'Shabby chic' furniture shop puts old items back in style

"Shabby chic" is a trending form of interior design where furniture and furnishings are chosen and reflect their age or appearance of age.The Blu Studio is at the forefront of repurposing items via the distressed look of shabby chic. Located on a quaint corner at 940 Ann St. in Stroudsburg, it is surrounded by other environmentally friendly businesses such as EarthLink and the Potting Shed. It is a unique one-of-a-kind business whose proprietor, Justine Riches, believes in repurposing [...]

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Seminar helps homebuilding companies 'stay relevant'

Those following the homebuilding industry are calling it "The House that Facebook Built."A homebuilder in Georgia apparently is putting out on Facebook every week a poll question to viewers who want to help build its house. There are questions like what color should the garage door be and other questions on colors and décor. The poll question is updated every week related to the construction phase. The answers have been weighed seriously by the builder."There's a whole new [...]

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Deeds Done, Sunday, May 1, 2016

Chestnuthill TownshipRaymond J. and Deborah M. Hine to Theodore Patrick Paolini, Lot 14, Section 2, The Birches West, $227,000Hamilton TownshipFirst Keystone Community Bank to Margaret and Darron Jones, Lot 33, Timber Ridge Subdivision, $230,000Polk TownshipJohn A. Brokaw (Est), James F. Brokaw (Exr) to Kenneth J. Kochanowski and Alisha M. Guerin, Lot 1A, "Preliminary final plan subdivision of lands of [...]

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Ballet dance instructor looks to raise the bar

Brodheadsville teen Taylor DeHaven wants to be a ballerina when she grows up, and she’s already well on her way there. She thanks dance instructor Myriah Harper for helping her follow her dream and hone in on her craft. And now Harper is about to embark on a new journey – dance school ownership.Currently known as Elite Dance Center in Sciota, Harper is in the process of taking over the facility and changing the name to Pocono Academy of Dance.“We’re [...]

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Women's Education Fair to help direct career goals

The Women’s Education Fair – Women Taking Positive Action to Achieve Success takes place 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at Northampton Community College’s Monroe Campus in Tannersvile.The fair is free for all women of Monroe County and sponsored by the Greater Pocono Chamber of Commerce’s Education Committee, Northampton Community College and College Cash Consulting.The fair is driven by the premise that education is the key to financial stability, [...]

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12 Cheap Plant-Based Meals That Our Family Enjoys All the Time

Like every other American family with three children in the home, our family is busy. It seems like there’s something going on practically every night, which means that having a family dinner can sometimes be a struggle. We can usually find a window of opportunity where we’re all at home at the same time most nights, but finding an opportunity for someone to prepare that meal… that ends up being even more challenging.

At the same time, our family is pretty careful about our spending (for the most part). We try to avoid eating out very often, both due to the expense and due to the relative unhealthiness of the food at most restaurants.

Our solution to those problems is that we try to make quick meals at home with a plant-based focus. I am a practicing vegetarian on the advice of a dietitian who recommended it to me for health reasons, “cheating” only to eat fish about once a month. The rest of my family is omnivorous, but our meals tend to swing heavily toward fruits and vegetables with some dairy products and grains.

To aid in this, we have a roster of a few dozen meals that we eat pretty regularly. These are recipes that Sarah and I can both easily prepare almost without thinking. They also each afford a lot of room for substitution in a pinch, meaning you don’t have to have exact ingredients to pull off a pretty good meal. That gives us some flexibility in shopping for groceries.

Here are twelve of our favorites among those meals. In a given month, it’s very likely that we’ll have all of these meals at least once for our family dinner. Each of them is presented in both a vegetarian version and a version incorporating meat, save the one meal that includes fish.

Rather than just duplicating recipes, I’m going to link to recipes at other sites that are similar to what we prepare and provide some of muy specific notes on those recipes.

Hopefully, these ideas inspire you to prepare more meals at home with your family!

Pasta with Simple Marinara Sauce

This one’s so easy that I don’t really need to link to a recipe. We simply cook up a box of pasta according to the package directions, drain it, cover it with a simple marinara sauce, and serve it with some cooked vegetables on the side. We usually eat flash-frozen vegetables in the late fall, winter, and early spring and fresh vegetables from the garden during other times of the year.

Rather than using premade sauce, however, I usually just make my own while the pasta is cooking. I’ll grab a saucepan, add a bit of oil and then some diced onions and peppers and let them cook over high heat until they’re brown. If we have fresh onions and peppers, I’ll use those; otherwise, I’ll just take a handful out of a bag of flash-frozen onions and peppers from the freezer. I’ll usually add a garlic clove or three here, too.

Then, when they’re brown, I’ll drop the heat down to medium or so and add some diced tomatoes – fresh if they’re in season, a single can of diced tomatoes if they’re not – along with whatever spices I have on hand that are appropriate, such as oregano and basil, along with a few dashes of salt. I let this cook for a few minutes, stirring regularly, until it’s nice and warm, and then serve it directly over the cooked pasta.

Of course, you can always get pasta sauce from a jar, but this is less expensive (especially when the vegetables are in season) and tastes better, and I’m usually just standing around while the pasta is cooking anyway.

If you want meat in your sauce, that’s easy – just cook half a pound of ground beef or Italian sausage along with the onions and peppers and garlic. Cook until it’s brown, then add the other ingredients.

Slow Cooker Vegetarian “Chili”

I put “chili” in quotes here because different regions of the country have vastly different definitions of what constitutes “chili.” For us, chili simply means a thick soup that contains beans and chili peppers or chili powder, along with other ingredients at the person’s discretion. Others have more specific definitions.

We often make our version of chili in the slow cooker by tossing in those ingredients at the start. I’ll usually start the night before, cooking dry beans in the slow cooker overnight. In the morning, I’ll drain the beans, then add diced tomatoes (fresh in season, canned out of season), diced onions and peppers (fresh in season, flash frozen out of season), diced dried chili peppers or chili powder (depending on what’s on hand), garlic, a bit of cumin, a few dashes of salt, and whatever else I feel like at the moment.

We never make the same exact chili twice. I might add some ale one time. The next time, a handful of chocolate chips go in. The time after that, I’ll use plenty of black pepper. It’s good every time.

As always, you can make this a “meaty” chili by cooking up a pound of ground beef and adding this to the slow cooker along with the other ingredients in the morning.

Grilled “Packet Meals”

This is one of our favorite summer meals. It’s a tool we use to deal with the flood of vegetables coming from our garden.

All we do is chop up whatever vegetables are coming in right then – tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc. – along with some spices, some butter, and an ice cube. If you want to add meat, you can – add it uncooked.

Set out the various vegetables and meats in bowls by themselves along with some spices (we usually just have a container of spice mix), then give each person a rectangular piece of aluminum foil. They just simply add whatever ingredients they want to the center of the foil, then fold it up into a packet. You need to include some butter or an ice cube, too. I usually double up the foil, wrapping my packet in a second layer.

Then, just toss it on the grill or the fire. Let it cook for ten or fifteen minutes or so. You don’t need to be perfectly accurate here, though if there’s meat in there you want to be sure the meat is cooked.

When it’s done, open up the packet and enjoy. Some of the vegetables on the outer layer may be cooked onto the foil if you didn’t include enough butter or ice, but it’s usually a small portion and you can eat around it.

Slow Cooker Lasagna

I’ve actually discussed this recipe before, in my earlier article entitled Our Family’s Eight Favorite Slow Cooker Recipes. It’s also very straightforward – notice a theme here?

You’ll need some marinara sauce – I often make my own, as described at the start of this post, but you can use a big jar of your choice – along with some vegetables and/or cooked meat (I usually use spinach for this layer), some cheese (shredded mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan, whatever you like), and some uncooked lasagna noodles.

