Leukaemia Research And Argos Celebrate 500,000 Pounds Milestone, UK
31 Mar 2008
Leukaemia Research is celebrating having raised £500,000 in record time, thanks to the support of Argos employees and customers. Just seven months into the year-long charity partnership, Argos have raised enough funds to support a special cytogenetic database, which will record symptoms and treatments of different types of blood cancer to make future treatment more effective.
Argos staff across the leading multi-channel retailer’s 670-plus UK stores have taken part in a variety of fundraising events, ranging from ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ themed events to the charity’s Bananaman Chase 10k run in Milton Keynes.
Argos customers have also been fantastic supporters of Leukaemia Research with collections taking place during the retailer’s catalogue launch in January 2008 raising a record-breaking £30,000.
The ‘Tick to Give’ option on Argos order forms, offering customers the opportunity to donate 20p to Leukaemia Research whilst ordering products, has raised £54,000. Bananaman superhero charms, available in stores from February 2008, have already raised over £10,000.
In the five remaining months of the partnership, Argos staff are planning more fundraising initiatives. Senior Argos managers and their teams are competing against one another in the ‘Directors’ Challenge’, to fundraise as much as possible, starting with £100 and ‘investing’ it in activities that can generate more money.
Kate White, Director of Fundraising for Leukaemia Research said: “Saving and Improving Lives Together, our campaign with Argos, helps 2,650 people diagnosed with leukaemia each year; we are committed to giving every one of them the best chance of survival. We’d like to say a huge thankyou to Argos employees and customers for helping Leukaemia Research hit half a million; it will make a real difference to people’s lives.”
Lorna Liggett, Community Affairs Manager at Argos, said: “The ‘Saving and Improving Lives Together’ campaign has surpassed all our expectations – staff and customers have really got behind the partnership activity and we’re happy to have achieved so much for such a wonderful charity. With five months of fundraising to go we hope to help many more patients and families in need.”
Notes
Photos and Interviews – photos of the celebration are available and local and regional fundraisers for Leukaemia Research are available for interview.
About the partnership
Argos announced Leukaemia Research as its new charity of the year after winning a staff vote in March 2007, with the official launch taking place 28 July. The partnership is running under the campaign theme of ‘Saving and Improving Lives Together’ and has so far raised over £500,000 to support a special cytogenetic database which will help Leukaemia Research record symptoms and treatments of different types of blood cancer to help spot patterns and make future treatment more effective.
About Leukaemia Research
Leukaemia Research is the only national charity devoted exclusively to improving treatments, finding cures and learning how to prevent leukaemia, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other lymphomas, myeloma and the other related blood disorders, diagnosed in 24,500 people in the UK every year. Further information, including patient information booklets, is available from http://www.lrf.org.uk or call 020 7405 0101.
Over the next five years, Leukemia Research urgently needs to raise over £100 million to commit to new research across the UK. From basic laboratory research to clinical trials with patients, Leukaemia Research is committed to saving lives by funding high quality, carefully selected research throughout the UK.
About Argos
Argos is a unique retailer recognised for choice, value and convenience. It sells general merchandise and products for the home from over 700 stores throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland, online and over the telephone. In the last financial year, Argos sales grew 8% to £4.2 billion and it employed some 34,000 people across the business.
Argos serves over 130 million customers a year through its stores and takes four million customer orders either online or over the phone. On average, 17 million UK households, or around two thirds of the population, have an Argos catalogue at home at any time.
Argos expects to add around 30 stores per annum with the chain expected to exceed 800 over time. Its Internet site, http://www.argos.co.uk, is the second most visited retail site in the UK.
Argos is part of Home Retail Group, the UK’s leading home and general merchandise retailer.
(Locke Mills) — NEWS CENTER It may be the first day of spring but ’spring skiing’ hasn’t even started thanks to record snow conditions at most of Maine’s ski resorts.
Those conditions has led to record ticket sales at Mt. Abram Ski Resort. Officials are reporting a 12 percent increase over last year. They say a large amount of snow fall — which began in December has brought in repeat visitors and more skiers from out of state.
‘A lot of families may would only ski once a year are sking six, seven or eight times a year. We’re seeing a big uptake in the number of beginner lessons,’ said Josh Burns.
The trails at mt. abram will be open until the first weekend of april.
Conserve energy and you can save money and help to make our environment healthier. Take advantage of the new ecoENERGY Efficiency Initiative to reduce energy use in buildings and houses, industry, personal vehicles and fleets. Homeowners and owners of small and medium-sized organizations can also apply for financial assistance from ecoENERGY Retrofit, as well as other grants and financial incentives.
