Toluna opinion polls are a great way to see how other people feel about any topic you suggest. I have been a member of Toluna surveys for several years. I enjoy some of the survey taking companies especially when I get to try a product and give feedback.
I have made about $100 from surveys but it takes time and effort to get to this point. Toluna is unique as you can set up your own polls.
I have made money from Send Earnings, Ipsos I-Say and PCH surveys. I always make sure they are secure sites and if they overwhelm me with too many e-mails I unsubscribe. I like to take surveys that really reward me for valuable information.
Some of them are just out to take up your time and give you nothing in return. The information you provide them is very valuable and you should be rewarded for your time and effort. You will never get rich from surveys but you can make a little extra cash.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Building your home (continued)
Make sure you go to the building codes department before you start purchasing a modular or manufactured trailer. Make a list of questions to ask and make sure it is okay to put a modular or manufactured home on the property first. Ask them about all the costs you will need to pay to them for a building permits and miscellaneous costs.
Go on-line and find a punch list if your contracting the building of your own home. This can be very time consuming and a headache so do some research and if you have no education about building a home it may be easier to hire a contractor. This saved us money but we did incur some difficult times even though my husband had built homes for a living. This also came in handy as we were able to add on our own addition.
Adding on an addition has its own set of problems. You must get an engineers stamp when you change the original modular home plans and this can be very expensive. Another important factor to look at is contracts that your subcontractors give you. Read them very carefully and don't take for granted that a good company will always treat you right or a lender will remember everything.
We had a lean out on our home as the company that did our foundation as they forgot to pay the concrete company. We had to pay for the concrete twice before we could close on our home. This did not come up until just before closing on our loan. When trying to find the builder to collect our money back he had went bankrupt and was no where to be found.
This could have been prevented if the lender would have made him sign a mechanics lean releasing us of any responsibility after the job was done. This error cost us more than money. A mechanics lean means the contractor must pay for all the materials or you get what we had here a failure to communicate which equals a extra expense not needed.
As I say you have to dot all your I's and cross all your T's if you know what I mean. They may have been a good company and did a great job but it was not worth the extra cost we were not expecting especially when we wanted to move in. This created a lot of leg work and unwanted stress by this time of building our home. To be continued ...
Go on-line and find a punch list if your contracting the building of your own home. This can be very time consuming and a headache so do some research and if you have no education about building a home it may be easier to hire a contractor. This saved us money but we did incur some difficult times even though my husband had built homes for a living. This also came in handy as we were able to add on our own addition.
Adding on an addition has its own set of problems. You must get an engineers stamp when you change the original modular home plans and this can be very expensive. Another important factor to look at is contracts that your subcontractors give you. Read them very carefully and don't take for granted that a good company will always treat you right or a lender will remember everything.
We had a lean out on our home as the company that did our foundation as they forgot to pay the concrete company. We had to pay for the concrete twice before we could close on our home. This did not come up until just before closing on our loan. When trying to find the builder to collect our money back he had went bankrupt and was no where to be found.
This could have been prevented if the lender would have made him sign a mechanics lean releasing us of any responsibility after the job was done. This error cost us more than money. A mechanics lean means the contractor must pay for all the materials or you get what we had here a failure to communicate which equals a extra expense not needed.
As I say you have to dot all your I's and cross all your T's if you know what I mean. They may have been a good company and did a great job but it was not worth the extra cost we were not expecting especially when we wanted to move in. This created a lot of leg work and unwanted stress by this time of building our home. To be continued ...
Friday, November 4, 2011
Building your own home-Part 2
The best way to build a home that saves you money is to use a either a kit purchased from Home Depot or Lowes or to purchase a modular home, not manufactured. There is a great deal of difference between modular and manufactured.
When you look at a manufactured home you are impressed with what you see for the amount of money you pay but in the long run this is like purchasing a glorified trailer. Manufactured homes cannot be refinanced but modular homes can. Of course if you cannot afford to spend the money on a modular home then the manufactured will be better than paying rent on an apartment.
Make sure you look at a lot of the designs as this is going to be something you will be paying on for a long time. The layout of the home can be changed and before you make the purchase is the time to decide this. After you have made the choice do not purchase the home until you go to the county and find out the requirements.
