MAKE MONEY ONLINE POSTS

السبت، 14 نوفمبر 2015

Sanofi proposes expansion

A proposed 100,000-square-foot flu vaccine building addition at Sanofi Pasteur will generate 100 additional employees at the corporation’s Swiftwater site, according to plans submitted to the Pocono Township Planning Commission.The plan calls for building a three-story production building near the intersection of routes 611 and 314 where 600,000 eggs per day will be processed for flu vaccine, according to township and Monroe County Planning Commission [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1Ybp6Jk

Smart Money: Retired and living off spouse's salary not a good idea

DEAR BRUCE: I'm 37 years old and my home is paid off. I am retired now because I'm lazy and I don't want to work anymore. My wife still works a few days a week. We have minimal expenses other than gas, food and utilities.I don't have much in savings, but she earns $40,000 a year with hardly any expenses of her own. We live very well and enjoy our lives. Is this OK for an early retirement? -- D.B.DEAR D.B.: It wouldn't be for me. [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1PHZ39Q

Re-opened Smithfield Township medical facility treats neurological, heart issues

Comprehensive services in the medical field at one location is the growing trend and DSP Health System, opened on 230-232 Independence Road in Smithfield Township, is embracing the concept.A new medical group at the facility that re-opened in mid-May on a road that clusters varied medical treatment centers still is putting the finishing touches on its two sites with four specialized professionals in the fields of cardiology, neurology, pain management, physical therapy and [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1RWfzST

Your Money Matters: Strategic Social Security loopholes closing

In the dark of night and in the nick of time, Congress passed and President Barack Obama later signed into law the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, avoiding a shutdown and funding the government for two more years. Included in the budget was a senior surprise -- the elimination of two potentially lucrative Social Security claiming strategies. Social Security, once an underappreciated retirement asset, in recent years has gained new respect as an important tool in retirement [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1PHZ5yr

Deeds, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015

Eldred TownshipThomas E. and Deborah T. Nye to Kai Bartlette, Lot 12, High View Estates, $234,999Hamilton TownshipOleg Gorshkov to Robert Hayes Stewart IV and Saraya Smith, Lot 20, Young Estates, $291,000Pocono TownshipJames D. Conger to Wen-Tann Partners LLC, Land, North and South Turnpike, Lackawanna Trail, $620,000Ross TownshipJayson L. and Andrea L. Esty to Dennis Barry [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1RWfwX0

Check Out These 10 Stunning, Affordable Wedding Dresses

Like anything with the word “wedding” attached, it can be tough to find a cheap wedding dress. The average wedding gown in the U.S. cost about $1,357 in 2014 according to The Knot, which surveyed more than 13,000 brides and grooms across the country.

That’s a pretty steep price for something you’ll typically wear just once. So we’ve scoured the Web to find some beautiful but cheap wedding dresses that are unique, get good reviews, and are sure to make you feel absolutely gorgeous on your special day. Before I get to our top picks, here are some general tips to help you find an affordable wedding dress.

Tips for Finding Cheap Wedding Dresses

Stay open-minded

You might find your dream dress in a department store, a vintage flea market, or in some other place that you least expect. Remember that as soon as something is called a “wedding dress,” the price immediately goes up.

When you’re out and about shopping, keep your eyes peeled for gorgeous evening gowns or cocktail dresses that would make beautiful wedding dresses without the increase in price.

Remember, it’s a one-time thing

Most of the time (though not always) you will only wear your wedding dress once. Spending a few thousand dollars on something you’ll only wear for a few hours, ever, isn’t exactly the ideal cost-to-wear ratio.

Sure, it’s important and your pictures will be around forever — but your debt burden and ability to afford it are also important for your future marriage. Try not to get caught up in the hype — I know it’s easier said than done — and go into dress shopping knowing your budget.

Bring cash to a store

Cash is and always will be king. Just because there’s a specific price on the tag doesn’t mean that is the price it has to be when you take the dress out of the store.

Most store owners put high mark-ups on dresses and have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to turning a profit. You can often ask them, “What’s your best rate if I paid in cash today?” You might be surprised at how much they can take off the price.

Buy off the rack

Wedding dresses can take quite some time to order, and then you often have to get things altered to fit you just right, so why not buy off the rack and have that dress altered to suit you?

Buying off the rack can be much less expensive – and the great news is that you can carry the dress right out of the store if you love it.

Our Favorite Affordable Wedding Dresses

All the cheap wedding dresses below either come from a trusted brand or receive phenomenal customer reviews. We’ve included a variety of styles, and all of these dresses cost 50% or less of what the average bride pays for a wedding dress in America.

Option 1: Nadia Gown (J.Crew)

Cost: $650

This elegantly simple dress, called the Nadia Gown, is long, flowing, and graceful. J.Crew has had a line of wedding dresses for the past few years, and many brides love that their wedding gowns embody the preppy, upscale-casual style that J.Crew is known for.

At $650, this wedding dress won’t break the bank, and the best part is that it can be worn over and over again, especially if you cut it short after the big day.

Option 2: Velvet Rope Ready Dress (ModCloth)

Cost: $90

This long, lacy dress in white from ModCloth gets rave reviews from customers who have used it as an affordable bridal gown. Ordering a wedding dress online may feel like a bit of a gamble, but ModCloth makes returns easy, and the site’s users tend to offer helpful and forthcoming feedback on how an item fit their body type (often including photos), so you can get a good sense of whether you’ll need to alter a garment or not. (This dress is on the long side, according to most reviewers.)

This is hardly the only beautiful (and cheap) bridal dress you can get from ModCloth; browse their entire collection here, from vintage-inspired gowns to plus-size wedding dresses.

Option 3: Upcycle a Family Heirloom (The Attic)

Photo: Walter

Cost: Free to $500

A vintage-inspired dress is one thing, but you can also go for the real deal. If your mother, grandmother, or someone else in your family kept their old wedding gown, consider taking it out of storage. With a few alterations, you may have found a cheap and truly vintage wedding dress that also honors your family’s history.

I got married in my mother’s wedding dress. Because she got married in the 1980s, there was a lot of illusion lace going on all over the top of it. Not only that, but the dress survived Hurricane Katrina.

We hired a seamstress to rework it, adding new lace and repairing it. It only cost a few hundred dollars to update and redesign, and I got a custom dress that was one of a kind and a family heirloom to boot.

Option 4: A Vintage 1950s Dress (Etsy)

Cost: $565

Don’t have a family heirloom to pull out of the attic? No problem: Etsy is an amazing website to snag one-of-a-kind vintage finds. This genuine 1950s wedding dress is perfect for a bride who loves that classic style or is planning a wedding with a vintage vibe.

It’s the only one for sale, but it’s hardly the only attractive and affordable wedding dress on Etsy — check out this one, or this one. Just search the entire site for wedding dresses, whether vintage or handmade, and you’ll find plenty of options under $600.

Option 5: Beaded Lace Dress (David’s Bridal)

Cost: $400

This dress comes with intricate beading intertwined with elegant, feminine lace. Sold by David’s Bridal, a well-known and affordable wedding dress brand, this dress has numerous five-star positive reviews and at the time of this writing is on sale for under $400.

Option 6: A Designer Gown Full of Ruffles (Filene’s Basement)

Cost: $501

Filene’s Basement is a legendary designer discount company. In past decades, they held an annual event in all their stores called “The Running of the Brides,” where brides-to-be would storm the store hunting for designer dresses at an extreme discount. Unfortunately, the company declared bankruptcy — but they are now back in online form.

While it doesn’t have nearly the same effect as trampling fellow brides-to-be to get the best dresses, they still provide some amazing deals online — like this beautiful Christina Wu gown on sale for half the usual retail price.

Option 7: Ivory Clara Dress (J.Crew)

Cost: $295

This dress is perfect for a simple, classy outdoor wedding. The short style is elegant without being too casual, and the price is exceptional.

Although many reviewers loved this dress, some did comment that the color was slightly different from the photo. Still, I wanted to include it since many brides loved it and shorter wedding dresses are perfect for beach and outdoor weddings.

Option 8: Betsy & Adam Illusion Lace Belted Gown (Macy’s)

Cost: $171

Macy’s has several affordable wedding dresses on sale and you can browse them online. This wedding dress is great for the modest bride who isn’t interested in showy or strapless dresses. It has beautiful illusion lace and comes in under $200.

My favorite part about this dress is the belt. I love wearing a belt even on my everyday dresses because it provides a great silhouette. This dress is no different.

