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الخميس، 4 فبراير 2016

Free and Cheap FroYo: Where to Go on National Frozen Yogurt Day

No, this isn’t deja vu.

Menchie’s jumped the gun with free froyo last Monday, but the fun isn’t over!

National Frozen Yogurt Day is “officially” on February 6, but the deals span the weekend and into next Monday. Jot these down, and remind yourself to leave room for dessert!

Keep an eye out for specials throughout the weekend and next week, and you could be eating free and discounted froyo for days!

Here are some specials you can find on Saturday, Feb. 6:

1. Red Mango

Stop by a participating Red Mango store and fill up a 12-ounce cup for only $5.

2. House of Yogurt

Are you near Costa Mesa, California? Take a friend to House of Yogurt for buy one, get one free yogurt.

3. Peaks Frozen Yogurt Bar

Washington state residents or visitors can stop by Peaks Frozen Yogurt Bar on the 6th for free froyo! You must be a Summit Club Member — sign up here.

For FREE frozen yogurt, stop by these locations on Monday, February 8:

4. Yogurtland

Between 4 and 7 p.m. you can get a free cup of frozen yogurt.

You’ll also be able to try the National Frozen Yogurt Day featured flavor, Hershey’s Chocolate Milkshake — mmmm!

5. 16 Handles

If you’re in the Northeast, find a 16 Handles before 5 p.m. for a free 6-ounce frozen yogurt.

This deal’s only good for registered rewards members, so make sure you sign up before Monday.

And some additional specials to help you celebrate (especially if you can’t make it to your local froyo dispensary on the 8th):

6. Lemonberry Frozen Yogurt

Ohioans, find a Lemonberry shop on any Monday between 5 and 7 p.m. for 50% off your cup of frozen yogurt.

7. Orange Leaf Yogurt

Orange Leaf is celebrating “love” for the month of February!

Follow the business on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram; show the clerk on your next visit in-store, and you’ll receive a LOVE card for $1 off your next four purchases.

Don’t see your favorite local froyo shop on this list? It never hurts to ask!

Your Turn: Will you eat free froyo on National Frozen Yogurt Day? What’s your favorite flavor?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more.

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Ever Had a Sprinkles Cupcake? Here’s How to Get 3 for FREE!

One of the things I most fondly recall from my first trip to Los Angeles was the cupcake sundae I got from Sprinkles in Beverly Hills.

Fancy, right? Don’t worry, that was the only money I spent in this ultra-expensive neighborhood!

My local friend insisted we hit the popular dessert spot, which sells customizable ice cream and toppings, as well as cupcakes and cookies. They even have a cupcake ATM!

Yes, you read that right — and the line is always just as insane as you’d imagine.

3 Free Cupcakes From Sprinkles

Cue my intense curiosity — and salivation — when I found out Sprinkles just introduced its Perks program.

Oh, and did I mention you can get THREE FREE cupcakes when you register?

That’s right, I said three: You automatically get one free cupcake added to your account on sign-up — and you’re entitled to a freebie on your birthday, too.

And so long as you visit Sprinkles 20 or more times in a calendar year (not. hard.), you’ll get one on your half-birthday!

Way to spread the love year-round, Sprinkles.

Not to mention, you’ll accrue points towards other goodies every time you visit — and you’ll receive a free menu item for every 15 purchases you make.

Ready for Some Sugar?

Sprinkles is only in select areas like Nashville, New York and Los Angeles — and we don’t know how long this deal will last.

But if there’s one in your area, head over to the Sprinkles site to sign up for their Perks program.

It’s worth it even if you’re just taking a trip — although it looks like your sign-up cupcake freebie expires in a month’s time, so plan accordingly. I found out the hard way: I’ll be in NYC March 10, and my free cupcake coupon expires on the 5th… :(

If you’re not near a location and have no plans to be anytime soon, Sprinkles’ ice cream and cookie dough now ships nationwide! It won’t save you any cash, but it’s definitely good stuff.

Your Turn: Will you become a Sprinkles Perks member and claim your free cupcakes?

Jamie Cattanach is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes other stuff, like wine reviews and poems — which are sometimes about cupcakes. You can read along at http://ift.tt/1RiB7sH.

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'It's a big loss,' says neighbor of fire-gutted Blakeslee Inn

Motorists on Route 940 slowed down Thursday morning when passing the fire-gutted Blakeslee Inn.They looked over at an excavator going through the rubble as security personnel stood guard on the property. With looks of shock and sympathy, some motorists pulled over on a nearby side road to take pictures of the damage."It's a big loss," said nearby neighbor JoAnn Burger, out with her dogs in her yard. "I liked it. The food and service were nice. I used to come out in warmer [...]

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These Jalapeno Bacon Deviled Eggs are the Real Super Bowl Winner This Year

It’s Sunday night.

A few of your friends have already showed up, and you’ve cracked a beer or three. Everyone congregates in the living room, puts their feet up and faces the TV with anticipation.

That’s when it hits you: Where are the snacks?

Sure, you’ve got one half-eaten bag of tortilla chips going stale in the cupboard. You could probably toss together some “dip” — if you can call it that — if you microwave that old can of black beans.

Come on.

This is Super Bowl L (though it’s just being branded as “50”– “L” stands for loser), the first one with a Roman numeral easy enough to actually remember.

