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by Stacey Carroll, Contributing Writer  Image © Lyn Lomasi; All Rights Reserved 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
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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
by Stacey Carroll, Contributing Writer
I love vacations. I love them because I can get away and destress and detox from my busy work-life. However, I’m not in the habit of spending a lot of money during my vacations. I want to have fun, but I also want to get the best price possible. Packages I am a big fan of vacation packages. In 2008, I took a Halloween vacation to Kings Mill Resort. It was a three day vacation over Halloween weekend and included tickets to Busch Gardens for each day I was there. The weekend package was $400 dollars. I have since signed up for emails from Kings Mill Resort, and every holiday, they have an inexpensive weekend holiday package. They even price the packages according to how many people are visiting. Because I was the only one visiting, I received a $100 discount on the package price. Driving The question of how to get somewhere is always controversial: fly or drive. I will almost always choose to drive. It’s almost always cheaper to drive, especially on short notice. I have found that it doesn’t take that much more time to drive than fly when I add in the layovers, arriving two hours early, delays, and car rental. Plus, I can bring as much luggage as I want if I drive my car. There’s no shopping for throw-away clothes once I get to my destination. Driving instead of flying typically saves me $200. Travel Sites If I have to fly, I always visit one of the many travel sites. My favorite is Priceline. I have also gone with Expedia and Travelocity. Right now, I could fly round trip from Indianapolis to Houston for $250 if I book the flight on Priceline. If I go to the airline’s website, I’m going to pay $350 or more which is a savings of at least $100, and if I book a flight and hotel package, I save even more money. Lodging It’s always cheaper to stay with family or friends than it is to stay in a hotel, so if I’m traveling to a city where I have family and friends, I try to make plans to stay with them. It saves me between $50 and $100 dollars a night. If I can’t stay with a family member or a friend, then I book a flight and hotel package. Food Instead of eating out, once I get to my destination, I check into the hotel room and assess what it has to offer. If it only offers a microwave and a coffee maker, than I take that into consideration. If it has a full kitchen, then I take that into consideration. Either way, one of my first stops is a grocery store. Eating out can cost $10 or more per meal, and I can cook my own food for less than $10 dollars a day. I regularly save between $500 and $1000 per vacation by using these tips. The saved money means I can buy more souvenirs or save the money for my next vacation. 
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
I drive an eight cylinder 1991 Caprice Classic. It’s the type of car that the government had in mind when they started “cash for clunkers.” That is, except my car was rated at 19 miles per gallon, which made it ineligible for the deal. That didn’t bother me. I didn’t want to get rid of my car back then, and I don’t want to get rid of it now. What I want to do is be smart about my gas usage. Gas Price Websites Places like gasbuddy.com and gaspricewatch.com are good places to start. GasBuddy even has a phone app. Both websites tell me that gas is currently $2.65 a gallon everywhere in Plainfield, Indiana. From that information, I know that I need to go to the Murphy gas station and buy a Walmart gift card to save 10 cents a gallon. Filling The Tank Once I find the cheapest gas in the area, I fill my tank. Gas prices have been extremely volatile for the last several years and most of the time, the price of gas goes up not down. Filling my tank assures me that I am getting the best price at the time, and I am not subject to the daily price fluctuations. A tank of gas typically lasts me between seven and nine days. Fifty Five MPH Saves Gas And Lives The only places I see speed limit signs for 55mph are on the highways in rural areas. I have one such highway near me, and the 55mph speed limit is only good for about two miles. Accelerating my car from zero to 55 eats up the gas I might be saving for those two miles. What I do instead, is pay attention to old yellow and new red lights. If the light is an old yellow or red, I let off the accelerator 300 to 400 feet out. Chances are I was already going three to five miles over the speed limit so no one behind me is going to care if I go from 48mph to 43mph in 400 feet. They’re slowing down, too. The difference is that I don’t apply my brakes to slow down. I simply let off the accelerator and let my car coast for 200 feet. Then, I apply the brakes. It means less gas usage and less wear and tear on my brakes. Multiple Stops During One Trip I go to the gym almost every day of the week. Near my gym there is a Walmart, an Aldi's, Minshu’s threaded eyebrows, and numerous places to eat. Just because I’m going to the gym and getting all stinky and sweaty doesn’t mean I go home to shower before doing my shopping. I do it all in one trip and save myself 18 miles in extra and unneeded travel. This adds up to a save five gallons a week. The bottom line on saving on gas: Plan ahead. Pay attention to the areas you drive through and look at the gas station pricing signs, keep an eye on the gas price websites, and fill your tank. These simple steps can save you between five and ten gallons of gas a week. 
