Buy Pet Food In Bulk Online To Save Money

By MoneyBlueBook

As I mentioned in an earlier entry posted a few months ago about myself, I own an African Grey Parrot as a pet. I've had him for several years now and although I wish he were better trained with more docile tendencies, he's still a pretty adorable little guy. When he's not hanging from his bird gym or busy grinding his wooden chew toys into grated wood chips, he enjoys whistling and mimicking speech.

He's also a voracious eater, consuming and tossing around quiet a few scoopfuls of his favorite brand of nutritious Kaytee brand pellets everyday. Every 1-2 months I used to buy a new bag of somewhat pricey bird food to replace his dwindling supply, but lately I've chosen to do a different approach. Rather than buying smaller bags of food from Petsmart or Petco each time and paying a higher cost per serving unit, I've decided to go for bulk and order online.

Finding Deals and Purchasing Pet Food Online

Initially I considered buying bulk bird pellet sacks from my neighborhood pet stores but after browsing around I noticed that their selections were pretty limited as most mainstream brick and mortar stores catered to more popular animal breeds such as cats and dogs. Even dedicated bird stores seemed to not have in stock the bulk pallets that I wanted. Thankfully, there is much more one can find on the internet as the online selection is much more broad. After doing some price comparison shopping among the popular online pet stores, I finally settled

By MoneyBlueBook

Note: If you wish to understand more about the the 2008 Economic Stimulus Package, please read my entry regarding the tax stimulus rebate payments. I have also updated the subject with an entry discussing the possibilities of a 2009 economic stimulus check as well.

In response to the dramatic drag on the economy caused by the developing housing crisis and mortgage meltdown, the federal government has finally stopped dragging its knuckles on the ground and sprung to action - proposing to send taxpayers rebate checks in an effort to jump start the economy. Under the current bipartisan proposal, most taxpayers would be eligible, with $600 checks going towards individuals who pay taxes, $1,200 going towards working couples with an additional $300 for each children, and even $300 going towards anyone who earned a paycheck even if they made too little to pay income taxes. Many details in the package have yet to be hammered out including the business stimulus portion that provides additional tax breaks for businesses that purchase capital equipment as well as the housing assistance portion that helps riskier borrowers, who have been shut out of the tanking subprime mortgage market, qualify for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans.

The current tentative proposal still needs to be be rammed through the House of Representatives, the Senate, and ultimately approved by the President to be made official, but so far the likelihood of it happening looks very promising. There is great congressional and presidential pressure to speed this through the system and

By MoneyBlueBook

Back in the day, when you wanted to listen to music, you either had to listen to the song off the radio, or you had to visit your nearby record store to buy the artist's compact disc. Each CD usually went for $12-18 depending on the album's popularity and you had to store your music CD collection in a plastic shelf case. As your CD collection grew you usually had to buy more cumbersome storage. Because the CD surface was itself easy scratched, you always had to take great care when handling the discs to minimize damage.

Everything all changed during my last few years of high school when the internet arrived to the scene. At first it was only seen as a novelty and used by a handful of people, but gradually the mainstream began to adopt it, recognizing its information potential. The technology started out slow, bumbling along at 56k modem speed on the average home computer. Faster broadband technology was out of the question at the time due to the prohibitive cost. But when I entered college and became introduced to T-1 broadband technology, I knew the age of file sharing had arrived. By then music sharing had become full blown as every campus student had ready access to super fast download technology at their fingertips from on-campus computer labs to broadband enabled dorm room connections.

What Is Online Music File Sharing and How Did It Start?

Napster was the first and biggest free centralized peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing program during my early college

By MoneyBlueBook

I have this policy for myself where I refuse to pay someone for a service I can easily perform myself with reasonable effort. For example, if I lived in a house with a front and backyard lawn, rather than pay someone to handle the landscaping, I'd rather mow the grass and trim the hedges on my own, so long as the time and effort spent aren't too prohibitive.

Online and Software Tax Preparation Programs Make It Easy To Do Your Own Taxes

When it comes to taxes, I've traditionally done my own tax preparation work. Ever since I started working and generating income, I've always filed my own tax return. Initially before I gained a better understanding of tax matters, performing my own tax accounting work was difficult. But then along came extremely useful online and software tax preparation programs like Intuit's TurboTax and H&R Block's TaxCut. With the assistance of software based tax preparation programs, I was able to easily complete my own taxes with comparative ease. The advantages of using tax preparation programs are obvious - you simply compile all of your tax papers and respond to the series of tax related questions proposed to you by the program of your choice. The software asks you a whole slew of questions to determine what category you fall under and what type of tax deductions you qualify for. For those that have easy tax returns, I recommend using TurboTax or TaxCut to not only help you save money but to help you

By MoneyBlueBook

Well it's mid January and unless you live near the equator or in a southern hemisphere region where seasons are flipped upside down like say, Australia, then it should be getting very cold just about now. Although come to think of it, this year's temperatures have been strangely and unseasonably warm. Global warming in action perhaps? Well mother nature must have finally heard the call because my area just got dumped today with the season's first significant snowfall. Temperatures are projected to plunge into the 20's this weekend. Brrrrr!

If you plan on staying indoors, it's likely the freezing drop will follow you inside. To combat the frigid winter temperatures, there are four ways to deal with the situation:

If You Can't Upgrade The Insulation, Beat The Cost By Putting On A Sweater and Using A Space Heater

Unless you are extremely well off and money is not an issue, most ordinary folks are concerned with the rising cost of home heating bills. With surging oil and gasoline prices, the cost of heating houses and apartments has become more expensive than in years past. It's in our own

By MoneyBlueBook

I've had numerous financial milestones in my life, but one still seems to stand out in my relatively young working life. From the time I eventually emerged from under my parent's financial wing to finally working and fending for myself, I still remember when I finally saved and banked that first $10,000. Everything else accumulated after that just seems to pale in significance to that first ten grand.

Crossing the $10,000 Milestone Signified the Mature Transition From Paycheck Living To A Forward Looking, Savings Oriented Lifestyle

During college, I was financially spoiled and completely under my parent's financial protection. Whenever I was low on funds I simply received a parental handout. But as time passed, the funds began to dwindle as my parents started to reinforce the importance of keeping spending habits in check. At the time, my spoiled mentality prevented me from realizing that my parent's growing refusal to give in to all my financial demands was due to their desire to teach me the importance of frugal living. At the time, I was childishly bitter when my handout demands were rejected. Looking back though, I now feel very lucky and grateful to have had parents who had the love and care to teach me important life lessons I would need in the future, as well as the financial means to help partially subsidize my education.

When I graduated and started working for the first time I began to face the harsh financial realities of the real world. My first legal job was a low paying