Sinkhole forms at Lehman Intermediate

Lehman Intermediate School has a sinkhole situation. Multiple areas beside and behind the building in Bushkill have fallen about a foot or so from where they were before.“We have sinkholes developing around some box culverts,” said Wayne Rohner, member of the East Stroudsburg school board and chairman of its property and facilities committee.“It’s evident we have erosion occurring with the stormwater system,” he said. “It seems like [...]

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Little Caesars to open this summer in East Stroudsburg

Construction has started on what will soon be a Little Caesars Pizza in East Stroudsburg. The former vehicle repair shop on the corner of Washington, South Courtland and Day Streets will house soon house the first standalone franchise location in the Poconos.“It’s something the area has never had,” said new owner Robert O’Hara. “It’ll be a standalone Little Caesars — home of the hot and ready five- dollar pie. [...]

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Heineken to Pepsi: Hold my beer

They were strangers a world apart, brought together by a beer commercial billed as a social experiment. Along the way, they bridge political divides - with a little help from Heineken.The social media success of the beermaker's new "Open Your World" campaign is especially stunning in light of Pepsi's disastrous attempt earlier this month at showcasing "people from different walks of life coming together in a spirit of harmony."That tone-deaf ad featured celebrity model Kendall [...]

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Space-mining may be only a decade away

Is water the new oil of space?It may be to Middle Eastern oil states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who are looking at space as a way to diversify out of the earthly benefits of fossil fuel."Middle East oil states are investing in satellite technology and trying to transform their domestic economies into digital economies and knowledge-based economies," said Tom James of Navitas Resources, an energy consultant based in London and Singapore.As space [...]

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GFC 091: Dave Ramsey Might Think I’m Crazy. Here’s Why:

When I first read, Total Money Makeover, back in 2003, I was excited to find another personal finance expert that shared my recommendations regarding saving for retirement.

One of Dave's core tips regarding investing is,

Get your free money first with your 401(k) match. After that, take advantage of the Roth IRA to get your tax-free money. Then go back to the 401(k) and max it out.

This is the same advice that I’ve been giving to individuals ever since I became a financial advisor.

But over the last year or so my opinion has changed. What I’ve realized is that the majority of people that save in their 401(k) s have no idea what they’re doing.

They’ve usually let their employer decide where to put their money and they never really have no clue in what they are investing into.

Are you one of these people?

{Ahem.}

Because of this, I have changed what I believe.

The Change

I believe that everyone should first, if eligible, open a Roth IRA.

Yes, that's right Dave.

I’m a big believer and lover of tax-free money and, if available, to me I’d max out my Roth IRA in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, I’m one of the unlucky ones that doesn’t qualify.

Note: Not sure if you qualify?  Check out the most recent Roth IRA Rules.

So you're probably wondering why would I advocate first going to the Roth IRA instead of the 401(k)?

I don't blame you for questioning. Here's my logic….

What I See

I believe that people need to have more of a hands-on approach with their investments. By having to open a Roth IRA it requires you to go out and do research in where the best place is to open a Roth IRA.

You'll then have to figure out a way to get the money into it, and forced to learn how to choose the investments you place inside it. At worst, you'll have to sit down with a financial planner to help you make sense of it all.

Essentially, it makes you do some work; it makes you have some stake in the game – your game!

Without any stakes in the game you’ll just go through the motions and never really know where or how your money’s being invested.

What About Taxes?

Is there some flaws in my logic? Of course there is! Any tax expert could punch holes in this concept all day long.

But here's what I know: I've talked to several, potentially hundreds of people over the years that don't have the slightest clue what they are doing with their retirement money which is most often their 401k.

This needs to stop.

You think Dave Ramsey will call me nuts?

Let me know in the comments below.

The post GFC 091: Dave Ramsey Might Think I’m Crazy. Here’s Why: appeared first on Good Financial Cents.

