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Ways to save money with social media

6 Ways to Save Using Social Media

By mpacheco

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Social media has been growing by leaps and bounds. I’m sure many of you have multiple social media accounts and you interact with your friends and family members through social media on daily basis. But did you know that you can use social media to save money? Here are 6 ways you can turn your Pinterest account into money saving machine!

1. Lower your grocery bill

Not an extreme “couponer”? No worries, just type in “save on groceries” and you will find hundreds of “pins” about lowering your monthly grocery bill. You can find anything from full month’s menus that will feed a family of 4 for $400 a month, to creating ready crockpot meals out of in-season vegetables and “on sale” meats.
Do you love technology? Pinterest is quick to provide you with the latest apps that help track sales, make grocery lists, and download digital coupons. Just search “grocery apps” and Voila! You’ll get a collage of apps that aim to put a few more dollars in your pocket book by helping you find deals on food items.
Looking for ways to save on healthy eating? Here are 3 ways to eat well and save big!

2. You don’t have to get it NOW – sleep on your choices & save

Pinterest is a great environment not only for finding things you absolutely love, but it also gives you the opportunity to sort through your choices, sleep on them and then look for a bargain on that perfect item both on and off-line. We all know it’s never good to buy on impulse. There’s no harm with “pinning” on impulse! Create your clothing boards, favorite recipe boards, and home décor boards. You can even prioritize your pins and choose favorites or must haves. Pinning does not cost you a dime. Making premature purchase decisions can cost you hundreds of dollars.

3. Save on home projects

Are you looking to spruce up your home but think it would put a huge drain on your budget? Think twice! DIY & Crafts and Home Décor sections of Pinterest offer countless ideas on how to improve your home on a thrifty budget. Is your kitchen looking a bit tired? Are you dreaming about those granite countertops but you cannot spend thousands of dollars on the upgrade? Did you know that for less than $100 you could achieve the granite countertop look by simply using paint? Pinterest is a great place to find those DIY tips and step-by-step instructions. This simple idea will save you more than 90% of what a professionally installed upgrade would cost. How about refreshing your bedroom with a new headboard? You can search hundreds of great DIY headboard ideas, pin those to your board, and decide which one would look best. With a small investment, you could have a refreshed bedroom.
10 remodeling do’s and don’ts!

4. Beauty on a budget & great thrifty gift ideas

Staying beautiful could require a substantial financial investment… unless you are a Pinterest user! How about learning to use natural ingredients like apple cider vinegar, cornstarch or coconut oil to not only cut costs on store bought beauty treatments, but also to get much better, natural skin care? Pinterest has hundreds of natural and very low cost tips on anything ranging from whitening your teeth to creating your own skin toners, lotions or even eye shadow. Once you try one of those natural beauty treatments and find they work well, you could create great inexpensive gifts for your friends and family!

5. Save on doctor visits

Pinterest is a great place to find natural remedies for many common ailments. You can browse though hundreds of posts that offer home remedies on anything from the common cold, hives, cold sores, dry skin or even simply boosting your immune system…you name it! Instead of rushing to your local pharmacy for every ache and pain, how about checking out Pinterest first? You may find that your cabinets or herb sections of your local grocery store have a natural remedy for whatever ails you. In no way are we suggesting that Pinterest should take the place of a physician, but for common, mild symptoms, there are often effective at home treatments that are also wallet-friendly!

6. Pinterest – your new personal fitness trainer!

Would you like to get in shape but the cost of a gym membership or hiring a personal trainer is not in your budget? No problem! Pinterest is a great place to go to for fitness tips and plans for losing weight, toning, etc. The Health and Fitness section of Pinterest will help you save hundreds of dollars on gym or even fitness equipment while offering you a plethora of ideas on how to do quick workouts at home or even in your office! Combine that with great healthy recipes you’ll find in that section of Pinterest and you are on the way to better YOU at a minimal cost!

3 low cost ways to becoming mortgage free

3 Low-Cost Ways to Becoming Mortgage FREE By mpacheco

 

Would you like to know how to slice years off of your mortgage payments and save thousands of dollars in interest, without getting stretched financially?