New Accounting Office Introduces New Approach to Tax Savings
Edited by Carly Zander
Mon, 24 Mar 2008, 12:39:09 GMT
Lisa Johnson, CPA Shows Business Owners How to Save Thousands in Taxes
DAPHNE, Ala., March 24 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Daphne CPA, Lisa Johnson has opened a new office in the Summit Office Complex (located at 29000 U.S. Hwy 98, Bldg C, Suite 102). Lisa helps business owners save thousands of dollars every year in taxes by providing proactive tax planning services. Her clients get a plain-English plan for beating the IRS – legally.
“I have a very different approach to saving money. I’m not a tax preparer. The tax return is a product of my planning,” said Lisa Johnson. “My clients not only save money through tax planning, they also get a better handle on their businesses accounting. After all, we need a clean financial to plan to save on taxes. And business owners who have accurate financials also have the right tools to make financial decisions and grow their business.”
“Now is the time to plan and save,” says Johnson. “While it’s true that I help make sure clients take advantage of every deduction and tax saving opportunity available on their 2007 returns, I can potentially save them thousands more by planning throughout the year so that they save more on their 2008 returns.”
“Once a year tax planning is about to become a thing of the past. Just like Cinderella’s carriage, at midnight on 12/31 each year, many opportunities to save turn into a pumpkin. That’s because they require some action to be taken and documented before the end of the year. Through my planning services, I recommend specific strategies and concepts for saving tax. I give clients what they really want, a no nonsense approach to outline what to do and how to do it.”
There are a few reasons for that, one being I can’t save money and two being the sensational smell of fast food seems to have a strong handle on my bank balance.
My friends and I have a habit of eating out, whether it is at Mcdicks, Subway or New York Fries. When I make my tasty purchase I think, “What is $5 really going to do?” Then the monthly bank statement comes and it states that I have spent nearly all my money on food, and I have 25 cents left in my account.
So I make some money and put it back in my account. Then the vicious circle of my food cravings kicks in and I slowly nickel and dime my way back to fewer and fewer dollars or even cents.
Saving money is clearly not a strong point for me. Working just doesn’t seem rewarding if I can’t spend my money. That is the bad part about getting your first job. Every time you ask for money your parents say, “Use your money, you have a job.”
If I had asked for money before I had a job I would have most likely been given money for the movies. Once I quit my first job, my parents were always on my case for me to get my next job. Once I had my first job it seemed as if I was going to have to work for the rest of my life.
So I quit and decided not to get a new job and just bum money off my parents for as long as possible, which has led to less than $3 in my bank account. Once I had less than $5 in my bank account I decided it was time to get a babysitting gig or mow the lawn a few times. The problem with that is that since I have not had money in such a long time, as soon as I get it, it becomes obvious I could use a new pair of shoes and before I know it I am right back were I started.
Then when I don’t ask my parents for money and use mine, they are telling me to save my money. Well, the only way I can save my money is if my parents give me some so I don’t have to spend mine!
I honestly envy the kids who work often and barely spend a dime; I haven’t the slightest idea how they manage to ignore all the temptations that lead me to bankruptcy.
One of the few times I have managed to save my money was last summer when I was going to Toronto. I saved about $600 for shopping. Normally when I am shopping I don’t have a problem spending a lot of money, but when I had worked at saving the money, I found myself much more hesitant to spend it. Which makes me think, why would I save if I don’t want to spend it in the long run?
I know saving my money would be beneficial, especially when I start driving and have to pay for gas. I might run into some problems when I move out and go to university with $5 in my bank account.
Until then I will most likely not save more than the few dollars that I find in the couch and will have to cut back my spending when I am responsible for paying bills. For now I expect to keep up my bad financial habits.
Olivia Dalton is 15 and a student at Mount Douglas High School.
Metro Detroiters fight rising food prices by getting creative
BY SUSAN SELASKY • FREE PRESS TEST KITCHEN DIRECTOR • March 19, 2008
Worried about falling housing values, rising gas prices and a looming recession?Don’t look to food for comfort.
Economists are forecasting a 4% increase in overall food costs this year. Consider this from the Consumer Price Index: flour, milk and eggs are each up at least 24% for the year that ended in February. And a 2-litter bottle of pop? It costs 14% more.
What now, especially for families on tight budgets?
