Fewer Teens Have Summer Jobs — Yet They’re Also Busier Than Ever

Teens in America aren’t working like they used to — but there’s a reason for that.

Teens (16- to 19-year-olds) are no longer participating in the age-old tradition of busting their butts for minimum wage in a greasy burger shack all summer long, according to an article recently published by Bloomberg.

Instead, the article states that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Labor Force Participation Rate for 16- to 19-year-olds has dropped from about 55% in the year 1977 to a much lower 35% in 2017. By 2024, that number is expected to drop below 27%.

But before you go on a fist-shaking, spittle-flying, “young-people-these-days” rant, let’s take a look at why teens are less interested in working during the summer months.

Kids These Days!

The article proposes a few theories as to why the teen work force participation is dropping so steadily:

• Teens are being crowded out of the workforce by older Americans who are now working past age 65 at the highest rates in more than 50 years
  
• Immigrants are competing with teens for jobs
  
• Parents are pushing teens to volunteer and participate in extracurriculars to impress colleges
  
• College-bound teens may not be interested in working at all because money simply doesn’t stretch as far as it used to (I imagine it can feel fruitless to work all summer just to change your final student loan bill from $50,000 to $47,100)

All valid reasons, and all probably play a small part in the bigger issue, but the article offered one final theory.

Apparently, teens aren’t working these days because they’re doing something else instead. (Graffitiing overpasses? Hanging out in malls with their parents’ credit cards? Laying in bed all day playing around on those *gasp* blasted smartphones?!)

No, no and no.

Teens are spending their summers studying and going to school.

High school-aged teens are taking more (and tougher) classes than teens in the 1980s did, and college-aged teens are doing multiple internships (the new standards of competition say they should complete upwards of three) and are often required to take summer courses in order to graduate.  

Flexible Summer Jobs for Students

But, as Bloomberg points out, a summer job is more than just a way to make a buck. It’s also a way to expand a teenager’s world view and teach them the basics of money management and how to function in a work environment.

The issue, then, is finding a job that works with a busy student’s schedule (and one that pays more than minimum wage couldn’t hurt either, what with the laughably painful cost of college these days).

Luckily, we here at The Penny Hoarder care quite a bit about two things: jobs that don’t make you want to tear your hair out and making money.

If you’re looking for a flexible summer job, start with this list of 100 summer jobs for teens. With everything from plant sitting to performing at birthday parties, there’s probably a job or two here that you could fit in around your hectic class schedule.

If you’re spending the summer on campus, try one of these 13 online jobs for college students that you can do from the comfort of your dorm room (or, sign up to become a Campus Sherpa)!

If you’re looking for a side hustle that you can use to earn extra cash on your own time, check out these 25 simple ways to make money in college — without dropping any classes.

And if you still need a little help with tuition so that you don’t end up drowning in student loan debt, here are 100 awesome scholarships that can help you pay for college.

Grace Schweizer is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.

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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CLOSING BELL: US stock indexes close lower, slide below record high levels

U.S. stocks closed slightly lower Monday, capping a mostly quiet day of trading that eased the market back from record highs set late last week. Utilities and materials companies posted some of the biggest losses. Energy stocks led the gainers, even as crude oil prices declined. Technology companies and banks also bucked the downward trend. Google parent Alphabet closed above $1,000 a share for the first time. The dip snapped a two-day winning streak for [...]

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2 Things You Absolutely Should NOT Do With Your Financial Aid Award

If you’re counting on student loans to pay for college in the fall, you’ve probably already navigated the FAFSA. We hope you’ve also started to think about your repayment options.

After the FAFSA, you’ll receive an offer letter letting you know how much you’re eligible to receive. You’ll have to choose how much money to actually accept.

Have you considered what you’ll do if you get more money than you need?

Bet you haven’t — because that hardly sounds like a problem.

It could be, though. Any money you borrow needs to be paid back, probably with interest.

My financial status going into college meant I was eligible for a lot more aid than I needed to cover tuition. I took it all, and now I’m $58,000 in debt.

Here are two important warnings I wish I’d known back then to avoid racking up so much debt:

1. Don’t Take All the Financial Aid You’re Offered if You Don’t Need It

You can receive some of your financial aid without accepting all of it.

It’s tempting to take everything if you’re awarded more than you need — it feels like free money!

Putting yourself in debt, though, is sooo not free.

Unless you need the relief, don’t consider this an excuse to avoid working.

If you can cover living expenses by working while you’re a student or over the summer, you’ll avoid a lot of hassle and cost in loans.

Decide how much help you reasonably need to cover your tuition and expenses each semester and how much you’ll be able to contribute from savings or wages.

Then accept financial aid awards in this order:

1. Scholarships and grants (free money)
2. Work-study (earned money)
3. Federal student loans (borrowed money)
4. State or school loans (borrowed money)
5. Private loans (borrowed money)

2. Don’t Use Student Loans for Extravagant Purchases

If you accept the money, only to realize when a refund check arrives you don’t need it… you still don’t have to spend it.

Would it be nice to fund your friends’ spring break trip or go on a shopping spree? Of course. But you’ll pay for that extravagance exponentially down the line, and it may not seem worth it in retrospect.

(Or, maybe it will. Your call. But I’m telling you this now, so you can make an informed decision instead of one you’ll regret later.)

Learn from our mistakes — here are the irresponsible things Penny Hoarders did with their student loan refunds.

Congrats, Grad!

You’re about to embark on an exciting leg of your journey. Some even call college the best years of our lives.

Just… please make smart financial choices now so these years don’t live to haunt you forever.

Leave that job to the tattoo you get around your ankle sophomore year.

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).

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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How Much Car Can I Afford?

Car dealerships are notorious for making the car buying process overly difficult.

Try figuring out how much a car actually costs and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

First, there’s the sticker price a car dealership advertises. From there, you can find the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) to compare to. If you negotiate well, you may even work your way down to the dealer’s bottom line – or, the lowest price they’ll accept for a specific car on their lot.

Unfortunately, the path from the sticker price to bottom dollar pricing is often shrouded in mystery. And if you’re not careful, you can wind up paying more than a car is truly worth – or paying more than you can afford.

But, pricing isn’t the only way car dealerships can screw up your finances. Not only do they make negotiating price a weird and stressful experience, but they’re awesome at convincing you their new cars are worth outrageous sums of money.

Keep in mind that, as of the first quarter of the year, the average new car loan came in at well over $30,000. And the average new car payment was $499 per month – for 68 months!

When you consider the fact that the median household income was only was only $56,516 in 2015, those numbers are absurd.

Related: The One Monthly Payment KILLING Your Wealth

So, How Much Can You Afford? These Four Steps Can Help You Find Out

Like it or not, it’s up to you to figure out how much you can truly afford to spend on a car. No matter what, don’t leave it up to your sales guy to decide how much you can borrow. Why? Because, according to their facts and figures, your credit and income may qualify you to buy just about anything on the lot.

True “affordability” is never dictated by lenders or big banks. At the end of the day, only you know how much you can afford to spend on transportation and your other bills.

So, how do you determine how much you can afford?

If you’re buying a new car and paying in cash, determining what you can afford is easy. How much cash do you have saved for a car that’s kept separate from your emergency fund? That’s how much you can afford.

When you’re financing a car, on the other hand, you have to determine what you can afford a different way. Since car loans require steady monthly payments, one of the easiest ways to gauge affordability is by nailing down an affordable monthly payment and going from there.

Keep in mind that car payments are determined using more than the purchase price of a new or used vehicle. On top of principal payments toward your loan, you’ll also pay interest. While new cars tend to come with higher prices and lower interest rates, older cars come with lower prices (on average) and higher rates.

The type of car you can buy – and how much you can spend – will depend on the monthly payment you can truly afford. If you’ve already had a car payment in the past or have one now, you may be aware of how much you can afford to pay on a monthly basis. But, if you’ve never had a car payment, you’ll need to do some math.

Here are four steps that can help you nail down a monthly payment you can afford.

Step #1: Figure out how much you earn every month.

If you’re not using a budget already, you may not know exactly how much you earn each month. Before you can decide on a car payment, however, this step is crucial.

Take out your pay stubs and add up your regular income in an average month. If you get paid the same amount every few weeks, this part is easy. If your income fluctuates, on the other hand, you may have to estimate your average income based on several month’s pay.

Step #2: Subtract your expenses.

Once you have a handle on your income, you have to add up all your monthly expenses, too. How do you normally spend your money? Make sure to add up all your fixed expenses (rent, insurance, television, phone, internet, etc.) and estimate your fluctuating expenses (utility bills, gas, food, etc.).

Lastly, you should also plan some savings in your monthly budget. If you’re not saving cash every month, you should be, right?

Once you’re done tallying your monthly expenses and savings goals, compare your income to your expenses. How much money do you have left over every month?

Step #3: Estimate costs for gas and insurance.

Will the price of insurance and gas go up or down when you buy a newer car? If you anticipate changes, make sure to add them to the simple budget you created in steps 1 and 2.

Here’s a good example:

Let’s say you earn $1,000 every payday for a monthly take home pay of $4,000.

Here’s how your expenses look once you add them up:

• Rent: $1,200
• Food: $600
• Cable & Internet: $80
• Gas: $100
• Car Insurance: $80
• Utility Bills: $250
• Health Insurance: $200
• Childcare: $600
• Savings: $400
• Total: $3,510

In this scenario, you should have around $490 leftover to spend on a car each month. That’s how much you could spend, but not necessarily how much you should spend.

Step #4: Use a car payment calculator to see how much you can afford to spend.

Once you have an idea of how your monthly income and expenses look, you can gain more insight by experimenting with a loan calculator. Enter the price range you plan to shop in along with the interest rate you hope to qualify for. From there, you can see what type of monthly payment you might end up with.

