Republicans probably shouldn’t watch the first two. Just for laughs.
Originally posted on September 17, 2008 @ 8:36 am
11 Easy Ways to Save Money at Work
We go to work to make money but quite often we spend a lot of that hard earned money while we are working! We pay for transport, parking, lunches an more. In this post I am going to show you the best ways to save money at work.
1. Ride a bike
Riding a bike to work is one of the best ways to save money, keep fit and look good. If your office is under 30 minutes away from your home riding to and from work will save you a lot of money over the years. Gas prices are getting higher and higher but you must also consider the costs of health care that you might avoid by keeping fit.
2. Catch the bus
If you don’t want to ride to work the next best option is to catch the bus. This is a better option for a lot of people as it keeps you out of the weather and saves a bit of time. Again, catching the bus will save you money as well as having many other benefits such as helping to reduce green house gas emissions.
3. Get your car serviced and wheels aligned
If you really don’t want to ride or catch the bus it is important to keep your car well maintained. Having your wheels well aligned is particularly important. Poorly aligned wheels create a lot of resistance and make your car a lot less fuel efficient.
4. Fill up on fuel ahead of time
If you wait until your car is nearly empty to fill up you run the risk of paying more for petrol. Whatever the oil companies might say there are cheap days and expensive days. In Australia the petrol price goes up 10 to 15 cents on Wednesday morning for no good reason. If you leave it until then to fill up you are spending more than you need to. Watch your petrol stations price activity for a few weeks and ear mark the days that are more affordable.
5. Buy a yearly parking pass
If you pay for parking everyday you are losing a lot of cash. Almost every parking station in the world offer annual memberships which discount your parking by a massive percentage. If your closest car park doesn’t offer an annual fee service don’t be afraid to ask for one. You will be surprised how often you can strike a deal.
6. Ask a nearby building for a car park deal
Nearby office blocks with their own internal car parking are a sneaky way to save some parking dollars. Quite often these car parks are underutilized and the owners will jump at the opportunity to take a years worth of parking money from you. I know several people in my fathers office who have struck a deal with the building next door and are saving hundreds of dollars a year.
7. Experiment with different routes
The shortest route in terms of distance is not always the fastest. Traffic jams, long lasting red lights, multitudes of pedestrians, etc. can all slow a route down. Experiment with different routes because a long one might save you a lot of time and petrol.
8. Pack your lunch
I know a lot of people who are against packing their lunch and taking it to work because they are afraid of looking like a school kid. I can understand this but there are a few ways around it.
One way is to tell people you are on a doctor ordered health diet in an attempt to get your cholesterol down. Or you might be trying to lose some weight. For some reason these reasons seem more acceptable than telling people you need to save a bit of money.
Packing your lunch doesn’t have to be a sandwich in a lunch box. You can bring in some gourmet vegetable soup in a thermos or the leftovers of last night’s vegetable curry. A lot of this home cooked stuff is better than the local eateries anyway.
9. Make your lunch at work
Recently Mrs. Daily Minder has started making her lunch at work. She heads down to the local market and buys a bunch of fresh produce. Some days she has a tuna and chili salad and other days a salad and chicken wrap. And she has saved a lot of money. This method takes a lot of discipline though. If you are anything like me you will just end up eating at the restaurant next to the market!
10. Don’t buy coffee
I used to buy one of two coffees per day. A coffee costs about $3 so two coffees will set you back $6 per day. That is $2190 per year. Think of what you can do with $2190. Upgrade your car, pay for some medical bills, put away some savings, etc. Why not make your coffee instead of buying them? Over time you will get pretty good at it and it will save you a few dollars a year.
11. Explore your tax options
There are a quite a few work related expenses that you can get back at tax time. For example, you might be able to get back a certain amount for clothes washing, petrol expense, mobile phone bills, etc. Make sure you find a couple income tax calculators handy or even better, talk to your accountant about this when June comes along.
Anyone got any more tips?
Originally posted on September 17, 2008 @ 5:06 am
What Questions Would You Ask Sarah Palin?
Last night my best buddy and I stayed up until 2am watching different videos about Sarah Palin. I guess we were trying to find some answers to this whole saga – perhaps it is a joke after all!
Sadly, we didn’t find any answers.
Sarah Palin is not a big Republican office prank.
She is potentially the next Vice President of the most powerful country to have ever existed.
