Frugal Francis

Snail Mail is a term commonly associated with regular postal service in the United States. Since the adaption of email, people have assigned this nickname to standard postal service as it is viewed as a much slower form of communication than our typical electronic mail messages.

From 1863 to 1932, the cost of a postage stamp fluctuated between 2 and 3 cents. In 1963, the cost per postage stamp was 4 cents, and by 1974, postal customers were paying 10 cents per stamp.

From 1975 to 1995 the stamp climbed from 10 cents up to 32 cents. And throughout the next 11 years, stamp prices climbed to 39 cents in 2006. Once again, the price of stamps went up to 41 cents in 2007, 42 cents in 2008.

Today the cost per postage stamp is 44 cents. If I were a betting man, I’d say the next time the price changes it will certainly be going up.

What is the moral of the story?

The prices of postage stamps have been going up for over the last 75 years, and with today’s economic conditions, I could not imagine the price of stamps dropping anytime soon.

The best way to save money with postage stamps is to purchase Forever Stamps. Forever Stamps are stamps issued by the US Postal Service that will always work regardless of fluctuation in the cost of stamps. So if you know that you will need postage stamps for the next five, ten or twenty years, then it certainly can’t hurt to load up on a boatload of stamps today to secure your pricing at 44 cents.

Please visit your local US postal office for more information regarding Forever Stamps.

Or check out this link from the US postal Services website:
USPS Forever Stamps

I am quite impressed with David Ning from MoneyNing.com

MoneyNing talks about all of the concepts that I’d like to incorporate into FrugalFrancis.com; Stocks, Investing, Early Retirement, mortgages, and achieving financial freedom. From what I see, it looks like he does use some affiliate marketing for some of his postings. What I find most impressive is the instant response that he gets from each of his postings. It must be such a great feeling to know that you have such an active audience out there. I aim to have the same results in due time.

I have some great articles coming soon for Frugal Francis so sit tight while I get it all together. In the meantime feel free to check out MoneyNing and let me know what you think.

As I mentioned in my first post, I found a very easy way to install WordPress and become part of the blogging community. In the past I installed wordpress manually and ran the install script and it worked fine but I found this rather cumbersome and time consuming.

Recently, I googled “what is the best webhost for wordpress” and based on my research I found a company called bluehost. Blue host is great because they offer 1 click auto install for WordPress. It is really as simple as signing up for a hosting account and then clicking 1 button and BAM! you have your own custom installed WordPress site. I found using bluehost, the easiest way to enter the blogosphere and have my own custom WordPress site.

Here is a bit more information about their value adds and product offering:
“WordPress Auto-Install — new WordPress updates are made available within 24 hours! Unlimited disk storage, Unlimited monthly data transfer, host unlimited domains on 1 account, 1 free domain name for as long as you host with BlueHost, 2500 POP / WebMail addresses, 50 MySQL databases, free control panel, free Fantastico, free SimpleScripts, 24/7 network monitoring, 99% uptime guarantee, mirrored storage backups, no hidden fees, voted best support in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008!”

Well, first and foremost, Hello World!

Yes, I did it, I put together a custom installed WordPress blog and it was really freakin’ easy to do so.   In the past, I fiddled with installing WordPress by putting on an ftp server and running the install script, and while I was able to do it, I found it cumbersome and time-consuming.  I will be sure to follow up a bit more about how easy this is to do in my next posting…

Frugal Francis is the name I will use for the blog that entertains users on how to save and earn money through the Internet.  I plan on talking about a variety of topics on this blog, but all will reflect back to different ways to save money or ways to actually earn money on the Internet.

If you are looking for a get rich quick scheme and are in desperate need for money, then you came to the wrong site.  Trust me, I’ve been fooled into a number of offers over the years, and there are a only a few ways to get rich on the Internet, and they all come with hard work and dedication.

I live and die by a principle that you need to earn more than you spend and SAVE as much as possible.  I will be talking about crafty ways to save and earn money in this blog, so stay tuned!