Option 9: A Ruby Red Stunner (JJsHouse)

Cost: $369

Hey, who says a wedding dress has to be white? This stunning red wedding dress has a slew of positive reviews, and it’s perfect for the non-traditional bride who loves red and who wants to add a bit of flair to her wedding.

And don’t worry — if a ruby red wedding gown is a bit too bold for you, this dress comes in a few other colors, including the old standbys of white and ivory.

Option 10: Affordable Lace Luxury (JJsHouse)

Cost: $247

This dress from JJsHouse.com is gorgeous, long, and full of lace. The hourglass shape would look great on many brides, and you can check the website regularly for sales if the advertised price doesn’t match the one listed here.

The dress gets over 35 positive reviews, and, like on ModCloth, several users have uploaded photos of themselves in the dress to demonstrate how it looks in real life — making it easier for future brides to buy with confidence without trying it on first.

Other Ways to Save on Wedding Dresses

Borrow

If you borrow shoes and handbags from your best friend, why not borrow their wedding dress, too? If you loved a friend’s dress and they wouldn’t mind, ask.

Some people pay a lot of money to get their dresses preserved, but many people don’t because it’s so expensive. If you’re really on a tight budget, it doesn’t hurt to ask someone who is close to you if they have a dress you can borrow. Just remember to have it dry-cleaned and return it in pristine condition.

Thrift

Every time I go into a thrift store, there’s a wedding dress there; you can also often find them at consignment shops or online clothing resellers like ThredUp.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to use the exact dress you find. With many wedding dresses, the most expensive part is the lace or the tiny, detailed beading. Sometimes, older dresses have these features and simply need the basic cut to be updated to keep up with the times. You can take the fabric from a cheap thrift-store dress and have a skilled seamstress create something entirely new from it, or simply get it taken in for a more modern look.

Ask for your dress as a gift

Often your parents, sister, or grandmother will ask you what you want for your wedding. Many brides don’t know what to say, but if you’re on a really tight budget, remember you can always ask them to give you your wedding dress as a gift.

Agree to stick to a specific budget and invite the person giving you the gift to come with you to try on wedding dresses. They’ll get great joy from watching you try on your dream dress, and you’ll get a gift that you’ll cherish for a lifetime.

Don’t get caught up in the moment

When I catch an episode of “Say Yes to the Dress” on TV, I notice that so many brides get swept away in the moment. Sometimes they go way farther over budget than they meant to because they found “the one.” Conversely, many brides burst into tears because they feel so pressured to find the perfect dress but don’t really feel anything when they try them on.

Remember, you don’t need to have a movie moment when you find the right dress. Sometimes, the right dress is just the one that fits you like a glove or the one that is the most casual for your backyard wedding.

You don’t have to have some kind of magical “moment” when you try on the right dress for you. You just have to like it and feel beautiful in it. Chances are, you’ll feel beautiful in several dresses, so make sure to pick the one that fits in best with your wallet and your personality.

A Final Note

I got married five years ago, and at the time, getting my wedding dress and my invitations just right were a priority for me. I picked the venue, the food, the chairs, and just about everything else under the sun. It was a stressful time, right around the holidays, and as many brides will tell you, it all went by so, so fast.

Five years later, the dress, the clothes, the cake, and the DJ are all a distant memory. Now, our season of life has changed dramatically to taking care of our children and paying back our student loans.

I say all that to let you know that this really is a special time for you and your fiance, and you really should enjoy it. That said, as much planning as it takes to create your ideal wedding, it’s just as quickly gone when it’s over and replaced with other responsibilities (and other fun moments, too!).

For these reasons, try not to overspend on things like your wedding dress. Find one that suits you and don’t torture yourself by trying on designer gowns you can’t afford. Stay open-minded and try many different stores, and I promise you will find the dress of your dreams, and it’ll be even better because it will be the right price, too!

Related Articles:

The post Check Out These 10 Stunning, Affordable Wedding Dresses appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Pin it!

12. Scrap Wood Stocking Hanger

Image from Beyond The Picket Fence

What if someone has stockings they want to hang with care — but they don’t have a fireplace? With the help of Beyond The Picket Fence, all you need are a few materials to create a stocking hanger that solves all their woes.

Materials needed: Scrap wood, paint, hooks, stencils

Skill level: Intermediate

Pin it!

Tips for Selling at a Holiday Craft Fair

Are you feeling inspired? Ready to get crafting?

Use one of the many online directories to help you find a craft fair in your area. Some popular ones include FestivalNet, Art & Craft Show Yellow Pages and Arts and Crafts Shows – USA. You can also check your local school, church and chamber of commerce for smaller events that may not be listed.

If it’s your first time selling at a craft fair, here are some tips from the pros to make it a smashing success:

Know the audience (what items would they be interested in?)
Make your booth visually inviting
Display your items at eye level
Fill your booth; if you don’t have enough items on your own, share with a friend
Create pretty labels (and include prices)
Maintain a positive and welcoming attitude
Give people space to browse
Accept credit cards (try using a tool like Square to accept payments on your smartphone)
Hand out business cards

For more tips, check out the full articles from The Etsy Blog, One Dog Woof, FaveCrafts and Stumbles & Stitches.

Your Turn: Have you ever sold your crafts before? Which of these options is your favorite?

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.

The post 12 Pinterest-Inspired Crafts to Make and Sell This Holiday Season appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/1Auz9vF

The Freezer and Slow Cooker Connection: How to Easily Prepare a Bunch of Slow Cooker Recipes in Advance to Save Tons of Money

Recently, I’ve made a few mentions of the fact that Sarah and I (honestly, mostly Sarah, as she has really jumped on board with this concept since spending an evening with a friend of hers doing this) have been preparing meals for the freezer with the intent of actually cooking them in the slow cooker on the day we intend to eat them.

The Basics of Freezer Slow Cooker Meals

Here’s the basic process that we’re following.

First, we identify a bunch of slow cooker recipes that meet our family’s needs as well as one additional specific requirement. The key requirement that you really need to address with freezer-to-slow-cooker meals is that they are essentially “turn it on and leave it” meals, meaning that they amount to putting a bunch of ingredients into the slow cooker, turning it on low for several hours, and then putting it on the table. For us, this usually means putting it in the slow cooker first thing in the morning, turning it on low (or setting the timer for it to turn on mid-day if needed), and just letting it cook all day long.

Recipes where you have to do a lot of additional steps in the morning don’t really cut it, nor do recipes where you have to do anything during the day. We even kind of frown on recipes that require you to do something a little while before serving. We want “dump it in and leave it” recipes for this, because these recipes are meant to make home-cooked meals as easy as possible for us.

This is probably as good of a point as any to tell you that my family eats perhaps 99% vegetarian meals, primarily for health-related reasons. We make sure that our meals are protein rich and we’ve discussed this with our children’s pediatrician (who is most decidedly not vegetarian) before embarking on this diet.

I like to collect these kinds of recipes using Paprika. Once the recipe is in there, it’s really easy (with just a few clicks or finger swipes) to build a grocery shopping list from those recipes.

Second, we build a big shopping list for several recipes at once, using the grocery store flyer as a guide. We’ll start by looking at the grocery store flyer. We look for raw ingredients that are on sale – particularly produce, but meat is definitely something to look for if you’re doing this – and then we’ll look through our collection of good slow cooker recipes to find ones that include that ingredient. For example, if tomatoes are on sale, we’ll look for a few recipes that include diced tomatoes.

I’ll give you an example. Let’s say our local grocery store is having a sale on fresh spinach. I might then go to our recipe database and start pulling out recipes that use spinach, such as this delicious crockpot lasagna from Eating Well and this slow cooker spinach and mozzarella frittata from Skinny Ms. and these crock pot spinach and mushroom enchiladas from Crockpot Gourmet (which I would make upside down in a freezer container and then invert in the slow cooker when it came time to prepare it).

My favorite “on sale” item is mushrooms, because there are so, so many dishes you can make that really use mushrooms amazingly well.

This ends up making a giant grocery list, so one of us heads to the store to buy those items. Magically, that grocery list already lines up with the items on sale at the store – because, as you recall, we planned the recipes based on grocery store sales – and it spells out just the ingredients you need for delicious meals.

Recently, we made nine of these slow cooker meals and the receipt came in at under $100 – $96.15, to be exact. Remember, this covers nine family dinners, so that reduces the cost of each dinner to about $10.50 each. Out of that $10.50, all five members of our family get a delicious supper, plus there’s usually enough leftovers for Sarah and I to each have at least one more lunch off of the meal, and there’s usually enough left over after that to have the food again as part of a “leftover dinner,” which we have about once a week when we’re cleaning up leftovers. The cost per meal, in other words, gets down pretty close to $1 – and that’s amazing.

