Think You’re Frugal? This Guy Slept BEHIND His Friends’ Couch to Save Money

People have submitted themselves to some pretty crazy living situations in the name of saving money.

You may have heard, for example, about the Google employee who lived in a truck in the compound parking lot to mitigate San Francisco’s sky-high rent.

Or Heidemarie Schwermer, who’s been living without money at all for 17 years. She moves from place to place, trading her services for room and board.

Many of us have our own tales of couch surfing with generous friends, even if only for a few hard days or in our travels.

But I still don’t think I’ve heard a story quite as strange as that of Matthew Haines. At 19, Haines managed to save up $14,000 in just nine months… by sleeping behind his friends’ couch.

Yeah, we wanted the details, too. Here’s what we learned.

Next Level Couch Surfing

Five years ago, Haines was an army private based in Manhattan, Kansas. After living in the oldest barracks building on the base for three months, he decided he wanted a change.

But his small salary of about $1,500 a month meant he didn’t have much to spare for his off-campus living arrangements.

So Haines made friends with some local college students and convinced them to let him move in.

There was just one problem: All the bedrooms were already taken. However, they did have a couch available — or at least a patch of dark space behind it.

Since his new roommates were college students, “they were always up late doing stuff for school,” Haines explained. Since the WiFi was best in the living room, the couch was prime real estate for studying.

So they pulled it away from the wall, draped a blanket over the top and made Haines the smallest man-cave in history.

It wasn’t the comfiest place he’d ever slept, but his hard days of training helped him get used to it quickly.

“You have a couple of sleepless nights and then you get so tired you don’t care,” he said.

According to Haines, sleeping wasn’t even the hardest part of the arrangement. That honor went to figuring out where to keep everything besides his body.

“I had like three drawers to fit everything I owned in,” he said. And they weren’t big ones. “I’m talking, like, a nightstand that we kept a lamp on.”

But despite his small quarters, he certainly couldn’t beat the price of rent: He paid just $100 per month, and his share of the utilities. Split five ways, that never came to more than $50 per month.

This story’s sounding less and less insane as we go, am I right?

How to Save Money: Don’t Spend Any

Thanks to his new digs’ minimalism, Haines was able to save more than $11,000 during his nine-month stint behind the couch.

How’d he save so much of what he made? By spending as little money as possible to cover his basic needs.

On top of the $150 he spent on his living space and keeping the electricity on, Haines’ only expenses were his $40 cell phone plan and groceries. He ate a bare-bones but healthy diet of eggs, chicken breast, oats and broccoli.

He didn’t have a car, so when he needed to go somewhere, he’d hitch a ride and pitch in for gas.

He estimates his total living expenses were about $350, but he allowed himself to spend an extra $100 each month on “going out and having fun.”

He also supplemented his income by selling plasma, earning him an extra $200 per month.

Since he was making $1,700 per month and only spending $450, he was able to sock away that extra $1,250.

After nine months, he’d amassed $11,250.

He used $6,000 of it to buy a used car, avoiding depreciation, and invested the rest into his Roth IRA, where the magic of compound interest helped him earn and save even more.

Want to Achieve Financial Independence?

First of all, we’re not necessarily recommending Haines’ strategy, although it makes a fantastic story.

He assures me he wasn’t technically squatting, as the group cleared the arrangement with their apartment complex. Haines underwent a background check and signed a sublet agreement to make sure everything was kosher.

But other folks who’ve taken on creative housing arrangements in the name of frugality have faced legal problems.

That said, Haines’ story has lots of other takeaways you can implement, without fear of recourse, right now.

And you probably should: Haines’ commitment to extreme frugality has helped him get a great head start on the path to financial independence.

Today, he owns two businesses, makes $80,000 after taxes, and will have paid off the house he shares with his wife in the next five years. He estimates he’s saving a full 50% of his current income.

Did I mention he’s only 24?

The Importance of Budgeting

Clearly, Haines was able to retain the important lessons he learned behind the couch and implement them over the course of the five years that have elapsed since then.

If you ask him about the most important thing to know about controlling your money, his answer will be familiar, but relevant as ever: It all comes down to making a budget.

When you have a budget, says Haines, “you know exactly what’s going on, where [your money’s] going, and why it’s going there.” Unless you know how you’re allocating your funds, it’ll be impossible to figure out what expenses you can cut to save cash.

Plus, a budget can “open your eyes,” as Haines says, to your bad habits: You might be shocked to find how much money you waste on tobacco, alcohol or video games.

Once you have a budget in place, you can begin to make a plan for how to save the money you need to achieve your financial goals.

Whether you’re intent on buying a home, traveling the world or leaving work with a hefty retirement fund, you can’t achieve them unless you save up the cash.

Even if amazing opportunities present themselves to you, “if you don’t save, you won’t have the money to take advantage of [them],” Haines says.

His story also highlights the fact creativity helps you save money — and especially helps you find unusual ways to earn more of it.

Haines has continued to sell plasma as often as he can, and has banked almost $8,000 on that practice alone. He says it takes him about 45 minutes twice a week, so it’s easy and helpful to others.

How Will You Save Money?

Looking for your own ways to become a money-saving rock star? You’re in the right place.

Although it’s hard to imagine saving $1,000 when you’re stuck in the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, we have a step-by-step guide right here.

We’ve also got awesome ways to save money on groceries, one of the most negotiable line-items on your budget (psst — don’t have one yet? Get yourself situated with these 7 steps).

Follow enough of our advice, and hopefully, you’ll never have to sleep on anything weirder than a futon. Some things are just worth the money.

Your turn: Would you sleep behind a couch for nine months to save money?

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder who probably wouldn’t give up her bed unless a lot more than $11,000 was at stake. Her creative writing has been featured in DMQ Review, Sweet: A Literary Confection and elsewhere.

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The Elves in the Attic: Making Old Toys New Again

My four-year-old daughter has been playing nonstop with a Little People barn for the past week. Now, if you have a young child, you know the fleeting miracle that is a completely-engaging toy. It adds hours of delight to both of your lives, but usually only lasts a few days in the wake of a birthday or other special occasion.

But this toy is old. We’ve had it since she was a baby, and she stopped playing with it well over a year ago. It was just taking up space for months. What gives?

We put it in the attic and left it there for almost a year, that’s what. Now it’s basically a brand-new toy.

