Appliances such as washers, dryers, refrigerators, ranges, and dishwashers add value to your vacation property by providing your guests the conveniences of home. However, when purchasing and installing appliances, consider effect they may have on your energy bills. Powering appliances costs $1900 each year for the average home.

appliances. They not only have the nifty sticker, they can save you big bucks– Up to $80 per Energy Star appliance. If you own the appliance for 15 years, that’s $1200! • Trade your top-loading washing machine uses 25 gallons of water per load compared to 40-60 for a new clothes dryer, look for one that front-loads. A typical Frontload washing machine uses 25 gallons of water per load compared to 40-60 for a top loader. Since the front loading washing machines spin at 60-80 miles per hour, the clothes inside are dry.

• Defrost manual-defrost refrigerators and freezers between each renter. • Lower the temperature in your refrigerator and freezer. Set your refrigerator and freezer. Set your refrigerator coils at least once a season. First, unplug your fridge. Then pull it out from the wall and vacuum the coils on the backside. While you’re at it, check and lubricate the gaskets on your energy bills. Powering appliances costs $1900 each year for the average home. Here are a few ways to lower your costs: • Buy “Energy Star” appliances.

They not only have the nifty sticker, they can save you big bucks– Up to $80 per Energy Star appliance. If you can easily pull the dollar from the wall and vacuum the coils on the backside. While you’re at it, check and lubricate the gaskets on your energy bills. Powering appliances costs $1900 each year for the average home. Here are a few ways to lower your costs: • Buy “Energy Star” appliances. They not only have the nifty sticker, they can save you big bucks– Up to $80 per Energy Star appliance.

If you can easily pull the dollar from the wall and vacuum the coils on the backside. While you’re at it, check and lubricate the gaskets on your energy bills.

Here in PA, we’re ever so fortunate (sarcasm) to be headed into a new era deregulated electricity. Our utility provider (PPL Electric) has announced that they expect most residential electric bills such as ours to rise about 30%-32%! Somehow, this is supposed to be a help to our electricity cost. We’ve not figured that out yet.

As the old saying goes, rather than curse the darkness, light a candle. If your bill is going to go up by 30%, try lowering your consumption by 30% or more. This will not only keep your cost down, but reducing demand lowers prices for everyone.

So what are some relatively low-investment ways you can reduce your electric bill by 30% or more? Here’s a few ideas:

1. Setup a clothes line. This is the cheapest way to go solar there is! According to Dept. of Energy statistics, clothes dryers account for nearly 6%  of household electric bills (average).
2. Go Green One Day – unplugging most of your non-essential electricity for one day a week. This could save most households up to 15% of their electricity cost.
3. Track down and eliminate “ghost loads” of electricity – appliances that use power when not even on (DVD, TVs, Phones, etc). A Kil-A-Watt is a great way to find these. Conservatively, we think this could save most households 1-2%
4. Install a high-efficiency, water-saving shower head. Doing so appears to reduce our family’s utility cost. This is not direclty reducing the electric bull by a whopping amount, but reduces our utility costs in an amount that equals approximately 5-8% of our electricity cost. This is roughly the cost of one month’s electric bill! See our recent post for details.

So, the above simple steps could reduce your expenses by up to 31% of your yearly electric costs (by our estimates). None of the above are expensive or difficult to implement or require advanced DIY skills.

Have additional tips? Post em’ in the comments.

What is economy 7 in electricity prices?
Economy 7 electricity is a fancy term for night time (red. cheaper) electricity. This cheaper electricity stems from so called “must run” electricity production at night. The hours at which this cheaper electricity is delivered varies from company to company but is usually from around midnight until 08.00 am. (Some companies use slightly different starting and ending times) The reason why electricity suppliers can charge lower prices for this night time electricity is a simple matter of supply and demand.

For obvious reasons, the demand for electricity in the night, when offices, house holds and most factories require less electricity, is very low. On the supply side we see that some electricity generation plants, (particularly coal and nuclear electricity production plants) need to run around the clock. The technical processes in these plants are such, that switching off the plant at night is just not cost effective or not even physically possible. Those kinds of plants therefore produce electricity 24/7 even at night when demand for electricity is much lower than during the day.

To incentivise night time energy consumption, the industry came up with the term Economy 7 to off load this excess night time electricity. The value of night time electricity is approximately one third of the value of daytime electricity. For consumers using this lower cost electricity at night can be an effective way of lowering your electricity bill. Examples of night time energy consumption by consumers are; running your washing machines, dryers, storage heaters, dishwashers, etc. at night using timers or using the delay function build in to your appliances.

For the generators it is also a good deal as it is better to sell the electricity produced at night at this lower price rather than have to keep constantly powering down and re-firing their generating plant as this causes additional wear and tear and holds additional risks to the producers. It is also a way to even out electricity consumption throughout a 24 hour time span. This helps the plants run more efficiently and (slightly) reduces the need for additional installed capacity and is also somewhat greener to produce.
Winners all round you might think; as long as you are willing and able to schedule your energy consumption during the night, yes!

Many people might not think to look at their showers as being a source of potential energy and cost savings. That’s unfortunate, because there’s money to be saved in the shower along with natural resources too.

Consider the following scenario: Here’s the simple math for a family of four each taking a 7 minute with an average water-saving shower head (2.6 gallons per minute, or “gpm”):

• 4 people x 7 minutes x 2.6 gallons = 72.8 gallons per day
• 72.8 x $.0015/gallon = $.11 per day
• 72.8 gallons x $.02 to heat it = $1.46 per day
• Cost per 7 minute shower = $.37
• $1.46 + $.11 = $1.57 per day to purchase water and heat it for showering
• $1.57 X 365 = $573.05 per year!

Here’s the math for the savings this family would see by just installing a high-efficiency shower head:

• 4 people x 7 minutes x 1.6 gallons = 44.8 gallons per day
• 44.8 x $.0015/gallon = $.07 per day
• 44.8 gallons x $.02 to heat it = $.87 per day
• $.87 + $.07 = $.94 per day to purchase water and heat it for showering
• $.94 X 365 = $343.10 per year!

So just by installing new shower heads, there’s several hundred dollars a year to be saved in water and energy cost. We’ve installed Peerless 76154 1.6 GPM Water-Amplifying Showerhead, Chrome units that cost us less than $15 – money well spent!

As you can see, hot water heating can be a major expense. As we aim for a simpler life, we’re aiming to use less water, and less commercially-provided energy heating the water. Stay tuned for our future posts about our attempts to heat hot water in some non-traditional ways!

Here at the revamped, environmentally friendly Souza office, we aim to be fully aware of the current issues facing our natural environment and the steps we need to take to take to improve them. We are constantly on the lookout for new ways to save the earth’s resources, as we have the belief that we need to start individually in our homes and businesses, in order to really make a difference as a whole society. But what is the rest of Maryland doing to help us reduce our carbon footprint? Here is a little bit of info with some links so that YOU TOO can help Maryland on its road to becoming more energy efficient and eco-friendly.