Next, we bring all of those ingredients home and start preparing meals. This is where the fun happens. We just go through and prepare each recipe up to the point where it says to put it in the slow cooker for several hours, so we’ll do all of the chopping and dicing and cooking of vegetables and so on up front.

One good approach is to do this with a partner. Maybe you can do it with a friend and make it into a social event. What you’ll do is simply have both of you start prepping ingredients until there are enough ingredients ready to start prepping one recipe for freezing, then one person starts assembling the recipes and getting them ready while the other person keeps chopping and preparing individual ingredients.

(Sarah is an amazingly organized person when it comes to pulling off things like this, so she often just takes on the whole project herself. I might serve as a sous chef to her. I’ve only prepared a batch of freezer meals by myself once in the last few months.)

Storing the meals can be the tricky part. One method is to simply use gallon Ziploc freezer bags. If you do this, I strongly suggest that you double-line the bags as there can occasionally be splitting or leakage problems during thawing. Another method – and the one that I prefer – is to use large freezer-safe reusable containers. A great entry-level option for this are Glad FreezerWare large containers, which hold 64 ounces of food quite well in the freezer and can be used many, many times.

All you do is just go through and add the ingredients of each meal to their own freezer container except for water. You’ll also want to include a note on any last-second things to do, like adding four cups of water to the crock pot. One method is to write it on an index card and put that index card in a resealable sandwich baggie right inside the package – in between the two layers of freezer bags if you’re using those. Another method is to simply use wide-label masking tape and write the last steps on there.

Here’s an example of a slow cooker meal stored in a Ziploc bag:

In either case, you’re also going to want to label your meal before you put it in the freezer. Again, I recommend wide-label masking tape, which you can write on easily. Indicate what it is, when you assembled and froze it, and how long it should cook on low in the slow cooker.

As you finish these, pop them in the freezer and forget about them until you need them later on!

In our experience, with a typical range of meal challenge, a single person can prepare four or five such freezer meals per hour.

So, what do you do when you’re ready to eat? One to two days before you’re going to cook that meal in your slow cooker, just pull the package out of the freezer and place it in the refrigerator to thaw. Then, on the morning that you’re ready to eat the meal, place it in the slow cooker, add whatever amount of water that you’re supposed to (remember, you wrote that on a recipe card you stuck in the package or on masking tape on the package), and turn it on low (or set the timer so that it goes on low at an appropriate time). Then, when you get home, you’ll have a delicious slow cooker meal ready to eat.

What this procedure does is it moves all of the meal prep time to a lazy weekend afternoon rather than on a busy weekday morning or weekday evening when there’s a much heavier time crunch.

This, of course, saves money in two ways. First, it makes meal prep on weekdays incredibly easy. It can be really, really tempting to just order a pizza or pick up some food for supper when evenings are tight – and with three children all in various activities, it feels like every evening is tight. Knowing that there’s a meal already sitting at home ready to eat makes it a lot easier to just skip that expensive pizza order or takeout meal. Ordering even cheap pizza or takeout food for our family adds up to $25 fast, whereas a slow cooker meal, as I estimated above, costs $8.

Second, by doing a bunch of these meals all at once, we can save money on bulk purchases and take really big advantage of grocery store sales. This means that each slow cooker meal actually becomes quite a bit cheaper on average than just going to the grocery store and buying the ingredients for a single slow cooker meal.

Sound awesome? It is. But what do you need to get started?

What Gear Do You Need?

Here’s what you need to make the magic happen.

A slow cooker is the key item, of course. You simply put food in it, turn it on for a few hours, and the food within slowly cooks. This is achieved by cooking the food within a thick-walled and usually removable crock, which is raised to a fairly low but constant temperature. This is the slow cooker model that we use in our home currently. It does a wonderful job and gets used multiple times a week.

A freezer with some significant free space If you’re going to make a bunch of freezer meals, you’ll need a freezer in which to store all of those meals. They’re going to take up significant space. We have an upright freezer in our garage that provides ample storage space for our needs.

Some freezer containers or freezer Ziplocs Resealable freezer bags cost a little less up front if you’re making a bunch of meals, but they’re nowhere near as versatile as freezer containers, which you can use again and again and again. If you’re in this for the long haul – or even intend to just do this three or four times – the freezer containers are the better deal. I recommend large Glad FreezerWare containers for this purpose. Of course, if you’re just giving this a trial run, the gallon freezer Ziploc bags will do the trick.

Masking tape, a marker, and (maybe) some index cards and resealable sandwich bags If you’re using the containers rather than the bags, all you need is some wide-label masking tape and a marker. That provides plenty of space to write down what you need to know. If you’re using Ziplocs, I’ve found that masking tape tends to peel off of those bags sometimes in the freezer, so I recommend writing the info down on an index card, putting it in its own resealable sandwich bag, and stuffing that inside of the outer Ziploc bag (remember, double-bagging is really recommended here).

A Real-World Example

So, what does all of this actually look like with our family? As I mentioned earlier, we recently made a big set of slow cooker meals – nine, to be exact – and all of the ingredients together cost less than $100. We didn’t even shop at our usual discount grocer, either – we actually shopped at one of the more expensive stores in our area just to be sure that we would have everything on the list on one receipt. At our discount grocer, I’m pretty sure we could have found everything and it would have fallen under $80.

Anyway, here’s what our shopping list looked like for all nine meals at once:

Miscellaneous:
25 vegetable bouillon cubes (on sale!)
2 packages extra firm tofu (on sale, too!)
1.5 cups ketchup
Soy sauce (3 tbs)
Brown sugar (3 tbs)
Lentils (1.25 c.)
1 large jar minced garlic, or 8-10 garlic cloves
1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
Quinoa (enough to make 3 c. cooked)
Corn meal (1.25 c.)
Salsa (3.5 c.)
2 cans (4 oz) mild green chiles
1 can chopped or sliced black olives
Olive oil
Lime juice
1 pkg canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 pkg (16 oz.) frozen cheese tortellini
Frozen corn (1.5 c.)

Cheeses:
1 bag shredded cheddar cheese
1 bag shredded Monterey jack cheese
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese

Cans of beans:
4 cans black beans (I would have used dried beans for this, but Sarah made the astute point that most people wouldn’t bother)
1 can chickpeas
1 can red kidney beans
1 can pinto beans

Tomatoes: (I prefer fresh when they’re in season, but it’s late fall in Iowa…)
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans crushed tomatoes

Seasonings: (we already had most of these on hand)
Red pepper flakes
Garlic powder
Chili powder
Cumin
Dried oregano
Sugar
Salt and pepper
Cinnamon
Dried cilantro
Green curry paste

Onions: (these were on sale, so we selected several recipes with onions)
1 small yellow
1 large yellow
2 medium yellow
1 small red
4 medium Vidalia or other sweet onion
3 scallions

Other vegetables and fruits:
5 carrots
4 celery ribs
2 lbs sweet potatoes
5 red bell peppers
3 granny smith apples
5 kale leaves
1 c. baby bella mushrooms
8 oz. fresh spinach

We did have a few of these items on hand, particularly the spices, but most of this list was purchased at the store. Our final bill was, as I mentioned above, $96.16.

So, what recipes did we make? I did my best to source all of the recipes online, but some of them came from cookbooks and our own handwritten notes. Here’s what we made:

Red bean and sweet potato chili (from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow-Cooker by Robin Robertson)
African coconut chickpea soup (from onceamonthmeals.com)
Lentil soup with kale (from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow-Cooker by Robin Robertson)
Barbecued tofu (from vegetarian.about.com)
French onion soup (from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow-Cooker by Robin Robertson)
Black bean soup (from moneysavingmom.com)
Stuffed peppers (from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow-Cooker by Robin Robertson)
Slow cooker cheese tortellini (from allrecipes.com)
Enchilada-inspired polenta pie (from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow-Cooker by Robin Robertson)

We simply took the ingredients from the shopping list, made a single batch of each of these recipes, and stuck them in the freezer. It took approximately two and a half hours.

For each meal, we just pulled it out about a day and a half early and allowed it to thaw in the refrigerator. For most of them, they just went directly in the slow cooker the morning we intended to eat it and was piping hot and ready to eat for dinner that evening when everyone got home.

Um… Meat?

As I mentioned earlier in the article, our family eats almost all vegetarian meals for health reasons, but it’s pretty easy to follow this kind of plan with recipes that utilize meat. In fact, I’d argue that it’s even easier, as there are countless slow cooker recipes that use pork, beef, venison, chicken, turkey, and even seafood.

