How I Bought School Supplies for My 2 Kids for Only $19.05

I’m always looking for ways to cut corners when shopping for my two daughters. And a recent shopping trip for back-to-school supplies was no different.

Is it me or do these school-supply lists get more ridiculous by the year? What 7-year-old needs six composition books? Or 150 gallon-sized trash bags?

Last year, I spent a little over $80 for my kids’ outrageous amounts of school supplies. I even made a point of not buying everything on their lists, just to see how long we’d make it without a teacher’s note home complaining about missing three-prong folders. (I never got a note.)

While families are expected to spend an average of $687.72 on back-to-school supplies this year, according to one study, I won’t be joining them.

I Bought My Kids’ School Supplies for Less Than $20

I recently discussed how I saved hundreds on back-to-school clothes by shopping in thrift stores as opposed to malls, and I followed a similar strategy for school supplies.

For only $19.05, I bought the following:

• six composition books

• two rulers

• two packs of writing paper

• one pack of multipurpose printing paper

• four packs of generic brand pencils

• two packs of 100 index cards

• two bottles of hand sanitizer

• six three-prong, two-pocket folders

• two boxes of Kleenex

• two boxes of trash bags

Here’s how I spent a fraction of the usual price.

I Didn’t Buy Everything on the List

While I made sure to buy most of the items, I didn’t buy everything.

For example, my 8-year-old’s third-grade school list called for nine composition books. Yes… nine. I simply could not justify a child having so many composition notebooks!

If she really needs more notebooks during the year, I’m sure I’ll hear about it from her teacher. Until that time comes (if it ever does), I’ll save my money by not buying all the items on the list.

I Recycled Supplies From Last Year

When I cleaned out my daughters’ book bags after the school year was over in June, I found plenty of barely used pencils, crayons and pens. I simply put them in a box, ready for the following year.

Recycling school supplies helped me find nearly half the items on my 7-year-old’s list right at home. I was able to cross off glue sticks, crayons, colored pencils, pencils, rulers, scissors and pencil boxes without leaving my living room.

I also made it a point to clean out their classroom desks when I volunteered on the last day of school. Besides the gunk build up, I found small packs of unused paper, binders and pens.

I Shopped at Smaller Stores

I knew everyone would be flooding to Walmart and I didn’t want to fight with other anxious moms trying to get everything on their lists.

Instead, I went to a less-crowded Dollar General within walking distance of my house. Most of the items I needed cost cents on the dollar without discounts. For example, I purchased three-prong folders for less than $0.20 each and a pack of 100 index cards for $0.38.

Other stores to check for school supplies include Family Dollar, Dollar Tree and Five Below.

I Looked for Coupons Before Leaving the House

Before heading to the store, I checked its website for any coupons or deals. Before heading to Dollar General, I saw it was giving customers an additional $5 off their purchases of school-supply purchases over $20. In fact, I just saw an OfficeMax commercial promoting their $0.01 sale on back-to-school folders!

Additionally, I took advantage of the tax-free weekend. Because I had to buy some household items with my school-supply shopping, my tax came to $0.60. If I need more supplies later in the year, I’ll be sure to purchase them on Black Friday!

School supplies will only get more expensive as my kids get older. I don’t look forward to purchasing $70 graphing calculators for their AP Calculus classes. All the more reason to take advantage of cheap school supplies while I can!

Monica Leftwich is a working mom and freelance writer who loves to discuss topics like women’s health and single parenting issues. When she’s not working, she’s eating sushi, making spaghetti and meatballs for her kids or belly dancing. Find her at monicaleftwich.com.

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.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2upGEZe

Save almost £700 a year on home appliances with these 10 lifestyle tips

With all the chatter and advertising about changing energy suppliers and obtaining better tariffs, there is hardly a soul in this nation who has not heard that they should change to a better deal.

Even though it should only take a few minutes of your time, many believe this is still too much hassle.

But there are other ways to save too, with just a few small changes to your everyday lifestyle. Plus, these also have an environmental benefit because you are reducing your carbon dioxide (CO₂) imprint.

1. Power shower

power-shower-web.jpg

 

Many of us love the feeling of hot water lashing our bodies but that’s not quite so pleasant when you look at how much money is flowing down the plughole. An average daily power shower usually lasts eight minutes and costs about 60p. Just think, if you reduced your time under the shower to four minutes, you will save around £110 per person/year (≡ 245kg of CO₂). For a family of four, that’s a massive saving of £440 per year.

You can also save 30% more by using a water efficient shower head. These combine air and water to give the same feeling but reduce water usage.

2. Tumble dryer

tumble-dryer-web.jpg

 

We know it’s tempting, but tumble dryers are one of life’s luxuries, and unless it is raining or too cold, the best option is to dry your clothes on an outside line or indoor drying rack.

A 2.5kw tumble dryer running for one-hour costs about 35p (150 times = £53 per year), so we say ditch the tumble dryer and save £53 per year (≡ 176kg of CO₂).

3. LED lighting

led-lighting-web.jpg

 

This one costs a little to set up but the financial benefits can be huge. Lighting accounts for around 15% of the energy bill in most homes. Changing to more efficient light bulbs is a very simple way to reduce these bills.  

In an average home, if you upgraded five x 50W halogen spotlights to five x 3.5W LEDs you could save £29 in the first year, considering the cost of buying the bulbs (≡ 130kg CO₂), £39 the second year and so on. The LEDs also last more than 10x longer than halogen bulbs, making you more savings.

A typical GU10 LED costs around £2 from Amazon.

We have calculated changing out 5 ordinary Halogen GU10s to LEDs, that means a £10 cost for bulbs and a reduction in savings in year 1, therefore £29.00 saving not £39.00

LEDs last 20,000 to 40,000 hours, halogens just 2,000 to 4,000 hours, so over the following 10 years the saving is £39 per year.

• How to save money on free trials… without getting burnt

4. Kettle

kettle-energy-web.jpg

 

An electric kettle uses a surprising amount of energy. By using a few simple money saving techniques, you can soon reduce your energy bills. 

Boil just enough water and you can start saving money. Boiling 1l of water costs around 1.8p, boiling one cup (385ml) of water costs around 0.7p. Based on five x one cup boils per day – the savings would be around £20 per year (≡ 69kg of CO₂).

5. Cooker

cooker-gas-web.jpg

 

An electric cooker can be a big drain on energy, but luckily there are several techniques to reduce your usage.

Changing the way you cook is a simple example. If you are cooking a stew in a 2kWh oven for one hour it costs around 28p. However, cooking the same stew in a slow cooker for eight hours will only cost around 10p.

Using a slow cooker twice a week, you could save £19 per year (≡ 64kg of CO₂).

You can also cut energy usage by 10% using a lid on pans, and cut wasted energy by up to 40% by using a pan size greater than the cooker ring size.  

6. Fridge / freezer

fridge-freezer-web.jpg

 

Fridges and freezers save us a small fortune on preserving food and drink, but maintaining the optimum temperature also helps save on energy bills.

The optimum temperature in a freezer is approximately -18C. However, if you set your freezer at -25C you can increase the electricity used by 10%. Reduce this to -18C and save £9 per year (≡ 30kg of CO₂).

