post at Gather Little By Little that lists free open source software--both web based and free downloadable programs. When we get our computer, I don't plan to pay extra for Microsoft Office. With all of the open source programs available these days that are as easy to use as and compatible with MS programs, there's just no reason to. I already do the majority of my writing in Google Docs. I might not even download any programs to my hard drive--I might just save space by using web based programs! Labels: finance+blogs, freebies, frugality, resources, tools |
<$Friday, January 25, 2008$>
Choose your host!
| *Sponsored Post* ETA: I just used it to run a search for hosts that cost under $10 with no set-up fee and at least 25MB of disk space, and came up with 637 options. With that much competition, a tool that helps you narrow it down will definitely come in handy. Labels: disclosure, extra income, resources, tools |
Real Estate Investing 101
| *Sponsored Post* At any rate, real estate is definitely an investment that we'd like to make someday. I don't know if we want to make careers out of it, but it would definitely be a nice source of supplemental income. So I'm wondering about the benefits of Nouveau Riche University. They were recently featured in the magazine Your Business At Home, which lends them a sense of legitimacy in a field that seems to be pretty rife with get rich quick scams. From what I understand from reading the articles, they are an accredited university, developing distance learning program, and what you get for the fee that they charge looks like a pretty good value. I don't think we're prepared to go as far as going back to college to learn about real estate investing just yet, but we are pretty clueless about what all it entails and exactly what opportunities are available. So it's nice to know that resources like this exist. I'd like to hear your opinions on whether a program like this would be a good investment of time and money. Labels: disclosure, education, investing, resources |
<$Tuesday, January 22, 2008$>
Catholic Homeschooling Made Easy
| *Sponsored Post* My husband and I have pretty much already decided that if we ever have kids, we'll most likely home school them. This isn't a decision I take lightly, nor is it one I ever thought I would make; but there are a lot of motivations behind it. Some of them are practical: if our kids take too much after me, they're bound to have special needs, and I feel like I'm the best qualified to teach my (hypothetical future) children how to cope with them. Some of them are fear-driven: whether it's rational or not, I don't want to put my (hypothetical future) children in a position where they might get shot. And some of it is, of course, religion-driven. Although my husband and I are Protestant Christians and plan to raise our children in that tradition, I think the St. Gabriel Catholic Academy looks like a great resource for home schooling. They provide access to online teachers and homeschooling portfolios and resources that cover a full curriculum. They include catechism training, but I would think that as the creator of your child's curriculum, you would have full control over how much of that, if any, that they receive if you're not Catholic. And even if you are, I think exposure to different traditions helps to create a well-rounded, solid foundation on which faith can grow. Labels: disclosure, education, resources |