Make every grocery trip count by clipping coupons. Yes, even in the Internet age, there are people who swear by the practice that was all the rage in the 1980s.
Naysayers see coupons as a waste because of the time it takes to clip them, the tendency for shoppers to use them to buy items they don’t need, and the lack of coupons for products they use the most.
Fair enough, but there are billions of reasons to reconsider.
Manufacturers issued 276 billion coupons in 2006, the most in a decade. Even considering low redemption rates — about 1% — the coupons shoppers did use added up to about $2.6 billion in discounts, according to NCH Marketing Services. NCH Marketing is a division of Valassis Communications in Livonia, the company that makes coupon inserts for Sunday newspapers, including the Detroit Free Press.
“I just don’t understand why people don’t use them,” says Elizabeth Rogers of Harper Woods, an avid coupon clipper. “You need cleaning items, toilet paper and you need other items that you know you’re going to buy, so why not save on them?”
Clipping coupons helps Rogers, who homeschools her sons Ryan, 18, Austin, 13, and Jaylan, 10.
Lisa Painter of Dearborn Heights, a part-time Kroger cashier and mother of three, is passionate about the savings that coupons bring to her family.
“If you had an opportunity to cut your electric bill every month you’d do it,” she says. “It’s the same thing with the grocery bill.”
A hefty 90% of coupons offered are in the Sunday paper, according to NCH. But in recent years, sites have been cropping up on the Internet with printable coupons or sources that clip coupons for you. Others offer advice about where to use them and when to get the best price.
“The typical family spends about 10 minutes a week clipping coupons, which will save them about 11% a year,” says Charles Brown, vice president of marketing for NCH. “In studies we’ve done and doubled the time to 20 minutes, that will save you 20% off your grocery bill.”
Rogers keeps her grocery bills in check by belonging to www.thegrocerygame.com, an online source for couponing.
The fee-based service matches weekly store sales with recent newspaper coupons for the ultimate savings.
“I have to be on a budget and with one income, the game really helps,” Rogers says. “My one son says he loves that we always have food in the house.”
Rogers uses the game every week in order to get the best savings. Sticking to it has allowed her to stockpile items like cereal, barbecue sauce and shampoo.
“It’s real addictive, and you don’t want to miss the sale,” she says.
In addition, she learned to save her coupons until items are on sale.
Painter has her own system for clipping and organizing coupons.
“The challenge is how much of my money the companies and stores are not going to get,” she says.
On a recent grocery trip, Painter said she paid $53 for $134 worth of groceries — a 60% savings. She says she saves an average of 50% per trip.
“People say it’s too consuming and it does take time, but if you’re good at it you will get really good at it,” she says. “It probably took three years to really get down to this technique, to flip through the coupons and sales papers.”
On a typical Saturday morning Painter gathers the coupons from the newspaper circulars and gets her tools ready: coffee, scissors and a Sharpie marker.
The coupons are cut, sorted into a coupon caddy. Painter goes through the week’s grocery ads and circles items she knows she has a coupon for, putting a big “C” next to each one.
“I never use my coupons when I get them, because the stores know when the coupons are coming out, and they won’t have sales on those items for about two to four weeks,” she says. “They anticipate you using them right away.”
Painter’s kids are very savvy shoppers, because she showed them how much money they can save with a few simple tricks. The savings allow the Painters, who are on a tight budget, to have a family night out that may include dinner and a movie.
Painter’s motto: Time is money, and saving money takes time, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Tightwads Outnumber Spendthrifts: Spending Can Be A Pain To Some
ScienceDaily (Mar. 17, 2008) — We all have a friend who can’t seem to save, constantly splurging on new shoes or the latest gadgets. But, contrary to persistent media coverage of overspending and under-saving, a recent international survey of more than 13,000 shoppers suggests that chronic under-spending is far more widespread than originally thought. In fact, the study reveals that tightwads outnumber spendthrifts by a 3 to 2 ratio.
The study by Scott Rick (University of Pennsylvania), Cynthia Cryder, and George Loewenstein (Carnegie Mellon University) reveals that tightwads save, not because they care more about the future than spendthrifts, but because forking out the money is too painful of an emotional experience.
Therefore, those who experience the pain of spending money more intensely tend to spend less than they would ideally like to spend. On the other end of the ‘Spendthrift-Tightwad’ scale, spendthrifts typically experience minimal pain when spending money and tend to spend more than they would ideally like to spend.
