Save Money by Conserving Water

Water makes up most of what we are, covers the majority of Earth’s surface and sustains all living things while able to kill any of them. One of the costs of living in a civilized country is having to pay for water to be delivered to your home, and it is one of those bills that can vary wildly based on your use (or misuse). The following are some ideas on how to whittle down that expense.

Buy a water saving toilet flush system. Check with Fluidmaster to get an idea of what’s available.

Buy a new low flush toilet.

Put a full bottle of water in the tank so less water is used when flushing.

Use the “brown flush it down, yellow let it mellow” rule when using your toilet. Or not.

Adjust the filler mechanism in the tank so it stops at a lower level.

Replace leaky faucets with water efficient faucets, or at least replace the seals.

Install water efficient low flow shower heads.

Make sure to ask your water utility or city about possible rebates for any plumbing items you replace. You can also check WaterSense.

Consider investing in a tankless water heater.

When the time comes to replace any dishwashers and washing machines buy a brand with a good Energy Star rating. You can also use the site to read about possible tax credits and rebates.

Use your greywater (wash water) for watering plants and the garden.

Collect rain water in a rain barrel to water your garden and yard.

Turn off the water when brushing your teeth or shaving.

Run only full loads in your dishwasher and washing machine.

Use a broom or rake to remove leaves and debris from your driveway, patio and sidewalks instead of the hose.

I’m sure I’ve missed some so feel free to share your water saving ideas in the comment section below.

Further Reading:

Ten Ways to Save Money by Staying Home

Money Saving Secrets: A Review

Make Money Freelancing

The following is a guest post by Lisa Shoreland, currently a resident blogger at Go College, where recently she's been researching chemistry scholarships as well as business administration scholarships. In her spare time, she enjoys creative writing, practicing martial arts, and taking weekend trips.

At the beginning of my freelancing career, I knew nothing of the online writing world.  SEO was a typo for CEO. HTML was something I learned to personalize my MySpace page in the 8^th grade. Blogs were online diaries for people without friends, not potential sources of income. Obviously, I know better now.

The online freelancing community has experienced an explosive growth in the past several years, especially since the economic recession put countless workers out of jobs. Because the webosphere is only growing with no sign of petering out anytime soon,  jobs are always available for practically everyone, even a college graduate with very little experience in “the real world” and armed with an economically unviable major like creative writing (yours truly).

Although my major serves me in my career as a fiction writer and novelist, I never thought anything would come of it in the online community. That was until I stumbled across hundreds of creative writing blogs within my first few months of freelance blogging. Not only has my passion given me the tools to put a decent sentence together, it’s given me a commonality amongst others in the blogosphere. Even if you don’t have professional experience in writing, having expertise in something (or a willingness to learn about it) is often enough, such as personal finance or fashion.  

Perks of Freelancing

As a freelance blogger, I have the daily opportunity to:

·         Make money to put bread on the table,

·         Gain experience in a growing industry,

·         Add to my résumé, and

·         Network amongst countless people from across the globe from my own desk chair, opening windows to new opportunities. 

Whether you want income from a job separate from your office gig or you want work from home, freelancing is a valid and potentially lucrative neighborhood to explore.  Here’s how I got started.

Steps to Freelancing

1.       First, look at the water before taking the dive. Check out some websites like Freelance Writing Gigs to see what jobs are out there. Copyediting, content writing, blogging, and proofreading are skills often requested on freelancing websites. 

2.      Consider what marketable skills you have to offer. Are you proficient in HTML and SEO? Do you have experience in copyediting? Did you major in English or writing in college? Even fiction writers like me can use their skills as bloggers, content writers, or even technical writers for sizeable companies.

3.      Decide what your standards are. I didn’t have any when I first started. I just wanted to make enough money to survive. Freelance Writing Gigs has some great advice on the matter:

·         Decide how much money you need to make in one month and how much you want to make in one month. Add them together and divide by 2. (Ex: need $5,000 + want $10,000 / 2 = $7,500.) This is your target price.

·         Then, take your target price and divide it by 22, which is the average number of working days a month. This number is how much money you need to make in a day of freelancing (if you’re hoping to go full-time).