The county did a perk test which determined what type of system we needed. Of course it ended up being the most expensive kind. We had to spend $13,000 on a septic system as our land was not developed. This came to us as a big surprise and then the upkeep of the septic required renewing a contract of $500 after the second year. Another surprise not known until after 2 years.
We also had many other costs that we had not thought about until we already started the process. A new water meter in our county was $4,500 and that did not count the water line from the road to our home. Go to the county and talk with them and try to be nice as they are the ones that determine when you can actually live in the home.
Before they could decide whether there was enough pressure in the line we were on pins and needles awaiting the results of having city water or having to dig a well. Thank God we got to have city water and this expense was worth it or should I say we had to pay the price since the other option would have been no water. Our great adventure of building our home had just began so stay tuned for the rest of the story..
When you look at a manufactured home you are impressed with what you see for the amount of money you pay but in the long run this is like purchasing a glorified trailer. Manufactured homes cannot be refinanced but modular homes can. Of course if you cannot afford to spend the money on a modular home then the manufactured will be better than paying rent on an apartment.
Make sure you look at a lot of the designs as this is going to be something you will be paying on for a long time. The layout of the home can be changed and before you make the purchase is the time to decide this. After you have made the choice do not purchase the home until you go to the county and find out the requirements.
The county did a perk test which determined what type of system we needed. Of course it ended up being the most expensive kind. We had to spend $13,000 on a septic system as our land was not developed. This came to us as a big surprise and then the upkeep of the septic required renewing a contract of $500 after the second year. Another surprise not known until after 2 years.
We also had many other costs that we had not thought about until we already started the process. A new water meter in our county was $4,500 and that did not count the water line from the road to our home. Go to the county and talk with them and try to be nice as they are the ones that determine when you can actually live in the home.
Before they could decide whether there was enough pressure in the line we were on pins and needles awaiting the results of having city water or having to dig a well. Thank God we got to have city water and this expense was worth it or should I say we had to pay the price since the other option would have been no water. Our great adventure of building our home had just began so stay tuned for the rest of the story..
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
College may not pay
College and the cost some times do not pay for themselves. A local community college offered and career program called Licensed Mental Health Technician. I was to be more educated than an LPN with nursing skills and have ample mental health training to be able to work in a psychiatric hospital. This was to be a glorified mental health nurse and the future of mental health jobs.
I spent $15,000 and for a few years was able to pass medication but it limited me to only working in State hospitals in Kansas. Unknown to me the State of Kansas changed the rules and my license was no longer worth anything. I started out making $5.50 an hour which was not expected after spending time and money going to college.
I then decided to go for an AAS in Communication Design. Now the price tag of my education was $25,000. After graduating I could not find a job in design unless I went on to get a BA. Instead I returned to mental health and before I knew it I was 45 years of age and not richer from all the schooling I had. I am still trying to pay the college loans off.
In this economy I am back to making $10 an hour and my dreams of higher education and more money were crushed along the way. I returned to school to get a Substance Abuse Counselor license and before I finished the rules of the State had changed and I was the poorer for it and deeper in debt.
Be careful before getting a college education and really explore the degree or type of program. Make sure it will surpass time as now I am in debt and have no way to live and pay the student loans. I still have my dreams but I now realize that spending all the money to get an education has really not paid well and put me deeper into debt.
Colleges will tell you anything to get you to pay the high tuition cost but do your own research. Now they say I need to get a BA or MBA. At age 50 I am not even able to pay what I owe for loans anyway so why would I take this chance now. All the time and money spent plus a bad economy equals and the belief that more education means more money. Don't believe it! I know many people that make more money than me and have only a high school education.
They do not work with people and this field really pays very little. This is sad but true about our society as we care more about things then we do people. A lot of it is who you know and not what you can do. It's a hard time to live in right now so be careful on what area of higher education you decide to pursue and do not believe all you hear. This American Dream has changed a lot since the economy is bad.
I spent $15,000 and for a few years was able to pass medication but it limited me to only working in State hospitals in Kansas. Unknown to me the State of Kansas changed the rules and my license was no longer worth anything. I started out making $5.50 an hour which was not expected after spending time and money going to college.
I then decided to go for an AAS in Communication Design. Now the price tag of my education was $25,000. After graduating I could not find a job in design unless I went on to get a BA. Instead I returned to mental health and before I knew it I was 45 years of age and not richer from all the schooling I had. I am still trying to pay the college loans off.