“Spending differences between tightwads and spendthrifts are greatest in situations that amplify the pain of paying and smallest in situations that diminish the pain of paying,” the researchers explain. “The evidence suggests that frugality is driven by a pleasure of saving, as compared with tightwaddism, which is driven by a pain of paying.”
The researchers also found that tightwads and spendthrifts differ demographically:
Females are no more likely to be tightwads than spendthrifts, but males are nearly three times more likely to be tightwads than spendthrifts.
Respondents under the age of 30 were only slightly more likely to be tightwads than spendthrifts, but respondents over 70 were five times more likely to be tightwads than spendthrifts.
Whether one is a spendthrift or a tightwad also predicts a wide range of spending behavior, the researchers found. Spendthrifts are no more likely than tightwads to use credit cards, but spendthrifts who use credit cards are three times more likely to carry debt than tightwads who use credit cards.
Annual income differs little between tightwads and spendthrifts, suggesting that the observed differences in debt are largely driven by differences in spending habits.
Interestingly, the researchers also found that tightwads are also most sensitive to marketing ploys designed to reduce the pain of paying. In one experiment, participants were asked whether they would be willing to pay $5 to have DVDs shipped overnight. The cost was either framed as a “$5 fee” or a “small $5 fee.” Spendthrifts were completely insensitive to the manipulation, but tightwads were 20 percent more likely to pay the fee when it was less painfully presented as “small.”
“The research provides a new perspective on spending and saving money. Whereas traditional economic theory assumes that the propensity to spend or save is largely determined by the degree to which one cares about the future, this research suggests that spending and saving are driven, at least in part, by more immediate emotional concerns,” the researchers write.
The researchers administered the scale to more than 13,327 people, including 10,000 readers of The New York Times.
Journal reference: Scott I. Rick, Cynthia E. Cryder, and George Loewenstein. “Tightwads and Spendthrifts” Journal of Consumer Research: April 2008.
Obopay Makes Mobile Money Transfer Available to Millions
Send money to and receive money from anyone using any mobile phone with existing bank accounts using Obopay
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 18 /PRNewswire/ — Obopay, Inc., the pioneering service provider for payments via mobile phones, today announced that customers can now use their existing bank accounts to send and receive money via their mobile phone. With Obopay’s mobile money transfer, non- customers can pick up payments without signing up for Obopay. These innovations make it easier than ever for any bank customer to conveniently send and receive payments from their mobile phones.
By linking an existing checking or saving account — at any American bank — with Obopay, customers can send money directly from and receive money into that account using any mobile phone. Anyone can pick up money received by having it deposited directly into their existing bank account or by requesting a check, without having to sign up with Obopay.
Based on specific user feedback, this product expansion makes money transfer by mobile phone truly effortless. Obopay can be added to an existing bank account or used with a separate Obopay account — or both. Users don’t need to know a recipient’s banking information to send money, just their mobile phone number.
“Obopay’s mission has always been to provide the best tools possible to conveniently get, send and spend money from any mobile phone,” said Obopay Chief Executive Officer, Carol Realini. “Now we provide it directly from any bank account. This is a significant enhancement of our features, and one that is based on direct feedback from our users. We’re excited to make Obopay even more useful to millions of Americans.”
In addition to the obvious appeal to parents (with kids away at school), friends (who split dinner, activity or utility bills) and family (who send money to loved ones far away), Obopay gives small business owners the tools to pay employees, vendors or service providers immediately and conveniently.
For additional information — and to start using Obopay — visit www.Obopay.com.
About Obopay
Obopay, Inc. (www.obopay.com) is a pioneering service that lets consumers and businesses purchase, pay, and transfer money through any mobile phone using Obopay’s mobile application, text message, mobile Web, widget, or Obopay.com. As the first mobile payment service created exclusively for the mobile phone, only Obopay works on any phone and any carrier to empower consumers and businesses with the convenience of mobile payments. Obopay is bringing mobile payments to more consumers through industry-first alliances and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.
BUSINESSES HELP CUSTOMERS GO GREEN, SAVE MONEY, TOO
Everyone’s talking about it — “going green”. It involves living a healthier life by conserving energy, preserving the environment and taking small steps to save big.
In an effort to educate people, we are printing a series of articles about little things you can do to make a big difference.
Second in a series
by Connie Mattison
Belmond businesses are doing their part to recycle and save resources.