Photo courtesy of the Crawford Company

OK…lets start with some basics. Are you turning off the lights when you leave the room? Turning the tap off when you brush your teeth? Re-cycling your re-cyclables? If the answer is yes, then well done. If you find yourself answering “no” then give yourself a slap on the wrist. It is our responsibility to understand and take control over these issues in order to take care of the world in which we live. There is also the added bonus that it will save your pennies – lights off = lower electricity bill! Everyone wins! Do you need some direction on how to help Maryland become more eco-friendly? Take the initiative and visit energy savers, or Maryland’s Smart, Green and Growing website, which will set you on your way to being a super “green” being in no time. If your a business take a look at the Maryland Green Registry.

So what is Maryland doing to help? Well the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) has been working with ENERGY STAR, a program introduced in 1992 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy in a bid to save us money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices, such as building and promoting new houses, businesses and appliances that have the ENERGY STAR. Reportedly ENERGY STAR cuts utility bills by a third, and amazingly Americans saved enough energy in 2008 to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 29 million cars, while also saving $19 billion on their bills…WOW!

Photo courtesy of the European Commission website

Maryland is also tapping into natural and renewable energy sources. First, lets look at solar power. On average, the State of Maryland receives 5.3 kilowatt hours per day per square meter of solar energy, with the amount being higher in the summer and lower in the winter. On a sunny summers day Maryland receives around 196,000 Gigawatt hours of solar energy. This is more than all the electric power plants in Maryland produce in a year. It is not surprising then, that solar power is quickly increasing in popularity, with businesses and homeowners turning to this environmentally friendly and efficient source of energy. The U.S. Department of Energy has also established the Million Solar Roofs Program to install solar energy systems throughout the US and hats off to Maryland, as it was the first state to sign on to this initiative!

Read this interesting article on solar power at repairfinders.com

Another form of renewable energy that Maryland is exploring is wind power. Because of its position on the east coast, Maryland has abundant offshore wind potential making it an ideal location to utilize wind turbines to their full advantage. The rest of the US is on board with wind power too, and can proudly say it is the number one in production of small wind turbines. These electric generators utilize wind energy to produce clean, emission-free power, and so far wind farms in the US have helped to avoid nearly 62 million pounds of pollutants. The recent success of the installation of a wind turbine at the Westminster Maintenance Facility in Carroll County by the Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration represents a fundamental step forward in making this source of clean and natural energy a more common sight to see in Maryland. In addition to the MEA’s Windswept Grant Program which promotes the development of installation of small-scale wind turbines throughout Maryland, Governor Martin O’Malley announced in a recent press release that “offshore wind energy offers vast potential to create jobs for our workers and to help stabilize electric costs for our families while also increasing grid stability,” indicating that wind power has the potential to become one of Maryland’s vital future clean energy sources.

Photo courtesy of atissun.com

Under Governor O’Malley, the initiative EmPower Maryland has been introduced. This initiative aims to reduce Maryland’s energy consumption by 15% by 2015.  In order to do so, the initiative encourages residents to adopt the recommended energy-reducing methods in their homes and businesses, which are not overly costly, and will save money on energy bills in the long run. Just recently the MEA announced that Maryland counties and cities have been awarded an additional $9.5 million for clean energy investments from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program. These funds will be distributed to 13 counties and 147 municipalities throughout the state, in addition to the $40 million in federal grants awarded for Maryland’s top ten cities and counties, and $8.3 million distributed as part of the O’Malley-Brown Administration’s EmPower-ing Clean Communities program.

Picture courtesy of co.lucas.oh.us which has a useful list of energy saving tips.

We have only touched upon the numerous initiatives in place to help reduce Maryland’s carbon footprint. Now it is up to YOU, to see what you can do to lower your carbon footprint at your home and business. Do your research and find out how you can help and also how you can get help from the government, for example, did you know that there are numerous incentives and programs to aid you in your quest to become sustainable?  Like the Green Building Tax Credit, which provides a tax credit of up to 8% of the total cost for the construction of a green building. So lets gather the masses and tell all our friends – sustainable and natural energy is the way forward but we will all have to make the effort to ease the transition.

Go Green!!

Thanks for reading…until next time,

Team Souza

Photo courtesy of Electronic House

When we signed up for Ooma and decided to port our phone number, we could not get a consistent answer from either Ooma or Verizon regarding what would happen to our DSL service once the number was ported. Ooma was pretty sure that our DSL service would be dropped and we’d be without internet until we re-established the service. Four separate calls to Verizon regarding this resulted in four separate and inconsistent responses. Three times we were told from Verizon that our service would automatically shut off when the phone number port was completed. During one other call, the Verizon rep insisted that the default action when a phone service with DSL was ported was to convert to “dry-loop” or “naked” DSL. He was right.

You’d think that Verizon and Ooma would both have enough experience with people canceling Verizon phone service to go with VoIP services including Ooma to know what the standard process was! Since we could not locate straight answers from anyone, we decided to write this post to re-assure those who are going through the same process.

Yesterday, after about two weeks with Ooma, our phone number port was successfully completed. We didn’t lose internet service at all. Today, we received two communications from Verizon. One email, the other voice mail (on our newly ported number). Pretty much, all that’s required to keep the DSL is that we contact them within 7 days and provide a new means of paying for the DSL service since we won’t be receiving a bill.

Here’s the Voicemail left from Verizon:
Voicemail from Verizon

Here’s the text of the Verizon Email:

Dear Valued Verizon Online Member,

We know how important your Verizon High Speed Internet service is to you, which is why we are sending you this letter to help make sure that our records are updated following your recent request to change your voice telephone service to another provider.

As a result of that request, your Verizon Online account has been automatically modified so that we can continue to provide your High Speed Internet (HSI) service without Verizon voice service. Your HSI service remains active, and your email address, portal selection (if any), and value added services (if any) will all remain unaffected. If you were previously on a high speed internet annual plan, your commitment has transitioned to your new package and has not changed.

If you wish to continue enjoying Verizon’s High Speed Internet service, please contact our Billing Department at 1-800-567-6789 within the next 7 days. If you do not contact us within 7 days, your HSI service will be suspended for a period of thirty (30) days, then disconnected. If you attempt to access the Verizon HSI service during the suspension period, you will be presented with an opportunity to verify or change your billing information and restore your service.

If you do not wish to retain your Verizon High Speed Internet access service you do not need to take any action. Your service will be suspended after 7 days. Any charges incurred for HSI service following completion of your order to cancel Verizon voice service will be automatically credited within one to two bill cycles.

Your HSI service without Verizon voice is provided on a new dedicated data telephone line: [private]
Please retain this number to help us identify your account if you call us for assistance.

Your new monthly rate for Verizon High Speed Internet without voice is $ [private] per month, effective [private]. Any Verizon bundle discounts you may have previously had are no longer applicable and, if applicable, a bundle early termination fee will be assessed for cancelling the voice component of your Verizon bundle. Your use of the HSI service continues to be governed by the Verizon Online Terms of Service. You can review the Terms of Service by visiting: Internet Access Terms of Service

Thank you for choosing Verizon Online High Speed Internet!

Sincerely,
Verizon Online
Broadband Customer Care Team

So there you have it! If you’re porting a home phone to Ooma from a Verizon local phone service with DSL this is how it works – for now at least!

Simple Energy-Efficient Tips That Save Money | Healthy and Green Living.

Alrighty, let’s start bedding down for Fall and Winter!  I can’t wait to start caulking and stripping up a storm.  Hmm, surely there’s a pun in there somewhere…

Seriously though, the home is the biggest energy drain on any resource.  Bike yourself to work, carpool everywhere, and combine your errands, you’re still going to come home to a big giant energy loss.  Some of these tips are too simple to NOT do, and if it saves you money to boot, why the heck not? 