For a fridge, the optimum temperature is 4C, if you have it much colder you are putting your money on ice.

• Eight ways to avoid online price hikes

7. Microwave

microwave-power-web.jpg

 

Microwave ovens can make a big difference to your cooking costs but it depends on what you cook. They are cost effective (compared to ovens and hobs) when heating meals, baking potatoes or even making fudge!

In a microwave, a typical 500g frozen meal costs just 2p to heat up. Compare that to a typical oven, which will cost 23p. Heat two frozen meals a week in the microwave and save about £22 per year (≡ 74kg of CO₂).

8. Portable heaters

portable-heater-web.jpg

 

Many houses still need some secondary heating to keep rooms nice and cosy. But make sure you pick the correct-sized heater for the room. ​

If you heat a room of 14m² with a heater of 1,600W it will cost about 89p for four hours​. However, if you heat the same with a heater of 1,200W it will cost around 67p for four hours for the same effect.

That could save you £20 over three winter months ​ (≡ 67kg of CO₂).

9. Computers

computer-laptop-web.jpg

 

In 2014, 52% of homes in the UK had a tablet, but despite the growing popularity of tablets, laptops are still the UK’s most popular type of computer, appearing in over 80% of homes.

Compared to many other appliances in your home, computers are not as expensive as you may think. However, a family of four could be running multiple units and then the bills ramp up.

Here, we show you a comparison of energy used and the cost to run three of the most common computer types at home:

• A desktop PC used for four hours per day costs about £24 per year (≡ 79kg of CO₂).
• A laptop used for four hours per day costs around £7 per year (≡ 24kg of CO₂).
• A tablet used four hours per day costs just £1 per year (≡ 3kg of CO₂).

So by swapping a desktop for a tablet you can save £23 per year (≡ 76kg of CO₂), and by swapping a laptop for a tablet you can save £6 per year (≡ 21kg of CO₂).

Of course, mobile phones are taking over for internet access and they use even less energy than tablets, a huge plus.

We should also be aware that our increasing obsession to be online, for internet access, for data transfer and data storage means a whole new industry of data centres has built up in recent years. These now account for 3% of greenhouse gases worldwide and this is increasing by 10% year on year.

• Top 20 money-saving websites

10. Televisions

television-energy-web.jpg

 

As we become more sedentary, sitting for longer in front of our TVs, we would expect an increase in energy consumption. However, manufacturers have made big advances to help reduce energy requirements.

A 42” Plasma TV watched for four hours a day costs up to £60 per year (≡ 205kg of CO₂), whereas a 42” LED TV may only cost £10 per year (≡ 34kg of CO₂) saving up to £50 per year
(≡ 171kg of CO₂).

Total savings:

If you made all our suggested changes, for a family of four you’d save about £686 per year and the equivalent to 1.84 tonnes of CO₂. That’s a lot of money for such minor changes to your lifestyle.

Tony Whittingham is director of EcoFrenzy.com, a non-commercial and not-for-profit organisation that helps you save money and the environment in everyday life by minimising waste, pollution and carbon dioxide output. 

Section

• Household finances
• Energy & water

Free Tag

• household bills
• energy
• energy switching

Related stories

• Moneywise Home Finances Awards 2017
• How to save money on free trials… without getting burnt
• Top 20 money-saving websites

Twitter

Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/2vmDx5s

SEO vs. PPC: Which Should You Focus on First?

Here’s the scenario.

You’re just launching your marketing campaign and want results.

Not only that, you want the most bang for your buck.

You want to make sure the time and money you’re putting in will bring a large volume of high-quality traffic primed to convert.

In other words, you want a rock solid ROI.

While there is a plethora of different avenues you can take, it often boils down to one of two choices: SEO or PPC.

Both are tried and true and will drive targeted leads to your site.

But which option makes the most sense for your campaign?

More importantly, which should you focus on first?

In this post, I highlight the pros and cons of each option, drawing on my personal experience.

By the end, you should know with certainty which path to take.

By the numbers

By now, I am sure you know I’m a huge fan of statistics and data in general.

I find I tend to make better choices when I take the emotion out of it and simply look at the numbers.

So, let’s take a look at some recent statistics from WebpageFX regarding both SEO and PPC.

2017 SEO Stats

• 93% of online experiences start with search engines
• 70% of clicked search results are organic
• 14.6% of all SEO leads close (as opposed to 1.7% of outbound leads)
• Google fields more than one trillion searches per year
• 89% of marketers say SEO is successful

2017 PPC Stats

• PPC visitors are 50% more likely to buy than organic visitors
• 65% of all high-intent searches result in an ad click
• Search ads increase brand awareness by as much as 80%
• 32% of companies use PPC to sell products directly to consumers
• On average, businesses earn $3 for every $1.60 spent on AdWords

Both of these strategies tote some impressive numbers.

If you plan and execute your campaign correctly, you will get qualified leads, and a reasonable number of those leads will convert.

And while the outcome is essentially the same, the way you get there is completely different, depending on the path you take.

Let’s now go over the pros and cons.

The advantages of SEO

Perhaps the biggest reason marketers choose SEO over PPC is its cost-effectiveness.

The bottom line is you’ll pay a lot more for your traffic with PPC than with SEO, especially if you handle it in-house.

Just look at what the average CPC is like for some of the top industries:

The legal industry is hands down the worst with a whopping $5.88 CPC.

It takes a sizable budget to get a PPC campaign up and running.

And if you’re new to the game, you have to deal with the inherent learning curve, which means it can take awhile to get your CPA and ROI to where you want them to be.

SEO is much cheaper and involves more of a time investment than a financial one.

If your marketing budget is minimal, SEO may be your only option.

Another benefit is the long-term results marketers tend to get.

Here’s a chart showing the difference in long-term performance between organic and paid traffic:

Notice that SEO starts off slowly initially, but over time it grows tremendously.

This makes SEO far more sustainable than PPC, potentially resulting in high-quality, organic traffic for years to come.

Finally, you’re likely to have a higher ROI with SEO.

Just think about it.

Every single click you get through PPC comes at a price.

The only way you can drive traffic to your site is to pay for it.

This inevitably diminishes your ROI.

But with SEO, it’s pretty much straight profit.

Because you’re acquiring your traffic organically, the returns are inevitably higher.

Even if you “take your foot off the gas,” you’re still going to drive traffic to your site.

This basically means free traffic.

The advantages of PPC

Hands down, the biggest advantage is the immediate surge in traffic you often get:

Right off the bat, you can bring qualified, ready to buy leads.

Better yet, you can specifically target keywords with buying intent.

This makes it perfect for new businesses with little to no brand equity.

PPC helps you drive traffic and boost your brand’s visibility in a hurry.

If you want nearly instant results and don’t have the luxury of waiting, PPC is your best option.

Another plus is the conversion rate.

While you may end up spending more overall, paid search results are 1.5x more likely to convert.

And this makes sense, considering advertisers can customize and optimize their ads and specifically target high-intent keywords.

I also think there are way more PPC opportunities today than in years past.