Let’s say you’re looking at an older Toyota Corolla hybrid that’s currently for sale at a local dealership. They’re asking $21,000, but you hope to drive off the lot for $20,000.

By playing around with a loan calculator, you can experiment with different scenarios.

If you borrowed $20,000 at 5 percent APR and paid your car off over 60 months, for example, your monthly payment would be $377.42.

Or, maybe you saved up a $3,000 down payment and wanted to pay your loan off over four years instead of five. If you borrowed $17,000 for four years at the same rate, you would owe $391.50 per month.

5 Important Tips When Buying a New or Used Car

While the above guidelines make it possible to find out how much car you can afford, that doesn’t mean that number should be your actual budget. If you want even more freedom in your monthly expenses, you should strive to spend less on a car than you can afford to spend.

Here are some tips that can help:

#1: Don’t forget about added costs.

In addition to the price of your new vehicle, you’ll need to cover license plates, insurance, and any additional taxes levied by your state. You will also need to pay sales tax on your vehicle, although your lender may wrap your taxes into your loan if you ask.

When it comes to plates and insurance, you should also remember that newer cars come with higher expenses in these categories. If you want to save money on plates and insurance, buying an older car (or at least one that isn’t brand new) should help.

#2: Leave plenty of wiggle room in your monthly budget.

If you worked out a monthly budget using the guidelines above, you probably know about how much you can afford to pay for a car each month. Still, don’t forget to leave plenty of wiggle room in your budget.

Life happens and surprise expenses pop up. Roofs and cars need repairs. You might have unexpected medical bills or lose your job. The more “extra cash” you have in your budget, the better off you’ll be.

#3: Shop around for the one expense you can control – auto insurance.

While you cannot control the price of license plates for your new vehicle, you can shop around to get the best rates on auto insurance. The price of your car insurance policy can vary by hundreds of dollars depending on the agency you buy from. By comparing prices and policies, you can make sure you’re getting the best deal you can.

#4: Buy used instead of new.

New cars depreciate up to 9 percent the moment you drive them off the lot according to Edmunds, and they continue depreciating rapidly until they’re worth almost nothing. While the same can be said for used cars, you can at least avoid the initial drop that comes in the first few years.

#5: Stick to your budget.

This final tip may seem obvious, but it’s incredibly important. If you’ve gone through the trouble to set a limit on how much you can spend on a car, make sure you stick to it!

Savvy car salesman will do anything to get you to buy a newer model or spend more money. Why? Because their income depends on it!

By setting limits ahead of time, you can ensure you’re the one in control.

The post How Much Car Can I Afford? appeared first on Good Financial Cents.

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This Smart Tool Can Help You Earn 7% Cash Back Every Time You Book a Hotel

Some people work to pay their bills.

I work to afford my travel addiction.

Sometimes I’ll sit at my desk and daydream about sipping a Mai Tai by a sparkling pool, or coming back from a day at the beach to a bed I didn’t have to make.

My dreams look like the Four Seasons, but my budget is more Motel 6.

Ebates’ newest feature understands the plight of the broke post-grad who wants to make her travel dreams a reality.

The site already works with more than 2,000 retailers to offer shoppers up to 40% cash back on purchases, including travel related stuff like airfare, car rentals, and luggage.

But Ebates just upped its savings game with a new feature: Ebates Hotels.

How to Use Ebates Hotels to Get 7% Cash Back

The new vertical allows you to book your hotel directly through Ebates and earn up to 7% cash back on every stay.

That’s major moolah compared to other hotel cash-back deals.

Here’s how its competitors stack up:

• Hotwire Hotels: 4%

• Priceline Hotels: 4%

• Travelocity Hotels: 4%

• Booking.com: 2%

• Expedia Hotels: 1.5%

Even the long list of individual hotel partnerships on Ebates normal site only range from 1%-4.5% cash back.

For example, let’s say you want to book a room at the Howard Johnson. If you book your stay through Ebates, you’ll normally only get 2.5% cash back.

However, you’ll get 7% back for booking the same hotel through Ebates Hotels (before taxes and fees, of course).

But how do Ebates’ rates compare to other travel sites?

I searched the Howard Johnson Enchanted Land hotel in Kissimmee, Florida (close to Disney), for the same random Saturday night on a few different sites.

• Expedia: $48

• Priceline: $48

• Howard Johnson: $48

• Ebates Hotels: $45

Ebates Hotels’ rate is actually $48 as well — but the price is shown along with the predicted cash back taken out of the total.

So you won’t see savings right at booking, but don’t be disappointed: You’ll get your cash back in a Big Fat Check when you cash it out.

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!

Jen Smith is an editorial intern and the blogger behind Saving with Spunk. She writes about saving money and paying off student loans now so you can have more fun with your money later.

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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Put Away the Shades of White: These Colors Yield More in a Home Resale

Looks aren’t everything — except, of course, when they are.

Real estate giant Zillow scoured more than 32,000 photos from home listings to see how paint colors impacted average sales prices.

What they found out may surprise you. It turns out homes with walls painted shades of blue or light gray tend to bring in more in resale dollars than those with white walls. In some cases, up to $5,440 more.

“Color can be a powerful tool for attracting buyers to a home, especially in listing photos and videos,” Svenja Gudell, Zillow’s chief economist, said in a press release. “Painting walls in fresh, natural-looking colors, particularly in shades of blue and pale gray not only make a home feel larger, but also are neutral enough to help future buyers envision themselves living in the space.”

Which House Paint Colors Could Mean More Money When You Sell?

Painting a room is a relatively low-cost, low-skill upgrade, but you’ll want to choose the right colors. Zillow’s 2017 Paint Color Analysis can guide you to the hues you should paint your walls if you want the most bang for your buck when selling your home.

So go ahead and put down that can of white, off-white, cream, eggshell, china, cotton, pearl or even unicorn white.

In the kitchen, opt for a light blue to soft gray-blue tone, Zillow recommends. Homes with those colors sold for $1,809 more. Kitchens painted yellow, on the other hand, saw resale value drop by about $820.

Bathrooms painted light powder blue or periwinkle can bring in $5,440 more on average, while off-white or eggshell white bathrooms lowered home sales by about $4,035.

Home sellers may lose about $200 having a pink bedroom but could stand to gain $1,856 with a light cerulean or cadet blue bedroom.

One room where blue doesn’t reign supreme is in the living room. Zillow found a light beige, pale taupe and oatmeal color tends to add $1,809 to home sales, while living rooms painted light blue, periwinkle, pale silver or pastel gray lose out on an average of $820.

Even the color of your front door can make a $1,500 difference. See Zillow’s full report for more.

Nicole Dow is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She has grown used to neutral walls from renting but is looking forward to buying her first home and painting the walls whichever colors she wants.

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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5 Offbeat Hiring Practices That Some Companies are Actually Using Right Now

Job interviews are terrifying.

We don’t want to ruin our chances by saying or doing something we shouldn’t (although if you take some time to prepare for the interview, you’ll do fine).

There’s also no way of knowing what kind of curveball questions the hiring manager might ask, or whether you’ll end up taking a spontaneous skills test.  

Sometimes, though, you can tell right when you apply that the interview process will be anything but ordinary.

5 Offbeat Hiring Practices Companies are Actually Using

These five unusual application processes could become commonplace as companies try out new ways to hire workers.

1. Get Ready for Your Closeup

McDonald’s restaurants in Australia begin the interview process over Snapchat. It’s amusingly called a “Snaplication.”

“We think this is actually a world first,” Shaun Ruming, chief operating officer of McDonald’s Australia, explained to news.com.au. “Snaplications is basically a Snapchat ‘lens’ that gives users the ability to apply for a job — or at least commence that process — by sending a 10-second snap.”

Ruming says the new approach is designed to appeal to the social media-loving younger crowd that makes up a large portion of its worker base.

2. Calling All Escape Artists

Mat Ishbia, CEO of mortgage company United Shore, puts applicants through their paces in a custom-built escape room at the company’s headquarters.

“Prospective employees interviewing for some positions — he doesn’t like to say which — must ‘escape’ the room before they receive a job offer,” according to Money.

3. Bring Your A (Video) Game

Some companies ask applicants to play video games to assess how well they’ll perform on the job and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.

Keurig Green Mountain, of beverage appliance fame, asks entry-level engineering job applicants to play specific video games to tease out their personality.

“The hardest part of assessing talent is that [job candidates] have been trained so well,” Alison Keefe, a university-relations manager at Keurig told The Wall Street Journal. She says video games help recruiters “get past the veneer.”

4. Prepare to Meet Mya

The next recruiter you see in person might not be an actual person at all. San Francisco technology firm Mya Systems has created an artificial intelligence bot that’s smart enough to communicate with candidates over email, SMS and Facebook Messenger.

The company says it created the bot (also named Mya) to streamline the hiring process, and indeed it can. Mya gets a lot of questions out of the way that recruiters would cover in an initial interview, like how much experience a candidate has or what salary they expect.

“Applicants chat with Mya, and if she deems them a good fit she’ll schedule an in-person interview with the (human) hiring manager. She will also automatically send directions via Google Maps and even offer tips on what to wear,” explains CNN.

5. Txt Me Pls

Talent recruiting software company Yello believes hiring managers should fire up their smartphones and text the candidates they’re interested in.

A recent Yello survey discovered that 86% of respondents welcome text messages as part of the interview process. Three out of four say they’re down with doing a video interview rather than traipsing across town to meet a hiring manager in person.

Though texting may seem cold and unprofessional, it can add a personal touch that today’s job seekers may appreciate.

No matter what curveballs recruiters throw at you.

Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. A hiring manager once told her he’d have to ask his cats if she was a good fit for the job. He was serious.

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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Marvel Studios Wants First Responders as Extras for Its New Avengers Movie

Avengers fans, here’s your chance to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and make all your friends (and me) so jealous.

Marvel Studios is hiring extras for the next installment in its Avengers franchise, “Avengers: Infinity War.”

