Pay The Government Less Money Legally: Finding a Good Tax Preparer

Why give up more tax money than you have to? Learn how to find the best tax preparer for your needs.

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Dunkelberger’s bans assault rifle sales to those under 21

Amid the call for stricter control of assault-type weapons and the recent moves by major retailers to restrict or eliminate the sales of those weapons, Dunkelberger's Sports Outfitters in Stroudsburg will restrict sales of assault rifles to those under 21.Dunkelberger's sells AR-15 and other assault-style weapons, although they are a small part of their business. The Main Street sports outfitter will continue to other sell other long guns to those 18 and older.The ban [...]

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A Simple Tactic for Improving Sleep That 84% of People Miss

As the famous management consultant Peter Drucker said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”

Most of us intuitively understand the power of measurement. We would never start a diet without tracking what we ate, or try to lose weight without ever stepping on a scale, or implement a budget without tracking our spending.

Yet, when it comes to improving an area of our lives in which one out of three people admits they’re falling short, we take a much less scientific approach.

I’m talking about sleep.

Why You Should Be Tracking Your Sleep

One in three adults doesn’t get enough sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And anecdotally, even that feels like a low estimate. Almost everyone I know will admit to wanting more shut-eye if the topic arises.

We all want more sleep because we know that it’s important to our health and well being. Consistently good sleep improves brain function, reduces chronic pain, gives you more energy, improves your mood, and makes you less likely to get sick. If you could bottle and sell the benefits of a good night’s rest, you’d be a very wealthy person.

Despite all this, a recent survey showed that only 16% of people track their sleep. Remember, we can only improve what we measure! So if we want better health and more energy, it makes sense to get serious about tracking our sleep. In the same way that assessing a credit card statement can help you zero in on problems with your budget, assessing your sleep can help you figure out how to get better rest.

How to Track Your Sleep With the Sleep Cycle App

There are six key areas recognized by the Mayo Clinic as having outsized effects on the quality and quantity of our sleep: Sticking to a sleep schedule, paying attention to what you eat and drink, creating a restful environment, limiting daytime naps, exercising, and managing stress.

Each of these areas can be tracked, and their effects on sleep analyzed. The easiest way I’ve found to do this is with an app for my smartphone called Sleep Cycle.

Sleep Cycle works by analyzing your movements to determine which of the three stages of sleep you are in (light, deep, or REM). Your brain naturally cycles through these stages while you sleep, and each stage is characterized by different movement patterns.

To use Sleep Cycle, all you need to do is place your phone in the corner of your bed before going to sleep. In the morning, the app produces a graph that looks like this:

That’s cool and all, but the real fun starts when you maximize the use of that little section called “Sleep Notes.” This part of the app allows you to input what you did during the day. The example above, which only lists one activity, is clearly not from the phone of a dyed-in-the-wool biohacker like myself. I like to get a lot more granular.

A typical night of notes for me would read like this: Exercised past 8:00 p.m., ate a big lunch, coffee after 12:00 p.m., stressful day at the office, meditated, ate cheese, bedroom was hot, wore an eye mask to bed, got 30+ minutes of fresh air in the morning.

Sleep Cycle does the hard work of mapping all those notes onto the sleep data and crunching the numbers. You can then see a bar graph which displays how different behaviors and situations impacted your sleep, positively or negatively. Here are the top five things that increase my sleep quality:

I now have over 1,000 nights of data from Sleep Cycle, and I’ve learned some interesting things.

For one, having caffeine in the afternoon doesn’t affect my sleep quality as much as I thought it would. I can’t pound a whole pot of coffee at 6:00 p.m. and expect to sleep well, but a cup at 3:00 p.m. doesn’t seem to do much to me. This is counterintuitive, as most sleep experts highly frown on drinking caffeine late in the day.

On the other hand, I now know that intensive exercise late at night, such as playing basketball, has a detrimental effect on my sleep quality. I fall asleep fast and hard, but then my REM cycles are a little screwy. I don’t know why this is the case, but I’m happy that I can make use of this information. I try to set my schedule so that my hardest workouts are during the day on a weekend, as opposed to after work on a weeknight.

Each of us is bound to have our own unique quirks that affect how we sleep. It’s only through tracking, analyzing, and adjusting that can make our sleep maximally efficient.

Other Ways to Track Your Sleep

There are many other devices that track sleep, such as the Fitbit or the Apple Watch. While they don’t yet incorporate sleep notes like Sleep Cycle does, they can still be valuable tools. They’ve already surpassed Sleep Cycle in being able to tell you, with precision, which stages of sleep you’re in, and even when you woke up during the night. I also use my Fitbit to crosscheck sleep data with Sleep Cycle.

Up to this point, I’ve been discussing cutting edge technology, but there are ways of tracking your sleep that don’t require any apps, bands, or watches.

For instance, you can manually write down the time you went to bed, when you got up, and how you felt in the morning. If you compare your entries week by week, you might start to see some patterns. Just this act can be very helpful, as keeping a consistent bedtime is important to getting optimal sleep.

But you can get as detailed as you want in search of bigger insights, describing anything from your day that might impact your sleep (such as exercise or stress), or noting in the morning whether you woke up in the middle of the night or felt like you were tossing and turning.