While Google AdWords has had and continues to have the lion’s share of business (almost 80% of companies focus on Google for PPC), there is now a buffet of other options available.

For instance, Bing Ads are starting to catch on, and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter offer paid advertising.

The bottom line is you’re not stuck with AdWords.

The downside of SEO

To be fair, it’s not all puppy dogs and rainbows all the time.

One of the top complaints marketers have with SEO is the fluctuation of search engine algorithms.

In fact, “40% of marketers say algorithm changes are the biggest challenges to SEO.”

Over the years, major updates, such as Panda and Penguin, have caused serious disruptions to the SERPs, and many marketers have felt the negative impact.

So it’s important to point out SEO isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it strategy.

It requires plenty of maintenance, and you need to stay updated on current trends.

Penalties

Just the thought of an ugly penalty is enough to make many SEO marketers squirm.

Just recently, some sites saw their traffic decline by as much as 90% with Google’s “Fred” update.

Not to freak you out, but penalties can happen even if you have the best intentions and would never dream of engaging in any black-hat SEO tactics.

The best way to keep your site safe is to always follow ethical, white-hat techniques and put emphasis on creating the best possible content rather than trying to capitalize on the next big thing in SEO.

I also recommend staying up-to-date on SEO trends, especially major algorithm updates.

It takes time to see results

If patience isn’t your strength, you may find the SEO process very frustrating.

It simply isn’t a strategy that will deliver major progress overnight.

I don’t care how experienced you are and how many epic backlinks you’re able to generate, you can’t expect instant miracles.

Simply getting Google to index your content can take a considerable amount of time.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how long it takes, but I’ve heard it could take up to four weeks for Google to index new content.

And it can easily take months before any real impact becomes evident, so you have to be in it for the long haul to thrive with SEO.

Reaching page one is no guarantee

What’s the primary goal of SEO marketers?

Get your content on page one for your targeted keyword phrase.

That’s the name of the game.

But this is obviously harder than it sounds, with no guarantees.

Even if you do everything right, there is a nearly infinite number of factors that determine where your content ends up in the SERPs.

And failing to reach page one is very disheartening because it’s almost like being invisible.

Considering “75% of users never scroll past the first page,” you won’t be raking in traffic if your content misses the mark.

If you want to quickly see how you’re ranking for various keywords, here’s how you check.

First, go to SEMrush.

Type in your URL.

Click on “Start now.”

Scroll down to “Top Organic Keywords” and click on “View full report.”

Check the position of the keywords you rank for:

The downside of PPC

I already mentioned PPC comes with much higher upfront costs.

And that’s usually the biggest issues marketers have.

Just take a look at some of the most expensive keywords at the moment:

“Insurance” is a ridiculous $54.91.

That’s insane!

And the scary thing is PPC costs are increasing.

As more and more marketers compete for traffic, most platforms are inevitably raising their prices.

Google AdWords can be especially cutthroat.

In some cases, the money you spend to acquire traffic will outweigh what you’re generating from sales.

If you’re a new startup with a shoestring budget, PPC may simply not be in the cards from a cost perspective.

Optimizing your ads can be difficult and time consuming

It’s not like you can just slap up some ads on a PPC platform and instantly get a high volume of highly targeted traffic.

Just learning the basics takes time.

Fully optimizing your ads to minimize your CPC and increase your CTR takes even longer.

It’s a fairly arduous process even for experienced marketers.

This means you may end up spending more than you should until you get the hang of things.

Your traffic ceases when your campaign ends

Here’s the real downer.

The second you stop funneling money into your PPC campaign, you bring zero traffic.

Of course, this means you’re also getting zero sales from PPC, which is definitely food for thought.

While other marketing tactics—such as SEO, social media, content marketing, etc.—require maintenance and upkeep, they should still drive traffic to your site even if you take a break.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with PPC.

To maintain your traffic and leads, you have to continually “stoke the fire,” putting money into your campaign.

Examining all the angles

At this point, I’ve covered the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of both SEO and PPC.

Like any other area of marketing, each has its pros and cons.

Before you commit to either, look at all the angles and figure out which strategy best matches your short-term and long-term needs.

When you should focus on SEO first

If you’re working with a small budget, PPC may not be feasible, so SEO is the obvious choice.

In this scenario, it’s about investing time rather than money into your marketing campaign.

It’s by no means an easy path, but you should eventually see a favorable ROI over time, and it may look something like this:

You’re looking for long-term sustainability

Here’s how I view SEO.

It’s like trying to get a huge boulder rolling.

There’s a lot of initial effort involved, but once in motion, it continues to gain momentum. After a while, it’s a force to be reckoned with.

To me, it’s well worth the effort.

As your campaign develops and your archive of optimized content grows, so will your traffic, leads and sales.

Staying the course in SEO is what has enabled me to bring in huge traffic for highly desired keywords like “content marketing.”

Sound SEO practices helped me outrank even Wikipedia for this term:

You don’t need instant results

As I mentioned earlier, SEO is all about the long-term vision.

It’ll take time to get legitimate results, especially if you’re a new brand.

But if you don’t need mega results right away and are more interested in the long game, SEO totally makes sense.

Here’s what you can expect by engaging in an SEO campaign:

The first month’s results are probably going to be pretty puny.

But things typically start to heat up at around the six-month mark.

That could be considered the tipping point.

If you’re in a position to wait a bit until big leads pour in, SEO is usually your best bet.

When you should focus on PPC first

The way I see it, a PPC-first campaign needs to have two components in place.

You should A) have a sizable budget and B) be looking for lightning quick results.

Once you launch your campaign, choose your keywords, choose your budget and set up your ads, you’re likely to get a significant influx of traffic.

Sometimes, this can happen in as fast as 24 hours.

Just like that, your brand is exposed to your target audience with minimal heavy lifting on your part.

As long as you follow best practices, you should see a favorable ROI with PPC.

Although it’s probably going to cost you more than it would with SEO, the payoff is much quicker, and you can save yourself a lot of time and energy.

If you choose to go the PPC route, I should point out you’re by no means stuck with Google AdWords.

Don’t get me wrong, AdWords is still viable and can definitely produce results.

But I’m seeing more and more marketers opt for Bing Ads these days because it’s less expensive than AdWords and can help marketers reach a different demographic.

And as you can see with this quick search for “camping tents,” there’s plenty of prime real estate for your ads on Bing.

Facebook now has a robust advertising platform as well, and with two billion monthly users, you’re practically guaranteed to reach your audience.

Check out this post I wrote to learn more about Facebook advertising.

For more ideas on alternatives to AdWords, refer to this guide from PPC Hero.

Conclusion

When a brand is initially launching its marketing campaign, two strategies that usually receive first consideration are SEO and PPC.

Both can get results, but they accomplish it in two very different ways.

SEO is all about planting a seed and waiting for the fruit to grow.

It takes awhile, but your brand can be positioned well once you gain favorable rankings in the SERPs.

The best part is the exponential growth many brands experience once they get over the SEO hump.

PPC, on the other hand, is all about an instant payoff.

It requires a larger upfront investment, but the results are almost immediate.

