How To Find a Great Apartment Rental and Get Cash Back

By MoneyBlueBook

Review Of Rent.com and Ways To Make Money While Finding An Apartment

I've been renting for quite a long long while and have learned a thing or two about apartment hunting. Because of the bursting real estate bubble, I'm going to be continuing my long lasting rental streak for the foreseeable future. Renting is not so bad. You get to live somewhere different every few years and you don't need to worry about upkeep or maintenance because the landlord takes care of everything. For college or graduate students, it's usually the only option, aside from moving back home. Unless you want mommy and daddy to rule over your comings and goings though, I would highly recommend striking it out on your own. Of course, if financial independence is an issue, living with your parents will allow you to better conserve your financial resources until you can stand on your own two feet.

Get $100 For Using Rent.Com To Find Your Apartment

I always try to maximize my money and take advantage of money saving and money making opportunities whenever possible. On the subject of searching for an apartment rental, Rent.com offers a unique deal not offered by most other apartment search sites. This eBay owned company will hand you a cool $100 in the form of a pre-paid Visa debit card if you register with them and find an apartment to rent through their online listing. Their listing is quite comprehensive but only includes sites that have agreed to participate in their program. They have a

By MoneyBlueBook

Sorry folks, but due to some pressing and personal events that clammered for my attention, I was not able to post for the last few days - and it happened on a weekday too (most people do their blog reading on weekdays). Sometimes you want life events to be stable and everything to go according to plan, but then something occurs out of the ordinary, requiring you to shift course momentarily. But it's okay - these things happen and we just have to be prepared and deal with them as they come.

Blogging Is Hard Work But Rewarding

When I first started out this blogging adventure, I was inspired by those who wanted to make money by blogging. I planned to treat it like a true part time job, and dedicate sufficient time to keep it running smoothly by posting new entries everyday. Some online writers post every few days, but I was determined to make it a daily goal.

Blogging has truly been a labor of love since I've come to discover that writing on a regular basis can be quite time consuming with little immediate financial rewards. It's true what those in the industry say - to run a successful blog site, you have to be truly passionate about the subject matter you write about. If you are not truly inspired or have a genuine desire to explore the subject matter to its full potential, it will be very difficult to sustain your efforts long term. Thankfully, lack of passion or interest has not been

By MoneyBlueBook

The subject of whether having children is a financially smart decision is a sensitive one that touches many brainy issues, including the meaning and purpose of life. Frequently this discussion is moot since not all births were carefully planned and many were simply unexpected accidents. I'm sure parents have secretly pondered this question before but were afraid to speak too loudly on the subject. No one wants to doubt their decision to have children and everyone instinctively wants to convey the impression that children have brought them nothing but pure joy and lifetime fulfillment.

Since I am not yet married and don't have children of my own, perhaps I can comment on the issue from the perspective of someone who has not chucked the dice and thrown himself into this path of eternity, so to speak.

Having Children Is Extremely Expensive and Will Deprive You Of Some Of Life's Financial Enjoyments

Raising a life from scratch into full adulthood is a lengthy and expensive journey. No one can deny that it requires a substantial and personal willingness to sacrifice one's own personal wants for the betterment of another. Medical and educational costs bear the greatest financial brunt and some parents frequently have to work multiple jobs to provide financially.

I know couples who made the conscientious decision not to have children, but sometimes I wonder if they are happier as a result. I have an uncle and aunt who decided a long time that they were not going to have children. They never caved to family pressure and didn't

By MoneyBlueBook

I'm a frequent credit card user. In fact, I carry only enough cash on my person for emergencies at all times. I charge everything and over the years I must have signed tens of thousands of credit card receipts whenever I made purchases in person. The thing I've noticed is that nobody ever checks the signature nowadays. Is there a point in this modern day and age to require signatures on credit card receipts anymore?

Credit Cards Should Use PIN Numbers - Signatures Offer Little Security

Requiring customers to sign every receipt is supposed to make them feel safer and in control. With more and more people buying things online though, signatures are losing the identity assurances that they might have once offered. Most online retailers require customers to enter in their 3 digit verification code (CVV/CVC) found on the back of their credit cards for security purposes. I think requiring some type of PIN number would be more effective than signatures since signatures can be so easily overlooked and forged.

I don't even sign my full signature anymore. I've done everything from scribbling randomly on the signature line, to drawing a smiley face, to asking my friend to sign my name instead - all while under the watchful gaze of the sales clerk, who frankly could care less if I signed it personally or not.

For the sake of speed and convenience, many credit card companies don't even require signatures anymore for small purchases or at certain places such as fast food restaurants. Although seemingly counter-intuitive, merchants

By MoneyBlueBook

I've written about trying to find ways to make free or cheap international phone calls to landlines in the past. There are numerous voice over IP services that allow users to make free PC to PC calls, but it's hard to find cheap and affordable ways to dial international landlines. After much searching, I think I've found an interesting lead. The service is called InternetCalls. It's not 100% free but it's very affordable, that is, if the terms stay the way they currently are. The site looks promising but I don't want to get my hopes up just yet. By the way, I'm not getting anything for plugging them.

Its Marketing Touts Its Free Features, But It's Not Really 100% Free

Like many of these voice over IP services, the company attempts to advertise and promote itself as a free internet phone provider. It does offer a 1 hour calling trial period (that times out every few minutes), but after that you'll have to pay a small periodic fee to continue using their service. The free calling plan is currently limited to only a select group of countries.

In order to make free phone calls you'll need to top off your account by making a small monetary deposit which can be done via payment methods like PayPal and credit cards. The credit deposit remains unused so long as you make your calls to free destinations. Each credit addition is 10 Euros, which is about $15 and needs to be replenished every 4 months. Essentially

By MoneyBlueBook

Ah water...the lifeblood of the planet, covering more than 70 percent of Earth. It falls from the sky for free and trickles out of the tap at a simple twist of the knob - yet many of us choose to pay for it in bottled form, myself included.

Bottle water isn't cheap either. It frequently costs the same if not more than other drinks. Whoever came up with the idea of packaging and marketing something that could be obtained for free is an absolute genius. It's not like the bottle water contents been fortified with nutrition or vitamins either. Many brands of water are simply that - plain old water. The source of the water is frequently the same as that available through the tap.

Quality-Wise, Bottled Water Is Not Necessarily Better Than Free Tap Water

The bottled water you buy at your grocery store usually comes from mountain aquifers or underground wells. However, unless you examine the labels carefully, many simply contain purified water, which is essentially plain old tap water that has been treated further. However, there is a misconception that bottled water is better because it's gone thorough extra filtration steps. That is not necessarily the case. There are currently no uniform standards governing the filtration of commercially sold bottled water. In fact, public municipal and city water treatment plants frequently have much more rigorous treatment procedures and quality assurance standards than that required by commercial brands.

Why Drink Bottled Water Then? For Convenience!

But there's no denying that the greatest benefit of drinking bottled water