MAKE MONEY ONLINE POSTS: 07/23/15

الخميس، 23 يوليو 2015

10 Online Scams That Target Small Businesses

Online scams target small businesses as well as individuals. See 10 online scams that target small businesses to protect your profits.

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10 Online Scams That Target Small Businesses

Online scams target small businesses as well as individuals. See 10 online scams that target small businesses to protect your profits.

Source Business & Money - HowStuffWorks http://ift.tt/1JBVBXD

This suburb is a shopper’s paradise

WHILE high street retailers are struggling across Australia, there’s one suburban strip that shoppers can’t get enough of.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1VCS3O3

Boyd Gaming still weighing options on REIT

The investment community knew the answer going into Boyd Gaming Corp.'s second-quarter earnings conference call.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1Momcg1

Nasty surprise in instant meals

MILLIONS of people eat this company’s products, but a disturbing number of ‘isolated cases’ end up with more than they bargained for on their plates.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1g8mgV7

Live Blog: YouTube Chief Susan Wojcicki Keynote At #Vidcon

Talk aimed at thousands of video content creators and producers gathered at the annual event.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Does the video game industry really lack career stability?

A career in the video game industry might be fun, but is it stable? Find out if the video game industry lacks career stability at HowStuffWorks.

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Proposal OK'd that will set up competition between cabbies, ride-booking companies

Cab company owners attending Thursday's Nevada Taxicab Authority session called it the most important meeting in the board'€™s history. It'€™s not hyperbole.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1GIi8jA

Does the video game industry really lack career stability?

Southwest Airlines posts ninth straight quarter of record profits

Southwest Airlines, the market leader at Las Vegas’€™ McCarran International Airport, posted its ninth straight quarter of record profits, the Dallas-based airline reported Thursday.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1LyNNMs

Amazon Surprises With Earnings Beat; Sales Up 20 Percent In Q2 2015

Shares surge in after-hours trading on news of quarterly net gains.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Marketing Day: Twitter Event Targeting, Interview With AOL’s CMO & In-App Ad Fraud

Here’s our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: 6 New Insights About Content Marketing Hiring Trends And Job Growth Columnist Kerry Jones shares the state of the content marketing job market based...

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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CCCU averages $1.1 million per month in earnings through second quarter

Clark County Credit Union (CCCU) ended the second quarter with average monthly earnings of $1.1 million for a total of $6.62 million for the year to date, officials said Thursday.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1OACiSZ

6 New Insights About Content Marketing Hiring Trends And Job Growth

Columnist Kerry Jones shares the state of the content marketing job market based on new research and insights from recruitment professionals.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Agency proposes more net metering capacity

CARSON CITY — The state Bureau of Consumer Protection has proposed that state regulators authorize a minimum of an additional 17.5 megawatts of net metering capacity so that the rooftop solar industry is not disrupted in Nevada. The filing with the state Public Utilities Commission says that allowing the additional capacity would resolve the issue of hitting the 235-megawatt cap on net metering as early as next month. The additional capacity would then allow the commission to craft a new rate structure for rooftop solar customers by Dec. 31. Net metering is a program where residents who install rooftop solar can receive a credit from the utility company for any excess energy generated. Rooftop solar officials say that without quick action by the PUC to address the cap, the industry could grind to a halt, affecting 6,000 jobs. NV Energy failed to properly assess the 17.5 megawatts of committed qualified net metering customer generation that was already in the pipeline, the filing says. Adding the capacity would address "what appears to have been a mistake regarding the amount of capacity for qualified customers," the filing says. For its part, NV Energy said it will propose a plan to transition to a new net metering rate structure in filings on July 31 that will ensure no interruption in the rooftop solar industry. The plan would allow net metering hookups under the current rules until the 235 megawatt limit is reached. The utility would continue to accept applications from customers for net metering after the cap is reached. A new rate structure to transition the industry will also be part of the filing. The utility would then begin billing customers under the new rate on an interim basis until the final rules are adopted by Dec. 31. "Under the proposal, customer-generators may continue to submit interconnection and net metering applications and the renewable distributed generation industry may continue to install such systems, without interruption," the filing says. NV Energy said the new rate will allow the rooftop solar industry to grow while ensuring that customers without the systems do not continue to subsidize net metering. The Alliance for Solar Choice has filed an emergency petition with the PUC to let net metering continue under current rules despite the likelihood of hitting the 235 megawatt cap next month. Rooftop solar companies fought hard in the 2015 session to raise the net metering cap to as high as 6 percent or more, but lawmakers rejected the proposal, asking the PUC to resolve the issue instead. Lawmakers want the PUC to help ensure rooftop solar remains economically viable without any subsidy from non-net metering customers. Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Find him on Twitter: @seanw801.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1MnRxzv

State gaming regulators approve Golden Gaming-Lakes merger

State gaming regulators said Thursday they wished all mergers were this easy. Golden Gaming's $341 million combination with Minnesota-based Lakes Entertainment was approved Thursday by the Nevada Gaming Commission.