All the parts and pieces finally fell into place for us to setup our Chest Freezer as a Fridge. For those new to this thread, we had purchased a new Energy Star Chest Freezer from Lowes, an external Thermostat Control from Amazon, and put them together to have a super-efficient refrigerator.

We hooked the thermostat up in about 5 minutes. It consisted of unwinding the semi-stiff metal thermostat probe wire, running it up over the back of the freezer, down into the freezer, and across the back. We hid ours underneath a built-in rail used for hanging baskets, so it’s not visible or in danger of getting damaged.

Once installed, we simply turned the built-in thermostat to it’s max setting, then plugged the freezer into the external thermostat, and then the external thermostat into the wall. The Johnson Controls Thermostat’s plug has a female receptical for the freezer to plug into.

It ran for about 3o minutes to reach our desired temperature of about 37℉, then shut off the power. From then on, it’s run less than 10 minutes per hour.

This AM, with the Kill-A-Watt attached for 12 hours, the unit has used .22 kWh of power. That’s quite impressive and at today’s prices equals a few nickels over $15 for the year if this stays consistent! That’s a whopping big difference from our old fridge which cost $115-$120/yr! We had thought that we’d save up to 95% from what we’ve seen others achieve and we’re currently realizing a savings of 87%. That’s acceptable

How does it work for the family?

So far, everyone really digs the setup. At 14.5 cubit feet, it’s quite a lot of space, it has way more room in it than our previous fridge, and everything is very easy to get to, except by our 4-yr old, which is a bonus since we are always telling her to get out of the fridge! We could literally store twice as much food as previous and still pay 80% less for the power. Not bad, eh? Looking and reaching top-down into the fridge is nice too. We have a bird’s eye view of everything and it’s all easy to reach. Hopefully the pictures give some idea of the setup.

Is it worth it?

A few people have commented that this is not much of a savings. If you just bought a brand-new Energy Star fridge, that might be the case. I wouldn’t go this route had we had a new, efficient fridge (at least not yet). However, if you’re in need of a new fridge, consider this for a minute.

Cost Comparison

The above prices for the fridge are based on what we’ve seen available in the size range that we would need. **Price includes extended warranty of 4 years and price of thermostat!

That should put things into perspective. Perhaps some people don’t care about saving $750, but we do! Further, our savings will continue year after year. So if you already need a new refrigerator, consider this option, otherwise, find another way to save $30-50/yr.

For months we’ve been trying to discover a way to reduce our mobile/cell phone service without compromising on the quality of service, etc. The issue is that one of us uses 200+ minutes per month minimum, the other maybe 50 at most. We’ve been using a Verizon Family Plan for a while that had a base price of $69.99, plus $9.99 for the extra line, plus all the other charges, surcharges, tax etc. It usually ended up being $95-$100/month because of the 18% combined taxes and surcharges.

We find this amazingly costly for such occasional use. We considered many alternatives and finally found that the best option for us was to keep one of us on a Verizon “post-paid” (ie. contract) plan and the other we moved to a pre-paid service. There’s an immediate savings with pre-paid of not paying the surcharges that are customary with contract plans.

We were about to purchase a new pre-paid phone/service with Verizon, but we were wanted to keep our phone number and our phone. After calling Verizon and putting up with their salesperson’s shenanigans to try to convince us that this was not a good move, we were able to get them to admit it was possible and instruct us what to do.

Here’s what was required to turn a contract plan into a pre-paid plan:

1. Our contract date end date had already expired. You cannot do this without early termination fees otherwise.
2. We were told by the rep on the phone that we MUST take the phone to a Verizon Store to do this – not a reseller, etc. but a VZW-branded store. I don’t know if this was just a ploy, or truly required.
3. We then had to maintain our position with the in-store reps that this was what we wanted to do, and further resist additional efforts to get us to stay on more expensive plans. We chose the “Core” version of the Verizon Impulse plan because it includes unlimited mobile-to-mobile with other vzw users, only costs $.99/day that the phone is used, and $.10/minute for all other minutes. Since we use about 5o minutes a month for this phone, that should be less than $7/mo. since many of the minutes used are mobile-t0-mobile.
4. The rep then disconnected the existing number and reserved it (requiring a call into some sort of main office), then re-established the phone number as a new pre-paid service.
5. This required the purchase of airtime credit. One can choose differing amounts. We chose $50 in order to have 90 days to use those minutes.
6. The whole process took 10-15 minutes and cost nothing outside of the minutes purchased.

Watch out for these gotchas
Tricky numbers: In the above process, we noticed that the Verizon rep on the phone used the most expensive pre-paid options when “doing the numbers” to show us how pre-paid would be more expensive. Therefore, they used the $3.99/day option when comparing cost. Don’t let this fool you – it’s a sales trick. Further, they also don’t consider the true cost of contract plans with the included surcharges and fees. These don’t exist in pre-paid accounts. In our state, contract taxes and fees tend to be about 18%. Pre-paid reduces that down to 6% in PA and is also on the minutes purchased, not on a contract fee, therefore it’s less taxes paid than in a contract unless our pre-paid usage exceeds a contract price (which is very unlikely).

Verizon Impulse Pre-paid plans compared: The in-store rep recommended a “cheaper” plan with no per-day charges, but a per minute cost of $.25 all the time. This might also appear good to those with poor math/observation skills, but that makes the minutes cost 250% more per minute than the other plans - all to avoid a $1 charge for using the phone that day. Consider this example: A 20 minute call with $.25/minute/$0 per-day charge would cost $5.00. The cost to make the same call with the $.10/minute/$.99/day plan would cost $2.98 – that’s 40% cheaper!  Unless all your calls tend to be less than 4 minutes or less (breaking even with the $1/day plan), it’s not a good bargain to go with the $.25/minute plan. Consider yourself forewarned!

Labor Day is a great time to start categorizing your expenses. (This sounds much more daunting than it is…don’t worry!) First off, you need to know your spending habits. You must begin to see patterns in how you spend your money, and categorizing is the best way.

So, grab your bank statement (or print off the most recent from your online banking) and then grab a pen and paper.  Go line by line and categorize what type of expense it was, and how much you spent. For example, you might have the following categories:

• Mortgage
• Credit cards
• Gas/automobile
• Grocery store
• Eating out
• Healthcare/medical
• Insurance
• House bills/utilities
• Clothes
• Miscellaneous

Notice that I list groceries and eating out in separate categories. Most of America eats out way too much (me included if I don’t make a conscious effort!).  Go to Starbucks? Grab a snack at the 7-11 when you get gas? All of those count as eating out!

Now, once you have done this categorizing for the first bank statement, put it away until you get a second bank statement and categorize your spending once again. After two months, you will begin to see a habit. My husband loves Starbucks way too much (daily)…and I love Hershey bars with Almonds from 7-11 (twice weekly).

Now we can beging to purge our spending. Look for ways to cut back or eliminate all together. If my husband cuts down from daily Starbucks to only Saturdays, he save us $9 a week or $36 a month!  If I cut out Hersheys entirely (truthfully my “bottom line” doesn’t need them) then I save $6 a week or $24 amonth.  Together, that is $60 a month we have saved through a little will power and simple steps.