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$1 Meal Tactics: Saving Big on Food Costs, a Buck at a Time

A little under a year ago, I wrote an article entitled Using the ‘$1 Per Meal’ Strategy to Save Big Time on Food Costs. In it, I discussed an eight-prong strategy for keeping a family’s meal costs under $1 per meal:

Strategy #1 – Plan Ahead
Strategy #2 – Base More Meals Around Sale-Priced Produce (and Meats)
Strategy #3 – Base Meals Around Low-Cost Staples and Store Brands
Strategy #4 – Take Advantage of Less Busy Times
Strategy #5 – Use a Slow Cooker
Strategy #6 – Extract Maximum Value from Leftovers
Strategy #7 – Extract Value from Scraps, Too
Strategy #8 – Keep Breakfasts and Lunches Well Below $1 per Meal

That’s the strategic backbone of how our family keeps food costs under $1 per meal most of the time, but it does take some work and some imagination to jump from that kind of “big vision” strategy to the practical nature of putting food on the dinner table.

What follows are a whole bunch of tactics that demonstrate very specifically how to take those above strategies and really implement them in your home.

The ‘Giant Pot of Soup’ Tactic

Soup is one of the easiest meals to make. All you have to do is toss most of the ingredients in a slow cooker in the morning, turn it on low, let it cook all day, (maybe) toss in another ingredient or two when you get home from work (like pasta), and eat half an hour later.

Here’s the best part: since this really is so simple, there’s no reason not to make a double or triple batch of it and store the extra soup in a bunch of smaller containers in the freezer. Why? You can reheat those containers in the microwave for a quick lunch at your convenience.

All you need is a healthy handful of small soup containers. You can use glass ones like these or cheaper plastic ones like these, as per your desire. Just eat soup to your heart’s content, then put all of the leftovers into several of these containers and pop them straight into the freezer.

I recommend labeling them with a piece of masking tape upon which the date and the type of soup is written; masking tape is perfect because it stays on in the freezer but is easy to remove and you can get giant rolls of it for a pittance.

The ‘Leftover Smorgasbord’ Tactic

One of the principles described in the original article is to try to avoid throwing away food. However, it’s easy for food to build up in the fridge over time and find its way to the back, never to be seen again in an edible form.

A much better solution is to simply have two or three meals a week that consist of a “leftover smorgasbord.” Pull out all leftovers from your refrigerator, make a plate of food (and/or a bowl), and reheat as needed.

Sure, it’s not the most appealing meal in the world, but it’s essentially a free meal, and if you top your leftovers with a few additional flavors, like hot sauce or a bit of cheese, it can be quite tasty.

The reason to do this three times a week is that you can be sure that leftovers are eaten within a three day range when they’re still safe. Sarah and I tend to eat our leftovers during the week for lunches, but on the weekends, we often have a leftover smorgasbord.

The ‘Easy Recipe Rotation’ Tactic

Most of our meals are prepared from a rotation of easy “framework” recipes. They’re ones that create a sense of variety because it’s so easy to vary the ingredients in that recipe.

For example, we have this baseline “enchilada” recipe – it’s not really enchiladas, but that’s our shorthand name for it – where we basically use whatever beans, salsa, and other flavorful ingredients we have on hand, wrap the ingredients in tortillas, put them in a greased 9″ by 13″ pan, put a bit of enchilada sauce on top, toss a bit of cheese on top, and bake it at 350 F for an hour. It’s almost impossible for this to not be tasty. You can make it with a lot of different meats, a lot of different vegetables, pretty much any kind of beans – it all works.

We have a baseline “pasta” recipe where we simply make a “sauce” out of sauteed vegetables and a bit of olive oil and serve it over pasta. We experiment with that simple “sauce” all the time, trying out different ingredients and different seasonings. It almost always works.

These recipes are really simple, and if you have a decent understanding of how to cook foods (like how to sauté three different vegetables together by cooking the firmer ones first and adding the softer ones later), you can almost cook these things on automatic using anything you have on hand – and anything often includes whatever happens to be on sale.

The ‘Omelet’ Tactic

This is something of a variation on the previous two tactics, effectively combining them together into one meal.

The reality is that a lot of leftovers work really well as the main ingredient in an omelet. An omelet, after all, is simply a few eggs beaten together, cooked in a skillet, and then folded around some ingredients, but those ingredients can be almost anything you wish. I’ve enjoyed spinach omelets and chili omelets and black bean omelets and Spanish rice omelets and stir-fry omelets. All of them worked really well at converting leftovers and changing them into something new because of the egg.

A three egg omelet costs about fifty cents in eggs and you can fill it with almost anything, so it’s a great meal idea to hold onto. Once you get handy with making them, you can cook them up really quickly and efficiently.