·         Stick to this number, and don’t stray, or you’re going to be doing your bank account a huge disservice.

4.      Start small. It’s not exactly realistic to quit your day job on Friday and start earning the same as your previous paycheck by Monday. Start with an “this is just extra income” attitude and work your way up from there.

5.      If you do decide to freelance full-time, make sure that, whatever you’re doing, it’s stimulating in some way. Sure, you can make considerable money writing instructions for working your sponsoring company’s microwave, but this isn’t terribly scintillating stuff. Remember that whatever skill you’re marketing should always be improving. If you find yourself treading in still water, change things up.  

Further Reading:

Content Sites Review – Make Money Writing on the Web

Why Do So Many PF Bloggers Start Off As Financial Idiots?

Weekly Roundup

WalkJogRun is a site you can use to “plan running routes by drawing them out on a map. It includes a distance/speed calculator and calorie burn estimator. Click on the map to set a starting point. Then keep clicking from point to point to draw a route. Click on any of the markers for your route and see how far this point is from the start and what the estimated time would be for a given speed.”

Crowdbeacon is “a location-based service focused on providing relevant, localized communication and information to users based on what they need and where they are.”

Miniclip is an online games site where “you can play a large range of free online games including action games, sports games, puzzle games, games for girls, games for kids, flash games and many more. Miniclip game players can compile games statistics such as high scores, rankings on their own player pages and can receive awards for playing games.”

This article lists 5 weird ways to pay for college.

The song Candy Everybody Wants by the band 10,000 Maniacs came on the radio the other day and even though I had heard the song many times I had never really listened to the lyrics. An internet search took me to Song Meanings, which offers song lyrics and comments about what they mean.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.
This post asks if it is tougher to save money or make more.

Have a good weekend!

Frugal Lessons From The Past: Harlan Hubbard

History can provide some of the best lessons to help us figure out solutions to today’s problems.

Concerning finances, thrift, frugality and simple living there are tried and true bedrock principals that we should never forget.

This post is part of a series that focuses on some of those principals by going to source materials for inspiration.

In the fall of 1944 Harlan Hubbard and his wife Anna began building a homemade boat, a shantyboat, the first step in actually accomplishing their long held dream of drifting down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River to New Orleans. After several summer long stops they reached their goal in March of 1950. In this excerpt from his book about the journey, Shantyboat, A River Way of Life, he explains why he wanted to undertake the journey.

“There were other and deeper reasons for my going down to the river. I thought I might be able to engage there in certain harmless and simple activities which town, and even country, interfered with. For where can one find more freedom than on the river? The fields and woods are all owned by someone, and beyond the narrow bounds of the public road the walker is trespassing. I do not say the river is entirely outside the law, although we have been told of certain sections that are, but it affords a chance for a more unhampered life than any other accessible region.”

“I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independent as far as possible from a system of division of labor in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smoke as it burned on the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, catch it in the river, or forage after it. In short, I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realized from partial experience the inexpressible joy of doing so.”

Related Reading:

Frugal Lessons From The Past: Carl Faber

Should You Spend Money on Budgeting Software?

Debbie Dragon is a professional freelance writer, specializing in personal finance. She frequently writes for Vertex42.com which offers a large selection of free spreadsheet templates and financial calculators.

When you are attempting to get back or stay on track financially, a budget is certainly one of the most important necessary components. A budget is your clear visual of exactly where you stand and where you can go with your income. Without it, you can easily overspend, forget to save, and essentially live paycheck to paycheck barely making ends meet.

There are many ways to budget your money, including top of the line budgeting software and other technology that is promoted to do the work for you. While some of the software and tools are free, many are getting more and more expensive. But is it really necessary to go the distance with these programs? Should we be investing our money in such high-powered technology?

Measuring One’s Personal Preferences

There are really no tried and true answers to this question because it typically comes down to the person’s preferences. Ultimately whatever it is that makes you stay committed to doing the budget each and every week is what should be implemented into your daily life. If you feel it is easier to do some data entry rather than take pen to paper, explore the free or at least inexpensive tools for budgeting being offered. Since all programs differ in how they operate, check out the free versions or the trial periods until you can find one that suits your financial needs.