That $60 pays for our water bill or even a presciption or two.  So, you can see how just a few minor adjustments in our spending habits can make a huge difference…but you must know what those spending habits are efore you begin.

So, happy categorizing, friends. And God bless!

If you would like more tips about how to lower your bills and grow your income, check out my best-selling book GPS for Success! (75 pages that are worth your time and money!)

Yesterday, our Ooma Hub and Scout package arrived just three business days after purchasing (not bad for Amazon’s free super-saver shipping).

Opening the box was reminiscent of opening an Apple product. Those who own Mac’s and other Apple products will know what I mean. Most manufacturers simply see packaging as as way to get products safely into the hands of consumers. Apple, and apparently Ooma too, design their packaging to almost present their products. It’s quite fancy, simple and downright elegant.

But who cares about packaging of the product sucks?

Fortunately, the product itself could easily be confused for an Apple product. It’s design engineers appear to have taken some cues from Apple’s design team. These devices are simple, highly intuitive, easy to use, tidy and clean. Even the colors of white and silver are Apple-like. As a Mac family, we like this of course.

So, we opened it up, found it very easy to understand with a quick start guide and a more detailed users guide. Very few parts in the Ooma Hub. The Hub, the power cord, a phone cord, a network cord. There was also an optional phone line splitter. Before we began installing any hardware, we registered the product which only took a few minutes. The only downside of that process was the lack of available numbers in our calling area, but that’s okay since we’re porting our old home number (more on that another time).

Setting up the hardware was easy. We made it a bit harder because we wanted the device somewhere else in our house and Ooma insists on sitting between your modem and the rest of your network. Some might find this to be irritating, but their reason is to make sure they can prioritize web traffic so that calls don’t suffer should you be heavily using your bandwidth. This setup wasn’t complex because of Ooma, but because of our home network setup. Regardless, we got it setup in no time. From box arriving to installation was 45 minutes to an hour – most of which was spent re-arranging things to where we wanted them.

Once we got things setup, we went ahead and signed up for Ooma’s Premier service. The $99 annual price also included the phone porting which is typically a one-time fee of $39.99. We’re glad we signed up for this. It gives us all sorts of cool features:

1. Additional phone on-demand phone line – if someone is on the phone, you can just pick up another handset and make a call.
2. Conference/Party Line
3. Additional Phone Number anywhere in the US. In our case, we got one in our out-of-town family’s hometown so they could call us without long distance charges
4. Personal Blacklist (optional) – we can permanently block calls to any number we choose, so when those telemarketers refuse to stop calling, we can just block em’
5. Community Blacklist (optional) – when enough ooma users vote on blocking certain numbers, they’ll automatically be blocked from calling those who subscribe.
6. Call Forwarding/Mult-ring – set your phone to forward to your cell phone or also ring your cell phone

These are all in addition to some seriously cool included features that combine the best of many worlds together. The Ooma hub is sort of like an answering machine combined with telco-provided voicemail, yet with a web interface. There’s so many ways to access your messages. Some of the other features we really dig are the do not disturb feature, call screening, custom rings for different r or people, etc.

The voice quality has been fantastic. Should it suffer, one can connect to the Ooma hub with a standard network cable and type http://setup.ooma.com into their web browser where they’ll be directed to the settings for their hub. This is only accessible when plugged directly into the hub! From here, one can increase the allotted bandwidth set aside for calls which should preserve good quality for those who have high bandwidth uses otherwise.

All told, we’re pretty impressed with this product. First it was the savings on the phone bill, now it’s the usefulness and design of the product.

Amount Saved: $445.01/yr

As posted previously, I had been considering entirely dumping our Verison Wireless service in exchange for prepaid service through Boost Mobile. I spent several hours analyzing the true cost of doing so by evaluating the cost of the new phones (required for using Boost, optional to stay with Verizon), the monthly cost, etc.

Boost Mobile really looked good at first, but to get a decent phone for each of us would have totaled over $350 dollars, thus reducing the money-saving nature of going this route. The real savings of switching to Boost after buying the phones would have only been about $80.

With Verizon, we have a family plan with a base cost of $69.99/mo. I spoke with a VZW person who told me that the additional charges on wireless cell phone bills (at least in PA) totaled about 18%. Our true cost was usually around $100/mo. That’s because of an extra $5/mo. text messaging package that was added, etc. Our plan included free calling to any other VZW user. This cannot be discounted when choosing another service. It also included free nights and weekend calling – as most do.

We considered dumping local and long distance, then upgrading our plans so that we could eliminate some bills, but after we found Ooma that turned out to be a money-losing proposition.

Finally, we decided to keep one phone on a minimum verizon plan ($39.99/mo.) and sign the other one up for Boost Mobile and use per minute pricing ($.10/minute). Because one if us uses about 100-130 minute per month, this ends up being $10-13/mo total – no taxes or surcharges. Further, we found a refurbished Boost Mobile phone on ebay for $34.99 incl. free shipping.

By going this route, we’re dropping our cell phone cost $480/yr with a 2-yr savings of $925.

The take home lesson here is this:

1. Evaluate your cell phone usage
2. If someone in your family (if on a family plan) uses barely any minutes, then consider placing them on a pre-paid account
3. By doing the math, you can likely find a way to save several hundred dollars per year.
4. If you like to use your cell phone for your long distance calling while at home, consider getting an Ooma. You’ll save more that way if combined with the above approach.

Have you found a way to lower your cell phone cost? Please share with us by posting a comment.

We’re Saving About $135/yr

As I’ve been researching ways to reduce power consumption, I’ve been measuring the annual power use of each appliance in my house (see my post on the Kill-A-Watt for details). When I measured my refrigerator, I found that it used 2.17 Kwh in just 13:22. That means that at our average Kwh cost of $.1007, my fridge costs me $$.3896/day, $11.85/month, and $143.20/year. That might not sound significant, but what if it could be less? A LOT less?!

I’d recently seen some info about using a chest freezer in place of a fridge. I thought the idea sounded whacky at first. It’s being done by many power-miserly people – particularly those who use solar power. You see, refrigerators are inherently inefficient in their design. When you open your fridge door, in goes all sorts of room-temperature air that must now be cooled and the cool air you’ve been paying to cool comes out. This is where a chest freezer has quite an advantage. Aside from being better-insulated than refrigerators, chest freezers don’t lose much cold air when you open them because cold air sinks and hot air rises. You ever notice the open coolers in the grocery store with no lids, yet the contain frozen items? This is because the cold air stays down in the freezer.

So how does this work as a fridge, I mean freezers freeze stuff, and I just want my stuff cool, right? It’s simple:

You take a chest freezer, turn the thermostat to as cold as possible (so that when it’s on, it’s running at full-steam), then purchase a separate thermostat such as this Refrigerator or Freezer Thermostat (Temperature Controller). These have long been used by people who brew their own beer to keep their beverages at given temperature range for long periods of time.

Control your freezer temperature externally

This device (or others like it) plug into the wall, and your freezer plugs into it. It consists of a temperature probe which is placed inside the freezer (no tools required) hooked to a relay that turns the power (at the plug) on and off. This is totally safe and already how your freezer works, so no wear and tear. This just way easier than modifying the freezer’s internal thermostat and voiding warranties, etc.

