by Stacey Carroll, Contributing Writer
In current times, it is no longer cheaper to eat out than it is to eat at home for the single person. A typical fast food combo can cost as much as eight dollars. Eating at a sit down restaurant can cost as much as $20. Multiply that by five days a week and we have $100 spent simply on eating out.
The trick is learning how to cook quickly and healthy for one. Meats can be purchased in bulk along with a box of ziplock freezer bags. Roasts are between $8.00 and $14.00 a piece. However, if you cut them into two and three ounce portions. you can freeze enough meat for well over a week. The same can be done for chicken. Simply cut the breast in half and freeze them in their own ziplock bags. Vegetables can also be bought frozen for between .99 cents and $2.59 for larger bags. Add in a bag of rice and you have enough meals for eight to ten days for about $35 to $40. Once you have your meat portioned and frozen, preparing meals in 30 minutes or less is a breeze. To cook, put some water in a pan and take out a freezer bag of meat. Drop it into the water. Boil for 10 minutes or long enough to thaw the meat, then add your vegetables and rice. You should have a healthy and filling meal in about thirty minutes with no leftovers to put in the refrigerator.
Author Bio:
Stacey Carroll is the author of the thriller series - Avia. She also authors the paranormal erotica series - The Blooddoll Factory. Stacey grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. she went to college at Indiana State University (ISU) and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in aerospace in the professional pilot program. She has flown Cessna 152s, Cessna 172s, the Piper Seneca and the King Air. She also graduated with a minor in computer science that specialized in web design. She has always been interested in reading and writing, and the first book she was ever read was the Grimms Brother's Fairy tales. From the ages of 6 to 11, she read the Nancy Drew series. By the age of 11, she had graduated to Stephen King novels. A few of her favorites include Carrie, Tommyknockers, The Dark Tower Series up to book 3 (That's where it stopped in the late 80s/ early 90s), Pet Semetary, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand, It, Cujo, Christine, The Eyes of the Dragon and Thinner (Richard Bachman). In her teen years, she moved on to Anne Rice and got through about four of those books before they degraded. If you've ever read Anne Rice, you know book 5 isn't readable. Stacey has read a couple Harry Potter books as she was introduced to them in the early 2000s, and she's never read or watched anything Twilight or 50 Shades. Sorry. I'm a vampire purist, and nothing needs to be said about the latter. You already know. She is currently an author and freelance writer. She received an honorable mention in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 2008 for a short story entitled The Field. In 2014, she was published in 13 Stories by Us by MacKenzie Publishing. Other books by Stacey
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by Stacey Carroll, Contributing Writer
In this modern era, we are forced to spend money to live. We need money for rent, food, gas, etc. Every day we spend money on something even if it's just rent and electricity. So, what do we really need to live?
Rent or a Mortgage We can't get out of this one unless we have a family member willing to let us stay for free. Since that doesn't happen very often, we're forced to either pay rent or a mortgage. This is a fixed expense. However, we can limit how much we spend on our housing. I try not to spend more than one week's salary on housing. If the salary is too low to allow for that, I choose the cheapest apartment I can find in a safe area. Typically, that's no more than $550. Electricity We need it for running our computers, phones, lights, stoves, coffee makers and a whole host of other appliances. This is also a fixed expense, but the monthly amount often varies. To keep electricity costs at a minimum, open the windows, keep the lights off during the day. If you work, turn the A/C or heat to a higher or lower setting while you are gone. Typically, I turn my A/C to 80 in the summer and my heat to 65 in the winter. It doesn't matter how cold or hot it is in my apartment if I'm not there. Phone We need a phone to take and receive calls and communicate with friends, family, coworkers, and potential employers. Most of us own cell phones that never leave our sides. In 2005, I moved into my first apartment. I had a cell phone. I never activated a land line. It was an expense I couldn't afford and couldn't justify. The only reason I'd ever need a land line is if I had to do a lot of faxes at home. Internet We need the internet for a lot of the same reasons we need the phone; to apply for jobs, to communicate with friends and family, to research, and to keep up on current events and happenings in the world. I also use mine to watch TV and movies. I purchased the minimum plan from my internet provider. Car The United States doesn't have a good mass transit system in place outside of most major metropolitan areas. This means that we need cars. Cars come with semi-hidden expenses such as gas, insurance and maintenance costs. I purchased a used car in 2001 for $1000. For the past 10 years I haven't had a car payment and my maintenance and gas per month doesn't equal a car payment. I spend on average a thousand dollars a year in oil changes and car repairs. About every three years that increases to $2000, but it's still not a car payment. Over the last 10 years, I've saved a minimum of $20,000 by not having a car payment. I try to keep my living expenses at a minimum. I try not to pay more than $550 for an apartment. I try to make sure that my electricity is no more than $100 a month. I don't have a car payment. I don't have a landline phone. I purchase minimum speed internet connections, and I don't change regardless of how much my job pays. If I'm making more money than I need, I save more or I get more massages and facials, but if I'm at a low paying job, I'm not worried about where my next meal is coming from. The trick is to always be prepared for the worst and to always keep living expenses at an affordable minimum.