The ‘Seasonal’ Tactic

When fruits and vegetables are in season in your area, they’re dirt cheap. Since so many people have them in abundance locally and are trying to sell them, the prices tend to fall through the floor. What does that mean? It means it’s time to get creative with those seasonal items.

When sweet corn season arrives in August, for example, we’ll eat sweet corn over and over and over again. We don’t just eat ears of it, either – we find other ways to prepare it, like using it as an ingredient in salsas or serving it as a side dish or as an item to use in a taco bar. We’ll even buy extra ears, cut the corn off the cob, and store it in freezer bags.

If you’re not sure what’s in season in your area, watch the grocery flyers for any fresh produce that seems absurdly cheap or items that everyone seems to have at the farmers market. (Another tip: if there’s an item that everyone has at the farmers market, you’re probably going to have success if you try to bargain for a better price on it).

The ‘Wonderpot’ Tactic

Another great strategy that I often use is to take whatever ingredients happen to be on sale in a store, find out how long it takes to boil them to perfection, then start boiling water and adding the ingredients in order so that they’ll all finish at the same time. I add pasta at the exact moment that will cause the pasta to finish at that time, too.

When that time comes, I strain all of it, save about a cup of the liquid, add the liquid back in along with a few teaspoons of olive oil and maybe a can of tomato sauce if that seems like it would fit, stir it, and serve it.

A friend showed me this trick many years ago and called it the “wonderpot.” It’s just what we call this simple dish. It’s always a little different. It’s always flavorful. It costs maybe a dollar per meal for that evening. It usually generates a leftover lunch or two as well.

The ‘Loaded Toast’ Tactic

Whenever I have a small amount of almost anything left over from my meal the previous night, I’ll just eat it for breakfast or lunch the next day on top of a piece of toast. I just toss a piece of bread on the toaster, warm up the leftovers if it’s necessary, then load up the toast with the leftovers.

The only dirty dish generated is a dirty plate. The only cost is that of a slice of bread – maybe a dime. It works with almost any leftover that isn’t completely liquid – I’ve done this with everything from goulash to taco ingredients to fish filets to macaroni and cheese to rice pilaf. It’s easy to eat, too, as it requires no silverware.

This is my go-to lunch on many busy days. It’s just so convenient, so easy, and so tasty, and it changes the texture of the leftovers just enough that it seems fresh.

The ‘Egg Jar’ Tactic

I like to snack – especially in the mid-afternoon when I get a bit hungry between lunch and supper – but many snacks are super-expensive. Plus, I like the ability to just open the fridge and grab something when the munchies get to me.

My solution to that problem is to keep an “egg jar” in the fridge. It’s simple – all you have to do is hard boil a dozen eggs, remove the shells, and put them in water with just a tiny bit of vinegar and maybe a few seasonings. I like to toss in peppercorns and dill seeds.

I typically store them in an old apothecary-style jar with an attached lid. I put the dozen eggs in there, add a tiny bit of vinegar, toss in some peppercorns and maybe a couple of garlic cloves and some dill if I have any, then fill it with water until the eggs are covered and seal the jar. Whenever I want a snack, I just pop open the jar and grab an egg. The peppercorns and garlic and dill gently flavor the eggs. If you want different flavor for your eggs, try using soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce and try varying the amounts of liquids in there. Just play around with it until you find exactly what you like.

This mix allows the eggs to store quite nicely for at least a week in the fridge, and the cost adds up to maybe $0.20 per egg. It’s a great little cheap snack that packs a nice bunch of protein into very few calories.

The ‘Whole Chicken Crock Pot’ Tactic

This is one of my favorite strategies, one of the ones that we used to use all the time until we made some dietary changes for health reasons.

It’s simple. Whole chickens are cheap. Slow cookers make cooking whole chickens very easy. Combine the two. Just buy a whole chicken, remove the giblets, stuff the cavity with some tasty things (like, say, an orange separated into quarters), sprinkle the whole chicken with a bit of salt and ground black pepper, put the whole thing in a slow cooker with maybe a cup of water, and cook it all day long while you’re at work. When you get home, check the temperature and turn it up to high if the internal temperature of the chicken isn’t up to 165 F. When it’s done, the broth is amazing and the meat practically slides off the bone.