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 my 20s, I was the poster child for how to not handle credit cards responsibly. I had heard all the vast wisdom about not charging more on your credit cards in a month than you can pay off before the end of the billing cycle. I was even given an example. My grandmother paid off all her credit cards at the end of every month. I should strive to be like her. The Taboo of Finances Well, finances and income was a taboo subject with my grandmother and in my own household. It was the equivalent of talking about sex or doctor’s visits. It wasn’t done, so it wasn’t like I could ask her how she managed to pay off her credit cards every month. Inevitably, the credit card people showed up with a folding table and credit card applications at my college campus. They were offering student credit cards and gifts for applying. I forget what the gifts were, but I wanted them so I filled out an application. Free was always in my price-range. The First Credit Card A few weeks later, my first credit card arrived with a $1000 dollar limit. I was ecstatic. I called the number and activated the card. I was positive I was moving up in the adult world. I had a credit card. I also had no income. I was a student living off student loans and work study and trying to pay for flight time out at the local airport. The First Purchase The first thing I charged on that credit card was lunch. I rarely had cash on me. Then I bought new clothes. Then I charged a flight to North Carolina for a vacation. It wasn’t long before I had spent through the limit on the credit card, so I applied for another credit card. This one had a limit of $2500 dollars. I charged flight time, gas, clothing, and more vacations. I even charged car repairs. I still had no income. I was using student loans to pay the minimum balances every month. It never occurred to me that it’d take 20 years to pay off the balances with the minimum payments. I’d worry about it later, like after college. Free Money or Not I think I looked at those credit cards like extra student loan money except I had to pay a little bit every month instead of waiting until six months after I graduated. Six months after I graduated, I had six credit cards with a combined limit of $6000, and I had lent one of those six cards to my mother who was supposedly charging and paying the balance on it. She wasn’t, but I didn’t know because all the statements went to my childhood home. I found out years later when a collection company called me to collect. I immediately called her. She’d take care of it. She never did, and in the meantime I couldn’t find work. All the credit cards in my possession went into default. I had $6000 in credit card debt and six times that in student loans. I was drowning in debt, and it was my own fault. The student loans I could put in forbearance. The credit cards punched large holes in my credit rating. Collection agency calls became the norm, and I wondered why I didn’t follow the advice I had been given in the very beginning: Don’t charge more on your credit cards than you can pay off at the end of the month. Well, the answer was simple. I never had any income to pay off those credit cards. I was living well outside my means, and I had been living that way for years. I was the poster child for bad credit card management. I never should have applied for one in the first place, much less as a student. Eventually, I got my act together and paid off those balances, but it took me eight years. To this day, I don’t have a credit card, and I don’t want one. I don’t even want the temptation of charging more than I can pay. 