Anyone who currently carries a mortgage or anyone who is thinking about purchasing a home should pay close attention.

Here are 3 simple, financially feasible ways to help you become mortgage free!

Biweekly payments

One simple way to shave 5+ years off of your mortgage is to simply divide your current monthly payment in half, and make biweekly payments instead of one monthly payment.
If you’re paying $1200 every month, simply split that amount into two $600 payments and you’ll be amazed at the years and interest payments you can eliminate.
Word of caution: many banks will try to offer you a “biweekly” mortgage payment service, which usually has a fee associated with it. Do not fall for this. With a little discipline and good planning, you can do this yourself, for FREE!
Let’s do the math: if you have a 30-year, $200,000 mortgage and pay 5% interest on it, by doing biweekly payments you will pay off your house in approximately 25 years and save around $34,000 in interest!

One extra payment a year

Instead of making biweekly payments, you can decide to make one additional mortgage payment a year, either right after your tax return is received or whenever you get a bonus at work.
By choosing this method, you will maintain your regular mortgage schedule, and use any “extra” cash in order to make that one additional payment. In order to be consistent, pick a specific month each year that would be your month to make that extra payment.
By using this technique you’ll reduce your mortgage by 5-6 years, depending on your terms.

Additional monthly principal payment

If you do have some wiggle room in your budget, adding an extra amount to your monthly principal payment is the best way to reduce your mortgage, especially if you can find $100 – $200 a month to dedicate to your mortgage payoff. If you can’t come up with that amount, even an additional $25 – $50 each month will make a big difference.
Keep in mind that you should always focus on saving for emergencies first, then on eliminating consumer debts, and then on insurance and investing before you turn your full energy to tackling your mortgage. Once you’re free from all of your consumer debt (which most of the time will carry a much higher interest than your mortgage) and you have a solid financial foundation of savings, you’ll be able to focus on nothing else but eliminating your mortgage and continuing to build your reserves.

Tip for small business owners

Sure, you love your small business; it allows you to work on your own terms, control your hours, and pursue your passion. But there’s one problem: you constantly worry about money at the end of each month. If you can’t manage your expenses, no amount of passion can save your business. Try these tips to avoid overspending and get back to the work you love.

Change Your Workforce

Think about it: do you really need permanent staff? Salaried employees incur more liabilities and taxes (and even more office drama) simply by working with you every day. Hiring outside workers allows you to customize skills and labor to each project without committing to long-term employees (and if one doesn’t work out, you deal with fewer hard feelings, too). Temporary workers come in many forms; try virtual assistants for administrative tasks, independent contractors or temp employees for specialized projects, interns for menial or hands-on work, and commission-based workers for sales jobs.

Take Marketing to the Web

If you haven’t made an effort to build an online presence yet, drop everything and start now. Many of the best outlets for reaching your customers online cost little or no money — plus, you can react quickly to business trends and talk directly to regular and prospective clients. Build your own website and reference it on company letterhead and emails (and anywhere else people will see your business name). Speaking of email, abandon your paper mailers and send email newsletters with sites such as MailChimp. Build social media accounts to reach customers on their level instead of using outdated print ads. If you need money for big projects, try crowdfunding through sites such as Kickstarter. And if you only run a physical storefront, consider selling items online with the help of PayPal or Amazon.

Slash Small Expenses

Image via Flickr by reynermedia
The little things do add up quickly — and if you paid attention to them, you could avoid hundreds (or thousands) of dollars in monthly expenses. Before you make any cuts, check your monthly budget for wasteful activity and ask staff where they see leaks in company spending. Don’t neglect the minute details; some business owners found savings by replacing bottled water with a water cooler, using scanned documents instead of faxing them, or substituting Styrofoam plates with dishes and silverware. These small changes can greatly reduce your environmental impact while lowering monthly bills.