Author Bio:
Stacey Carroll is the author of the thriller series - Avia. She also authors the paranormal erotica series - The Blooddoll Factory. Stacey grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. she went to college at Indiana State University (ISU) and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in aerospace in the professional pilot program. She has flown Cessna 152s, Cessna 172s, the Pipe Seneca and the King Air. She also graduated with a minor in computer science that specialized in web design. She has always been interested in reading and writing, and the first book she was ever read was the Grimms Brother's Fairy tales. From the ages of 6 to 11, she read the Nancy Drew series. By the age of 11, she had graduated to Stephen King novels. A few of her favorites include Carrie, Tommyknockers, The Dark Tower Series up to book 3 (That's where it stopped in the late 80s/ early 90s), Pet Semetary, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand, It, Cujo, Christine, The Eyes of the Dragon and Thinner (Richard Bachman). In her teen years, she moved on to Anne Rice and got through about four of those books before they degraded. If you've ever read Anne Rice, you know book 5 isn't readable. Stacey has read a couple Harry Potter books as she was introduced to them in the early 2000s, and she's never read or watched anything Twilight or 50 Shades. Sorry. I'm a vampire purist, and nothing needs to be said about the latter. You already know. She is currently an author and freelance writer. She received an honorable mention in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 2008 for a short story entitled The Field. In 2014, she was published in 13 Stories by Us by MacKenzie Publishing. Other books by Stacey
by Stacey Carroll, Contributing Writer
In lean times, it makes sense to reevaluate how we spend our money. The best rule of thumb is to spend no more than 60 percent of your net monthly income which creates a 40 percent buffer. A 40 percent buffer should cover all the unexpected expenses we typically incur during the month without having to dip into credit cards or savings accounts on a regular basis.
Base Income, Gross Income, and Net Income First we start out with a base income. Let’s say we make $15 an hour and work 40 hours a week. This gives us a gross amount of $2400. We can’t do our calculations on gross income because we don’t physically see all that money. Taxes, medical insurance, and other deductions come out of our pay before we ever see it. For simplicity's sake, let’s assume that the taxes are 25% and insurance is $70. every two weeks. We have to subtract this from $2400 which gives us a total of $2260. Now we need to multiply this by .75 to get our net monthly income of $1695. This is the figure that we will work our calculations on. Rent and Mortgage Payments The largest expense for most of us is our rent or mortgage payments. Typically, realtors allow you to spend up to 33% of your gross income or $733 in this scenario. That’s almost half of the net income we just calculated. A better way to do this is to spend no more than 25% to 28% of your net monthly income. This gives us a housing cost range of $423 to $474.60. Now, we need to figure out how much 60% of $1695. $1695 * .60 = $1017. Next, subtract the estimated rent amount: $1017 - $474.60 = $542.40. That’s $542 for everything else, groceries, electric, cell phones, car payments, and entertainment. Utilities and Other Expenses Let’s take this a step further and assume no car payment, no cable TV, and no landline phone. This leaves a basic set of utilities: cell phone, cable internet, electricity, car insurance, gym membership. A basic cell phone plan runs about $40, gym membership $45, car insurance $60, electricity $100, and the cheapest cable internet about $32. Subtracting all these bills leaves us with $265 for groceries and miscellaneous expenses for the rest of the month. When done successfully, this plan would leave just about $600 per month extra for unforeseen expenses and saving. By the end of the year, someone following this plan would have a max buffer of $7200.