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
My first job out of college was working as an overnight stocker at Walmart. Even with a college degree, I only made $8.10 an hour. After taxes, my checks were $498.96 every two weeks. That didn’t leave me much wiggle room in the budget and my rent was $474 dollars. That left with me $523.92 for the rest of the month. Being single and female with no kids also meant that I wasn’t eligible for food stamps or rent assistance. I would have had to have been earning less than $800 dollars a month to qualify for government assistance. So, I made due with what I earned. Student Loans I immediately put my student loans into forbearance. At $210 a month, there was no way I could pay them and eat or pay my electric bill. It wasn’t something I wanted to do. I had planned to pay off my student loans as fast as possible, but with the barely over minimum wage job, I couldn’t afford to do that. Car Insurance I scaled back my car insurance from full coverage to limited liability. It cut the bill from $80 a month to $50 a month. It was a car insurance risk I didn’t want to take. If I got into a car accident and it was deemed my fault, I wouldn’t be able to repair my car. Thankfully, I didn’t get into any car wrecks while I was making $8.10 an hour, but I was extra careful when driving. I knew a wreck could mean a financial catastrophe. Car Repairs I found a mechanic shop that listened to me, and I explained to them that I was poor. I also made sure that they were the only car repair shop I patroned. This meant that they didn’t try to sell me anything extra. When the heater core went out, they were willing to bypass it. I spent an entire winter with no heat in my car because I couldn’t afford a $600 heater core, but that was better than having no car. Holiday Pay / Triple Paycheck Months We received Holiday pay for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Memorial Day, and Labor Day. During those weeks, I made sure to work my 40 hours to spite my employer's insistence that I take an extra day off. The extra eight hours on my check meant a lot more to me than the extra time off. It meant I could eat and save a little back for emergencies. I did the same thing on triple paycheck months. Typically, those months were in December and June, and I would save most of the money on those extra checks to help with expenses during the next six months. It typically worked out very well. I’d use part of the Christmas money to buy new plates for my car. Rent Rent wasn’t due until the fifth of every month. Sometimes I could stall and pay rent on the second or third with my first check for the next month instead of trying to pay it on the 26th or 27th of the prior month. It depended on how the pay weeks fell, but it was always better for me to pay using the first check of the month rather than the last. My electric and cell phone bills were also due at the end of the month. I survived on $8.10 an hour, but it wasn’t easy. I spent a lot of weeks eating .88 cent frozen meals, kielbasa, and pork and beans, but I made it. The only extra debt I incurred was from the interest on my student loans. 
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
When we think about working, we think about the paycheck associated with it, not the expenses we incur as a result of working. I once figured out that on an average 40 hour week, I spent 1.5 days working to pay taxes. I spent another half day working to buy food for lunch, and another half day to put gas in the car. When all was said and done, I was only working 2.5 days out of every week for me and that was before all the other miscellaneous expenses associated with the job. Cell Phones It used to be that employers provided cell phones to their employees if they needed to get a hold of them during the workday and after the work day. Since almost everyone now carries a personal cell phone, many companies no longer offer this option. It reduces expenses on the part of the employer and adds convenience for the employee. They only have to carry one cell phone. If you’re like me and only tend to use 100 minutes a month out of a 450 minute a month plan, you can easily absorb the work calls. However, I know a lot of people that use most of their minutes and text messages every month. This means that in order to absorb the work calls, those people have to increase their text messaging plans and their cell minute plans. That is an added expense associated with the job. If you have an unlimited talk and text plan, you're good, but plenty of people still have minute phones. Working Off The Clock It is illegal for an hourly employee to work off the clock. Of course, that doesn’t mean that companies don’t have unwritten rules that require working off the clock if all the work is not complete. I have had jobs that required research or online test taking while at home. I wasn’t paid for it, but it was required for the job. In the case of a salaried position, every hour after 40 hours is a decrease in hourly pay. I had a job that paid $40,000 a year or roughly $19.23 an hour, but I rarely worked 40 hours a week. Most weeks I worked 50 hours a week. I’d get on the road at 6:00am and arrive back home at 4:00pm. Then I’d have to take calls from customers on my personal cell phone. If the customer’s need couldn’t wait until the following day, I had to drive out again. The added hours decreased my hourly rate to $15.38 or less, and since the job was salary I never saw any overtime. I figured out that over the course of a month, I was losing almost a thousand dollars in overtime pay. Tip Jobs Certain positions such as waitressing and pizza delivery pay less than minimum wage. The employee works mostly for tips. The hourly pay for waitresses has not increased in 20 years. They still make $2.15 an hour. Employees are now required by law to report their tips for the day and pay taxes on them. Companies are also required to make sure that the hourly wage plus tips equals at least minimum wage. If it doesn’t, the company is required to make up the difference. Companies do not want to make up the difference. If the waitress only makes four dollars in tips for an hour, the company is required to pay her an extra $1.10 for that hour in order to bring her hourly wage up to minimum wage. Chances are the company isn’t going to do that. What they are going to do is plug in the minimum amount of tips to ensure that she made minimum wage whether she made that much or not. This is a two-fold gotcha. The waitress didn’t earn that extra $1.15 and she has to pay taxes on that $1.15 per Uncle Sam. Companies have come up with some creative ways to cut costs, and almost all of them are touted as being more convenient for the employee. While it might be more convenient, it is also an added cost for the employee. I make sure I know all the extra expenses before I start a job. Then I subtract them from the hourly wage. If I can live off of it, I take the job, if I can’t, I negotiate with the employer for a higher hourly wage. Just because it’s an employer's market doesn’t mean you need to let them nickel and dime you. Know the extra expenses associated with the job, and know the hourly wage you need to survive. 