You need some serious snackage — the kind that’ll satisfy without cutting too far into your beer fund.

The Penny Hoarder to the rescue!

Best Super Bowl Party Food: Jalapeno Bacon Deviled Eggs

We love this recipe for deviled eggs: it’s cheap, easy to make, handy to eat, delicious and not even too terrible for you! (Bacon’s a food group, right?)

Plus, they look absolutely amazing. But don’t take my word for it:

Here’s the full recipe:

Ingredients:

1 dozen eggs

1 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon mustard

2 teaspoons vinegar

2 fresh jalapeno peppers

6 strips bacon

sugar, salt and paprika to taste

Method:

Hard-boil eggs, then set aside to cool.

Fry up bacon, then set aside on a paper towel to drain.

Chop jalapenos finely, removing the seeds.

Once the eggs have cooled, peel them and slice each in half. Crumble the bacon.

Remove the yolks and place them in a medium bowl. Mash with the back of a spoon. Add mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, then salt and sugar to taste. Add the chopped jalapenos and mix well.

Spoon fill into a large ziplock bag and cut the corner off to create a small opening — about half an inch.

Fill the egg white cavities with egg yolk mixture.

Sprinkle the finished eggs with bacon and paprika to taste — and get ready to dig in!

Want More Cheap Super Bowl Food Ideas?

We’ve got lots!

Check ‘em out here — and enjoy the game!

Your Turn: What awesome, affordable snacks will you make for the game this Sunday? Let us know in the comments!

The post These Jalapeno Bacon Deviled Eggs are the Real Super Bowl Winner This Year appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.



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The Sneaky Way I’m Getting 4 Nights at a Hotel for Just $55 (It’s Easy!)

The world of travel hacking is always changing, and sometimes new deals are too exciting to pass up — no matter how sore they’ll make your hand.

Intercontinental Hotel Group’s (IHG) Priceless Surprises promotion is one of those deals.

It’ll cost you $55 in supplies, plus a few hours of writing on index cards, but you should get at least four FREE hotel nights out of the deal.

To be eligible, you must have a MasterCard you opened before Nov. 15, 2015, live within the United States and be at least 21. (Click here for the full rules.)

The promotion only runs for one more week, so if you want in, keep reading…

4 Hotel Nights for $55?!

Though you can enter the contest by staying at an IHG property, there’s another route that doesn’t cost nearly as much: Mailing in an index card with your personal information.

After IHG receives your entry, it sends you an email with a surprise award, ranging all the way from 500 points to an all-expenses paid Parisian vacation.

You can enter the contest 94 times — so even if you only receive the minimum prize for each entry, you should earn 47,000 IHG points.

(I say “should,” because these types of promotions are never guaranteed. From what I’ve read online, though, it’s been working!)

Based on IHG’s rewards chart, free hotel nights start at 10,000 points, which means that for your time and effort, you’ll earn at least four hotel nights, and hopefully many more.

The Penny Hoarder’s senior editor Heather, for example, received 5,000 points for a single entry. If she gets a few more of those, she’ll have enough points for a week’s vacation!

To enter, you’ll have to purchase 94 stamps ($46.06), index cards ($1.99) and envelopes ($6.99).

Getting several hundred dollars worth of free hotel stays for $55? I’d say it’s worth it.

All entries must be postmarked by Feb. 15, 2016, and received by Feb. 22, 2016, so hurry up if you want to enter!

How to Get Your Free Hotel Stays

1. Sign up for a free IHG Rewards Club account

2. Use your IHG number to register for the Priceless Surprises Promotion.

3. Purchase 94 stamps, 3 x 5 index cards and envelopes. (Self-sealing is probably a good idea, unless you really want to lick them all.)

4. On each index card, write your:

  • Full name
  • Mailing address
  • Daytime phone number
  • Evening phone number
  • Email address
  • IHG Rewards Club account number
  • The first six digits of any MasterCard in your name
  • Date of birth

5. Put the notecard in an envelope with a stamp, and mail it to: IHG and MasterCard Priceless Surprises Promotion, c/o HelloWorld, Inc., P.O. Box 5996, Kalamazoo, MI 49003-5996.

6. Within five business days of receiving your entry, you should receive an email inviting you to “play the Game.” After clicking on the link in your email, you’ll discover how many points you’ve won.

It’s one of the most unique travel rewards promotions I’ve seen in a while, so despite my cramped hand, I’ve had fun participating. I plan to finish up my 94 entries this weekend — and I can’t wait to find out my prizes.  

Good luck, and let me know how it goes!

Your Turn: Will you enter the contest?

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 The Sneaky Way I’m Getting 4 Nights at a Hotel for Just $55 (It’s Easy!) appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.



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Bank holds interest rates at 0.5% for record seventh year

The Bank of England has decided to hold base rate at 0.5% for another month, taking us through seven whole years of interest rates at all-time record lows.

The Bank of England has decided to hold base rate at 0.5% for another month, taking us through seven whole years of interest rates at all-time record lows.

The Bank is now basing its own forecasts on market expectations of the first rise in mid-2017.

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Age UK energy tariffs to be investigated by regulator

Claims that charity Age UK recommended pricey E.on energy tariffs to pensioners are to be investigated by the energy regulator.