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Millionaires Before 30: Smart Finance Skills or Dumb Luck?

Despite a challenging economy for young workers, some know the secrets to becoming a millionaire before 30.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1VBFpyH

Roth vs. Traditional IRA: Retirement Showdown

IRAs, or individual retirement accounts, allow you to sock money away for retirement in a way that offers certain tax advantages over other savings methods. There are actually nearly a dozen types of IRAs, but for most people, the choice boils down to two main options: a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA.

If you’re trying to decide between these two popular IRAs, we aim to make your choice a little bit easier by outlining crucial differences as well as a few situations where it might make sense to choose one over the other. If you already have an employer-sponsored retirement account such as a 401(k) and are wondering whether it makes sense to use an IRA as well, see Roth IRA vs. 401k? You May Not Have to Choose.

Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA: Main Differences

Both Roth and traditional IRAs are excellent ways to save for your retirement, especially if you don’t have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan. However, there are some important differences between these two accounts, and they boil down to four main areas: eligibility, contributions, tax implications, and withdrawal rules.

Difference #1: Eligibility

We’ll start with eligibility, since your ability to choose between a traditional vs. Roth IRA will hinge on being eligible for both.

Most people will be allowed to contribute to a traditional IRA. The only requirements are that you have earned taxable income during the year, and you must not be older than 70½ by the end of the year.

You must also have earned taxable income during the year to contribute to a Roth IRA, but unlike with traditional IRAs, there is no age limit. However, you must earn under a certain amount to be eligible.

Here are the income restrictions on Roth IRAs, based on your 2015 tax filing status:

Single: You can contribute the full amount to a Roth IRA if your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is $116,000 or less. If your MAGI is $116,001-$131,000, you can contribute a reduced amount; if it exceeds $131,000, you cannot contribute to a Roth IRA.
Married filing jointly: You can contribute the full amount if you make $183,000 or less. If your MAGI is between $183,001 and $193,000, you can contribute a reduced amount; if your MAGI exceeds $193,000, you cannot contribute to a Roth IRA.
Married filing separately: Your MAGI cannot be more than $10,000 to contribute to a Roth IRA. If your MAGI is less than $10,000, you can contribute a reduced amount. Note that if you did not live with your spouse during the year, you can use the limits for single filers.

As you’ll note above, you can never contribute the full amount to a Roth IRA if you are married filing separately, and the limit to make even a reduced contribution is very low.

Difference #2: Tax Benefits

Traditional IRA: With a traditional IRA, your contributions are tax-deductible the year you make them. However, you’ll pay income taxes on any IRA withdrawals you make in retirement.

This has the potentially beneficial effect of lowering your adjusted gross income during your prime earning years, and delaying your tax obligation until retirement, when you’ll likely be in a lower tax bracket anyway. (Note that you may only be able to deduct part of your traditional IRA contributions — or none at all — if you or your spouse are also covered by an employer-sponsored retirement plan such as a 401(k).)

Roth IRA: A Roth IRA works in almost the opposite way: You pay taxes upfront to avoid paying them in retirement. You contribute after-tax income, meaning your contributions are never tax deductible in the year you make them. However, in retirement, all of your withdrawals are tax-free — including your original contributions and any investment gains.

Difference #3: Contribution Limits

Annual contribution limits are the same for Roth and traditional IRAs — mostly.

If you’re under age 50, you can contribute up to $5,500 a year to your traditional IRA. If you’re 50 or older, you can contribute up to $6,500 a year (sometimes called “catch-up contributions”). Both numbers are regardless of income.

The limits are the same with a Roth IRA, but Roth contribution limits can depend on your income. If you’re under age 50 and are allowed to contribute the full amount (see the “Eligibility” section above), you can contribute up to $5,500 each year. If you’re 50 or older and are allowed to contribute the full amount, you can contribute up to $6,500 a year.

If your income limits what you’re allowed to contribute to a Roth IRA, you’ll need to do some math to figure out your reduced contribution limit.