The advantage here is that whole chickens are very cheap, almost all of the meat is edible, you can use the chicken as the centerpiece of the meal, the leftover chicken can be used in all kinds of additional ways, and the broth itself can be saved and used as stock for almost anything you might want to use it for.

You can do almost the exact same thing with a pot roast by using an inexpensive large cut of beef or pork, but that’s usually quite a bit more expensive.

The ‘Divide and Conquer with Children’ Tactic

This is something that I’ve found comes in handy if you’re ever in a situation where you have to take older children to the grocery store. Older children almost always want to feel responsible and involved in the adult world, so I take advantage of this. I simply give my oldest two children very specific tasks in the grocery store.

For example, I’ll tell my middle child to go over to the banana section and select a bunch of bananas that are just slightly green and aren’t brown at all. I’ll tell my oldest child a bit more challenging task, where I’ll tell him to go to the bread section and find the loaf of wheat bread that’s on sale and bring it back.

This serves a bunch of purposes at once. First of all, it’s teaching them how to shop in a thrifty way. Second, it keeps them occupied on the shopping tasks that don’t require much focus from me so that I can stick with the ones that do require some focus. Third, and perhaps most important, it causes us to spend much less time in the store, so there’s less time to get tempted by incidental things – plus, if my children are busy on tasks, they have much less time to get tempted.

I can blow through a shopping trip in much less time these days with my two older kids in tow than I do by myself. I just need to stay super-focused during that shorter block of time, which is good because it means a lot fewer incidental items make it into the cart.

The ‘Remixable Sides’ Tactic

Whenever possible, we prepare side dishes in such a way that they can be flexibly reused in a lot of ways.

For example, when we grill, we’ll often grill sliced potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil with minimal seasoning. We just slice up several potatoes, put them in aluminum foil that’s been lightly coated with a bit of oil or butter, add an ice cube and a pat of butter, and cook them until they’re done. They make for a very tasty side dish, but the best part is that the grilled potatoes can be reused in a ton of ways.

We might use those potatoes as part of a breakfast skillet meal the next day. We might use them in a soup or a casserole in a day or two. We might just chop them up and toss them with scrambled eggs. We might use them as a taco or burrito ingredient. Grilled potatoes are really flexible.

The flexibility of side dishes is a big consideration in our cooking. If there’s something we can easily reuse in something else later on in the week, we’ll just cook plenty of it now in a simple way that enables it to be quickly used later on. Grilled potatoes are just one example – we do it with things like fresh broccoli, asparagus, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and many other things. We prepare them the first time in a very simple way so that they can easily be reused later on in a more specific way.

The ‘Potluck Dinner Party’ Tactic

One of our favorite strategies over the last several years (sadly, we haven’t had one of these in a while due to scheduling challenges, but there’s one coming up soon!) is a running series of potluck dinner parties. It’s a way to have a cheap meal with a lot of friends.

On a rotating basis, one family in our regular group simply hosts a potluck dinner, usually followed by board and card games or sometimes a movie. That family usually provides the main course and then suggests a type of side dish or beverage or dessert for everyone else to bring. For example, one family might make a pot of soup and ask one family to bring dinner rolls, another family to bring a light dessert, and a third family to bring some shareable beverages.

This enables each family to just focus on one simple item for a dozen or so people. For example, two dozen dinner rolls is more than adequate to cover that many people. That person can decide if they want to just buy pre-made rolls or if they want to cut costs and make their own pull-aparts.

The cost per attendee is maybe $0.50 per person at the party when everything is added together, maybe more if they’re taking an easy route. The host often has leftovers of the main course, so something like soup is perfect as it can easily be frozen (see the first tactic in this article). Not only that, it gets a bunch of friends together for an evening without much more cost than an inexpensive meal at home.

Final Thoughts

All of these tactics fit well as part of an overall strategy to cut meal costs as low as possible and they demonstrate that you can have a wide variety of foods and have a nice social life while still shooting for a “$1 per meal” target for your food.

As always, pick and choose among these tactics and use only the ones that really make sense for you. If some of them just don’t fit, go on to the next one. Remember, some tactics will work well in your life and others won’t, but the set of ones that work well are going to likely be different for each person. Just pull the items that you think will click with you and use them to the best of your ability.

Good luck!

The post $1 Meal Tactics: Saving Big on Food Costs, a Buck at a Time appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Ask GFC 031: Can I Still Contribute to an IRA – Even if I Don’t Get a Tax Break?

