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Chapter 4:

Ways To Save Money. 

Synopsis

There are lots of ways to save at home. On a day when fun is required, but funds have been wiped out, you need to enjoy your life! Believe it or not, the finest things in life are free! The things here will show you how to have fun free of charge, no matter where you are.

Some Tips

Save income on electrical energy.

Put in the new type of fluorescent bulbs in lights you leave on for long periods. They provide 4 times as much light and last 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Likely Savings: $10-$50/yr.

Lower the temperature on your water heater to between 110 and 120 degrees. It's not essential to have it any hotter and wastes energy. Likely Savings: $20-40/yr.

Discover if your utility company offers free energy audits, where they audit your home for energy effectiveness and advocate inexpensive ways to cut energy costs, like insulating the water heater, weather-stripping, and so forth. Just insulating your water heater may save you $25 a year. Likely Savings: $50/yr.

Set thermostats no greater than 68 degrees in winter and no lower than 78 degrees in summertime. Turn your heat down even more at night or when you're not home (unless you've a heat pump, which operates more efficiently at one uniform setting). Each extra degree in wintertime may increase heating costs by 3%. In summertime, each degree may raise cooling costs by 6%. Likely Savings: $325 to $500/yr.

Cut down on the use of your dryer. Not only is it a huge energy drain, it may also suck heated air out of your home very quickly in wintertime. Hang clothes on a clothes rack to dry out and use the dryer for towels and other heavy items. Likely Savings: $25-50/yr.

Utilize your microwave rather than your oven if possible and save up to 50% in energy costs for cooking. Likely Savings: $50/yr.

Save income on water.

Always do full loads of wash. A typical full load utilizes about 21 gals of water. A little load uses 14 gals. Several small loads utilize substantially more water than one or two big loads. Over the course of a year, this adds up. Likely Savings: $25-$125/yr.

Run your dish washer only when you've a full load. Let the dishes air-dry rather than utilizing the heat cycle. An average dishwasher costs $60 to $100 annually to run. Likely Savings: $35-55/yr.

Mend running toilets or leaking faucets quickly. An endlessly running toilet may utilize more than 8,000 gallons of water a year. Likely Savings: $25-125/yr.

Put in flow restricting shower heads. A family of 4 may save 8,000 to 12,000 gals of water a year. You not only save on the cost of the water, but likewise the cost of heating it. Likely Savings: $100-$300/yr.

Add fabric softener to your laundry at the suitable point in the cycle rather than adding it at the end and running a different rinse cycle, which may use up to ten extra gals of water. Figure out how much time it takes your washing machine to reach the rinse cycle, and set a timer so you are able 

to add softener at the right time. Likely Savings: $25-100/yr.

Utilize warm or cold water for washing apparel, and always rinse in cold water. Likely Savings: $50/yr.

Save money on other.

Use basic phone service. Extra services like call waiting and call forwarding may nearly double your costs for the phone. Likely Savings: $168/yr.

If you are able to live without cable, you are able to save between $300 and $600 annually. If you can't live without it, acquire basic service only. You are able to rent a lot of movies for the extra $150 to $600 annually you pay for movie channels like HBO, Showtime, etc. Likely Savings: $144-700/yr.

Plant perennial flowers rather than annuals. You receive a one time cost and enjoy the flowers for a long time, with little additional effort or income. Annuals, on the other hand, call for an outlay of cash and effort yearly. Likely Savings: $100-$300/yr. 

Head out to the beach! Public beaches are free and amusing. You are able to also walk on the boardwalk. Have fun constructing sandcastles or sport fishing on the pier.

Go window browsing. Go to a strip mall and check up on the fresh arrivals. Just remember that you don't have to confine your window browsing to clothing stores. Stop by the window exhibits at electronics and jewelry stores. Fresh technical gadgets are always appearing on the market!

Ask about free company amenities. You might not know this, but a lot of times the company you work for has a list of places (i.e. museums and aquariums) that are free of charge if you give your work identification card at the admissions counter!

View each season as a fresh way to have fun. In the summertime you are able to shoot hoops at the basketball court, play tennis or walk around the neighborhood with your acquaintances. In the autumn you are able to pull out your camera and take pictures of the fall leaves. Fall is likewise a good time to go to a pumpkin patch. Wintertime is amusing because you are able to play in the snow or remain inside and watch the snow with a cup of hot chocolate or a café latte. Springtime is good for bicycling!

Ask in your friends for a night of board games, cards and charades. The cover charge is a little dish or drink of choice. Your donation will be the free entertainment, so be ready to host!

Stuck at home with the youngsters? Whether they're on vacation from school or visiting for the weekend, here's a couple of great suggestions on how to entertain them free of charge.

Think about going to free community festivals, free movie events and free parks.

Think about a day at the beach, a picnic in the park, hiking in the woods, or a different outdoor activity. Swimming, outdoor games and adventures are an affordable and effective way to spend the day with kids.

Have a rainy day list of thoughts ready likewise. Visit your local library and rent some kid-friendly films and play "movie theater": have the kids make up tickets, set up the front room like a movie theater and pop some popcorn. You are able to also make up your own board game with novelties around the house, produce drawing and coloring games, or do easy crafts. 

Capitalize on ticket upgrades. It may cost a little more at the beginning, but consider year-round passes for local attractions for a good way to spend the day. Your local zoo or aquarium might offer such a deal, as well as funfairs and more.

Generally kids have capital ideas! Just be ready to give them a free or affordable option. For instance, if they suggest going out for ice cream, think about buying ice cream and cones at the food market instead and heading to the park. If they want to go out for pizza pie, purchase grocery items to make a pizza and turn it into an activity alternatively. A good imagination, and willingness to try fresh things, will help you go a long way, and help you stretch your dollar while entertaining youngsters at the same time.