In fact, at least half of our daughter’s toys are stashed up there at any given time. This is partly out of necessity – we live in an 1,150-square-foot home, and grandparents really like to buy stuff – but it’s also by design.

Every time we bring a small batch of old toys down from the attic, you’d think we just went on a shopping spree at the toy store. She’s delighted. With some of the toys, she acts like she’s reconnected with a long-lost friend; others she doesn’t even remember having. And almost all of them take on a vibrant new life, at least for a week or two.

To make room for these “new” toys, we tell her, we’ll need to stow away some others. We ask her to pick a few that she doesn’t really play with anymore, and she can always find some items she’s lost interest in — and up to the attic they go, awaiting their triumphant second act when it’s time to repeat the cycle in a few months.

If you have a young child, you know the fleeting miracle that is a completely-engaging toy.

“It’s very good to do this,” says Alice Sterling Honig, professor emirita of child psychology at Syracuse University and author of several books on parenting. “I’ve been in living rooms where there are so many toys from grandparents that the little one becomes a distractable child: no attention span, just bouncing from one toy to the other.”

Honig says learning to play with persistence and attention span is crucial to a young child’s development, and that having fewer toys out can help kids stay focused – and even force them to get a bit more creative with the toys they do have.

However, she cautions against sneaking the toys away and making them reappear — at least once a child is old enough to notice — and therefore cultivating a sense that mom and dad are capable of sorcery. “She might think there’s magic, and that’s not such a good thing,” Honig says. “You can’t send cancer away or send ISIS away with magic.”

Instead, Honig recommends involving your child in the process. “Throw the ball in your child’s court and give her the power to choose. What we can store up in the attic, and what should we bring to the poor kids? Is this puzzle maybe a little too babyish for you now and some other child could use it?”

I’ll confess that at one point the attic was shrouded in a bit of mystery for our daughter. She wasn’t allowed up there — it’s not particularly safe — and probably thought it was a mystical outpost of Santa’s Workshop, a satellite secondhand toy factory. But now she knows the real drill, and from time to time she’ll even request an old toy out of the blue, knowing it’s up there. When we ask her to swap it with something she’s not using anymore, it’s a bargain she’s more than willing to make.

At some point, though, our daughter may resist the idea of surrendering any of her toys, Honig says, even ones she doesn’t use. When that happens, it’s important to acknowledge your child’s desires. “Don’t squash a child’s feelings,” she says.

“In no way apologize, because you need to do this for your own sanity and for her attention span and persistence development – so there are three reasons to do it,” Honig says. “But you want to help her make those choices. So you have to do active listening, say you wish, you want to. ‘I wish we could keep them all out.’ Then offer a small explanation – one octave down – of your reasons.”

In addition, using reductio ad absurdum logic — following a request through to its silly or preposterous conclusion – can be an effective way to make your point to a young child, Honig says. “I wish you could have all those toys, but then they’d cover every inch of your bedroom floor, and how could you walk around stepping on all your toys? You’d hurt your feet!”

Of course, we didn’t really know any of this when we started stashing toys more than three years ago. We just didn’t want to be living in a Target toy aisle for the rest of our lives, and we’d heard the idea from veteran parents.

But so far it’s really worked for us: Between hand-me-downs, yard sale finds, doting grandparents, and the attic cycle, we don’t spend much money on toys — except for Legos, which are expensive even in the secondary market; that’s a whole other post. What’s more, our daughter really seems to enjoy her rotating selection of toys and her decision-maker role in the process itself.

And frankly, we’ll take a victory anywhere we can, because raising a happy, emotionally healthy kid can exhaust both you and your wallet.

“We have to be very creative as parents,” Honig says. “People think it’s an easy job, but it isn’t.”

Related Articles

• Eight Cheap Summer Projects for Kids
• Turning Supplies You Have on Hand Into Toys
• Do We Have Our Possessions Backwards? Some Thoughts on the Stuff We Own

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Landlords to get £27.5m payout from West Bromwich

Hannah Nemeth

Thousands of landlords will be refunded about £27.5 million after West Bromwich Mortgage Company, a subsidiary of West Bromwich Building Society, was found guilty of unfairly upping the rate on its buy-to-let tracker mortgages.

Thousands of landlords will be refunded about £27.5 million after West Bromwich Mortgage Company, a subsidiary of West Bromwich Building Society, was found guilty of unfairly upping the rate on its buy-to-let tracker mortgages.

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Do Home Depot and the NFL Owe You Money? Here’s How to Find Out

When I’m not helping Penny Hoarders find amazing free money from settlements, I’m busy scanning food labels looking for “natural” claims.

My daughters love salty snacks, so it was a no-brainer to purchase Snyder’s “all natural” pretzels for what I thought was a healthy snack option.

In March, I let you know about a settlement from the makers of Snyder’s pretzels, who were accused of falsely advertising some products as “all natural” when they allegedly contained genetically modified ingredients and artificial colors.

As a mom, I was disappointed that the so-called “natural” snack didn’t live up to its label, but as a consumer I was glad I could at least get some money back from my purchases!

I know I’ve said it before, but you will be shocked by how little time it takes to fill out a typical claim form. I timed filling out the Snyder’s settlement claim form to prove it, and it took me less than two minutes!

If you’ve never filed for an open settlement before, now’s a good time to try it. This month, I found six different ways you might be eligible to earn money with just minutes of your time.

Let’s jump right in!

1. Omaha Steaks TCPA

Did you get an annoying telemarketing phone call from Omaha Steaks between 2009 and 2013? If so, you can get $60 cash or an $80 gift card from a class-action settlement!

To benefit from this settlement, you will have to provide the phone number where you received a robocall from Omaha Steaks, as well as fill out a claim form.

You must file a claim no later than Aug. 12, 2016.

Learn more here.

2. XHose Expandable Hose

If you bought an XHose but were disappointed by its failure to keep up with promises of being made from a super-strong design, you could benefit from this class action settlement!

Individuals who purchased an XHose either by phone, online or in a retail store in the U.S. between Jan. 1, 2012 and Dec. 29, 2015, can get up to $15 per hose or $30 if you return the male and female XHose end fittings.

To qualify, you must file a claim form no later than Aug. 29, 2016.

Click here for more info.