All you need to do is start digging through slow cooker recipes – I love browsing through the slow cooker section at AllRecipes – and find ones that look tasty to you and save them. I also love looking at Slow Cooker Revolution from America’s Test Kitchen, too. I really recommend using Paprika for this process, as it makes it really easy to save and search through the ones you’ve found. My only recommendation is to try to focus on ones that involve minimal work in the evenings, like soups and stews and roasts.

Once you’ve got a healthy collection of slow cooker recipes – fifty or so is a good number – and you’ve got the basic gear mentioned above, just head to your grocery store flyer and look at what ingredients are on sale. Then, search through your recipes for ones that match up with the on-sale ingredients and use those as your backbone. Make a grocery list and you’re off to the races!

Final Thoughts

This entire process takes perhaps three or four hours on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, from simply looking at the grocery flyer to choosing recipes and building a shopping list to actually shopping for those items to actually preparing all of the slow cooker meals and freezing them. It’s a pretty inexpensive process, too, considering how many complete meals you produce.

Once you’ve put in that initial session and made a big pile of meals, then it becomes easy – really easy. It’s just a matter of thawing out a meal, putting it in the slow cooker one morning, and coming home to a delicious supper for the whole family.

I hope you’ll give it a shot!

The post The Freezer and Slow Cooker Connection: How to Easily Prepare a Bunch of Slow Cooker Recipes in Advance to Save Tons of Money appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar The Simple Dollar http://ift.tt/1j0JBIO

Uber Drive and Deliver Pizzas On the Way to Work: 15 Awesome Side Jobs

If you need extra income, you’ve probably considered getting another job. So what should you look for? What are the best second jobs?

If income is the most important consideration, you need good hourly pay, because your time is limited. But maybe you want fun work, or a job that can lead to future opportunities. Or, perhaps you need something that lets you stay at home.

To make this list more useful, I’ve arranged the jobs into five categories. Of course, some jobs can fit into more than one. You might get lucky and find a job that pays well and also is interesting. In any case, start with the category that’s most relevant for you.

Second Jobs That are Easy to Get

The easiest jobs to find usually pay the least. On the other hand, they might be close to home and fit your schedule. Plus, you might have that extra income sooner by avoiding a long search for a better job.

Here are some good prospects for getting hired this week.

1. Day Labor

As explained in my post on temporary jobs, day labor companies provide some of the worst jobs with the lowest pay. That’s the bad news.

The good news is they’re usually hiring and you can get paid daily. Also, it’s easy to work around your full-time job because you basically show up when you want to work.

2. Fast Food Worker

The turnover rate for restaurant workers is high and climbing, which means positions are opening up all the time. These are not great jobs, but you can probably get one quickly.

3. Pizza Delivery Driver

Delivering pizza is definitely a step up from fast food work — you can make decent tips depending on the shifts you work.

If your regular job is on weekdays, work on weekend nights. That’s when you’ll make the most in tips.

Second Jobs That Pay Well

You only have so much time, and you’re stretching it pretty thin once you take on another job. So, make as much per hour as possible.

Part-time work isn’t known for high pay, but there are some side jobs earn well above minimum wage.

4. Restaurant Waiter

How much you make waiting tables depends on several factors, as explained in my post on how to find jobs with the best tips. Apply first at busy, expensive places. Do that, get hired to cover weekend shifts and you might easily top $20 per hour.

5. Bartender

You’ll probably need experience to bartend at restaurants and venues where you can really rake in the tips. But, there are proven ways to increase your tip income, even if you have to start at a small bar that isn’t too busy.

6. Rideshare Driver

Buzzfeed looked at 11 random Uber drivers and found they made anywhere from $10.71 to $31.44 per hour after expenses. You could make close to that higher figure once you learn a few ways to make more money driving for Uber .

Second Jobs That are Fun or Interesting

To supplement our income a couple years ago, I took a side job as a tram driver for a retirement community. It was more interesting than you think, thanks to the alligators, birds and other wildlife along the tram routes.

Here are some other potentially fun or interesting second jobs.

7. River Rafting Guide

Oregon’s River Riders says their guides are mostly “ordinary people who work a weekday job and go out on the weekends to play and get paid for it.” They train you over six weekends and you make $50 to $80 per trip plus tips. Plus, you can do two trips daily.

8. Camp Counselor

If you’re a teacher or work a job that gives you the summer off, being a camp counselor can be a fun gig. GreatCampJobs.com is a good place to find open positions.

9. Trail Builder

If you like the outdoors and don’t mind hard work, this is another good summer job. You’ll work in National Parks and other beautiful settings. The Professional Trail Builders Association lists current openings.

Second Jobs That Could Lead to Future Opportunities

Sometimes a second job can help you develop new skills or experiment with new ways of making a living that could lead to anything.

With that in mind, here are some of the best second jobs for potential future opportunities.

10. Freelance Writer

Writing for websites and blogs as a freelancer can provide decent side income. And, if you decide you like the work and do it well, writing might one day replace your primary income.

See our guide to finding freelance writing gigs, and follow Nicole Dieker’s regular freelance income reports for inspiration.

11. Continuing Education Teacher

Community education programs offer non-credit classes on everything from fly-fishing to business accounting. You may even be able to teach your favorite subject without a degree.

Our local program pays $45 per two-hour class, and teachers find it’s a good way to promote books or businesses, and to develop speaking skills.

12. Business Owner

Okay, this isn’t technically a second job, but a part-time business has more future potential than just about any “real” job out there. If you look at all the businesses you can start for less than $100, you’ll see many of them can be done on weekends or with minimal time invested (at least in the beginning).

Second Jobs That Let You Stay Home

A 10-second commute is nice, and staying at home also means no travel costs. In fact, you might want to convince your boss to let you work at home.

Here are a few second jobs you can do without leaving your house or apartment.

13. Transcriptionist

You can make up to $25 per hour working at home as a transcriptionist. Medical and legal transcription positions normally require experience, but general transcription work is sometimes available for beginners. Flexible hours and part-time work are common and normal, so you can work this around your current job.

14. Customer Service Agent

Some legitimate companies that hire home workers to deal with customer calls and emails also offer part-time positions with flexible hours. Perfect for a second job.

15. Search Engine Evaluator

I made $13.50 per hour working as a search engine evaluator. Staring at your computer for hours rating search results is tedious work, but you choose when to work. You’ll be an independent contractor, so there aren’t any benefits and you’ll have to pay your own taxes on what you earn.

Finally, if staying in the house is the most important goal, check out my list of 103 ways to make money at home. There are some jobs on the list, along with businesses, investments and more.

Your Turn: What’s the best second job you’ve had?

Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo-man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror and roulette croupier, but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).

The post Uber Drive and Deliver Pizzas On the Way to Work: 15 Awesome Side Jobs appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/1SPD8NJ

Reader Question: Should We Use a Roth IRA to Pay for Our Kids College?

Roth IRA’s are for retirement, right? Generally speaking, yes.

But because of their general flexibility, they’ve also come to be an increasingly important way to pay for college.

A recent GF¢ reader question prompted me to write this article explaining the ins and outs of using a Roth IRA to pay for college.

Here was the question….

“Jeff, we have an 8 and a 6 year-old and are a little behind in saving for their college education. But the kicker is we’re also a little behind in saving for our own retirement. We know how much you love the Roth IRA so we’re very interested in starting one. A friend of ours had mentioned we could also use the Roth IRA to pay for college? Curious to know your thoughts. Love the blog!!”

Roth IRA college savings

Okay, let’s see if we answer the readers question on using a Roth IRA to pay for college. But a first a quick primer on my favorite retirement too, the Roth IRA…

The Basics on Roth IRA’s

Roth IRAs are like traditional IRAs, with a couple of twists. One is that the contributions that you make to the plan are not tax-deductible when made. Another is that funds can be withdrawn from the plan tax-free, as long as you’re at least 59 1/2 years old, and have participated in a Roth plan for at least five years.

Like a traditional IRA, for both 2015 and 2016, the most you can contribute to a Roth IRA is $5,500, or $6,500 if you are 50 or older.

There are income limits in order to be able to participate in the plan. The Roth IRA income limitation for married taxpayers filing a joint return is $183,000 for 2015, and $184,000 for 2016. For all others (other than married filing separate) it’s $116,000 for 2015, and $117,000 for 2016.