Travel Smart

If your business requires extensive travel, you know that costs can add up quickly — but a few small changes can dramatically cut your monthly travel expenses. If you fly out-of-town often, you may benefit from airline and hotel loyalty programs, as well as credit cards that accrue points or miles. For road warriors, try rent-as-you-go services like Zipcar instead of purchasing a company vehicle that sits idle for most of the month; ride-share programs such as Zimride can also lower gas and maintenance fees. Research extra tax breaks outside of typical travel expenses, since you may be able to make partial deductions from meals or tips on the road. Of course, staying at home cuts more travel costs than anything; try video chats with Skype or FaceTime to avoid a suitcase altogether.

Manage Money Online

Between credit cards, everyday expenses, and taxes, losing track of payments could land you in trouble. By using your computer and smartphone to watch your monthly funds, you’ll ensure you won’t forget a single dollar. Download FREE financial apps like Mvelopes in order to help you stay on top of your personal finances and always be on the same financial page with your spouse, regardless of where you are!
Turn that passion for your small business into action; you can make dozens of adjustments to lower your monthly costs without sacrificing excess time or money. With changes to your employees, marketing, travel, and finance management, you can get back to focusing on more important work.

How to save $1000 in 5 months

Limit Your Grocery Budget to $400 a Month and Build Your Emergency Fund!

Most Americans spend anywhere from $600 – $720 a month on groceries–that’s according to a recent Gallup poll. Food is, by far, the second largest expense for most of us, outside of our rent or mortgage payment.
Over 60% of us don’t have a $1000 emergency savings fund; hence, we are not prepared to face even a small financial emergency. Building a $1000 cash reserve is a critical step that will help you move towards financial freedom. So how can you do this without having to spend endless hours on reworking your budget?
One, easy way to start building your emergency fund is to take a fresh look at this second highest budget category, your food budget, and find ways to put a hard limit on how much you spend every month on feeding your family.
You may be thinking that this will require you and your loved ones to live on bread and water, but that’s really not true.
We’ve compiled some great resources to help you limit your food budget to $400 a month for a family of 4. if you’ve been spending $600+ on groceries before, this one small change will free up $200+ a month that you can start setting aside for your $1000 emergency fund. In 5 months or less, you can be sitting on $1000 of savings you never knew you had!

Aldi + Meal Planning

You already know this, but going grocery shopping without a firm list is a big no-no. What’s even better is planning all of your meals ahead of time and going shopping with your weekly menu in hand. Combine your weekly planning with a great discount store like Aldi, and you have a winning combination. Keep in mind that, because Aldi is already deeply discounted, you won’t be able to use any coupons while shopping there.
We found one mom who’s able to feed her family for less than $50 a week by buying groceries at Aldi. In her post, she provides you with a list of groceries as well as 6 dinner recipes. If you have limited time, you can follow this mom’s meal plan, or make your own, if you have as little more creative energy. The bottom line is this: spending one hour a week planning can save your $200 a month or more. We think it’s a great investment of your time.

Make Your Breakfast (less than $0.50 per serving or $15 per month!)

If you’re in the habit of stopping by to grab a “quick” muffin or biscuit in the morning, you should start making your own! You can get 6 english muffins and a dozen eggs for less than $4 total. If you ate one egg muffin a day for the entire month, your breakfast would cost you a whopping $15!
Other extremely cheap and nutritious breakfast options include oatmeal, cottage cheese & fruit, and making your own pancakes or waffles during the weekend, which you can freeze and use for the entire week.
If you plan your menu well, your breakfast items for a family of 4 should not run you more than $60 – $70 a month, and that includes occasional splurges on bacon, breakfast sausage, etc.

$7 Dinner Challenge

Dinners, by far, will be your most costly meals, but what if you could stick to a price-tag of $7 / dinner for a family of four? If you can do that, you’ll spend $210 a month on your dinners.
You may be thinking that $7 is not enough, but let me assure you, you can make really good, well-rounded meals for $7. We’ve started a Pinterest board dedicated to Meals on a Budget where you can find tasty recipes for as little as $5 for a family of four! Follow us on Pinterest and you can get regular updates with tasty, budget-friendly recipes.
Here are a few tips on making thrifty dinners:
- Be careful which cuts of meat you choose. Buying 4 chicken quarters is much cheaper than purchasing chicken breasts. So you can still have chicken dinners but for half the price!
- Soups are insanely cheap. You can pick one day a week and call it your “Soup Sunday,” for example. Serving a bowl of tomato basil soup with a simple grill cheese will be delicious and inexpensive.
- How about introducing meatless dishes? Veggie fried rice is super easy, super delicious and super cheap to make. You can even make enough to have leftovers, and all under your $7 budget!
Between keeping your dinners at $210 a month and your breakfast at $60 or $70, you’ll have $120 left for lunches!