Working the numbers in a notebook can be just as effective as entering your data into a more complicated system. But the reality is you do have to start somewhere if you have not yet developed a budgeting system. Without understanding your budget, you have no way of knowing if you can even afford to invest in expensive budgeting software.

Here is a refresher course on what you need to establish a budget:

Gather Your Accounts

Even if you plan to use budgeting software to maintain your numbers, it is best for you to write all of your information down in one place to make data entry more efficient. You need to collect all of your billing statements, account numbers, contact information, balance totals, monthly payments, and interest rates from every creditor you are currently paying on. A budget worksheet will make this easier and more organized for you.

Compile a List of Expenses

Once you have the information in front of you, you’ll need to make a list of all your expenses, creditors, and account information in one column. In a second column, write down the amount required for monthly payment and the date it is due. In the next column, write down the interest rate if applicable (for credit cards). The last column should contain the total outstanding balance on the account. When all monthly expenses and creditors have been listed, total the amounts of your monthly payments and the total outstanding balances on all accounts.

Tally Income

Get your paystubs and other records of reliable income and total the amount taken in for a month. You will then need to deduct your total monthly expenses from your total income. If the total you get after subtracting expenses from income is a negative number, it means you do not have enough to go around. Supplemental income or budgetary cuts are necessary to free up more cash. Any total left over after the subtraction is what is ‘extra’ and should be allocated wisely into a savings plan.

Set Goals

If you can get your budget to the point where you are spending less than you are earning, you can start working on becoming more financially free. Budgeting software will often help you track your savings goals, but you can also find many free tools that can help you set up debt reduction plans as well.

A budget is an ongoing thing, one that needs to remain flexible and constantly updated to be effective. Whether you continue to track expenses and income on spreadsheets or prefer to try specialized budgeting software is up to you. The most important point to remember is that no software can add money to your income nor can it do the work for you entirely. You have to be an active participant in your budgeting process.

Related Reading:

Ten Tips to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck

Do You Keep a Budget?

Weekly Roundup

iFreebies is a new site that brings you links to sweepstakes, samples and all kinds of freebies. While there are many of these kinds of websites I really like the clean and simple layout of this one. And…who doesn’t like freebies? Take a minute to pay them a visit.

Slickdeals is “a free, user-driven deal sharing site with a mission to provide consumers an avenue to collaborate and share information in order to make the best shopping decisions.” Not sure what exactly that means? Go check it out.

When I first came across the site TED I was a little worried it would be either overtly political or just plain kooky. I didn’t need to worry about a thing. The site offers video of interesting, sometimes fascinating talks given at the annual TED conference about Technology, Entertainment and Design, among other subjects.

Here is a useful article about the 10 things hotels won’t tell you.

Use the free Lemon Check if you are considering buying a used car to find out if “it has consistent and significant performance issues even after reasonable attempts have been made to repair identified mechanical problems.”

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.
This article offers several tips on how to find free firewood.

Have a good weekend!

Frugal Recipe: Potato Pot Pie

While this is a delicious recipe to throw together anytime it sounds good, it is also one to keep in mind when you find yourself with leftover mashed potatoes or veggies. There is no need for a side dish with this recipe because it’s all in there. We have several versions of pot pies that we make from time to time but this is one of the few that has no crust.

Ingredients

2 cups cooked chicken or turkey, chopped or 1 lb cooked ground beef

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced

1 pkg. frozen mixed vegetables, thawed and drained (or use leftovers)

½ onion, chopped

1 cup milk

1 tsp. basil leaves

1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese (the last time I used ½ a jar of leftover cheese sauce)

2 cups mashed potatoes

Directions

Mix the first six ingredients together with 1 cup of the shredded cheese in a casserole dish. Cover with the mashed potatoes. Bake at 350 degrees for ½ hour, then sprinkle remaining cheese on top and continue baking until melted, about 5 minutes.

