Who Said Nothing in Life is Free?

Through September 30, in addition to advertised OneBlood rewards, all blood donors within the state of Florida will receive a special offer from Crayola Experience Orlando – purchase one admission ticket and receive a 2nd admission FREE.

What you need to do:

1. Donate blood on a Big Red Bus® or at a OneBlood donor center in Florida
2. Receive a voucher for Crayola Experience Orlando
3. Go to the Crayola Experience and purchase one admission ticket. Present your voucher and you’ll receive a 2nd admission FREE

For more information or to make an appointment please visit oneblood.org/crayola or call 1.888.9.DONATE (1.888.936.6283).

I absolutely love Halloween and Oriental Trading makes it so easy to decorate my home.  With so many cool items in their Halloween Headquarters, you are sure to find something that fits your style.   Another thing I like to do is create Halloween décor of my own and  Oriental Trading has all kinds of crafts and activities to make the perfect project.

This year for my front entrance table (pic above), I chose 2 of their large Apothecary Jars and filled one with the skulls from their Bag of Skulls (IN – 13746398) and moss from the Dollar Tree.  I then found the perfect Happy Haunting sign (IN-13605330) on their site and lastly, the wreath I made myself using left over skulls from the bag of skulls I got for the apothecary jar.  ** You can see how I made the shelf liner skull wreath HERE.

For my wine rack, I choose their black birdcage (IN-13605330) and hot glued some burgundy ribbon and flowers onto the top of it and added a black crow from the Dollar Tree.  I also loved the spooky bird spindles (IN-13605285) and spray painted their white candle sticks (IN-13751867) with a sparkle black paint.  On top of the candle sticks I placed the Halloween Battery Operated LED Pillar Candles that I made a few years ago. And finally I made the “EEK” word blocks by cutting, sanding, and painting blocks of wood and then mod podging scrapbook paper onto them.

I just love how fun my house is this year !!!  Which is your favorite item ?

Managing one’s personal finances is often seen as a rare, almost mystical, skill. We are all prone to bemoaning our own inability to properly manage our own finances while praising the ability of our friends and family to hang on to their money.

The truth is that managing one’s own finances is much, much easier than many people realise. Not only is it something that is very easily achievable; it is something that has numerous benefits on a number of levels. So long as one makes efforts to keep things organized, tracks their day to day spending, and is prepared to make the necessary adjustments to their daily routine, then most saving occurs incidentally and without much of a conscious effort.

Budgeting

Budgeting is absolutely crucial for managing your finances effectively. Budgeting involves sitting down and working out exactly how much money you are expecting to bring in each month versus how much you will spend, and do all you can to ensure that you don’t end up increasing your overall debt.

The first step to budgeting properly is to take an inventory. Begin by establishing exactly what sources of income you have and where your outgoings are going. Do this on a day-to-day basis and then expand it to the weekly/monthly level.  On this basis, decide how much money you need to spend on essentials and then how you think you can best use the remaining money, remembering to set some aside as savings.

Putting your budget into action will be the real test of its strength. You will probably find that you need to make some adjustments, but remember that if you allow yourself too much flexibility you will ultimately end up harming your own goals and setting yourself back. Ensure that your budgets always prioritise the essentials. It’s important that you set aside some money to allow yourself to have some fun, but it is always most important to ensure that bills are paid on time.

If your budgeting reveals that you could benefit from a temporary tax cash injection then you might want to consider taking out a loan. A loan calculator such as https://www.118118money.com/money-guidance/financial-tools/loan-calculator/ can help you greatly with this process. A loan calculator is a tool that will help you establish how much money you can afford to borrow should you be considering taking out a loan to improve your finances. Of course, you should be certain beforehand that you can meet the terms of a loan and, while a loan calculator will help you with this process, it is always a good idea to consult with a financial professional.

Set Yourself Achievable Goals

This is an important part of any attempt at self-improvement. Failure makes us feel bad and success makes us feel good. It is no surprise then that by setting ourselves goals that we can actually achieve ends up having a much greater positive impact on our mood and general well-being. When we fail to achieve our goals, we become discouraged and this not only makes changing problematic behaviours worse; it also has the side effect of sometimes making us fall back harder on those bad habits.

When you’re working out your budget, for example, you should be looking to cut back on any expenses that aren’t entirely necessary. This doesn’t mean, however, that you should leave yourself with no money left to have fun with. This goal will be difficult to achieve and therefore there is a greater chance of you failing in your goal.

Stick to Your Budget

Once you have devised a budget plan you need to stick to it and this will be the key part of the process. Other than ensuring that your budget is one that is realistically achievable, you will require willpower in order to break previous bad habits. Some people find it helpful to set up some kind of reward system to reward their own good behaviour. One way of doing this is to set aside a little extra at the end of each month and add it to your personal spending money if you meet your budget goals for the rest of the month.

Successfully sticking to your budget won’t only have a positive effect on your finances; it will also help to reinforce the necessity and potential benefits of what you are doing. If you find yourself in need of some encouragement, remind yourself why you decided to start budgeting and keep focused on the things you will be able to afford before long if you start saving now.

Streamlining one’s personal finance is the first step towards financial responsibility. It is easy in today’s modern economy to become caught up in a vicious cycle of debt and managing one’s finances efficiently and effectively is the best way of avoiding this.