Both of Belmond’s appliance stores recycle old machines. Sherri Kinseth, co-owner of Kinseth Plumbing and Heating, said they take the refrigerant out of the old units and recycle that, too. Carla Blanchard of Allen Home Center said, “We pay a recycling company for each appliance they take. The metal and the copper are also recycled from each used machine.”
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Alliant Energy offers $50 to $100 rebates on energy-efficient freezers and refrigerators and $100 rebates on washers that save on water, soap and drying times. Kinseth said, “Refrigerators are getting more energy efficient every year. Alliant gives $35 to customers who get rid of old refrigerators, freezers and room air conditioners if they are still in working order.”
”We break down the cardboard and recycle that, too,” Kinseth added.
Alliant Energy also gives a geo- thermal rebate. Furnaces and central air conditioners provide from $200 to $400 rebates for 92 to 95% efficient furnaces, plus a $25 rebate when a programmable thermostat is installed.
Blanchard said, “Almost all refrigerators, washers and dryers have rebates, and within the next year, all washers will be energy efficient.” Once per month, all of Allen’s cardboard is recycled.
Front loading washers are becoming more popular. The reasons are many, including the reduction of water and electricity usage, drying times, and the savings on detergent (front loaders use less than half the amount of detergent needed in a top loader). Front loading washers extend the wear of clothes because they are tumbled, not agitated. Rhonda Shuver at Allen Home Center said, “The average front loader uses only 16 to 20 gallons of water per wash load as opposed to 40 to 45 gallons for top loaders. Over time, front-load washers can often pay for themselves through significant energy savings.”
At P&G Super Market, Frank Quigley said, “Waste heat from the giant coolers in the store is used to warm the building in the winter.” In fact, the store is almost completely heated with reclaimed heat from the compressors that are used to cool the coolers. In summer, the heat is exhausted from the compressor room. Recently the store added new brighter, high-efficiency lighting. The store’s utility bill has since been cut by one-third.
Dighton Pals of P&G Market said their supplier, Affiliated Foods, is working on providing cloth grocery bags as an option for customers. “People will pay for the bags initially,” he said, “but then each time they bring the cloth bags back to be reused, we will give them a percentage back.”
Fareway Manager John Kastler said mesh bags are already being used at Fareways all over Iowa, and the overwhelming response has left them with a waiting list of potential users. “We are getting more and more requests for reusable bags,” he said. Fareway charges 99¢ per bag, and because they sell them at such a nominal cost, they don’t offer other discounts when customers reuse them.
”Every Fareway Store used to have an incinerator where we would burn plastic and cardboard every week,” Kastler said. “That’s all changed in recent years, and now we bale and recycle plastic and cardboard back to the warehouse.”
The Belmond Independent and Millie’s Hallmark have replaced the lighting in both stores with “T-8″ flourescent bulbs, have installed programmable thermostats, and recycle office paper and cardboard monthly.
”Lighting is a big expense for us, and the T-8 bulbs are brighter, use half as many heat-wasting ballasts, burn fewer watts, and qualified for a rebate from Alliant,” said co-owner Dirk van der Linden. “We buy the “green” style of bulbs that have less mercury in them and can be put in the landfill when they burn out. The only disadvantage is that the T-8 bulbs don’t seem to last quite as long as the old T-12’s.”
The newspaper uses the back sides of junk mail paper in the fax machine. “I don’t think we’ve ever put fresh, new paper in our fax,” van der Linden said. “And by recycling paper and cardboard, we have cut our weekly trash in half.”
One line of cards in the Hallmark shop is printed on recycled paper. “Hallmark’s Shoebox card line is stamped on the back with a cartoon drawing of the Earth saying ‘thank you’ to show how earth-friendly those cards are,” co-owner Lee van der Linden said.
All paper products at First State Bank are cross-shredded for their customers’ protection and then used as packing material for shipping. Even the cardboard is shredded and added to the packing material.
The Klemme House Bed and Breakfast has stopped buying bottled water for its guests. Instead, a special water unit provides hot and cold water. This small change will eliminate recycling about 200 water bottles each year.
The home now has one energy-efficient gas water heater instead two inefficient water heaters — one gas and one electric. The owner’s electric bill fell significantly.
Though not a business, the local Knights of Columbus men have stopped using styrofoam plates at their frequent omelet breakfasts. “Earl Kalkwarf is a member of our group and he is also the county sanitarian,” said KC member Mike Sinnwell, “Earl suggested that we stop using the disposable plates in an effort to go green, and everyone seemed in favor.”
Businesses that have “gone green” have found that not only are they helping the environment, they are saving money, too.