Just rub some olive oil all over the inside of your slow cooker in the morning, then add a quarter of your marinara sauce, then a layer of uncooked noodles, then a quarter of your vegetables and/or meat, then a quarter of your cheese. Repeat this four times, right on top of your previous layers, and you’re done. Easy enough. Turn the slow cooker on low and do your business for the day.

When you get home, turn off the slow cooker. You’re going to want this to rest without active heat for about an hour – or as close as you can to that. If you serve it immediately, it’s going to be runny; if you give it time, it cools a bit and “sets up” so that it’s easier to serve.

The house smells tremendous when you do this. There are few things better than strolling back in the house in the late afternoon when this has been slowly cooking all day.

Grilled Fish and Vegetables

My one “cheat” on my vegetarian diet is that I occasionally eat fish. This has a lot to do with the culture in which I was raised. My father was a commercial fisherman and occasionally still does it on a very small scale. He often gives us fish from his catches.

Our favorite (and very easy) way to prepare the fish is to cook fillets on the grill. I’ll just take one of the grill racks, cover it in aluminum foil, spray it with a little bit of vegetable oil, and then turn on the heat. I cook the fish right on that aluminum foil, sprinkling it with garlic, butter, salt, black pepper, and lemon juice as it cooks and flipping it to the other side. It’s done when the fish flakes effortlessly with a fork.

We’ll usually accompany that with some vegetables that we cook right on the aluminum foil alongside the fish. Usually, we’ll just cook whatever’s on sale at the grocery store or else whatever’s fresh from our garden – right now, for example, we have tons of asparagus.

Monk Bowls

A “monk bowl” is something I described in a classic Simple Dollar post. It’s a delicious, simple, and supremely flexible meal.

In the broadest sense, a “monk bowl” is simply a protein, a vegetable, a grain, and a sauce layered in a bowl, with each of those categories pretty loosely defined. For example, you might have rice, broccoli, beans, and soy sauce. Or you might have tofu, quinoa, red bell peppers, and teriyaki sauce. Or you might have chicken, broccoli, rice, and barbecue sauce. Anything goes.

A “monk bowl” is something we make whenever we have extras of a particular protein or a particular vegetable due to a store sale. We’ll cook them appropriately, set out the ingredients for everyone, and let everyone assemble their own bowl.

Believe it or not, this actually works pretty well for a picnic. Just bring the ingredients in sealed containers along with bowls and forks/spoons/chopsticks for everyone and a few extra utensils for serving and let everyone assemble their own bowls on site.

Grilled Black Bean Burgers and Vegetables

We love to have burgers on the grill when the weather is nice – both black bean burgers and beef burgers. Beef burgers are easy – just grab a pound of ground beef, shape it into patties, and grill it up!

For black bean burgers, prepackaged ones are okay, but it’s pretty easy to make your own. Just cook up some black beans in advance or else pop open two cans of black beans and strain them. Take the cooked beans and mash them with a fork until they’re mostly mush but with some partial beans. Add a cup of breadcrumbs, a raw egg, whatever spices you want, and some minced onion and mix it together. It should be really thick – if it’s not, add more breadcrumbs. You want these patties to hold together! Then just grill ‘em for a while. I usually grill them just as long as ordinary beef burgers.

Along with the burgers, we also cook a foil packet of whatever vegetables happen to be on sale that week or are fresh from the garden. We usually spray a bit of olive oil on a sheet of aluminum foil, put the vegetables on there, add a few spices, add an ice cube or a pat of butter, and wrap the whole thing up and toss it on the grill for a bit longer than the burgers.

It’s such a simple and flavorful meal that we practically overdo it during the summer months as we have this meal a couple times a week!

Slow Cooker Vegetable Soup

On the other end of the seasonal scale, this is a meal that we have a couple times a week during the winter months.

Vegetable soup is incredibly simple. You can literally make it out of any vegetables and beans and grains that you happen to have around. You can make it with rice or with quinoa or black beans. You can make it with carrots or tomatoes or squash or kale. Whatever’s available to you is perfect.

One thing we often do for our vegetable soup is to save our extra cooked vegetables from meals. We often serve very lightly seasoned vegetables as a side dish with our meals, and the remnants of that are saved in a freezer bag, along with all of the other vegetable remnants. When it’s full, we just dump the whole thing in the slow cooker, add some water and a few seasonings, and let it cook for an hour or two. (You can also make vegetable stock this way; when I do that, I let it cook for a lot of hours, then run it through a strainer to get rid of big pieces and save that liquid for future soups and stews).

Of course, you can make vegetable soup out of whatever vegetables and grains and beans happen to be on sale that week. Just chop them up, spice them a little, and toss them in the slow cooker (if you’re using dry beans, it may require a little more cooking).

What if you want meat? Add a pound of ground beef to the mix. It’ll turn out quite delicious.

Enchiladas

An enchilada is simply a corn tortilla wrapped around some ingredients and covered with a chili sauce. Although I prefer corn tortillas, we sometimes use flour tortillas as our children are not fans of corn tortillas.

Again, enchiladas are really easy. All you need is a container of enchilada sauce (I don’t try to make this on my own after several bad attempts), some tortillas, something to put in the middle (see below), a bit of cheese for a topping, and a 9″ by 13″ pan.

For the ingredients in the middle, just use what you have. Almost any beans and vegetables and rice will do. We usually just use whatever’s on sale – potatoes, tomatoes, onions, black beans, rice, and so on. Almost any kind of cooked meat will work here, too. We usually season this stuff with some hot peppers and a bit of enchilada sauce mixed right into the contents.

Just take a scoop of this mixture, put it right in the middle of a tortilla, and wrap it into an open-ended cylinder. Make a bunch of these, then pour a little bit of enchilada sauce in the pan and put the enchiladas right on top. Put a bit more enchilada sauce right on top, sprinkle a bit of cheese on that, and then bake it at 350 F for about 30 minutes. Let it sit for about 5 minutes after removing it from the oven and enjoy.

We usually have these whenever we accumulate enough ingredients from sales – tortillas and enchilada sauce, namely.

Stir Fry

Our “stir fry” is really simple, too. We just take whatever vegetables are on sale – bell peppers, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, whatever – and chop them up a bit. Then, we cook them quickly over very high heat to sear them and then serve it over cooked rice. I usually just do this in a big skillet, where I get it really hot before tossing in the vegetables.

As with the other recipes, feel free to cook your meat of choice along with this – bits of steak, chicken, shrimp, and so on on work really well here.

You can use a sauce if you’d like. It’s not necessary but it can add a distinct flavor. I generally pick up a bottle or two of sauce when they’re on sale – notice, again, that the key part to many of our meals is buying ingredients when they’re on sale.

“Breakfast for Supper”

This is a meal our children request constantly, so we have it fairly regularly. It’s another simple one, as they all are. We simply make breakfast and serve it as our evening meal.

This usually involves scrambled eggs (cooked in one big batch for the whole family, some fresh fruit (whatever fruit is on sale combined into a medley), some cooked potatoes with onions and peppers, and some toast. Sometimes we’ll have pancakes instead of the potatoes – again, this is all guided by sale prices.

Scrambling eggs is easy – just crack several eggs in a bowl, mix them thoroughly, add half a teaspoon of salt, mix that in thoroughly, and let it sit for ten minutes or so. Then add the mix to a pan that’s already been heated over medium heat with a bit of butter in it and keep turning the eggs over and over so that they don’t stick and cook. I pull them off of the heat just before they seem “done” and let them finish cooking at the table.

The potatoes are really easy – we just cook diced potatoes and diced onions and peppers all in one skillet until they taste right, tossing them regularly.

If you’d like some meat along with this, sausage and bacon are both completely appropriate here and easy to cook.