The casting notice is for extras to play emergency responders in background shots.

Specifically, Marvel Studios is looking for “real cops, firemen and EMTs between the ages of 18 and 49.” Tactical experience is required.

All ethnicities are welcome, but extras must be able to fit in the uniforms provided. That means men must have a waist no larger than 36”, and women must be dress size 0-8.

The uniform fitting will be sometime the week of June 12 and the scenes will be shot in downtown Atlanta July 5-9.

The call listing doesn’t indicate which scenes require extras, but holy cow who cares! We’re talking about the Avengers!

Though Marvel fans would no doubt do this for free, the studio is paying extras $68 for eight hours of work.

Talk about a dream side gig.

Here’s where to apply for this amazing opportunity.

Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She wants to know if a fellow Penny Hoarder gets this gig because she wants to hear all about it. In the meantime, she’ll be around just pretending to be Iron Man.

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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Questions About Digital Nomads, Generosity with Friends, Engagement Rings, VHS Tapes, and More!

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. “Digital nomad” suggestions
2. How much money to quit?
3. Can’t realistically afford college
4. Struggling to cut grocery bill
5. Reciprocating generosity with friends
6. Moving cash in from Canada
7. Refinance car now or later?
8. Overcoming cost of utility hookup
9. Career sputtering out
10. Didn’t get dream job
11. Engagement ring conundrum
12. Dealing with old VHS tapes

My children started their summer vacation earlier this week. This means that they’re home with dad all day long, which means that the house is full of noise and play and conversation all day long. That’s a good thing.

It also means that my writing schedule has to drastically change. During the daytime normal workday hours, it’s largely impossible to get any work done here, so my writing time is moved to the very early morning – I’m getting up very, very early each day – or to an hour or two in the evening after Sarah gets home. I can also squeeze in an hour long writing block when they’re playing outside or something like that.

The issue isn’t that I don’t want to leave my kids to independent play – I’m completely fine with them having a lot of independent play during the day and I even encourage it. The challenge is the noise and change in environment. The general noise in the house when they’re awake and playing is enough to be significantly distracting and I can’t simply leave to work, so I try not to do much focused work when they’re in the house.

It’s just a change, one that I’ve dealt with before, but one that requires some real adjustment when it starts.

On with your questions.

Q1: ‘Digital nomad’ suggestions

Hi! I just received a job offer from a company where I have to work remotely and just come in for meetings once every several weeks for a day. I will be a “digital nomad”!

I know this is something you have done for several years. What suggestions do you have for someone considering this life or just starting out doing it? I know that it is a good idea to have a place at home that is just for “work” but what else do I need to know to make this work? The freedom seems exhilarating but also scary!
– Terry

The number one challenge you’re going to have is staying on task. You’re essentially going to be working without any kind of a direct supervisor. You’re going to have the freedom to organize your day however you wish. If a task needs to be done around the house or an errand needs to be run, there’s no direct force keeping you at your workspace and keeping you from simply running that errand or doing that chore. The infinite entertainment options of a typical home are also a big avenue for distraction.

The best strategy I’ve ever found for this is time blocking. I make a very detailed schedule for my day that includes windows for things like errands and chores around the house so that I know I have time to get to those things later in the day. When my daily schedule says that I’m supposed to be working, I’m working, regardless of the distractions that may be tempting me. I literally block websites and turn off my cell phone and work as far away from the television as possible.

Some people find it conducive to work in places outside the home. I can be productive for small stretches at the library and I can sometimes brainstorm (but not write) well at a coffee shop, but I’ve learned that for me a change in environment is usually a distraction. Sometimes that distraction does spur creativity, but it doesn’t usually spur me to put my nose to the grindstone and do deep and focused work.

Still, the single most important thing I do in terms of making a “digital nomad” type of life work is to have focused blocks of time where I work with absolute minimal distraction.

• Related: 12 Strategies for Maintaining Focus While Working at Home

Q2: How much money to quit?

How much money would you want to have in the bank before quitting a job that you hated without a direct path to other employment?

29/F/Texas, hate hate hate this job. My boss is a complete troll who spends all day staring at me like he [wants] me. Coworkers all sit around and talk about sports most of the time and spent the last two weeks talking about nothing but college basketball. The work itself is okay but I’m done with my tasks with half the day left and I get bored.

I have no debts and about $45K in the bank which would be enough to live for a good year in my current lifestyle. Every single day I stand at the bus stop trying to talk myself out of just walking in and quitting and walking out. How much do I need to do this?
– Kellie

Obviously, you need to get out of this job. My strong suggestion for you would be to not walk in there and quit any time soon. Instead, if I were you, I’d spend the time during your workday in which you don’t have any tasks to do focusing on doing what you can to prep for your next job.

Find some job listings for other jobs that you’d like to have and spend that extra time at work preparing for those things. Take online classes. Read. Sharpen skills by working on projects. Start a professional blog. Participate in Twitter conversations and on professional websites so you can start building relationships with others in your field and make a name for yourself with your knowledge that you’re sharing. Do things that keep you in your cubicle and away from the things in your workplace that discomfort you. Build up that resume and get yourself as ready for interviewing as possible.

With most of those things, you can clearly make the case that you’re self-improving in order to make yourself into the best possible employee, but you’re also making yourself a ticket right out of there. Keep doing the minimal work needed to keep your job, but make a strong path to another job your main focus.

I don’t think this is so much about money in the bank but more about when you feel you’re ready to make a quick leap to another similar position. When that happens, send out feelers to the professional and recruiting relationships you have about job availability and gobble up every option and interview you can. Make that transition as quick as possible.

For now, when you’re trying to convince yourself to go to work, look at it this way: you could either stay at home and do this preparation for another job and not get paid for it, or you could go to your desk, put on your headphones, ignore the office trolls, and do this preparation for another job and still bring home a sweet paycheck.

Q3: Can’t realistically afford college

You talk about going back to school as though it is a realistic option for many people. It’s not. My husband and I both work full time and have a household income of $46K. We have two kids. The cost of a semester of tuition at the nearby university is $14K and it would take 6-7 semesters to get the degree I want. That kind of debt would bury us. I can take some classes at the community college but even those classes are pushing toward too expensive. “Going back to school” just isn’t realistic for people who are [deep into] adult life.
– Maria

This is one of the real problems in America right now. The cost of education is almost back-breaking for many people who aren’t already making a lot of money and that makes it hard for people to advance in their careers or justify going back to school when it’s far from a guarantee that they’ll be able to earn enough to make up for it.

My serious suggestion for you is to look for educational opportunities in your field that are either free or covered by your employer. What can you do in terms of training or schooling that doesn’t cost you anything or that your employer will pay for? Broaden your horizons beyond merely going to the local college and see what other options fit and can help you move where you want to go.

Can you take some classes on Coursera to build some skills? Would mastering a foreign language using something like Duolingo improve your income opportunities? Are there community organizations you can join and participate in that will help you build professional connections? Those are strong avenues you can follow for building skills and building a professional network outside of the expense and time commitment of a full college education.

Q4: Struggling to cut grocery bill

We are a family of four and we spend about $800 a month on groceries. We only eat out about twice a month. Most of our grocery bill is food that we cook at home that isn’t already prepared so we buy a lot of things like meats, raw or frozen vegetables, eggs, cheese, etc. It just all adds up so fast! I try using your “staples” list too and buy lots of beans, rice, eggs, etc. What are we missing?
– Lisa

It’s hard to say. In a typical month, we spend somewhere around $500 on groceries for our family of five and I’d estimate we get takeout or go out to eat about once a week on average, about half of which is our usual Friday family pizza night where Sarah will bring home some pizza from somewhere near her workplace.

Most of our grocery trips consist of fresh produce (usually things that are on sale or are cheap by default like cabbage or sweet potatoes or bananas), spices, key staples that you mention like eggs and beans and rice, cheese, and so on. We buy very little prepared food.

One big difference between our food purchasing patterns is the presence of meat. Our family is very nearly vegetarian (we eat things like eggs and cheese, but no actual meats, and we do so for health reasons), so things like steak or pork chops or chicken aren’t things we usually buy at the store. Our protein comes more from things like beans and quinoa and nuts, which are actually quite loaded with protein. Meat seems incredibly expensive to me, which is another reason that we skip it.

• Related: Here’s What Our $150-a-Week Grocery Budget and Meal Plan Looks Like in Real Life

Q5: Reciprocating generosity with friends

Hope you can help me piece through feeling like a cheapskate and not being sure why!

I have a good friend who invites me over all the time and shares stuff with me. She always has a bottle of wine that she opens up when I get there and pours me a glass immediately. She usually has some snack to share, too. We go out to eat about once a week and split the bill but she usually orders wine there too and buys a bottle and pours me at least a glass and a half of it (and the wine goes on her half).

All of this is stuff I would not buy for myself. But then when I invite her over I feel really awkward and cheap. I feel like I should buy a bottle of wine to share and some neat snacks to share but I don’t really want to do that. I don’t want to spend the money on them because I don’t feel like I get enough value out of it.

On the other hand, when I’m around my friend drinking her wine and eating her chocolate, I gobble it right up, then when I’m standing in the store and looking at wine I don’t want to spend the money and then I feel like a cheap [jerk].

This is something I’m really struggling with right now. I basically feel like a cheapskate every time I am at the grocery store or visiting my friend and I hate it.
– Aerie

If I were in your shoes, I’d buy treats to share with my friends, but I’d bargain hunt those treats like crazy. I’d look for very low cost wines to share. I’d buy treats when they’re on sale or when you have a coupon. I’d do everything possible to try to match your friend’s treats, but do it at the lowest possible price.

Without knowing the dynamic between you and your friend, your friend may not even care in the least that you don’t have goodies to share, but what matters is that it bothers you. A healthy friendship (or any other relationship) involves reciprocation, meaning that you both do things for each other, whether it’s actual treats like wine or simply being there for each other.