There’s no tax deduction on the contributions, but that is more than offset by the fact that withdrawals can be taken on a tax-free basis. That’s the biggest advantage of the plan.

Since a Roth IRA is first and foremost a retirement plan, why should you even consider it for funding a college education?

The Benefits of Using a Roth IRA to Pay for College

Even though the Roth IRA was never intended to fund a college education, it has gradually developed into an important secondary purpose. And there are a lot of smart reasons why this is happening.

Here are a few:

Roth IRAs grow faster than taxable accounts. Investment income accumulates on a tax-deferred basis in a Roth IRA. That means that the investment earnings grow much more quickly in a Roth then they will in a taxable account, such as brokerage account or mutual fund.

Roth IRAs are self-directed accounts. This means that you can invest your account anywhere you like, and in any investments that you prefer.

You can withdraw money any time.This of course is a mixed bag. Your contributions can be withdrawn at any time without being subject to tax, since there was no tax deduction taken when they were made. The distributions will be pro-rated between your contributions and investment earnings. That means that at least some of the distribution will be taxable if the money is withdrawn prior to your turning 59 1/2, and being invested in the plan for at least five years.

No restrictions on how the money is spent. Dedicated college savings plans, like 529 plans, restrict distributions to educational purposes only. There are no such restrictions on distributions from a Roth IRA. You could use the money to pay for college – or you could use it for retirement – it’s your choice.

No tax penalty for education related withdrawals. If you withdraw the money before reaching age 59 1/2, you’ll generally have to pay a 10% penalty tax. However, the penalty tax is waived if the funds are used for education.

So far, so good.

The Downsides of Using a Roth IRA to Pay for College

In the interest of balance, I should also disclose that using a Roth IRA to pay for college is not without a few drawbacks.

The distributions will be partially taxable if taken early. There’s good news and bad news here – let’s start with the good news. Since there is no tax deduction for making contributions into a Roth IRA, the portion that is withdrawn that represents the contributions will not be subject to income tax.

Also, the 10% penalty tax for early withdrawals can be waived if the money used to fund college education. And if you are at least age 59 1/2, and have been participating your plan for at least five years, the entire distribution – including investment earnings on your contributions – can be withdrawn tax-free. The downside is if you are not 59 1/2, and/or have not been participating in the plan for at least five years, in which case the earnings will be fully taxable, even if the 10% penalty is waived.

Roth distributions can inflate your income. Speaking of distributions, the amount of the withdrawal will be added to your regular income, and must be reported on your FAFSA application. That will increase your income, and could hurt your ability to obtain financial aid and other benefits.

You may not be eligible to start a Roth IRA. Not everyone is eligible to participate in a Roth IRA, as I noted with the income limitations described earlier in this post. Even if you are eligible right now, if you start a Roth IRA for the purpose of funding your children’s education when they are very young, it’s entirely possible that you will exceed the income threshold at some point in the future, at which point you’ll be forced to stop the contributions.

Low contribution limits. As noted at the beginning of this post, your contributions are limited to $5,500 or $6,500 per year. That will probably be inadequate if you’re trying to fund college for multiple children, and especially if there are only a few years left before college begins.

You may be compromising your own retirement. The primary purpose of a Roth IRA is of course retirement, not college funding. If your Roth IRA is a major component of your retirement plan, you may want to seriously consider whether you want to divert money into education, and away from retirement. There are, after all, other ways to finance a college education.

Speaking of which –

Using a 529 Plan Instead

529 plans are specifically designed to fund college education, and they are generally more effective for that purpose than Roth IRA’s. 529 plans are actually state-sponsored and state specific, so there will be some limits on how and where you can hold the accounts.

A 529 plan functions much like a retirement plan, and very close to the Roth IRA. Just as is the case with a Roth, the contributions you make to the plan are not tax-deductible, however the money in the account earns tax-free investment income for federal income tax purposes.

Funds that are later withdrawn for qualified higher education expenses can be taken without being subject income tax. If however funds are withdrawn and used for purposes other than qualified higher education expenses, the distribution will be subject to both federal income tax and the 10% penalty tax. Both the tax and the penalty apply only to investment income in the account, and not to your actual contributions.

One of the biggest advantages of a 529 plan compared to a Roth IRA is that there are no income restrictions limiting your participation in the program.

And the contributions are also a lot more generous. Currently, you can contribute up to $14,000 per year, per taxpayer, per beneficiary. That means that you and your spouse can contribute up to $28,000 to a 529 plan established for each of you children.

You can actually contribute more than this, however $14,000 is the threshold that triggers the federal gift tax. If you plan to exceed the threshold, you’ll need to consult with your tax advisor as to the best way to proceed, as well as the specific returns that will need to be filed.

So Should You Use a Roth IRA to Pay for College?

In a perfect world, you have a 529 plan set up for each of your children, that would represent the foundation of your education planning. But if you can’t afford to do that, and you still want to make at least loose plans to fund their education in advance, a Roth IRA is an excellent way to go.

If you are in a position to do so, having both a 529 – as the base plan – supplemented by a Roth IRA, is solid financial planning. The Roth IRA can be set up primarily for retirement, but still be available as a secondary source of college education funding, should it be necessary.

If you do elect to use the Roth IRA for college savings, please don’t make the mistake of saving more for your kids and not enough for your retirement.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure you discuss all of the details and ramifications with your tax advisor. Since everyone’s financial lives and tax situations are different, you need to know if either or both plans will be a good fit for your family.

Source Good Financial Cents http://ift.tt/1NwfXU7

Everyday danger in the supermarket aisles

WE USE them every day but this supermarket essential can cause serious injury or worse. And excitable kids are the most at risk.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1kUp7Tg

الجمعة، 13 نوفمبر 2015

How the Budget Deal Changes Social Security

Married retirees will no longer be able to use two Social Security claiming strategies.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1N2nxvp

Hershey kisses artificial flavors goodbye in some chocolates

NEW YORK (AP) — Hershey wants to keep the ingredients list on two of its famous chocolates short and sweet.The candy company said this week that its milk chocolate Hershey's Kisses and bars are now being made with flavor from real vanilla instead of an artificial flavor.The change is the first part of The Hershey Co.'s previously announced plans to use simpler ingredients. Many food companies are removing artificial flavors, colors and ingredients to please consumers [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1Y9Eje2

Are These 7 Sneaky Pricing Tricks Making You Spend More Money?

If you find yourself reaching for a $39.99 sweater or loading up on $11.99 albums on iTunes, you’re not alone.

The strategy of ending prices with 99 cents has been around for decades and has worked its magic on almost all of us. But it’s certainly not the only trick retailers use when pricing products.

Merchants use a variety of strategies to get us to spend more — from labeling prices without dollar signs to setting a per-customer limit. And this takes place at all ends of the spectrum — from buying food and toys to cars and houses.

Whether you’re shopping for the holidays or for everyday items, even you could be susceptible to simple pricing tricks, warns Money Talks News money expert Stacy Johnson.

“While you probably don’t stop to consider the pennies on a price tag, let me assure you, your friendly merchant does,” Johnson says.

1. Prices Ending in 9, 99 or 95

Known as “charm prices,” prices ending in 9, 99 or 95 make items appear cheaper than they really are.

Because people read from left to right, they are more likely to register the first number and make an immediate conclusion as to whether the price is reasonable.

When professor Robert Schindler of the Rutgers Business School studied prices at a women’s clothing store, he found the one-cent difference between prices ending in .99 and .00 had “a considerable effect on sales,” with prices ending with .99 far outselling those ending with .00.

While this works right down to the last digit on a product as small as a $1.29 iTunes download, it’s also effective on anything from a pair of jeans to a car or house.

Homes selling for $299,000 often sell faster than those costing $300,000. The reason? It’s under, rather than at, the upper limit of those shopping for houses in the $250,000 – $300,000 price range.

Pricing that doesn’t end in 9 also tells our minds a story. If a price ends in 4 or 7, for example, it’s likely to stand out because it doesn’t end in 9. And it subliminally suggests the seller has seriously considered the price.

2. Dollars Without Cents

If you see prices with no change, the retailer or restaurateur is sending the message that you’re in a high-end place.

The implication is that if you’re concerned about pocket change, you should move on.

3. Prices Without Dollar Signs

In Tricks of the Trade: Restaurants, we explained the rationale behind restaurants intentionally leaving dollar signs off menus: It makes customers spend more.

In a Cornell study, guests given a menu with only numbers and no dollar signs spent significantly more than those who received a menu with either prices showing dollar signs or prices written out in words.