Chapter 5:

Bring In Some Extra Money With Technical Skills Synopsis

Everybody could use some surplus money, especially in hard times. Maybe the bills were a bit more than you'd anticipated this month or perhaps you're attempting to raise some starter cash for your own online startup or business or perhaps you just need to figure out how to ramp up your existing business.

Make an e-book: all right, you’re thought is – everyone and his father are doing this these days. However, why? Because it works. If you're well-educated about a certain topic, e.g., how to weather coat a deck, power wash a house, give up smoking, make doll apparel – whatever it is, author a book about it.

A Bit Extra

Freelancers are a forward-looking lot. All the same, almost every day I get questions from those who find it difficult to make a sustainable living. I ascribe most of this to some people’s inability to think differently.

There are a lot of ways to make income as a freelance person that I keep a file of thoughts. While I seldom find myself without a project on my desk, when work gets scarce, I go through this file to perk up the brain cells. Today I’ll share the ideas with you.  

This might call for a bit of up front work,

however may bring in dollars for a long time to come. There are so many web sites in painful need of great copy that all you have to do is switch on your computer to turn one up. All the same, the key is to target those who are willing to compensate for your services.  

An acquaintance of mine knows an apothecary who made a skin care product. The product is distributed across the country through independent distributors. My acquaintance told me to check over the site to see if it was a product I’d be interested in trying out.When I got to the site, I instantly forgot about why I was supposed to be viewing the web site. How come? The grammar, artwork and layout were atrocious; particularly the grammar! I rewrote the home page and sent it off to the webmaster with a courteous note stating that I’d be happy to remake the entire site for $x. Inside a few days we came to terms and I got the job. You are able to do this also.

Professionals are a good target market for freelancers. 

Mortgage companies, insurance companies, lawn care suppliers, and so forth. Most have sites – and a lot of them are not very good. So, edit/re-script a page and send it to them with a proposition to do the whole web site. 

Commonly, if they use you once, they'll continue to do so for years to come. Offer to add each week, each month, every quarter, and etcetera. Add articles to the site to step-up traffic. A lot of small business owners are so busy that they don’t think or understand how to do this type of marketing. Call attention to the advantages and watch your customer list grow.

Consider the content for each page. For instance, you are able to go into company history on the "About Us" page, but you can likewise mention that your company has x years of experience on the home page, also. You are able to bullet your services on the home page and then go into detail about them on the "Services" page. Jot down some points for the content of each page. Decide where you want particular tidbits to be highlighted so each page isn't repetitious.

Add a little SEO. 

Do some research on the net to determine what keywords are "red-hot" for the industry. If the company, for instance, makes kitchen cabinets, you might want to include terms like "kitchen remodeling" "kitchen cabinets" and "kitchen cabinetry" to name some. It's likewise a good idea to provide a regional aspect for individuals seeking the business locally. For instance, "kitchen cabinet maker in AZ" and "kitchen cabinets AZ" are good terms to work into the copy. 

Utilize an attention-

grabbing headline for each page. Rather than "Cabinet Makers" you may try something like "Distinctive Cabinets for Custom Kitchens." When you get into the "core," remember to talk to your specified audience. 

Will you refer to the customer directly? No one truly cares about the content unless it offers them something. Rather than bragging about why the company is the best, or presenting a history of kitchen cabinets it's beneficial to keep in mind that you need to explain the advantages of what the company has to offer. What can Joe Blow get out of the site, and why should he pick this company to build his cabinets?

I always end each page with an easy "call to action." For instance, "Are you ready to discover how you are able to have the kitchen of your dreams? Contact us at (phone) or email us at (e-mail)." You get the idea. The goal is to drive the reader to take action.

Authoring e-books is simple – 

it may be done in as little as twenty-four hours – and you can offer it for sale on a web site like Click Bank or Commission Junction. Think though, most individuals look to the net for info. And, “how to” info is among the most popular forms. So, squeeze your brain for what you like to do, author an e-book about it and sell it thru a major distributor like Click Bank. One book likely won’t make you rich, but it may bring in extra cash for a long time to come. The most beneficial part about this idea, once you make one e-book, you are able to make others and truly build your income to the point where you are able to quit your awful day job. 

Think about your target audience,

 your book's advantages to them, its core, and center like a laser on that. It might seem to you that just everybody' will want to read your book - but that idea may make your book too 'generalized'. Remember, if you center your efforts on a particular topic instead of generalizing you'll appeal powerfully to a certain audience and reap more possible sales. It's rather like centering on a puddle rather than an ocean. 

Get to Understand your target readers; what troubles might your book resolve for them? Where is your book purchasing audience? Try to author a title that includes your audience in it. If not there, then maybe in the sub-title?

You have to be author and promoter, so write and make your sales info about your book as you author your book. Collect data about yourself for your author blurb (whatever qualifies you to author the book, maybe other publishing credits, any experience that's a plus), write about the advantages your potential purchasers are seeking and are likely to discover in your book. Get a few testimonials.

Check into places like Amazon to see what books are selling well and read their 'blurb' content for thoughts on how to present your own. A visit to your local bookshop is a great idea also. Check into some of the other marketers who are marketing books online. Do an 'E-book' search. How are they marketing? 

Author an attention-getting table of contents for your book. Title your chapter and add a sub-title to make it transparent to your reader what is contained inside. Read the table of contents of other authors to get an approximation of what may be 'attention-getting'.

That should get you going. Now, do some net searches, hunt down the needed info to get yourself set in motion, but mind the rip-off artist out to get your money. Subscribe to a few newsletters by individuals who are legit. Think about each step of the process, keep notes and keep acting.