Be a Mortician For a Recession-Proof Career

Death and taxes — aren’t those the only things on earth that are for certain? 

It looks like the combination of the bad economy and the huge number of aging baby boomers are raising the public interest in the mortuary career.  People looking for a stable career where there will always be work for them wherever they go may have found one option.  Newsday.com reports that enrollment for mortuary careers have increased significantly. 

In Nassau Community College, for example, the mortuary program lasts for two years, and 80% of their graduates have found employment in the funeral services industry.  Graduates can reportedly earn around $50,000 a year after a year-long residency at a funeral home.   Current demographics of experienced morticians show that they are an aging population, thus increasing the employment prospects of new graduates.

Would you???

Photo credit:  Eco Casket

My “Walk Away The Pounds” Experience

I am on the hunt for a good fitness DVD  to do at home.  A year or so ago I tried going to aerobics classes at the Y but felt awkward around those that already know the moves.  It didn’t take long before I gave up on that.

With money so tight these days I didn’t want to just buy a DVD and end up not liking it.  I read reviews of various fitness DVD’s out there and the Walk Away the Pounds series of DVD’s got me interested.

The Leslie Sansone – Walk Away the Pounds – 30 Minute Walk DVD was $13.49, and I was hesitant to even shell out that much without knowing if I would really stick with it or not.

I decided to “rent” Leslie Sansone: Walk Away The Pounds: 30 Minute Walk for seven days through Amazon.com’s Digital Downloads.  For $2,99 I could try before I buy.  It was money well-spent.

The warm-up, exercises and cool-down in this video are great for someone like me who has a hard time getting steps down.  I didn’t get overwhelmed by the steps and was able to keep up with them.  What a refreshing change!  I even sweated quite a lot at the end of the 30-minute walk, which they said was about two miles.

This would have been something I’d buy if not for Leslie Sansone’s annoying prattle and giggling in the video.  It was distracting to me and I just couldn’t get myself to go through it one more time.  What may be annoying for me might not be annoying for you, however.  If you are curious, do what I did:  rent it to try before you buy.

Got any fitness videos to recommend?  Let me know via the Comments section!

Cable and Satellite TV Alternative: Xbox 360

In a previous post I talked about how we have set up our computer as an alternative to cable and satellite TV.  It has allowed us to record our favorite TV shows like TIVO does, and with no monthly fee for the service.

The next step is to be able to watch live or recorded shows on the TV instead of the computer screen.  This was crucial, as there are four of us and we could hardly gather around the computer to watch the same show at the same time.  About two years ago, my son had gotten an Xbox 360 in lieu of having a birthday party.  Windows Media Center can stream any digital content to the Xbox 360 via your home network.  I decided to give it a try and it has worked really well for us.

You do not need to have computer or networking knowledge to do this.  All you will need are:

• Windows Media Center
• Xbox 360
• Network connection

You may view instructions on how to connect your Xbox 360 as a Windows Media Center Extender here.

Once everything is set up, you will now be able to stream any digital content (videos, recorded shows, photos, MP3′s) from your computer to your TV.

Fun hint:  If you have guests, your Xbox 360 and your TV can play selected songs while displaying your photo slide shows!

More posts to come on cable and Satellite TV alternatives.  Please check back soon, or subscribe to my RSS feed!

A Quick Way to Save Money and Lose Weight

At the beginning of the year I had signed up for The Self Jump Start Diet, which is a day-at-a-time makeover of your food habits.  I learned a couple of things there that I am putting into practice that I know will save me money, and hopefully will help me lose weight:

Tip # 4:  Have a Game Plan — Plan your healthy meals and snacks in advance.

Tip # 7:  Stash Snacks — Stash a supply of filling snacks to grab when you need a bite.