I think your sadness is a sense that your friendship is unbalanced, and if wine and treats are an inexpensive way to balance that out – and they definitely can be with some careful research – then do so. Just put in the effort to really bargain hunt for those treats.

Q6: Moving cash in from Canada

I’m Canadian and current live in Canada. I have a net worth of around 200k, about 50k of which is in a retirement account, 50k is in savings, and about 100k is invested in non-retirement. I’m moving to the states and I’d like to have about 30k with my to cover moving expenses and just to have something in my bank before my pay checks roll in. I’ll leave the rest in my Canadian investments because I’ll probably move back one day. I’m 30 years old, not sure what the future holds!

What’s the cheapest way to convert Canadian cash into about 30k US? I don’t have a US bank yet, as I can’t get one until I have an SSN, which I can’t get until I”m there. Also in Canada I’m at a credit union, not a big bank. If that matters??
– Kim

The simplest way, though it is slow, is to write yourself a check for the amount you need in US dollars drawn from a Canadian bank and then have that money deposited in your checking account in the US. It will take some time to have that money transferred, but it’s quite easy. Larger banks with branches in both the US and Canada will make the transfer easier.

If you need the money faster, you can do something like a wire transfer, but it’s going to be expensive.

The truth of the matter is that you can choose either fast or cheap when it comes to getting your money here, not both.

Q7: Refinance car now or later?

I wanted to get your opinion on an Auto Loan Refinance. Our current loan has a remaining balance of $25,000 at 4.99%. Navy Federal currently has an Auto Loan Refinance offer of 1.99% on qualifying vehicles.

I want to apply for this refinance option. My current credit score (according to CreditKarma.com) is around 720. Should I go ahead and apply now or wait a few months to get my credit utilization lower which would help with my credit score?
– Joshua

A credit score of 700 or above is considered good. However, the scores that CreditKarma gives out are estimates, so I wouldn’t put all of the trust in the world into those scores.

If I were you, I’d probably try to get that refinance now. If you can’t get it, talk to a person at that credit union and ask specifically why you were denied, as they have to provide certain information in the face of a denial.

It’s pretty likely that you’ll get that refinance with your current score. The longer you wait, the better your odds, but I believe they’re already pretty good.

• Related: Best Refinance Auto Loans

Q8: Overcoming cost of utility hookup

My husband and I own a manufactured home “free and clear.” However, we have no utilities hooked up. We almost have the electric in place; but, water and sewer are a different story all together.

An estimate for the septic (no city sewer available) quoted 5,800. We cannot come up with this right now as the last couple years have been difficult due to moves, lost jobs, deaths, and the like. But, we also cannot afford to continue to rent a home for 780 a month, which is what we are doing now, because we have no utilities.

Suggestions? I have looked into grants and loans. No one will loan on a home equity loan because we do not own the land the home sits on. And, though there are some grants available, I have found that we either do not qualify or the grant has not been funded for this year.

Please help! We just keep sinking.
– Denise

Given what you describe, I would try to sell this house and buy a different one. If you’re in a situation where getting the utilities hooked up while also paying $780 a month in rent is an insurmountable financial burden, then many of the costs of home ownership are going to hit you pretty hard.

This is especially true given that you don’t actually own the land upon which the house sits. What exactly do you do if you’re no longer allowed to lease the land?

Sell the house, get your financial situation stable, and then look for a lower-cost house on land that you control. That’s my advice.

Q9: Career sputtering out

I feel like my career always gets some nice pick ups, then sputters out. I’ve had five jobs at three companies over the past seven years. All in IT. Each time, I seem to have a ton of down time.

At my current job, where I am a contractor, I have told my supervisor each week for six weeks that I don’t have enough work. I want to contribute, to help out, to do more. When I present my work to executive leaders they love it and applaud my two months of hard work. One VP literally hugged me in joy. That work took me about seven hours of actual effort.

I feel like I’ve exhausted every avenue to try to do more here. I know I can and should, but I just can never seem to get anywhere because I’m not allowed due to budgeting and other reasons like that. I’ve told my boss specifically what team and project I could help out with, what the need is, why I’d be a good fit, and that both the project lead and I want to make it happen. And nothing happens.

I’m at the point where I clock in, read and attend webinars, do other things to further my education as best I can, and just react to incoming requests maybe once a week. I hate it. I feel like I am stealing their money. They pay me to do nothing that is providing value. I have told them that but they don’t care.

What should I do? I can’t switch jobs (have to wait for financing on a house to go through) and even if I did, this is almost the same scenario at my other jobs. I’m a smart guy. I’m motivated and a good team player and want to contribute. I just feel like every time I get some new opportunity it sounds cool then leaves me bored and unfulfilled. How am I to keep doing this for decades more? What am I missing?
– Charlie

That business is choosing to employ you to handle those tasks when they come in. That’s what they’re paying you for. It might be a job that they don’t want to pay for in the future, but that’s a business decision they’re making, not you.

If I were in your shoes, I’d do exactly what you’re doing now. I would do everything in my power to keep my skill set sharp and my professional network lively. I’d participate in all kinds of professional online forums, participate in LinkedIn, continue to participate in webinars, take online classes, and so on.

If you want a different job, then prepare yourself to get that job. Don’t question the business decisions of the business you work for – if they’re paying you to have that much professional free time at work, use that time professionally to improve yourself. Consider it a perk.

Q10: Didn’t get dream job

I’ve been wanting a senior programming job for years now, especially one on the more algorithmic side of things. I felt I had really really prepared well for getting this kind of a job but then I had the interview and I felt like a completely unprepared fool and didn’t get the job. I actually knew I wouldn’t.

In fact I did so bad that I don’t think I’ll get another crack at an interview if another position opens up. I am considering looking for work elsewhere but my confidence is kinda shot and I feel like I’m lousy at programming.
– Kent

You shouldn’t feel this way. There are a lot of reasons why you didn’t get that job, and most of them are probably things that you can easily address or have little to do with your relative programming skill.

If I were you, I’d send a letter or an email or place a call to the person who interviewed you and ask what you can do to improve yourself to make yourself more likely to get such a position in the future. Take the advice they give you and come up with a plan to improve yourself in that way.

So, for example, if he said that you didn’t know modern terminology in your field, you know that you need to get up to date. If he said that you just seemed nervous, you know that you should practice interviewing more until you’re comfortable with it. Just take the advice and run with it.

• Related: How to Actually Acquire the 10 Most Valuable Career Skills in Your Spare Time

Believe it or not, this wasn’t really his main question. Kent’s actual main question is below.

Q11: Engagement ring conundrum

I am struggling with regards to how much to spend on an engagement ring. My girlfriend and I have looked at rings a few times and she seems to only point at really small and inexpensive ones. She’s kind of a practical person which is a big part of why I love her and most of the time I feel like I should go with that kind of “practical” ring, but I want her heart to skip a beat when I give her a ring. I don’t know what to do.
– Kent

More than anything, you should talk to your girlfriend openly about this. Don’t try to “guess” her “hints.” It is almost always fruitless to try to play those kinds of games and they usually end up with someone feeling miserable. Just simply talk about it openly.

Ask her what she likes about various rings. Ask her what she values or doesn’t value about them. You may find that she thinks that big rings are ostentatious or that they aren’t attractive to her. You may find that she simply thinks it’s foolish to use money in such a way and that a simple ring works. Or, you may find that she is simply being modest and likes something different.

There are many suggestions out there that you should look at body and facial cues for this kind of thing. I’ve never, ever found that useful. Sarah might appreciate something as being beautiful but would murder me in my sleep if I actually spent that much money to buy it, because her appreciation of certain kinds of beauty is trumped by her frugal values. Your girlfriend might be that way. Try to understand her and get the right ring for her.

A successful marriage is all about communication. Right here is a place where you’re putting that communication to the test.

Q12: Dealing with old VHS tapes

We have a ton of old VHS tapes of kid movies and family movies from when our kids were little. They’re grown up now and don’t want them. The ones they want to watch with their own kids are on Netflix or somewhere digital. So we have these boxes of VHS tapes of movies from the ’90s that we don’t know what to do with. We don’t even have a VCR any more. What can we do with them besides just throw them out?
– Chris

Most VHS tapes are worth very little unless there is something distinctive about them, like that it’s a film that was never released in another format. Disney films are an exception to this, as some people do collect them.

I’d do some research into films that seem pretty obscure as well as into the value of any Disney movies you might have. You can probably safely sell off all of the rest as a single lot on, say, Craigslist for a few bucks. Just say, “I have these 100 VHS movies I need to get rid of. $5 for whole lot,” and include a picture of their spines.

For the individually valuable ones, you can either sell them on eBay or Amazon pretty easily. Good luck!

Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.

The post Questions About Digital Nomads, Generosity with Friends, Engagement Rings, VHS Tapes, and More! appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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10 Simple, Green Moves That’ll Help You Save Money and the Environment

Growing up, I saw a lot of frugal household tricks from my family and friends.

Turn off the lights when you leave a room. Use plastic bags to line trash cans. Reuse paper grocery bags to cover textbooks. (That probably wouldn’t fly these days for iPads.) When it’s yellow, let it mellow…?

Our parents made us do these things to save money. Then I grew up and realized these are some of the same steps my hippie friends are taking to save the environment.

Was everyone in my little conservative hometown accidentally going green?

Apparently, yeah. Many of the steps environmentalists suggest to reduce waste and use less energy have the delightful side effect of helping us save money. Win-win!

In celebration of World Environment Day, here are 10 steps you can take this month to go green, reduce your carbon footprint and save money.

1. Embrace Minimalism

Reducing your footprint is just one reason to live a minimalist lifestyle.

In addition to the environmental impact of material consumption, there’s also the psychological impact of having all that stuff to keep track of. Not to mention the cost of buying and maintaining it!