Are you sure its not a joke? I still can’t quite believe it.
I saw this video of Matt Damon talking about Sarah Palin. He is quite scared about it all. And to be honest, so am I. There is a supposed 1 in 3 chance that Mccain will die in his first term and Sarah will be President of the United States. Wow!
Matt has some pretty interesting questions that he’d like to ask Sarah Palin so it got me thinking about what I would ask her if I got the chance.
So let’s open up the floor for the weekend: what questions would you ask Sarah Palin if you had the chance knowing that there is a possibility that she could be the next President of the US of A?
Originally posted on September 13, 2008 @ 2:40 am
9 Tight Computer Hacks to Save You an Hour a Day
I use a computer to make my living. Many people do. Over the years I have found some pretty cool tips and tricks that make me a lot faster on the old PC or Mac. In this post I’ll show you how to save an hour a day by utilizing some tight computer hacks that will speed up the way you do things.
Note – These are simple hacks that anyone can use regardless of their level of computer knowledge.
Why use these hacks?
The purpose of giving you these time savings computer hacks is two fold:
i. To help you accomplish more work
Obviously, if you are faster at using the computer you will be able to get more work done. This could mean more money or perhaps even a promotion depending on how effective you are able to become.
ii. To give you more time for you
What is more important is that you will have more time for you. This means hobbies, family, meditation or whatever it is you need to accomplish but aren’t due to having too much work.
9 tight computer hacks to save you an hour a day
1. Use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer
Mozilla Firefox has revolutionized internet browsing – if you aren’t already using it you are way behind. Forget the default Internet Explorer; Firefox is safer, more efficient and much more intuitive.
There are a myriad of reasons as to why Firefox is better than the old IE. Here are just a few of them:
- Its safer:
Firefox does a much better job at blocking spyware from jumping on to your computer through your browser window. - Block pop ups:
Know those little pop ups that come along every time you visit a cheap site? Firefox, for the most part, kills these bad boys before they arise. - Remembers passwords:
And not in the way IE “does” it. It really remembers them. Very handy. - Extensions:
The major advantage of Firefox is all the wonderful plugins and extensions that you can use. These extensions are written by coders for specific reasons and often save you a lot of time. For example, I have an extension that allows me to edit a websites coding and see the changes in real time. Great for a web designer! Have a look at some of the extensions here. - Very intuitive:
Firefox seems natural. That was one of the first things that struck me about it. It is easy to use and feels like “home” in no time at all.
Download firefox from the link above and give it a test run. You can keep both IE and FF on your computer at the same time so if you don’t like it just uninstall it – no dramas.
2. Use the tab button
Instead of using the mouse to move the cursor to the next online box use the tab button.
For example, when you write your username and password details to access your email you can press tab to move down from the username bar to the password bar. This is a very basic tip that will save you a lot of time over the span of the day.
You can use this for more than use email boxes as well. The tab button will help you when filling out online forms, signing up for new accounts or entering in your internet banking information.
3. Learn all the hotkeys
A hotkey is a keyboard version of performing a task that you would normally do with a mouse. It is a shortcut. For example, if you are writing a document in Microsoft Word and you want to save it you can just press CTRL and ‘S’ instead of taking you hand off of the keyboard and on to the mouse and going File and then Save.
Both PCs and Macs have hundreds of different hot keys. Not only that, each program you use has a different set. Photoshop has a different set to Microsoft Word, Excel has a different set to Flash and so on. At first it might seem daunting to learn all of these hot keys. Its a lot to memorize. But the result is well worth it, you computer use speed will increase and increase.
So how do you learn these hot keys? Well the easiest way is to look in all the menus on your computer. For example, if you go to Microsoft Word and then run your mouse over the File, Edit, View, etc. menus you will see that next to each command there is a keyboard equivalent. Try to remember the common ones like save, copy, paste, etc. and gradually learn a few more everyday.
There is a great list of hotkey shortcuts here.
4. Use a free feed reader to read your favorite blogs and sites
Do you spend the first hour of your day visiting all you favorite websites and blogs to see if they have updated? If you do you are wasting time. A lot of time.
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it is a super efficient way to read all of your favorite sites. Why? You don’t actually have to visit the site to read the updates.
RSS (or feed) works like this. Sign up for a free feed reader such as Bloglines or Google Reader and simply use the ‘Add Sites’ button to add all of your most loved websites. The feed reader will then check periodically whether or not those sites have updated and inform you when they do. You can then read that update in the feed reader window without ever having to visit the site.