On a normal work day I do not eat breakfast, I have a mid-morning snack, then lunch, then a mid-afternoon snack.  I am ashamed to confess that for the most part, the snacks come from the vending machine.  The items there cost between $0.50 to $1.00 so I will just average it out to $0.75 per item, which makes it $1.50 per day.  Lunch costs between $6.00 to $10.00, so an average of $8.00.  So everyday I spend around $9.50 on lunch and snacks at work for a total of $47.50.

So on Sunday I went grocery shopping and planned my lunch and office snacks for this week.  Lunch will be my favorite frozen entrees.  They cost $1.78 x 5 = $8.90.  Since those darn things never keep me full until dinner, I have a variety of snacks:  chocolate animal crackers (they are great with tea, and satisfies my craving to have the chocolate taste in my mouth), fresh cherries, fruit cups  and yogurt-covered raisins.  Overall I spent less than $20 for this week’s planned lunch and snacks, and they are much-healthier alternatives than the vending machine and fast food selections.

The evidence is already clear:  if I stick with my plan this week and not be tempted to go out and get sushi, my savings this week is at least $27.50.  50 weeks of that comes to $1,375!  Wow, that’s more than my monthly mortgage payment!

I am eagerly awaiting the other half of the desired results:  losing weight.

What about you, what are you doing different this year?

Lowering My Heating Bill with A Programmable Thermostat

Cheap Lunch – $2.50 + Tax

Finding fast, cheap, easy and healthy lunches on the go is challenging. Usually the fast, cheap and easy lunches you will find out there are not so healthy. 

I have never been a Subway fan until they started giving customers the option of toasting their subs.  To me, a warm meal feels for filling than a cold one!  My favorite one to order was their Chicken & Bacon Ranch sub.  However, Subway came up with a selection of $5 footlong subs.  The Chicken & Bacon Ranch sub footlong was approximately $2 more, so I decided to go for the cheaper subs.

Meet my new favorite: the Oven-Roasted Chicken Breast from Subway’s Fresh Fit menu and part of their $5 Footlong Subs.  I order it with Italian Herbs & Cheese bread, admittedly not the healthiest bread there is, but I love it and would rather not give that up.  I top it with American cheese, spinach, tomatoes and cucumber, then some ranch dressing.  I do not care for their shredded lettuce, hence the spinach for alternative greens.  The tomatoes provide a nice sweet counterbalance to the saltiness of the cheese and ranch dressing, while the cucumber gives the sandwich a crunchiness reminiscent of my favorite bacon, without the fat and cholesterol.

The best part?  I only eat half the footlong sandwich for lunch and eat the other half either for dinner or for lunch the next day.  That’s a $2.50 lunch plus tax.  What a great deal!

It doesn’t last until dinner however, and by mid-afternoon my stomach starts asking for snacks.  I don’t mind that too much.  I usually keep a stash of fruit cups or crackers in my desk.  Eating snacks also keeps me from being desperately hungry in the evening and which allows me to cook dinner at home instead of going through the drive-through.

Here’s to a healthier, no-longer broke New Year !!!

What is your favorite Subway sub?

FREE Financial Software – Quicken Online

My new year’s resolution is to no longer be broke in America in 2009, and one of the steps towards that direction is to keep track of my finances better.  The late fees and insufficient fund fees were bleeding me financially, and I just got so tired of juggling the bills. The insanity has to stop.  I am not any good with paper, so I had to find a software that will help me do that.

It is past midnight and I had been asleep for over two hours when I was woken up and felt the urge to go online and search for Quicken.  This is very strange in itself as I know what Quicken is and where to get it, and had no reason to Google it at all.  The first website displayed by Google was Intuit’s Quicken site, and lo and behold, the word “FREE” caught my eye.  “Quicken Online – Now FREE”, it screamed.  I had to check for more information to make sure it wasn’t free only for the trial period.  As far as I know, it is not a trial account and there doesn’t seem to be any hidden charges.  If you have evidence that it isn’t so, please let me know!

So I signed up, all the while expecting to be accosted with “Aha! Now here’s the catch!”  So far I haven’t encountered any.  What freaked me out was it asked for the login and password of my bank account, and I had to make sure that I was still on Intuit’s Quicken website by checking the URL.  Once I provided that, Quicken contacted my bank’s server and loaded all my transactions.  Just like that, everything was in place.