You can essentially go from being a no name brand with zero sales to crushing it with PPC overnight.

The only issue is it will cost you, and it lacks the sustainability of SEO.

I wish I could tell you which tactic is best for every single brand 100% of the time.

But things are seldom this black and white.

Choosing which tactic to focus on first depends on several variables and specific goals you have for your marketing.

However, examining the pros and cons, while looking at all the angles, should give you a good idea of what’s best for your brand.

If you were launching a new campaign, would you be more likely to go with SEO or PPC?

Source Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/2vjlPS0

Frugal? Cheap? Financially Independent? Minimalist? What’s the Difference?

During a recent interview I did for an article at CBS MoneyWatch, the reporter took the conversation in an interesting and unexpected direction. She wanted to hear how I defined some terms that are often used in my writing and in the personal finance writing of others.

The terms she fired off included frugal, cheap, minimalist, and financial freedom, and she particularly wanted to know what I felt the differences between the terms were.

It was a good question, one that left me pausing several times and giving slow answers as I tried to quickly piece together my thoughts. I’ve talked about “frugal” versus “cheap” in the past, but putting them in context with the other terms presented a new challenge, one that I felt offered some insight into how different people look at the challenge of spending less than they earn.

So, let’s break it down.

Frugal A person who is frugal is a person who is committed to making choices that result in spending less money, but the other consequences of those choices don’t have a significant negative effect on other aspects of their life. A frugal person tends to recognize that there are other resources in life – time, energy, friendship, love, health, contentedness – and that many money-saving tactics tend to draw so heavily on those other resources that they end up being a net negative overall.

A frugal person strives for solutions that have the best possible impact on all of life’s resources, with a strong but not complete focus on money. A frugal person, for example, might haggle for a lower insurance bill, but wouldn’t serve dried out bread to a friend. A frugal person might reuse a takeout container, but won’t invest the time to wash a flimsy sandwich bag. A frugal person is usually willing to make small sacrifices of their own resources – time, energy, and so on – to save money, but they generally won’t impinge on others to do so, nor will they sacrifice large quantities of their own resources to save money.

Cheap A cheap person is a person who is committed to the value of saving money to the extent that they accept some pretty strong negative ramifications in other aspects of their life. They’re quite willing to invest undue time or expend a ton of energy to save a dollar; they’re willing to give themselves a negative social stigma or to impinge on friendships in order to keep a few dollars in their checking account.

A cheap person strives for solutions that have the best possible impact on one’s dollars and cents, disregarding the impact on life’s other resources. A cheap person will serve stale bread to a friend because the stale bread is free. A cheap person will demand to do the least expensive thing when in a social situation, regardless of what anyone else in the group thinks. A cheap person will spend an afternoon repairing a $2 piece of equipment. To me, cheap has a negative connotation, as it refers to a person who often doesn’t consider the value of their time, their energy, or the friendship and goodwill of others.

Minimalist A minimalist person, on the other hand, strives to minimize one’s physical possessions and, typically, personal commitments, in order to live a more flexible life. Such a practice enables a person to live in smaller quarters if he or she chooses, to easily travel and move at a moment’s notice, to spend less time on housework and possession upkeep, and to thus have more free time and less stress brought on by managing possessions and commitments.

Often, minimalism overlaps with frugality, because minimalism often results in spending substantially less money on possessions. In general, minimalists tend to have a smaller number of possessions, but the ones they do have are well made and long lasting.

A minimalist strives for solutions that result in less time and energy spent on upkeep. A minimalist tends toward having fewer possessions and spends little money on acquiring new ones, though when a minimalist does acquire a new possession, it’s usually well researched and well made and can often be expensive. A minimalist applies the same approach to things such as financial accounts, friendships, business relationships, and so on – they tend to prefer a smaller number of higher quality elements in their life and strive to spend very little time on the rest. A minimalist tends to spend very little on housing compared to the average person and relies on public spaces for most interactions with other people. A minimalist philosophy tends to be drawn from other places besides personal finance, but the results of such a philosophy tend to have a great positive impact on one’s finances.

Financially Independent A person striving for financial independence (or financial freedom) has a primary goal of reaching a point where the income from their investments pays for their living expenses, and arriving at that “crossover point” as quickly as possible. That person is likely to draw a lot of tactics from frugal people and perhaps some from minimalists, but also tends to have a strong career focus as their drive to financial independence is pushed along by having a healthy income.

A person striving for financial independence is focused on achieving the widest gap possible between their spending and their income and prefers solutions that maximize that gap. People focused on financial independence are something of a subgroup of frugal people and of cheap people, depending on how much they value financial independence compared to social status and relationships. However, rather than simply having an aim of conserving resources, financial independence people are also focused on strongly propping up their salaries, because they’re truly interested in the gap between income and spending, not just lowering spending.

Here’s how I look at the four groups.

The other three groups borrow tactics from the frugal person. The frugal person here is kind of the baseline person that everyone else borrows ideas from. I basically view the frugal person as being the “overlap” of the other three perspectives, as the frugal person can swap ideas with all of them. A person committed to just frugality won’t use some ideas that the other three people might share, but most of the ideas that a frugal person has can be used by the other three.

However, the four groups are close enough in philosophy that they can likely share a lot of ideas with one another. All of them are, in the end, interested in conserving resources, of which money is a particularly notable one. The frugalista has things to learn from the minimalist, and vice versa. The financial independence person can learn a lot from the cheapskate, and vice versa. The trick is that each person has a “filter” in place to toss out the incompatible tactics from the other person.

Only the “cheap” person really has a negative social impact. The other three tend to put significant value on maintaining friendships and avoiding social negatives, for various reasons. The frugal person tends to account for the impact on things such as relationships when deciding if a tactic is worthwhile. The minimalist rarely makes decisions with negative social impact. The financial independence person usually sees relationships as a source of positive value that can be used to increase the gap between income and spending, so they’ll cultivate relationships rather than alienating them. It is only the cheapskate, valuing money above all else, who makes spending choices that can alienate others socially.

I identify myself as frugal leaning toward financial independence. I think that, at a different stage in my life, I would have committed hard to minimalism, and I still borrow some tactics from there, but I would not call myself a minimalist. I am not interested in being “cheap,” at least not as I define it above.

Because of that, I match well with frugal readers and financial independence readers, while other readers who may be cheapskates or minimalists will find some significant value but may have to filter ideas. That’s because we’re all built differently! We don’t have exactly the same values or goals, and some tactics work well for some but don’t work as well for others. A career-oriented person might find a lot of value in career tactics, for example, while a retired frugal person might not find much value at all.

The key is to find people you trust and know how to filter what they’re saying into what works for you. A person who subscribes strongly to minimalism is going to be able to find some real value talking to a person into financial independence, but not everything the financial independence person offers will be of value. The key is to know how to filter and also to know that the other person is trustworthy and offering genuine thoughts and ideas. You don’t have to do everything that the other person does; just borrow what works for you!

Whether you’re a frugal person or a cheapskate or a minimalist or a person seeking financial independence, you likely have plenty of overlap with the other folks and, with a bit of intuition, you can figure out what strategies work best for you and which ones can be skipped over. It’s through talking to people looking at the same problems from a different viewpoint that we can sometimes find the best solutions for ourselves that we didn’t see before.

