It has been a while since I wrote about a new way to make alternative income. I made $30 for about an hour of my time yesterday by participating in a focus group. I just had to give my opinion on new varieties of oatmeal to help the makers determine which product to develop. There are lots of different types of focus groups. Last year I participated in one that gauged our reaction to different advertisements by attorneys. Focus groups are pretty easy money but there aren’t a lot of them available to participate in. I’m signed up for a local company that has focus groups but you can’t participate in more than one every three months. The focus group I did last year I found on Craiglist. The site FindFocusGroups.com is supposed to help you find focus groups but I haven’t used it so I can’t vouch for it. You could also try the company I just did a focus group with but they only have locations in Dallas, Chicago, and Springfield, MO. If you know of any other legitimate focus group companies please share them in a comment.
February Expenses – $1548.52
Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.
|
Household |
$621.94 |
|
Entertainment |
$128.80 |
|
Transportation |
$322.21 |
|
Food |
$60.29 |
| Medical/Dental |
$57.44 |
|
Utilities |
$116.05 |
|
Travel |
$227.79 |
| Debt | $14 |
|
Total |
$1548.52 |
My expenses were higher than I like but not as bad as they seem. The $227.79 of travel expenses and over $100 of the transportation expense were incurred as a result of participating in the medical study in St. Louis. The travel expenses were for six nights of hotel rooms and the transportation expense was the cost of gas for getting to St. Louis and back. It would probably be more accurate to just deduct these expenses from my medical study income later this month but I’m just going to list them as expenses. My expenses will probably be just slightly less this month but I’m hoping I can get them back to the $1000 level in April.
Netflix – Cheap Home Entertainment for Movie Lovers
This is a repost from last year. I don’t have Netflix right now because our apartment includes free cable. When we move I plan to sign up for Netflix again.
As you can tell from the picture of some of my movie ticket stubs from the last few years I love movies. Netflix is the greatest value I have found in movie watching entertainment. Yes, I could get DVDs for free from the library or an occasional free DVD from Redbox but neither of them have anywhere near the selection of Netflix. Now that I have the ability to stream movies over the internet as well as receive DVDs in the mail my other movie-watching options do not compare. I will always watch a few movies in the theater but now that I have Netflix I have cut way back on going to the movies. I try to limit going to the theater to those movies that will most benefit from being shown on the big screen.
Netflix is also a great way to watch TV series. I’m just about to finish the second season of “Veronica Mars” which is now one of my all-time favorite movies. I like the series so much that I almost went to see “When in Rome” just because Kristen Bell is in it but the previews made it look too awful so I will wait for it to come out on DVD. (I did eventually watch it on DVD, not that great.) Now that I have unlimited movies available via mail and internet I can take a chance on movies I’m not sure about it. My plan comes out to $9.68 a month with tax which is about what I would spend in one trip to the movie theater. This makes Netflix a frugal entertainment option for me. As you can tell I’m a big fan of Netflix and have no reservations about including a couple of affiliate links for them in this post.
Save Money by Living in a Middle Apartment
We just got our electric bill for the month of February and I was pleased to see that it was only $61. Although February was pretty cold we rarely had to use our heat. We turned off our heat in the middle of February and our inside temperature has rarely been below 70 degrees even though there have been plenty of below freezing days. My guess is that we are getting a lot of free heat from the neighboring apartments.
We also benefit from fairly cheap electricity rates. This bill was based on usage of 728 kWh. According to the Department of Energy the average residential household used 920 kWh per month in 2008. We aren’t that much below the national average by kWh but I’d guess we are farther below by amount paid. I’m hoping we can get the energy usage down more this month.
Giving up Soda and TV for Lent
I’m not Catholic but I’m willing to use a religious practice for my own benefit. My wife and I are giving up TV for Lent. I am giving up soda as well. I don’t think giving up TV will be a problem at all since football season is over. There are current TV programs that I like but none of them are ones I can’t miss. I’m hoping that giving up TV will lead to an increase in productivity although past experiences would indicate otherwise. In the past when I didn’t watch TV I just spent more time surfing the internet and reading books. I’m instituting some others to be less lazy so maybe this time will be different.
Giving up soda will be more difficult. This is not something I have had much success with in the past. I did go without soda for six days last month without too much difficulty. My main substitute for soda is sweet tea. With all the sugar and caffeine in the tea I’m drinking there won’t be much benefit to it compared to drinking soda. I do get tired of drinking tea quicker though so that should eventually lead to less consumption of sugary beverages and more consumption of water. I’m hoping that giving up soda will lead to some weight loss and possibly better sleep.
Even if I don’t gain much from giving up these two items I still think this is a worthwhile endeavor. It is good to see if I can practice some self-discipline on occasion.