BOGO + Coupons + Loyalty

If you don’t have an Aldi or another deep discount store close by, i’m sure your traditional grocery store is running BOGO (Buy One Get One) sales all the time. If you are not taking advantage of BOBO’s, you should! They can save you a ton on food and toiletries, especially if you combine them with coupons.
If you don’t have the time or the energy to cut out coupons, that’s OK! Make technology your friend. Consumer Report released a list of best coupon apps for both Android and iPhone that will help you save additional dollars without a whole lot of effort on your part. Check those apps out and let us know how they perform for you!
As always, combine your savvy shopping with Mvelopes budget planning, and you will be on your way to save your $1000 in no time, just by changing your meal strategy.
With Mvelopes, you can create one envelope for groceries OR you could create 3 envelopes, one for breakfast, one for dinner, and one for lunch items. It would require a little more managment, but this way you could track your spending in more detail, which makes it a lot easier to make targeted adjustments to stay on track.

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5 Budgeting Tips

5 Budgeting Tips for Singles By Mary Hiers
It doesn’t matter whether you make $20,000 per year or $200,000 per year. Having a budget will improve your life in the long term.
Unfortunately, the term “budgeting” makes people think of limiting their fun and restricting their choices, but if you take the holistic view, budgeting actually helps relieve constraints and increase life choices.
The financial needs of single people differ from the needs of couples and families, and the needs of single parents obviously differ from those of the single person without dependents.
However, there are several solid budgeting principles that apply to single people of all ages, incomes, and life situations, like these five.

Building an Emergency Fund is Critical

Conventional wisdom says you need half a year’s worth of living expenses socked away for emergencies, but keep in mind that the higher your salary, the longer it generally takes to find a comparable job.
According to the Boston Globe, a general rule of thumb is that it takes one month of job search for every $10,000 you were earning.
Place emergency funds where they can be accessed quickly and without penalty if you need them. Money market accounts and high-interest savings accounts are good choices.
Start your emergency fund even if you can only spare a few dollars monthly.
Any emergency savings is better than none, and if you use direct deposit you’ll be surprised at how little you miss the money you set aside.

Assess Your Need for Life Insurance

If you are a single parent, you need life insurance in the amount of at least ten times your annual salary. Young, healthy people generally pay low premiums.
If you don’t have dependents, but worry that a family member would be burdened by burial and legal costs if you were to die, then you should consider purchasing a term life insurance policy in an amount sufficient to deal with your estate and burial.
Lifehacker has some informative guidelines for determining how much life insurance you need.

Start Saving for Retirement as Soon as Possible

If you’re a young single person, start saving for retirement now.
When you start saving for retirement in your twenties, you set yourself up for a far more comfortable retirement than if you start in your thirties.
Furthermore, as a younger investor, you can take more risk with your 401K portfolio than older people can, and should some of your risks not pay off, you still have plenty of time to recover.
If your employer matches 401K contributions, do not pass up this opportunity.
Those 401K matching benefits are the closest thing you’ll get to free money, and they really add to your personal wealth over the decades.

Use Bi-Weekly Paychecks to Your Advantage

If you are paid bi-weekly, you have another easy opportunity to boost your savings.
Rather than depositing money into savings at the beginning or end of each month, have savings automatically withdrawn from your paycheck.
Chances are you won’t miss it, and at the end of the year you’ll essentially have an extra month’s worth of savings in the bank since you have 26 pay periods in a year.
If you buy a house and can arrange bi-weekly mortgage payments, it’s also a terrific way to pare down that principal over the years.