Good luck!

The post Frugal? Cheap? Financially Independent? Minimalist? What’s the Difference? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar http://ift.tt/2vixnF4

29 Very Real Thoughts We’ve All Definitely Had While Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping is one of those things you either love or hate.

And I tend to hate it.

I always have to squeeze the necessary chore into my evenings, which I’d rather spend on my couch with my cat. And I always, always forget what I went for, which requires me to return that same night or the following day.

The worst part is when I run into someone I know — or knew. It’s always when I’m the least presentable, and I just imagine them telling their family later on: “Wow. She’s really gone downhill. You wouldn’t believe it.”

I was just trying to get some bread and milk. Jeeze.

29 Thoughts You’ve Probably Had While at the Grocery Store

To capture the never-ending frustration that is the grocery store, I put together a list of very real thoughts that run through my (or my co-workers’) heads while slogging through the cold aisles.

1. Cart or basket, cart or basket? Basket. It’ll encourage me to buy less.

2. Mmmm… that fried chicken smells so good. Nope. Focus. Vegetables.

3. Shoot. I forgot my shopping list again. Let’s see what I can regurgitate…

4. Why does every grocery store put the bakery next to the produce? Yes, I’ll take freshly baked carrot cake over carrots any day.

5. I’m not a kid, nor do I have one, but can I get one of those free cookies? Please? I’ve had a rough day.

6. Gosh, why do I always fail to eat before grocery shopping? Even that cantaloupe looks appetizing…

7. Why didn’t I just get a cart? I always need a cart.

8. Did I go to high school with that kid?

9. Yup. I didn’t need anything in the aisle anyways…

10. Oh, I love this song! *starts dancing*

11. What ever happened to those coupon machines we played with as kids?

12. Are rice cakes actually this expensive? They’re basically cardboard…

13. Why in the heck am I paying $22 a gallon for goat’s milk?

(OK, let me explain that one. I polled my co-workers about thoughts they have while at the grocery store. One of our web developers confessed this one, and we’ll forever be wondering why he pays $22 a gallon for goat’s milk, too.)

14. Ugh, seriously? Why do I see everyone I know when I don’t put on real clothes?

15. Crap. The only two coupons I managed to cut are sitting on the kitchen counter.

16. *Hides in vacant aisle and takes out phone* Time to search Ibotta for some cash-back offers.

17. Hmm… I wonder how long I’m going to have to wait for someone tall to come help me reach this jar of peanut butter?

18. Related: Why do they stock back pain medicine on the bottom shelf?

19. WHY CAN I NEVER FIND THE HONEY?!

20. How am I going to fit all these BOGO frozen pizzas in my freezer?

21. Note to self: Remember to wear a bra the next time I venture down the frozen food aisles…

22. Hmm… which checkout line is going to be the fastest? I’ll race this woman.

23. Is this man in front of me really buying $800 worth of groceries? (This actually happened to me once. I had two items in my hand.)

24. Now he’s going to argue about this expired coupon?

25. HE’S WRITING A CHECK?!

26. CRAP. I forgot my reusable bags again. I’m an awful human. Please don’t judge me.

27. Why, yes, I’d love help out to the car. In fact, can you just come home with me and put these groceries away for me, too?

28. *Walking out the door* Crap. I forgot to get my prescription. That’s why I came here in the first place.

29. I guess I’ll come back tomorrow.

7 Ways to Avoid These Uncomfortable Feelings

OK, I probably sound like a crazy person at this point, but honestly, the grocery store is a pretty lousy place to spend your evening.

But do you have any other choice?

You do, actually.

There are tons of ways to order your groceries and get them delivered right to your door. Plus, you can save tons of money by doing this if you use the right platform.

Let me break down a few online grocery options for you.

1. Go Organic with Thrive Market

If you opt for organic, Thrive Market might be your new best friend.

The online grocery store offers only organic, healthy products — from Justin’s almond butter to essential oils. They’re all discounted, too, so you can save a good bit of money.

If you haven’t experienced Thrive yet, you can get a 30-day free trial through this link and 20% off your first three orders. After that, you’ll pay $59.95 for a full year, which helps Thrive keep prices down and pass on the organic savings to you.

Thrive members report saving an average $200 a year — a pretty good deal for a healthier diet! If you don’t make your membership fee back in savings by the end of the year, Thrive automatically gives you the difference in Thrive Market credit after you renew.

2. Add More Items to Your Car With Jet

This online shopping platform is fun because the more you add to your cart, the more discounts you get. You just need to know when to stop…

We put together a hypothetical cart for you here. You’ll see all the discounts you can get on essentials, including nearly $6 off Folgers coffee.

Shipping is free if your order is over $35.

3. Go Bulky With Sam’s Club

If you like to buy in bulk, look into ordering groceries from Sam’s Club.

Peruse a number of categories from fresh or organic food to barbecue must-haves. You can opt to pick the groceries up in store or have them delivered to your door via UPS or FedEx.

Remember, you’ll need to have a membership, which is $35 a year.

4. Amazon Sells Everything, Duh

It’s no surprise that Amazon is already dominating the grocery business (even before this takeover of Whole Foods).

Navigate over to Amazon Fresh, where you can search for anything and everything — even fresh produce and deli meat.

Sure, it’s convenient, but it’ll also cost you a pretty penny. You’ll have to pay for a Prime membership if you don’t have one already (psst… here’s a discount) as well as Amazon Fresh, an additional $14.99 per month. In total, that’ll be $25.98 a month.

The service is only available in select cities now, so stay tuned if you’re willing to splurge.

5. Pick Up Your Groceries from Walmart

Do your grocery shopping online through Walmart Grocery. Then, schedule your pick-up time.

Yeah, yeah… you’ll have to leave the house and go to Walmart for this option, but you don’t have to leave your car if you don’t want; someone will load the groceries for you.

Find out if Walmart Grocery is available in your area. If not, other grocery stores are adopting this practice, so just look into your regional favorite.

6. Try a Food-Delivery Kit

If groceries aren’t your thing, period, and you can’t afford to hire a personal cook, try a food-delivery kit like Hello Fresh.

You can opt in for three, four or five meals a week. You’ll get a box of the farm-fresh ingredients right to your door. Then, all you’ve got to do is whip it up. (It comes with specific directions, so don’t panic.)

You can get $35 off your first order.

Not into HelloFresh? We tried (and compared) a few other food delivery kits, too.

7. Get Your Prescriptions Delivered to Your Door

Honestly, thought No. 28 is me all the time. And there’s no way you can run to the market down the road or just get it tomorrow if your prescription ran out.

You’ve got to go back, and you’ll probably have to wait in line.

However, prescription delivery services are becoming more and more popular. Using a site like Phil allows you to not only compare prices but it also alleviates the pain of going back and forth between your pharmacy, doctor and insurance company.

Then, you’ll get your prescriptions when you need them right to your door — with free delivery.

If you want to give the service a try, you can get $20 off your first order now.

