Tag Archives: product testing

The MindField Online Nickel Tour – Revisted Again!

200141357-001Over at the MindField Online Facebook page, we commonly hear, “I’m new—how does this whole thing work?”  That’s a pretty broad question, so we usually answer, “There’s plenty of info to be found at our website, www.mindfieldonline.com -check it out!”

But exactly what you will find has been a mystery, wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in an internet – until now!  So, keep your hands and feet inside the tram as we take an informative, exciting (but mostly informative) tour of the MindField Online Internet Panels website. And please, no flash photography!

Member Home

A really useful portal that gives you a quick look at announcements, surveys available (“Live Now!”), membership details, payout options, referrals, member profile survey status, payout balance progress… and more!

Account Settings

Here is where you can update or change your user preferences, email or street address and your password.

History

This is a detailed list of your survey activity, with a link to your payout activity, as well.

Policies

How do you register? Who is eligible? What are the rules? Here is where you find out!

FAQ

Check out the answers to some frequently asked questions HERE. Then, take a moment to realize “So THAT’S what FAQ stands for!”

IQD

Other than farm fresh ingredients, what steps does MindField Online Internet Panels take to ensure the quality of our data? Find out HERE.

About

Because corporate histories are so darn exciting, click HERE to learn more about MindField Online and parent company McMillion Research.

News

Much of the news you will have seen on our Facebook page, but you will get more detail here.

Winners

MindField Online has regular cash drawings and sweepstakes. Here is where you can see the winners.

Simplify Your Finances

yoga at sunset #9Go on the web and you will find that there’s an official day, week or month for just about everything. “Talk Like a Pirate Day” (Sept 19) comes to mind.  This week, though, the Official Thing seems pretty useful – or has the potential to be. August 1-7 is “Simplify Your Life Week.”

As Thoreau said, “Simplify, simplify.” Personally, I have always thought it would be…simpler to say it just once, but what do I know? Anyway, you go to one of the semi-official Simplify websites and you will see gems like, “Place an artificial rose on your desk to remind you to stop and smell the roses.” Umm, yeah.

How about some real advice?!? Here you go… Woman’s Day offers “20 Moves to Simplify Your Finances.”

How can we possibly make our finances simple? By knowing the right tricks. Choose to become accountable, and then use every tactic you can to streamline—and destress— your financial life. If you can pare things down in the following areas, you’re well on your way. WomansDay.com

The article has a ton of ideas on simplifying and taking the stress out of Spending, Banking, Bill Paying, Taxes, Credit Cards, and much more. I won’t even excerpt it here.. you MUST check it out.

Do any of these tips speak to you? Got any of your own to share? Let us know at the MindFieldLive Facebook Page!

Back to School “Creep”?

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Me.
Pictured: Me.

Does it seem like the Back to School sales are starting earlier and earlier each year? Apparently, you’re not imagining it, according to Ad Age magazine.

Instead of merely waiting until August and then hoping that shoppers spend a lot of money at once, stores are having sales now to sell certain items in June and July with the idea that they’ll come back in August and spend some more, most likely on apparel.  Ad Age

The phenomenon has a name: “Back to School Creep.” Sort of like how the stores start putting out their Christmas displays the week before Halloween! I didn’t know this, but Back to School is the second biggest retail time of the year, second only to Christmas, and accounts for $84 billion in sales.

When I was a kid, I had an odd mindset during the summer: gradually increasing dread. I saw the summer as a long weekend. The piece of June left after school let out was Friday night. July was Saturday. And August was Sunday, when I could really feel the last of the sand leaving the hourglass before school started again. (PS…I HATED school.)  And those obnoxious Back to School sales at the mall didn’t help my mood at all!  But at least they waited until August. Today’s kids have it rough!

How about you? How much do you spend on Back to School? How soon do you start shopping? Do you think the retailers start pushing it too early? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page. And have a great weekend!

4th of July Spending Revisited

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See what I did there?
See what I did there?

So, fellow MindField-ers… having a good holiday weekend so far? Did you manage to get Friday off? I hope so! Last Friday, we did a post about 4th of July spending. I thought I would actually track my own this year, just for fun. First, the agenda…

Starting out from the suburbs of Charleston SC, it’s:

  • July 4: Cookout at in-laws
  • July 5: Antiquing in West Columbia SC
  • July 6: Going to the beach at Kiawah SC
  • July 7: Charleston Harbor tour and dining downtown

And here is my spending, real and projected:

  • Cookout: 4 bags of chips, sodas and my homemade guacamole… $21
  • Antiquing: Maybe $50, meals $25
  • Beach: Sodas, snack, parking fee…$12. Lunch after, $20
  • Harbor tour for 2: $20 (thanks Groupon!) Meals $40
  • Gas for the weekend: 450 miles, at 30 miles per gallon, times $3.15 per gallon (it’s CHEAP in SC)…$47

Total Independence Day 2013 spending: $235

How does that sound to you? High? Low? About right? We had talked about spending the weekend in Asheville NC, which probably would have brought it up to at least $500, which is more in line with the numbers we reported last week. Fortunately, I am a CHEAPO! Wife is too, so at least we’re compatible!

So, what are YOUR plans. Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page. And have a great weekend!

BONUS: If it’s been since 9th grade that you have read the Declaration of Independence, you really should revisit the old girl. Read it HERE.

Summer Survival with Bored Kids

Activities-to-Fight-Summer-Boredom-MainPhotoAs they say, “Insanity is hereditary – you get it from your kids.” That is never truer than the summertime. So, your kids have been out of school nearly a month…have you gone crazy yet? Spoiler alert: it’s coming.