Difference #4: Withdrawal Rules

There are several rules governing when you can start to withdraw money from your IRA. Here are the crucial differences:

Early withdrawals: If you’re younger than age 59½, you won’t be able to take money out of your traditional IRA without paying a stiff 10% penalty. With a Roth IRA, you can withdraw contributions penalty-free at any time; however, you cannot withdraw earnings penalty-free before age 59½. You must have also have contributed to your Roth IRA for five years to avoid the penalty, regardless of your age.
Required minimum distributions: With traditional IRAs, you will be forced to begin taking money out in required minimum distributions once you reach age 70½. That’s not the case with Roth IRAs, which never require withdrawals during your lifetime.

With both types of IRAs, there are several exceptions that allow you to tap the money for certain situations without paying an early-withdrawal penalty. One of the most popular is the ability to use up to $10,000 toward purchasing your first home (or any home, regardless of whether it’s your first, as long as you haven’t owned a principal residence in two years).

You can also take penalty-free withdrawals from either kind of IRA to pay for qualified educational expenses or medical expenses, or if you opt for substantially equal periodic payments (SEPP).

Roth vs. Traditional IRA: Which Should I Choose?

Take a look at the chart below for a quick summary of the differences between traditional IRAs vs. Roth IRAs. If you need more help making a decision, we’ll also offer a few common scenarios below to help you choose.

	Traditional IRA	Roth IRA
Age limitations to contribute?	Yes; must be younger than 70½	No
Income limitations to contribute?	No	Yes, cannot make over a certain amount depending on tax-filing status (see “Eligibility” for current limits)
Yearly contribution limit	$5,500 ($6,500 for age 50 and older)	$5,500 ($6,500 for age 50 and older); less for some, depending on income
Contributions tax deductible?	Yes, but potential limitations if you or your spouse are covered by employee retirement plan	No
Withdrawals (including contributions and earnings) tax-free?	No	Yes
Withdraw contributions penalty-free any time?	No	Yes
Conditions to avoid early-withdrawal penalty	Must be 59½ before making withdrawals (contributions and earnings)	Can withdraw contributions anytime, but must be 59½ before withdrawing earnings; must have made contributions for at least five years
Required age when you must begin making withdrawals?	Yes, at 70½	No

Choosing Between a Roth and a Traditional IRA: A Few Case Studies

Assuming you’re eligible to contribute to either a Roth or traditional IRA (you’re younger than 70½, which means you’re eligible for a traditional IRA, and your income is low enough to allow Roth contributions), below are a few situations where one type might make more sense than the other.

I think my tax rate will be lower (or higher) in retirement.

Assuming you are eligible for both types of IRAs, it’s time to get out your crystal ball. Are you expecting a significant bump in income by the time you retire? Would that increase in income bump you into the next tax bracket? If so, a Roth IRA might be a better choice. While your contributions won’t be tax-deductible now, you’ll be able to make your withdrawals down the road without facing a tax bill that’s made even bigger by your higher tax bracket.

On the flip side, if you’re in a high-income tax bracket now but think you’ll be retiring in a lower tax bracket, a traditional IRA could make more sense. The tax deduction on your contributions might be more valuable to you now, and your tax bill may be more modest in retirement.

Let’s look at a couple of examples using this investment calculator from Scottrade. Assuming moderate growth, putting the maximum $5,500 a year into an IRA for 20 years — or $110,000 in total contributions — would yield $264,000 in retirement savings. How much you ultimately pay in taxes on that money depends on a few factors (not the least of which is whether current tax laws remain unchanged, which we’ve assumed here for simplicity’s sake):

Jim uses a Roth IRA, so he pays full income taxes on his $110,000 in contributions, but will owe no taxes on the $154,000 in investment earnings. Assuming a 20% effective tax rate during his contribution years, he’ll pay a total of $22,000 in taxes on that $264,000, or 8.3%. Even if the balance continues to grow throughout his retirement, he still won’t owe any more in taxes — lowering his overall tax rate further.
Jane uses a traditional IRA, thereby deferring any tax obligations until retirement. Let’s assume that when she hits retirement, her effective tax rate drops from 20% to 10%. That means she pays half the rate that Jim did on her contributions — however, she’ll owe that amount on her investment earnings as well. She’ll ultimately pay $26,400 in taxes on the $264,000, or 10%, and will continue to owe taxes on any further investment gains.

I might need to tap my IRA before age 59½.

Let’s be abundantly clear: Tapping your IRA early, whether it’s a Roth or traditional IRA, is very rarely a good idea. After all, your money can’t grow unless you’re willing to keep your hands off of it.

