I’ve always heard that the best way to save money at the grocery store is to shop with a list and to avoid impulse purchases. Here’s technological help!
Plan your meals – Komando.com, Website for The Kim Komando Radio Show®, Komando Downloads.
Tag: Economics
Should you care about the European debt crisis?
Continental Breakup | This American Life.
This American Life presents a great in depth report about Greece and the Euro crisis.
And, yes, you should.
Green Bean Casserole
According to the report, the foods include a 16-pound turkey, a gallon of milk, a 30-ounce can of pumpkin pie mix, a half pint of whipped cream, 14 oz. of cubed stuffing, a pound of green beans, 12 rolls, three pounds of sweet potatoes, 12 ounces of fresh cranberries, 2 pie shells, a 1-pound relish tray (carrots and celery) and various other ingredients.
Read more: The Ten Foods Making Thanksgiving Much More Expensive – 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2011/11/10/the-eleven-foods-making-thanksgiving-more-expensive-this-year/#ixzz1di2XbAao
How about Mama Stamberg’s cranberry relish?
Who Owes the Sales Tax?
Senators Introduce Online Sales Tax Bill with Bipartisan Support.
The sales tax collected in Texas is in fact a sales and use tax. When consumers purchase items online and no sales tax is paid, the purchaser is supposed to remit the tax to the state. Form 01-156 Texas Use Tax Return should be filed with a payment on or before the 20th day following the period (month or year) during which items subject to use tax are brought into Texas. For example, if you purchase a Kindle from Amazon.com, no sales tax is collected. Your responsibility is to remit the tax.
Why do some online vendors collect sales tax and other’s don’t?
A fancy word for the reason is nexus. Nexus is a connection and in the sales tax world, that means if a company has a connection to Texas, usually a physical connection, that company is required to collect sales tax. Amazon.com closed a Dallas distribution center to avoid collecting sales tax on sales delivered in Texas.
This ability to disregard sales tax on sales creates an advantage for online stores over Main Street stores. The legislation introduced, referenced above, by a bipartisan group of 10 senators attempts to level that field. Amazon does support the legislation.
Super committee: Let Bush tax cuts expire and your work will be done – CSMonitor.com
Super committee: Let Bush tax cuts expire and your work will be done – CSMonitor.com.
President Obama extended the Bush tax cuts through December 2012. These tax cuts are costing the Treasury $11.6 million dollars PER HOUR. The alternative view is that tax dollars are taxpayer dollars, not government dollars, and we need to cut spending.
However:
A record number of Americans — 49.1 million — are poor, based on a new census measure that for the first time takes into account rising medical costs and other expenses.
The numbers released Monday are part of a first-ever supplemental poverty measure aimed at providing a fuller picture of poverty. Although considered experimental, they promise to stir fresh debate over Social Security, Medicare and programs to help the poor as a congressional supercommittee nears a Nov. 23 deadline to make more than $1 trillion in cuts to the federal budget. (Washington Post)
Budget Hero
On my way home from Houston, I heard about an online game on KUHF, Houston Public Radio. On my first try, I failed miserably at improving our budget deficit. The badges that I chose were Safety Net, Efficient Government, and Competitive Advantage. See what you can do!
Inspirational Financial Quotes
From a great blog called: Pick the Brain.
“Worry, like a rocking chair will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.” – Vance Havner
Most of us are guilty of worrying about money, and whilst it might be justified in some circumstances, the actual worrying won’t solve any problems – and worse still, it can be bad for your physical and mental health.
Another rule that I have: Be kind to yourself. It’s hard to get out of debt faster than you got into debt.
States’ Busted Budgets Not Caused by Union Pay
This is what David Lenohardt wrote in the NYT on March 1. His major points:
Government workers receive compensation that is similar–with somewhat lower salaries and somewhat better benefits on average–to that of private sector workers with similar qualifications.
Government pay is skewed too heavily toward pensions and health insurance.
Health plans for union workers and retirees are much more likely to require little or no co-payment, which leads to lots of medical treatments that don’t make people any healthier, and to huge costs.
Many government workers receive pensions that start at age 55 and still let retirees draw a full salary elsewhere.