Claims that charity Age UK recommended pricey E.on energy tariffs to pensioners are to be investigated by the energy regulator.

The move comes after The Sun alleged Age UK recommended a special rate from big six energy provider E.on, which cost £245 more than the firm’s cheapest 2015 rate.

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Managing a Never-Ending Pile of Things to Do

In Monday’s reader mailbag, I answered a question from Marcus about how I manage my time these days. Here’s the question from Marcus, as well as my answer.

I enjoy your occasional articles on time management and the new strategies you are figuring out and utilizing. I thought I would share my simple strategy for managing time and to-dos.

On Sunday night or Monday morning, I make a big to-do list for the week. I make it in Todoist and I have an iPad Mini and an Android phone. So during the work day I keep Todoist open on my iPad Mini on my desk and I check off items as I do them. If something comes up I add it to the list. I tag everything as “work” or “personal” or a few other tags like that so I can see just “work” tasks if I want.

At the start of each day, I make three or so work tasks and three or so personal tasks have a top priority so that they rise to the top of the list.

The weekend free time usually revolves around emptying items off the list so I can have a fresh start on Monday.
– Marcus

That’s a pretty solid way of doing things. In fact, it’s not all that different than how I do things myself these days. I have something of a running to-do list – not a weekly one, per se, but a running one with everything I need or want to do on it – and then each day I pick a handful of items and make them high priority. Usually, a few are work related, a few are household related, and one or two are fun tasks that I’ll enjoy.

Like you, I use Todoist for this, but I have two monitors on my desk. The one on my right always has Todoist open with my to-do list showing. I usually keep it sorted with the high priority stuff on top.

I do a weekly review and delete some items and usually add a few more to it.

However, one thing that’s really useful for me is that I always have a piece of paper and a pen on my desk for jotting down notes and thoughts while I’m working. That kind of free form note taking enables me to jot down almost anything that comes to mind. Then, I deal with what’s on that sheet when I have some downtime and my current task is completed. That strategy just seems to work really well for me.

Several people have sent me follow-up questions related to this question-and-answer with Marcus, so I thought I’d provide a more detailed look at how I manage my time so that I can get as much done as possible.

Why?

Not only am I a self-employed writer who is contracted to write tens of thousands of words a week, I’m also a father of three children, a husband who wants to have a strong marriage, a president of a civic organization, a member of the board of other civic organizations, a participant on multiple podcasts, a fledgling entrepreneur, a friend to many people, and I have several hobbies that I want to find time for as well.

That eats a lot of time. I can’t possibly juggle all of those balls without being very careful about my time management. It just doesn’t work without some kind of system in place.

Without a good system, something is going to fail. I’ve been there. During the early days of my professional career, I found things constantly falling through my fingers, just because I didn’t have a good system of keeping track of what I need to do. I failed at entrepreneurship. I failed at being a good husband. I even sometimes failed at work responsibilities.

Those mistakes cost me time, cost me money, lost some opportunities, and damaged relationships, and they all could have been avoided with a good system in place for keeping track of all of the stuff I need to be doing.

To put it simply, time really is money, and making sure you’re using that time effectively ends up equating to money in the bank. A good system makes you more effective at work, more effective at your side gigs, more effective in your personal life, and even makes your social life and hobbies more enriching.

Over the years, I’ve tried many different systems for keeping track of all of the things I need to do. Some work well; others not so much. I find that I’m continually trying new things, reading new articles, and keeping elements from previous systems that have worked for me.

In detail, here’s the system that works for me.

Todoist

Todoist has become my to-do list manager of choice, supplanting my standby for many years, Remember the Milk. They honestly do mostly the same things – I just find Todoist to be a bit friendlier for the specific features I use.

So, here’s what I do with it.

Whenever any sort of task that I need to complete pops into my mind – no matter what it is – I either jot it down on paper or directly enter it into Todoist. Adding a task to Todoist is really easy: I just switch to the Todoist window on my computer, type “q”, and start typing in the task, hitting return when I’m done. I can enter a new task in a second or two, which is fast enough to keep me from being distracted from my work.

In general, if I’m at my computer, I just enter the task directly into my Todoist app on my computer. If I’m playing with my phone, I enter the task directly into Todoist on my phone. Otherwise, I’ll usually jot it down in a pocket notebook.

Once or twice a day, I’ll page through my pocket notebook and take care of tasks that I’ve jotted down. This usually just consists of moving them into Todoist.

Tagging

For me, one of the most useful features of Todoist is tagging. Tagging simply means that you can add a “tag” to any task that you add and then, later on, look up tasks by that tag. You can add a tag to any task by simply typing @ followed immediately by the tag you want to add.

So, for example, if I want to tag a task as being something I’m going to do at a computer, I would add @computer. If I want to tag something that I need to pick up at the store, I would add @fareway.

Tags aren’t perfect for every task, of course, but they’re useful in a lot of different ways. I use the tag @waiting on tasks where I’m waiting for something from someone else. I use the tag @ames if I have to drive to Ames for a task, or @desmoines if I have to drive to Des Moines for a task.

Let me give you an example. I know I’m going to have to pick up a prescription for my daughter, but it hasn’t been called in yet. We usually get prescriptions at Target in Ames, so I might add “Pick up prescription. @target @ames @waiting”

That way, the next time I go to Ames, I can easily see all of the tasks for Ames by looking at all of my tasks tagged with “@ames.” If I happen to go to Target, I can look at all tasks tagged with “@target.” If I see the “@waiting” tag, then I know I’m waiting on something before I can do it.

