Ever been running low on money?

Those of you familiar with the Old Testament have probably read the story of the widow's oil from 2 Kings 4.

Recently I became aware of a movie that really brings it to life. If you'd like to see it, check out Widow and Oil from Crown Financial Ministries.

Thank you to one of the blogs I read for posting this.

I'm looking forward to seeing that. For the record, God provides!

I just saved ~$250 a year and it's not an insurance company!

For Christmas, I received an iPod Docking Station from Jensen that will replace my current full size stereo system. I really don't "rock the house" like I used to with my music but I still gotta have it.

So, I got to looking. My stereo was using 120V and 2.3A. Multiply that out and you see it was using 276 Watts.

The Jensen uses 10A and 0.7A. Multiply that out and it comes to 7 Watts! Do the math. I didn't believe it either.

Now, since this stays on ALL DAY EVERY DAY you can see that I'll save 269Watts. 24 Hours a day, 30 days a month.

So.... that's .269 KWHs per hour...right? so, 24 hours is 6.456 KWH saved. At $0.11 per hour, that's $0.71 per day OR $21.30 per month.

Since the unit only cost me $70, I'll break even in less than 4 months and will start saving $250 per year.

Is this right? Where did my math go wrong?

Morning News - Thought of the day

In today's Morning News the thought of the day is:
"Christmas is the season when you buy next year's gifts with this year's money"

I have definitely been there before. I now realize how crazy I have been. How sad. I can only hope they meant that to be funny. However, I don't believe it was. We've planned ahead this year and unless I go overboard on Terri's gift (which I will be seeking in a few minutes), we'll actually pay for it all in 2007.

In one of the sermons Andy Stanley preaches, he asks people to name the best piece of financial advice they've ever received. Here's his:

There are two kinds of people: those who pay interest and those who make interest. Which one do you want to be?

Pretty good advice in my book.

btw, I feel a little guilty talking about our finances here but I want to help others believe that they can work their way out of debt also. It took us 12 short years!

Air Force turns to Solar Power

Just read about the solar-electric plant at the Air Force's Nellis Base. The plant, which just went online this week, is the largest single photovoltaic plant in the U.S., beating out Google's by a hefty margin.

The plant uses traditional silicon PV cells and provides enough power to juice about a quarter of the Air Force base. Really, while 14 MW is still a pretty insignficant amount of energy for them, it would run my house. :-)

The project is financed by MMA Renewable Ventures and the panels and installation work was done by SunPower.

Solar-electric projects like this are more expensive per kilowatt than solar-thermal plants. However, they are more efficient and take up less space. And it's possible that photovoltaics, if mass produced, could eventually become cheaper than solar thermal.

And the only way to drive the price down is to provide incentives to produce them. I want to make this a reality for my house but can't find the right answers. Project is on hold for now, for sure.

portions of this post taken from ecogeek.org

Flexible Spending Account Ideas

It’s the last week of December. ACS offers a Flexible Spending Account (FSA). It's one of those "use it or lose it" accounts. If you have any money left in your account, do you know what you're going to spend it on?

Last year (2006), I took a look at the list of eligible FSA expenses to try to spend my $400 that I had left. I'm assuming some of you have this same issue this year. ( I chose not to participate this year).

I thought I'd share this list with you that I found on another blog. There were 4 major categories.

Procedures

First and foremost, consider getting a general medical check-up or eye exam or dental check-up. All the out of pocket expenses related to these are generally covered and if you haven’t done it this year there’s certainly no reason not to. So, when you get a dental cleaning and you pay the co-pay, that’s covered. This should be idea #1 when finalizing your over-funded FSA

Nice To Have Items

These are expensive items that don’t have a daily purpose but might be nice to have around the house such as a blood pressure monitor, ear infection monitor, and other personal test kits. Some items that aren’t explicitly listed under an OTC item are heating pads and ACE bandages, but I’ve claimed them before and they had been reimbursed.

This category of items I’d look into last after stocking up on stock-up-able items.

Stock-up-able Items

This category is exactly what it sounds like, all those OTC drugs you can stock up and use for the next year. These are your pain killers, allergy medicines (antihistamines), decongestants, anti-arthritics, antacids/acid-reducers, band-aids and bandages, contact lens solutions, ear and eye car products, eye drops, hearing aid batteries, lactaid/lactose intolerance, motion sickness pills, throat pain medications, etc.

This list can go on and on with tons of products you use and is always my first bucket. The warning I have is that you shouldn’t ever buy more than a year’s worth of any one product because you’re likely going to go through the exercise against at the end of next year. It was a mistake for me to stock up on 20 bottles of contact lens solutions before I thought about it because now I have enough solution for far too long (don’t worry, I checked the expiration date and I’m safe).

If you’re looking for ideas, drugstore.com has an FSA store that may help you figure out some ideas.

I Doubt it..

After I got home from Church, I read this post. Ironic, today, the lesson in our Sunday School was about Doubt!

I’m convinced if I stood at Magnolia Mall handing out $100 bills that there would be some people who would walk right past me. They wouldn’t believe me if I told them that it was FREE. They would doubt.