3. NFL and Reebok Apparel

Football fans in California who bought jerseys, hats or shoes that displayed either the NFL logo or the logo of any NFL team can get money back from their purchase!

NFL and Reebok agreed to pay nearly $5 million to resolve claims that they conspired together to raise the price of fan gear in violation of California antitrust laws.

If you include a proof of purchase (like a receipt) with your claim form, you could get up to $15 for a hat, $45 for a jersey and $45 for shoes. Fans who can’t provide a receipt showing proof but who file a claim form can still get half that amount.

The deadline to file a claim for the NFL class action settlement is Sept. 3, 2016.

Find out if you qualify here.

4. Home Depot Data Breach

Did you use a self-checkout lane at Home Depot between April and September 2014 and pay with a debit or credit card?

If so, your private information could have been compromised due to a data breach and you could be eligible to benefit from a Home Depot class-action settlement.

Home Depot has agreed to pay $13 million to customers affected by the data hack to help cover the cost of out-of-pocket financial losses, as well as reimburse individuals for the time spent fixing issues related to the breach.

You can claim up to $10,000, but you must submit documentation proving you suffered monetary loss along with your claim form.

To benefit from this settlement, file a claim by Oct. 29, 2016.

More info is available here.

5. Norcold RV Refrigerators

Do you own an RV or boat that has a Norcold refrigerator installed? If so, you could get a portion of $36 million class-action settlement or a three-year extended warranty!

The Norcold settlement resolves claims that the refrigerators contain a cooling unit defect that may increase the risk of fire.

If you own (or used to own) a Norcold 1200 or N8 Series gas absorption refrigerator made between 2002 and 2013, you might be included in the settlement.

The deadline to file a claim form for this settlement is Aug. 26, 2016.

Click here to learn more.

6. Citizens Bank HELOC

Are you a Citizens Bank customer with a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC)? Then you could get at least $20 from a class-action settlement.

Citizens Bank has agreed to settle accusations that it improperly calculated minimum payments by not using a level amortization method for repayment.

Those included in this settlement are Citizens Bank customers who obtained a HELOC from a branch in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania or Rhode Island before July 8, 2006.

If you want to benefit from this settlement, you must file a claim form by Nov. 22, 2016.

Make sure you qualify here.

Your Turn: Do any of these companies owe you money?

Melissa LaFreniere is the News Editor for Top Class Actions.

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Bangkok is the best value holiday destination for Brits

Helen Knapman

bangkok-holiday.jpg

Holidaymakers looking to get the most bang for their buck abroad should head to Bangkok, according to new research by travel comparison site Kayak.

Holidaymakers looking to get the most bang for their buck abroad should head to Bangkok, according to new research by travel comparison site Kayak.

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Southwest is Having a Crazy Flash Sale: Fares as Low as $49!

Wanna get away this fall?

Southwest is throwing a pretty sweet flash sale right now — some fares are as low as $49 one-way — for travel between August 13 and December 14, 2016.

If you’d like to grab one of these cheap tickets, you’d better act fast; the deal only runs until 11:59 p.m. in the city of origin’s timezone on Thursday, June 9.

And if you’ve already purchased a Southwest ticket for travel during this timeframe, this sale might allow you to get a credit for the price difference.

Here’s what you need to know.

How to Jump on This Southwest Sale

Until the end of the day tomorrow, Southwest has reduced fares on some routes as low as $49, $79, $99 and $129 (including taxes).

The fares are good for domestic travel from August 23 to December 14, travel to/from Puerto Rico from September 7 to December 8 and international travel from August 23 to December 13.

If traveling domestically, you must fly on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday, and blackout dates, including Thanksgiving week, apply.  

Since airfare sales almost always have restrictions, the best strategy is to just check and see what’s available.

Like many airlines, Southwest offers a free 24-hour cancellation period: If you change your mind within 24 hours of booking, you can get a complete refund to your original method of payment.

So I always advise booking first, and thinking later. Better to scoop up the fare and cancel within 24 hours than to wait and miss it.

What If You Already Booked a Trip?

Already have a Southwest reservation this fall? The sale might also mean good news for you.

If the exact flight you already purchased (same date, same route) went down in price, you can request a fare credit from Southwest.

Lastly, don’t forget Southwest has some extraordinarily customer-friendly policies, including no change fees and no baggage fees.   

Isn’t it time to get going? Click here to see if there are any sales that strike your fancy.

Your Turn: Do you like flying Southwest?

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

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If Amazon Prime is Late, You’ll Get This Sweet Freebie

Talk about frustrating: You shell out $99 for a year of Amazon Prime, specifically looking forward to its sweetest perk — free, fast shipping.

And then, a package is delayed.

And then another one. In Prime user Jason Jepson’s case, it happened 13 times.

I mean, it’s kind of a first world problem… but $99 is nothing to sneeze at. Why’d you pay for Prime in the first place if your packages are always going to come late?

Luckily, it turns out you might be eligible for some compensation if you’ve experienced this blood-pressure-raising scenario.

Specifically, Amazon will put its money where its mouth is… by offering you a free month of Prime.

The Amazon Prime Benefit for Delayed Shipping

Shipping delays are a fact of life.

Trucks break down, employees get sick and warehouses get too busy to keep up with demand.

Sometimes, we even cause shipping delays ourselves — we miss the UPS guy’s knock or change our form of payment too late in the game.

But if your package isn’t delivered by the “guaranteed delivery date” — and it’s not your fault — you may be eligible for a free month of Prime.

“If for some reason our delivery promise hasn’t been met, customers can call or email and we can extend them an extra month of Prime membership,” Amazon’s Julie Law confirmed to Time Money.

Bargain-hunting sight DealNews tested the policy — and successfully requested the free month twice in a single year.

In keeping with the fine print, you’re eligible for up to 12 extensions if you keep experiencing multiple delays.

You might receive another form of compensation instead, like free expedited shipping on a future order — or a credit, which may be worth more than Prime’s monthly $8.25 value.

But don’t think you can ring up Amazon today and score a freebie if you haven’t actually had any shipping problems.

“We don’t allow people to abuse [the policy],” Law says.

And sorry, students: The policy doesn’t apply to your free membership.

Your Turn: Have you experienced delayed shipping after paying for Amazon Prime?

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. We’re letting you know because it’s what Honest Abe would do. After all, he is on our favorite coin.