Now, you can stop worrying about running into that long lost love you’d hoped you’d never see again or getting stuck behind that guy who won’t give up on checks already…

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her favorite part of going to the grocery store is leaving it.

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.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2up9kFA

YouTube Makes Cooking Delicious Food Easy for Those With Diet Restrictions

If you worry your cooking skills aren’t as good as they could be, don’t. I mean, unless you do stuff like this.

With a little practice, most people can whip up a basic dish of food. But throw in a dietary consideration or two, and it’s easy to toss in the spatula and give up.

Don’t get flummoxed.

Here are the best YouTube cooking channels, playlists and videos with easy and delicious diabetic-friendly, halal, kosher, vegan and vegetarian recipes — plus dozens of cooking hacks you won’t want to miss.

Diabetic-Friendly Recipes

Diabetics typically have to give up sweets, bread, rice and many other foods to keep their blood sugar under control. These videos prove there are lots of ways to jazz up a menu, even if it doesn’t include a fancy risottos or sugary dessert.

1. Yummy Inspirations: 7 Low Carb Breakfast Without Eggs Ideas

Low-carbohydrate breakfasts typically revolve around eggs, but that can get boring quickly. These eggless breakfasts, which include strawberry cheesecake mousse and breakfast tacos, will make you scramble for the kitchen — whether you need to avoid eggs or not.

2. Diabetic Survival Kit: Secrets to Great Vegetables

Forget everything you know about piles of overcooked, mushy beans or peas. The key to tasty vegetables is all in the preparation. Follow along as home cook Tova uses asparagus to demonstrate how to properly blanch and saute vegetables.

3. Hilah Cooking: Cooking for Diabetics

Low-carb cooking doesn’t have to mean a low-interest menu. These videos teach viewers how to make stuffed jalapenos, chicken satay with peanut sauce and 15 other flavor-bomb dishes.

Halal Recipes

Halal cooks adhere to specific Islamic dietary guidelines. Abstaining from ingredients like pork and alcohol means there’s more room on a plate for the delicious food demonstrated in these videos.

1. Halal Chef: Chicken Wings 3 Ways

This chef doesn’t shy away from bold flavors and big spices. In less than five minutes, you’ll learn how to make three types of halal chicken wings —  spicy grilled, crispy fried and Korean-style — that will leave you coming back for more.  

2. Chef Yusuf: Ramadan 2012

Chef Yusuf begins his series of over 20 cooking videos with a collection of tips on how to save money and reduce waste while shopping and cooking for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. He even includes a formula so viewers can calculate exactly how many ounces of protein, vegetables and starch per person. Come for the math, stay for the instructional cooking videos.

3. Shamsa: Sweet Treats

If it’s halal desserts you’re after, home cook Shamsa has over 15 recipes to choose from. Make four-ingredient bounty bars or dairy-free strawberry ice cream when you’re in a hurry, or the gulab jamun when you’ve got time to make something a little more indulgent.

Gluten-Free Recipes

There’s gluten in many common foods like cake, cookies, pasta and bread. These flavor-packed recipes keep your taste buds entertained and your food gluten-free.

1. Mind Over Munch: 44 Gluten-Free Recipes

There’s so much to love about this series of gluten-free recipe videos. It has a lot of options for people with a combination of dietary considerations like gluten- and alcohol-free or gluten-free and low-carb. If you’re throwing a theme party, you’ll definitely want to check out Mind Over Munch for Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day and Star Wars recipe ideas.

2. America’s Test Kitchen: Learn to Cook: Gluten-Free Baking on America’s Test Kitchen Online Cooking School

Gluten-free cooking isn’t especially complicated, but it can be tricky until you get the hang of it. America’s Test Kitchen helps home cooks tackle one of the most challenging aspects of gluten-free cooking: baking.

3. Bhavna’s Kitchen: Gluten-Free Recipes from Bhavna’s Kitchen

With over 150 videos, Bhavna demonstrates the diversity of gluten-free dining. She cooks traditional Indian dishes, along with Chinese, Italian, Mexican, American and fusion cuisines. Bhavna also includes recipes for basics like stir-fried mushrooms and jarred salads, so there’s something in this collection for everyone.   

Kosher Recipes

Kosher cooks prepare food in accordance with Jewish dietary laws. These videos are filled with a spectrum of kosher recipes to serve on holidays or just an average Tuesday.

1. Joy of Kosher: Hanukkah Joy

This 11-video series includes Hanukkah recipes for chicken and latke dishes along with a variety of options for donuts. There’s even a bonus video on how to decorate your holiday table. Don’t miss the hands-on lesson at Israel’s Biscotti Bakery on how to make deep-fried Hanukkah delicacy sufganiyot.

2. Avi’s Kosher Kitchen: Avi’s Passover Recipes

Luscious lamb chops, slow-roasted rib roast and Jamaican turkey are all on chef Avi Levy’s holiday feast menu. Be sure to check out his video on special liqueurs and instructions on how to make a “L’Chiam Cosmopolitan” to wow your guests with some posh adult beverages.

3.  Kosherdotcom: Shortcuts by Mishpacha Family Table    

You know this is a promising series when the first video is called “Oreos Are Just Better Fried.” Mixing a dash of humor with a whole lot of great information, Kosherdotcom offers kosher cooking instructions, tips, hacks and recipes for new and seasoned chefs alike.

Vegan Recipes

Vegan cooking is healthy, fresh and easily adaptable to any type of cuisine. Check out these videos for ideas on everything from pasta to stir-fry.

1. Cheap Lazy Vegan: Easy Vegan Recipes for Lazy People

You can whip together these three vegan recipes from Canadian food blogger Rose in 15 minutes or less, and they don’t require any complicated ingredients or appliances. When Rose says these recipes are perfect for lazy people, she means it.

2. Anarchist Kitchen: 9 Vegan Pasta Recipes

Although the cook isn’t a strict vegan, he sure understands how to make yummy vegan fare. These recipes make single portions but are easily doubled or tripled if you’re cooking for a group. Since they’re all pasta-based, they’re also easy on your wallet.    

3. Veganlovlie: 3 Easy Delicious Recipes Using Peanut Butter  

Each of these vegan recipes would be delicious on their own, but you can make them together for a meal that really shines. The appetizer dip, one-pot soup and creamy mousse are perfect for lunch or a light dinner. If you’re avoiding peanut butter, be sure to check out the suggested alternatives in the video’s description.

Vegetarian Recipes

Vegetarians enjoy a wide array of plants, seeds, nuts and fruits that form the basis of tasty meals that can be as elaborate or easy as you like. Some of the recipes in these videos use only fresh ingredients, and others show you how to whip a dish together using meat or dairy substitutes.  

1. Jamie Oliver: 17 Vegetarian Recipes  

As a celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver knows a thing or two about flavorful recipes. From chili and Italian eggplant stew to egg frittatas and vegetable curry, there’s something on this list to please every palate. Since Oliver is passionate about healthy cooking, you can be sure his recipes are as good for you as they are delicious.