Here’s one more reason: You can earn a lot of money selling it (instead of sending it to a landfill).

Our editor, Matt Wiley, and his then-fiancee were inspired by a podcast to cut back and clear the clutter from their life. That made Wiley take a long, hard look at the massive collection of DVDs and Blu-Rays gathering dust in a cabinet.

He listed them with an app called Decluttr, which buys your old DVDs, Blu-Rays, CDs, video games and hardware like cell phones, tablets and game consoles.

Decluttr offered Wiley $55 for 86 titles he was happy to unload. The company pays for shipping and resells your items for you, so you don’t have to deal with individual buyers.

Plus, you can breathe easier with less clutter around — and get peace of mind entering a new marriage without that copy of “MacGruber” hanging around.

2. Invest in Clean Energy

Would you like to start investing… but don’t think you have enough money?

Download the investment app Stash. It lets you start investing with as little as $5. And you don’t have to be a stock market genius to figure it out.

Instead of picking and choosing what to invest in, you tell Stash what you care about. Whether it’s tech innovation or environmental issues, Stash will put your money into a portfolio that supports your causes.

3. Support Green Companies

While you’re going virtual, consider opening an online bank account.

Aspiration’s Summit checking account is totally free to use, and you’ll do all your banking online.

This account yields up to 1% interest on your balance — that’s 100 times more than typical checking accounts! Plus, it reimburses your ATM fees and lets you make automatic donations to causes you care about.

If you want to see your money grow even more, Aspiration’s Redwood Fund lets you invest in companies with sustainable and environmental practices, like battling climate change.

You can open an account with the Redwood Fund with a minimum $100. Like all of Aspiration’s services, its fee is on a pay-what’s-fair model — you choose!

4. Go Paperless

If you want to keep your brick-and-mortar bank, you could save a ton of paper waste by not getting monthly bank statements through the mail.

Do you really need that print out of every purchase?

Most banks offer a paperless billing option — but some kind of legalese requires you to opt into it. If you’re still getting stacks of paper from the bank every month, call or go online to ask about getting those statements online instead.

Thinking about opening a new account? You can do that online, too. These banks are offering bonuses for opening an account right now.

5. Ditch the Disposable Razors

Ever think about the amount of plastic you throw away from shaving? Few of us want to go back to the straight razor, but you can make a compromise.

With a paid subscription to Dollar Shave Club, you’ll get up to five new blade cartridges each month. You get a fresh blade — no sharpening required! — and throw away a fraction of the plastic.

Dollar Shave Club helps you be frugal, too. You’ll get your first month free (just pay $1 shipping). After that, your subscription is just a few bucks a month.

6. Use a Credit Card

While credit cards are criticized for their not-easy-to-recycle plastic, there are plenty of ways using one can help you go green.

Credit cards make going paperless easy. You can view and pay your bills online, so no more wasted paper in the mail.

Plus, a card typically lasts longer than paper money, so using plastic could help cut down on waste and paper consumption.

Any Penny Hoarder knows credit cards help you save a ton of green, too! With a cash-back credit card, you can get paid for every dollar you spend.

If you’re just dipping your toes in, we recommend checking out the Barclaycard CashForward™ World MasterCard®. You’ll earn 1.5% cash back, plus a $200 cash bonus for signing up.

7. Slay the Energy Vampires

One of the simplest ways to go green is to turn off the lights. Cut your energy consumption and cost by turning off your electricity-sucking appliances, computers, TVs and lights.

And beware of energy vampires — electronics and appliances that keep using power even when you’re not using them.

The U.S. Department of Energy says they can add 10% to your electrical bill!

For example, phone chargers keep sucking power even when you’re not charging, and a digital cable box can add more than $40 per year to your bill if you don’t unplug between uses.

But who wants to run around unplugging things all the time?

Instead, plug electronics into power strips that have an on/off button. That way you can easily cut the power to all the vampires by flipping a switch.

8. Install a Smart Thermostat

You can save a ton of energy and up to 10% on heating and cooling costs for your home by properly adjusting your thermostat.

Optimal summer temperatures are 85 degrees while you’re away and 78 when you’re at home. In the winter, aim for around 68 degrees when you’re home and 58 or less while you’re away or sleeping. Chilly — but frugal!

A Nest thermostat will learn your habits, so it can automatically turn itself down while you’re away and adjust to your preferred temperatures.

It costs about $290 upfront, but check with your utility provider to see if you can get a free or discounted unit.

9. Turn the Lights Off

You’ve probably noticed occupancy sensors in office buildings or other businesses.

(Maybe you’ve even been the victim of a particularly cutthroat device that kicked off the lights while you sat motionless in a public restroom stall? Oops.)

This easy-to-install device costs less than $15. It cuts your energy waste by sensing whether a room is occupied and switching the lights off when it’s not.

The Department of Energy claims an occupancy sensor can cut your wasted electricity for lighting by 30%. Once you install it, you can save energy — and money — without thinking about it!

10. Do Laundry More Efficiently

Being smart about how you wash your clothes will not only help them last longer — saving you money and saving the earth one spin cycle at a time — it’ll also reduce your energy consumption.

Here are a few simple ways to be more efficient with laundry:

• Use cold water for everything — hot water requires a ton of energy.

• Dry your clothes on the line, or use a fold-out drying rack if you have a small apartment.

• Toss a clean, dry towel in with dryer loads to soak up water and require less time in the machine.

• Hand-wash when you can. This protects your delicates, saves money on dry-cleaning and saves you from wasting water to use the washer

Disclosure: Here’s a toast to the affiliate links in this post. May we all be just a little richer today.

Credit Card Disclosure: Many of the credit card offers that appear on this site are from credit card companies from which The Penny Hoarder receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). We do not feature all available credit card offers or all credit card issuers.

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).

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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How to Build a 25,590 Instagram Following Using This Daily Routine

Instagram recently announced it reached 700 million users!

Of those users, 100 million signed up in the last four months, marking the platform’s fastest-ever growth rate.

If you’re wondering how it stacks up against other major networks, see for yourself:

It’s currently the third most popular social networking site and has a commanding lead over Twitter.

Here’s another visualization of this data:

This, of course, means there’s a serious opportunity to build a following.

And the beautiful thing is Instagram doesn’t discriminate.

If you know what you’re doing, post epic content, and genuinely entertain your audience, your following will grow.

But in order to expedite this growth, I find it helpful to establish a regiment, a routine.

You need to be practical and tactical with your approach.

I’m a huge fan of routines—daily processes you can follow to achieve massive results.

Recently, I developed a focused strategy to help one of my clients—a B2C e-commerce brand—to curate a massive following (25,590 to be exact).

Here’s the sequence of steps to follow daily that will help you build a 25,590-member following.

(For more information on building your Instagram following quickly, be sure to check out another article I wrote on the subject.)

Respond to your followers’ comments and questions

Let’s start from the top.

I’m not trying to bore you with trivialities, but the first two steps are an essential part of the routine.

The first order of business is to spend a few minutes engaging with your followers.

Identify all valuable comments and questions, and respond to them individually.

If you’re just starting out and currently have a minimal following, you can do this in no time.

Leave at least three comments

I like to be on the offense when building a following.

Unless you already have a built-in audience, it’s up to you to make the first move.

Look through the photos of the people you follow, pick three photos, and leave comments.

Stay away from the generic comments like “nice pic!” and say something that stands out and shows you put some thought into it.

This will put you on people’s radars and should eventually lead to return engagement.

Post at least once per day

One of the great social media debates is how frequently you should post.

This, of course, depends on the specific network in question, but the average Instagram account posts once per day.

However, profiles with larger followings usually post more often than that.

A 2015 study from Quintly found a correlation between a higher frequency of posting and a higher follower count:

Notice that profiles with 10k-100k fans post 41 times per month, or 1.32 times per day.

However, those with over 10 million fans post 95 times per month, or 3.06 times per day.

By examining these findings, you can conclude you should post at least once a day.

But if you can post three times a day, you’ll be in even better shape.

The bottom line is you need a steady flow of content.

Don’t allow yourself to become complacent and have major gaps between posts.

Research proves that brands that post often tend to have bigger followings.

You may even want to batch your posting by auto-scheduling on a platform such as Hootsuite to save time.

Post at the optimal time

You probably already know the timing of your posting is a major factor dictating how much visibility your content receives.

According to an article from Later,

Instagram announced that they would be replacing the chronological feed with an algorithm that gives more priority to posts with higher engagement, which means the more likes and comments your post receives, the more people will see your post!

Here’s a screenshot from Instagram’s blog that confirms this:

What are the implications of this algorithm?

It means if your content gets a lot of engagement shortly after being posted, this tells Instagram you’re posting quality content.

In turn, your content will move toward the top of your followers’ feeds.

This means one thing.

You need to figure out the optimal time to post.

Numerous variables go into determining this factor, including where the majority of your audience is located, when they’re most active on Instagram, etc.

Different studies suggest different optimal posting times.

For instance, one from HubSpot found that the best time to post on Instagram is anytime between Monday and Thursday, except between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

A 2015 study from Mavrck found that “midnight, 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. were the most popular times to post, with Thursday, Friday and Wednesday being the most popular days.”

They also said that “posting between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. during off hours when posting is low could work to your advantage, because users are still browsing their feeds.”

The point here is that there are different types of logic you can use when determining when to post.

I recommend doing some of your own experimentation to pinpoint the sweet spot for your brand.

The Later article I mentioned earlier offers some solid advice for doing your own testing.

For instance, you can start by posting at different hours Monday through Friday for week one and measuring engagement.

Record your results in a spreadsheet. Google Sheets works great for this:

Week two, repeat the process, but switch the hours.

Again, record your results:

Keep repeating the process until you know for sure what the optimal posting time is.

Once you’ve figured it out, rinse and repeat.