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her creative writing has been featured in DMQ Review, Hinchas de Poesia and is forthcoming in Word Riot. Her biggest regret about dropping out of grad school is losing out on her discounted student Prime membership.

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6 Unscalable Tactics That Will Get You More Customers

The biggest problem most businesses have is getting more customers.

Business owners believe that if they could just find that one magic growth tactic, their business would be set.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of them will never find that tactic.

And while they’re searching for that magic bullet, they’re passing up on smaller, unscalable tactics that could be getting them a consistent stream of new traffic.

The confusion mainly comes from misinterpretation of the concept of growth hacking:

The only real condition to growth hacking is prioritizing customer/user growth above all else.

However, too many marketers seem to believe that growth hacking must involve rapid, viral growth that makes or breaks the company.

Sometimes, maximizing your growth potential means focusing on unscalable tactics. They cost more per acquisition but deliver customers when other tactics are failing.

These are best applied early on in a business, when scalable tactics (advertising, really high quality viral video campaigns, etc.) are not realistic.

I’m going to share 6 unscalable tactics that are often very effective for young businesses looking to grow. Probably, not all of them will apply to your business, but you should be able to identify at least a few you can try. 

1. Trialists rarely leave for no reason

It makes me want to bang my head against my desk.

via GIPHY

Some marketers are so focused on getting new customers that they don’t realize that what happens after a signup or purchase is the most important factor behind growth.

Growth comes from creating a product that is as close to the needs and wants of your customers as possible.

You can’t create that kind of a product going on intuition, without any actual customer feedback.

No feedback is feedback: If someone signs up for a demo or a trial or purchases something from you, that tells you something.

It tells you that:

• They need a solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.
• They like the sound and/or look of your product.

But if a customer stops using your product right after they start using it (particularly for software products), that’s your feedback.

Their problem didn’t just disappear. What happened is they concluded that your product couldn’t help them sufficiently.

What’s the point of getting new customers if you barely retain any of them?

On top of that, you need to absolutely thrill customers if you want them to recommend you to others.

The solution? Get feedback: As long as you collect email addressed when people sign up, you can contact them.

If a large portion of your new signups are disappearing on you, personally send them an email and find out how your product fell short.

The customer is still in “pain” because they haven’t solved their problem, which makes them pretty receptive to outreach.

It’s not scalable to email every single new customer you get, but this type of feedback is how you’ll make your customers love your product. You could even survey a fraction of your customers and still get really valuable feedback.

You can also preemptively get feedback by sending your customers a welcome email, asking them how they found you and what they’re hoping your product can do for them.

Here’s how Groove did it with great success:

Try something similar, and you’ll get a high response rate with great feedback.

2. Don’t be afraid to sell one-on-one at first

I’ve started many companies at this point, and believe me, they weren’t all successes at first.

It’s a huge job to start a business from scratch. Getting customers is just one area, but it is indeed very difficult since you don’t have your perfect product yet or any word of mouth in most cases.

Sometimes, you can throw money at advertising and get your growth off the ground.

Sometimes you can’t. Whether it’s because of your budget or because of your product, advertising isn’t always a great option.

An option that I recommend is to have one-on-one conversations with your potential customers.

Where do you find them?

• Forums
• Sites like Reddit
• LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media sites
• Friends in real life

Let me give you an example. Say you’re selling a website builder. You could spend time on the startups and entrepreneur subreddits, forums such as Warrior Forum, and many groups on LinkedIn and Facebook.

It will take time, but you’ll come across questions and conversations like this one I pulled from Reddit:

Someone was looking for a website builder with search functionality.

Then, you can send the user a message. Something like this:

Hey, I saw that you were trying to create a search based website. I actually have a lot of experience with that sort of thing and even built a website builder for that specific reason.

I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about it. Just send me your email address, and we can hop on Skype or Slack or have a quick email chat.

Regards,

Neil

Note that everything in this message is about how you can help them, and not the other way around.

It’s much easier to sell to someone when you have their full attention during a chat, and especially when you’re actually providing them with additional help and guidance.

3. Make customers come back with a little extra effort

Like I said above, the customer experience after they try or purchase something is what leads them to become return customers and to start talking about your product to others.

One way you could make sure they end their experience on a high note, which will encourage them to talk about your business and come back, is with a handwritten thank-you note.

Unless your customers are very young, handwritten letters are typically perceived as a caring, personal gesture.

For example, this is a simple card that a Jawbone customer received:

When the recipient of the note posted the above photo on Twitter, this one tweet resulted in over 100 shares (at the time of writing).

While a card will take you a few minutes to write and send (if you batch them), it will return much more to you if do it well.

Could this be scaled? If you have thousands of customers, it’ll be hard to write a real letter to each of them.

Some businesses, such as Bond and MailLift, offer services that will write the letters for you. You just need to provide the addresses and names:

Ideally, you don’t want to be writing the same thing to each customer. So, while this is an option, it’s not quite as good as writing your own letters.

4. Trade your product for something more valuable

I mentioned it earlier: it’s tough to get customers for a new product with no customer base.

People want to see that others have had a good experience with something before buying it themselves.

Translated to marketing, this is social proof, primarily seen in the form of testimonials and case studies.

Both can provide assurance to potential customers considering buying from you and often have a large impact on conversion rates.

You have to give to get: Great testimonials or case studies are worth several times the cost of your product.

One option, early on, is to give away your product or service in return for a testimonial or case study.

The hard part is finding a way to actually get this offer in front of people.

It will depend on your product.

For some, you can simply make a forum post or Reddit thread and offer a few samples of your product (say 5-10) to any users willing to give you feedback. You can get their emails and go into more details later.

If that’s not an option, you need to be more creative:

• Offer it to anyone who contacts you with questions about the product.
• Install live chat on your website, and offer products to anyone who engages.

• Actively reach out to customers if possible (say you sell a product for bloggers)

Most people are pretty receptive to trying something for free.

Once you’ve invested in these testimonials or case studies, you need to make sure they’re effective. Luckily, I’ve written about it in the past:

• A Step-by-Step Guide to Generating Clients by Writing Case Studies
• How to Receive Great Testimonials
• How to Effectively Use Testimonials

5. Have a broad market? Consider stickers…

I’ve mentioned Reddit a few times in this post as well as many of my other posts. Reddit is now one of the largest sites in the world.

