dollarish's Dollarish

Abortions Keep Planned Parenthood Afloat

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:02:00 GMT

TheTheologiansCafe@xanga had a very thought-provoking post on Tuesday about Planned Parenthood and abortion. Several news sources (mostly conservative) have reported on a former Planned Parenthood clinic director from Texas, who recently switched from pro-choice to pro-life after witnessing an abortion. She has since left Planned Parenthood, and made a couple of controversial remarks about how the organization actually makes most of its money from abortion procedures—as opposed to its less controversial and more preventative measures, such as educational outreach programs. More Here...

Auto Wraps: Get Paid to Drive

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:58:00 GMT

Image Source

Thoughmomma@xanga sent us a cool article on AOL about how some advertisers are willing to pay everyday people to "wrap" their cars in promotional material. You can make $300 to $900 a month driving around with trolls on your Jetta, for example, which would be applied in vinyl decals. Advertisers typically require a six- to ninth-month commitment, and ask their drivers to burn at least 1000 miles of rubber per month. More Here...

New Jersey's Financial Emergency

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:42:00 GMT

Image Source

Chris Christie, the governor-elect of New Jersey who will take office in January 2010, is considering declaring a financial emergency in his state, according to NorthJersey.com. This would invoke the Disaster Control Act, a law which also applies to hurricanes and such, although Christie's apocalypse is purely fiscal. More Here...

Wal-Mart, Congress, and the Swine Flu

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:14:00 GMT

Image Source

Paul_Partisan@xanga had an interesting post last week about Wal-Mart's sick leave policies—in particular, how they are affecting employees who become ill with the swine flu, or have to take care of a unwell family member. Here are the basics of the Wal-Mart policy, based on a company memo covered by ABC News:

Each time employees take time off for illness, they must surrender one paid vacation or personal day for their first sick day from work. After that, they can use their sick leave.
Employees receive about 18 paid days off each year, including vacation, personal, sick days.
Employees can usually miss work six times every six months for three or less days per absence. More Here...

From Inside A Call Center...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:56:00 GMT

I used to work at Teleperformance, a call center, which when I was there had over 700 people on 1st 2nd and 3rd shift, 3rd shift was for internet and video calls. We took inbound calls for our principle client Cox Communications, in billing we worked the Las Vegas and Southern California markets. In video and internet they did a mass range of markets, but the main one was So Cal. I read an interesting article that they have lost their client and are planning to shut down.

They already downsized to about 300 people. I know this because they moved internet to the Plus One call center and my old So Cal/Billing manager is working there now. They still just have the video and billing department. I know probably the main reason they are possible shutting down, and its because of lack of organization and improper hiring procedures, and other various things.

I worked there for a year and half, I got too sick to work there in October 2008, and I know it was because of the stress. Here are my reasons why I know they lost Cox as their main provider, because that's who we dealt with: More Here...

11 Ways Wireless Providers Screw You Over

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:41:00 GMT

From our friends over at the Billshrink.com Blog, check out this enlightening post about the different ways wireless phone providers can cause you problems. Check out the original post here: http://www.billshrink.com/blog/11-ways-wireless-providers-screw-you-over/

By: Billshrink Guy

Talk to a random sampling of wireless phone users and you are sure to find one thing: dissatisfaction with their provider. Seemingly everyone has a horror story about two about “how bad Verizon is” or “what terrible signal strength AT&T has” or how “so and so has the worst customer service ever.” In fact, it would be tough to visit just about anywhere in the U.S. and fail to dredge up similar stories from just about anyone you met. All of this begs the question: why are people are so universally unhappy about their wireless providers? Here are 11 reasons.

Text Message Markup

Image Source

According to Consumerist, several wireless providers (including Verizon) “mark up the cost of text messages by at least 7,314% when compared to their rates for data transfer services.” Assuming a max text size of 160 characters and a transmission of 7 bits per character, that’s 1120 bits (or 140 bytes). Without a text messaging plan in place, you will find yourself paying 15 cents. Conversely, the very same phone can transmit 1024 bytes for just 1.5 cents via its data plan. As Consumerist puts it, “that’s $.015 per data kilobyte versus $1.09 per text message kilobyte.” Put another way, it equates to an eye-popping 7,314% markup! More Here...

Comparing Supermarket Prices in Different Countries

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:14:00 GMT

On holiday even if we are going all inclusive we been doing this for the last few years, there are a few items we still buy, mineral water, soda/pop, and chocolate.

We do this by going to the same type of supermarket as in the UK, sometimes we can find the same supermarket branch abroad as in the UK so it makes it easier to compare prices back in the UK.

Sometimes we are amazed that some items cost more in the UK, or sometimes cheaper.

We always like to check out the items we cannot get in the UK brand of the supermarket chain.

Usually on holiday we go the nearest supermarket and buy our mineral water, soda/pop and chocolate, and whatever we want to buy.

When we went self catering, we always try to shop around, however if we did a big shop we went to the nearest supermarket.

Have you even compared prices in the supermarket when going outside the country you live in?

What's In The House Health Care Bill?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:38:00 GMT

H.R. 3962, called the "Affordable Health Care for America Act," was passed by the House by a 220 to 215 vote on November 8, 2009. People with employer-provided health insurance should not see major changes. The legislation would create a federally regulated marketplace where some 30 million people who have no employer coverage can buy it on their own, some with the help of government subsidies.

Some provisions in this bill:

The majority of people with employer-provided health insurance would not see changes. The main beneficiaries would be some 30 million people who have no coverage at work or have to buy it on their own. The legislation would create a federally regulated marketplace where they could shop for coverage.

Creates a public health insurance option and a national exchange of private insurance plans for uninsured individuals and small businesses to purchase health insurance. The Secretary of Health and Human Services negotiates rates with doctors and hospitals to set reimbursement rates. This is in contrast to Medicare, which, by law, must receive the cheapest rates of any insurance plan.

Mandates that individuals must purchase health insurance and businesses must provide health insurance or pay a fine, 2.5% of gross income or 8% of payroll. Businesses with payrolls less than $500,000 are exempt. More Here...

Save Money On Your Heating Bill!

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:21:00 GMT

Here are somethings I have read about how to save money on the heating bill in winter. Do you use any of them or have any to add?

Minimize your use of ventilation fans such as bathroom fans and kitchen hood fans in winter. A bathroom fan can suck all the heated air out of the average house in little more than an hour. Over the course of the winter, ventilation fans can increase your heating costs by a surprising amount. Kitchen exhaust fan covers can keep air from leaking in when the exhaust fan is not in use. The covers typically attach via magnets for ease of replacement.

Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter

Wear warm layered clothing indoors during cold weather. If you live in a cold climate and can comfortably walk around in a tank top and shorts - you're wasting money!

Use rugs on bare floors.

Wear more clothes.

Sweats are warmer to wear than jeans. More Here...

SIGG Water Bottle Company is giving $50,000 away... in Returns.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:20:00 GMT

Aluminum bottles become popular when word got out that plastic bottles contained bisphenol-A (BPA), which was linked to hormone changes in the body. After claiming how much safer aluminum bottles were safer, the company SIGG found themselves in a predicament when they admitted earlier models well, contained BPA.

Ever since the news broke out, the company has launched a voluntary exchange program to exchange BPA bottles with a new bottles. As like anyone who has heard about it, customers are trying to get their hands on every safe bottle as they can. The company has a weird way of showing they're taking the exchange seriously by posting in the checkout page that they're investing $50,000 in consumers safety.

The plastic lining inside the bottle as lined with the BPA plastic, but now the SIGG bottles use an 'eco-friendly' liner for their products.