Further Reading:

Frugal Recipe: Kalamata Roast

Eight Great Homesteading Sites

While very few of us go forth into the wilderness to build a life from the resources around us like the pioneers did, there are some of us who have inherited their spirit of resourcefulness. We enjoy getting every last pennies worth of value from whatever we spend our money on, and doing things that help us to avoid spending altogether. We buy food in bulk, garden, can and freeze it and whatever we can’t eat goes back into the garden as compost. We try to do it ourselves with inexpensive (or free) materials. We salvage, reuse, curb, glean and forage. Some of us even have websites sharing with others how we do it. There are around 130 homestead related sites I have bookmarked, so this list might turn into the first part of a series if there is any interest. In no order here are eight great homesteading sites.

Mother Earth News – The Grand Daddy (Granny?) of homesteading and self-sufficient living sites. The self described “Original Guide to Living Wisely” offers not a little about a lot but a lot about a lot. When I visit the site I end up clicking one page after the other and can spend quite a bit of time there, but I never feel like I have wasted my time.

Homestead.org – This site offers a nice variety of in depth articles on homesteading topics, a forum, a cookbook and a weekly newsletter.

Homesteading Today – This is an absolutely massive homesteading forum. The main topics are General, Livestock, Country Living, Country Homemaking, and a Specialty section. Some of the forums have hundreds of thousands of posts, making this site one that you just have to bookmark for future reference.

Countryside and Small Stock Journal – This is the online presence of the magazine. They offer about one third of the articles printed in the magazine, as well as several blogs, an online library and past issues. Well worth a visit.

Urban Homestead – This is a journal of four adults living on an urban homestead in Pasadena, Ca. that is one fifth of an acre in size but produces 6,000 pounds of food annually! While there make sure to visit their large archive to find out how they do it.

Backwoods Home Magazine – They cover all the bases and then some. Subjects include farm and garden, energy, self-reliance, homeschooling, making and saving money, recipes, firearms and hunting, tools, health and crafts. They also offer a newsletter, forum and several blogs.

Pioneer Living Survival Magazine – As you might be able to gather from the title this site has a slant towards survival techniques as well as homesteading and pioneer living. There are lots of good articles on back to the basics, living off the grid, gardening, cooking and more. Check out their videos and forum while you are there.

Hobby Farms – The website for the magazine for hobby farmers, small production farmers and those that love the country. Here you can find all kinds of information about rural life including small farm equipment, livestock and crops. Make sure to check out the resources section, as well as the community page.

Further Reading:

My Ten Favorite Homesteading Books

10 Books to Have Around When the Internet Goes Down

Weekly Roundup

Vampire Power Sucks offers tips on how to save money by stopping the power loss caused by electronic devices running in standby mode. They also offer a blog and an energy loss calculator so you can see for yourself how much power you are wasting and how much you could save annually by just taking a few simple steps.

If you like sandwiches you are going to want to check out the Sandwich Project, where at the time of this writing they have recipes for 3,692 sandwiches. If you aren’t sure what to make just type in the ingredients you have on hand in their sandwich search engine.

Blorge is a technology news site “covering general technology and science, Windows, Macintosh, iPhone and Touch, IPad, tablets, gaming, photography, and buying guides.”

Here is a good article about 5 things worth haggling over and why.

Visit Dead Fred to trace your roots using their searchable database of thousands of identified and mystery photos. Anyone who finds a photo of a direct ancestor that is owned by the archive will receive the photo for free.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.
I wrote this post offering some tips on how to find seasonal work.

Make it a great weekend!

Money Saving Ideas That Cost You Nothing

Whenever I see articles with titles like this one I always have to at least skim them for some possible new ideas. While looking them over what many times catches my attention is that some of those tips cost you something to implement. Take the idea of growing a vegetable garden to supplement your food budget, which is an excellent idea. But you also have to consider the outlay for seeds or plants, cages depending on what you are growing, the proper gardening tools to both plant and weed and the money spent watering it all season long. If you want to save money watering your garden by collecting rain water you will need a rain barrel that is designed for the job of holding all of that weight, which start at around $30 each. A great idea that will eventually pay for itself, but you still have that initial cost.

Recently while reading yet another list of these ideas I got to thinking about what a person could do to save money that would cost nothing to implement. When taken to extremes you could say everything costs something, whether it is money or time. So to make my little exercise more workable I had to set up some parameters. Let’s say we are talking about the average size American family that has a dwelling with all the usual things found inside, a yard, a car, average income and expenses. How could they save money by not spending anything outside of their normal budget? I got the list started, but I’m really hoping for some help on this one.

