beniebuzz blog

I used to think being a smart consumer was getting my Coach handbag on sale at the Nordstrom Rack or buying my favorite new shoes during a Friends & Family event. But, I never thought being a smart consumer also applied to how I spent my money on healthcare – that is, until I read Jim Skinner’s book Smart Money: The Simple Guide to Becoming an Educated , Empowered, Money-Saving Champion of the Healthcare You Deserve.   

Did you know that during the 1920s and 1930s, a movement arose to scrap Mother’s Day and Father’s Day altogether in favor of a single holiday, Parents’ Day? As with many things in America, commercialism won out! According to History.com, struggling depression-era retailers and advertisers “redoubled their efforts to make Father’s Day a ‘second Christmas’ for men, promoting goods such as neckties, hats, socks, pipes and tobacco, golf clubs and other sporting goods, and greeting cards.”

Did you know there was NO summer vacation until the early 1900s? Before that, breaks were dependent on the location of schools – they were planned quarterly (town schools) or to coincide with planting and harvest seasons (rural schools). 

Fast forward 100 years and it seems like the entire year revolves around summer break! We plan for summer vacations, summer jobs, summer school, summer camp and let’s not forget the summer movie line up (Despicable Me 2 comes out 7/3, just sayin’!).  

It’s summer…go crazy and get lazy! OK, slow your roll there, Paris.

Last week, we shared an article called 3 Ways to Keep Kids Sharp This Summer and we learned that summer is NOT the time for kids to get lazy. We’re blessed to know some great teachers with fantastic experience and we’re working on a tight timeline before summer starts, so we’re back with more!   

Do you have an annual “spring cleaning” routine?  I’m more of a “continuous cleaning and purging” kind of person, but I’m beginning to understand the benefits of spring cleaning!

Spring cleaning started in the 19th century and those were dirty times! Think about it:  there were multiple people crammed into a few small rooms all winter long.  Top it off with dirty, dust-producing fuels (wood, coal) to warm the home, no filtration systems to clean the air, and they certainly didn’t have vacuum cleaners for a little rug touch-up!  

Do you understand how your health insurance works? When I was 24 years old and started working my first job, I couldn’t understand it at all!  

That’s funny because I was working for a large insurance company and my degree was in Health Administration. But, I was raised and got my degree in Canada and you probably already know they have a very different system than the US. I’ve now been in the US health insurance industry for 21 years and I’m still learning. 

Did you know you have 60,000 – 90,000 thoughts per day (well, if you’re an “average person”)? Did you also know that 96% of those thoughts are the same as the day before?  For all the thinking we do, only 4% per day are new thoughts.  Yikes!

I remember the first time I heard about the Yoga trend. I thought it was some crazy mystical thing where you did stuff with your chakras (I don’t even know what that means?) and twisted yourself into a pretzel! You’ll be happy to know, I’ve since become more educated and less judgmental about this activity. The fact that I love yoga pants doesn’t hurt!