Your engagement level should continue to increase, which will help your content rise to the top.

This ultimately translates into a bigger following.

Use 11+ hashtags

Hashtags are a big deal, especially on Instagram.

Countless studies have attempted to figure out the ideal number of hashtags for each social network.

While some people may use only one or two hashtags on average, others may use as many as 30 (the maximum).

Here’s a post with a ton of hashtags:

Although using “X” number of hashtags per post won’t necessarily guarantee you a 25k+ following, it can definitely give you an edge.

To determine the ideal number of hashtags, let’s look at the data.

According to a study from TrackMaven, “interactions are highest on Instagram posts with 11+ hashtags.”

A separate study from Max Woolf seems to concur.

Here’s what the distribution of likes on 120,346 Instagram photos looks like:

This means the odds of engagement increase when you include 11 or more hashtags on an Instagram post.

So don’t worry about “hashtag fatigue.”

Just be sure your hashtags are relevant to the content and not spammy, and you should be good to go.

Research hashtags

My last point demonstrates that hashtags are a good thing on Instagram.

But how do you go about choosing hashtags to populate your posts with?

Should you just pick them at random, or is there more of a science to it?

Well, of course, each individual post will require certain hashtags to properly describe it.

That’s common sense.

But if you’re consistently posting around a central theme, it’s smart to do a little hashtag research to spot winners.

From there, you can make a list for quick reference.

One of the easiest ways to generate quality hashtags is to type a relevant keyword into the Instagram search box and see what pops up.

First, click on the search box:

Then start typing a keyword. I’ll use “content marketing” as an example:

Just like that, you’ve got several ideas for hashtags.

You can also gauge how popular a hashtag is by checking how many posts are using it:

Another approach is to use a tool called Hash At It.

It’s really simple to use.

Type in a keyword in the search box, and click “Search”:

Here’s what pops up:

Scroll down, and you should be able to quickly generate some good ideas for hashtags.

I suggest making this part of your daily Instagram routine.

This way you’ll always have a rock solid list of hashtags ready to go every time you post.

For more tools to help you research hashtags, check out this post from Kickstagram.

Kill it with your captions

The way I look at it, captions can turn a great Instagram photo into an epic one.

Some people just have a knack for writing awesome captions that hit all the right notes.

Take this one from Doug the Pug for example:

It’s super funny!

I suggest spending some time looking through lists of captions and recording some you could use in the future.

Here are a few resources worth checking out:

• this one is from Tech Junkie
• this one is from TechnoFizi
• and this one is from BloggerPunit.

Of course, originality is important, so try to tweak them whenever possible to fit your brand.

Follow three accounts

Finally, be sure you’re continually following new brand-related accounts.

I recommend seeking out at least three or more each day and following them.

Ideally, they’ll be major influencers because any engagement from them can quickly boost your following.

This will ensure you stay on the radars of others, which should bring additional exposure to your account.

As long as your content is high-quality and relevant, a sizable percentage of people should return the favor and follow you back.

Conclusion

Let me summarize everything I just discussed in a step-by-step sequence for your daily Instagram routine:

1. Respond to comments and questions
2. Leave at least three comments
3. Post at least once a day (two or three times is even better)
4. Post at the optimal time (based on your own research)
5. Use at least 11 hashtags on each post
6. Spend a few minutes researching hashtags (and add to your list)
7. Study and record awesome captions
8. Follow three accounts

A steady routine like this should help even the most obscure account build a 25,590-member following fairly quickly.

If you follow this routine daily, you’ll gain followers steadily and consistently.

Having more Instagram followers provides a ton of benefits, including increased brand exposure, continual lead generation, networking opportunities, and ultimately increased sales.

How big of a role does Instagram play in your brand’s overall marketing strategy?

Source Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/2rt4jce

The Simple Guide to Healthy Living on a Budget (2017)

Afraid a healthier lifestyle won’t fit in your budget? Good news: there are many strategies for making nutrition and fitness more affordable. Many of these strategies boil down to having a plan, doing your research, and making small lifestyle changes that can have a big impact down the line. At The Simple Dollar, we believe healthy living doesn’t have to be at odds with living within your means. Keeping a long-term view is the key to making smart financial decisions — and healthy decisions, too!

Download the Guide

Why Prioritizing Your Health Makes Financial Sense

Getting fit can actually help you save money.

There are plenty of situations in which the healthier choice and the frugal choice are one and the same. It’s true that junk foods tend to be slightly cheaper than whole foods at the grocery store (about $1.50/day less than healthier options, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health). But what if you made up that negligible cost by eating out less often? That’s a relevant question for the average American, because in 2015, spending at restaurants exceeded grocery spending in the U.S. for the first time ever. How much might you save by skipping the drive-through once a week — and what healthy foods could you buy instead?

Eating at home is a lot less expensive than eating at a restaurant, especially if you prep meals in bulk. Plus, when you cook at home, you can control what goes into your meal. You can make healthy substitutions or reduce the salt or oil. You can control portion size. In this case, cooking for yourself is both the healthiest and the thriftiest option.

Additionally, there are many direct and indirect costs associated with poor health. Being significantly overweight can increase your risk of developing diabetes and heart disease, among many other conditions. Poor nutrition can cause anemia, and lack of exercise is associated with higher risk for certain cancers. Long-term, staying healthy will keep healthcare costs low — and quality of life high.

Fitness is an investment in your future.

What’s the point of being frugal? Broadly financial independence: the freedom and financial means to live life on your terms. For most people, retiring well — and even early! — is a major piece of the FI puzzle. But even if your nest egg makes retirement a breeze financially, poor health could put a damper on your Golden Years.

Everything you do today to stay healthy is an investment in your future, just like a 401K or Roth IRA. Eating well and exercising can keep many health concerns at bay, protecting your mobility and independence so you can fully enjoy your retirement.

We believe a healthy lifestyle is possible on any budget.

In this guide, we’ll cover tips, tricks, and resources that can make healthy living more affordable. Armed with this information, you’ll be able to make a personalized action plan that includes:

• Smart nutrition strategies
• Ways to keep fitness affordable
• Weight-loss resources for everyone

We’ll begin with simple strategies for eating well on a budget, then move on to staying fit on a budget. Ready to get started? Let’s go!

Affordable nutrition

Eat better on the cheap with these 7 simple strategies.

1. Plan your meals in advance.

Never grocery shop without a grocery list! There are many health and financial benefits to creating your meal plan — and corresponding grocery list — before you hit the supermarket.

Having a meal plan:

• Reduces likelihood of impulse buys.
  If you limit yourself to buying the ingredients for your planned meals, your wallet and your waistline will thank you. (Resolving to buy only the ingredients your menu calls for — including pre-planned, healthy snacks — can help you resist tempting junk food.)
• Ensures you’ll have a healthy option ready on busy days.
  Decision fatigue is a real thing — especially when it comes to choosing what’s for dinner. If you have healthy groceries waiting to be cooked at home, you’ll be less tempted to swing through the drive through or head to a restaurant when life gets busy.
• Prevents waste.
  If you know the quantity of perishable items like eggs, produce, or dairy you’ll need for this week’s meals, you won’t buy too much. This will help you avoid excess groceries spoiling before you have the chance to use them.
• Gives you control over what you’re eating.
  Prepackaged meals aren’t just more expensive than the raw ingredients for a similar meal would be. They also tend to be loaded with bad stuff like sodium and preservatives. Similarly, when you order a meal at a restaurant, you don’t know exactly what you’re getting. Preparing meals yourself gives you the freedom to make healthy substitutions that can help you meet your fitness goals.

You’ll be more likely to stick to your plan if it’s convenient. So take steps today to make things easy for future you! Start by creating several weekly meal plans to keep in your rotation (including breakfasts, lunches, dinner, and snacks). That way, you can pull a ready-made menu when it’s time to make your grocery list.

Get the Meal & Grocery Planner

Meal plans and menus from The Simple Dollar:
$150-a-Week Grocery Budget and Meal Plan in Real Life
26 Favorite Cheap-and-Easy Meals

Related:
A Walkthrough of Our Weekly Meal Planning Routine
Meal Planning Ideas for Busy Families
How to Plan Ahead for Next Week’s Meals and Save Money
How to Turn a Cupboard Cleaning Into a Great Meal Plan
11 Tactics For Meal Planning That Will Save Money

2. Buy (and prep) in bulk.

Bulk meal prep is one of the simplest ways to balance your budget with nutritional goals.
Overall, groceries purchased in bulk usually cost less per unit — up to 89% less than smaller-portion packages.

Shopping and cooking in bulk is a little different than preparing smaller portions, but it’s not as complicated as you might think. With a few adjustments to your routine, you can make the jump this week.

Meal prep strategies

Join (and strategically shop) a wholesale club.

Wholesale clubs (AKA warehouse clubs) offer members-only bulk pricing on items ranging from grocery to paper products and home goods. Creating a monthly meal plan will allow you to buy nonperishable/freezable ingredients in bulk (and reduce the number of visits you’ll have to make the club monthly). But even if you don’t plan a month’s worth of meals in advance, it makes sense to buy pantry staples like rice, flour, oats, and certain meats in bulk.

When planning your bulk shopping list, The Simple Dollar’s founder Trent Hamm recommends asking yourself: Am I going to be able to use all of this before it goes bad? If an item has limited shelf life and can’t be frozen, you could end up wasting some of it, which negates the per-unit savings. To avoid waste, think critically before purchasing perishable items in bulk. If you can freeze extra portions or need a lot of it in the near future — say, prepping for a family barbeque — buy it at the club. If not, it might make more sense to buy that particular item at the grocery store.

Want to try a wholesale club but afraid to commit to an annual membership fee? Take a trial membership for a spin! Watch for promotions in mailers, in the newspaper, or on deal sites like Groupon. If you don’t find a trial advertised, it’s worth calling your local club. In addition to trial memberships, many offer special “open house” days when you can shop without a membership card or single-day passes.