However, if you fear that you might need to tap your money early, a Roth will probably be a better choice. That’s because you’re allowed to withdraw your contributions (but not your earnings) at any age without paying an early-withdrawal penalty — after all, you’ve already paid taxes on them.

If you’ve been contributing the $5,500 maximum every year for awhile, that means you’ll have access to a significant pile of penalty-free cash. That’s not the case with traditional IRAs until you’re 59½, and even then, you will have to pay taxes on your withdrawals, too.

I want my money to grow for as long as possible.

Perhaps you’ve diversified your retirement savings enough to know that you won’t need to tap your IRA for a long time, even past the age of 70½. Maybe you have named a beneficiary for your IRA and want to leave behind as much money as possible when you die.

In both cases, a Roth IRA probably is a better choice than a traditional IRA. That’s because traditional IRAs force you to begin taking withdrawals, called required minimum distributions, once you hit age 70½. If you want your money to keep growing, whether for your own benefit or someone else’s, a Roth will allow that to happen.

Made Your Choice? Now it’s Time to Find a Home for Your Money

If you’ve decided whether a Roth or traditional IRA is best for you, the next step is figuring out where you want to open your account. The Simple Dollar offers a guide to the Best IRA Accounts of 2015 that outlines four popular options and also offers more advice on the Roth vs. traditional IRA question.

If you need advice about 401(k)-to-IRA rollovers, we’ve got you covered there, too. For a step-by-step primer, see How to Do a 401(k) Rollover.

Finally, if you’ve got your basic retirement accounts squared away and want to diversify by dipping your toe into stocks, check out our post on the Best Online Stock Trading Brokers for 2015.

The post Roth vs. Traditional IRA: Retirement Showdown appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Google: Data Show Users Hate App-Promotion Interstitials

Very often smartphone users click on a link to a mobile web page and are confronted by a interstitial promotion asking them to download the publisher’s app. Users generally hate these takeovers and they do almost nothing for the brand or publisher — except alienate users. Google has...

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Are You Paying Way Too Much for Hotels Abroad? Here’s How to Tell

When you’re traveling abroad and dealing in foreign currency, it can be tough to determine how much you should spend on a hotel. The relative prices may be much higher or lower than you’re used to — so how do you know what’s a good deal?

Sam Dogen, better known as Financial Samurai, recently traveled to South Korea and Malaysia. He was about to drop $250 on a room at a five-star resort in Kuala Lumpur when his “personal finance brain” took over.

“Like many of you, I love getting a good deal,” he writes on his blog. “I also hate paying inflated prices just because I’m a foreigner.”

After taking into account Malaysia’s GDP per capita, he realized spending $250 a night in Malaysia would be equivalent to spending $850 a night at a hotel in his home city of San Francisco — a price he would never pay.

So, how did he determine a reasonable price? He let his financial geek fly and created a formula.

Financial Samurai’s Hotel Price Formula

Though you should read Dogen’s post for all the details, we’ve stripped the formula down to its bare bones here:

1. Divide your total home living cost (rent or mortgage plus utilities) by 30.5 days. This is your basic Natural Hotel Expenditure Rate (NHER). “The less you spend, the greater the deal you feel you’re getting and vice versa,” explains Dogen.

2. As a “sanity check,” compare the GDP per capita of your destination to the GDP per capita of your home country. If it’s significantly higher or lower, you should adjust your rate accordingly. See the next step for an easy way to do this.

3. Use the Big Mac index to calculate your “adjusted NHER.” Divide your destination’s Big Mac price by your home country’s Big Mac price, then multiply the result by your original NHER. This figure is how much Dogen recommends you spend on a hotel.

Though we like Dogen’s ideas, the NHER formula won’t work for everybody.

It didn’t for me: Since I spend $725 a month on rent and utilities, my NHER is $23.77 per day. If I were to adjust that according to Dogen’s instructions, I would be priced out of the majority of hostels — not to mention hotels — in developing countries.

Still, Dogen’s point is a good one.

Before you drop a bunch of money on accommodation just because it’s affordable to you, check out your destination’s GDP and Big Mac prices. Those numbers will help you determine if the price you’re paying is reasonable — or if you’re actually spending an extraordinary amount just because it’s cheaper than it would be in your home country.

Your Turn: How do you determine how much to spend on hotels while abroad? Would you use this formula?

Susan Shain (@Susan_Shain) is a freelance writer and travel blogger who is always seeking adventure on a budget.

The post Are You Paying Way Too Much for Hotels Abroad? Here’s How to Tell appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Penn National plans development program for the Tropicana

Regional casino operator Penn National Gaming said Thursday it will launch a development plan for the Tropicana Las Vegas that would take three to five years to implement.