Super-Quick Tasks

I don’t like to interrupt the thing I’m working on to take care of super-quick tasks – things that take just a minute or two – so I add them to Todoist with the tag @quick. So, I might type in “@quick See whether we need more dog food and add to grocery list if needed.”

Whenever I’m done with a task, I’ll just look at all other tasks tagged with the word “quick” and blow through them all in five minutes or so.

Priority

Each morning, one of the first things I do is pick out about three professional tasks and three personal tasks and mark them as “Priority 1,” which marks them with a red flag. Then, I’ll sort all of my tasks by priority, meaning that the Priority 1 tasks are at the top.

My goal for a given day is to knock out those Priority 1 tasks. A good day occurs when I take care of those tasks.

Professionally, the Priority 1 tasks are usually things with a fairly tight deadline. They’re articles I need to write for the next few days.

Personally, the Priority 1 tasks are usually things that truly are both important and urgent, positive habits I’m trying to build, or things I’m really excited and motivated to move forward on personally.

Most of the time, I have the Todoist window open on my right hand computer monitor on my desk, displaying the Priority 1 tasks I have going on. Those are the big things I want to achieve today. When/if I manage to complete all of those things, I’ll usually look at my list of all tasks and then try to find ones I’m personally motivated to do right now.

woman in office with too much work to do

Got a lot on your plate? Without a good system in place, something is going to fail — and it could cost you.

Projects

Many of the to-dos are just the current step in a bigger project of some kind. For example, one task might be to edit a chapter in an upcoming book’s manuscript. That’s a healthy task on its own, but it’s really only a part of a bigger project.

For each of those bigger ongoing projects, I create an actual “project” within Todoist and add tasks related to that project in there. That way, I can kind of brainstorm upcoming tasks on those projects in advance, even if I might not be ready to take step 5 when I’m still waiting on completing steps 2-4.

Thus, future steps in a project beyond what I’m working on right now usually get a “@waiting” tag.

Specific Appointments

If the task is a specific appointment – say, a meeting at a specific day or time – I add that to my calendar instead. Virtually everything that goes into my calendar is also listed with a few reminders that alert me to the upcoming event so that I’m aware it’s coming days in advance. That way, if it’s appropriate, I can add specific things to my to-do list to prepare for it.

The End Result

The end result of all of this is that I have literally hundreds of tasks stowed away in Todoist. On good days, I knock off a lot more tasks than I add; on slower days, the opposite tends to be true.

Many of these tasks are “someday/maybe” tasks. In fact, I often tag some of those things as “@someday,” like building new shelves for my office (I have become less and less of a fan of my office shelving over the years).

How do I keep them all straight, though? How do I really know what needs to be done next?

Daily and Weekly Review

One of the key parts of making everything work is the daily and weekly review. The daily review is simple, takes just a few minutes, and helps me prioritize my coming day. The weekly review… is a bit more complex.

Daily review

Each day, either in the evening or early the following morning, I look over the tasks I’ve completed that day. First, I check and make sure there aren’t any quick tasks that I missed and I take care of them. I also make sure that I didn’t miss any high priority tasks for the day.

Next, I look at my long to-do list and try to identify six things that I want to do tomorrow. I usually pick three professional tasks and three personal tasks. I mark those as “Priority 1″ so I can easily see them tomorrow. If there are some I’d really like to do but I’m not sure if I’ll have time, I’ll mark those as “Priority 2.” I usually see if there are any undone “Priority 2″ tasks from the day that’s passed and make any of those left undone into “Priority 1″ tasks for the following day.

I also look at my calendar. Is there anything I need to be doing tomorrow?

Finally, I usually take 10 minutes or so and reflect on the day. What was the best thing that I achieved? What was the biggest mistake I made today, and how can I rectify it or avoid repeating it? Did I take care of my body today, and what can I do tomorrow to do a better job? I try not to just dwell on what I did today, but what the events of the day can teach me about my life going forward. I usually write down my thoughts in Evernote. I find that by actually making this a part of my routine, I find myself slowly ironing out some of my worst tendencies and amplifying some of my better ones.

Overall, this takes about 15 minutes, but it puts me in a great position to have a very good and very productive day for the following day.

Weekly review

Once a week, usually on Saturday afternoon, I set aside a bigger chunk of time for a weekly review.

The biggest part of this review is simply going through every item on my overall to-do list and ask myself whether this is something that still makes sense for me. Do I really want to still do this? Do I need to do this?

Basically, I’m just verifying that all of the stuff on that list is still genuinely important in some way. If it’s not… why is it on my to-do list? I delete those things. Believe it or not, I purge 10-20 things from my to-do list per week due to this review.

While I’m doing this, I’m usually mindful of not just what I want to be doing right now, but what I want to be achieving in my life as a whole. Quite often, things that just sit around on my to-do list don’t get done because they honestly aren’t in line with the big things I want to be working on in my life.

Along the way, I often find tasks that are fairly short – five- or 10-minute tasks – that I simply take care of immediately. Things like changing the furnace filter or calling someone or doing a bit of basic research. I’ll often check off five or six things while doing this kind of review.

