Archive for October, 2007

Ways to Cut your Health Insurance Costs

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: October 19, 2007 (10:24 am)

It seems like health insurance costs keeps increasing every year. Health insurance for college students and new graduates is important even if you think you can survive without it.

piggy1.jpg

Saving Money on Health Insurance

When comparing health insurance policies, please remember to check the coverage offered, not just the premiums. You don’t want to be uncovered for a major illness because you have a horrible policy.

Buy the best health insurance you can afford. It can be a huge benefit if you get ill or are in an accident.

Tips on Cutting Your Health Care Expenses

  • Don’t be a smoker: This habit can cut your life short and it has been linked to other health problems. This in turn leads to higher costs.
  • Exercise regularly: Try being active 3x a week for at least 20 minutes. You may also want to consider participating in an amateur sports league to get yourself committed to a routine.
  • Watch what you eat: Obesity can increase your chances of diabetes, heart disease, and joint problems.
  • Get a hobby: Hobbies can reduce the stress that you feel. That in turn can help your mental health and enrich your life.
  • Go for generic drugs when possible: Some drugs are available in generic form at less than half the cost.
  • Do routine exams: It’s better to catch something early than to wait until it develops into something worse.
  • Try health clinics: If you’re pinching pennies, this could be a good option. With my health insurance, I pay $30 a month for birth control pills. By going to the university health clinic, I pay $40 for 3 months’ supply. I save $240/year just by doing that.

Please talk to your doctor before you go on a diet or change medications. It’s amazing how much health insurances charge even if you’re in good health.

Try to maintain a healthy lifestyle and it’ll reap dividends beyond money saved.

Photo credit: NessieNoodle

Quick and Easy Dinners: Pizza

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: October 16, 2007 (9:48 am)

Pizza is delicious dinner that can be as easy or as complicated as you like. I personally love a NY style pepperoni pizza, but there are many others that I enjoy.

I don’t have a recipe for pizza, as I don’t make it from scratch (pizza kit at Wal-Mart: $5). I did find this recipe at Food Network and thought I’d share it. For the first two installments of Quick and Easy Dinners, check out my ‘Best of’ Page.

pizza.jpg

Photo Credit: Sashertootie

Roman Pizza

Recipe from: Giada De Laurentiis

2 (8-ounce) pieces of purchased or homemade pizza dough, recipe follows
1/3 cup homemade or purchased marinara sauce
1/3 cup (lightly packed) shredded smoked mozzarella cheese
1 cup (lightly packed) shredded Fontina cheese
2 ounces mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 ounces pancetta, chopped

Position 1 oven rack in the center and the second rack on the bottom of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F.
Roll out each piece of pizza dough into a 13 1/2 by 8 1/2-inch rectangle. Transfer to separate large baking sheets.
Spoon the marinara sauce over the pizzas, dividing equally and leaving a 1-inch border around each pizza. Sprinkle the mozzarella and Fontina cheeses over the pizzas, dividing equally. Sprinkle the mushrooms and pancetta over the cheese. Bake the pizzas until the crusts are crisp and brown on the bottom and the cheese is melted on top, about 15 minutes. Cut the pizzas crosswise into rectangular slices and serve immediately.

Pizza Dough:
1/2 cup warm water (105 to 110 degrees F)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for bowl

Mix the warm water and yeast in a small bowl to blend. Let stand until the yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes. Mix the flour and salt in a food processor to blend. Blend in the oil. With the machine running, add the yeast mixture and blend just until the dough forms. Turn the dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer the dough to a large oiled bowl and turn the dough to coat with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm draft-free area until the dough doubles in volume, about 1 hour. Punch the down dough and form into ball. The dough can be used immediately or stored airtight in the refrigerator for 1 day.

Yield: 1 (16-ounce) ball of pizza dough
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Inactive PrepTime: 1 hour

Check out Giada’s show on FoodNetwork.

Does anyone make their pizza from scratch? Please let me know.

Blog Action Day Part II

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: October 15, 2007 (3:24 pm)

action_468x60.jpg

What can I do? The answer I noticed that is common is that you have to try to adjust your lifestyle and consume fewer resources. It is also important for you to encourage others to do the same. Recycling, carpooling, composting, reduce your garbage output, and switching to more green products in your home are just a few ways you can help out. I found two resources that can help out.

Treehugger has numerous guides on how to ‘green’ your life up. It includes varied from recycling, water electricity, pet care, weddings, and much more.

Make Me Sustainable has made it easy too with instructional information on people and businesses can become sustainable.

What do you think is the biggest cause of depletion to our resources?

  • Overpopulation
  • Epidemic of obesity
  • Agricultural practices
  • Technological/ Industrial development

Here’s a mini-roundup of blogs who participated in Blog Action Day.

Blog Action Day

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: October 15, 2007 (10:21 am)

 action_468x60.jpg 

Today is Blog Action Dayand Green Panda Treehouse is participating in it. Blog around the world are participating by speaking about a single topic: the environment. This topic is still related to personal finance and life. After all, what’s the point of saving some money if the overall quality of life for everyone has degraded?

The topic I decided to blog about today is resource depletion and conservation. I’m going to break it up into 2 parts for today.

What resources are being depleted? Here’s a list of some resources that the global community needs to survive.

