Money Reasons

Smart Reasons to Save, Use and Invest Money

Archive for November, 2010

Getting Paid for Recycling Aluminum Cans Update

November 30th, 2010

Getting Paid for recycling

Getting Paid!

At my son’s school, they had the kids collect aluminum cans for a school trip to the big city in my state. It was a win-win because the kids paid for their trip by doing something beneficial for the planet…

After the trip was over, I encouraged my son to continue to collect the cans as a money-making experiment! I told him I would find a way to get money for the cans that he collected and crushed.

After he starting collecting the cans, I wasn’t sure if I could find a place to turn in the cans for money after all. I created the post called: “Is Recycling Aluminum Cans Worth Doing Anymore?” because of doubts that it would be worth it (especially taking in a long drive to do so).

Well I’m happy to say that I did find a recycling plant and as an added bonus, it was less than 2 miles away from where I work!

So what was the payout that my son got paid?

For the 16 lbs of the crushed cans that I took in, he received $10.40! The price per can turned out to be 65 cents per lbs!

I was actually quite surprised with the payout! I thought that cans were going for 40 cents per lbs in my area, so I expected a number closer to $6.00 for the single bag I took to the recycling plant.

It was a pleasant surprise for the both of us!

A side perk of recycling the aluminum cans was that I found out that the recycling plant also take many other metals too. And the biggest find was that they take old computer and monitors for free!

Our experiment is now done, but we both are much better at the entire process, so who know… I may continue the process…

Have you ever considered participating in a recycling program?

If you don’t care about getting money for your recycling efforts, check out nearby fire stations, call them and ask if they take aluminum cans or plastic water bottles. I know that they will recycle the cans and give the money to burn victims, or at least that’s the case in our area!

-MR

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Posted in Entrepreneurship

Tags: aluminum cans aluminum recycling Kids

Upgrading to a McMansion!

November 29th, 2010

Upgrading to a McMansion!

McMansion

Well, my friend that won a house has upgraded from their free townhouse to a McMansion! Actually the house is even on the large side for a McMansion since it’s over 4,000 square feet!

Now both my friend and her husband can’t really afford such a house if it were just their salaries that they had to rely on (I believe it was listed around $350,000 after coming down from the $400,000s) .

So how do they afford it?

They are renting out their townhouse (that they won) for about $1,000 a month! All of this money goes towards the mortgage payment of the new house! From my calculations they should be able to afford the house with that extra $1,000 going towards their mortgage.

But even better, they only had to take out a $280,000 mortgage since they had enough saved up for a $70,000 dollar down-payment! They had this much because they were able to save their money for the past 5 or so years that they lived in the townhouse!

Not that they need it, but with record low mortgage rates, if they make the normal payment and don’t pay anything extra, they should be able to have the same fun lifestyle that they had before the upgrade! Remember, both of them are in their mid 20s still!

Now for a Few of the McMansion Highlights!

The house has a huge home theater in the basement! The previous owners bought some type of projection unit mounted on the ceiling and it projects to the entire screen wall! The picture is huge, and its high definition! It was quite literally the largest viewing experience I’ve ever seen outside of a movie theater!

a similar home theater layout

The 3 car garage had a heater and the floor was covered with some special rubberized surface! The office in the house was larger than my master bedroom. Wood trim was everywhere, it was a huge house!

I was amazed, do you know anyone who owns an McMansion?

-MR

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Posted in lifestyle

Tags: big house house McMansion

MR Cache 2010, Nov 28 – Thanksgiving Day Dinner

November 28th, 2010

Weekly Thoughts:

Well, we went to my in-law’s house for Thanksgiving (we did my parent’s house this past Saturday). It’s our new tradition to split up Thanksgiving into two day instead of one.

I can’t believe this year is almost over, it went by so quickly. While it wasn’t horrible, I’m not entirely sure I maximized my use of 2010. So next month I will be doing a lot of rethinking my entire direction in life!

My Favorite Reads of the Week:

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff: Top 5 Reasons Not to Budget – Crystal brings to light some of the reasons that you might not want to create a budget. She brings to light some great points, but as she states once you master your budget, it only takes a few hours a month! Check out her reasoning!

Canadian Finance Blog: Ways To Save Money – An incredible index to great articles on how to save money! Very well done!!!

Cashflow Sherpa: Maximizing Your Finances and Experiences – This is my guest hosting post at Cashflow Sherpa. If it were at my site, it would easily be my favorite this week! The message in my post is very true and worth a read!

Cents To Save: Note to Self I should write a note to myself too! I need the motivation!!!

Everyday Tips and Thoughts: Just In Time For the Holidays – Sweet Potato Casserole, and Not A Marshmallow In Sight – Usually I pass on this dish at Thanksgiving, but Everyday wrote such a great article and recipe on it, that I decided to try it out. It was fabulous! This may be my favorite dish as Thanksgiving now (perhaps only second to Pecan Pie)!

Financially Poor: What’s Really Causing The Down Economy? – Good point, and another think would be to stop watching so much TV too!

First Gen American: Things that annoyed me this week – Nice rant! I think we can find something that we agree with in this very detailed rant! Personally, mine was Healthcare…

Free From Broke: Our Daughter’s Allowance and ING Direct – What a great way to handle the entire Allowance bit! I still have to make change for both of my kids, but this sounds like a much better way. I would follow suite if it were for the company I work for and their compliance rules. Check out FFB’s article, I’m sure you’ll find it to be a great idea!