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  My biggest issue with grocery shopping and eating at home is spoiled food. I don’t like leftovers, and I can’t eat a pound of meat by myself. The same goes for vegetables. Carrots, celery, onions, and green peppers all go bad in my fridge. I can’t eat them fast enough. Of course, if I buy one or two onions or the smallest batch of carrots I run out long before the week is over. Both issues leave me irritated at the loss of food and the wasted money. However, I have found some solutions. Portion and freeze This takes a lot of plastic baggies so I make sure to always have a box or two on hand after I go shopping. I cut up pounds of hamburger into four squares. Then I shape those squares into patties and freeze each one in its own baggie. For bacon, I buy thick sliced and place four slices into a baggie. For chicken, I place each breast into its own baggie and freeze it. Basically, I make sure that each baggie is one meal. This way I can just dump the contents of the baggie into the skillet and cook it. There are no leftovers and no waste. I do the same thing for onions and green peppers. Except, since I chop the vegetables, I can fill the bags and then break off the amount I want when I want it. This assures me that my green peppers and onions stay fresh for as long as I have them. Pre-cook meals Precooking and freezing meals takes a little more planning. I have to make sure that I have enough plastic storage containers with dividers for individual items before I start cooking. Once I have all my containers gathered, I can cook large meals such as roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and carrots, and then portion out the food into the containers as meals. Once the food is no longer steaming, I put the containers in the freezer. In this way, I can simply take out my pre-cooked and frozen meal, microwave it and eat. Breakfasts can also be done this way. Eggs and fried potatoes taste just the same frozen and reheated as they did the day they were made. Just remember that in order to freeze potatoes, you have to cook them first. Otherwise, they turn brown just like they would sitting cut up on your counter. These two options have saved me hundreds of dollars on wasted food and several hours in cook time during the week. It is very easy to pull out a pre-cooked meal and microwave or toss the contents of a baggie in the skillet and cook. Spices can also be added to the meats and foods so that they are pre-spiced and ready to go. It’s no hassle and no waste cooking.  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
It took me years to figure out my livable wage or the lowest wage by which I could pay all my bills and live comfortably. My mental guess at that wage was between $9 and $10 dollars an hour. I figured if I made $12 to $14 an hour I would be living very well. I was wrong. It wasn’t until I hit $15 dollars an hour that I was able to pay all my bills comfortably and have money left over for entertainment. Instead of guessing and slowly increasing my hourly wage through promotions and job changes, I could have calculated my livable wage long before I took my first out-of-college job for $8.10 an hour. In fact, I would have known right away that $8.10 an hour wouldn’t pay my bills. Bills fall into three categories: Housing, Miscellaneous and Emergency. Housing Housing includes every bill related to living somewhere. For my housing bills I include my rent, cell phone, electricity and internet. The only bill in that list that isn’t a fixed amount is my electricity. I budget $100 for my electric bill or about $20 more than my average electric bill. That ensures that I have a buffer just in case I use more electricity than anticipated. I budget $750 for these expenses. Miscellaneous For my miscellaneous bills, I include food, gas, car insurance, medical insurance, my gym membership, and any other regular bill that isn’t directly associated with my housing. During times of low income, I know I can cut some of these expenses. I can buy less food, cancel the gym membership, and downgrade my car insurance. For me, these expenses are $400 to $600 a month. Emergency These are bills that simply can’t be budgeted for easily. They include car repairs, taxes, unforeseen medical expenses, and anything else that comes up suddenly and without warning. I try to budget $200 a month for emergencies. If I don’t use that money, it stays in the savings account, if I do; it’s not a hard knock against my regular finances. These three categories cost me an average of $1600 dollars a month or roughly $10 dollars an hour for a 40 hour work week, but that’s before taxes. When I figure out my lowest livable wage, I have to include 23% more than I need so that my net income is $1600 dollars a month. That means that I need a minimum of $12.30 an hour to pay all my bills or $15 dollars an hour to have money leftover for entertainment. 