Do you want to know how Reddit got off the ground?

In 2005, the two co-founders got $12,000 from Y Combinator.

That’s $12,000 for the whole business, so not a ton to go around. They were left with $500 for a marketing budget.

They promptly spent that $500 on stickers of their alien mascot:

They plastered them in public everywhere they could and handed out the rest at events or to random people on the street.

Soon after, stickers started showing up on social media and other websites, and people learned about Reddit. The picture above is of Wil Wheaton in the background of a sticker.

I love this idea because you’ll always stand out. Just make sure that your site or product is identified on the sticker and that it ends up in view of the people you’re trying to target.

The Reddit stickers worked out well because they were placed on bus stations and buildings on college campuses. Reddit had a pretty broad audience, even at the start, but primarily focused on young, tech-savvy users (college students).

You don’t necessarily have to use stickers. You could try:

• Backpack or luggage tags
• T-shirts or hats
• Bracelets
• Glow sticks

Be creative.

6. Get out and speak

Speaking at events comes with a lot of benefits.

For one, it may lead to direct payment, which alone is highly rewarding.

But when you’re first starting out, the biggest benefit is having an audience in front of you.

Most crowds consist of customers and peers (other businesses in your industry).

As a speaker, you position yourself as an expert—an expert with whom many people in the audience will want to do business.

If you have something to sell to those businesses, you’ll almost always make some sales. More importantly, you can find ways to work together.

For example, a real estate agent could partner up with a home decorator. The home decorator could touch up houses for sale and leave business cards or pamphlets for people the agent shows the houses to.

The agent gets a better looking house to sell, and the decorator gets more customers. Win-win.

Where do you start if you want to speak at conferences? Unfortunately, you can’t just jump in and speak at the biggest ones in your industry.

You’re starting from the bottom, and you need to start with whatever experience you can get.

Focus on getting experience first so you can leverage it later to get speaking opportunities at bigger events. If you can get customers from these first few speaking gigs as well, that’s just a great bonus.

To find a list of conferences actively looking for speakers, Google “(industry) conferences speaker proposal”:

Put in some decent effort into your proposals, and you’ll get at least a few chances to speak.

Here are some quick tips on how to increase your chances of being invited to speak:

1. Stick to the requirements – Different conferences want to know different things about their speakers. Always read all the details they provide, and try to describe yourself according to them.
2. Don’t be a generalist – Never submit a proposal and call yourself something like a “marketing expert.” Instead, pick a specific area, e.g., “influencer marketing expert.”
3. Your bio leaves a mark – You’ll get a chance to submit a bio most of the time. Put emphasis on your most impressive professional accomplishments.
4. Talk specifics – Part of a proposal is a topic you could speak about and a short description. Try to think of something unique that the audience would love. That way, no other speaker could fill your spot.

Apply to several conferences at the same time because they can take a little while to get back to you.

Conclusion

Scalable growth is sexy, but it’s not always possible.

If your business is still struggling for customers, don’t be afraid to use unscalable marketing tactics.

I’ve shown you 6 in this post, so you should be able to get working on at least one right away.

If you have any experience with unscalable growth tactics, I’d love it if you shared your creative ideas in a comment below.

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How to Break Out of the Overdraft Cycle

Most of us are familiar with overdrafts, whether it’s something we’ve actually done ourselves or not. We write a check for an amount greater than the remaining balance in our checking account and something bad happens.

If you don’t have overdraft protection on your checking account, the bank will refuse to cover your check. This uncashed check is returned to the person or business to which you wrote that check and they’ll usually then come after you for non-payment along with some additional fees. Most businesses will not only charge you late fees on your account, but will also tack on an additional fee for a returned check. Bummer.

To combat this, many banks offer overdraft protection. If you sign up for this, the bank essentially offers you a small amount of credit that kicks in if you ever write a check that exceeds your account balance. They’ll cover your check, but then your account balance is negative and thus the next time you deposit money you’ll have to cover that negative balance first. For this service, banks often charge you a fee for each overdraft and sometimes also charge an interest rate on your negative balance.

In both cases, you wind up in the same situation. When you overdraft, you’re already in a precarious financial state (or else you wouldn’t be overdrafting) and then you’re hit with a bunch of additional fees, making that situation even worse and actually increasing the likelihood of subsequent overdrafts.

Often you wind up in a cycle. You’re unable to cover the bills after covering last month’s overdrafts, so you’re practically forced into overdrafts this month.

That’s a very vicious cycle, and one that’s difficult to climb out of. Many people simply accept it and live on a cycle of overdrafts, which continually drains their finances at a rapid rate and ensures more overdrafts in the future.

If you want to build a better life for yourself, you have to escape this cycle of overdrafts.

But it’s not easy, which is pretty obvious to anyone who’s ever been in this kind of a cycle as well as anyone who spends some time thinking about being in that kind of a cycle.

How exactly can one escape from that cycle?

Here are seven strategies that, when used together, can pull a person out of a cycle of overdrafts. To pull this off, however, you do need to have steady employment that provides an income stream of some kind

Have a “money free” month to “reset”

The idea of a “money free weekend” is an idea I’ve talked about since the earliest days of The Simple Dollar. It’s a simple idea – you simply avoid spending money if at all possible for a weekend. You eat food that you have on hand, engage in activities that use as few resources as possible and with as little electricity as possible, and generally try to minimize your expenses in every way from Friday evening to Monday morning.

This is a great idea for kickstarting a financial turnaround, but it’s also an idea that can be expanded greatly to a “money free month” in order to provide something of a reset to your financial life.

Basically, you just take the idea of a “money free weekend” and expand it over the full month. Your goal is to minimize your spending in every way possible. If you don’t have to spend money, don’t. Live off of the food you have on hand. Use the cheapest way possible to get to work and back. Use minimal electricity. Buy nothing that isn’t an essential.

The goal of this is to get through a month where you’re not actively overdrafting – or making as few overdrafts as humanly possible.

I’ve used periods like this for many financial goals and I’ve found that the most effective way to make it work is to make it into a game. The goal is to see how low you can possibly go. Can you spend less today than yesterday? Can you spend less this week than last week?

Clean out your closet

Another great strategy that goes hand in hand with a “money free month” is the good old closet cleaning.