2. Bachelor on a Budget: Vegetarian Recipes for Beginners

Marlon Doll’s list of 47 vegetarian recipes include basic snacks with just two ingredients and fare with longer lists of steps and spices or the occasional meat substitute. Doll is an informative and entertaining home cook who twirls a pepper grinder like nobody’s business.

3. Heghineh Cooking Show: 87 Vegetarian Meals

When you’re ready to move on to advanced vegetarian cooking, home cook Heghineh has you covered. She teaches you how to make Armenian dishes like vegetarian dolma (stuffed grape leaves), olive tapenade, fattoush salad and a ton of other yummy Mediterranean cuisine.

Cooking Hacks

Every cook has their favorite kitchen trick to make meal prep more quick, efficient or fun. These videos contain so many clever cooking hacks you’re sure to find at least one you never thought of.

1. Clicknetwork: Cooking Hacks — Hack It: Episode 6

Host Rebecca Tan walks you through a batch of cooking hacks covering everything from peeling garlic and getting its smell off your hands to chopping onions without crying all over your cutting board. I really love Rebecca’s genius technique for easily getting skin off potatoes, but you may want to take a pass on defrosting meat with a pan of hot water. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a better idea.

2. How To Make Sushi: 35 Amazing Cooking Hacks.

Sushi chef Davy Devaux walks viewers through a batch of clever cooking tips, including how to peel kiwi, make rainbow spaghetti and get a little juice out of a lemon without sacrificing the entire piece of fruit. There’s also a particularly weird (but fun!) trick involving a pepper mill and a power drill.

3. 5-Minute Crafts: 20 Cooking Hacks That Are Actually Genius

This cool video compilation tackles ideas like quick-cooking omelettes in a bag, constructing a DIY lemon juice sprayer, a super smart way to separate pomegranate juice from seeds and how to preserve the ends cut of a cucumber or zucchini.

Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s so hungry right now she’s about to eat her laptop.

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.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2vOSpga

Embrace the Grind: How 2 Guys Turned a College Idea Into a Growing Business

When Ali Kothari and Johnny Fayad launched their business as freshmen at Northeastern University, they had two goals: Get into the local Shaw’s grocery store — and sell a million of their coffee bars.

Four years, a new name and a few new employees later, they’ve smashed both.

Fayad and Kothari have both gotten their diplomas, and Eat Your Coffee is now in 1,000 stores — more than triple the 300 they had when we met the pair in 2016. Deals with Texas-based H-E-B grocery stores and and midwest retailer Meijer drove that expansion.

Now with Vice President of Marketing Kate Prince, whom they hired last summer, on board, they are seeing growth most entrepreneurs only dream about.

Oh yeah, and they’re all under 30 years old.

“Now what’s exciting is we’re able to dedicate 100% of our time to the company,” said Kothari, noting that while in school they had to at least show up for class to get the attendance points.

And now they’re thinking outside the bar.

But First — How the Heck Can You Eat Coffee?

Yes, coffee is a liquid. I’m a smart guy, so I know these kinds of things.

Kothari and Fayad found that in the rush to catch an 8 a.m. class (ah, college, when 8 a.m. was considered early), it just took too long to brew up a cup of joe and eat the most important meal of the day.

So in 2013, they combined the two — coffee and breakfast — into CoffeeBars and launched New Grounds Foods, which was the company’s original name, in Boston with the help of a $500 prize from the Husky Startup Challenge.

The pair used Kickstarter, which has become crucial to their business model, to raise more than $44,000 in less than two months.

Right now, Eat Your Coffee pays BumbleBar, an organic protein bar manufacturer based in Spokane, Washington, to produce its three flavors of CoffeeBars: Mocha Latte, Coconut Mocha and Caramel Macchiato. The last production run resulted in nearly 100,000 bars, Kothari said.

How These Young Entrepreneurs Are Handling Major Growth

Though Eat Your Coffee still operates at a loss, Fayad said he’s close to wrapping a $1 million round of funding from investors who want to get in at the ground floor of their business.

“Honestly, I attribute a lot of that growth to the product,” said Fayad.

But the company’s growth is also rooted in the knowledge the pair picked up along the way. Although Fayad made and sold longboards when he was younger, and Kothari watched his father start a half dozen business growing up, neither one of them had experience with a major manufacturing operation.

Prince, the relatively new hire, is by far the most experienced one of the group. She’s 29 years old, while Kothari is 22 and Fayad 23. She spent six years at General Mills before she was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.

“We made a lot of mistakes the first year learning to navigate the sales process,” Fayad said. “Obviously we’re still making mistakes and still learning, but we’re doing a lot better.”

Despite the company’s success, growing pains have cropped up for the young entrepreneurs.

In May, Eat Your Coffee (then New Grounds Foods) had a deal to supply H-E-B with CoffeeBars, but a misforecast led to them not having enough bars to stock the Texas grocery stores.

“Production is probably one of the larger issues we face, primarily from the forecasting side,” says Kothari, the financial quant of the the company.

They still landed the contract, but the memory of that challenge won’t go away soon.

But the wins keep coming, as all three of the top executives point to the Meijer deal as one of the highs of running a startup during a massive growth phase.

“We kind of took risk launching there, we didn’t know how it would be received,” Fayad said. “It ended up turning out really well.”

Thinking Outside the Bar… and the (Big) Box (Retailer)

The company is at a major crossroads right now, as it’s currently undergoing a complete re-branding effort along with its fundraising round.

But, in the company’s immediate future, it’s going back to a model that sparked the growth Eat Your Coffee is seeing today: another Kickstarter campaign.

To help pay for production of a new flavor, the firm will ask backers to pony up $20,000 in the newest crowdfunding effort.

For now, they’re sticking to their core product, but Prince said they have a big vision for expanding into other areas of the grocery store.

“We’re definitely looking to expand beyond that aisle,” said Prince, noting the company will rely on its brand image to move into other snacking area — think granolas, cereals or bite-sized versions of the original bar. “After we feel we have a brand that can stand on its own, that’s when we’ll start looking at other categories.”

Alex Mahadevan is a data journalist at The Penny Hoarder. He prefers his coffee in liquid form.

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.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2vODqmh

Life Lessons Anyone Can Learn from a Lousy Job

If you’ve ever worked in a job that feels unrewarding, you already know how draining and soul-sucking it feels to spend hours wishing you were somewhere else. Perhaps you’ve stared out the window, wishing you could walk out the door just to feel the sunshine. Maybe you’ve hid in a break room and cried, or been cussed out a time or two.

You’ve probably asked yourself, “How did I get here?” at least once, while pondering your choices in life. The thing is, it’s quite possible you did nothing wrong to wind up in a job that steals your soul. Actually, I would even argue that challenging jobs are a part of life – a part of our transition into who we were meant to be.

Heck, it’s possible you even like your job for the most part. Maybe you just want some time away from home, and find that a simple retail job lets you earn extra cash without too much hassle or stress. Or maybe you need to work nights and find that waiting tables is the most lucrative option available. Maybe you’re just happy to have any job at all, so you approach your job from a place of gratitude instead of contempt.