I also usually find several things that I really want to achieve in the next week. I set those to “Priority 2,” which is where I put tasks that aren’t absolutely urgent today, but need to be done quickly. As I mention above, one of the first things I do when picking my “Priority 1″ tasks for the coming day is to look at my “Priority 2″ stuff. I also often tackle “Priority 2″ stuff if all of the “Priority 1″ stuff is done.

After those steps, I usually find that my to-do list has gone down by 20%-30% throughout the week. I also usually have 15-20 things set up that I really want to achieve in the coming week – articles for The Simple Dollar, personal tasks, and so forth.

The other part of my weekly review is that I go through those little “journal” entries that I wrote each day during the week and review them. I look at my reflections on the key things I achieved in the week, my biggest daily mistakes, and what I want to change to overcome them. Looking at these in a batch is really valuable because I often see patterns in those entries. I can clearly see the things that are consistently bothering me and recognize that I need to be doing something to fix those problems. Those usually turn into a “Priority 2″ task or two for the coming week.

How This Saves Time

This process saves time for me because it gets all of the ideas and to-dos and appointments out of my head and into a trusted system. I don’t have to try to remember some specific thing I need to do or some specific piece of information I want to investigate later. It’s out of my head and stored in either Todoist or Evernote or a calendar or a pocket notebook and I know I’ll see it again later on when I can deal with it. I don’t have to remember it or think about it right now. Instead, I can focus on the task at hand, and over and over again I’ve seen that focusing purely on the task at hand with minimal distraction gets the task done better and faster than anything else.

Thus, the time I spend keeping this system going is repaid (and more) by the time I save due to more efficient tasks and knowing exactly what I need to be doing next without having to think about it. Not only that, I get the tasks done with a higher quality result, the tasks are more in line with what I want to get out of life, and I can usually get more done, too.

Final Thoughts

This system has been honed by me for years. It borrows heavily from Getting Things Done by David Allen but simplifies some of his system while adding a few additional things that I find really valuable, like a brief daily journal.

The key thing to remember with all of this is that it’s all about serving one central goal: I want to be more efficient with my time and use it in ways that are more central to what I want out of life. The steps in this article really don’t take very long at all, but they go a long way toward making my time use more efficient and, in the end, making me much more successful in the areas of my life that I care the most about.

That makes the time and energy I invest in this system – which really isn’t all that much, to tell the truth – well worth it.

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Could You Buy a House Without Getting a Mortgage? This Guy’s Done It 3 Times…

My wife and I paid cash for our last three homes.

And yes, it is nice not having a monthly payment. There also are many other reasons to buy a house for cash. You can get a better price and save thousands in closing costs.

But is buying a house in cash even possible for the average person?

In fact, almost a third of home sales in the U.S. are made in cash, and in southwest Florida, more than half of the area’s transactions are cash sales.

Of course, the latter statistic is partly the result of so many retirees buying homes in cash after a lifetime of saving and building equity in previous residences.

But even if you’re nowhere near retirement and haven’t saved enough for a down payment — let alone the whole house — there is hope.

My wife and I first paid cash for a home in our 30s. We were making a combined $12,000 per year at the time — and I’ve never worked full time for more than a few months.

Here’s how we did it, and how you, too, can (eventually) buy a house with cash.

Live With Your Parents

I moved back to my parents’ house at age 20 and stayed there until I was 25 years old, paying minimal rent.

Of course, it’s not an option for everyone, but if you can swing it, living with your parents is a great way to save money. In fact, 14% of adults ages 24 to 34 live with their parents.

By 25, I’d saved enough for a down payment on a home, working part time at various low-paying jobs.

If you’re going to live with mom and dad for a few years, saving up for a down payment (or a whole house) should be your goal.

Of course, you have to actually set the money aside, which brings us to your next step…

Start Saving Now

Whatever income you’re living on, someone you know is probably living on less. Live like they do, and bank the difference.

We can help! Check out posts on how to spend less money on everything from groceries to gas to clothing, even 101 things you can get for free.

To help you set aside the savings, see our posts on how to save money when you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck and how to make up to 5% back from your checking and savings accounts.

The goal is to consistently spend less than you make — and save the difference to buy a home in the future.

Here are some more ways to save for a house:

  • Set aside windfalls like inheritances, work bonuses and contest winnings
  • Set aside most or all of any tax refunds
  • Find ways to cut costs and bank the savings
  • Put savings in the highest-return, non-volatile place you can find

The last item deserves an explanation.

The stock market may provide better long-term returns than other options. But it also might be down 50% when you’re ready to buy that house.

Instead, invest where you won’t have ups and downs. CD laddering is one strategy you can use. Arrange for the last of the CDs to mature around the time you think you’ll be ready to buy your house.

To get a higher return, invest on a social lending platform like Lending Club. You might make up to 10% on your money, and statistics show less than 1% of investors who buy more than 100 notes ($2,500 at $25 per note) lose money.

Just be sure the loans will mature before you’re ready to buy, since you can invest in both three-year and five-year loans.

Find Cheaper Housing

Prior to your first all-cash purchase of a home, you might rent, or borrow to buy something.

Either way, keep costs low so you save even more money.

For example, I bought a mobile home on a lot for $19,500, with a down payment of $5,000.