I am excited with the Quicken Online.  I love that I can access it from any computer with internet connectivity.  It seems easy to use, and it has financial tools for budgeting and setting up financial goals.  I was also pleasantly surprised that Quicken Online comes with Quicken Beam, a beta service that sends alerts to your mobile phone.  It can send you your account balance, your last 5 transactions, when your balance dips below your set amount, etc. 

If you have never used a financial tracking software before, now is a great time to start.  Get your free Quicken Online account now!

60 MPG for Less Than $9,000

With the gas prices lower than they’ve ever been in months, people are starting to breathe a little bit easier again.  However, there is a big likelihood that with the elections now over, the prices will start to go back up.

I have been looking for an economical way to commute to and from work and have semi-seriously considered buying a Vespa.  I only have to travel 10 miles one way, but most of it is on state and interstate highways.  However, the 2008 Vespa’s top speed is 59 mph, not ideal on the interstate.  Then I stumble upon an article on the 2008 Piaggio MP3 500.  I have to admit it is funky-looking, but those three wheels give it more stability than your standard two-wheeler.  This Piaggio model can get 60 MPG and has a top speed of 90 mph.  Zoom, zoom!

Though sorely tempted, all I have to do is look at my children and I come to my senses.  But those with an adventurous spirit looking for something different, click here to read more about the Piaggio.

Photo from www.thepopularmechanics.com

Get Naked For Money

Would you?

In one of the blogs to which I subscribe, the author talked about a friend who “had a modest job yet always has the latest gadgets”.  Intrigued, the author asked the friend how she was paying for all that stuff.  The friend confessed to the author that she’s been selling naked pictures of herself on the Internet.

The post was astounding to me for several reasons:

1. 1. The blog was a money-saving blog and I was not expecting the authors to address ”less mainstream” ideas.
2. 2. The author had the nerve to ask her friend how she pays for stuff.  What would Miss Manners say?
3. 3. The author described the friend as “pretty but a bit pudgy”. Wow.
4. 4. A woman would want indecent pictures of herself all over the Internet.  What if a friend or family member saw it?

The blog post went on to say that there are adults-only auction sites where a girl can try to sell not only Playboy centerfold-type … umm … “spreads”, but also their high-heels, outfits and even underwear.  If it hasn’t been washed, would it fetch a higher price?  Hmmm.

That author’s friend claimed that her annual income from this online venture is around $6,000.  Not a bad haul. I sure could use an extra $6,000 a year, couldn’t you?  However, though not a prude, I don’t think I can do something like this.

How about you? Have you or someone you personally know got naked for money?

To read the blog post that inspired this, click here. The naked woman in the photo isn’t me. Some random woman can now claim that I bought her naked photo from here, which is NOT an adult-only site.

This article was originally posted at Single Scoop, where I am a guest blogger.

What Can’t Money Buy?

Jennifer Derrick at SavingAdvice.com recently wrote about Ten Things Money Can’t Buy.  Here’s her list.  Read her blog post for the entire article:

1. Lost time
2. Happiness
3. Happy, well-adjusted kids
4. Love
5. Acceptance
6. Health
7. Success
8. Talent
9. Class/Manners
10. Peace

Here’s what I say:  Money can’t buy common sense.   Consider those lottery winners.  

They surely found Happiness in not having to worry about money anymore and finally being able to pursue their passion. They surely found the Time to spend with family and friends. They finally got the respect they deserved and Acceptance from other people.  They are able to take care of their Health and afford the best care if needed.  And who needs Talent when you can pay talented people to do whatever it is you want?  Money helped the Pretty Woman in learning Class/Manners.  If one needs Peace, they go on their nice yacht to get away from everyone.

But since money can’t buy common sense, a majority of those lottery winners end up bankrupt within two to five years.

What do you think?