Here’s what you do: you simply pull everything out of your closets and storage spaces and then go through all of it, sorting it into two piles: stuff to keep and stuff to sell.

Ideally, as you’re putting things in the “stuff to keep” pile, you’re finding things that you’re going to want to use in the near future. Maybe you’ve discovered things that got pushed into the back of the closet, things that you can’t wait to actually use. The things in that pile can provide projects and entertainment and clothing for many months.

On the flip side is the “stuff to sell” pile. That stuff should be taken straight to Craigslist and sold to whoever will buy it. The cash generated from those sales can then be directly used to get you out of the overdraft cycle by putting some extra cash into your checking account.

Adopt a budget

One of the biggest reasons that people fall into this cycle is the lack of a budget – more specifically, a lack of understanding of where all of their money is going each month.

The best way to prepare a budget is to simply go through your credit card and bank statements for the last few months, sort all of those transactions into groups – food at home, dining out, utilities, hobbies, entertainment, automobile, rent – and then add up the total for each group. You’ll probably find a surprising amount of money spent on the nonessential categories – eating out, hobbies, entertainment, and so on.

For many people, this can serve as a giant wake-up call as to how much money they’re actually spending on stuff they don’t need. People forget that they’re dumping hundreds a month into cable bills, cell phone bills, internet bills, gadgets, Netflix, and so on, all of which qualifies as “entertainment.”

Those expenses need to be cut hard, at least for a while. You can always sign up for cable or for Netflix in a year or so. You can always add data and other services back onto your cell phone plan.

Cut back on everything nonessential – hard. Keep at it until your financial life is under control and you’re not even in remote danger of overdrafting any more.

Ask for a waiver

Simply go to your bank and ask for a courtesy waiver of some of the most recent overdraft fees. This seems like a simple step, but two things keep people from doing it.

One, there’s a good chance they’ll say “no” anyway. Although that seems like a reason not to do it, it’s actually no different than the situation you’re in right now, so there’s no downside to asking.

Two, they’re “ashamed” to ask the cashier or the customer service rep. If this is why you’re not doing it, swallow your pride. The truth is that the cashier or the customer service rep does not care. They’re not judging you. They’re actually usually just trying to get through a day at work and if they can easily help with your request, they probably will without skipping a beat. They see or hear hundreds of customers a day. Judging you is not something they’re going to waste their time on.

Ask. The worst that can happen is that they say “no,” which just puts you back to where you already are. In other words, this is a request that’s pure upside for you, so give it a shot.

Sign up for balance alerts

Many banks will send you an automatic text or email if your checking account balance drops below a certain point. Sign up for these. Use these.

The biggest reason many people overdraft isn’t due to not keeping track of the checks they’ve written. The biggest reason most people overdraft is that an automatic payment is withdrawn at an inopportune moment. That’s why balance alerts can be very useful, as they can alert you instantaneously when a withdrawal happens so that you don’t make the mistake of writing a check when you don’t have the cash, or it can give you the chance to rectify an error before the consequences hit you.

Contact your bank and find out whether or not they offer any kind of text or email balance alerts and sign up for whichever is more convenient for you. It’s a way to make your current balance to the forefront of your mind and reduce the number of errors you might make.

Connect your overdrafts to a credit card or savings account

Another approach is to simply forego typical overdraft protections and tie your overdrafts directly to a credit card or a savings account.

This simple move bypasses most of the dangers of overdrafts and overdraft protections. You won’t be hit with a lot of fees or unexpected interest should you overdraft. Instead, what you’ll see is a dip in your savings account balance or an unplanned charge on your credit card, both of which can be much easier to handle than an overdraft.

Again, a quick phone call to your bank can make it clear whether such services are available to you. If your bank can set up this type of overdraft “protection,” then sign up for it as it will keep you out of that overdraft cycle.

Final Thoughts

Getting out of overdraft trouble requires a mix of personal choice, personal sacrifice, and smart use of the services offered by your bank. Using all of these things together in concert can help you escape the overdraft trap altogether and put yourself on a much healthier long term financial path.

Good luck!

The post How to Break Out of the Overdraft Cycle appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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This Innovative University Will Teach You to Code for FREE

We talk all the time about how software engineering is one of the best fields to get into.

It’s growing fast and pays ridiculously well — even the internships.

But if you don’t want to teach yourself to code, coding bootcamps and university degrees are both expensive.

At least, until now.

This fall, a FREE coding university called 42 is opening.

The only catch? You have to get in first.

Free Coding University? What? Why?

42 will welcome its first class of 1,042 students in November 2016 at its Fremont, California campus.

It’s actually the second university of its kind; the first opened in France in 2013. The mind behind both schools is French billionaire Xavier Niel.

His admirable goal? To even the playing field for aspiring developers.

“42’s mission is to undercover [sic] the talents of their generation in the field of programming and to do so on a broad scale,” says its website.

“Students are selected neither on the basis of financial ability nor educational degree, but solely on the basis of their talent and motivation.”

To attend, you must be a U.S. citizen or have a valid green card and be between 18 and 30 years old, or less than 18 years old but in 12th grade, by November 1.

How Does 42 Work?

There are no classes, professors or grades. Its pedagogy embraces a peer-to-peer learning system, gamification of progress and the ability to learn at your individual pace.

The coding school’s curriculum takes approximately three to five years to complete, accounting for time spent working part time and also completing mandatory internships.

Although it’s a nonprofit organization and costs nothing to attend, you should keep in mind housing in Silicon Valley is really expensive.

42 will offer rent-free dorms, but only for 300 students.

“We are currently working with the City of Fremont to bump that number up to 600,” 42 COO Brittany Bir told me in an email.

As for who’ll get accepted, the “dorms will be reserved for those who need it the most,” she continued.

“For example, students who are coming from far away will be given priority over those who come from the Bay area,” Bir said.

“However, we must wait to learn more about the socioeconomic data of the students that will be coming to school in order to have an accurate idea of who should be considered for housing.”

Even if you don’t get into the dorms, it’d probably still be worth attending to graduate with, hopefully, a high-paying job — and assuredly, no student loans.

How to Get Accepted to Free Coding School

So, how do you get in?

First, register here.

Then, play two games, each designed to “test your ability to learn and to become a world-class software engineer.”