Once plugged in, your set the external thermostat to your desired temp (mid to high 30’s) When the temperature inside the freezer moves above your set temp, it powers on the outlet, turning on the freezer until it reaches the desired temperature. Once reached, it cuts power to the freezer. Many people who use this arrangement report their freezer compressor running 2-5 minutes per hour!

So just how much does this save? Most people report an electricity use doing this between .10 Kwh to .4 Kwh per day. Our current average Kwh price is $.1007 (just a hair over ten cents). That means that doing the above will cost you between $.01 and $.04 cents per day. That’s between $3.67 and $14.70 per year! You will not find a fridge that approaches even half this energy use. Because I bought a new energy star freezer, I am projecting somewhere in the middle – $.20 Kwh/day. This is twice the cost that many people are experiencing, but I don’t like to get my hopes up. If I am anywhere close, my cost will be just $7.35 to run my freezer fridge for one year. That’s a 95% cost reduction. It could be even better, it could be even worse. Even if it were $.40 Kwh/day, the cost will still be less than $15 for the year, an 89% improvement!

Have a hard time believing that? A brand-new Energy Star freezer will use about $38 per year as a freezer – it’s right on the tag. When it’s used in the energy-sipping capacity like this, it uses a fraction of that energy.

Of course, you have to 1) have or obtain a decent chest freezer 2) have a place to effectively use a chest freezer as a fridge 3) and purchase or make an external thermostat capable of powering the unit on/off frequently. In our case, we had the willingness, the room, but not the freezer or thermostat. We decided on purchasing a new Energy Star 14.8 cu.ft. freezer for $398. We purchased the above thermostat as well. This unit should be going strong for 5-10 years, long after we’ve recovered our purchase price.

If this is something you want to consider, I recommend the following:

1. Use a Kill-A-Watt to measure your power use and determine your real kwh cost per day
2. Multiply this cost by 365. If you live in PA, remember that once we experience deregulation this winter, power cost will likely rise at least 30%.
3. Consider if you can purchase or locate a decent freezer
4. Consider if you can purchase or construct a thermostat relay (I could not build one for the cost of the one above)
5. Consider if you could live with a chest freezer rather than a traditional fridge.
6. If so, Consider the cost savings over 3-5 years after your cost to purchase the freezer (if need be) and a thermostat.
7. If the cost is justifiable, go for it!

Regarding the last item, my wife was suprisingly willing to do this after going and looking at freezers. There’s some nice benefits of this approach:

1. It can be hard to see items in the freezer, harder to reach them, etc. The top-down effect of using a chest freezer offers a bird’s eye view of the contents.
2. The chest freezer doubles as quite a bit of effective work area
3. The former refrigerator area can be re-factored into a pantry, more counter space, etc.
4. The right chest freezer can be nicely organized. Ours came with four nice sliding baskets that make it easy to organize.
5. Should you decide to implement an alternative source of power (solar or wind), the less power you need, the better.

This might not be for everyone, but we’re excited to give it a shot!

I’ll post an update in a few months with my power usage.

We’re Saving $444/yr

If you could pay between $200-$250 one time and never pay for local and long distance calls again, would YOU do it? We had to ask ourselves the same question when we found out about the ooma Core VoIP Phone System with No Monthly Phone Service Bills.

We spend a LOT of time looking into saving money on utilities. We’ve been focusing lately on looking for ways to reduce the cost of telephone use. This includes wireless (cell) phone service, local phone service, and long-distance calling use.

Many cell phone plans come with unlimited local and long distance calling. At first, we assumed this would be cheaper, but when we ran the numbers (using a spreadsheet) including the monthly cost, hardware (new cell phones) cost, etc. we did not find using unlimited cell phone plans (or any cell phone plan) to be the right choice for our family. Collectively, we use about 400 minutes of cell phone use per month (between two lines).  Our monthly cost for long distance and local calling is approximately $47/mo. on average. Upgrading to unlimited cell service, or even a limited plan with enough minutes would cost more than this amount per month.

We were already unhappy with how much cell phones cost our family  (more on that another time), so increasing the bill is not appealing.

We also considered magicJack: PC to Phone Jack, but don’t want to keep a computer running constantly. For those who don’t mind, magicJack is an even cheaper alternative than ooma. Our friends overseas really like this because they can get a U.S. phone number with unlimited calling for $40 one-time fee! You might consider this if you want ultra-cheap long-distance.

Further, we looked into using free services such as Skype, Gizmo5, and Google Voice as alternatives. We have accounts with each, but don”t see them as a practical alternative to replacing local and long distance calling, and certainly not cell phones – but they’re great for calling overseas for really cheap. These services too require either a computer to be on, or expensive phone upgrades. We also have friends who promote long-distance services, but we wanted to eliminate the bill – not just reduce it.

After reading copious reviews of Ooma and talking a real-life user, we decided to buy the Ooma. From our calculations, and those who own them, this will drastically reduce our local and long-distance, with a 10-12 month payback followed by unlimited local and long distance calling without paying another bill again!

Here’s what else we like about the Ooma:

1. We can “port” our home telephone number (unlike many of our friends who have gotten VoIP systems like Vonage, etc). No need to change your number!
2. It’s easy to install. Plug ooma into your home network router, plug phone into ooma, register.
3. The device is simple – a few buttons – no rocket science.
4. Voicemail can be checked from Ooma device, phone call, or online. Messages can even be emailed to us as MP3.
5. We can get all sorts of cool additional services for $1o0/yr (Ooma Premier) -  again, totally optional. If we do this the first year, the price includes the charges to port (usually $39.99)

Now, this is not something everyone can use because you must have a broadband (DLS, Cable, Fiber Optic) internet connection. Also, if your broadband internet connection does not connect to a router, you’ll need one of those ($50 or less likely). We have DSL which currently costs us $31.99/mo. Because we will be removing our local phone service, we will have to change our DSL to “naked” DSL with a price increase of $10/mo. This is factored into our savings estimate below.

Here’s the math:

• Existing Cost of DSL, Local and Long Distance per Year: $948.47
• First Year Cost with Ooma, Extra “Scout” (which I want, but most people would not need), phone # port, and increased DSL Cost: $776.88
• First Year Savings: $171.59
• Recurring cost per year after first year: $503.88 (for DSL only, no local or long distance charges any more)
  *(+$100 if you want optional “premier” service)
• Yearly savings (years 2 and on) $444.59 ($344.59 if you subscribe to Ooma Premier)
• Savings over 5 years ( first year savings + ( yearly savings x 4 ) ) = $1949.95
  

Our long distance charges are $16/mo on average – That’s probably a bit lower than most people, so most would experience even bigger savings than us. Hope this news helps you find an affordable alternative to your local and long distance calling. Let me know if I can help you figure out your savings!

I spent some time today using our utility company’s online self-help portal to determine some areas of cost saving measures. Without a doubt, heating and cooling is the #1 area of energy use in our home – and probably most homes.

Some of their tools show a savings of up to 20% by fixing areas of air infiltration throughout the house, as well as sealing leaks and drafts in the duct work.

In searching on Amazon, I discovered a device for $49 that scans for thermal differences so you can actually KNOW where the leaks are. I am wondering if anyone I know has had experience using this device. Here it is – Black & Decker TLD100 Thermal Leak Detector

Please comment if you’ve used it. I am considering getting this as soon as possible.

A few months ago, I purchased a P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor!