Even with an interest rate of 14%, the monthly payments were just $225 for a 10-year loan. With such a low payment, it was easy to put a lot of extra income toward paying off the loan.

I was mortgage-free in a couple years, and had an extra $225 to set aside every month.

This is a touchy area for many people. You may not want to live in a mobile home (mine was very comfortable), or rent an efficiency apartment for years just to save money.

I feel richer living without debt in a small place, rather than living in a big house or beautiful (and expensive) apartment. If you try it, you might feel the same way.

Or maybe not. It’s your call.

Fortunately, there are options between extremes, so you can live comfortably while still saving money each month.

For example, if you’re renting an apartment for $950 per month, look for something decent that costs just $700 per month.

Sure, it won’t be quite as nice, but you’ll have save an extra $3,000 per year. Also, look for other ways to save on rent.

I did one more thing to pay off my mortgage quickly: I rented out rooms.

This option won’t be for everyone, but for me it was a choice between living with roommates and working full-time jobs, which I try to avoid.

Buy Where Homes are Cheaper

After we married, my wife and I bought a house together for $17,500 in Anaconda, a beautiful little Montana mountain town.

We literally drove around the country for weeks until we found a place where houses were selling cheap.

By then, we were able to pay cash without selling our Michigan mobile home. We rented it out, and later sold it for $45,000 — not bad considering I only paid $19,500.

The U.S. has a number of towns with affordable housing, and even places where houses are almost free.

If moving to affordable cities isn’t possible because of your work, look for the most affordable neighborhoods near your job.

And you can also…

Buy Less Expensive Types of Housing

As pointed out, a mobile home can be a good first purchase, at least if you buy it on property, rather than on a rented lot.

But also consider other types of housing.

College student Joel Weber built a tiny house for around $16,000. You could also look into school busses and other housing alternatives.

Live cheaply, and you can save money fast.

You don’t have to go to extremes that don’t suit you. Just look for the cheapest areas to live and find a nice, small home selling for cheap.

And paying less doesn’t just save you money upfront. You’ll also spend less on annual utilities, property taxes, insurance, and maintenance with a small home.

Buy Foreclosures and Fixer-Uppers

Sometimes nice homes are cheap because they need work, or are bank foreclosures.

Our $17,500 home fit both categories. Six months and $2,000 in repairs later, we sold it for $28,000.

By the way, buying cheap fixer-uppers and making cost-efficient repairs and improvements is a great way to build equity.

Our first of three homes in Florida was a condo we bought in 2012 for $89,000 cash.

We sold it this year for $112,000 after applying some fresh paint and installing a new air conditioner — about $4,000 in total expenditures.

Downsize to Buy for Cash

Maybe you already have a lot of equity in your home, but you want to be rid of monthly payments.

Downsizing your home might be a great way to free up equity and pay cash for a new home.

For example, if you have a house worth $185,000 and you owe $105,000 on it, you’d probably net about $65,000 after sale and closing costs.

That’s exactly what we paid for our current home in North Port, Florida — a two-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a garage and carport on a large lot.

Buying a House for Cash, Step-by-Step

You might not be able to pay cash for a house right now, but if you take some of these steps, the time will come.

Start by cutting your housing costs and saving money.

If you rent, rent something more affordable so you can save more. If you borrow to buy, start small and look for alternatives to keep your costs low.

Starting small doesn’t mean you can never have a large home. It just means when you get there someday, you can pay cash.

Ignore all the advice and articles about “how much house you can afford.” If you really want to pay cash for a home in the future, this should be your goal:

Find something comfortable enough for you to live in for the lowest possible cost, and set aside as much as you can in savings accounts and safe investments.

Let’s say you can afford a $1,000 monthly mortgage payment and put $300 monthly in a savings account. Instead of taking on all that debt, buy a small, inexpensive house with a $400 monthly payment.

That frees up $600 more to save every month. Add it to your regular $300 monthly savings and it’s almost $11,000 per year.

Apply the $11,000 toward your small mortgage loan (in addition to the regular payments) and you’ll pay it off in a few years.

Then, with no $400 monthly payment, you can save at least $1,300 every month. That’s close to $16,000 per year piling up in your savings or investment accounts!

Add it — plus the earned interest — to the money from your smaller home’s sale, and you might be able to buy a much bigger house in cash in just a few more years.

Your Turn: Do you think you’ll be able to buy a house for cash in the next 10 years?

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 Could You Buy a House Without Getting a Mortgage? This Guy’s Done It 3 Times… appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.



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House prices up by 9.7%, says Halifax

House prices in the UK have risen by 9.7% compared with January 2015.

House prices in the UK have risen by 9.7% compared with January 2015.

The average price of a house in the UK now stands at £212,430  – up 1.7% since December 2015 when the average house cost £208,943.

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Make Money as a Voice Actor: Here’s How to Get Started Reading Audiobooks


While readers and writers have skeptically watched the fluctuating publishing industry in recent years, one literary market has caught us all a bit by surprise: audiobooks.

Somewhere along the path of lengthy commutes and ubiquitous smartphones, a market for audiobooks erupted: people who don’t otherwise read much.

This exploding market makes it imperative for authors and publishers to get books into audio form and on the most popular platforms — Audible (Amazon) and iTunes.