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How to Split Parenting Expenses With Your Ex

If you're having trouble, here are some ideas on what to do – and not to do.

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13 Documents Mortgage Lenders Need From Homebuyers

Be prepared to share the intimate financial details in your bank statements, tax returns and more.

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Twitter’s Event Targeting Helps Marketers Zero In On Live Audiences

New ad tool will take the guesswork out of targeting people following live events on Twitter.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Act Now: SMX East Rates Increase Saturday

SMX East rates increase Saturday. Register now for lowest rates! Here’s what’s in store: 50+ sessions, keynotes and clinics featuring results-producing tactics on paid search, SEO, analytics, mobile and social media; panel discussions, single-speaker TED-style presentations and interactive Q&A...

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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The Best Cities for Jobs: How to Decide If They’re Right for You

If you’re looking for a good job and you’re willing to move to get it, you probably want to know which cities have the most opportunity.

Glassdoor tackled that question in a recent report, and the result was a list of the 25 best cities for jobs. To arrive at a “Glassdoor Job Score” for each metropolitan area, analysts considered these factors:

Ratio of job openings to population (ease of getting hired)
Ratio of median salary to median home value (cost of living)
Reviews of employers by local employees (job satisfaction)

That’s a good start, but you might also want to consider these two factors:

Your own lifestyle needs and desires
Number of job openings that fit your personal qualifications

If you’re going to include job satisfaction in the score, you have to be satisfied with the place where you have to live for the job. And having plenty of jobs is great, but more important is whether there are plenty for you.

So with these additional factors in mind, let’s look at how to determine the best cities for your job.

Start With the List

Here are the top 10 cities for jobs, according to Glassdoor:

Raleigh, NC
Kansas City, MO
Oklahoma City, OK
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
Salt Lake City, UT
San Jose, CA
Louisville, KY
San Antonio, TX
Washington, D.C.

You might want to look over the whole list of 25 and dig into the details. You’ll see, for example, that Raleigh has more than 24,000 job openings, a median base salary of $50,950, a median home value of $198,400 and a job satisfaction rating of 3.3 on a scale of 1 to 5.

But what if you’re a geologist or medical technician? Doing a job search for “geologist” on Glassdoor produces five postings for Raleigh, but 118 for Houston, Texas (number 21). Meanwhile, Chicago (number 20) has 1,041 openings for a medical technician versus 446 in Raleigh. So you might want to…

Determine Where There Are Good Jobs for You

Clearly the best city for you might have something to do with what kind of job you’re looking for. So use the list as a place to start, but then do a job search for each of the 25 cities, for each of the positions you’re qualified for and want.

Be careful not to search terms that are too closely related or you’ll be double-counting some job openings. For example, if you search “restaurant manager” and “bar manager,” you might get many of the same listings.

Tally up the total openings for jobs you searched in each city. Based on these results, you can cut down the list of 25 cities to the five or 10 best options for the type of jobs you’re seeking. You might narrow the list down further by looking at where the jobs seem to pay the most. Then you can…

Determine Where You Want to Live and Work

Once you have five or 10 good prospects, you have to decide which city has the most positive non-job-related benefits for you. If you want to ski on winter weekends, you don’t want to be in Houston. Here are some other factors you might consider:

Crime rates
Universities and colleges
Climate
Surrounding environment
Demographics (average age of residents, educational level, etc.)
Air quality
Schools

You can get all of this information and much more from City-Data. Just click a state and find the city on the list. You can also go to the City-Data Forum to see what current residents have to say about a city and view photos of the surrounding area.

If you have kids, you’ll want information about the local school system. Find ratings and parent reviews by entering a zip code in the form at Great Schools.

If you’ll be buying a home, go to Realtor.com, search by city name and then refine your search using various criteria. Click “Map View” to see the results laid out on a map of the area. You’ll be able to quickly spot where you can afford to live.

Whether you’re buying or renting, use Google Maps to check out the neighborhoods where you might be living. Click “Street View” and “walk” the area for a while. Enter the address of potential employers to see where you might be walking for lunch.

With this bit of additional research you’ll soon have a personalized list of the few best cities for jobs for you.

Your Turn: Are you ready to make a move to find a better place to work and live? Which are the best cities for jobs for you?

Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo-man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror, and roulette croupier, but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).

The post The Best Cities for Jobs: How to Decide If They’re Right for You appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Your $10 Bill May Be Getting a Facelift, Literally

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama announced plans to put a woman on the bill, and it's causing some controversy.