Related:
The Ultimate Guide to Buying in Bulk
Maximize Your Savings at a Warehouse Club
Waste Not, Want Not: Strategies for Warehouse Club Shopping
Six Strategies for Maximizing the Value of a Warehouse Club

Get friendly with freezer meals.

The freezer meal phenomenon deserves all the positive press it gets! The idea is simple: designate one day per week or per month to prep multiple meals, then freeze them to enjoy later. By opting to prepare homemade freezer meals, you can save money and time.

When you’re preparing multiple meals at once, you can buy groceries in bulk to save per serving. Plus, having meals on standby will help you avoid the temptation of fast food on hectic days. Once prepped, freezer meals are the ultimate convenience food. Consolidating meal prep for the week or even for the month means minimal time in the kitchen outside your prep day — and who doesn’t want that? It’s efficient, too; you’ll only have to clean the kitchen once.

Strategies that go hand-in-hand with freezer meal prep

• Slow cooking
  If you don’t have a slow cooker, you should! Slow cooker freezer meals are incredibly low maintenance, and they require very little cooking know-how to get right. Simply pull the prepared meal from your freezer, drop it in/turn the cooker on, and go about your day. A hot, home cooked meal will be waiting for you when you get home — no babysitting a skillet or preheating an oven required.
• Meal swapping
  Making extra-large batches of meals is efficient and cost-effective. But eating the same meals on a regular basis can get old. Solution: organize a meal swap to vary your freezer meal selection and share your favorite frugal recipes with friends and family.
• Disposable pans
  Try freezing casseroles and other baked items directly in disposable foil pans (if you have the space in your freezer, that is). When you’re finished, simply rinse and recycle the pan. That way, you can enjoy a homecooked meal without prepping or scrubbing a pan the night of!

Related:
Our Family’s Seven Favorite Make-Ahead Meals
Preparing Your Own Skillet Meals In Advance
The Ultimate Guide to Making Meals in Advance
How Making Meals in Advance Saves Time and Money: Make-Ahead Lasagna
Can Once-a-Month Cooking Really Work?

3. Shop smarter.

Highly processed foods are convenient, but often, they’re neither the most frugal nor the healthiest option. Impulse buying snack foods and pre-prepared meals can run up your grocery bill and set you up to consume lots of empty calories. But impulse buys aren’t inevitable. To minimize temptation:

• Stick to the perimeter.
  Think about the layout of your favorite grocery store. Most nutrient-dense foods, from produce to dairy and fresh meats, are arranged in refrigerated cases along the outer edge of the store. By primarily “shopping the perimeter,” you can avoid the processed foods in the center of the store.
• Eat before you shop.
  When you’re hungry, you’re more likely to choose high-calorie foods, according to a 2013 Cornell University study. Set yourself up to make good choices by eating a healthy, filling snack before you head to the grocery store.

4. Make healthy substitutions.

The ability to tweak recipes for healthfulness is a major advantage of home cooked meals, so take advantage! Here’s a list of common substitutions to get you started. Note: results may vary, depending on the recipe — but don’t be afraid to experiment!

Suggested Substitutions
Trade this…	…For that!	Good to know
All-purpose flour	Whole wheat flour	Whole wheat flour can affect taste, texture, and baking time, especially for more delicate items like pastries. Try substituting 25% of your all-purpose flour with wheat flour to start. If you like the results, you can up the percentage of wheat flour next time you make it! (Whole wheat flour absorbs liquid more readily than all-purpose, so you may need to add a little more liquid to compensate in some recipes.)
Corn syrup	Maple syrup, agave, honey, or cane syrup	Different substitutions work best for different purposes. Agave may be a good place to start, since it has the mildest flavor of the substitutes we’ve listed. Note: you’ll want to stick with corn syrup when making candy or caramel to prevent graininess.
Mayonnaise	Plain yogurt, sour cream, or mashed avocado	Different substitutions work best for different purposes. Avocado works well as a sandwich spread or in tuna/chicken salad. Plain yogurt is a fine replacement in most recipes, especially dressings and rich dips. Sour cream will work in a pinch, but it has the most noticeable flavor; it may add a tangier taste to your recipe.
Milk	Almond milk	Use plain, unsweetened almond milk to minimize differences in taste.
Pasta	Spaghetti squash	Baked spaghetti squash has a pasta-like texture. Learn more about how to prepare at TheKitchn.
Potatoes	Sweet potatoes	While white potatoes and sweet potatoes both have a place in a healthy diet, sweet potatoes have a lower glycemic index. They’re a great substitution in mashed potatoes or as an accompaniment baked/roasted dishes.
Sugar	Stevia	Stevia is plant-based and has zero calories. It’s available in liquid concentrate, powdered extract, and dried leaf form. Because Stevia tastes sweeter than refined sugar, substitution ratios are drastically less than 1:1 and may vary by type.
Vegetable oil	Olive oil	When baking, you can also try swapping oil for applesauce. (This may make baked goods more moist, so you may need to add additional flour to compensate.)

5. Keep a food journal.

Keeping a food journal can help you lose weight and keep your food spending in check. A 2008 study found that adults who kept a food journal 6 days per week lost 2X as much weight as those who journaled 0-1 days per week.

Why do food journals work so well? First, they encourage self-monitoring, which fosters awareness of both healthy and unhealthy eating patterns and helps to target areas for improvement. Second, they emphasize awareness of portion sizes. In America, average portion sizes have increased by somewhere in the neighborhood of 138% since 1970. But many people underestimate how many calories they’re consuming in these supersized portions. Keeping a food journal puts the spotlight not just on what you’re eating, but also how much. (As a fringe benefit, reducing the amount of food you consume can help lower your monthly food bill, too.)

It doesn’t matter whether you journal on paper or in an app. Whichever method you use, focus on recording the basics like food type, portion, and context of the meal to identify where your challenges lie — and how best to tackle them.

6. Get professional help.

Struggling to meet your fitness goals? Seeing an expert may be more affordable than you think. Visits to a dietician or nutritionist may be covered under your health insurance policy under the umbrella of “nutrition counseling” or “nutrition therapy”. Compile a list of questions to ask your insurance provider to find out what type of expenses are covered (and which would be out-of-pocket).

Dietician vs. nutritionist: what’s the difference?

Both dieticians and nutritionists can offer nutritional help, but qualifications differ between the two professions. Learn more about the differences between the two roles, then ask your doctor which type of nutritional counseling is right for you. Depending on your insurance provider, a referral from your doctor may be required for coverage.

How Dieticians & Nutritionists Differ
Role	Qualifications	Scope of work
Registered dietitian nutritionist (R.D.N.)	Bachelor’s degree in dietetics, public health nutrition, or a related field Completion of Dietetic Internship (D.I.), which equals 1,200 hours of experience National licensure exam 75 continuing education credits every 5 years to maintain RDN credential	General nutrition education Creating personalized nutrition plan Diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders
Nutritionist	Title is not protected by law in all states. In states where title is not protected, nutritionists can perform nutrition counseling without a license. (Learn more at the Center for Nutrition Advocacy.) Nutritionists may study nutritional science and may also have professional certifications like Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS).	General nutrition education Creating personalized nutrition plan

7. Go meatless.

If you’re an omnivore (read: not vegan or vegetarian), consider preparing meatless meals at least once per week. Meat products are typically the most expensive items on most omnivores’ grocery lists — and excessive consumption of red meat is correlated with increased risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and more. Going meatless even once a week could reduce your grocery bill and improve your health long-term!

Our favorite nutrition apps

Paprika Recipe Manager

This handy app ensures your meal plan and your grocery list are always on hand. Use Paprika to clip recipes from the web, add recipes to your meal plan, and — the best part — pull ingredients from your meal plan to your grocery list with just a few clicks. Ingredients in your grocery list are automatically sorted by department, and items that appear in multiple recipes are added up for you so you know the total amount needed. If you need to adjust the number of servings for freezer meal prep, the app will multiply ingredients for you. And it’s available for pretty much any device. (Check out our tips for meal planning with Paprika.)

Download for: iOS | Android | Windows | Mac

Flipp

It’s a weekly circular. It’s a coupon manager. It’s awesome! Flipp compiles circulars from your local stores (800 retailers at time of writing) in an attractive, easy-to-navigate package. It also allows you to search and “clip” digital coupons, which you simply present through the app at checkout. If you choose to use its shopping list feature, Flipp will search deals at local stores to automate the couponing process. And it’s completely free.

Download for: iOS | Android

Ibotta

Ibotta brings cash back to grocery purchases — and online shopping, clothing stores, and more! It works like this: first, add rebates for the products you’re planning to buy. Next, go shopping as you normally would. After your shopping trip, take a photo of your receipt as proof of purchase. Then wait for your cash back to roll in! Ibotta rebates are actual money, not points, so in addition to redeeming for gift cards, you can transfer them to PayPal or Venmo to cash out.

Download for: iOS | Android

Fooducate

Ever wondered how healthy your morning granola bar really is? The answer may surprise you. Fooducate is a website/app that helps you find healthier alternatives to your favorite packaged foods. It makes eating well simpler by assigning foods a letter grade, explaining the why behind the score — and suggesting better alternatives for you to try. If you download the app, you’ll also get a food/exercise tracker.

Download for: iOS | Android

MyFitnessPal

Last but not least, MyFitnessPal is a longstanding favorite among food journal apps. Its user-supported search functionality is the real headline, with nutritional info for dishes at popular restaurants, packaged foods, whole foods, and everything between. (The database includes 5,000,000 food items so far!) Just enter the type of food and the serving size to log calories and more. You can use it to log exercise too — and any exercise you log will be subtracted from your calories consumed for a complete picture of your day.

Download for: iOS | Android

Affordable fitness

Try the following tips and tricks to spice up your fitness routine without breaking your budget.