Breakfast for supper usually happens when there’s a sale on eggs coupled with fruit sales.

Taco Bar

The twelfth and final meal I want to mention is the “taco bar,” which happens when we set out a bunch of taco ingredients on the table for dinner. Usually, we prep a lot of them into little bowls in the morning, cover them, and pop them in the fridge – things like onions and lettuce and diced tomatoes and salsa and guacamole.

I usually eat black bean tacos, but you can make whatever protein you like the centerpiece of your taco. Cook up some ground beef and season it as you like, perhaps with a taco seasoning.

At the end of this meal, we usually just combine all of the remaining ingredients into one bowl for use as a “taco salad” for the next day or two, which brings me to my final point…

Bonus: Leftover Smorgasbord

Approximately twice a week, our dinner consists of a “leftover smorgasbord.” For that meal, we simply pull all of the leftovers out of the fridge and let people assemble their own meals from those items. If things need to be heated, you just make a plate with things that need heated and microwave that plate, then add cold things after that.

You can certainly end up with some strange combinations on leftover night. This is particularly true for me, since I’ll often choose last and just eat whatever’s there, resulting in scrambled eggs next to some vegetable soup next to some taco salad. It’s odd, for sure, but it’s usually fine and you sometimes end up with some interesting flavor combinations.

Not only that, this ensures that no food goes to waste, plus it makes for a really convenient and quick dinner as everyone can be eating within eight to ten minutes of walking in the door.

Final Thoughts

These meals aren’t the only things that we eat, but they do provide the backbone for a lot of meals in our home. Sarah and I can both prepare these meals almost without thinking. Most of them are pretty flexible. They also all tend to rely on ingredients that are on sale at the store, making them pretty cheap, and they’re all plant-based, making them at least somewhat healthy.

These meals are as close as we can get to the trifecta of cheap, healthy, and fast. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close, and that’s good for our family.

If you want to take home two ideas from this post, take home these.

First, flexible recipes that can be modified with whatever is on sale at the store are great. Most of our recipes fall into that category. We can modify them on the fly to work with whatever we happen to have, and that saves us a lot of cash.

Second, having a couple dozen meals you can cook almost without thinking in a short period of time makes family meal preparation a lot easier. It’s well worth the time to master a few simple recipes so that you can do them on autopilot.

Hopefully, these ideas inspire cheap, healthy, and quick meals for you and your family. Good luck!

The post 12 Cheap Plant-Based Meals That Our Family Enjoys All the Time appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Is Building a New Home a Better Deal Than Buying an Existing One?

Just the other day, a friend of mine argued that building a new home is more cost efficient than buying an existing property.

Her new home is almost finished, and will be move-in ready in about three weeks — so she’s understandably excited. Plus, she said, she’ll be saving all kinds of money because she built.

While I understood her excitement, I found that part puzzling. Was building a new home really cheaper? Please say it isn’t so.

She went on to explain that her new home came with a warranty on its construction and individual components, which would save her money if her home had any structural defects.

“Plus, I won’t have to replace a roof or an air conditioner for a decade,” she said. Since everything in her new house would be straight from the box, she felt sheltered from many of the surprise costs of home ownership we all complain about.

Why Building Usually Costs More

I wanted to dig deeper, so I reached out to an array of experts on the topic. As I suspected, there is no hard and fast rule. Just like the “rent versus buy” conundrum, the cost of building versus buying depends on a number of factors – some of which aren’t even in our control.

Still, the numbers don’t really lie. According to the National Association of Home Builders, the median price of a new home in the United States was $301,400 in February of 2016, while the median price of an existing home was $212,300.

That disparity can be explained at least partially by the idea that those who build new are often investing in larger and more luxurious homes. The median age of an existing, owner-occupied home in the U.S. is 37 years old, according to the NAHB. Back when such a house was built, around 1979, the median size of a newly constructed home was 1,645 square feet. In 2014, the median-sized new home was up to 2,453 square feet. A home that’s nearly 50% bigger is certainly going to cost more.

However, most experts concur that building new simply costs more on the front end. Here are a few reasons why:

Builder profits: Any new build is going to include some expectation for profit, which is part of the reason building a home costs more than buying an existing one, says founder of Beacon Real Estate, Stephen Maury.

“One contributing factor is the profit margin that a homebuilder will necessarily tack on to their cost of construction,” says Maury. “Sellers of older homes are less concerned with replacement costs than they are with capturing a profit on their investment,” he says. “Also, those homeowners will have benefited from value appreciation in the years since they built or purchased their home.”

More stringent energy policies or building codes: One instance where building new can cost more is when codes and rules have changed over the years, says Maury. “Depending on the age of the existing home, new homes may be required to be built to a more stringent energy code, to withstand higher winds, or at a higher elevation based on new FEMA projections for flood risks.”

Then, there are upgrades that are voluntary. One current trend is building “green,” or environmentally friendly homes, says Andrew Leff, national builder executive for Bank of America. Many newly-built homes come with energy certifications covering everything from roofs to appliance packages, while many existing homes were originally built to lower standards.

Then again, investing in an energy-friendly home could be a better long-term investment, says Leff. “While environmentally-friendly homes may cost more upfront to build, it could save you more money in the long run in terms of energy bills.”

The cost of land: When you buy an existing home, the cost of land comes with it. Buying a new home, on the other hand, generally means hunting down the perfect plot first. And that can be expensive, says Yariv Bensira of real estate firm Hyde Capital and investment management firm Lennox Companies.

“From my experience, if you’re looking to buy or build in a high demand area, the cost of purchasing land and then having to build a new home is more expensive than buying an existing home,” says Bensira. “The cost of the land [by itself] might be comparable to or near the cost of an existing home, so if you add in the building costs, permits, and time involved, you’re looking at a much more expensive proposition.”

The rising costs of materials: Where an existing home – and especially an older home – was built with materials that were purchased long ago, new homes require new materials that can be a lot more expensive.

“Building materials and building costs keep increasing,” says real estate investor Mark Ferguson of Invest Four More. “Building permits get more expensive.” While these costs can vary from home to home, increasing supply costs have a tendency to drive up prices for new homes across the board.

The Hidden Costs of Building a New Home

In addition to the many known and common costs that make building a new home an expensive proposition, a slew of hidden costs can also drive up the price of building. While some of these expenses are obvious if you really think about them, they still catch people off guard from time to time – and can send your building budget straight out the window.

What are some of these hidden costs? The experts weigh in:

• Window coverings: “These usually come with an existing home, but can add up quickly if you have a lot of windows or if any are custom,” says real estate investor and consultant Eilene Wollslager.
• Landscaping: “Most new builds either do not include landscaping, or only include front landscaping,” says Wollslager. “Depending on the size of your lawn and the detail of landscaping, this can add thousands of dollars.”
• Random incidentals: There are always the unexpected costs, says Wollslager. These “extras” can include things like picture hanging supplies, decorating items (your old ones never seem to fit the style of the brand-new home), additional cable and electric outlets (they never seem to be where you thought they should go), extra keys and garage door openers. “There are always myriad small expenses that if you add them together can mount to a sizable expenditure,” she says. “Since these don’t always happen all at once, they often get overlooked as part of the expense.”
• Furniture: If you’re building a bigger house, you might be surprised at how much more furniture you need. And whether you really need more furniture or not, you might find that your old pieces don’t work that well in your new place.
• Upgraded finishes: “The biggest surprise cost in building a new home in a city usually appears with custom upgrades,” says Oregon realtor Kim Crieger. Add in the fact that most builders put in the least expensive paint, plumbing, and flooring at first. Whether you want to upgrade those finishes now or down the line, you’ll need to pay for them.
• Driveways: With a country property especially, the most common unexpected expense is road and/or driveway building, says Crieger. “This usually costs far more than buyers anticipate, and is often taken for granted.”
• Fences: If you want any expectation of privacy and have close neighbors, building a fence might be a necessity. Depending on the type and size of the fence, this can add several thousand dollars or more to the cost of building a new home.