The first takes about 10 minutes, and the second, two hours. You don’t have to complete both at the same time, but once you start a game, you must finish.

One twist? The games don’t come with any instructions.

“In the absence of an objective in a game, do not panic: this is normal, you can figure it out for yourself,” the website states.

I tried them myself. They’re challenging — and also addicting.

If you successfully complete the games, you might be asked to attend one of 42’s four-week intensive bootcamps, which take place in July, August and September.

Work your derrière off there, and you could be one of the lucky one-third of students invited to join 42’s inaugural class.

Bonne chance, mes amis!

Your Turn: Will you apply to this innovative university?

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

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23 Brilliant Ways to Get Everything You Need for Free

Do you think you could make it through a day without spending any money?

What about a week? Or a month?

Eventually your food and necessities start to run low, and rent comes due. But we’ve found some pretty cool ways to get even those for free.

If you’re creative, you can get everything from clothes to furniture to groceries to WiFi — without spending money.

Some take more work than others, and a few things in this list will require payment upfront. But when you balance your budget at the end of the month, you could get away with zero expenses!

Are you up to the challenge?

Whether you want to live your life entirely without money or you just like to get a good deal, here are 23 smart ways to get your everyday items for free.

1. Swap Clothes to Get Outfits for Free

Instead of paying for new or even used clothes, try swapping outfits with friends to keep your wardrobe fresh.

Swishing.org shows you how to organize your own clothing swap party with friends. If you’re in the U.K., you can also join a Swishing event to connect with others in the community.

But you aren’t limited to swapping with your friends. Register at the new Swapstyle site to trade in your designer clothes for others, instead of buying new ones.

2. Get Free Beauty and Feminine Product Samples

Hair, makeup, lotions and other beauty care products can be pricy. But brands are constantly sending free samples to get you hooked!

If you’re flexible about which products you use, you can maintain a pretty decent stock of beauty supplies by signing up for free samples.

The same goes for tampons and other feminine care products. Go here to get three free boxes of o.b. Tampons, and keep an eye on these sites for more daily freebies:

• Hey, It’s Free

• Mr. Free Stuff

• Freebies on Reddit

• Allure’s Free Stuff & Samples

3. Get Netflix for Free With This Credit Card Hack

If your ex’s sister’s boyfriend has changed his password and locked you out of your free ride to Netflix and chill, try this hack to cover the expense.

Here’s how it works:

Sign up for a Bank of America checking account and the Bank of America Better Balance Rewards credit card. The card rewards you with $25 per quarter when you pay more than the minimum each month.

You can get an additional $5 per quarter by automatically depositing that cash reward into a Bank of America checking or savings account. That’s $30 every three months in rewards.

Netflix costs $9.99 per month, so your quarterly rewards are just enough to cover it!

Build up a quarter of rewards before signing up for Netflix, and you won’t even have to dish out your own money upfront.

4. Trade Your Old Books to Get New Ones for Free

Swapping books with friends, family and colleagues is a pretty old-fashioned frugal life hack.

But of course, we’ve found ways to add some hipster and hacker flair and, by all means, avoid unwanted human contact.

BookMooch is a website that lets users trade books they’ve already read for something new.

To make it even simpler (and human contact-free), look for Little Free Libraries around your neighborhood. These are literally boxes on posts that people fill with books you can take for free.

Find your nearest Little Free Library on the map here, drop off old titles and pick up your next great read for free.

5. Use This Hack to Make Your Parking Space Virtually Free

This tip requires you pay money upfront, but you can earn it all back if you’re smart.

If you rent an apartment downtown, chances are you pay extra for a parking space near the building. If you drive your car to work during the day, that pricy spot is vacant the whole time.

Earn that money back with JustPark, and consider your space free.

JustPark is an app that connects people who have empty driveways during the day with commuters looking for a cheap parking spot. Use it to rent your vacant space to someone who commutes to your area every day.

6. Never Pay for Furniture

Sure, you can get a classy new living room set to furnish your apartment. Or you can be thrifty and buy it secondhand.

Or you can do even better than that.

I prefer to curb-shop for my furniture — there’s even a holiday for it in my old college town, where tenants are kind enough to leave a note when their discarded furniture has bed bugs.

If you don’t trust your neighbors’ garbage as much as I do, browse Craigslist for freebies.

People often list big items, like old furniture and TVs, that they can’t or don’t want to transport. If you’re willing to pick it up, you can have it for free.

Also check out online swapping communities for people looking to give away or trade their old stuff. Freecyle.org is a good resource, and you can probably find a “buy/sell/trade” group for your city or town on Facebook.

7. Borrow Someone’s Dog Instead of Spending Money on Your Own

Pets are expensive. Their food, treats, vet care and weird accessories are costly icing on the cake. And the fee your landlord charges just to allow a pet to live with you is the cherry on top of this broken metaphor.

Skip the expense. Just borrow someone else’s pet!

The app Bark’N’Borrow connects dog owners with “dog-loving borrowers” for free. Take someone’s pooch off their hands for a few hours, and get your Fido fix without spending a dime.

8. Get Free Food Pretty Much Anywhere if You Have an Email Address

Most chains and a lot of local restaurants offer something for free if you subscribe to their newsletters or download their apps.

Some freebies are even enough to cover a full meal, like a free bagel and schmear from Einstein Bagels or free tacos from Taco John’s, Del Taco, Rubio’s and Taco Cabana.

Check out our full list of more than 95 companies that give you free stuff in exchange for your email address.

9. Eat Free Food if You Don’t Mind Sharing…

Are you willing to eat a stranger’s food scraps to save money? Download LeftoverSwap on your smartphone to find strangers with food to spare!

The app will connect you to people with leftovers they don’t want, but don’t want to waste. Browse offers in your area to finish someone’s pizza, eat the last of Chinese takeout or even enjoy what they can’t eat of a home-cooked meal.

Pay it forward when you have leftovers of your own. Snap a photo and share it with other freegans around you.

10. Eat Free Fruit by Finding Fruit Trees in Your City

Depending on where you live, fresh fruits and vegetables can be prohibitively expensive much of the year. Skip the middle man, and harvest them yourself.

You don’t even have to raise a tree yourself to eat fresh, local fruit. Look at FallingFruit.org to find public fruit trees in your city, and stop by for a snack next time you take a walk.