In this economy I am back to making $10 an hour and my dreams of higher education and more money were crushed along the way. I returned to school to get a Substance Abuse Counselor license and before I finished the rules of the State had changed and I was the poorer for it and deeper in debt.
Be careful before getting a college education and really explore the degree or type of program. Make sure it will surpass time as now I am in debt and have no way to live and pay the student loans. I still have my dreams but I now realize that spending all the money to get an education has really not paid well and put me deeper into debt.
Colleges will tell you anything to get you to pay the high tuition cost but do your own research. Now they say I need to get a BA or MBA. At age 50 I am not even able to pay what I owe for loans anyway so why would I take this chance now. All the time and money spent plus a bad economy equals and the belief that more education means more money. Don't believe it! I know many people that make more money than me and have only a high school education.
They do not work with people and this field really pays very little. This is sad but true about our society as we care more about things then we do people. A lot of it is who you know and not what you can do. It's a hard time to live in right now so be careful on what area of higher education you decide to pursue and do not believe all you hear. This American Dream has changed a lot since the economy is bad.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Building a home and saving money
We married at age 16 and 17 and have been happily married for 35 years. Working hard all of our lives we could not wait until we could build a
new home of our own, After 30 years we finally had the opportunity to
build a home on 2 acres of land that we inherited from my husbands parents. In
2007, life had finally given us the break we needed to complete our
American Dream, a new home.
The bills were paid off and our credit was great. We both had jobs and my husbands company went from hardly getting by to making a good living. We would do the work of a contractor to save money allowing us to get the extra things we wanted for our new home. Here is the beginning of our story and all the good and bad times that occurred when building our own home. We saved money and I hope to detour you from making the same mistakes we did.
We decided to buy a modular home then add on a room to make it unique. The difference between a manufactured home and a modular home is like the difference between a trailer and a stick built home. The walls of our home were not put together with staples but had sheet rock walls with nails. After several months of looking we finally found the layout we liked and we were ready to move forward. A big difference between a modular home and a manufactured one is we can get refinanced and manufactured homes cannot.
Our land was 20 minutes from the suburbs of Kansas City. We lived in a rural area and it being only 20 minutes to the city we could enjoy the best of both worlds. Being a artist and having the ability to draw out the scaled plans would allow us to save money on an architect. We were off and going and the first goal was to get a permit from the county. This was the beginning of learning the hard lessons of rules and regulations that made having a home seem miles away in the beginning.
Kelly Says, "Stay tuned for the rest of the story of building a home in 2008. I will tell you all the trials and tribulations we experienced as we made the effort to make our American Dream of owning our own home a reality.
The bills were paid off and our credit was great. We both had jobs and my husbands company went from hardly getting by to making a good living. We would do the work of a contractor to save money allowing us to get the extra things we wanted for our new home. Here is the beginning of our story and all the good and bad times that occurred when building our own home. We saved money and I hope to detour you from making the same mistakes we did.
We decided to buy a modular home then add on a room to make it unique. The difference between a manufactured home and a modular home is like the difference between a trailer and a stick built home. The walls of our home were not put together with staples but had sheet rock walls with nails. After several months of looking we finally found the layout we liked and we were ready to move forward. A big difference between a modular home and a manufactured one is we can get refinanced and manufactured homes cannot.
Our land was 20 minutes from the suburbs of Kansas City. We lived in a rural area and it being only 20 minutes to the city we could enjoy the best of both worlds. Being a artist and having the ability to draw out the scaled plans would allow us to save money on an architect. We were off and going and the first goal was to get a permit from the county. This was the beginning of learning the hard lessons of rules and regulations that made having a home seem miles away in the beginning.
Kelly Says, "Stay tuned for the rest of the story of building a home in 2008. I will tell you all the trials and tribulations we experienced as we made the effort to make our American Dream of owning our own home a reality.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Purchasing items out of season
When you really want to save money it is best to buy items that are not in season. Spring and summer clothing are on sale as winter approaches. It is hard to buy clothing and wait to wear it but you can save a fortune if you take the time to look for the clearance rack. I have been able to find some great buys for next years Spring and Summer wardrobe. If you like to shop then pick one day a month that you can go to several of your favorite stores and check the clearance items. the time is worth the money that you will save.