Polish Your Budget: 9 Simple Ways to Spring Clean Your Finances

I want to like spring cleaning. I go nuts for the New Year and Lent, because I’m all about self-improvement. Similarly, spring cleaning is a time to reorganize and start over in many areas.

But I despise it. I hate any cleaning, really. Folding laundry is about the only thing I do that qualifies as housework.

Lately, however, I’ve been seeing lots of posts about “financial spring cleaning.” Applying spring cleaning to money? This idea is perfect for me! I can work toward self-betterment without having to pick up a sponge.

Here are a few ways you can scrub the dirt off your finances this spring.

By the way, you don’t have to take on all nine of these goals. Actually, please don’t! When I read lists like this one, my perfectionism kicks in and I get overwhelmed by how many changes I think I should make.

Just choose one way to clean your financial home this spring. Maybe two ways, if you’re feeling adventurous. Remember, your goal is progress, not perfection.

Start with one small, measurable goal. The sense of empowerment you will experience from being successful in that area can give you the confidence to take on the next small challenge.

1. Reevaluate Your New Year’s Resolutions

Maybe you set financial New Year’s resolutions for 2017. I know I did!

But since 80% of people drop their New Year’s resolutions by February, there’s a good chance you’ve let at least one of those goals fall by the wayside. For example, I’ve successfully followed the timeline I set up in January to pay off debts… but I keep ignoring my resolution to put money into savings.

If you’re also one of the 80%, resist the urge to see yourself as weak; instead, consider yourself older and wiser. Spring is the perfect time to modify resolutions that weren’t realistic.

So you didn’t make any resolutions? That’s OK. Peruse the rest of the ideas on this list and choose one or two personal spring cleaning goals that feel manageable.

2. Open an Emergency Fund

It’s a common opinion that people should have at least three months’ expenses in savings at any given time. Then if you lose your job or your car breaks down, your life doesn’t suddenly fall apart.

Guess how much money I have in my emergency fund? A whopping $0. Yeah, starting an emergency fund has earned its place at the top of my spring cleaning list.

To start your emergency fund, calculate your expenses for one month. Consider the cost of rent, utilities, transportation, insurance, and debt. Don’t forget sneaky expenses such as personal hygiene products.

Then multiply that number by three. That’s how much money you should aim to have in your emergency fund.

Where should you open an account? The key is that you want your money to be accessible in case of an emergency, but not so accessible that you’re tempted to withdraw it when you want to go on a weekend trip with your friends.

I recommend opening a separate savings account with your bank, or a money market account. Money market accounts typically require a higher minimum balance, but the interest rate can be higher — which means more money for you! Here is NerdWallet’s list of money market accounts with the highest interest rates this year.

3. Keep Track of Your Debts

For six months, I was aware that I had debts to repay. I knew that I owed my in-laws money, that my husband had some vague amount to repay on his student loans, and that I had a little credit card debt (although precisely how much was on each of my three cards was a bit fuzzy).

A few weeks ago, I finally took 30 minutes to create a spreadsheet in Excel listing all our debts, including the grand total. Now I update that document every Monday.

Seeing everything in print gives me a better idea of where we are financially. And every time that grand total gets smaller, I do a little dance in my chair!

Looking at those numbers every Monday, especially the total, gives me the momentum to keep chipping away at our debt.

4. Sort Out Your Credit Cards

Everyone’s credit card situation is different.

If you have eight credit cards and little willpower, consider canceling a few of those cards. (But first, check how canceling your credit card could affect your credit score. Canceling isn’t always the best idea.)

If you have a low credit score but high willpower, maybe you should get a card and use it responsibly to establish good credit.

I (incorrectly) held the belief that credit cards were pure evil for years. But some credit cards pay you for signing up, hook you up with travel points, or give you extended warranties on certain purchases.

Do your research and find out how you can make credit cards work for you rather than against you. I recently paid off the last of my credit cards that carried a balance. Yay, me! Now I’m trying to decide on my next step.

5. Act to Improve Your Credit

First of all, if you don’t already know your credit score, get a free credit report. If you don’t like what you see, don’t freak out; there are plenty of ways to boost that number!

Simply paying off your debts and paying your bills on time can improve your score. If you’re not sure what’s keeping your credit score so low, check out Credit Sesame. The free site lays out exactly what factors are affecting your credit score and offers advice on how to change them.