FInd Appliances and Devices quietly draining your electric bill

This nifty device allows you to see what kind of electricity your plugged-in appliances use. Simply plug the Kill-A-Watt into the your outlet and your appliance into the Kill-A-Watt and let it sit. It will show you the Kwh that your appliance uses in the time it’s plugged in.

This is very handy for seeing if some appliances have “ghost loads” – that is, they use electricity even when not in use. This is common in many appliances – especially those with “brick” plugs.

I have to admit, there’s two things I hate about this product (not enough to warrant not having one):

1. Once you unplug the unit, the data you just recorded is gone, so make sure you write it down before you unplug it!
2. There’s a rather obvious design flaw/annoyance where you cannot plug this and any other plug into a standard double outlet. I would highly recommend something like Power Strip Liberator Plus, 5 Pack to allow you to plug this into an outlet without interfering with other devices. These things are handy for those times when you cannot use all the outlets on power strips because bulky plugs take up to much space too!

I think this is $35 well spent since it will help our family unplug costly devices. Decide for yourself!

Recently, one of our showerheads broke. In shopping for a new one, I wanted to find a new showerhead that met several criteria:

1. Affordable (no $100 showerheads for our family!)
2. Energy Efficient (water conservation saves water and heating energy)
3. Flexible – I am a tall guy, and we also have little ones. We need something that accommodates a wide range of sizes and positions.
4. Quality – I chose Peerless because I’ve had good experience with them so far, they’re affordable, and best of all, have a lifetime warranty.

I could not really find an off-the-shelf solution I liked entirely. Most showerheads that include a flexible hose are 2.5 GPM (gallons per minute) – water-saving yes, but not quite enough in my opinion. I really wanted to get 1.5-1.6 GPM. The showerheads that save more water don’t usually have any flexibility and are usually under-powered too. Also, my wife wanted to maintain having a flexible hose showerhead so that we could shower the little ones.

My solution? Combine several showerheads and/or parts. Basically what I did was combined some items from several off-the-shelf showerheads with some stuff we already had to get the best of everything for less than many showerheads would cost. Now, I have a showerhead that combines fixed and flexible, is adjustable, affordable, and energy-saving. We could reduce our water usage (for showers) up to 40% and reduce our hot water usage, thus saving some electricity.

I ended up purchasing the Peerless 76154 1.6 GPM Water-Amplifying Showerhead, Chrome which we scored from Walmart (we usually hate shopping there btw, but didn’t have time to wait for Amazon) for $9.98. This gem of a showerhead was not only less than $10, it also uses 1.6 GPM – a full gallon per minute less than most showerheads. Yet, it seems to have a powerful spray pattern equitable to a 2.5 GPM showerhead. Very easy to install!

I also picked up a Peerless 4″ Sunflower Showerhead with Arm. I love the arm idea because it allows me to be able to stand under the showerhead (at 6′ 3″, this is usually impossible and I have to do squats to wash my hair). My wife didn’t want to give up the hose-mounted showerhead that we already had for the kiddos. So, I combined them! I simply replaced the fixed head of the existing two-headed showerhead with the Sunflower unit. Now, I have an affordable solution that meets everyone’s needs. I plan on buying an additional Peerless 76154 1.6 GPM Water-Amplifying Showerhead, Chrome from Walmart and replacing the Sunflower head so that my fixed showerhead is 1.6 GPM and my flexible showerhead is 2.5 GPM. This is a good compromise in my opinion.

If one were to do this from scratch, it would be pretty simple. This would allow for efficient showers that accommodate all size people, but also more forceful showers when needed. Here’s roughly what you would need:

1. Buy a Peerless Sunflower Showerhead with Arm ($24.98) – if I can find just the arm cheaper, I would do that but most I have found have been as much as the entire showerhead system above.
2. Buy an affordable matching showerhead with a flexible hose ($12.98)
3. Buy a Peerless 76154 1.6 GPM Water-Amplifying Showerhead, Chrome ($13 at Amazon)
4. Buy a Alsons #861-237 MP Chrome Shower Diverter
   to your liking ($2.03)
5. Optional: Flow Control Valve ($2-$10)- let’s you slow the water down, or shut off while shaving or lathering up yet without turning off or adjusting the hot and cold supply thus saving more $$$.

Total cost for an adjustable two-headed, water-saving, flexible showerhead?  $49.98-$59.98. I know there are cheaper alternatives, but I think this is a reasonable price to get so many features in a showerhead setup.

To put it all together, you would first optionally attach your flow control valve (item #5), follwed by the diverter (item #4). To the main outlet of the diverter, you’d attach the adjustable arm from item #1 above. Next, remove the showerhead from item #1 above and replace with item #3 – the water-saving showerhead. To the other diverter outlet, attach item #2.

Doing the above, you’d have one extra showerhead which you could sell, give away, or tuck away for a plumbing emergency sometime.

These are just some ideas for anyone who has a hard time finding the showerhead of their dreams without spending $100.

Possible Savings: $700-$1,000/Yr.

Okay, this isn’t new for us. We’ve been off of cable for years. However, I often wonder why people hang on to cable bills in desparate times.

According to Comcast.com, the main cable provider around here, their cable packages are between $58.70 and $114.90 per month. That’s $704.40 and $1378.80 per year respectively. Dish TV is not much better, starting at around $39.99/mo. and going up to $102.98/mo.

Just by way of example, if you’re income was $30,o00/year and you had basic cable, dumping your cable would be equivalent to a 2.4% raise if you have basic cable, getting rid of it would be the same as a 4.6% raise. I know countless people who have had their salaries frozen due to the economic situation this year and have been told they won’t receive a raise til things get better. Don’t let that stop you – give yourself a raise!

Now, we realize that people desire some form of entertainment and we understand what that desire is like. The thing is, there’s plenty of free simple ways to watch tv programming for free:

1. Go to a friends or neighbors house – you might just make a new friend – (or enemy I suppose )
2. Watch your favorite shows online at either the network’s web site, or places like hulu.com
3. Pay per episode and view your favorite shows using Apple’s iTunes or Amazon. You’d have to watch a lot of shows a month to match the cable/dish prices
4. Go to public places with televisions and watch there.

The point is, Cable/Satellite TV is a quick and easy way to put $700-$1,000 back in your bank account. To many families, that could mean the difference between eating or not, a house payment or two, etc.

I am seriosuly considering switching to Boost Mobile service. Currently, as a Verizon Wireless customer, I pay right around $100/mo. for two phones at the absolute minimum service (Family Plan). Here’s what I like about Boost:

1. My numbers will transport to Boost
2. Three calling plans, the most expensive of which is $50/mo. for unlimited calls/text/web
3. No contracts
4. Refill minutes/plan as needed
5. Decent phones
6. My wife uses at most about 2o minutes of mobile minutes per month. If I put her on the pay as you go plan, her bill would be about $5/mo. on average
7. By doing the above, I could probably save $50/mo. or $600/year.

I’d be interested in hearing the pros and cons from anyone out there who has switched from Verizon to Boost Mobile.

Using an air conditioner will keep you cool as the mercury rises this summer, but that’s about the only relief it will bring.

Cooling costs can comprise a sizable chunk of your electricity bill — and this summer those costs are going to be even higher than last year. In fact, electricity prices are expected to increase 4.3% this year, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

While there’s nothing consumers can do to stop the utility companies from raising rates, there are ways to keep the electricity bill under control.