The same is true for gardening supplies. Now is a great time to order plants and seeds for next years garden. With all the reports of listeria, a bacteria that was found on cantaloupes and other fresh vegetables making people sick and even killed some now is the time to grow your own foods. Prices at the grocery store continue to rise and fresh foods from your own garden will save money especially if you purchase the seeds now.
Purchasing seeds this fall helps by getting seeds started in February saving you from buying expensive plants next year. Another good reason to order items now is that they will not send the item until it is time for your area to plant it. This is a good reminder of when to plant it if you are new to gardening. A smart gardener buys sustainable seeds so that he can use the seeds in next years garden.
The person that plans ahead of time when it comes to major holidays or seasons is a person that can really save a lot of money in this recession. Now is not the time to buy Halloween items as they will be very expensive. If you can wait until the season is over with you can buy twice as much with the same amount of money.
Purchasing Christmas presents now may save you some as the early shopper gets the merchandise and no last minute disappointments. If you are a person that waits until the last minute it may actually be better to wait until the day after Christmas to shop. I have found that certain products are almost 50% less the day after Christmas.
Now is not the best time to buy Christmas decorations but I have noticed that mass merchandisers are worried about a slow year so some of the items are priced lower than usual. Take advantage of any deals you can get and use this recession to your advantage by buying early or after the event has occurred.
Another way to save money is to buy items at a garage sale or auctions. I have purchased a brand new riding lawn mower at a garage sale paying half of what the store sold it for. You also need to know that you can barter in certain stores if you make the effort. Sometimes it works and sometime not. Being at the right place at the right time also helps. Practice up on your bartering skills as it is a talent and will work if you make the effort.
Thinking ahead really does pay off so plan next year this year. Right now is a good time to think of the 4th of July or summer needs like picnics and camping. Just remember that in the world of shopping it is better to plan for next year so you cans save money today.
The same is true for gardening supplies. Now is a great time to order plants and seeds for next years garden. With all the reports of listeria, a bacteria that was found on cantaloupes and other fresh vegetables making people sick and even killed some now is the time to grow your own foods. Prices at the grocery store continue to rise and fresh foods from your own garden will save money especially if you purchase the seeds now.
Purchasing seeds this fall helps by getting seeds started in February saving you from buying expensive plants next year. Another good reason to order items now is that they will not send the item until it is time for your area to plant it. This is a good reminder of when to plant it if you are new to gardening. A smart gardener buys sustainable seeds so that he can use the seeds in next years garden.
The person that plans ahead of time when it comes to major holidays or seasons is a person that can really save a lot of money in this recession. Now is not the time to buy Halloween items as they will be very expensive. If you can wait until the season is over with you can buy twice as much with the same amount of money.
Purchasing Christmas presents now may save you some as the early shopper gets the merchandise and no last minute disappointments. If you are a person that waits until the last minute it may actually be better to wait until the day after Christmas to shop. I have found that certain products are almost 50% less the day after Christmas.
Now is not the best time to buy Christmas decorations but I have noticed that mass merchandisers are worried about a slow year so some of the items are priced lower than usual. Take advantage of any deals you can get and use this recession to your advantage by buying early or after the event has occurred.
Another way to save money is to buy items at a garage sale or auctions. I have purchased a brand new riding lawn mower at a garage sale paying half of what the store sold it for. You also need to know that you can barter in certain stores if you make the effort. Sometimes it works and sometime not. Being at the right place at the right time also helps. Practice up on your bartering skills as it is a talent and will work if you make the effort.
Thinking ahead really does pay off so plan next year this year. Right now is a good time to think of the 4th of July or summer needs like picnics and camping. Just remember that in the world of shopping it is better to plan for next year so you cans save money today.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Save on water and electricity
Opening my monthly water bill about made me have a heart attack last month. A month of water usually runs two people about $28 dollars. This particular water bill was $103 and it was all due to a small leak or should I say large leak around the rubber stopper of the stool. It is hard to believe that we used 25,000 gallons of water that month. Make sure to fix any leaks even if it is just a drip.
We work too hard for our money to give it away to the water company. Also turn off and unplug any items you can. When a can opener or anything is plugged in even when not running it draws some electricity. After we did this for one month we notice a big savings in the electricity and water bill. Try it and you will see a difference.
We work too hard for our money to give it away to the water company. Also turn off and unplug any items you can. When a can opener or anything is plugged in even when not running it draws some electricity. After we did this for one month we notice a big savings in the electricity and water bill. Try it and you will see a difference.
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