Author Bio:
Stacey Carroll is the author of the thriller series - Avia. She also authors the paranormal erotica series - The Blooddoll Factory. Stacey grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. she went to college at Indiana State University (ISU) and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in aerospace in the professional pilot program. She has flown Cessna 152s, Cessna 172s, the Pipe Seneca and the King Air. She also graduated with a minor in computer science that specialized in web design. She has always been interested in reading and writing, and the first book she was ever read was the Grimms Brother's Fairy tales. From the ages of 6 to 11, she read the Nancy Drew series. By the age of 11, she had graduated to Stephen King novels. A few of her favorites include Carrie, Tommyknockers, The Dark Tower Series up to book 3 (That's where it stopped in the late 80s/ early 90s), Pet Semetary, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand, It, Cujo, Christine, The Eyes of the Dragon and Thinner (Richard Bachman). In her teen years, she moved on to Anne Rice and got through about four of those books before they degraded. If you've ever read Anne Rice, you know book 5 isn't readable. Stacey has read a couple Harry Potter books as she was introduced to them in the early 2000s, and she's never read or watched anything Twilight or 50 Shades. Sorry. I'm a vampire purist, and nothing needs to be said about the latter. You already know. She is currently an author and freelance writer. She received an honorable mention in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 2008 for a short story entitled The Field. In 2014, she was published in 13 Stories by Us by MacKenzie Publishing. Other books by Stacey by Stacey Carroll, Contributing Writer Having someone come in and periodically do all the deep cleaning is awesome. They typically clean everything I haven’t touched in six months or longer like behind the toilet, the blinds, the cabinets, and the hood over the oven. They’re also going to have better cleaning chemicals that remove stains and hard water from sinks and bathtubs. It’s something I really appreciate, but it’s also something I have to budget for. Here’s how I save money on house cleaning services. Hire Local I typically hire local. I want to know who’s going to be cleaning my home, and I want to meet with them prior. A lot of time this isn’t possible with a large cleaning service. You’ll meet with the manager and discuss a price. Then, another person will come in and clean. They’re also bound by price limitations. They have to charge so much for each service. A local cleaning service will be more willing to negotiate services and prices. Do The Light Cleaning If you’re like me, you want the cleaning service to do the heavy cleaning not the light cleaning. This means that I typically pick up all my things and clear off the counters. The faster they’re able to move through the wipe down and stain removal of the counters and surfaces, the cheaper the price will be. This was a negotiating point with the lady I hired. She was willing to pick up all my dirty clothes, shoes, trash, and do my laundry, but the cost increased by $100 dollars. I told her I’d pick up my own stuff and do all my dishes. This has a dual goal. By picking up and organizing your own stuff, you know what you’ve got and you can put away any sensitive documents. I found a tax statement and a W-2 while cleaning up a pile of papers. Those are things that I do not want the cleaning lady to have access to. Ovens, Refrigerators, and Dishwashers I opted out of having the lady clean the inside of the refrigerator, oven, and dishwasher. I can do those things myself, or I can have her come back at a later date and just do those things. Either way, they weren’t on my must do list for this cleaning session. Also, if you have a self cleaning oven, it’s pointless to pay someone to clean it. They’re just going to twist the knob to clean, let it run, and then wipe out the bottom. It took me two days to pick up, organize, and take out the trash. My apartment is ready for the cleaning lady to come in and do the deep cleaning. The result was a $200 savings on my cleaning bill which is well worth the time spent cleaning and organizing my own stuff. Plus, she won’t be asking me where things go. It saved me time and effort, and it saves her time and effort. Author Bio: Stacey Carroll is the author of the thriller series - Avia. She also authors the paranormal erotica series - The Blooddoll Factory. Stacey grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. she went to college at Indiana State University (ISU) and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in aerospace in the professional pilot program. She has flown Cessna 152s, Cessna 172s, the Pipe Seneca and the King Air. She also graduated with a minor in computer science that specialized in web design. She has always been interested in reading and writing, and the first book she was ever read was the Grimms Brother's Fairy tales. From the ages of 6 to 11, she read the Nancy Drew series. By the age of 11, she had graduated to Stephen King novels. A few of her favorites include Carrie, Tommyknockers, The Dark Tower Series up to book 3 (That's where it stopped in the late 80s/ early 90s), Pet Semetary, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand, It, Cujo, Christine, The Eyes of the Dragon and Thinner (Richard Bachman). In her teen years, she moved on to Anne Rice and got through about four of those books before they degraded. If you've ever read Anne Rice, you know book 5 isn't readable. Stacey has read a couple Harry Potter books as she was introduced to them in the early 2000s, and she's never read or watched anything Twilight or 50 Shades. Sorry. I'm a vampire purist, and nothing needs to be said about the latter. You already know. She is currently an author and freelance writer. She received an honorable mention in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 2008 for a short story entitled The Field. In 2014, she was published in 13 Stories by Us by MacKenzie Publishing. Other books by Stacey
by Stacey Carroll, Contributing Writer
Cookouts are awesome. I loved grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, potato chips, dip, and everything else that goes along with a cookout. However, cookouts can become an expensive endeavor if you’re not careful. Here’s how I make sure to stay within budget and have my grilled hotdogs.