Similarly, you could keep a sleep journal where you write down just one food that you think might be giving you problems. You can make note of the days you eat that food, and see if it affects how you feel when you wake up in the morning.

After all, what really matters isn’t some number that your phone spits out, but how you really feel. You can notice that all on your own, and start to make changes for the better. If you want more guidance, The Better Sleep Project offers robust online tools to help you make a customized sleep diary.

Summing Up

I don’t have kids and I have a lot of control over my schedule. I understand that I’m in an ideal position to try to optimize this aspect of my life. I empathize with the millions of people who are in more challenging circumstances.

That being said, I firmly believe that everyone can do something. Even one small action can lead you down a healthier path. For instance If you choose to go to bed earlier whenever it’s practical to do so, and you actively notice that decision makes you feel better, it can start a positive feedback loop. You’ll want those good feelings every morning, which might make you think twice about watching one more episode of that Netflix show at 1:00 a.m.

Related Articles: 

• The Ultimate Free Life Hack? I Quit Drinking for Three Months
• Five Time-Saving Productivity Hacks, Reviewed
• Achieving Health and Fitness Without Breaking the Bank

The post A Simple Tactic for Improving Sleep That 84% of People Miss appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Save Some Dough With This Pizza Recipe That Costs Less Than $1/Serving

Please don’t misunderstand me, here.

I enjoy pizza as much as every other millennial out there. What I don’t love, though? Paying $14 — not including taxes or delivery — for a large cheese pizza from a generic chain that may or may not rhyme with Papa Yawns.

If I want to splurge for pepperoni? Add another $2. Throw some veggies on that pie, and well, the amount of dough just keeps rising. (Pun 100% intended.)

That’s why lately, I’ve started making my own pizza. It takes less time than waiting on delivery, proves to be more personalizable, retains less grease and is a heck of a lot cheaper.

But I don’t make just any pizza… I make special pizza rolls that only cost about 92 cents per serving.

Save Money on This Easier Homemade Pizza Recipe

Before I share with you my secret recipe (OK, it’s not really a secret), let me share a few ways you can save even more money on the ingredients:

1. Pillsbury: Print Coupons

Because I signed up for Pillsbury’s daily emails, I get inspiration from tons of other awesome recipes, as well as up to $250 in coupons per year.

Bam. Right to my inbox.

2. Drop: Save Money Automatically

I like the Drop app because I don’t have to think about it.

I don’t have to check off specific items, take photos of my receipt or scan barcodes.

Rather, the rewards app lets me choose my five favorite brands (out of dozens of options). Then I’ll automatically earn points each time I spend money at the retailer through my connected debit or credit card.

Participating grocery stores include Costco, H-E-B, Safeway, Trader Joe’s, Walmart and Whole Foods.

Download the app, link your go-to credit or debit cards, then earn points automatically. At Trader Joe’s, for example, you’ll earn 12 points per $1 spent. Once you hit 5,000 points, you can cash out for gift cards (for example, 5,000 points gets you a $5 Starbucks gift card).

3. Shopkick: Save Money Without Spending

The Shopkick app is unique in that you don’t have to spend a single cent to earn “kicks,” or points you can exchange for gift cards to your favorite retailers. You can simply walk through the doors of CVS, Publix, Target, Walmart or any other participating retailer to bank kicks.

If you want to earn more, scan the barcodes of specific items. Again, no need to buy ’em.

We talked to one guy who’s earned more than $400 in gift cards through Shopkick.

Get kickin’.

My Secret Homemade Pizza Recipe — Less Than $1/Serving

Even if you don’t apply these savings, the ingredients, listed below, will still ring up at just 92 cents a serving.

Personalizable Crescent Pizza Rolls

[insert pizza roll photo]

Ready?!

Ingredients

• 1 tube Pillsbury Crescents dinner rolls
• 1 cup pizza sauce
• Shredded cheese (any variety, as much or as little as you’d like)
• Any toppings, including pepperoni, sausage, ham, pineapple, peppers, black olives — or all of the above… or none of the above, if you’re picky…

Total, excluding toppings: $7.37

Servings: 8

Cost per serving: 92 cents

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375 F. Pop the tube of dough, and separate the individual triangles. You’ll want to pat these out a little — more surface area means more room for fillings.

Place your desired cheese and toppings on the short end of the triangle. Don’t get too crazy here, as you’ll end up with a mess and a half. Also, leave the sauce out. Trust me when I say it gets really messy when you try to add that, so simply use it as a dipping sauce later.

Roll the crescents up, starting from the shortest side of the triangle. Set the rolls on your cookie sheet point side down, then bake for 10 to 14 minutes.

Once you’re ready to eat, pour some tomato sauce for dippin’. Enjoy!

Time to Come out of That Food Coma Now…

See? Homemade pizza is just as easy as takeout — at a fraction of the cost.

Plus, the whole personalizable option is perfect for families full of picky kids (or a picky spouse).

If you’re into the crescents, we’ve got more where that came from. Here are five more crescent roll recipes — all under $2 per serving.

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Admittedly, she’s not the best cook, but these were a pizza cake… or should she say… pie. (Sorry, she’s also cheesy.) (OK, seriously. She’s done now.)

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

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