The digital rewards Swagbucks just hit a major milestone – they have given their members over $200 million in cash and free gift cards since 2008! I use Swagbucks all the time to get free gift cards doing stuff I already do online, like shopping, answering surveys, watching videos, discovering great deals, and searching the web. To demonstrate how big a number 200 million really is, here are some fun facts:

The digital rewards site Swagbucks is nearing $200,000,000 in cash and gift cards given back to it members. Since 2008, they’ve rewarded members for things we all do online, like shopping, watching videos, discovering deals, answering surveys, and searching the web.

$200,000,000 is a huge number, and to celebrate they’re holding a “Swago” promotion starting Monday, September 11th at 9am PDT!

Swago is just like bingo, but in this case you’re filling out squares as you earn points on their site for doing things you already do online. If you’re thinking of trying Swagbucks, this is a great chance to learn all about how the site works and earn bonus points while doing it. Here are a few tips:

Each square on your Swago Board will contain an action item to complete. They can be anything from getting a search win, completing a survey, or just visiting one of our popular stores!

Once you complete the action item in a particular square the square will change color signifying the action item is complete.

You have until 12pm PT/3pm ET on Tuesday, September 19th to mark off as many squares as possible so use your time wisely.

Be mindful of the patterns and their corresponding bonuses located on the right of your Swago Board. The patterns will vary in difficulty and bonus value. Once you’ve achieved a pattern, the corresponding “Submit” button will light up. You can have multiple patterns available for submission, however, you can only submit ONE pattern so choose wisely.

Each activity you successfully complete on your Swago Board will give you anywhere from 1-20 spins on the Spin & Win Wheel. PLUS, when you submit your board for a bonus you’ll get additional spins. The number of spins will depend on the pattern you complete. The wheel has all sorts of great prizes that you can win, and each spin is a winner!

The Spin & Win Wheel will not be available to use until 9AM PT/12PM ET on Tuesday, September 19th and will end at 9AM PT/12PM ET on Thursday, September 21st.

Fill up your board and then submit your pattern to get even more points – if you can fill in the whole board, you get a 500 SB bonus! That’s enough for a $5 gift card in their Rewards Store to the retailer of your choice.

Click here right now and click “Join” to get started! If you don’t already have a Swagbucks account, you’ll be able to quickly sign up; PLUS, if 300 SB before the first of next month, you’ll get a bonus 300 SB!

For any economy, smooth financial transactions are of extreme importance. Financial institutes are constantly coming up with new and innovative ways to make the transaction mechanism swift and smooth. Thereby, the European Union has introduced a major breakthrough in terms of payments by debuting Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

Today, financial institutes are still trying to implement changes in the online payments space. However, the procedural changes have already been implemented in terms of Direct Debit and Credit Transfers.

SEPA – A Major Payment Breakthrough

In Europe, SEPA is considered as a major development paving way for a strong economy. Since the time of its introduction it is altering and improving the stature of the industry. Considering the popularity of the system, SEPA is being rapidly implemented within banks and businesses.

Today, businesses can make use of SEPA through payment solutions like AccessPay to ensure streamlined transfers across the European Union. The transformation has helped Europe implement a standard payment mechanism offering greater flexibility, convenience and security. The payment solution that Access Pay provides is ideal for businesses who wanted to operate across the EU and be ahead of their counterparts.

SEPA – Enabling Businesses to Make Cashless Payments

The Euro is used by European businesses across the region to make cash payments. However, the purpose of introducing SEPA is to enable local businesses to make cashless payments within Europe. This will allow them to govern cashless monetary payments through a single account without worrying about the local laws and regulations based on the location’s geography. Thus, as long as a country is within Europe the payment can be swiftly processed through SEPA.

SEPA is not just a revolutionary concept for the payment industry, but will also change the payment patterns of businesses and individuals. Through SEPA, payments can be made across Europe using euros. This will help the EU deploy a single and effective financial payment mechanism within the continent. Along with convenience, SEPA will help bolster the local economy and strengthen the net worth of euro.

Benefits of SEPA

The rapid propagation of SEPA has led to the evolution of business payments in Europe. This has resulted in multiple benefits for the local European populace.

Here’s how SEPA has made it easier for businesses in Europe:

• Single System across Europe: European businesses can now leverage from a single system that can be used for both local bank transfers and cross-border transfers.
• Reduced Cost: The payment related costs will go down substantially eliminating the need of banking fees. Further, it will make the complex banking procedures simpler and will offer transparency in pricing. The cost associated with dealing with errors will go down substantially. Further, an efficient system will result in considerably low IT expenses and operational costs.
• Direct Debit Facility: With SEPA businesses can make transactions within Europe by direct debit. This essentially means that one account will be charged within a country and the business/individual can receive the service in another country. Businesses at large will leverage from an efficient direct debit mechanism. This will lead to enhanced security while managing sales within Europe. The chances of being scammed will go down considerably with SEPA.
• Secure and Faster Payments: It will make it easier for businesses to make payments in Europe. The overall process will become safer, cheaper and faster. Moreover, the pricing is extremely transparent as a standard payment mechanism will be followed. The security of the transaction processing data will improve considerably.
• Business Development: The scope for businesses in Europe will improve considerably. Business will now be able to cater to a broader audience without the fear of being scammed.

The European Union has always focussed on coming up with new and unique ways to strengthen the economy. Today, businesses want to opt for a secure cashless payment mechanism, which can now be done with the help of SEPA. The implementation will lead to the transformation of the payment fraternity offering greater security and flexibility. As the concept is in its infancy stage, businesses that adopt it now will leverage in the future. Moreover, it is also believed that further advancements will soon surface in terms of laws, regulations, terms and conditions once it is rapidly used across the board.