Enter Amazon’s Audiobook Creative Exchange (ACX), which connects audiobook narrators with books to narrate.

Like other publishing services you’ll find at Amazon — CreateSpace for print-on-demand books, CDs and DVDs; and Kindle Direct Publishing for ebooks — ACX simplifies the process of producing an audiobook from start to finish.

If you’re an actor or voice-over artist, you could make money working in this market.

Not sure where to start? Here’s our guide.

How to Start Narrating Audiobooks

Actor Kris Keppeler has been doing voice-over work for about 10 years. She now makes her full-time living from voice-overs, acting and writing.

About 70% of the voice-over work is narrating audiobooks, something she’s been doing for four years.

“I got started through freelancing and bidding on work,” Kris explains. “I bid on a short audiobook and got that, and it went well. When ACX came along, I started auditioning there … It’s taken a little bit to discover where my voice fits.”

Based on her experience, Kris shares some advice — and warnings — for anyone interested in doing audiobook work.

Who Should Narrate Audiobooks?

“Audiobooks are one of the easier things to get into in voice-over,” in Kris’s opinion.

“And my voice just fits with audiobook work. Actors are especially tuned in for audiobook work, by the nature of our training.”

That’s because actors learn how to represent multiple characters, necessary for fiction narration in particular. Even for nonfiction, acting training can help you animate narration and make a book interesting.

Learn Proper Technique

Before landing her first gig through ACX, Kris submitted auditions to the platform for well over a year.

Why does it take so long to land a gig?

Some of it, Kris says, is just learning how to correctly narrate. “I had some coaching that finally brought me to the point of doing a fairly good job.”

Author Joanna Penn recorded the audio versions of some of her own books. If you can’t afford coaching, she offers some tips for beginners at The Creative Penn to help you get started.

Some tricks to consider:

  • If you’re new at recording, schedule sessions a few days apart to ensure you have enough energy.
  • Try to avoid dairy before recording. Same goes for foods like peanut butter or anything that clogs up your mouth or throat (yeck!).
  • Try to modulate your breathing so you don’t end up holding your breath. This has a real effect on stamina.

Find Your Niche

Once she’d mastered the audiobook reading techniques, Kris says, she had to find her niche.

She used trial and error. She took whatever narration work came her way, and listened to client feedback. When an author liked her voice, she knew it was a good fit.

“In voice-over in general, there are so many different genres… Most people find you have certain specialities and certain ones don’t fit.”

Once you know your voice and which genres are the best fit, she says, jobs come much more quickly.

Only audition for gigs that fit your voice, and the success rate is much higher. You can even search for books by genre.

“I’m becoming a bit of a nonfiction specialist,” Kris says. “[When it comes to fiction], It’s hard to learn to do the different voices… Fiction books are heavily character-based, so you’re going to have to handle [those] unless you’re hired to work with a group, but that’s not that common.”

What You Need to Know Before Auditioning

Before you spend months auditioning to land your first gig, we have some tips to help you get started.

“You definitely have to have some training,” Kris warns. “If you regularly listen to audiobooks and like them, that’s a good starting point. But you have to have a real desire to do this kind of work, because it’s a lot of work.”

How is narrating an audiobook different from just reading a book aloud?

“When you read a book, you’re seeing and hearing things in your mind,” Kris explains. “When you’re narrating that book, what you’re seeing and hearing in your mind you have to then vocalize. That’s not easy!”

Because an audiobook listener relies entirely on your narration, painting the picture just right (and meeting the author’s vision) is vital. It’s a distinct difference from other voice-over work, like commercials — where images or video complement the narration.

Because of this need to draw the reader into a made-up world, narrating fiction requires acting skills. Not everyone is cut out for it.

But, “nonfiction has its own challenge,” Kris points out. “Sometimes what you’re reading is kind of dry, but you still have to make it interesting.”

She says it doesn’t necessarily matter whether a book is interesting to her.

“At this point, whether it is or not, I am narrating it and finding the interesting bits for me and putting it into my voice,” Kris says.

Even if you don’t enjoy the subject matter, you can still enjoy the process of producing the book for readers.

The Challenges of Audiobook Narration

“Especially if you work through ACX, you have to do the producing yourself,” Kris says, “[That’s] editing and mastering yourself. There’s a technical learning curve.”

Audiobooks require hours and hours of editing, making them much more labor intensive than a lot of other voice-over work.

“What I learned editing smaller jobs contributed a lot to being able to jump into audiobooks,” Kris says.

So you might consider starting small.

Search online for voice-over jobs — you’ll find promotional videos under five minutes or corporate training videos of 5-15 minutes.

Even online course videos requiring a few hours of voice-over are much shorter than most audiobooks, which run closer to 10-15 hours. Hone your skills on smaller jobs and work your way up to the lengthier projects.

What about contracting the technical stuff out to an audio editor? Kris says that for what you’re paid, it’s not usually worth it for an audiobook.

You’re expected to record, produce and deliver a finished product. Any additional help you bring in will cut into your pay. Kris says you’re better off just learning to do it yourself.

The Creative Penn also offers a few editing tips you might not have considered:

  • Avoid page turning noises — read from a tablet, Kindle or other electronic device.
  • Turn off any devices’ wifi connections and set them to Airplane mode to avoid static noises. (They may be there, even if you can’t hear them.)
  • The ACX technical requirements mean you have to add a few seconds of Room Tone at the beginning and end of the file.