Turn off the lights when leaving a room.

Open the southern facing blinds or curtains during sunny winter days to help heat the house and keep them closed during the summer to help keep it cool.

Take leftovers for lunch at work.

Eat smaller portions (more for lunch the next day!)

Wear an extra layer of clothing in the house in the winter and lower your thermostat a few degrees.

Hang up your clothes outside on a line to dry.

Use your library resources rather than purchasing items.

Walk to save on gas and for exercise.

If you garden compost your coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable scraps and shredded paper rather than buying fertilizer.

Unplug electrical devices (vampire electronics) when not in use to save money.

Okay, it’s a start, but I’m sure there are plenty more to add to the list. What money saving tips that cost nothing can you recommend?

Additional Reading:

Four Leading Causes of Overspending

What Would You Do with an Extra 35 Hours a Week?

Have Some Expertise to Share? Make Money Tutoring

The following is a guest post by Raine Parker, who writes on the topic of accounting degree. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: raine.parker6@gmail.com.

After I first lost my job during the height of the recession, I was convinced that the world was over, that finding another job would be an uphill struggle. Once the grief over the loss subsided, I got to work. I knew I had so many skills to share, but no one was hiring at the time, and I struggled for almost a year to find another steady job. During that time, I explored several money-making options on my own, and I eventually began earning just as much as I was when I was officially employed. Sure, it was hard work, requiring discipline and initiative, but it paid off in the end. The one venture that brought in the most money for me was tutoring.

Tutoring is one thing that will always have some sort of demand. Whether it's tutoring school subjects, standardized tests, or even extra-curricular activities like golf, tennis, drawing, computer programming pretty much anything you'll always be able to find someone, somewhere who can use your services.

Of course, you can't tutor subjects that you don't have at least some sort of demonstrated expertise in. Since I majored in English in college, I used this credential to advertise my services in helping local college students edit research papers. Having also scored well on the SAT, I purchased a few SAT books and helped high school students prepare for their college entrance exams.

These gigs were just the tip of the iceberg. I eventually branched out into other tutoring endeavors, including giving beginner piano lessons. You don't have to be a leading expert in any activity to help out those who are just starting. Craigslist is a good place to begin advertising your services, but there are a host of other venues to get the word out as well. One good resource is WyzAnt, a website that connects tutors with students in any city. Placing ads in local college newspapers is also a good option.

Since I initially had very little previous experience tutoring, I charged a very small, competitive rate. Once I started getting many students who experienced success with my tutoring methods, I got more and more gigs as my former students advertised for me. If you have some trepidation about the actual tutoring process, check out Tutoring Matters: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about How to Tutor and Tutoring as a Successful Business: An Expert Tutor Shows You How. These are both excellent starting guides that give you practical information about every aspect of tutoring, from business considerations to practical advice on teaching.

Related Reading:

Search for Scholarships

10 Free Online Colleges and Courses

Weekly Roundup

Relay Rides is a car sharing site that allows you to borrow a car from an owner in your area or to make money renting out your car. While currently available only in San Francisco and Boston it’s an idea that might catch on elsewhere.

Sports Reference says their primary aim is “to serve and delight our customers with the easiest-to-use, fastest, and most complete sports statistics.” I think they have achieved their goal.

To help alleviate the loneliness and boredom that many nursing home residents experience you might consider volunteering for the Bridge of Hope Nursing Home Pen Pal Program. To help out you commit to writing at least two letters a month to a nursing home resident. Visit the site for more information.

The rich are fully capable of making bad financial decisions. Here is the story of how a former billionaire’s wife ended up losing her antiques, her business and mansion and acquiring $66 million in debt in a matter of months.

Visit Phoneapps.com to search for the app you want, listed by platform. While I didn’t look at every app most of the ones I did included the word “free” in the description.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.
In this post I compare what products we buy used vs. new.

Have a good weekend!

The Greatest Results

In the 1600’s Owen Feltham wrote about the two human qualities that can produce the greatest results. His observation still rings true today.

“The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means and the exercise of ordinary qualities. These may for the most part be summed in these two: common-sense and perseverance.”