Have the guests pitch in Having the guests pitch in doesn’t mean having them spend money. The last cookout I attended, I brought things I already had; including ketchup, an onion, a tomato, and a roll of paper towels. It didn’t cost me a thing, and it saved the hosts about $5.00. With the advent of facebook and other social media, it’s even easier to announce the event and post the things needed to your potential guests. For the next cookout, we plan to invite all our family and have them each bring a dish. In addition to the social media invitation, we could include a list of things for them to bring such as foil, paper towels, plates, napkins, and plasticware. The guests that have those things on hand would be welcome to bring them, and able to update their offerings via a comment. Only buy what you need The biggest issue I see at cookouts involves bringing and having too much food. That’s wasted money and wasted food. If you’re inviting 20 guests, 40 hotdogs, 20 hamburgers, and two packs of bratwursts should do it for the meat. Add two bags of chips, some baked beans, and potato salad and your set. Anything else can be brought by the guests. I know I always bring my own drinks and a dessert. No one in my family drinks Diet Coke, and I’m a real grump if there’s no cake. Shop the grocery store ads the week prior Grocery stores generally have meat, coke, on sale during any given week. The trick is to shop all the ads for all the local grocery stores and figure out where you can get hotdogs, hamburgers, potato salad, Coke, and ice for the least amount of money. Doing this can save $10 to $20 dollars on cookout essentials. In short, a tiny bit of preplanning for every cookout could save you a tremendous amount of cash. It’s fun to get together and eat grilled hotdogs and socialize with the family. But, if you’re like me, you don’t want to break the bank doing it.
Author Bio:
Stacey Carroll is the author of the thriller series - Avia. She also authors the paranormal erotica series - The Blooddoll Factory. Stacey grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. she went to college at Indiana State University (ISU) and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in aerospace in the professional pilot program. She has flown Cessna 152s, Cessna 172s, the Pipe Seneca and the King Air. She also graduated with a minor in computer science that specialized in web design. She has always been interested in reading and writing, and the first book she was ever read was the Grimms Brother's Fairy tales. From the ages of 6 to 11, she read the Nancy Drew series. By the age of 11, she had graduated to Stephen King novels. A few of her favorites include Carrie, Tommyknockers, The Dark Tower Series up to book 3 (That's where it stopped in the late 80s/ early 90s), Pet Semetary, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand, It, Cujo, Christine, The Eyes of the Dragon and Thinner (Richard Bachman). In her teen years, she moved on to Anne Rice and got through about four of those books before they degraded. If you've ever read Anne Rice, you know book 5 isn't readable. Stacey has read a couple Harry Potter books as she was introduced to them in the early 2000s, and she's never read or watched anything Twilight or 50 Shades. Sorry. I'm a vampire purist, and nothing needs to be said about the latter. You already know. She is currently an author and freelance writer. She received an honorable mention in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 2008 for a short story entitled The Field. In 2014, she was published in 13 Stories by Us by MacKenzie Publishing. Other books by Stacey |
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