The same tactic translates to retail stores. When items are marked, say, “20” without the dollar sign, retailers are hoping customers won’t associate the amount with money and thus be less likely to keep a running tally of how much they’re spending as they shop.

4. The “10 for $10” Trick

Stores push deals like “10 for $10,” aiming to get shoppers to buy items like soup or cereal in bulk.

But here’s something stores don’t advertise: You don’t always have to buy in bulk to get the deal.

In many cases, you could just as easily buy one for $1. It’s something worth asking your retailer about before loading up your cart.

5. Per-Customer Limits

When stores add limits to products, like “limit four per customer,” it tricks shoppers into thinking the product is scarce, the price low, or both.

It also gives the impression of big demand. You find yourself buying several when you would normally buy just one, to avoid missing out.

6. “Free” Promotion

Retailers know “free” is the magic word. So they roll out deals like buy one, get one free — sometimes persuading us to buy things we wouldn’t normally purchase.

Free shipping incentives requiring us to spend a certain amount of money also draw us in.

7. Simple Prices

Simple prices, especially on products susceptible to future markdowns, allow shoppers to quickly compare how much they’re saving.

For example, it’s easy to compute the discount on a product originally priced at $50 that now costs $35, as opposed to an item originally priced at $49.97, now on sale for $34.97.

Be Aware of Pricing Tricks

These tricks are so simple, it’s easy to believe you’re too sophisticated to fall for them. Odds are, however, you do, and so do millions of other people.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t be used. The psychology of shopping affects virtually everything you buy, from toys to houses and food to Ferraris.

But being aware they exist — and they work — may help you overcome them and make you a smarter shopper.

Your Turn: How do you resist pricing psychology?

This post originally appeared on Money Talks News. Since 1991, MoneyTalksNews has been producing both video and print to help you make more, spend less and avoid rip-offs.

The post Are These 7 Sneaky Pricing Tricks Making You Spend More Money? appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/1HHCPUb

Northern Rock mortgage sell-off: what customers need to know

Tom Wilson

Screen Shot 2015-11-13 at 17.21.53.png

Northern Rock mortgage sell-off: what you need to know

Feed Copy:

The government has agreed to sell a £13 billion chunk of the debt it bought when it acquired Northern Rock mortgages during the financial crisis – accounting for around 125,000 mortgage and loan customers. Here’s a roundup of what you need to know if you held one of these products. What’s happening? UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) – the “bad bank” that was created to buy the assets of failing companies in the wake of the financial crisis – has agreed to sell £13 billion of mortgages and loans to US private equity firm Cerberus, which in turn is going to sell on £3.3 billion of these loans to TSB. £12 billion of the loans were originally made by Northern Rock, though a further billion was from other sources. How do I know if my loan was sold? The deal is expected to complete in March 2016, and all affected customers will be contacted directly at this point. After completion, around 34,000 Northern Rock customers will become TSB customers, and 91,000 customers will be owned by Cerberus. Based on the information disclosed so far, around 71,000 of the customers held only mortgages, including 53,000 customers who held ‘Together Mortgages’, which allowed people to take an unsecured loan on top of their mortgage (plus 500 people who have paid off ‘Together mortgages’ but still need to repay the unsecured element of the loan). If I’m affected, can I choose between Cerberus and TSB? No. It’s reported that the transfer of mortgages from Cerberus to TSB will be “randomly selected”. We’ll update with more information on this when it’s available, as there could be further issues depending on the details of this process. Do I need to do anything? Customers “do not need to take any action” between now and March 2016, so you should continue to repay your loan as normal. Will the terms of my loan change? According to the terms of the deal, there will be no changes to the terms and conditions of the mortgages that have been sold. Could the terms of my loan change in future? Unfortunately we don’t know yet, but it’s possible. We’ve asked UKAR who will be responsible for determining future pricing changes, such as adjustments to variable rate mortgages, but have had not received a response at the time of writing. Can I switch my mortgage elsewhere? In theory, affected customers can remortgage like anyone else. Unfortunately, part of the problem in the first place was that Northern Rock lent at a very high loan-to-value, meaning several customers found themselves in negative equity. Additionally, the mortgage rules created in response to the crisis have created difficulties for people looking to switch to more affordable mortgages. Where can I go if I’m struggling with mortgage debt? The Money Advice Service, Citizens Advice Bureaux or debt charities such as Stepchange offer free help to people who are struggling with debt. Has the government completely sold the debt it bought from Northern Rock? Not yet. After this deal completes, around 85% of the Northern Rock’s assets will have been offloaded.

Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/1O7ilni

Why McDonald's Stock Is Blowing the Competition Away

The famed restaurant chain has seen its stock jump by 17 percent since September.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1HN6GFu

Are Your Mobile Games Actually Free? If Not, Try Amazon Underground

Android users should get excited.

Amazon already had free games for you. But now it has even more to try. A lot more.

Launched in August, Amazon Underground has tripled its selection of free games and apps.

Available exclusively for users with Android and Amazon Fire devices in the U.S., U.K., France and Germany, the Underground app takes away the buzzkill of paying for a mobile game’s premium content.

Instead, it’s all free.

Amazon Underground: Your Go-to for Free Games (Really)

If you’ve never used Underground, it’s like a souped-up version of Amazon’s shopping app.

While other electronics and products on Amazon have normal price tags, the Underground games and apps are free. You’ll see an “Actually Free” banner across the app’s top left corner.

Games like Goat Simulator (Product description: “You can be a goat,” $4.99 in other app stores) are free to download, Amazon said in a statement.

But here’s where your real savings come in: On Amazon Underground, there are no in-app purchasing requirements.

“Customers can play with unlimited lives and will receive many bonus in-app items in the Amazon Underground version of the app completely free ($31.87 value),” Amazon said of Frozen Free Fall — a game that’s free to install, but that requires in-app purchases.

An Amazon representative confirmed that games added to Underground remain available through the app. It’s not a limited-time offer.

Underground actually replaced Amazon’s App A Day program, TechCrunch reports.

How Amazon Underground Can Be Free

“We’ve made it possible for customers to get actually free apps by working out a new business model with app and game developers: We’re paying them a certain amount on a per-minute played basis in exchange for them waiving their normal in-app fees,” Amazon staffer Lyn Hart said.

Since game developers aren’t earning money from customer downloads and in-app purchases, Amazon pays $.002 cents for each minute a customer uses their game.

“To be clear, we’re the ones picking up those per minute charges — so for customers it’s simply free,” Hart said. “And, if customers interact with us more frequently across Amazon, that’s a great outcome.”

That’s the part to watch out for: Amazon’s betting after you spend all that time playing free games, you’ll also browse — and buy — on the rest of the site. Don’t fall for it!

If Your Whole Family Plays Games, You Need This App

Here’s the thing that’s easy to forget about mobile games: It’s easy to spend money without thinking about it.

If you can buy in-app level upgrades, bonuses and additional characters with the click of a button, it’s too easy to turn around at the end of the month and say, “Wow, how’d I spend so much on games this month?”

And while you, savvy reader, might have self-control and and a general sense of how much you want to spend on games, think about the other people who might use your phone or Fire tablet.

If your child plays mobile games on your device, Underground is an easy way to make sure Junior doesn’t rack up a gaming bill while you’re grocery shopping.

If you share your tablet with a less tech-savvy parent, Underground’s free games prevent that moment of, “I’m not sure how I got here or how I spent this much money.”

It’s a good way to make sure everyone’s truly having free fun.

The most complicated part of Underground is downloading it. The app isn’t available in the Google Play store — you have to visit Amazon Underground from your phone or request an emailed download link.

Your Turn: Will you download Amazon Underground?

Disclosure: We have a serious Taco Bell addiction around here. The affiliate links in this post help us order off the dollar menu. Thanks for your support!

Lisa Rowan is a writer, editor, and podcaster based in Washington, D.C.

The post Are Your Mobile Games Actually Free? If Not, Try Amazon Underground appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/1NQdGI2

7 Ways to Gain Lifelong Customers after Making a Sale

sales

What’s the most important part of a thriving business?

For most, it’s sales.

If you have enough customers, even poorly run companies can still profit. Of course, making sales isn’t always easy.

In fact, it can take several touch points with a prospect before they are ready to buy from you.

For almost all businesses, it is far easier (and cheaper) to retain a customer than it is to get a new one. Research has shown that increasing customer retention by 5% can improve company’s profitability by up to 95%!

Loyal customers have a huge lifetime value because they’ll buy from you over and over again.

That’s why gaining customer trust, and keeping it after a purchase is made, is so important.

And yet, most businesses have massive holes in their customer service.