This is a fantastic way to stay up to date. Imagine how much time you will save not having to go to 10 or 15 different websites everyday. And what’s more is you can use this technology on forums threads, blogs, facebook, etc. To find out more about how to read The Daily Mind in a feed reader check this out. [Read more…] about 9 Tight Computer Hacks to Save You an Hour a Day
Originally posted on September 9, 2008 @ 11:18 am
Lessons From India 5: Appreciating the Kindness of Others
photo credit: greenapplegrenade
These days people are so quick to point out the flaws in others but very hesitant to recognize their kindesses. You notice this happening a lot in the workplace. People take credit for other people’s work, blame others for their own mistakes and so on. However, in India I discovered an interesting thing – all of us would be f#$*ed without the kindness of others.
How are others kind to us?
If we take the time to look closely we will see that people are kind to us all the time and often in ways that we don’t even notice.
There are the easy ones to recognize, like our family. Our parents love us unconditionally and take care of us through thick and thin. Even if we had really crappy parents we can still appreciate the kindness of our dear mother who gave birth to us, fed us and protected us from harm in the early years.
Then we have our friends and distant relatives. These are the people you go to when you are sad or need a few bucks for lunch. It is easy to see how these people are kind to us. They put our needs ahead of their own and take care of us and entertain us when we are bored.
However, there is one group of people I am particularly interested in. This group is the kindest we know but we never recognize this kindess. In fact, quite often we hate these people.
They are our enemies.
How are our enemies kind to us?
If you look closely you will see that our enemies are the kindest people in our lives. The reason is simple. Without our enemies we would have no opportunity to practice patience and develop other similar qualities.
This is a basic buddhist mind training strategy. Instead of getting angry at our enemies we should treat them like our own personal teachers for without them we would not be able to practice and develop patience.
This is a very different approach to the traditional western view.
I wonder how you all will react to this strange idea. What do you think?
Originally posted on August 10, 2008 @ 11:59 am
Lessons From India 4: The Importance of a Smile
This is part four in my Lessons From India series. As you all know, I have been travelling the Indian Himalayas for the past three weeks and during this time I have been planning and writing a series based on all the things I am learning. My aim in doing this is to bring you all along with me on my trip – you can learn what I learn and experience what I experience.
The importance of a smile
His Holiness the Dalai Lama often says that he thinks he would be a lonely old man if he didn’t smile so much. He thinks this simple physical act has brought him closer to people from all walks of life.
And he is right.
On my travels in India I am often amazed at how powerful a simple smile can be. You can be down in the dumps feeling sick and tired and then someone will flash you a smile and your whole day can be transformed.
Let me tell you a story.
Two years ago in India I got extremely sick. I had a bad case of food poisoning and over a period of a week lost seven kilograms. I was really ill. I was in Sarnath and I ate at a small cafe called Ice Spice. Never again.
Anyway, I was lucky enough to be staying next to a Tibetan Buddhist monastery and during the first few days of sickness I was looked after by all my monk friends. One monk in particular (who is now one of my closest friends) stayed with me all night patting my forehead and making me sugar and salt drinks to get me hydrated.
And the whole time he was smiling.
When I look back on this experience I realize how much his warm and loving smile meant at the time. It reassured me that everything was going to be okay and that I wasn’t alone. At that point in time (when I thought I was going to die!) that sense of affection meant more than anything in the world. I was being taken care of.
And that is the power of a simple smile.
A smile can can also transform not only other people’s day but also your own. Scientific studies have shown that smiling causes your body to release chemicals that make you happier. What better way to make yourself a happier person than by smiling at others. This also shows that you don’t have to wait to feel happy to start smiling, if you smile first you will cause yourself to feel better.
Now for another story.
A friend of mine from England told me that on the London subway no one looks at each other. No one smiles, greets the person next to them or even makes eye contact. It is an environment of pure fear. Everyone just sits there looking down or out the window like a bunch of anti-social zombies.
Sounds horrible.
I really feel that a smile can change all of that. A genuine smile puts a person at ease and shows them you are a friendly person and that you have good intentions. It can disarm even the most angry of situations if done correctly.
So the question is: do you smile enough?
Originally posted on August 5, 2008 @ 5:41 am