  • Fresh Water: This is a huge global issue as this resource is not evenly distributed. Human life is dependent on fresh water.
  • Coal, Natural Gas, and Oil: A few countries carry a large amount of energy resources. There is a huge discrepancy in how developed countries consume these with developing countries.
  • Soil: While soil is renewable the time it takes to completely replenish itself can make it non renewable in a human timescale. Some agricultural practices deplete it faster and can cause soil to be un-farmable.

farmland.jpg

Photo Credit: t3rmin4t0r

How much of an impact am I making as an individual and as part of a household? There are some calculators that track your carbon emissions, electricity, trash, etc. The coolest one I found was at The Nature Conservancy. It breaks down your footprint based on home, car, food, and waste.

Next post for today will include some tips and sites with information on we can do as individuals to be more efficient with our resources.

»crosslinked«

Green Panda Treehouse Challenge Results

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: October 12, 2007 (4:31 pm)

 Well, Friday is here and I feel good. The week’s challenge is over for now.

 I admit I did eat out this week when I forgot to pack my lunch. I still put all 5 days down anyways because it’s for a good cause. I estimated that I saved $20 by eating in for lunch. That $20 will go towards Money Management 101: Future Philanthropists in Training. I liked this teacher’s idea in particular and I feel it is money well spent. This program will help these students with personal finance and learn the value of being generous.

It’s not really much money, but I wanted to give something to a good cause.  I want to thank HC and Flexo for making me (and so many others) aware of this program. Thank you to everyone who donated time, money, and energey for this program. I’m glad so many decided to join this cause.

Next Monday is Blog Action Day, so expect a slightly different topic: the environment.

thank-you.jpg

Green Panda Treehouse

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: October 12, 2007 (9:00 am)

doctors.jpg

Photo Credit: salimfadhley  

This weekend, I’ll be moving the site to a new host. It might get bumpy, but it should be done by Sunday night. I just wanted to give a heads up before I start. My goal after switching hosts is to redesign the site and make it more useful and less cluttered. For instance, I want to change the blogroll to rotate with 7 blog links at a time. I’ve met several interesting bloggers, but hestitate to put the links up because it’ll look too cluttered.If you have any suggestions, please leave them here. I would really like your input on this project.

Business Week Reports: Fight Credit Card Pushers

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: October 11, 2007 (12:14 pm)

BusinessWeek is continuing its coverage of college students and the credit card companies hoping to get more customers on its rolls. Jessica Silver-Greenburg did a fantastic job with this series as it tries to be balanced and neither present students as victims nor completely at fault for the heavy pushing on them.  Here’s the snippet I found interesting:

Activists groups are adopting the credit card industry’s own practices to try to stop students from drowning in debt. Instead of credit card applications, these marketers are handing out information booklets outlining credit traps and unfair practices that can victimize students. Instead of Frisbees and T-shirts, these marketers are passing out lollipops that read, “Don’t be a sucker.” Led by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the counter-credit card marketers set up tables on 34 campuses across the country. It was a guerrilla marketing campaign, funded by the Ford Foundation and organized by U.S. PIRG, to reform the way that credit card companies market to college students. 

I hope you read the rest of the article. Leave a comment on what you think.

Small Claims Court: Basic Information

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: October 10, 2007 (1:13 pm)

 

justice.jpg

Today’s article puts some personal in personal finance. That’s the point, right? The car situation has escalated. After much deliberation we decided to go ahead and file a small claims lawsuit.

It’s been such a headache with having one car (we couldn’t share as we work in different cities with overlaying schedules) and repairing the car was expensive. I’m grateful we’re back to two cars.

Do you want to know what bothers me the most? This could have been fixed for under $150 if the mechanic fixed it right away. Let’s just say our costs are far more than that amount.

I wanted to help those who may be in a similar situation and decided to answer some questions about small claims court. I would hate to see people overpay for information that they could get with some phone calls and research.

Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer. I highly suggested you contact your local legal resources.

What is small claims court?

Small claims court is usually for cases involving claims of less than $5,000. A benefit of small claims court is that you do not need a lawyer as it is simplified to expedite cases.

What can I do in small claims?

There are two type of warrants in small claims. The first is Warrant in Debt which is when the plaintiff (the one suing) is trying to get money from the defendant such as when you are seeking to be reimbursed for repairs due to negligence on the defendant’s part. The second is Warrant in Detinue to recovery your property from another person.

How much does it cost to file a small claim?

Fees vary, so please contact your local court to find out.

How should I start the filing?

Make sure that you are filing a small claims lawsuit to the right person. If you’re suing a business, make sure you see what the correct address is and the name of the registered agent. Some resources to use are:

  • City License Bureau
  • State Corporation Commission

If you send it to the wrong person, the case can be dismissed. Call the clerk’s office ahead to make sure you have the right information for the small claims lawsuit.

How should I prepare?

You should have all your necessary paperwork organized for the case. The basic idea is that you have to present why you should win your suit. Try to make it clear and logical. Don’t get caught up in the emotions. Remember that you can bring witnesses, pictures, receipts, records, etc. with you in court. It’s best to get this done before the court date. What you and the defendant present to the judge is what they will rule on in the case, so prepare well.

vwkey.jpg

I hope this helps some people out. Please get information from your local court clerks office to get the proper information for you and your case. If you’ve had to go through the process, please leave a comment.

Photo Credit: Nygtowl

This blog uses the cross-linker plugin developed by Jan Hvizdak, owner of Aqua-Fish.Net