They spend so much time optimizing their conversion rate for the initial purchase that they forget to spend any real time optimizing what happens after the sale.

This leads to frequent mediocre, or even bad, experiences when things go wrong (which they do on occasion).

A Mattersight study of consumers found that just one bad customer experience caused 70% of consumers to not buy again from that brand.

Most of those bad experiences are preventable.

But most businesses don’t realize that it’s not just the complaining customers who didn’t have good experiences.

According to Dunvegan Group research, 20% of customers who feel “satisfied” with their purchase will switch to a competitor in the future.

So, not only do poor customer experiences decrease loyalty, but even typical ones will result in a large portion of your customers trying out a competitor.

If you haven’t given some serious thought to how your customer experience after the sale affects trust and loyalty: it’s time.

For the rest of this post, I’m going to show you the 7 keys to keeping customer trust and gaining their loyalty.

1. Does it really need to be said?

The biggest reason why customers leave a brand is because they don’t like the product or service they get.

According to a study, 68% of customers will stop buying from a brand for this reason.

Your number one priority is to improve your customer service when it comes to addressing customer complaints.

Do everything you can to make sure your customers are happy.

Resolving problems with a process: Millions of dollars have been spent over the years on determining how to deal with customer complaints most effectively.

If you do a good job addressing a problem, you can still win that customer’s loyalty as long as the problem was caused by some accident and not negligence.

If you do research, you’ll find tons of different customer resolution models, all with their own clever acronyms: HEART, LAST, etc.

But despite having different letters, they all describe the same main stages:

When a customer comes to you or anyone on your team with a complaint, they should be met with the following:

Listening - Don’t try to fix anything before the customer has been able to vent and explain the problem. Give them as much time as they need.
Empathy - Always try to find ways to relate and connect with the customer. It turns the situation into an “us vs the problem” situation instead of the original “you vs the customer” situation.
Apologizing - You need to try to give every customer the best experience you can. If something goes wrong, a simple apology goes a long way. People can be pretty understanding when you sound like a person and not a corporation.
Solving - First, ask the customer how they’d like the problem to be solved. Or offer your own solutions for them to choose from. Go above and beyond here to maximize your chances of retaining that customer.

Call your own process whatever you like, but it should contain those four elements at the very least (in a similar order).

The two best ways to encourage customers to speak up: Here’s something that might surprise you. The average business only hears from 4% of its dissatisfied customers.

That means that you will never hear from the vast majority of unhappy customers.

That’s a problem.

However, you can double or triple this response rate by making your support more accessible to customers.

Some companies make it difficult to find customer service contact information, or they make their customers go through the hassle of searching through irrelevant documentation first.

Don’t do that.

Display your customer service contact information clearly on your website and also in any emails or letters you send your customers.

You want to hear from them if they have any complaints. That’s your only chance of fixing the problem and keeping a customer.

Yes, it might cost you more to hire an extra customer service rep, but you’ll make 10 times that in the long run from the customers you retain.

Don’t be shortsighted.

The type of contact also plays a role.

A study found that most people prefer to have a conversation with a real person when they have a problem.

This means that the best option for you is to have a toll-free phone number.

On top of that, you want a couple of other methods of contact for those who don’t like the phone.

The most complementary method, in my opinion, is to have a live chat option on your website, especially for anything software-based.

Both of these options should be as easy to find as possible for a customer. Take a look at how HostGator displays its contact information in its header:

What about email? Email is the final option you should consider offering. The study I mentioned before found that about a third of people like using email.

Usually, people use email for non-pressing issues. But if there’s a big problem that needs fixing, they want to talk to someone right away.

If you offer email support, make sure customers don’t wait a week before they hear back from you. They should receive some sort of response within a day.

Go beyond the minimum – follow up: When someone calls about a problem, it’s usually because they’re frustrated, angry, or annoyed. They’re emotional, and it shows.

This is a good thing because many people won’t tell you their problems unless they’re emotional enough.

But after the initial complaint, most will calm down. Even if your initial solution didn’t help much, they aren’t very likely to tell you about it.

That’s a BIG problem. Because if they aren’t thrilled with your solution, you’ve lost their loyalty.

You need to follow up with every single customer that makes a complaint.

Here’s an example of how Groove followed up with a customer who was having trouble integrating Twitter with their software:

They received a response from the customer saying that they got busy and forgot about the problem.

If they forget about the problem, they forget about your product and won’t buy from you again.

Take the time to follow up and see if your customer is thrilled with your solution. If they aren’t, encourage them to contact you again.

Tip: Follow up the same way they contacted you. If they emailed you initially, send them an email follow-up. If they called you, give them a call.

2. Learn to be a psychic for your customers

What if you could anticipate customer complaints?

Then, you could take action to minimize the number of complaints and bad experiences.

Many complaints happen because a customer doesn’t fully understand what they’re buying.

It may be because the sales page isn’t clear, or it may be because the customer is assuming far too much.

Either way, the customer doesn’t get what they expected.

If you think you’re ordering an iPad and get a Surface tablet instead, you’re going to be rightfully annoyed.

So, how do you prevent this from happening?

You need to answer all important questions before a customer buys the product. If they still want to buy after any misconceptions are cleared up, they are much more likely to have a good experience.

Remember that it’s never just one potential customer with a question. So, even if you only get one or two complaints about a specific issue, it could mean there are several other customers with the same problem.

But you can eliminate a significant number of these bad experiences by using a simple FAQ (frequently asked questions) section on your sales page.

For example, here’s what you see on LeadPage’s FAQ page:

I highlighted two that I think are really important even though they are all good questions to include.

“Can I publish my pages on WordPress?” - Some customers would just assume that the landing pages would work on WordPress because everything works on WordPress, right?

In this case, it does work with WordPress. But imagine if it didn’t and someone bought a subscription thinking that it did. They wouldn’t be happy.

“How do I know if my provider’s code will work in your system?” – Any landing page software needs to work with your email marketing provider.

If you bought the software and couldn’t integrate it with your email system, you’d be frustrated because you couldn’t use the product.

This would turn you off LeadPages, and you’d be unlikely to ever buy from them again even if they started supporting your email marketing provider.

Another example of a great FAQ: You can tell when an FAQ is really good because it answers the questions that many potential buyers have.

Not only will good FAQs improve your conversion rate, but they’ll provide all the necessary details to help your potential customer clearly understand the product, improving their overall experience.

Nathan Barry sells a course about building an audience and product called “Authority.”

On his landing page, he has these FAQs:

He offers multiple packages, and I could see how a visitor might not understand that at first.

They come across the packages on the landing page one by one, like this:

By answering the “Which package should I buy?” question in the FAQ, Nathan makes it clear that there are indeed multiple packages and some are better than others.

This prevents someone from accidentally clicking the first “Buy” button they see, thinking that they are all the same only to realize that they bought the wrong product.

This is easy to fix if they contact you, but of course, many won’t. Instead, they’ll just feel disappointed and possibly misled, and Nathan wouldn’t get their loyalty.

3. There’s nothing worse than feeling used

Everyone knows this feeling, and everyone hates it.

Let’s say someone pays you a lot of attention, so you naturally think they like you. Then, as soon as they get something from you, they stop paying any attention to you.

That is, until they need something again in the future.

Don’t let your business be this guy.

Your relationship with your prospects and customers is a relationship. It goes beyond just getting money from them for your products.

They need to know that your primary desire isn’t just to make money but to try to improve their lives and the lives of others like them.

Think about the brands you support the most. You likely do that because they seem like they truly care about the people involved in their work, their customers, and the world at large.

Tesla, for example, is trying to create environment-friendly technology to help the world, not just to make a quick buck.

You can create a similar image of your business in the minds of your customers.

It starts with giving more than you take.

Be mindful of what your sales pitches look like: Just about every smart marketer these days does the majority of their selling through email marketing.

When promoting a product you sell through email, you’ll typically create some sort of a sales sequence.

This is a series of emails that give details about your product, provide case studies, and tackle any concerns your subscribers might have about the product.

The problem is that it often turns into a pitch fest:

A business will aggressively send emails with the intent to sell the product (offer emails).

During this cycle, which can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, a marketer might send an average of an email a day.

By the end of it, some percentage of subscribers will buy the product.

But what happens to the emails? They stop.

At the very least, they don’t come nearly as often.

Here’s what the new customer sees:

They’re sending me lots of emails about how this product can solve my problem
They make a good case
Okay, it seems like they’re really interested in helping me out, so I’ll buy it
…(2 weeks later and zero communication or one email)
Oh…they just wanted my money

And that’s how you instantly lose a customer for life.