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The Money Impact of the Supreme Court's Gay Marriage Ruling

A look at how Social Security, taxes and other financial matters will now affect same-sex couples.

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5 Ways to Be More Mindful – and Less Stressed – at Work

How to remain calm and productive when you feel overwhelmed.

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10 Big Retirement Blunders

Don't make these mistakes that could leave you living off ramen noodles in your senior years.

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A CMO’s View: AOL CMO Says Content Marketing Is About Value, Not Advertising

Since being named CMO in January, Allie Kline has led the launch of AOL Platform Studio, its in-house custom content creation division.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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How to Maximize the Value of Abundant Fresh Foods: Lessons from a Gardener and CSA Member

If you find yourself flooded in fresh produce this time of year, here are some strategies to make the most of it. Photo: Amy G

One of the pleasures of the summer season is the abundance of fresh foods available. From early summer through the middle of fall, gardens and fields are producing in such impressive abundance that we can scarcely take it all in.

In fact, in all honestly, it’s too much right now. Between our CSA share (which amounts to a basket of vegetables each week) and the abundance of our personal vegetable garden, we’re actually finding that we’re unable to eat all of the fresh items on our table.

If you consider that it’s very easy for us to also find huge produce sales at every local grocery store as well as at the many roadside fruit and vegetable stands that pop up this time of year, it’s easy to see how a family can end up having more produce than they can eat.

You might ask, “isn’t that expensive?” The truth is that it’s really not that expensive. The vegetables from our gardens are very cheap per pound, as is the basket from our CSA (we kept a running tab on it for a year and found the price to be way below a dollar per pound). Roadside stands around here are selling giant ears of sweet corn and many other vegetables for similarly low prices and the local grocery stores seem to be racing to the bottom on prices for fresh produce. Even the farmers markets are in on the act, with large truckloads of vegetables practically waiting for someone to carry them away.

Sure, this won’t hold true in the winter, but for right now, we can get pounds upon pounds of extremely good produce for pennies.

The thing is, even in the face of this abundance of produce, there’s still no reason to be wasteful. The prices won’t always be this low. In the winter, for example, the only option for fresh produce in the area will be imported stuff at the grocery store, which will be quite expensive.

Not only that, it’s wasteful to simply fail to use this stuff, even if it comes to us at a very low price.

Since this is a “problem” that we face most summers, we’ve developed a pretty sizable arsenal of techniques for dealing with the abundance of produce that the summer and early fall months deliver to us. If you find yourself flooded in produce this time of the year, take these strategies to heart.

Swap with Neighbors and Friends

Whenever you have more produce than you will reasonably use, you should consider sharing that extra produce with neighbors and with friends. Ideally, you can do this in a “swapping” fashion, where they give you some of their extra produce in exchange. For example, you might swap half a dozen ears of sweet corn for a dozen tomatoes, or a box of cucumbers for a bowl of green beans.

Another powerful thing to do with your excess produce is to use them for an informal “gift economy” with your friends and neighbors. Just give the excess to those people close to you. Then, the next time you need a small favor from them, receiving it will be trivial.

I’ll give you an example: We live across the street from a couple with children. They also have a garden and (I believe) they are also members of a CSA. About twice a week, my wife and the woman across the street get together for some exercise and some conversation and they often end up swapping or giving each other things.

Unsurprisingly, our flood of summer produce is part of that exchange. Because of that friendship, we have people who keep an eye on our house when we travel and water our plants. They will also watch our pets when we travel, watch our children in an emergency, loan us tools, help us move around heavy stuff, and son on.

Right near the core of all that is simply giving them our excess produce from the garden. It’s a simple gift that grows into so much more.

Make Simple, Storeable Recipes

If you have extra cabbage, make sauerkraut. All you need is a big crock and some salt, as described here. You can also freeze the sauerkraut instead of canning it.

If you have extra tomatoes, onions, and peppers, make salsa. Chop everything up and combine it to your tastes. Add some cilantro, too. You can keep it in a jar in the refrigerator for quite a long time.

If you have extra tomatoes, onions, peppers, basil, and oregano, make pasta sauce. Just puree some of the tomatoes, then add some chopped-up tomatoes, onions, peppers, oregano, and basil, then boil this at a low boil, stirring regularly, until it thickens up. Thicken it even more for pizza sauce. You can store it in the refrigerator for a while, can it, or freeze it in small containers.