Here are five ways to do so:

1. Program Your Thermostat
Want to return to an air-conditioned home after a long day of work without leaving the A/C on full blast all day?

By investing in a programmable thermostat, which costs anywhere from $35 to $115, you can program the air conditioner to turn off or raise the temperature while you’re not at home and then kick in right before you return home. Doing so can help you save 10% on cooling and heating bills each year, says Ronnie Kweller, a spokeswoman with the Alliance to Save Energy. Another helpful hint: Close the blinds and shades to block the sun and keep it from heating up the room.

2. Buy Energy-Efficient Appliances
Household appliances can eat up a lot of juice. When shopping for new appliances look for the Energy Star label. Buying products that meet Energy Star’s criteria can save consumers up to 30%, or $700 a year, according to the EPA.

Refrigerators, especially, can hog a lot of energy. Maria Vargas, spokeswoman for Energy Star suggests replacing any refrigerator that’s 15 years old or older. New units consume 50% less energy than ones made in 1990, according to Energy Star’s most recent data. Can’t afford to replace the refrigerator? Clean the coils beneath and behind your refrigerator regularly so it runs more efficiently, says Kweller. Also, refer to the owner’s manual to find out the unit’s recommended temperature and keep it set at that amount, she says.

3. Replace Light Bulbs
One quick way to lower your electric bills is to replace your energy-hungry incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, or CFLs. The initial cost is higher — basic CFLs costs $2 to $5 apiece compared to around $1 for an incandescent bulb — but they’re far more efficient.

Consumers can save up to $50 per CFL because they use about a quarter of the energy that incandescent light bulbs use and they can last up to 10 times as long, says Kweller.

Check out the Environmental Defense’s buying guide, which can help you select the right bulbs for your home.

4. Turn Off and Unplug Gadgets
Even when they’re not in use, cellphone chargers and laptops can really add to your electricity bill if you leave them plugged in all day long.

Standby energy use accounts for 5% to 8% of all home-energy consumption and costs the average household $60 to $100 a year, says Kweller. Plug items that you use frequently, such as your computer or television, into a power strip that can be switched off before you leave the house.

Also, enable your computer’s “sleep mode” rather than letting it go to a screen saver. That small gesture can save up to $75 a year, according to the EPA.

5. Take Advantage of Tax Incentives
Making energy-efficient improvements to your home is one way to reduce your electric bill and receive a gift from Uncle Sam. Thanks to the stimulus bill, homeowners can qualify for tax credits of up to 30% of the cost of making energy-efficient improvements for a total maximum one-time credit of $1,500.

Of course, installing new doors or replacing the roof are pricey endeavors, so you want to make sure you know which items qualify before doling out the cash. For new insulation to qualify, for example, it must meet the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (check product labeling or call the manufacturer).

Source: Wallet Pop.com

By JILIAN MINCER

Individuals who lost their jobs in the last several months may be eligible for employer-sponsored health insurance coverage at greatly reduced rates.

The federal government will pay 65% of Cobra continuation coverage premiums as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was signed into law on Feb. 17. The coverage will apply to individuals who lost or lose their jobs between Sept. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2009 and are eligible for continuing coverage under Cobra, a federal law called the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act.

The new subsidy “makes Cobra much more affordable for a lot of people,” says Scott Keyes, a senior health-care consultant at Watson Wyatt, a consulting firm. He expects participation could double or triple.

The new subsidy would last up to nine months for individuals who are not eligible for other insurance such as Medicare or a spouse’s plan. It applies to employees, their spouses and any children who lost health coverage because of an involuntary termination.

Participants also can’t earn more than $125,000 in the year they receive the subsidy if they are single or more than $250,000 for couples who file jointly.

Laid-off workers already can extend their job-related health coverage for up to 18 months under Cobra. The law applies to companies with 20 or more workers, which continue to offer a group health plan.

“I think this is aimed at helping people stay insured,” says Amy Bergner, a principal at Mercer, a consulting firm in Washington.

She says employees who didn’t elect Cobra coverage initially now have a second chance to sign up.

Individuals who lost their jobs before the law was signed on Feb. 17 should be notified by their former employer by April 18 that they are eligible for this benefit, even if they initially did not sign up for Cobra.

Until now, only a small percentage of individuals extended their insurance coverage through Cobra because of the high cost. Employers are allowed to charge former workers up to 102% of the cost of premiums. Individuals paid on average about $370 a month and families $1,000.

The subsidized coverage would lower premiums to about $130 a month for single coverage and $350 a month for a family, based on 2008 data from a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust.

Ms. Bergner says that workers who have already paid their insurance premiums for coverage after Feb. 17 may get a refund. “It’s really important that they sign up right away and don’t miss the deadlines,” says Sharon Cohen, health-care counsel for Watson Wyatt.

Individuals can wait up to 60 days after they get a notice from their employer that they’re eligible for Cobra. Once they agree to enroll, they have 45 days to begin to pay their share of the premium.

“They don’t want a break in coverage,” says Mr. Keyes. As long as you don’t have more than a 63-day break in coverage, a medical plan cannot refuse to cover any pre-existing conditions, even if it is not the Cobra coverage.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/

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www.health-insurancecalifornia.com

Most employers are not required by law to offer health-related benefits to their employees, although the practice of providing health-related benefits is fairly common in many companies and businesses. However, once an employer offers or provides health benefits — including medical, disability, dental, and life insurance — federal anti-discrimination laws and health plan enforcement regulations act to protect an employee’s rights under those health plans.

Anti-Discrimination in Employment Health Benefits

As mentioned above, most employers are not required to provide their employees with medical, disability, dental, or life insurance, but once such benefits are offered, the law requires that the employer adhere to federal laws prohibiting discrimination in employment. As with other areas of employment such as hiring, promotion, and termination, distinctions in health benefits coverage cannot be made on the basis of an employee or dependent’s gender, race, age, national origin, religion, or disability. As examples, an employer providing employees with health insurance may not, among other things:

* Provide lesser coverage or cease offering coverage to older workers, or workers who may become pregnant

* Treat pregnancy-related disabilities (including miscarriage, abortion, and post-childbirth recovery) different from other health conditions

* Refuse to provide coverage based on an employee or dependent’s actual disability, a perceived disability, or his or her genetic information

ERISA and Enforcement of Health Insurance Rights

Once an employer decides to offer health-related benefits, its plan must be run in accordance with certain standards designed to protect the interests of employees and other plan beneficiaries (such as family members) under a federal law known as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Under ERISA, employers are required to take certain steps in connection with employee health benefit plans, including:

* Notifying employees (called “plan participants”) of plan eligibility standards, claim procedures, participant rights, and related changes to the plan; and

* Managing and investing plan funds according to the best interests of plan participants.

Legal Help for Employers: Health Benefits

Although most employers are not required by law to offer health-related benefits to their employees, when health benefits are provided an employer must comply with a number of federal anti-discrimination laws and health plan regulations.