If you’re sending a lot of emails right before someone buys something and then go quiet, your customer will feel used.

Instead, continue to send them emails that offer free solutions to other problems they might have.

This is, in essence, content marketing.

For example, Ramit Sethi is the founder of the 7-figure business I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

He recently promoted his course “Zero to Launch” to his email list.

Guess what happened after he closed the course? That’s right, he went right back to sending valuable free content:

Let’s just take a second to see how a customer feels in this case.

Ramit promises that his course could make a huge impact in your life and that it’s truly a good thing for you.

You believe him and buy it.

Instead of dropping off communication, he sends you your product, but he also sends you more free information about how you can solve other problems.

That has to give you the impression that it’s not just about the money for him. It shows that he really cares about continually providing value to you so you can improve your life.

4. Support before moving forward

After you get a new customer, one of the worst things you can do is to stop communicating with them. We just saw that.

There’s one other really bad mistake that you want to avoid, and that’s promoting another product before they’ve even received the first one.

When someone buys a product, they’re trading their money for your product.

However, if they purchased it online, they may not get that product for a while. Usually, that’s at least a few days if it’s a physical product.

At this point, they’ve given up money but got nothing in return, which makes them feel like you owe them something—which you do.

But if you just ask them to buy additional products at this stage, they have no choice but to think that you don’t really care if they get what they’re owed. It seems like you only care about making money from them.

It’s a great way to lose a customer.

To illustrate this further, let’s say someone asked you to lend them money. Imagine how you would feel if they came back the next day or week asking for more money without having re-paid you the original amount.

Most people are going to be offended, angry, or annoyed.

The takeaway: You need to take care of all aspects of your customer’s order before moving them on to any future products.

A good friend always checks in – As someone who has sold both products and services, I love seeing how they improve the lives of my customers.

It’s a very rewarding part of business, and I hope you enjoy it too.

All you need to do is show this interest—show that you care.

Check in with your customer after an appropriate amount of time (enough to receive and possibly try the product).

One company that does this is Dell, the computer company. Two to three weeks after a computer is supposed to be delivered, a customer service rep will call the customer to check in.

The main purpose is to make sure that the computer arrived and that there are no big issues. This is also a great way to discover more of those complaints that you normally wouldn’t hear about.

Another example is Prograde, a supplement company.

In an email following an order, they encourage you to contact them if you have any problems at all.

5. Case studies aren’t just for selling

Regardless of whether someone just bought something from you or is considering buying from you, you want them to think one thing:

That if they buy it, they will be making a good decision. It will make them happy.

A lot of factors go into that feeling, but more than anything else, it is seeing the results of others.

If you showcase happy customers in your case studies, it’ll help your new customers feel like they probably just made a good decision instead of feeling buyer’s remorse.

The better someone feels after buying one of your products, the more likely they are to buy again in the future.

You build loyalty by delivering a good feeling.

Of course, case studies are also powerful sales tools. They can have a significant impact on your conversion rate.

They help in two different ways.

Again, Ramit is a great example of that.

Near the end of his sales cycle, he sent an email showcasing different customers who had bought the product and were now doing great:

He had about 10 different mini case studies in that email.

I strongly recommend using case studies as part of your content marketing and sales process. They are one of the most effective tools to build trust with your readers.

Here is my guide to writing killer case studies.

6. If you do one thing, do this…

All the things we’ve talked about so far deal with fixing mistakes.

And you should do them.

But there’s one thing we haven’t addressed yet…

How do businesses stay profitable even when making these mistakes?

Sure, they could profit more, but they’re doing okay as it is.

The answer is that they have a good product.

And if you have a great product, the other things we’ve looked at don’t matter as much. If you truly have a great product, your customers will have a great experience even if something else is slightly off.

Most importantly, if you have a product that is way better than any of your competitors’, you leave customers no choice but to be loyal.

Even if they tried your competitor, they would quickly see that your product is far superior and come back to you.

Deliver on your promises: Anyone can make a product sound great, but can you actually deliver on those promises?

A great example of making big promises is “Kopywriting Kourse”, a very popular course on copywriting.

On the landing page, the creator breaks down all the modules that someone who buys the course gets.

Anyone can claim they have awesome tricks and techniques, but actually delivering that is another thing.

Further down, he gives out his phone number to show how much he stands by his product:

Without actually buying the course, that’s about as sure as you can be that he will deliver on his promises.

You can deliver in different ways: You may not be able to standardize some aspects of your product or service.

A good example of it is Nathan Barry’s “Authority” course that we looked at earlier.

In one of his packages, he offers a one-on-one call on top of everything else he promises.

All the books and tutorials are easy to deliver. He can have those sent automatically. Those are fixed products.

However, the phone call isn’t.

If you promise something that can vary, like a phone call, you need to exceed all expectations.

A potential customer will expect to be able to set up the call in a reasonable amount of time, say a week or two after buying. They will also expect a full hour.

There are three main scenarios for delivering the product—the phone call—which have wildly different outcomes.

Let’s look at these hypothetical scenarios:

Nathan delivers slowly – Maybe it takes a few months to finally schedule the call. The customer can easily find better service somewhere else in the future. Nathan didn’t deliver in this scenario.
Nathan delivers as expected – This is okay, and many customers will be happy with this.
Nathan exceeds expectations – Not only does he schedule the call whenever is convenient to the customer (including the first few days after buying), but he also spends an extra 30 minutes with them.

The last option costs him 30 minutes of his time initially, but that’s how you blow away a customer.

Now, they will trust you no matter what because not only did you fulfill your promises, you exceeded them. Those 30 extra minutes will likely lead to thousands of dollars of revenue in the future.

The takeaway: Make big promises about your products, but make sure that your product lives up to those expectations. If possible, go above and beyond those expectations.

7. Everyone wants to feel special

One of the most effective ways to increase customer loyalty is to reward it.

If you give your customers something extra, they will feel a bit indebted to you, based on the reciprocity principle.

Most will feel obligated to give something back to you somehow.

Some do that by telling others about how great your products are, while others will do that by being a loyal customer. Either way, a small investment upfront can really pay off.

Your options depend heavily on your specific business, but here are four main types of rewards you can give out.

Example #1 – Exclusive offers: No one likes being pitched to. That is, unless it’s an actually amazing opportunity that only they get.

ProFlowers is one of many online flower shops.

They send out massive discount offers around big occasions, but only for their returning customers.

For most customers, getting an offer like this is a gift since they know that they’ll be buying the flowers anyway. This just saves them a lot of money.

In the future, they’ll have no reason to go anywhere else when they need to order flowers.

Example #2 – Loyalty programs: If you sell products that are frequently re-ordered, a loyalty program can be a great way to retain customers.

The most common, and successful, examples of this are fast food places. You buy 6-12 of something like a sandwich, and you get one free.

Online stores also take advantage of this type of program.

For example, the soccer store Soccer.com offers customers the chance to become a “goal club member.”

If they accept, they get reward points that can be converted to discounts on future purchases. On top of that, they get other benefits:

If someone is a member and is going to buy soccer stuff, they’re obviously going to shop at this store.

Example #3 – Fun bonus events: Any potentially free thing that you can offer to your customers is a good thing.

For example, an online food ordering website GrubHub runs an annual “Yummy Rummy sweepstakes”.

Anyone who has ordered three times in the past is allowed to play.

The customer gets to pick a card, and they have a 25% chance of winning something small, e.g., a drink, dessert, etc.

This is no different than McDonald’s Monopoly event. It gives customers an extra fun reason to go there rather than to a competitor.

Example #4 – Samples: Finally, another way you can reward customers is by surprising them with free samples (if possible in your niche).

For example, Bodybuilding.com often throws in small free samples of supplements that customers love.

Even though the samples aren’t worth much, customers like them, which increases their customer loyalty.

If they need to buy fitness gear in the future, they’re going to buy from this store because they were given free stuff in the past.

Find any way you can to show your customers that you really appreciate their business.

That’s how you make them feel special and earn their loyalty.

Conclusion

It’s true, making a sale is difficult.

But once you do, your work doesn’t end there.

If you want to maximize the value of a new customer, you need to convert them into a loyal, repeat customer.

To do that, you have to show that you deserve their trust and loyalty.

I’ve shown you the 7 main keys to building customer trust and loyalty after a sale, which you can start using right away.

Start with one or two, and then try the rest over time.

I’d love to hear about your experiences trying to improve customer trust and loyalty. Share them by leaving me a comment below.

Source Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/20Rrzer