Category: Money and Finance

Karie Herring shares some of her money and finance tips and great consumer items. Her years in consumer finance and lending have afforded her the opportunity to be exposed to many environments.

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Why Insulation is Important in Your Home

house renovation

A home should be a place you want to spend time in. Part of wanting to spend time somewhere is making it a comfortable space. People decorate to their tastes, include carpeting and plush blankets and pillows, set up entertainment systems and stock up on foods they like. What you might not think of as an integral part of home comfort is insulation. Insulation is a set of materials meant to maintain the temperature of your home throughout the year by reducing heat flow. Here’s what you need to know about the importance of insulation. Continue reading “Why Insulation is Important in Your Home”

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How to Find the Neighborhood Right for You

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It’s no secret that moving can be a long, painful and expensive process. However, one thing that can make that process a bit more bearable and worthwhile, is the peace of mind that you are moving to a neighborhood that is best for you and your family. When you are looking forward to your new life, after you complete your move, suddenly moving all of those boxes becomes a little bit more worth while. Here are a few tips on finding a neighborhood to move to that you’ll be happy in. Continue reading “How to Find the Neighborhood Right for You”

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Modern Mobility for an Aging Population

aging, mobility

The generation born following World War Two is reaching the age at which mobility may become an issue.  Fortunately, scientists and engineers are developing ever more creative technologies that help people get around.  Whether looking for stair lifts in Canada or motorized wheelchairs in America this growing industry is easily accessible via an internet browser.  A little research on this topic turns up a wealth of information about the inventions that make the later years of life safer and more accessible. Continue reading “Modern Mobility for an Aging Population”

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Why You Consider an Artificial Tree for the Holidays

It seems like this topic comes up every year around the holidays. Should you go out and buy (or cut down) a real tree, or should you invest in an artificial tree that will last for much longer? It’s a great question to ask and just like anything, there are pros and cons to buying both. Here are some great arguments for buying an artificial tree for your next Christmas, however, as opposed to a live tree.

Cost

According to Highya, the average artificial Christmas tree in 2018 cost around $104 while the average cost of a real tree was around $78. An artificial tree will last for around 10 years, however, so you are saving a substantial amount over money over a decade. If you were to buy a real tree every year, that would cost you $780 over ten years. Compare that to the $104 that you spend only one time. Not only that, but these numbers aren’t adjusted for inflation. If you buy an artificial tree this year, you’re also saving on 9 years of future inflation costs.

Allergies

Some people are actually allergic to Christmas trees! An artificial tree is a great alternative that’s allergen friendly. As a matter of fact, Balsam Hills was formed specifically to address this issue when the owner’s relative had an allergic reaction to a freshly cut tree. Pine trees can carry mold and other allergens with them into your house. No one wants to deal with a bad case of allergies around Christmas time, especially if it’s in their own house!

Maintenance and Safety

Maintaining a live tree in your house can be somewhat of a hassle. Live trees need to be watered quite often. Aside from that, your tree will shed numerous needles throughout its time in your home. These needles will need to be swept up daily as they can be quite sharp. If you have small children around, they can potentially get harmed by the pine needles from live trees in your home. Eye injuries from pine needles actually increase around Christmastime according to Review of Optometry. This isn’t particularly surprising considering that it’s a pine tree’s main defense system.

Convenience

An artificial tree is absolutely a more convenient option for the holidays. If you get a tree that’s prelit, half of the work is already done for you! These Balsam Hill reviews detail the convenience of their trees during setup. While not all trees come with easy-plug technology, an artificial tree is going to more convenient than trying to transport a live one to your house. They can be easily disassembled and stored in their boxes until next season. A live Christmas tree will always need to be transported at least twice – one to your house and then once to the dump.

Creativity

You can get artificial trees in an array of styles and colors. Do you want a white tree for Christmas? You can do that. How about purple, or even a rainbow tree? The style of your tree is only limited by your imagination. You can order different sizes and fullness depending on your preferences. The only way you’ll get a different-colored live Christmas tree is if you spray paint it, which definitely isn’t recommended.

There are tons of reasons to shop for artificial Christmas trees during the season as opposed to living ones. Not only will it save you time and money, but it can also be a much safer option for children or people who are setting up the tree. No one wants to think of Christmas and be reminded of the time they were blinded in one eye.

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The Problem with Virtual Water

Virtual water isn’t associated with any social media platform or program. Nor is virtual water a computer-created pixel program on a screen that allows you to water plants in a farming scenario. Virtual water is the number of gallons of water associated with growing an item, foodstuff, or product. No, this isn’t a made-up statistic that someone stuck on a board somewhere, and everyone that feels green has been repeating to show how important water conservation is to the planet. Virtual water is a real phenomenon, and it is a problem. Continue reading “The Problem with Virtual Water”

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The Purpose Of Commercial Lighting

commercial lighting

Stores need great lighting to display what they offer to sell. Offices need it so that their employees can work without straining their eyes. Factories and other industrial areas need it to keep their workers safe. There are multiple needs for commercial lighting and several options of systems to choose from. Which one you need depends on the application it will be used for. Here are a few options for Commercial Lighting Systems Queensbury. Continue reading “The Purpose Of Commercial Lighting”

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Avoid Unexpected Wedding Expenses

Unexpected Wedding Costs You Might Forget to Prepare For

When drawing a wedding budget, you are likely to give your attention to big expenses such as venue booking costs, decorations, transportation, hotel accommodations, food, video and photography, and entertainment. Putting together a great wedding takes more than just accounting for these big expected expenses. You must also account for unexpected costs that may arise out of nowhere. Some of the unexpected wedding costs you might forget to include in your final wedding budget:

Unplanned Beauty and Styling Costs

The beauty treatments you may need on your wedding day may include more things than you have included in your budget. If you hire a stylist, you may want them to stay around for the entire day to touch you up when necessary. If they are being paid by the hour, the final costs may be more than you have budgeted for.