And the list goes on and on. Depending on the size, location, and geography of your home, you could be on the hook for anything from custom sprinkler systems to alarm systems. At the end of the day, there is no limit to the “extras” you might find you need when you build a new home from scratch.

The Bottom Line

As with anything else, the difference in cost between building a new home and buying an existing one depends on a whole host of factors. The size and type of home you’re interested in will surely play a part, along with the location you hope to end up in.

To weigh the pros and cons of each option, Maury suggests sifting through some of your options and potential costs with a real estate broker. Start by searching available homes for sale. Then, once you find one you like, look for available lots where you might be able to build a similar home.

If you’re intrigued by the idea of building a home, talk to a contractor and ask about having a new home built in a similar style to the one you like. Find out the price per square foot of the construction, add in the cost of the land, and then compare the total to the cost of similar existing homes. Just make sure you’re taking into account everything that might be involved, including some of the hidden and unexpected expenses people don’t always plan for.

Either way, don’t listen to realtors, builders, or even friends who say one way is definitely cheaper than the other. With so many factors at play, it’s impossible for anyone to know with certainty. Building a cheaper starter home might be less expensive for one person, while buying an existing home and then adding custom upgrades could cause another person’s housing budget to explode.

At the end of the day, it pays to err on the side of caution and run all the numbers on your own. Whether building or buying, the best decision you can make is an informed one.

Have you ever built a home? If so, what are some surprise expenses to plan for? Which do you think is more expensive – building or buying?

Related Articles:

• Why You Should Buy Less House Than You Can Afford
• The Challenge of Moving to a Smaller Home
• Seven Costly Surprises That Ambushed Our Remodeling Budget

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Want to Work from Home? Better Think About These Hidden Costs First

Whether you’re opening up shop as a freelancer or telecommuting as an employee, when you start working from home, you often think of all the money you’ll save.

No more commutes! No more business casual! No more $12 sandwiches!

Well, I’ve worked from home for four years now, and I’ll tell you it’s delightful to not have to commute and wear special clothes.

However, I also know working from home comes with a lot of hidden costs.

You’re not just saving $12 on a fast-casual sandwich; you’re also buying extra groceries so you can eat lunch at home.

You’re saving on the daily commute, but you’re also paying to travel downtown and meet with clients.

Here are nine of the biggest hidden work-from-home costs, as well as tips on how to avoid them.

1. Computers, Laptops and Smartphones

Nearly all of us use our personal computers, laptops and smartphones for occasional business, like checking email in the evenings.

Once you start working from home, those devices become essential tools for communicating with bosses, coworkers and clients — and those tools need to work just as hard as you do.

If your laptop or smartphone is old and slow, you’re probably going to want to replace it.

You don’t want to be the team member who can’t join the Google Hangout because your laptop keeps crashing. (True story!)

Keeping up with the latest technology can be a huge hidden work-from-home cost, but those purchases can also be significant tax deductions for freelancers and independent contractors. Talk to your tax adviser to learn more.

You can actually avoid some upgrade costs by taking excellent care of the tech you already have.

Practice good computer hygiene, and keep your tools free of both crumbs and viruses. Lifehack has eight tips to help you keep your tech going for as long as possible.

2. High-Speed Internet

Sometimes you can’t join the Google Hangout because your laptop is too old — and sometimes you can’t join because your internet’s too slow.

A lot of us already have high-speed internet at home, but if you don’t, you’ll quickly learn it’s practically a necessity for today’s fast-paced work-at-home environment.

Upgrading your internet speed comes at a cost, but you might be able to deduct a percentage of it on your taxes.

Keep records of how often you use your internet connection for business and personal use, and share those records with your tax adviser.

3. Office Supplies

Even though we live in an online world, you’re going to need some basic office supplies.

I go through notebooks and sticky notes very quickly, and I also use office supplies many people probably don’t already have in the house, like bankers boxes.

You may need to buy software, a new lamp or a chair you can handle sitting in all day long. Office supplies can be so expensive, we’ve got an entire post with tips for saving money on home office gear.

Here’s one more tip: If you live near a FedEx Office or print shop, do your printing and faxing there instead of buying your own printer and fax machine — but first, make sure the per-page costs are worth it for the amount of printing you need.

If you already have a printer, you can earn back some of the costs by selling your used ink cartridges.

4. Food

You might assume working from home will save you money on food costs because you won’t be tempted to go out to eat every day.

Instead of saving money by packing a lunch, you can save money by opening your refrigerator.

The problem? There has to be something in your refrigerator.

Unless you stay on top of your grocery shopping and meal planning, you’re going to end up ordering takeout or heading to the nearest coffee shop for another $12 sandwich and $5 cappuccino.

When you work from home, plan your lunches and leftovers just like you were planning to take them to work.

After all, the same basic conditions apply: When lunchtime rolls around, you’re going to want something you can quickly put together that tastes great. If that’s not what’s in your fridge, you’re going to end up paying extra for prepared food — just like you would at the office.

Same goes for dinner, by the way. Doing those evening grocery runs is a little harder if you work from home.

You’re not stopping at the grocery store on the way home from work. Instead, you’re finishing your workday, going to the grocery store and coming back home.

Some nights, it’ll seem like too much trouble — or you’ll be too hungry — and you’ll just order takeout. (Trust me, I’ve been there.)

So keep your kitchen stocked and learn how to plan and prep meals in bulk. You want to always have food when you need it, without spending work hours on cooking and cleanup.

5. Exercise

I started my freelance career in a tiny apartment, where my “home office” was a desk three feet from my bed.

Guess how many steps I took in a typical day?

Once I got my FitBit and committed to a regular exercise routine, more than 10,000. If I weren’t tracking my steps, it might have been a lot closer to 2,000.

FitBits aren’t free, and neither are gym memberships, yoga classes, running shoes or any of the other accessories and tools we use to stay fit.

If you’re an employee working from home, you may still have access to company benefits like reduced gym memberships. If you’re a freelancer or independent contractor, those costs are all on you.

If you’re looking to save money on workouts, we have some low-budget, high-impact ideas.

6. Travel

Travel is the biggest line item in my freelance budget.

Even if you’re not the kind of person who regularly flies across the country to speak at conventions and conferences, you’re still going to find yourself on the road more than you realize.

Those little trips to visit the office or meet a client add up, even if you’re only traveling a few miles.

Here’s a quick example of the costs involved in a standard hour-long “meet a client” trip.

First, you need to pay to get there (car, bus, Uber). If you have a car, you probably need to pay for parking. If you’re meeting the client at a coffee shop, you’re paying for your coffee and maybe even the client’s, depending on the relationship.

Yes, you can deduct many of your travel expenses if you’re a freelancer or independent contractor (as always, talk to your tax adviser to learn what you can and can’t deduct).

However, travel is also costly because it prevents you from getting your other work done.

If you live in an urban area, an hour-long client meeting can easily stretch to three hours when you count transportation both ways. That’s a big chunk of the workday — gone.

If you’re a salaried employee working from home, you got paid for those hours. If you’re a freelancer, you probably didn’t — and you’ll have to figure out how to make up the cost of your time.

7. Social Activities

When you work at an office, going home feels like a relaxing end to the day.

When you work from a home office, sometimes you feel like you’ll only relax if you go somewhere else!

Some people who work from home find they spend more money going out with friends, taking evening classes or just getting out of the house.

Other people are happy to be homebodies and don’t mind seeing the same four walls day in and day out.