Never Assume that Marriage Will Fix Your Finances

Don’t think of single life as a precursor to “real” life that involves getting married and having children.
Manage your money effectively as a single person, and don’t ever get into the mindset of, “I’ll budget when I’m married.”
The financial habits you develop now can have an enormous influence on how you manage money should you marry and have a family.
Going into marriage with an emergency savings account, a thriving 401K and limited debt makes the future brighter for both partners.
Real life is right now. Don’t put off adult responsibilities until you have a ring on your finger.
Some single people, particularly very young ones, mistakenly think budgeting is unnecessary if they keep the bills up to date and don’t abuse their credit.
However, the financial habits you develop as a young adult have a massive impact on your future.
Budgeting now will make life easier should you buy a house, get married, or have children, and it can make the difference between a comfortable retirement and a retirement that requires a lot of sacrifices.

Freedom

Freedom

Freedom is measured in so many ways. It may mean having the ability to come and go as you please with no accountability to another, or to make your own decisions about what you want. Small steps, such as a wheelchair ramp, or larger steps like leaving a former safe haven and striking out for the unknown, all represent different types of freedom, as does taking the liberty to speak your mind and think your thoughts without fear of repercussion. So many times, though, freedom gets confused with escaping or running away. True freedom comes from having a sense of running toward something, not from something.

Burdens of our past and present lives can keep us from feeling truly free. We all carry reminders of hated restrictions imposed on us as children by seemingly unfeeling adults, convinced that they had forgotten completely what it was like to be young. Don’t we all long for the carefree days of youth, only to be followed quickly by the remembrance of our anxiousness to grow up? Growing up in an abusive or otherwise unloving environment can keep us from allowing ourselves to become emotionally available to others, locking us in a self-made prison. Only the awareness of the causes of our pain can begin to cleanse us of our reluctance to open ourselves to others and to take steps to create the lifestyle we desire.

True freedom also comes from letting go of all concerns of appearances or approval from others, of having full faith that we are exactly who we are for a very special reason, and that unless we realize that only we alone can dictate a full sense of freedom for ourselves inwardly, we will always seek it outside of ourselves. We find that random actions, another person or another place cannot make us feel free; it is entirely in our hearts and minds, and that acting on our pure knowledge of self will bring us the freedom we crave.

Carina Bachman

How to Cut Your Losses and Move On

How to Cut Your Losses and Move On By Leadership Freak

Trajectory predicts the future.

Minimize the negative impact of laggards by managing them up or out. Give employees on the rise freedom, opportunity, authority, and position.

Experience suggests you have, on average, a 60/40 chance of getting people-decisions right.

You hired them. You’re reluctant to acknowledge that their trajectory points downward.

Hope blinds leaders to hard realities.

Track trajectory:

Every person has trajectory.

Don’t go down with people who are going down. Lift them up or out.

Downward trajectory begins with attitude.

Watch for:

1. Inverted navals. Everything’s about me. I can’t get out of myself.
2. Black holes. Its not that bad. Its horrid!
3. Fat heads. I always know.
4. Life-vesties. Please don’t rock the boat. Change makes my belly hurt.
5. Finger pointers. I didn’t do anything wrong. But, they did!
6. Foot-draggers. I’ll get to that later. Much later!
7. Peacocks. You’re lucky to have me. I’m entitled.

Trajectory is about attitude not skill.

Pour energy into those with passion to improve; cut your loses with those who don’t.

Manage out:

1. Compassion and opportunity to change trajectory.
2. Clarity regarding performance and expectations.
3. Increased oversight and firm accountability.
4. Fewer opportunities.
5. Demotion
6. Removal.

Push laggards to the fringes and major contributors to the center.

Place your hope in people on the rise.

5 foundations of hope:

1. Recent performance.
2. Aspiration for development.
3. Drive to make a difference.
4. Taking responsibility.
5. Elevating projects to new levels.

7 requirements for upward trajectory:

1. Openness to learn, which includes willingness to acknowledge failure.
2. Unreserved buy-in to mission and vision.
3. Transparency regarding motives and intentions.
4. Clear – agreed upon – expectations.
5. Commitment to service.
6. Leveraging their sweet spot where opportunity, passion, and skill converge.
7. Consistent feedback, along with openness to receive it.

Honor people with upward trajectory. You get what you honor