Only recently have teachers’ unions started to cooperate with serious efforts at teacher evaluation, and they are still not giving their full cooperation.
The cause of our looming federal and state deficits . . .is Americans’ collective desire for low taxes and generous government benefits. . . Eventually we will have to pay for the government we want.
I have a friend that retired from the state, receives his pension, and was rehired as a contract employee by the same agency: working full time and receiving his pension from the same agency. Texas has a defined benefit retirement plan so that retired employees receive a guaranteed benefit rather than a value based account as in a typical 401K account. Steven Greenhouse discusses the differences between retirement plans.
In Texas, the Margin Tax and a cigarette tax were supposed to make up income deficits created from reducing the property tax , and to date, the Margin Tax has increased revenues modestly but not at the levels expected at enactment. (David Gilliland, Texas Margin Tax).
One result for Austin has been the expected layoff of 1000 teachers and the expected closure of exemplary inner city, low income schools. ( AISD News Release)
Moolala: Ooo La La?
Moolala is the most recent opportunity that I have been offered that operates like Grupon or LivingSocial Deals. Businesses offer reduced rates on services or goods; I am offered the opportunity to purchase them. Grupon offers me $10 if I refer friends. From Grupon’s website:
We’re giving $10 in Groupon Bucks for every friend you refer when they make their first purchase. It’s our way of saying “thanks” for spreading the word and increasing our collective buying power! Groupon Bucks can be used toward any Groupon purchase, and they never expire.
LivingSocial offers my deal for free if I share my purchase and at least three people buy it:
Share for a Free Deal
After you buy the deal, you’ll get a unique link to share. If three people buy the deal using your link, then your deal is free.
Here’s Moolala’s pitch:
There’s more – we want to help you make money, too!We will give you 2% back on each deal you buy. And for each friend you refer to Moolala, you will earn 2% of every deal they buy. And that’s not all: we’ll pay you 2% for each friend they refer, and again for your friends’ friends’ friends and your friends’ friends’ friends’ friends. It’s a 2% five-level reward system. That adds up to lots of rewards for you and your friends.Use your rewards to buy the Moolala deals you love or even redeem them for cash. It’s up to you.So start inviting friends and earning rewards now.There’s more – we want to help you make money, too! We will give you 2% back on each deal you buy. And for each friend you refer to Moolala, you will earn 2% of every deal they buy. And that’s not all: we’ll pay you 2% for each friend they refer, and again for your friends’ friends’ friends and your friends’ friends’ friends’ friends. It’s a 2% five-level reward system. That adds up to lots of rewards for you and your friends.
Use your rewards to buy the Moolala deals you love or even redeem them for cash. It’s up to you.
So start inviting friends and earning rewards now.
Whenever I see “we’ll pay you based on your friends’ friends” , I immediately think, “pyramid selling and chain letters.” It appears Moolala is an Austin based business that was formed in 2010. Here’s the LinkedIn reference. I joined Moolala to help my missionary, traveler friend receive his 2% should I make a purchase.
My least favorite is the LivingSocial offer. I’m not sure I know three people that would make the same purchases as I would make. My choice is between the immediate $10 of Grupon or a potentional stream of 2% commissions of Moolala. The Grupon offer seems more bird in the hand to me, so I would choose Grupon. Except, what if all of my friends have already signed up? Then I think that there’s “no soup for me.”
It will be interesting to see which company is most rewarded by the market place.
Social Enterprise
NPR’s Karen Grigsby Bates interviewed Blake Mycoskie of the shoe company, Tom’s. As Tony Sheldon of the Program on Social Enterprise at Yale School of Management says, Mycoskie’s vision is a harbinger of the way many future entrepreneurs want to structure their own businesses.
Their careers can’t be only about financial returns, that the social return and the social impact is also integrated into that and they don’t want to just make a lot of money and then give a lot to charity, they want what they do with their lives to be in service of a broader vision.
Here’s the radio spot Soul Mates: Shoe Entrepreneur and here’s the article: Soul Mates.
My opinion is that social enterprises such as Tom’s will eventually out number non profit organizations. And, fyi, there is no Tom. It’s short for tomorrow’s shoes.