Never fear – MindField Online presents ten links to help keep your little darlings occupied and out of your hair!

Did they miss any? What kinds of things do YOU do? Let us know over at the MindField Facebook page!

Summer of Savings

summersaveLast week, we posted a bunch of links to various articles about travel savings for your summer fun. But what if your summer fun pretty much looks like the rest of the year – feeding and clothing your family and trying to make ends meet? Well, you’re in luck. Here’s a collection of bargains you can snag in the summer months. So here is a Summer Savings Links Top Ten –

Wait, there’s 11? What a bargain!

8 Ways to Snag a Summer Bargain

Try the Summer Savings Quiz

Best Swimsuit Deals of Summer 2013

An Early Word on Labor Day Sales

Petite Ladies can Dress for Less

Bargains for Babies

Kid Clothes…for a Bargain?

June Bargains

July Bargains

August Bargains

September Bargains

What do you think? Any good ideas here? Any we left out? Let us know!

National Home Ownership Month

for sale

It’s no secret that the housing market – and the explosion of bad mortgage loans – was a major contributor to the Big Crisis of 2008. Things SEEM to be improving, maybe kinda sorta. And yet I still hear radio ads for “low interest, zero-down” loans that will only perpetuate the problem. Ehh, what do I know? I’m just a guy who waited until I could actually afford a house, paid the required down and never missed a payment!

Anywayz… it’s National Home Ownership Month, where people from all perspectives come together to boldly agree, “Something should be Done about All the Problems!”

Here are some links for NHOM 2013:

National Association of Homebuilders

Protect Home Ownership

USDA Home Ownership Page

Financial Education is Key

Realty.com Celebrates NHOM

NAACP Celebrates NHOM

Free Homeowner Education from CCCS

So, what do you think? Is the American Dream of home ownership still alive and well – or at least alive? Have you experienced any difficulty getting a loan? Let us know, and have a great weekend!!

Memorial Day 2013

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Mem Day

Memorial Day soapbox time – bear with me.

I was all set to do one of those “(Holiday) by the Numbers” posts, where we talk about how much we will spend on travel and hot dogs and new lawn mowers this Memorial Day. But my Google search uncovered this instead: a website that accounts for EVERY serviceman killed in conflict since the Revolution. We (I) sometimes tend to forget that honoring these men and women is the entire point of the holiday, as opposed to having Monday off and drinking beer.

MindField Online wishes to thank service members past and present and their families, and to honor those we have lost. As Americans, we don’t always agree on the value of this or that conflict, but you can’t deny the courage of those who put themselves in harm’s way. So, please take some time to visit MemorialDayFoundation.org.

And have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend!!

(photo: hellskitchennyc.blogspot.com)

101 Consumer Secrets!

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conrep

Don’t worry; I won’t make you read all 101! The latest edition of Consumer Reports has a nice roundup of 101 tips ‘n’ trix from their writers and editors. These cover household items, money and finance, electronics and more. Here is a sampling from the electronics pile:

  • Drop your phone or camera in the water? Don’t freak out and run out to buy a new one.  Try letting it dry. You can even put it in a Ziploc bag with some rice.
  • Don’t turn off your printer. Standby mode really doesn’t use much power compared to restarting. Also, if your printer must recalibrate every time, that wastes ink.
  • Just like the dumb commercial says, a full hard drive is a slow hard drive. There’s an actual mechanical process the PC uses to find your info, and it takes time. So, clean up your hard drive, get an external drive or store things on a Cloud.
  • PC or Tablet? Never thought of it this way: PCs and laptops are good at CREATING content. Tablets are good for CONSUMING it.
  • WiFi: Get a wireless hub for your house. You will save on your data plan in a big way. However, when you aren’t near a WiFi hub, your device will waste power searching for a signal, so turn it off when you are out.

That’s just a sample – there are only about 95 other tips at the original article! Next time we will sample a few more. Do you have any useful tips? Let us know!

Awkward Money Moments are Awkward

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That awkward moment when you have no money and someone writes AWKWARD! on your blouse.
That awkward moment when you have no money and someone writes AWKWARD! on your blouse.

It’s no secret that money sometimes brings out the weird in us. The triggers can vary but there seems to be a few that we all share, according to CouponCabin.com. They conducted a survey, and here is their “Top 5 Money Moments that Make You Feel All Oogy” (my title) followed by some personal observations.

  • 34% – Feeling pressured to donate on behalf of a co-worker, family member or friend. (Author considers making a crack about mandatory United Way participation, then reconsiders.) 
  • 29% – Saying no to a panhandler or beggar. (Back home, some group gave the homeless newspapers to sell, so it wouldn’t feel like charity. So you got the self-satisfied bump of Giving but, since the paper was about homelessness, it was a real buzzkill.)
  • 25% – Feeling pressured to chip in on a group gift at work, like for a baby shower or wedding shower. (This is my wife’s job at her office. She is merciless. “You vill GIVE! You vill LIKE it!”)
  • 25% – Sharing salary/wage amounts with co-workers. (When somebody does this, just say a higher number. It will kill them.)
  • 17% – Splitting a dinner bill or check with a large group of people. (Never be the one collecting the money, unless you like chipping in an extra 10 because your friends are such bad tippers!)

So, what’s YOUR oogy money moment? One of the above, or something unique? Let us know. There’s much more at the original article, so check it out. And have a great weekend!