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My current employer offers Educational Assistance to employees, up to a certain spending limit per calendar year. The great thing about this program is that they pay for tuition UP FRONT with letters of credit. My previous employer had an educational assistance program also, but that program used a tuition reimbursement stategy; meaning that the employee had to put up all of the necessary funds for classes and then wait until the end of the course(s) to be reimbursed. What if you didn’t have the funds before the class start time? In that case, too bad! No educational assistance for you.

Due to the presence of this lucrative up-front educational assistance employee benefit, I decided to enroll in the University of Phoenix online campus. Because why wouldn’t I? If your company offers a program such as this and you are not taking advantage of it then you are “leaving money on the table” as the old saying goes. I’m not saying that the University of Phoenix is the best route to take. In fact, I’m going to have to dedicate an entirely new post to my impressions and experience so far with the University of Phoenix (hint: not good).

ASU (Arizona State University) now has their own completely online degree programs. I am currently researching one of their degrees and I may just decide to give their online program a try in the near future.

I also know a few people that highly criticize the value of a degree and make negative remarks about a college education. These people tend to say that your work experience and knowledge is all that counts and that “any idiot” can get a degree. Well guess what? Your educational program is what you make of it. If you truly have a desire to put forth the effort, learn and better yourself, than a degree program might just be for you. Even if you have no interest in obtaining a degree, you can still use your employers tuition assistance program to take college classes that interest you! I have taken many courses at community college that were not part of any degree program. I took these courses to expand my knowledge and to continue learning, without any concern for what “degree” they might fit into.

Does your company offer educational assistance, in advance or in arrears (reimbursement)? If so, are you taking advantage of it? If you are not, you are missing out on a learning experience and practically losing money!

So what did I walk away with after the Black Friday sale madness? Here are a few of the deals that I was able to jump on.
Panasonic TH-42PX60U 42″ plasma HDTV, $999.99 from Bestbuy
Quest Mountain Bicycle, $39.88 from Wal-mart (no picture online)
4 fold-up quad chairs, $3.99 each from Sports Authority (like this)

So what did I miss out on? Bestbuy also had a Toshiba laptop going for $250 out the door and a Panasonic mini-DV camcorder for $129. I was unable to snatch up these deals due to the ensuing madness and massive amount of shoppers. Did you score any hot deals on Black Friday? If so, let us know by replying below!

Black Friday is alleged to be the busiest shopping day of the year. What and when is Black Friday? Black Friday occurs immediately after Thanksgiving day. On this day, stores will offer discounts, deals and doorbuster sales that cannot be found at any other time of the year. To get the most out of Black Friday, read this reference guide, which contains links to many valuable Black Friday resources.

Black Friday Buying guide: http://dealspl.us/Black-Friday
Free After Rebate items: http://www.dealigg.com/bffree.php
Black Friday Deals guide: http://tinyurl.com/ylgsas
Consumer Reports offers Holiday shopping tips: http://tinyurl.com/yz6ehg
Black Friday free items (no purchase required): http://tinyurl.com/y9k7qh
Black Friday tips and tricks: http://tinyurl.com/wgz9t

And here are some other really good “hot deals” discussion websites:
http://Slickdeals.net
http://Fatwallet.com

If you have your own tips, tricks or online resources related to Black Friday shopping, we would love to hear them. Post a comment below with your info!

I recently attended a local festival in town promoting local businesses in the Phoenix area. The event featured many different vendors, each with a tent-like setup. Free food, drinks, music, merchandise, massages, and other services were offered at the event. Here is how I won valuable raffle prizes.

While browsing the event area, I noticed that they had a raffle contest running. The raffle entry cost was $1 per ticket, which entered you into multiple drawings throughout the day with the chance to win a variety of prizes. Personally, I am not a big fan of raffle contests, but in this case, I evaluated the contest and determined that it would be extremely easy to win some prizes. There were multiple

drawings occurring throughout the day and the prizes were of good value. Many of the prizes that were to be awarded throughout the raffle were valued at $50 or greater. I decided to enter the raffle, purchasing 20 tickets. Total cost to me was $20.

Over the next few days, I was notified that I had won the following prizes:
A $50 Gift Certificate to L’Amore Ristorante Italiano - an upscale Italian Restaurant
A T-shirt from a local musical group
Success! My $20 paid off. So how do you know when to enter a raffle or not?

1. Evaluate the prizes. If the raffle contest has crappy or low-value prizes, don’t bother entering.
2. Evaluate the entry fee. A cost of $1 per raffle ticket is a great deal for a raffle offering $50 prizes. In a case like this, buy lots of tickets!
3. Evaluate the competition. If you can see how many people have already entered, you can gauge the likelihood that you will win and determine your odds. At the event I described above, there were not too many tickets in the purchased-ticket raffle bucket. Due to this, I decided to purchase 20 tickets! All of the other people there were only purchasing one ticket.
4. Find out how many drawings there will be. A raffle with multiple drawings throughout the day increases your likelihood of winning! Get in early and you have more chances to win.

I hope this guide will help you determine whether or not to enter a raffle contest the next time the opportunity is upon you! Have fun, good luck and happy raffleing!

Arizona Proposition 201 has been passed by Arizona voters.
What does this mean? It means that there will be no more smoking in Arizona bars, restaurants or any other public areas.

As a non-smoker myself, I supported Prop 201 and I find its’ success to be tremendously good news. Cigarette smoke pollution is the main reason that I do not go out to some bars or clubs in the area. Inhalation of second hand smoke is extremely unhealthy. Some studies have even found that second hand smoke causes more damage than first hand smoke! But the damage doesn’t stop once you leave the bar. Returning home after a night on the town will oft result in clothes and hair drenched with a strong stench of cigarette smoke. Quite a repulsive stench.

Here are the official results, scraped from the Maricopa County Recorders’ office.
The “fake” smoking ban (prop 206) did not pass.

PROPOSITION 201
100% (1142 of 1142) precincts reporting
Vote for 1 EV VOTES TOTAL VOTES
NP - YES 19084 337786
NP - NO 15028 287194

PROPOSITION 206
100% (1142 of 1142) precincts reporting
Vote for 1 EV VOTES TOTAL VOTES
NP - YES 14319 265918
NP - NO 19526 354612