Source: Reuters.com

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SAULT STE. MARIE — These are the good old days for those who enjoy tobacco.
Okay, maybe not. Federal and state taxes are already exorbitant, but rest assured ye seekers of the nicotine fix that next month’s increase will make today’s prices seem like a bargain. The April Fool will come in the form of any addict or recreational user who failed to stockpile before prices skyrocket at the end of the month.
The increases: Cigarettes are set to jump 62 cents per pack; individual cigars will go up 40 cents apiece, little cigars will jump 96 cents a pack and pipe tobacco will increase $1.71 per pound.
Those who chew will not be able to side-step the increases either with the federal government tacking on 30.5 cents a pound for chewing tobacco and 91.5 cents per pound for snuff.
The hardest hit, however, are those who have been going to the work and effort of rolling their own cigarettes as the federal government will tack on  $23.53 a pound for this product.
And that’s not all as the increase moves beyond tobacco to hit this customer with increases on cigarette papers and tubes as well.
“It’s a tax on the poor,” said Harold Bailey, owner and operator of Austin’s Oak. “The government can say all they want — they didn’t do it to stop people from smoking, they did it to create a new program.”
Billed as the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the funds raised from the tobacco increase have been earmarked to pay for a new program providing health insurance for children of poor families.
“If they projected $100 million, it’s going to cost $500 million,” said Bailey. “There’s going to be another tax increase (to pay for SCHIP) — I guarantee it.”
Bailey said tobacco is a tough way to make a living. He estimates that he makes $3 to $4 a bag on his sales while the federal government will be knocking down $25 a bag and the state rakes in a minimum of $14 a bag.
“They’re getting more money than I do,” said Bailey, essentially saying the state and federal government is killing its golden goose by overtaxing the product.
From Bailey’s perspective, the tax hike has provided a short-term boost in sales as people try to buy in bulk ahead of the increase.
“But in April, I won’t do any business,” he predicted. “March will be good, but it won’t take me through the rest of the year.”
Bailey offered up a few more predictions as well. The new tax will likely cause 10 percent, maybe 15 percent, of people to give up tobacco products. He also guessed that business might go up by 10 percent in the roll-your-own category as more people shy away from the name-brand cigarettes carrying a price tag around $63 a carton. Even with the new increases, Bailey calculated, a roll-your-own smoker can get two-and-a-half cartons for around $70.
He also feared the state may decide to tax the federal tax — which will cause the price to increase even more in April.
“I’ve even talked to my distributors and they don’t know how that is going to work,” he admitted.
The alternative, coincidentally, just happened to come rolling off the fax machine on Wednesday afternoon in the form of a press release from the Michigan Department of Community Health. The Michigan Tobacco Quit Line is now offering free nicotine replacement products for people who want to quit smoking or chewing tobacco. To be eligible, interested parties must call 1-800-QUIT-NOW in order to access an eight-week supply of nicotine patches, gum or lozenges.
The press release indicates the Quit Now program is available to all Michigan residents over the age of 18 regardless of insurance or income status.
So, there are three options — You can pay, stockpile or quit.

Source: www.sooeveningnews.com

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We’ve been a long-time verizon wireless customer. While we like their service, we as Americans pay way more for our wireless service than much of the world. This really bugs our family! We’ve always been a 2 -year contract family for VZW and on average, our mobile bill is about $100/mo (that’s $1200/yr for all you peeps who struggle with math).

We’ve known people who used TracPhones, and pre-paid service for cell phones and have heard that they’ve managed to also have cellular service for far less monthly and yearly cost. At the moment, we’re considering dumping our contract plan and going with something like Trac Phone or pre-paid from Verizon.

We called today to see when my contract expired – 3/2011! That means, if we cancel, we’d have to pay $170 per phone (we have two lines on our plan) – $340 just to get out of the arrangement. We looked online for some ways to get out of the contract, but most of them seem unethical – not something we want to do.

So we explained to the customer service rep at Verizon why we wanted to know our contract end date – so we could lower our expenses. She was sympathetic and tried to offer alternatives. Unfortunately, we already had the cheapest plan, so there was no lowering the plan cost. We did decide to remove the text messaging package saving $60/yr.

Turns out though, that about three weeks ago, they had called and offered to move us to a different, newer plan for no extra fees. It included some extras, etc. By agreeing, we renewed our contract and that’s why it wasn’t up for renewal for 2 years. The CSR informed us that we could still go back to our old plan which had en ending date of August of this year.

So, we should only have to pay $170, minus $5/month that we’ve had the contract open, so more like $50 if we cancel. Considering that’s only half of one month’s phone bill, that’s acceptable. Most likely, we’ll wait til August then dump the whole thing in favor of pre-paid.

At the same time, we did signup for CellTradeUSA which provides a service of matching up people who want to get out of contracts with those who want to get into contracts (but don’t want to pay the setup fees, etc.). This way, we can have the financially responsible party changed to someone else thereby having them assume the remainder of the contract. This might end up working which would also get us free and clear.

Anyone else have experience doing the above? How have you lowered your cell phone expenses?

To live a simpler lifestyle, we’re convinced that we need to lower our consumption of goods and services so that we don’t need the same financial resources to prosper. I’ve been thinking about this a lot – not in a fearful way, but with a desire to lower my expenses.

What we’re doing is building a list of the irreducible minimum expenses we have. Then, looking at what can be re-worked on that list to cost less money. For most people, some bills cannot really be lowered. Usually that is your rent/mortgage, car payment, student loans and perhaps some utilities. For now, we want to focus on lowering the electric bill. For us, that’s about $250/month.

Here’s some things we’ve heard, or are personally considering.

We’ve done the stuff that many have done – replaced inefficient appliances, installed CFL (Compact Flourescent) light bulbs, etc. Sometimes that’s not enough! Here’s some things we’re considering or have been doing:

1. Unplug everything you can – seriously – unplug everything you’re not using that does not have to run. Many electric items (those that have power chargers especially) use power even when not in use. Unplug them and you’ll save money.
2. Practice an energy “Sabbath” – We’re considering taking a 24 hour period of rest from using electricity every week. Heh, the Amish do it all the time, we should be able to as well. Of course things like the fridge and hot-water heater would stay plugged in, but we would otherwise not use any electricity. Light candles (carefully of course) and play games with the family. Start a fire in the fireplace (if you have one), be romantic (where appropriate), have a slumber party with the kids – etc. Of course there’s much gained here aside from a lower electric bill!
3. Get on your electric company’s budget plan – this might not save money per se, but will make budgeting for electric much easier.
4. Go outside and stay outside -Unless you’re bubble boy, being outside generally doesn’t require electricity. Endure the hot or cold and go outside for a few hours. While you do, you’ll be (assuming the above is true), you’ll be consuming less electricity. Sun light is free! While you’re there, do some hard work that will pay you back like gardening, composting, exercising, etc. Turn your time and energy into assets!
5. Go somewhere else where and when possible – if you have the discipline to do so without actually spending more money, try going places more often that are already using power for heat, lights, etc. For example, turn down your heat or A/C, turn off your lights, and go spend the afternoon at the library, the mall, etc. There’s plenty of places that are public that one can go and be in a bright, warm environment! Of course, ideally it would be great if these places were more green in their use of these resources, but at least by you being there, they’ll be getting the most out of their use.
6. As mentioned above, if you haven’t already done so, consider more energy efficient appliances and installing CFL bulbs in your home. Both will require initial expenses, but could also provide lower cost in the long run.
7. Consider fun stuff like building a solar oven!

This is just what we’ve considered so far. There are likely tons of other ideas. If you have em’ please post them in the comments for all to see and benefit from.

Till then, best wishes on lowering your electric bill!