Pre-Wedding and Post-Wedding Celebrations

Your pre-wedding celebrations may eat up more money than you expect. Things like clothing and beauty treatments for pre-wedding events should be accounted for. If you have a destination beach wedding at a luxury resort for couples, you should also account for post-wedding expenses since some of your guests won’t return home until a day or two after the wedding.

Postage Costs for RSVP Cards

Depending on how big your guest list is, postage expenses can be a significant cost. The $2 you will spend on an average postage stamp will quickly add up to a 3-figure expense. When you are trying to put together a great wedding, every dollar counts.

Overtime Expenses

There are instances when your wedding organizers and other service providers helping you put your wedding together will work overtime. If they are being paid by the hour and they have higher overtime rates, you will have no option but to dig deep into your pocket to raise the money they’ve earned for an honest overtime work session.

Alterations to Wedding Clothes Including Wedding Dress

When you order a wedding dress plus suits and dresses for the groomsmen and bridesmaids respectively, you might want to make alterations to the dresses and suits so they fit perfectly. Very few stores will make the alterations for free.

Transportation Costs for Rented Items

When renting items for your wedding, you will quickly find out that some rental companies require customers to cater for the transportation of the rented items to the venue of the wedding. This is a cost most wedding couples forget to include in their wedding budget. Remember, also, that you will have to transport these items back to the rental company after the wedding.

Tips

Tipping etiquette is often very complicated and nothing is cast in stone. When working with various service providers, you will be helped by various professionals employed by the person you’ve hired – if they run a big enough operation. It is always a good idea to tip these people whenever they put in extraordinary effort or when the situation warrants.

Breakdown Costs

The typical wedding budget will include setup costs but will not cover breakdown costs. Labor isn’t free whatever the job is. Bringing down your wedding set up, dumping litter, and transporting wedding equipment to whatever establishment you got them from costs money.

Guests Who Don’t RSVP

If you have only accounted for guests who’ve confirmed their attendance, you are likely to have a few extra heads you haven’t accounted for show up to your wedding. Some of these guests could have forgotten to RSVP while others just didn’t care to. It is totally unfair but you will have to deal with it anyway.

Feeding Hired Professionals

You will probably hire various professionals to help you on your wedding day such as photographers, a wedding planner, a band, caterers, beauticians, and stylists. These are mouths you will have to feed on your big day. While you are not obligated to feed them as per the contract for services document you will sign when hiring them, it is good etiquette to serve them food along with your invited guests.

Necessary Extra Décor

You can’t really estimate with total accuracy how much your decorations will cost before the décor is done. As the décor takes shape, you may discover that some items aren’t enough, that you bought more of one type of flower than you needed and less of another or that some items have been spoiled and need to be replaced.

Hidden Costs

There are several hidden costs you may have to incur on your wedding day. You may discover, for instance, that a price that had been quoted for you did not include the required sales tax. When cancelling an order or booking in favor of another option, you may incur cancellation fees. All these costs can add up pretty fast to become a significant portion of your total expenditure.

Your wedding day is supposed to be one of the best days of your life. You don’t want to spoil it because you forgot about a small detail. While you’re planning your wedding, be sure to cover and prepare for any possible expense. You will be more at ease knowing if something pops up – you will have a plan.

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Teaching Kids about Credit

The Chad and I are very transparent parents; we want to ensure our children are well educated about adult topics and life experiences, even at a young age. As children, many of us, including The Chad and I, were not taught about credit, handling money, or finances. I learned by proxy with my father as the banker, my mother broke her arm when I was a teen so I was left to write her checks, balance her checkbook, manage the household finances and do the grocery shopping. Not all children have that experience. With our children we wanted to explain to them the importance of proper budgeting, living within your means, and the ever heavy burden of credit debt. Continue reading “Teaching Kids about Credit”

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DesignEvo – Create Logos for Free

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My dear friend Joie and I have been working together for the last four years. She and I have known one another for the last decade, and this past year we thought high time we created something of a logo for our collaboration. We have been juggling ideas of outsourcing a logo with services like Fiverr. We even contemplated free logos by doing it ourselves in applications like Paint or GIMP. Each time, we were just missing something that made it a truly professional logo, we were in need of a free logo creation application.

One day we happened to receive an email from a representative sharing about an online application for logos. The free logos application allows you to create a logo with thousands of design templates, various fonts and some cool icons. Continue reading “DesignEvo – Create Logos for Free”