How Much Money Can You Make Reading Audiobooks?

ACX doesn’t set or recommend rates for producers to charge.

But it does point out many narrators are members of the SAG-AFTRA union, which lists minimum rate restrictions.

These guaranteed rates vary by publisher/producer, and ACX says SAG-AFTRA members record on the platform of “can accept no less than $225 per finished hour” for a flat-rate project.

Author Roz Morris tells authors to expect to pay around $200 per finished hour for audiobook narration.

However, Kris says most freelance audiobook work will be paid in royalties. As you might guess, this reduces an author’s upfront cost — as well as their risk in hiring you.

While ACX may be a good place to find the work, the pay is usually lower, especially compared with freelance broker sites that aren’t dedicated solely to audiobook narration.

When you record an audiobook with ACX, you’ll choose between setting your own per-finished-hour rate or splitting royalties 50/50 with the rights holder (usually the book’s author or publisher).

If you charge a flat rate, you’ll be paid upon completion of the book. Royalties are paid monthly based on sales from the previous month.

Mostly, Kris focuses on short books she can quickly complete. And she gets paid a flat rate of about $100 per finished hour, rather than royalties.

“I have done royalty deals but only on ACX with short books,” Kris explains.

“I don’t want to tie up my time, because you [typically] make very little on royalty books … I have four royalty books [on ACX], and about $20 trickles in every quarter.”

Whether or not a royalty deal pays off is largely based on an author’s platform, The Creative Penn points out. Research an author before signing an agreement.

If you’re just looking for a quick job and aren’t concerned with long-term sales, you can work with an author regardless of their audience. Set a flat rate, and get your money when the job’s done.

But if you want to develop a long-term relationship with an author and you’ve found someone with a sizable audience, you may be better off with the royalty deal.

Long-term, you could make much more money in sales royalties. Your working relationship with the author also will be strengthened, because you’ll be invested in the book’s success.

Where to Find Audiobook Work

As with any freelance work, booking a gig directly with the client in your network allows you the most autonomy in setting your rate.

Connecting with a client through a freelance broker like Upwork and Freelancer offers less autonomy and usually lower rates than working with someone directly.

Bidding through an exchange site like ACX offers the lowest of both.

“I only go out to ACX when I don’t have other paid work,” Kris admits.

ACX also makes it difficult to achieve one of the staples of successful freelance work: repeat clients.

Kris says the platform isn’t really set up to connect authors with narrators long-term. Instead you audition for each job. It eliminates a huge opportunity for narrators to work with an author on a series or future books

Directly connecting through a freelance broker does offer that opportunity. Kris says it’s how she found the author of this series of books on Wicca, which has offered (and continues to offer) her ongoing work.

What ACX is good for, Kris says, is building your portfolio.

If you’re just getting started, the platform gives you an opportunity to hone your chops.

Practice your narrating and editing skills through auditions, and improve from author feedback. Once you land a few gigs, use those as samples to land clients elsewhere.

As audiobooks increase in popularity, Kris is seeing more audiobook work appear on Upwork. Freelancer, she says, tends to be better for general voice-over gigs, but not audiobook narration.

Audiobook Narrator Must-Haves

Kris’s top tip for anyone getting into voice-over work is to invest in a good microphone and headphones.

Early on, she says,  “I lost out on work because I didn’t have a really great pair of headphones, and there was background noise that I wasn’t hearing. If you send something out that’s not good enough, they will never hire you again.”

Eventually, she hired a professional to help improve her set-up. She says she wishes she had done it up front, instead of DIYing.

A good pre-amp or audiobox can also help clean up your sound and eliminate background noise. Kris warns against buying a cheap one — it’s a tool worth spending money on.

Finally, “You have to have a desire to learn the technical part of it,” Kris says. “You can ruin an audiobook with bad editing.”

How to Get Started

ACX offers comprehensive guides and FAQs for authors, narrators and publishers, so review those before you get started.

Here’s an overview of how it works:

  1. Create a profile to detail your experience.
  2. Upload samples to your profile to showcase your various skills — accents, genre, style, etc.
  3. Determine whether you’ll always want to be paid per finished hour or by royalty agreements, or if you’re open to either.
  4. Search for books authors/publishers have posted, and record a few minutes of the manuscript to audition for the gig.
  5. When you’re chosen by the author/publisher, they’ll send you an offer. To take the job, accept the offer. All of this should happen through ACX (not over the phone or via email) to ensure the contract terms are on record.
  6. Record and edit a 15-minute sample for feedback before recording and editing the full project. They’ll also have the right to approve or request changes once you’ve submitted the full project.
  7. You’ll be paid a flat rate upon completion and approval of the project or monthly royalty payments based on book sales.

If you’re just getting started in voice-over work, try browsing Upwork for smaller projects you can use to find your voice, build your technical skills and grow your portfolio.

Or reach into your network, and get creative to find freelancing gigs on your own.

Your Turn: Have you made money narrating audiobooks? What tips can you add?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more.

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Best Cities to Work From Home

By Sarah Landrum Working from home is a trend that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon. In fact, it seems as though more and more companies are adapting their offices and tasks to make working from home more plausible for their employees. This cuts down on costs for employers and makes employees […]

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