Know which person you are more likely to be, and adjust your budget accordingly.

8. Professional Development

Think of professional development as “social activities that help your career.”

If you do professional development right, you meet new people and build your skills at the same time — and both of those benefits will help you land your next job or new client.

But — you guessed it — professional development costs money.

Employees may get a little help from their employers, but you still may end up paying for the cost of the course, the transportation to get there, the drink or coffee with your new friends after the course is over, and so on.

You also may want to buy a new outfit, print new business cards and make yourself as professional as possible before your activity begins.

You don’t want to avoid professional development costs completely, but you can make sure you’re spending in the right way.

Before you sign up for an event, thoroughly research it.

Is the event going to add to your skillset? Who else attends these events, and are they at the same career level as you? Are there YouTube videos of previous events? Reviews?

Even something as simple as “how many Twitter followers an event has” can help you determine whether this professional development opportunity will be worth your time.  

9. Missing Out on Tax Deductions

I’ve mentioned tax deductions a few times already, but I want to give them an entire section.

If you don’t take advantage of all your available tax deductions, you’re leaving money on the table — money you earned, by the way.

Your laptop, smartphone, internet package, office supplies, travel expenses, professional development costs, home office’s square footage, even the electricity your home office uses — all of these items have the potential to be tax deductions.

They also have the potential to not be tax deductions, depending on your situation, so talk to a tax professional to find out what you can deduct.

If you’re a freelancer or independent contractor, your deductions are likely to be more significant, but even employees who work from home can often deduct some home office expenses.

Your Turn: What are your biggest work-from-home expenses? What advice do you have for other telecommuters and freelancers who want to keep their costs down?

Nicole Dieker is a freelance writer focusing on personal finance and personal stories. Her work has appeared in The Billfold, The Toast, Yearbook Office, The Write Life and Boing Boing.

The post Want to Work from Home? Better Think About These Hidden Costs First appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Why I Fired My CPA

By Jan Pinnington Not all business relationships are mutually beneficial, and sometimes, no matter how much you may like the person you are working with, there comes a time when saying goodbye is the right thing to do. Working through my incubator, I was given a list of local bookkeeping and CPA contacts to help […]

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Mount Pocono resident gets the call

TOBYHANNA — A second lieutenant assigned to Tobyhanna Army Depot in 1955 who rose to become the depot’s second deputy commander is among the first group to be inducted into the U.S. Army Communications–Electronics Command’s (CECOM) Hall of Fame.Mount Pocono resident Mason Linn, who served as civilian executive assistant (or CEA, now called deputy commander) from 1970 to 1990, was one of five former Army officers and civilians inducted on April 7. The CECOM [...]

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I Want This Job: Run Snapchat for WOW air and Travel the World for Free

Fire up your emoji keyboard and start picking out the best filter for your travel selfies.

If Snapchat has stolen your heart (sorry, Instagram), maybe it’s time to take your relationship to the next level: traveling around the world.

Oh, and get paid for it, too.

Icelandic discount carrier WOW air is hiring four “SnapTravelers” to travel the world this summer.

Each will visit four of the airline’s destinations for free — flights and hotels included, plus an excursions and travel allowance that depends on your destination. The trips last three to eight days, and each SnapTraveler will visit Iceland for one of their trips.

While on the road, you’ll take over WOW’s Snapchat account (wow-air) to share adventures, beautiful views, and probably a lot of food photos. “You will gain massive social media exposure and some priceless memories,” WOW promises. Also: Potential jet lag for your entire summer.

To apply, create a two-minute Snapchat story (it’s gotta be in English) and upload it on the official contest site.

WOW is looking for “someone creative, ambitious and fun with a passion for travel, good Snapchat storytelling abilities and of course, the WOW factor,” according to the SnapTraveler page.

But think fast: your Snap story is due May 8. Winners will be announced on WOW’s social media accounts on Tuesday, May 17.

What’s Up With WOW air

WOW, easily recognizable with its magenta planes, is a newer airline, founded in 2011 and serving 28 destinations in the U.S. and Europe. One of the major perks of flying on WOW is their free stopover option, where you can visit Iceland for a few days on the way to your destination.

There are a few trade-offs for flying cheap on WOW — you won’t find seat-back TVs, gratis snacks or free WiFi on these flights. But those amenities will be long forgotten if you get chosen to travel for free!

The Snapchat contest does have one obvious catch: if you don’t live near one of WOW’s destinations, you’ll have to foot the bill to get to the closest airport WOW flies from to board your flight.

There’s no word on whether winners will be expected to adhere to the airline’s strict baggage rules — which we’re guessing is one of the ways they make up the cash you save on your ridiculously cheap trans-Atlantic flights.

But you may as well pack light if you’re one of the chosen SnapTravelers. Carrying luggage is just a drag, and let’s be honest, you’ll need both hands for all those emojis.

Your Turn: Where in the world would you most want to snap from?

Lisa Rowan is a writer, editor and podcaster living in Washington, D.C. She thinks Keflavik Airport is a fine place for a stopover.

The post I Want This Job: Run Snapchat for WOW air and Travel the World for Free appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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10 Fields Where the Glass Ceiling Isn't Even Cracked

Women in America have come a long way, well, in certain occupations. Learn more about fields where the glass ceiling isn't cracked at HowStuffWorks.

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10 Fields Where the Glass Ceiling Isn't Even Cracked

Women in America have come a long way, well, in certain occupations. Learn more about fields where the glass ceiling isn't cracked at HowStuffWorks.

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

This Site Could Help You Decide If That New Job is a Good Fit

As a young girl, you might’ve wished for a fairy godmother.

As a working woman, though, you might wish for a fairy godboss. Or rather, a boss who understands work-life balance.

And if you want kids, a company that offers generous parental leave and a career that won’t force you to pay the motherhood penalty.

It’s not as though you can wave your magic wand and find all those qualities though; you need input from women in similar situations.

Enter Fairygodboss.

The Best Companies for Working Women

“We believe it should be easier for women to get the scoop about companies and jobs from other women,” the site says.

“Our professional community reviews and crowdsources information so you can learn what women are paid, the hours they work, and whether they believe their company is fair.”

The Fairygodboss database includes more than 9,000 employers and 21,000 reviews and tips, co-founder Georgene Huang told me in an email.

In addition to profiles of each employer, the site uses the data to generate a list of the companies where women are happiest.

Rankings are based on answers to the question: “How would you summarize your overall experience?” Companies are only eligible for the list once they have at least 30 reviews, according to Huang.

The list is updated daily. As I write this post, the top 10 companies are:

1. Salesforce

2. Apple

3. Accenture

4. Google

5. PricewaterhouseCoopers

6. Vanguard Group

7. McKinsey & Company

8. Cisco Systems

9. Deloitte

10. Microsoft

You can click on any of the companies for more information on why women love them. The profile pages include written reviews about company culture, plus stats on benefits like vacation and parental leave.

Although the site is aimed at women, I also want to point out men would probably be pretty happy at any of these companies, too — especially if they’re caregivers.

Looking for more resources for working women?

Check out these posts:

• This Entrepreneur Helps Moms Find Remote Jobs and Make More Money

• Sick of the Wage Gap? In These 10 Careers, Women Earn MORE Than Men

• These Moms Make $100,000 a Year. Here’s What You Can Learn From Them

• Want to Work at Home, But Don’t Know Where to Start? Read This…

Your Turn: Are you a working woman who loves your company? Tell us about it!

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

The post This Site Could Help You Decide If That New Job is a Good Fit appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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The $100,000 Challenge: March Update

We finally finished the last month of the $100,000 challenge. March was an awesome month for Nutrition Secrets. Not only did the traffic grow to 218,811 visitors, but revenue did too—it went up to $121,492.65.