Green Panda Treehouse: The Importance of Money During The Holiday Season – Enjoy this year’s holiday season! There won’t be anymore like it ever! This article is getting the most bang for your buck, and I think it’s a great idea! Life is short! Enjoy!

Grumpy Runblings of the Untenured: Our birth Nicole and Maggie has a very uniquely named blog! I always guessed where it came from, but in this post they go through the steps in coming up with it. A funny and interesting read!

Len Penzo: How to Pick the Perfect Christmas Tree (In 3 Easy Steps) – We do and saw our own Christmas Tree every year, it’s on of our best Christmas tradition, but Len identifies things that I didn’t know! Now we’ve never suffered from not knowing the information Len provides, it’s still very interesting!

Planting Dollars: Why You Should Consider a Leap Frog Retirement Strategy – Interesting thoughts on working and retirement! I’m more of a turtle, but the frog strategy will work for a certain segment of the population too!

Redeeming Riches: 4 Online Shopping Tricks to Cut Holiday Costs – Great tips, especially since I’m looking forward to Cyber-Monday!

Retire By 40: retirebyforty’s money flowchart I like it! Check it out!

Simple Financial Lifestyle: How a simple “NO” can simplify your personal finances – This could save some people a lot of money if they would follow the tips in this article!

Spruce Up Your Finances: 3 Poor Savings Habits and 4 Tips on How to Overcome Them – Both the problems and the solutions!

Watson Inc.: The Rich Get Richer – Great thought provoking article that was very well wrote and makes you thing! Nice job again Shawn!

Wealth Artisan: Successful Planning: 5 Lessons Learned From A Garage Door Remote Clever very clever… That’s all I’m going to say!

Young and Thrifty: Weekend Ramblings and PF Blog Love: Inadvertent Savings Edition – It really pays to not go with the flow and just pay for service that wasn’t agreed upon in the first place!

My Favorite Post from MoneyReasons.com for the Week:

This week it was ALWAYS READ THE SMALL PRINT, the irony is that this wasn’t even written by me, it’s a guest post! It really struck a cord with me though, so that’s why it’s my favorite…

Closing Thoughts:

The year is almost over! If you have been delaying starting something, do so now! Don’t wait for next year, start now!!! To often we procrastinate waiting for some sign or something or other. This just prolongs your action, possible so long that you forget about it, or change your mind!

Don’t fall into this trap!

-MR

18 comments »

Posted in Weekly Review

Funny Money Thanksgiving Holiday Break 2010

November 27th, 2010

As the comic says, I’m feeling a bit off today after the Holiday

Me Stuffed Turkey, Yum!

Previous: Funny Money Comic 6 – Traffic Jam Rant
Next…..: Funny Money Comic 7, Passing on Lattes

Comic Strip Notes:

I hope all the US folks out there had a great Thanksgiving!!!

Links to 3 Funny or Interesting Sites:

Basic Instructions: How to avoid Workplace drama - Sometimes is seems people just look for fights over the dumbest things! I think we all watch too much TV, which show too many fake reality shows (eg. Jersey Shore).

The non-adventures of Wonderella: Off on the wrong Bigfoot – The Legal system sometimes lets the bad guys win…

Cyanide and Happiness: Starring at other women – The humor at this site is a bit on the wild side!

Thanks for stopping by!

-MR

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Posted in Humor

ALWAYS READ THE SMALL PRINT

November 26th, 2010

ALWAYS READ THE SMALL PRINT

Article provided by MoneySupermarket.com

Small print is one of those things that we should all read before we commit to buy a product or service. Without reading the small print, how do you know what you are committed to purchasing? Now I’m going to be honest and say, I never used to read the small print on anything until just a few years ago, when I took out a credit card and I didn’t read about the excessive charges for payment protection. Now, I admit that this was in fact my fault for not reading the small print, so I thought I’d list a few products or services where I think reading the small print is incredibly important.

Insurance

Whether you are buying home or auto insurance, you should always read the small print. When it comes to specific insurance policies, they tend to come hand in hand with add-ons or extras that can bump up the cost of your insurance considerably. Also, important things to include when checking your insurance small print are things like exit fees (if you want to back out of the contract) and things that you can do to actually invalidate your insurance (just in case!).

Flights

When buying flights online I’ve found that not one site is the same as another. They all operate using different layouts and they have their own way of selling the flights to you. For example, I always get confused when I go to booking a flight with regards to what extras I get, does the flight come with an in-flight meal? What are the extra baggage charges? Sometimes these small details are kept in the small print so make sure you look carefully.

Employment Contract

When starting a new job, I always meticulously check my contract of employment. The things that are normally included in the small print, are things like, whether or not you get paid for sick days in the first 6 months of employment, or how many days holiday you are entitled to. Sometimes these things are detailed clearly on contracts and other times they are quite difficult to spot.

Cell Phone Contract

When purchasing a cell phone contract there can be some hidden charges that you’ll need to be aware of, things like cell phone insurance can be enclosed in the small print. Also, make sure you check out what the charges are on your cell contract for when you venture outside of your monthly calling or messaging allowance, the prices can be pretty steep.

Financial products

Possibly the most important thing to read the small print on are financial products. Whether you’re taking out a new loan or credit card, taking out any type of financial product is a massive commitment, so you need to ensure you read all of the small print carefully.

An example of this could be, you’ve just taken out a ‘balance transfer credit card’, as there’s a 0% interest rate on balance transfers for 12 months, however the product doesn’t clearly state what the interest rate will be on new purchases during that period, so make sure you read the contract carefully to find out. Financial products normally come with a long term commitment and they can be the most damaging if you don’t read the small print.

What other products or services do you think you should always read the small print on?