Overseas business expansions

I was reading that the Golivemobile is expanding their overseas operations in the upcoming months.  I’m sure that those countries will be thrilled to have Golivemobile over there.  For the most part, it is a technology company, which doesn’t usually have a large negative impact on the environment.  So for those countries that is a good thing because so many other American companies do a lot of polluting.  And I’m sure that the jobs that will be going over there will be high paying jobs by their country’s standards.  Low by American standards, but that is the whole point of sending jobs overseas, isn’t it?

Budget helpers

In this day and age of belt-tightening, my wife was telling me that she has found several ways to stretch our dollars and make ends meet.  First of all, she told me that she has been using Angel Food Ministries, which is a non-profit organization that allows the consumer to purchase good food at a really great price.  They don’t require any information about income at all; they don’t care if you are rich or poor.  You can order the food online at their website angelfoodministries.com and pay for it online too.

Another budget stretcher is using the Yahoo Freecycle websites.  There are usually local yahoo freecycle groups that helps match up people looking to get or give away free stuff.  And on that note, Craigslist does the same thing.  We’ve received really great things from all three of these places -check them out when you get the chance!

Banking choices

The banking industry is certainly growing!  And it appears to be growing at our expense.  I went to open a savings account the other day and the bank told me that I had to maintain a certain minimum balance on my savings or they would charge me a monthly maintenance fee!  On my SAVINGS?  I don’t think so!  A few days ago a good friend of mine told me that he had received a check from a customer of his and he deposited it and wrote checks against it.  Well, you guessed it!  That check bounced, so his checks bounced and he is being slapped with NSF fees all over the place!  I can remember once depositing a check in my account from a relative and it bounced, and I got charged a return check fee myself!  I think that should be illegal, for the banks to charge the innocent customer a fee for that!

More and more I’ve been thinking that prepaid debit cards just might be the direction to go.  They are becoming easier to get, easier to use, and if you arrange for direct deposit from your pension or paycheck, many times you can get the cards without any monthly fees.  And now some of them can even be set up with online billpay!  That is a great convenience to have – online billpay makes keeping track of finances a lot easier!