How to score an affordable gym membership

Becoming a member of a gym can be a good investment in your fitness — as long as you’re willing to go often enough to justify the membership fees. If that’s you, and you’re wondering how to make a gym membership fit in your budget, it’s worth doing your homework to get the best deal possible. Here’s where to start.

Know when to join.

Most people focus on fitness in the first few weeks of January. (New Year’s resolutions, anyone?) But at many gyms, the best deals may be found in the summertime. When the weather is nice, lots of people prefer to exercise outdoors. That means fewer signups for gyms and potential savings for you. If you don’t see an advertised sale, ask if your local gym will waive your signup fees or give you a two-for-one deal if you sign up with a friend.

Other times to consider joining: the end of the month or in December, when gyms may cut membership costs to meet monthly or yearly quotas.

Shop bargain class passes.

Discount sites like Groupon and LivingSocial regularly offer sets of fitness classes at a discounted rate for new customers. Shop discounted class passes to sample new types of classes or to take multiple local gyms for a trial run before you sign a contract.

Look for freebies.

Leverage free or reduced cost gym visits to choose a gym you’ll enjoy for the long term and/or score a sweet welcome gift when you’re ready to commit. Common types of gym freebies include:

• Trial memberships
• Guest/day passes (Go to a friend’s gym!)
• Sign up and get _______ (pool access, personal training session, massage, etc.)
• Complimentary or reduced-cost membership tier upgrade

If you don’t see what you’re looking for advertised, call and ask! Local gyms may offer freebies to earn your business if you express interest.

Check with your employer and insurance provider.

You’ve done your research, you have a list of possible gyms — but you’re looking to lower the costs of membership even further. When you’re looking for ways to trim your fitness budget, don’t overlook your employer and insurance provider. If you work for a midsize-to-large company, local gyms could offer a “preferred employer” discount you could take advantage of, so it’s worth dropping HR a line to find out. Additionally, many insurance providers have negotiated discounts with national gym chains. Call the customer service number on your insurance card to find out if you’re covered.

Visit the Y.

If there’s a YMCA in your area, check their rates. Some local branches set your monthly membership fees based on annual income. Additionally, financial assistance may be available to help you cover the cost of membership. Call or visit your local YMCA online to learn more about programs available in your city.

Related:
Exercise Your Right to Negotiate at the Gym
Investing in Yourself: Exercise
Five Inexpensive Gym Alternatives for Exercise

Making personal training fit within your budget

There are many benefits to working with a personal trainer, from help developing a customized workout regimen to learning proper form that can prevent injury or strain. If you’d like to give it a try but aren’t sure your budget has the room to spare, try these tips before you dismiss the idea. You might be surprised how affordable personal training can be!

Sign up with a friend (or group of friends).

According to Thumbtack, the 2017 average cost of personal training falls around $40/hour. (Enter your zip code in the calculator to get an average for your area.) If that’s higher than you’re comfortable with, many personal trainers offer discounted hourly rates when you share a session with other people. Use a directory like IDEA or FitnessTrainer to find trainers in your area, then contact them to ask about group rates.

Try a free or low-cost boot camp.

Boot camps are a great way to get to know experts within your local fitness community — many personal trainers lead community boot camps to meet potential customers and demonstrate their expertise. To find out about boot camps coming up in your area, search Eventbrite, discount sites like Groupon, and your city’s event calendar.

Practice on your own.

Maybe you can swing one or two sessions per week, but three would be too much for your monthly budget to absorb. That’s okay! Once you find a personal trainer you’re comfortable with, work with them to design a personalized workout you can do yourself on the days you don’t meet.

Check with your gym.

If you have a gym membership or are in the market for one, inquire about the gym’s personal training services. It’s common for gyms to offer free initial sessions or reduced-cost sessions for gym members — so don’t be afraid to ask!

Reduce unhealthy spending (and put that money toward personal training).

Want to do something good for your wallet and your health? Search your budget for opportunities to trim spending on unhealthy activities or habits. Maybe it’s your morning fast food or latte run, your weekend bar tab, or high spending on cigarettes. Try reducing that area of your budget by ⅓ or ½ and putting that money toward personal training instead. You’ll free up room in your budget, and kicking unhealthy habits could help you meet your fitness goals even sooner.

Get plugged into your local fitness community.

Working out alongside other people promotes accountability and can help you stick with your fitness routine when you might otherwise get discouraged. Community-based fitness works — and it’s more fun than working out alone. Get to know people in your city who enjoy the types of activity you do, make friends, and enjoy working toward your goals together! Here’s how to get started.

• Join some Meetup groups.
  Ever heard of Meetup? It’s a directory of local communities in every category you can imagine, from entrepreneurship to book circles and board game groups. Use the free app or website to search for biking, running, hiking, and other fitness groups in your city. Whatever your workout of choice, there’s probably a Meetup group near you built around it!
• Find an accountability partner you trust.
  When you start to get tired, an accountability partner will keep you honest. When you feel tempted to skip a workout, your accountability partner can encourage you — and you can do the same for him or her. Whether it’s guilt or a sense of competition that motivates you, you’ll be more likely to stick with a routine if flaking means standing someone else up. Having trouble finding a friend or family member who’s willing to step in? Use a service like WellSquad to find your accountability partner.
• Watch for community events.
  Check your town’s event calendar and keep an eye out for advertisements — your city may offer free or low-cost clinics, classes, and more! (Eventbrite is also a good resource for this.) In the past year, my city has offered yoga and Zumba classes, Saturday boot camps, and athletic conditioning sessions. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, check in surrounding cities, too.

Our favorite fitness resources

Gym memberships and personal trainers offer a host of benefits you won’t get when working out alone. But if you’re looking to mix up your fitness routine at home, there’s a huge variety of free and almost-free resources online.

Strava

Looking for an online fitness community with a stellar app? Check out Strava. It’s part social network, part fitness tracking, and completely awesome. Strava is compatible with just about any fitness device you can think of. Use it to track your workouts, measure performance across metrics like heart rate and mile breakdown, and join groups. Strava can help you find new running and biking routes by highlighting popular routes nearby. It can even help keep you safe when exercising alone; its popular Beacon feature (available with Premium) allows you to share your location in real time.

Download for: iOS | Android

SparkPeople

If your goals include weight loss, look into SparkPeople. It’s an online community, calorie counter, and personalized fitness program all in one — essentially the Swiss Army Knife of fitness tools. You can use it to explore healthy recipes, keep a food journal, or research diet tips from nutritionists. Joining is free, as is downloading the mobile app.

Download for: iOS | Android

7 Minute Workout

Even on your busiest day, you can probably carve out seven minutes for a workout! The free 7 Minute Workout app walks you through a variety of quick-hit circuits that include short sets of exercises meant to tone, build endurance, and promote weight loss. The programs you’ll find in the app are based on HICT (high-intensity circuit training) for a quick, effective workout. Voice prompts between sets guide you through the circuit, and videos of each move help you learn proper form to reduce the chance of injury. On days you can’t make it to the gym or meet with your trainer, the 7 Minute Workout is a great way to get your heartrate up with minimal equipment or fuss.

Download for: iOS | Android

WellSquad

An accountability partner can do wonders for your motivation. If you’re having trouble finding someone IRL, try WellSquad. Much like an online dating site, it’ll use a questionnaire and “exclusive algorithm” to match you with a compatible workout partner. WellSquad integrates with multiple fitness devices so you can share your progress with your team. You can also message with fitness partners or connect with “Squad Leaders” (certified fitness trainers and registered dieticians) in your community to kickstart your fitness journey. It’s free to join and find a fitness partner in your area, though there’s a monthly fee for access to Squad Leaders.

Visit online: WellSquad.com

Endomondo

Advertised as a “personal trainer in your pocket,” Endomondo is a low-cost way to get coaching and encouragement during your workout. This free app helps you choose a workout plan (via a quick Fitness Test), set goals, and train to meet them. You’ll get real-time audio feedback while you run, bike, or do 40+ other activities, so you’ll know when you’re on track and when to push harder. Metrics tracked include calories burned, miles logged, and rate of improvement over time. The optional Premium version includes personalized training plans for even faster results.

Download for: iOS | Android

StrongLifts

Want to add weight lifting to your fitness routine? StrongLifts will help you train smart. Based on the StrongLifts 5×5 program, the free app offers guidance on when to add or subtract weight, what to do when you hit a plateau, and how long you should rest between sets. And with single-tap logging, you can focus on your exercise rather than running a timer.

Download for: iOS | Android

Couch to 5K

Aspiring runners, this one’s for you. The popular Couch to 5K program helps you train from zero running ability to a 5K (that’s about 30 minutes of continuous running) in just 8 weeks. It’s broken down into 3-per-week 30 minute sessions that gradually increase your running-to-walking ratio to get you running your local road race in no time. There are many C25K apps out there; we like Zen Labs’ version. It’s free for both iOS and Android.

Download for: iOS | Android

Calm

Consider adding meditation to your fitness routine to foster a healthy body and mind. The Calm app offers guided meditations of various lengths, so you can get a mindfulness boost even on busy days. The flexibility to choose the accompanying music from a list of soothing options helps to tune out background noise — a useful feature for the times when it’s difficult to find a quiet place to practice, especially for beginners. You’ll get access to a variety of meditations with the free app download, but you can also upgrade to enjoy premium features like the Daily Calm (a new, themed meditation each day) and meditations for commuting, walking, calming anxiety, and more.

Download for: iOS | Android

Making a plan

We hope this guide has empowered you to make a plan you can stick with. Feel free to use the resources we’ve covered to design a plan that both fits within your budget — and helps you achieve your nutrition and fitness goals. Good luck!

Did you find this guide useful? Do you have fitness tips, tricks, or resources to share? Let us know in the comments below!

The post The Simple Guide to Healthy Living on a Budget (2017) appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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