A few years ago, I had good credit, but I wanted excellent credit. So I set up a loan with my bank. They gave me $2,000 to pay back over two years. I immediately put that money in a separate account, set up automatic withdrawals, and never had to worry about it. (Except when I had to take out money a couple times for emergencies. See why I’m motivated to set up an emergency fund?)

That was the easiest way I could have imagined to improve my credit score. I got it all set up in just one trip to the bank. My credit score is now 787.

6. Set Short Term Goals for Your Side Hustle

Whether you’re a freelance writer, Uber driver or Etsy shop owner, it’s always good to set clear objectives.

Setting concrete goals has helped me understand my long-term vision for my freelance writing side gig. I created a list of aims in a Word document, and that document acts as a source of accountability. I look at that list whenever I decide whether to take on a new project. I ask myself, “Is this decision in line with my goals? Is it helping me move toward my long-term vision?” Setting goals has motivated me to take action.

I also have annual income goals for my freelance business. 2016 was my first year freelance writing. Now that I have more experience, I know I can make more money. I want to earn at least three times the amount I earned last year. I’m off to a good start!

In 2016, I wrote several pieces for no pay because I wanted the exposure. Now that I have this financial goal for 2017, I feel confident only writing a piece if I will be paid for my work.

Now that I have a couple of steady gigs, I’ve started setting monthly and weekly financial goals, as well. Now I have fewer surprises, and I can plan for how much of this extra money I want to channel toward paying off my debts.

7. Contribute More to Your Retirement Account

If you’re contributing anything to your retirement account, high five!

But if the very thought of doing financial spring cleaning depresses you, make your “one thing” to bump up your 401(k) or IRA contributions a tad. If you currently contribute 4% of your income, try bumping it up to 5% or 6%. Chances are, your wallet won’t feel the difference. If you find out your budget can’t handle the financial strain, you can decrease your contribution later.

Increasing your contribution by such a small amount may not seem worth it. But don’t forget the power of compound interest!

If you haven’t opened a retirement account yet and don’t know what a 401(k) or IRA is, don’t panic. Read this simple explanation. It’s never too late to start. My mom is kicking herself for putting off contributing to a 401(k) until 10 years ago, but hey, at least she started!

8. Begin Investing

Making your first investment is daunting. Especially if you’re like me and know nothing about the subject.

I urge you to take that leap, though. When you invest, your money makes you more money. There are several ways to take your first step.

My husband and I chose to pass the torch to our financial advisor. We set up automatic withdrawals with his company to put money into our IRAs. Since we are still in the early stages of saving for retirement, once we hit a certain balance in those accounts, our advisor will start making investments from our IRA nest eggs to help the accounts grow. We won’t have to worry at all.

If you don’t want to pay an advisor, ask a family member or friend who understands investing to take you under their wing and explain their strategy.

You can also use apps to get started. Stash helps you invest just $5 in the stock market. I use Best Brokers to invest fake money in the stock market to see how I would fare in real life.

9. Consider Your Insurance Needs

My brother’s apartment recently burned down, and he lost almost everything. He’s 32, and believe it or not, the exact same thing happened when he was 20! (Neither fire was his fault, by the way.)

While upsetting, the second fire was far less financially devastating because he had renter’s insurance. The insurance company paid for food and a hotel while he looked for a new place to live and gave him $10,000 to replace items lost in the fire.

We like to think we don’t need insurance. Hopefully, we’ll never have to use it. But if you don’t have renter’s, homeowner’s, life or catastrophic insurance (for those of you whose employers don’t offer medical insurance)… seriously look into it.

Of course, not everyone needs all these types of insurance! Carefully review your needs to see which ones you should consider, and which aren’t necessary for you.

Don’t freak out if you haven’t already accomplished all nine of these tasks. That’s what spring cleaning is for! Focus on one thing this season, whether it’s purchasing renter’s insurance or bumping up your credit score.

Meanwhile, I have a date with my Wells Fargo customer service agent. We’re going to open a savings account for my brand-new emergency fund!

Your Turn: What is the one thing you can do to start your financial spring cleaning?

Laura Grace Tarpley is a freelance writer who is always looking for ways to save money. She teaches English to adorable children in Shenzhen, China.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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