It wasn’t hard to hit the revenue goals as we had enough fish oil in stock, plus we started to generate money from affiliate sales.

So let’s dive right in…

Traffic

Compared to February, the traffic went up to 218,811 visitors and 269,814 pageviews. The increase was only 18,102, which isn’t much.

But considering that the popularity of nutrition and fitness sites is cyclical (January and February are most popular) and that Mike didn’t blog much on NutritionSecrets.com in March, it wasn’t too bad.

Overall, Mike has slowed down on the blogging front. Over the next few months, he wants to try a few fun content formats such as infographics and wants to see what happens if we were to dump a few hundred grand into the blog. It won’t be much of an experiment at that point, but we are just curious to see if we can get the blog to a million visitors a month.

Nonetheless, the traffic isn’t performing too badly. Even in April, the traffic has been on an upward trend while little to no effort has been put into the blog since the challenge has been over.

Revenue

The revenue is a bit more complicated to breakdown as it is coming from two sources now: Amazon and affiliates.

In March, revenue from Amazon hit $112,573.30.

There are a few key elements to growing Amazon sales:

1. Reviews – the more people you can get to leave a review, the better off you are. Most people don’t even read the reviews, but if they are high in ratings and you have tons in quantity, you are in good shape. If you have a blog that’s driving sales, a great way to get more reviews is through marketing automation. You can promote the product to your email list, and then after a few weeks of promoting your product to those people, you would send an automated email asking them to leave a review. You won’t really know who bought the product, but you would still put the review email—applicable to a portion of your list—in your sequence.
2. Keywords – with Amazon, you can add keywords. Most people add basic ones like “fish oil,” but as you know, it is all about the long tail. Amazon opened it up so you can stuff hundreds of keywords now, and with the use of Google Keyword Planner, you can come up with popular variations. You’ll then start ranking for tons of keywords on Amazon.
3. Combating negative Amazon reviews – similarly to what happens when people employ negative SEO, competitors sabotage your Amazon listing by taking up your front page with terrible reviews. They do this to tank your sales so they can generate more income. You fight this by building up your email list on your blog and continually blasting out to your list when you have bad reviews, asking your readers to up-vote the positive ones.
4. Ads – Amazon allows ads on its platform. Whether it is profitable or not, ads help you generate more sales. And if you can increase your sales velocity, you’ll find that your listing climbs up higher and starts to stick—it stays up there even after your ads stop showing. Sure, other people can do the same thing, but most don’t.

As for affiliate income, we started to push stuff by the Truth About Abs guys. We started doing email blasts to our list in order to generate the sales, and it has been working out well. The copy isn’t too bad, but there are two reasons it’s working out well.

1. We collect a lot more emails – we are generating 300 to 400 email sign-ups a day. It’s much larger than our previous numbers for one reason: we turned off double opt-in. Aweber usually requires double opt-in when you use third-party software to collect emails, but Mike called Aweber and got them to disable double opt-ins.
2. Good copy – our copy converts well. You can see an example email below. And we have many more emails like this in the sequence. So, we continually send you affiliate offers over time, which helps.

Here is the email copy we have been testing:

Email – This plant food HARMS your metabolism & heart

Hi {!firstname_fix}

Sometimes it’s not the enemy you know that’s the problem, but the friend you think you know.

In this case, I’m talking about nutrition in foods. It’s common knowledge that stuff like sugary drinks are just plain bad for you. The best you can say is that your body can absorb the bad effects if you only have them occasionally.

But what about foods you thought weren’t bad, and you heard were actually good for you?

I have some bad news, and some good news. The bad: some so-called “healthy” foods may be the cause of why you work so hard to eat healthy and haven’t seen the results you expected. The good news: There’s a solution I read about from best selling author Mike Geary.  Read on… (removed affiliate link)

Email – 2 Simple steps to REMOVE visceral belly fat (the DEADLIEST type)

Hi {!firstname_fix}

People often refer to past times as “the good old days” with a nostalgic tone. At least when it comes to many nutritional and health practices, I think of them more like the “bad old days.”

For example, people thought the wonders of science had delivered new, healthy products called “trans fats” that were featured in margarine, to replace that nasty butter. We now know that trans fats are about the worst thing you can coat your innards with.

People also thought they could do “spot reducing” of unattractive belly fat by using those jiggling-belt machines, or some other gimmick.

Well, belly fat certainly is still unattractive, and research says it’s also a danger sign. But research has also identified more-effective ways of getting rid of that spare tire. Here’s how. (removed affiliate link)

Email – 7 “fatty” foods for a flat stomach

Hi {!firstname_fix}

I spend full time on nutrition- and health-related activities. That’s the business I’m in.

I’m also an improvement junkie, always looking for the latest, best information. So you can imagine that I’ve pretty much seen it all: Every product, every supplement, every type of exercise.

Most of them are underwhelming. Yawn.

I’m writing you today because I recently came across something that made me sit up and pay attention. It’s a short-term blueprint for eating the right foods to burn substantial fat, and it’s all explained here… (removed affiliate link)

You can find high converting offers on sites such as Clickbank. They even sort the offers by popularity. I need to get a screenshot of our Clickbank revenue and our other affiliate income sources from Mike as he created the accounts and has the logins. Once I do, I will update the post with a screenshot (we use three networks).

The total affiliate revenue was $8,919.35.

Profit

As for monthly profit, it was high…but for a different reason than you might think. When you sell tangible products, you buy tons of inventory and then sell it over the following few months. We didn’t want to be out for our last month, so we spent a good chunk of money in the previous month, and, of course, we bought more in March.

Here is a breakdown of the expenses:

• Fish oil – $68,492.52 (including Amazon fees, shipping to Amazon for Prime, coupon-related expenses, and producing more inventory)
• Aweber – $149
• Designer – $375 (continually tweaking the site)
• Hosting – $249
• Mike – free (Mike doesn’t get paid, but he owns a percentage of the blog)
• Accounting – $290 (we are now paying a bookkeeper to help out with the books)

Total expenses came out to $69,555.52.

That brings the total profit to $51,937.13.

Of course, to maintain the growth, we would have to keep buying fish oil, but after awhile, we would cap out on sales, and our margins should be a healthy 30% plus. As for March, I didn’t spend much on buying tons more inventory as I wanted to show that selling supplements can be profitable.

Conclusion

Overall, the $100,000 challenge was fun, but I wouldn’t do it again. It’s just too much work with everything I have going on.

It was still a good learning experience. One thing I realized is how much harder it is to rank on Google today compared to 5 years ago. Almost all of my sites are old, so it is much easier for them to rank.

And although NutritionSecrets.com generated good traffic, if it were 5 years ago, the blog would have been at a million visitors a month with the same amount of effort.

So, what do you think of the $100,000 challenge?

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Energy switching on the up, but millions still missing out on big savings

Helen Knapman

energy-reading.jpg

The number of people who switched energy provider between January and March rose by 8% compared to the same period last year. But millions of people are yet to reap the rewards from switching away from standard tariffs, which are usually the most expensive on the market.

The number of people who switched energy provider between January and March rose by 8% compared to the same period last year. But millions of people are yet to reap the rewards from switching away from standard tariffs, which are usually the most expensive on the market.

read more

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BT customers to be hit with up to 25% price hikes this summer

btbuilding.jpg

BT customers will see the price they pay for a host of services, including line rental, broadband, home phone, TV and BT Sport, hiked this summer.

BT customers will see the price they pay for a host of services, including line rental, broadband, home phone, TV and BT Sport, hiked this summer.

Some, such as those with BT Sport HD, will see prices rise by as much as 25%. 

read more

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7 Reasons We Love Money Saving Mom — and Why You Should, Too

The internet is a big place for a couponer.