If you have extra tomatoes and oregano, make ketchup. Puree the tomatoes, then boil it down into a paste with some chopped-up oregano (or just add dried oregano later). Add two tablespoons of cider vinegar per half cup of paste (and maybe a bit more to taste), then mix in a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of cumin, a few hefty dashes of dried pepper, and two teaspoons of mustard powder. Add more of the spices if it’s not flavorful enough. This can be stored for ages in a plastic bottle in the refrigerator.

There are so many simple recipes that you can make with summer produce that work as a part of another meal and can be stored on their own. These four are just the start.

Dry Things Out

If you grow a lot of herbs (as we do), you should strongly consider drying them. Drying herbs is easy – you essentially just lay them flat and heat them up to cause the moisture to leave and then you’re left with dried herbs that will last you for months, all throughout the winter.

This even works well with tomatoes and onions. You can powderize the dried onions later to make onion powder if you’d like, and there are countless uses for dried tomatoes. I like to use them as a pizza topping, myself.

You can use a food dehydrator to do this task, but laying the things you want to dry out on a non-stick baking sheet or a sheet covered with parchment paper and baking them in the oven at 200 F will do the trick.

Once the vegetables are dried, you can store them in your pantry in whatever containers are available, from old pickle jars to empty spice containers. As long as it’s clearly labeled and you can find it, the container will work. Plus, there’s nothing that quite beats the fragrance of herbs that you dried and quickly packaged when you open up that container on a cold winter’s day.

Can Your Extras

Canning excess vegetables in glass jars and storing them in your pantry is a great way to store those vegetables for the future. You can can almost any type of vegetable – in my life, I’ve been involved in the process of canning pickled cucumbers, green beans, whole tomatoes, tomato sauce, salsa, pickled peppers, jams, jellies, and probably a dozen more things that I can’t remember.

The process is pretty straightforward, though there are different variations on the process depending on what exactly you’re canning. This “Canning 101″ guide from Real Simple is a great guide to get you started. Mostly, you’ll just need some jars (which are reusable), lids, rings, tools for getting the jars in and out of hot water, and a large pot and/or pressure cooker (depending on what you’re canning). If you want to just try it out in the easiest way possible, this Ball Canning at Home Discovery Kit provides everything you need as long as you have a large pot with which to boil water. You can also expand that kit by merely buying more jars, lids, and rings.

The biggest advantage to home canning, in my eyes, is that you can store the results at room temperature in your pantry. You don’t need a freezer or anything else for the products of home canning. Just label them (I usually just write on the lid with a Sharpie or another magic marker) and store them.

Another advantage is that you can flavor the foods you are canning. You can add a few onion rings, some peppercorns, and a couple garlic cloves to your jar of pickles. You can toss some diced onions into your whole tomatoes. You can make your own homemade salsa or pasta sauce and can it up.

Freeze Your Extras

If you have access to significant freezer space, such as a deep freezer, freezing your extra produce can be a good option as well.

Many vegetables and fruits can be frozen whole. For example, you can simply soak tomatoes in water for a while, then freeze them on a baking sheet. They will become very solid, much like billiard balls, and can be frozen in bags and gently thawed later on.

Fresh produce can also be frozen very well after having been cut up or slightly prepared. Shredded cabbage stores very well, as does diced apples, applesauce, tomato sauce, pasta sauce, and so on.

Another strategy is to use the fresh stuff in preparation of full meals, then freeze those meals. If you make a fresh lasagna using tomatoes and spinach from your garden and you have an abundance of those things, make three or four pans and freeze the extra pans. Pull them out later in the fall when the thought of a slice of lasagna with garden-fresh ingredients sounds amazing.

Donate Your Extras

Almost every food pantry or food bank in the country will happily accept your donations of fresh food and will quickly redistribute them to people who are hungry.

We love doing this on the local level by dropping fresh produce off at our local pantry. Not only does this ensure that the vegetables will get used quickly while they’re still fresh, but we also know that the food will stay in our local community, helping the disadvantaged that live nearby.

Putting some fresh food on a hungry child’s plate is a wonderful way to use the produce that goes above and beyond what you might need.

Make Smoothies

If you find that you’re collecting a lot of extra vegetables and fruits, you’re pretty much begging to turn those things into delicious smoothies.

Personally, I like to mix together a wide variety of things, usually in a 50/50 split between fruits and vegetables (sometimes with a few more vegetables). I’ll sometimes add a bit of ice, a bit of milk, or a squirt of honey, and then I’ll just puree the stuff in our blender.

The end result is a delicious smoothie that will fill up your belly with natural goodness.

If you’ve had too many smoothies already, one strategy is to simply prepare all of the ingredients you’d use to make a couple of smoothies in a freezer container. Label it “smoothie kit” and then pull it out later in the summer or fall or even next spring. Just toss those frozen ingredients in the blender with a splash of milk and a few drops of honey and blend it up.