11. A Grant Could Help Cover Your Rent When Money’s Tight

If unexpected circumstances put an extra strain on your budget, Modest Needs could help you cover your monthly expenses.

This nonprofit organization provides small grants to deserving, self-sufficient individuals who can usually cover basic expenses.

When a medical or dental emergency, death in the family, job loss or other unexpected cost makes it tough to pay rent or other bills, you can apply for one of these grants to catch up.

12. Healthcare.gov Can Help You Find Free Health Care in the U.S.

If your employer doesn’t cover health insurance for you or your family, check the marketplace at Heatlthcare.gov to find out if you qualify for assistance.

Healthcare.gov will let you know if you qualify for free health insurance through your state’s Medicaid or other public programs. Even if you don’t, you may be able to find discounts or tax credits to help cover the costs of health care.

Free dental insurance is harder to come by, but we found nine ways you can save money on dental and orthodontic care, including lots of ways to get free check-ups and braces for kids.

13. Get Free Baby Stuff When You Create Your Registry

Yes, creating a baby shower registry is a great way to get free stuff, because your friends will buy gifts for you. But you’ll get free stuff from the store just for signing up!

When you create registries at Babies R Us, Amazon and Target, you’ll get a free package of baby stuff and coupons for future discounts.

You can also use your health insurance to cover the cost of a breast pump, and connect with local moms to swap baby clothes, toys and other supplies.

Plus, check out our list of nine ways to get free diapers.

14. Online Fitness Classes Can Help You Work Out for Free

Work out for free by following YouTube channels that share free yoga and workout videos. If you don’t enjoy exercising solo, invite friends over for a regular DIY fitness class.

If there’s a Lululemon store near you, check out its events, which often include free in-person yoga and other fitness classes.

If your health and wellness goals include meditation, you can find free meditation classes and other resources through Shambhala.org.

15. Skip Car Ownership, and Use This Hack for Free Car Rental

Instead of spending money on a car payment, insurance and maintenance to own a vehicle, only pay for it when you need it. You can drive a Zipcar by the hour or with a membership for as low as $7 per month.

Like our Netflix trick, use a cash-back rewards credit card to earn back the cost of your membership, so your car use is effectively free.

16. Take Free Family Vacations to National Parks and Museums

The best vacations don’t have to cost a lot of money. Even with the whole family in tow, you can get through a fun trip on a budget.

Educate your kids (and yourself!) by taking advantage of free admission days at national parks and museums.

If you’re going far from home and don’t feel like camping, save money on accommodations by trying a housing exchange.

For a smaller group or a pair, try Couchsurfing.

Or just reach out to your network on Facebook. You’ll be surprised by how many of your friends might know someone who’s willing to host you in a new city!

17. Celebrate Your Birthday With Tons of Free Treats

The last thing you want to do on your birthday is spend a bunch of your own money. So we put together a huge list of places that will help you celebrate for free.

Check out these 100 birthday freebies to plan your next celebration.

18. Surf the Web on Free WiFi

Could you live without home internet service? It’s probably easier to survive than you think.

You can find free WiFi outside your home at local libraries, museums, hotels and coffee shops in any city. Even retail stores like Target and restaurant chains like McDonald’s and Perkins advertise their free WiFi for customers.

You can supplement with a data plan if you don’t want to be completely disconnected while you’re at home. Use the Karma mobile hotspot to earn free data by sharing it with the people around you.

19. Get Free Texts, Calling and a Phone Number With TextFree

As long as you’re getting free WiFi, why not ditch your phone plan? Plenty of services let you talk and text over WiFi for free.

You can use Facebook Messenger to message or call anyone who has a Facebook account. Similar but less common options include Google Hangouts, Snapchat or WhatsApp.

To get a real phone number for free calls and texts, use TextFree with an internet connection.

The service lets you send and receive unlimited texts to anyone, whether they have the app or not. Textfree-to-Textfree calls and any incoming calls are free. Outgoing calls to someone without TextFree will cost you.

If you want more freedom, sign up for (no pun intended…) a free cell service plan with FreedomPop.

20. Get a Free Cell Phone and Monthly Plan

What’s that? You need a phone on which to use all this free internet, texting and calling? We’ve got that covered, too!

You can get a steeply discounted phone, plus free service, through FreedomPop.

If you can’t afford that, you could qualify for a free phone and free cell or internet service through the government Lifeline program.

21. Get a Free Education Through Online Courses or These Colleges

A college degree might be an increasingly pricy commodity, but an education doesn’t have to be.

Get the same education as your high-paying peers by taking free online college courses. Build a course schedule to rival any institution’s by building your major on CourseBuffet.

Or you can actually earn your degree for free if you’re accepted to one of these nine colleges that pay or waive tuition for every student.

22. Use Free Software and Websites for Your Home or Office

Think you can’t work, study, create or connect with the world from home without paying the price? Don’t worry — we’ve found free apps for that, too!

If you’re not a Windows fan but don’t want to shell out the cost of a Mac computer, an open source operating system might meet your needs.

You can download and install Chromium OS (similar to Google’s Chrome OS) for free. The operating system is best for users who mostly want to browse the internet.

Regardless of your operating system, you can meet most of your computing needs with free software, apps or websites.

Check these out:

• For free word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and drawing, try Google Docs online or download the OpenOffice suite.

• For internet browsing, download the free Firefox or Google Chrome browsers.

• For photo editing and graphic design, use PicMonkey or Canva online.

• On your smartphone, use Over, Spark or Legend to create cool graphics for social media, and Line to edit photos.

23. Borrow Tools in Your Town Instead of Paying to Own Them

A proper set of tools can seriously improve your life… or be a huge burden. If you rent and move a lot, storing and transporting a heavy toolbox can be more of a pain than it’s worth.

Instead, try borrowing tools only when you need them. Plenty of national auto-parts retailers, like AutoZone and Advanced Auto Parts, let you borrow specialty tools for a refundable deposit to repair your car.

Your city might also have a tool lending library, where you can borrow everything from hammers to plumbing tools to circular saws for your home improvement projects.

More Free Stuff!

Want even more? Check out our giant list of 101 freebies for more ways to earn rewards and life-hack your way to free stuff.

And here are 30 of the best internet freebies we’ve ever found.

Your Turn: What everyday items do you never pay for? Share your tricks in the comments!

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff 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).

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