With so many coupon sources (look, here are a hundred right now!) and couponing blogs, it can be hard to even know where to start.

But Money Saving Mom has been one of our favorite go-to blogs for couponing and frugal living for years. And its proprietor, Crystal Paine, is one of our favorite people in the personal finance blogosphere.

Not only does Paine stay on top of the best deals everywhere you like to shop, she also offers great, family-oriented personal finance advice for everything from cooking to travel.

Her blog is fun and easy to follow, and sure to help you save next time you hit the supermarket.

But in case you’re still not convinced, here are seven more reasons we love Money Saving Mom.

1. She Started From Scratch

Paine’s couponing destination site started with a simple gift.

According to her “About Me” page, Paine’s couponing skills got their start when her mother gave her a copy of “Miserly Moms.”

She also outfitted her with a coupon organization box and gave her the responsibility of grocery shopping, meal planning and cooking for the family of nine (!).

That’s a lot of responsibility for a young woman still living at home — but it gave her a ton of practice and the skills she needed to become Money Saving Mom.

Paine started learning the art of frugality early, while she was still living at home. And since the skill clearly runs in the family, you could even say couponing is in Paine’s blood.

2. She’s Been There

Raising a family can be tough financially, especially for young couples still figuring out student loans — or even still in school.

But if you feel like your budget is completely impossible, never fear; Money Saving Mom knows your pain — and can help you relieve it.

Paine used the skills her mother helped her build to cut corners while her husband made his way through law school.

She made it work for their family on a “beans-and-rice budget” of $35 per week, and sharpened her creativity in order to get the most bang for every buck she spent.

Although she admits it wasn’t always fun to live so lean, she describes herself as “blessed,” and says she found ways to make couponing exciting by playing games and feeling awesome about finding the best deals possible.

We love Paine’s passion, perseverance and how she doesn’t take anything she has for granted. It’s her strength of spirit that made her the top coupon blogger she is today!

3. She Believes Everyone Should Use Coupons…

“I’m going to make a bold statement: I believe everyone should use coupons,” Paine says.
We couldn’t agree more.

As TPH founder Kyle Taylor has said before, coupons are just like finding free money!

But Paine doesn’t just philosophize about how we all should take advantage of great deals. She makes it easy to take her advice.

4. …And She Makes it Easy to Take Advantage of Great Deals

No matter how or where you shop, you can use Money Saving Mom to help you make the most of every dollar you spend.

Loyal to the neighborhood supermarket? You can look for coupons and deals by store.

Want to keep up with the latest and greatest? Easily filter her blog to see the latest coupon news — just hover over the “find coupons” tab and select “all coupon posts.”

You can even brush up on your couponing vocabulary. You’ll know what “NED Q, $0 OOP” means in no time!

If you’re still feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of awesome content on Paine’s page, start with her aptly named Start Here post. It’ll tell you how to overhaul your budget in a month, find the best deals on the blog and find Money Saving Mom on social media.

5. You Can Benefit From Her Creativity

If you need some inspiration for what to do with all those great coupons, check out her weekly menu plans.

Paine painstakingly (no pun intended — even when she does buy steak) lists the products she purchases and the stores they came from, including which deals and coupons she took advantage of that week.

She arranges and photographs her haul… and then organizes creative, healthy menu suggestions so you can see how all those groceries will be arranged into wholesome meals.

So. Awesome.

We love her creative suggestions — it’s too easy to throw pasta together every night when you’re on a budget!

By following her meal plans, you’ll avoid unhealthy and tedious repetitive patterns… and you might even get inspired to make something new yourself!

6. She’s Got Great Advice — and It’s Easy to Get To It

Money Saving Mom offers way more than just coupons.

Her blog is a one-stop shop: She’s got advice about travel, food, business, family life and money management. Basically, she’s an expert at being a person.

With so many awesome deals, Money Saving Mom’s main feed can become kind of hectic. And she writes tons of great posts on frugality you do not want to miss.

The solution?

Easy! Just click the “skip the deals” tab in the upper right-hand corner. All those deals will disappear (but don’t worry, they’re still there for next time!), and you’ll find tons of great personal posts instead.

For instance, check out this post on how Paine packed for a long trip with just a carry-on — no easy feat, but a definite necessity for frugal travel!

7. She’s Business-Savvy, Too

Our very favorite thing about Money Saving Mom?

She’s got two full-time jobs. One of them is “mom.”

The other? She’s a capable, full-time businesswoman — and she can teach you a ton about creating your own work-at-home business or blog.

Have a peek at the “blogging and business” tab to find words of wisdom on blogging, monetizing a YouTube channel or turning your cooking passion into profit.

And once you start rolling in those fat stacks? Be sure to stay up on her money management category, so you’ll know what to do with all of it.

There are definitely at least 85 more reasons to love Money Saving Mom… but instead of watching us list them all, why don’t you just give her a visit?

Your Turn: What do you love about Money Saving Mom?

Disclosure: You wouldn’t believe how much coffee The Penny Hoarder team goes through. This post contains affiliate links so we can keep the grinds stocked!

The post 7 Reasons We Love Money Saving Mom — and Why You Should, Too appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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A Letter to Anyone Who Wants More Than They Have Right Now

Dear friend,

Several years ago, I was incredibly dissatisfied with my life. I was in a great deal of debt. I lived in a tiny apartment with my wife and infant son. I had a job that was slowly changing from something I loved into something I didn’t like any more.

I was unhappy in many ways. I wanted something more from my life. I felt I deserved something more.

So, over the next several years, I worked incredibly hard to try to get something more out of life. I built a side business that eventually became my full-time employment. Sarah and I worked incredibly hard to get ourselves completely out of debt. We bought a house and paid the whole thing off in a little over four years. We have three kids now, live in a great area that we love, and both of us have jobs that we value.

I still want more out of life, in many areas. However, I’ve found contentment in a lot of areas as well. I’ve figured out what “enough” is in many respects.

So, yes, I vividly remember what it was like to have this burning desire to want something more from almost every dimension of my life. I know exactly what it is like to feel trapped and to feel deeply unhappy with large portions of my life.

But along the way, I figured out a few things that I wish I knew back then.

First of all, you can’t get more without giving up something else. You simply cannot “have it all.” It’s impossible. There are not enough hours in the day. There isn’t enough money. You can’t do it, no matter how hard you try.

The trick is finding the right balance for you, which won’t necessarily be the same as the balance for anyone else. For me, I figured out that I needed more time with my family and less time traveling and working weekends. I figured out that I needed less debt and I really didn’t need as much stuff as I had. It’s all a balancing act.

Learning when you truly have “enough” in areas of your life is incredibly valuable. You can always convince yourself that you want “more” in specific areas of life, and perhaps that’s a sign that your balance is out of whack. However, there’s a very deep contentment from knowing that you have “enough” in a particular area in your life. “Enough” doesn’t mean having everything. It means having enough so that you’re content with that area in your life.

Second of all, you already have more – and more to “give up” – than you think. People constantly overlook the abundance of resources that their life holds.

For example, think about the time you wasted today. What did you do today? Did you spend time watching a television show that you didn’t deeply care about? Did you spend your time browsing websites that didn’t bring any real value in your life? Did you spend any time on aimless tasks, or simply wandering aimlessly or doing nothing at all? Did you find yourself doing a task and then realizing that it was a really inefficient way of doing that thing?

What about the money you’ve wasted recently? Take a look at your bank or your credit card statements. How many of those purchases do you no longer even remember? Those were most likely wasteful. How many make you cringe? Now, take out some receipts from recent grocery store and department store visits. How many of those purchases really make sense in retrospect? All of that is wasted money.

Those are abundant resources. You have more of those resources than you’re using in any sort of worthwhile way. You let money and time slip through your fingers constantly.