I feel like I’ve experienced all of those feelings at one time or another. I’ve worked in unrewarding jobs that were actually fun, along with terrible jobs I couldn’t wait to escape. I’ve also worked in plenty of jobs I hated, but which I had to drag myself to, because I desperately needed the money.

In the 20 years since I entered the working world, I have cleaned houses, cleaned hotel rooms, worked as a telemarketer, waited tables, taken care of adults with disabilities, worked in fast food, worked in professional jobs that were overwhelming and unrewarding, and become self-employed.

Fortunately, I can look back now and see the value in each of these jobs. While I hated cleaning houses sometimes, it was a great way to earn $25+ per hour during my spare time. And while I didn’t enjoy waiting tables every moment, waitressing was a flexible job I could do while in school.

Five Lessons Anyone Can Learn From an Unrewarding Job

Once you have some runway behind you, it’s a lot easier to stop being angry and start seeing your worst job experiences as miniature learning opportunities. Here are a few lessons anyone can learn from a job they don’t love:

Lesson #1: You control how you treat other people.

Some of the worst jobs require you to work with people you’d rather not be around. If you actually liked everyone you worked with, it might not be so bad. But, alas, it seems like all the cool people must be working somewhere else.

Fortunately, co-workers we can’t stand tend to impart some of the most important lessons – like how we should treat other people.

Awful co-workers are memorable like that — just not in a good way.

When I worked at a Subway restaurant during high school, my “boss” was the worst. I was only 16 years old, yet I distinctly remember her trying to extort $30 from each Subway employee to replace a stolen food scale.

I didn’t steal it, so I wasn’t giving her a dime. That pissed her off big time, and she took it out on me by berating me every chance she had.

Even though I was only a teenager, I knew it was wrong to ask a kid to pay $30 to replace equipment. I was making less than $5 per hour, after all (this was in 1996)!

It’s been more than 20 years since this happened, but I still remember the resentment I felt at a time when I was working hard to earn spending money. And I vowed that I would never treat someone else that way.

Lesson #2: You learn to set boundaries for how other people treat you.

Crappy co-workers + service job = negative work experiences. When you hate your job and everyone you work with feels the same, pretty much everyone is crabby and ready to snap.

While you might have to endure bullying and a less-than-stellar work environment when you’re barely scraping by, you can learn a lot about yourself in the process.

An intentionally hateful boss can teach you what you’re unwilling to put up with at your next gig. That co-worker who constantly makes fun of your hair or clothes? They’ll make you want to stick up for yourself so bad that, next time, you’re prepared.

But you can even learn how to let other people treat you in a good way.

Case in point: One experience that has stuck with me is the time I was cussed out while waiting tables at Outback Steakhouse. I accidentally screwed up two people’s orders, and they both received their different steaks (prime rib and filet) cooked the opposite way they wanted. The husband and wife tore into me, making a scene big enough to attract my manager over.

I still remember my manager’s words. “Get out,” he told them. “We don’t serve people who treat our employees this way. Leave and never come back.”

The surrounding tables of guests, who were overwhelmingly appalled by the couple’s outbursts, started clapping.

I learned a few valuable lessons from the ordeal. For starters, I would never let anyone yell at me the way the couple did again, no matter the circumstances. Second, I didn’t deserve to be treated that way, as evidenced by my manager’s stellar response. And third, voicing support for a fellow coworker or employee can go a long way.

Lesson #3: Learn how to hustle.

It can vary from job to job, but some extra hustle in certain jobs can absolutely pay off. If you work in food service and wait tables, for example, you can boost your income by upping your game. The faster and better your service – and the more tables you can turn over – the more money you’ll (usually) make.

But, even if there’s no financial incentive to work hard, many jobs still require you do anyway. Bad jobs are usually grueling or uncomfortable in some way, right?

The good news is, working harder can make the time pass faster, which can help you get the hell out of there that much sooner. And if you work hard enough for long enough, you can improve your work ethic so much that there’s no going back: You’ll be a hustler for life.

So, when you move up into a better position, you’ll really be able to shine.

• Related: Eight Reasons Everyone Should Work in Food Service at Least Once

Lesson #4: Hard work + education = options.

Working a mind-numbing job can be fun enough when you’re young, but it gets o-l-d when you get into your 20s and 30s and realize nothing will change unless you do. There’s nothing like hating your job and realizing you have at least 30 more years of it ahead of you before you can quit.

The good news is, most terrible jobs are short-term positions – the kind you take when you’re young, inexperienced, and need to learn how to survive in a traditional work environment. You schlep in every day, learn all you can, then try tirelessly to find something that will leave you happier and more fulfilled.

If you work hard, apply yourself, and improve your career skills, your time spent in a job you hate should soon be in the past. The more valuable you can make yourself to an employer, the less likely you’ll have to work in a job that makes you absolutely miserable.

Stuck in a crappy job? Keep working hard and absolutely keep your head up. With enough time and some luck, you should be able to graduate to something better soon.

Lesson #5: You can make a difference.

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by Emily Esfahani Smith, author of The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters, shared details on how virtually any job a person can hold can have meaning if they want it to. As Esfahani Smith notes, the four most common jobs in the U.S. are salesperson, cashier, food preparer/waiter, and office clerk – all jobs that many would deem trivial.

The thing is, any one of these positions can absolutely carry meaning if the person who holds it approaches their work in a thoughtful way. Why? As Esfahani Smith notes, these jobs – and many like them – exist to serve others.

Esfahani Smith says one of the best ways to find meaning in any job is to connect with customers on a deeply personal level. For example, as a waiter, consider that you may be helping a couple celebrate their anniversary.

Another tip is to constantly remind yourself of your company’s mission and the role you play within that greater purpose, however ancillary it may be:

“There’s a great story about a janitor that John F. Kennedy ran into at NASA in 1962. When the president asked him what he was doing, the man said, ‘I’m helping put a man on the moon.'”

Adopting a service mindset that fosters positive feelings can also help you enjoy your work more, no matter the job. “Not everyone finds their one true calling. But that doesn’t mean we’re doomed to work meaningless jobs,” writes Esfahani Smith. “If we reframe our tasks as opportunities to help others, any occupation can feel more significant.”

The Bottom Line

Soul-sucking jobs don’t have to last forever, nor should they. If you’re not happy with where you’re at, the best thing you can do is invest in yourself and learn new skills so you can try something new, take a chance, or just have more options altogether. But you can improve your outcome in the short-term, too, if you learn to look at your work in a different way.

While some jobs can feel awful at the time, they can still teach us a lot about ourselves – but only if and when we’re willing to pay attention.

Holly Johnson is an award-winning personal finance writer and the author of Zero Down Your Debt. Johnson shares her obsession with frugality, budgeting, and travel at ClubThrifty.com.

Related Articles:

• What to Do When a Job Becomes Miserable
• The Difference Between a Job and a Career
• How to Negotiate Salary and Juggle Job Offers

What lessons have you learned from a crappy job? What would you add to this list?

The post Life Lessons Anyone Can Learn from a Lousy Job appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar http://ift.tt/2uobb9J

Lending Crowd

Section

Investing

Image

URL

http://ift.tt/2vMZInG

Background color

#ffffff

Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/2hJJ9DW