Check out these references in the Bible that I found interesting.

Abraham – Genesis 17:17 - When God told Abraham he would be a father in his old age, Abraham fell to the ground, laughing.
Sarah – Genesis 18:12 - Sarah laughed to herself and thought sarcastic thoughts
Moses – Exodus 3:10-15 - Moses questions whether he’s the right one and then even begins to ask God “what if”
Israelites – Exodus 16:1-3 – Israelites are upset about being brought out into the desert to die.
Gideon – Judges 6:14-23 – Gideon wants a sign.
Zechariah Luke 1:18 – Zecharian doubts and God makes him speechless.
Thomas - John 20:24-25

Why do we do this? ARGHHH! I'm as guilty as the next.

Finally Debt-Free

In 1995, Terri and I made a decision. It was within the first year of our marriage. We wanted Terri to stay home with our kids (when we had them). We were over $25,000 in credit card debt, if I remember correctly. In 2001, we were still in debt and were still worrying about making ends meet. But our first child shows up and Terri left her job. Well, 12 years after the decision to be debt-free and 6 years after our first child, we are debt free with the exception of our house.

I don't tell you that to boast. I simply want to tell you that you MUST make it a priority if you want it. It won't happen automatically and it won't happen if you don't think about it consciously.

Thank you God for giving me the strength to make a living. Now.. on to paying off the mortgage. I want to pay my mortgage off before this guy!

Corn for Fuel?

Ok... does anyone else use the E-85 Flex Fuel? Terri paid $2.37/gallon this morning instead of the $289 that everyone else is paying. However, here's my question. If you use it, does you car smell like corn oil when you crank it? Ours does!

So why do we use it? I could say:

1. Because it is environmentally friendly.
2. Gasoline enriched with ethanol performs in much the same way that regular gasoline does. It’s been in use for decades, with trillions of miles logged on vehicles all over the world. Plus ethanol-enriched gasoline actually surpasses regular gasoline in key performance categories!
3. Gasoline enriched with ethanol contains more oxygen — so it burns cleaner, leaving fewer deposits and keeping fuel injectors and intake valves cleaner.
4. Ethanol-enriched fuel can reduce pre-ignition problems (knocking/pinging).
5. Tests have concluded that ethanol does not increase corrosion, nor will it harm any seals or valves.
6. Ethanol-enriched gasoline meets all applicable vapor-pressure standards — to alleviate driving or starting problems in hot or cold weather.
7. Ethanol-enriched gasoline can tolerate water contamination to a far greater degree than gasoline alone — it absorbs moisture and helps prevent gasoline freeze-up in cold weather.


I could say those things.. but the truth is: It's Cheaper and 40 cents per gallon adds up!

Whew...that was a weekend.

Friday Night - ACS Technologies - I.T. Christmas Party
Saturday Night - Ebenezer Baptist Church Sunday School Christmas Party
Sunday Morning - Church
Sunday Afternoon - Ebnenezer Baptist Church Sunday School Christmas Party for the kids.
Sunday Afternoon - Ebnenezer Baptist Church Budget Meeting
Sunday Afternoon - Handbell practice.


In the middle of all that, putting up icicle lights for the kids... that's right. We're trying to reach Griswald status. Ok.. not really.

Turn 1 dollar into 26 dollars...

I listened to this guy and opened my $1 savings account tonight. I'll let you know if I get my $25. :-)

Here's what he said:

E-Trade is offering $25 for any NEW customer who opens one of their new "Complete Savings Accounts"

The link to follow is HERE!

Here's the great part. You apparently only have to open the account with $1!

So I opened an account with $1. I have to leave the money in the account for 30 days and then the $30 is mine.

Golden Compass anyone?

With The Golden Compass set to hit theaters this weekend, there’s much chatter online this week about the controversial children’s fantasy series and its alleged anti-religion themes. Philip Pullman, the author, has made no few controversial statements of his own, ranging from criticisms of CS Lewis to a declaration that his books are “about killing God.” In the aftermath of the Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code controversies, how should we approach this film and the book series on which it’s based?

Read the rest of the article here.

Hanging of the Greens

Last night at church, we held the annual Hanging of the Greens ceremony.

What is that you ask?
The observance of the Hanging of the Greens is an old English custom of decorating one's home with evergreens and other festive items for Advent and Christmas.

For EBC, we allowed our K-6th graders to participate in a really awesome night also. There were over 120 kid's names listed in the program guide. There were probably 15-20 teachers and leaders involved also. I won't try to list all the help but I can tell you that we ended up helping people find a seat in an otherwise ABSOLUTELY PACKED HOUSE!

I'm thankful that Justin had the youth over at the youth house and the Senior Adults and Widows were holding their annual Christmas Dinner.

Ebenezer, Your kids packed the place out. Throw another 90 youth in there and we got ourselves some responsibility! We need to look out for them! We need to give them some priority. We need to step up now and create room so that we can continue to do our part in growing God's kingdom in West Florence.