Now, think about the other resources you have.

You have your health. Even if your health isn’t perfect, you’re living and breathing and thinking.

You have the relationships you’ve built in your life. You have family, friends, coworkers, mentors, teachers, advisors, and on and on and on. Those people can help you with almost anything you can imagine in your life.

You have knowledge and skills, even if you don’t recognize them. You know how to do a lot of things, and that set of skills adds up to something that probably makes you unique, especially if you figure out ways to put them together.

If you’re reading this, you likely have a lot of life basics taken care of: food, clothing, shelter, and so on. You probably have closets in your home with a lot of unused stuff sitting in there in boxes.

You have far, far more resources in your life than you think you do, and all of them can be used to build the kind of life you want.

So, what can you do? My best advice to you is to get rid of the things in your life that waste your time, your money, or your energy.

Delete pointless time-wasting apps on your phone and install something that’s actually productive or worthwhile instead.

Step back from life commitments that aren’t really providing any value for you.

Tighten your spending by cutting back on purchases that provide no lasting value for you.

These things aren’t one-time things. They’re processes without an end point. You’re going to sometimes step sideways and step backwards along these journeys. That’s okay, as long as you keep taking steps forward and getting better in terms of wasting the resources you have.

This also doesn’t mean eliminating fun from your life. It means eliminating time-wasters. Leisure time and socializing time that genuinely add value to your life are well worth it.

The next step, obviously, is to start using the resources you have on truly worthwhile and fulfilling things.

The question, of course, is what exactly are “truly worthwhile and fulfilling things.” That definition is going to change greatly from person to person.

For me, I consider saving money for the future to be worthwhile. I want to be able to step away from work at the earliest possible age. For me, that’s something that’s truly worthwhile.

I consider playing tabletop games with family and friends to be deeply fulfilling in both social and mental ways. That’s something that is incredibly valuable for me, but maybe not for you.

I consider reading a thoughtful book to be deeply fulfilling and worthwhile.

I consider quality time with my family to be incredibly, incredibly fulfilling and worthwhile. Quality time does not mean spending money on some activity; it means doing fun things around the house or going to nearby parks and so on.

Many of the other things that people do in life, things like watching television or going to nightclubs, provide very very little value to me personally, so I don’t do them. I don’t feel a need to spend time or money on things just because that’s what other people do.

So here’s the real mission for you: figure out what you want out of your life. At the same time, what are you spending time and money and energy on that isn’t providing any value to you?

If you want more out of life, the way to get there is to get rid of the things on the “not providing much value” list and use the time and money and energy you spent on them to amp up the things that you want out of life.

Instead of watching television in the evening (again, something I personally don’t consider valuable, but you may feel differently because this is about you), start taking night classes and work toward a degree.

Instead of going to nightclubs, find an interest group related to your hobby and go to those meetings instead.

Instead of wasting money on a bunch of little purchases that you quickly forget about, put money away for an early retirement so that you don’t have to work until you’re physically unable to do so.

Over time, you’ll find that you’re actually “getting more out of life,” more than ever before. You will never be able to “have it all,” but you will be able to have more. As long as your goal isn’t to “have it all” but to find contentment and a sense of “enough” in the various areas of your life, you’re going to end up with a lot of joy. Things will never be perfect – it’s always a journey towards “better” in specific areas of your life while you’re happy with other areas.

Good luck, and may you find a much better life.

Trent

The post A Letter to Anyone Who Wants More Than They Have Right Now appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Barclays forced to contact 10,000 customers for PPI failures

Tom Wilson

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Barclays has been forced to write to 10,000 customers who hold payment protection insurance (PPI) policies to explain their refund rights, following three “serious breaches” of orders from the competition watchdog.

Barclays has been forced to write to 10,000 customers who hold payment protection insurance (PPI) policies to explain their refund rights, following three “serious breaches” of orders from the competition watchdog.

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This Dad Started a Business on the Side… and It Made $5.5 Million Last Year

I’ve had a ton of “million-dollar ideas” while sitting at the bar with friends.

Only thing is, I’ve never acted on any of them. Most of them probably would’ve been flops — but then again, you never know.

That’s why I love the story of Kevin Mahoney, who was having drinks with a middle-school friend when he decided to launch an ecommerce website.  

Last year, it raked in $5.5 million.

And what does he sell? Tape.

Even better, Mahoney’s work-from-home business has allowed him to support his wife’s career and spend more time with his kids.

Here’s his inspiring story.

An Idea That Stuck

In the early 2000s, Mahoney was living in New Jersey and commuting into New York City for his full-time job at a digital advertising agency.

Thanks to his commute, which was 2.5 hours each way, he left the house at 7 a.m. and didn’t get back until 8:30 p.m. His wife, who was the principal at a local middle school, was pregnant with their first child.

Mahoney was sick of wasting hours on the train. “You really lose out on all that time,” he said.

Then, while having drinks with Robert Valley, a friend he’d met in seventh grade, an idea struck.

Valley’s family owned a tape converting business. According to Mahoney, this basically means “they’ll get a 60-inch wide roll of tape and cut it into two-inch rolls.”

He asked Valley, “Why don’t I create a website for you and electronically send you the [tape] orders, and you’ll drop ship for me?”

A few months, about $1,000 and a “lot of work” later, Mahoney launched FindTape.com.

Because he drop shipped everything, he explains, “I didn’t have a huge investment — I was able to slowly ramp it up.”

“There weren’t a lot of upfront development costs because I was a developer,” he says.

“Just my time. I would definitely spend a couple hours a night, and then on weekends, I spent a lot of hours. A lot of it was done on the train on my laptop.”

Mahoney was also lucky to have creative friends who helped with the site’s logo and design. So his only real cost was about $100 per month on “pay-per-click advertising to get people to come to the site.”

He also had no employees, which eliminated much of the stress faced by small-business owners. “I never had issues with ‘Oh my God, am I going to make payroll this month?’” he says.

As FindTape.com grew, Mahoney realized it had the potential to turn into a full-time gig.

“I wrote down a number,” he says. “I was like, ‘OK if I hit this [revenue] number, I can quit the full-time job, and I’ll work from home and won’t have to commute in anymore.”

That number was $1 million. Three years later, he hit it.  

The Multi-Million Dollar Success of FindTape.com

It’s been 10 years since Mahoney left his full-time job to work for himself.

He now works from home four days a week, and visits his call center — which is located inside the tape converting factory in PA — one day a week. He employs two people full time to answer the phones there.

Since he doesn’t have a warehouse or office, Mahoney’s costs remain fairly low; in addition to his employees’ salaries, most of his expenses come from web hosting and advertising.

If you’re surprised Mahoney found such success with tape, join the club.

“I think everybody’s a little surprised,” he says. “I’ll get that question, ‘What do you sell?’ ‘Tape.’ ‘Really? Just tape?’ I’m like, ‘That’s it.’”

But the fact his business is sometimes difficult to explain means little to Mahoney. What does matter? The difference it’s made to his family.

For one, it’s allowed him to support his wife’s career as a principal.

“Two, or sometimes three, nights a week, she’s at something: a PTA meeting, a board meeting, a concert,” he says. “It would have been very hard for her if I were still commuting to New York.”

That’s because he’s the main caregiver for their two children, ages 9 and 11.

“I put them on the bus and take them to concert rehearsals,” he says. “I get to see my kids as soon as they get home.”

He’s quick to note he still works “crazy hours;” the difference is it’s on his own time, and in his own home.

“Most weekends I’m working a little bit,” he says, “and most nights after they go to bed.”

But it’s still worlds better than commuting into the city every day.

“Just being there when they come home, and being able to see them when they’re not sleeping,” he says, “It’s awesome.”

Your Turn: Are you inspired by Mahoney’s story?

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

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