Incandescent Bulbs Being Phased Out

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I was surprised to read yesterday that incandescent bulbs are being phased out in the United States.  I was aware that they were being phased out in other countries but somehow missed the news that they were being phased out here.  Under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 signed into law by President Bush most incandescent bulbs will be phased out between 2012 and 2014.  This will leave CFLs as the main lighting option.  The goal of the legislation is to increase energy efficiency.

I like CFLs but I still only have a couple in my apartment.  This is mainly because the apartment I live in supplies most of the bulbs and they aren’t CFLs.  I just use CFLs in a couple of lamps.  When incandescent bulbs are no longer available the conversion to CFLs could be expensive for some people although they will eventually save money in the form of lower electric bills.  Even though I think everyone should use CFLs I’m not sure if I agree with giving people no other choice.  What do you think?

Online Income Report – December 2010

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Here is a breakdown of my online income for December 2010.

Google Adsense – $195.56

Affiliate Income – $1095

Brokered Ads – $49.88

Direct Ads – $171.36

Total – $1511.80

My online income was once again over $1000 in December.  This was by far my best year for making money online.  I came close to grossing five figures.  My goal for this year is to make a five figure profit.  It looks like I will have a pretty good start this month although I haven’t made much affiliate income for next month.  On the plus side I have picked up a couple more monthly text links which should help smooth out my income a tiny bit.

December Income – $1816.86

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Here is a breakdown of my income for December.

Online Income

$1511.80

Interest

$11.73

Stock Dividends

$111.94

Mystery Shops

$150

Bank Bonuses

$10

Survey/Cashback

$21.39

Total

$1816.86

It was a pretty good month for income.  My online income reached a new high.  If I could make that consistently I wouldn’t need to worry about a day job.  Since none of the income for the month was from a day job you might say I’m not worrying about the day job now.  My online income won’t be as high this month but it should still be over $1000 which I consider pretty good.

This month I’ll make more money from mystery shopping plus have job income.  Stock dividends will be down due to their quarterly nature.  There shouldn’t be any other big differences in my income.  My combination of alternative and passive income is working well and I plan to add to it this year.

Saving Money in Tough Times

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The following is a guest post from my wife, Carrie, who is launching her own blog titled Online Advice Columns. Her blog is also part of my niche site experiment and I’ll update you later on how that is progressing. To help promote her blog you can get an additional entry to my book and $5 Amazon gift card giveaway by leaving a comment on the latest post at Online Advice Columns. It would also be nice if you leave a comment here but it won’t count as an entry to the book giveaway.

What does the year 2011 have in store for American Families? If you were to ask that question many people would say, “Tougher Times”.

As many families live paycheck to paycheck trying to figure out what bill can wait until the next time, or how they are going to feed their family on what little money they have left and how they can afford to put gas in the car.

Saving money is hard for all types of families, and with the way prices of gas, food and taxes are rising I see it becoming even tougher. So what and how can we as Americans do to help ourselves save money and provide a better life for our kids?

My husband and I are simple people. We do not live above our means, and we don’t just go out and buy things because everyone else has it.

We save money by watching what we buy, looking at store sales and cutting coupons, and not buying everything. People shop everyday for things they don’t HAVE to have. Spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on things that in a few years they will throw away or put in a garage sale.

If you watch store sales, or even go to websites of the grocery stores they offer great deals and sometimes you can even print their coupon off and save even more. Also, don’t buy name brands all the time. Off brands are sometimes just as good, and I am just as careful about brand names as my coupons, because there are some off brands that are just the same as name brands and the name brands will have a coupon so you are saving more.

Driving is becoming more and more of a huge expense than we all know it. In another year, we could be seeing gas prices as high as 5.00 per gallon! When I stop and think about that, it is awful.

This is one area where I believe we can help each other. Carpooling is one way to help save on gas. Take turns riding to work with coworkers and split the gas cost. You can do this with taking children to school as well. If you live in an area where you have to drive your children to school, find a neighbor that is going to the same school and take turns driving the kids. Another idea is plan your driving trips each week. Don’t do extra driving and stay home more.

If you stay home more you are saving money, and you are spending quality time with your family,which is something else that more and more families need to do. Almost everyone can save at least 50.00-100.00 a month if they really try and put the effort into it and stick to a plan.

Times are getting to the point that we are going to end up with more and more homeless people, kids without food and clothing, and businesses shutting down because people can’t afford to drive. We need to stop and think before we drive, go to the store, or purchase that bigger TV, and ask ourselves “Do I really need to do this?”