Turn Edible Scraps Into Stock and Soup Starter

If you have leftovers that are edible, such as the remnants of a bowl of vegetables that you steamed for dinner or the three extra cucumbers that you sliced or the extra head of broccoli that you didn’t need, chop them up into small pieces and combine them all together in a gallon-sized freezer Ziploc bag. Keep that bag in the freezer and keep adding to it until it’s full.

When you have a full bag, it can work great as a soup starter, but what I really like to use it for is for preparing vegetable stock. Just add that bag full of vegetables to a stock pot or to a slow cooker, fill it up with water until you’ve covered the vegetables with at least an inch of water, then turn it on low and let it simmer all day. Add some salt and a handful of peppercorns, too. After several hours, strain the liquid and save it.

That liquid is golden. It works wonderful as the basis for a soup, the liquid ingredient in any casserole you might make, or even as the liquid in a skillet meal. I’ll use it as the liquid in cornbread to make the bread incredibly savory, or even as the liquid in pizza crusts or other kinds of bread. There is nothing that doesn’t get a giant infusion of flavor from vegetable stock.

You can easily freeze this extra stock if you prefer, or you can raise it to a boil and then can it. I tend to find freezing it works much easier, as I’ll put a quart in a freezer container and pop it in the freezer. That’s just about a perfect amount for anything I might want to do with it.

Turn Inedible Scraps Into Compost

What about the pieces that are left over that are inedible (or at least not very tasty at all)? Things like corn cobs, trimmings, and so on?

Those items are perfect for a compost bin. A compost bin is simply a container where you allow organic materials – like plant scraps – to break down so that the material is usable as a fertilizer for future crops. We actually have both a compost barrel and a compost bin in our yard which allows us to process pretty much all of our scraps.

If you don’t have a bin, you can actually compost pretty well in any loosely-lidded container that you can keep outside. Just add your scraps, rotate it regularly, make it moist regularly, and wait until everything inside is kind of mushy and brown. When that happens, you have some of the best fertilizer you can buy for your flowers, garden plants, and other vegetative life on your property.

I do find that chopping up large pieces before you put them in the composter really helps with the speed of composting. Whole corn cobs can take a long time to compost, but if you chop it into small pieces first, it will compost a lot faster.

Save Your Seeds

If you’re careful about the seeds you grow in your own garden – and about the produce you buy – you can save the seeds from those fruits and vegetables and grow them again in the spring, saving you the cost of buying more seeds.

We often buy our seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, which provides non-hybridized seeds. Many of the vegetables you buy at the store have hybridized seeds, which typically means that their seeds won’t grow new plants. Non-hybridized seeds generally will do so, which means that you can grow plants from those seeds.

We often do this with whatever produce is in the greatest abundance. Generally, it involves extracting the seeds from the vegetable and drying them properly. If you’re unsure as to what to do with your specific plant, the information you need is just a Google search away.

Once the seeds are dry, you can store them in ordinary envelopes. Label them with the type, the variety, and the year and you’ll have seeds that you can easily plant the following spring.

Start a Roadside Stand or a Farmers Market

If you’re still flooded in produce… well, that means your garden is working overtime this year. You might want to consider selling the excess at a farmers market or at a roadside stand.

If you have a relatively small amount – less than a truckload, for instance – a farmers market might be the best option. Many farmers markets offer inexpensive spots for sales which you can easily recoup and still make some nice pocket money.

A roadside stand requires some significant setup effort beyond that of a farmers market, but if you have permission and time, almost all of your produce turns into profit.

Both methods are viable ways to turn your excess produce into cash. While this won’t earn a mint for you, it can help you deal with a bumper crop of produce.

Final Thoughts

You never need to waste an ounce of summer produce unless you choose to. There are a ton of options for you to try here and while some may not work for you, most of these strategies will work well for everyone regardless of their situation.

If you’re flooded with produce in the summer months, be smart. Find good ways to put all of that produce to use. If you’re saving it for the winter, look at it as time invested right now to make things easier and less expensive in January.

Just remember, the smarter you are with produce this month, the less you’ll be spending on food this month… and next month… and the month after that. The savings from properly handling a big load of summer produce keeps rolling throughout the year.

Good luck, and may some delicious foods find their way into your pantry, your freezer, your dinner table, and your stomach!

The post How to Maximize the Value of Abundant Fresh Foods: Lessons from a Gardener and CSA Member appeared first on The Simple Dollar.