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 this day and age, I am always looking for the best deal, the product that meets my needs yet costs the least. This morning I made a list of what I needed and pre-planned whether or not I could get it cheaper and Walmart or Dollar Tree. These are some of my findings. Items that can be gotten cheaper at Walmart 1. Walmart generic (Great Value) tissues 110 count: 86 cents I honestly like these better than the brand names. They hold up better. They don’t tear and they double as decent napkins. They are also 14 cents cheaper than the Dollar Tree version. 2. Shampoo and Conditioner: 84 cents I buy Sauve in 15 ounce bottles. The dollar store version can range from 15 ounces to 32 ounces, but I find Sauve works better than the super generic brands. The savings is 16 cents compared to the dollar store. 3. Diet Dr. Thunder 2 liter: 68 to 78 cents depending on the season For the Dr. Pepper fan, this is a close comparison. I can’t taste a difference, and 2 liter bottles are always cheaper per ounce than any other package size. By comparison, the dollar store sells a 3 liter generic, but to me it isn’t worth it. Two liters go flat within a couple days. A 3 liter is even bigger and thus there is more risk is wasting the product. Savings as compared to the dollar store is between 22 and 32 cents. Items that can be gotten cheaper at the Dollar Store 1. Toothbrushes: $1.00 The same fancy designs with colored, extra, and tilted bristles can be found at the dollar store. The packs range from one toothbrush to five depending on which style and brand you like. By comparison, toothbrushes at Walmart can range from 97 cents to several dollars. I like the consistency in price and choice better at Dollar Tree. 2. Cotton Swabs: $1.00 The cheapest pack of cotton swabs is 500 count and $1.98 at Walmart. The Dollar Tree brand has 400 cotton swabs which is almost half the cost of the Walmart generic. 3. Vegetable oil 17 ounces: $1.00 If you're like me and go through a bottle of oil in six months, this is more economical. It’s less oil, but it’s also less unused money sitting on the counter. 4. Hunt's tomato ketchup 24 ounces: $1.00 Hunt's is my favorite brand of ketchup. It tastes great and it has no high fructose corn syrup. Walmart sells it between $1.58 and $1.64 for the same size. It’s a savings of between 58 and 64 cents per bottle. It takes a little pre-planning and making a shopping list, but between the two retailers, it is possible to get the best deal and not waste a single penny. 
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  Image © Lyn Lomasi; All Rights Reserved I hate cleaning. However, it is a necessary evil for those of us who don’t wish to live in filth. Since I like a clean apartment, I know I need to clean it, and I need to buy cleaning supplies. However, I don’t want to spend a small fortune on those supplies. I have found some interesting ways to save money on cleaning supplies without digging through the Sunday paper for coupons. Make Your Own There are several recipes online for making various types of soaps. My favorite soap to make is powdered laundry soap. It’s also the easiest with three ingredients: washing powder, borax, and Ivory bar soap. The initial cost of the supplies is about $15. With a half a box of borax, 12 bars of ivory soap, and a box of washing powder, I can make enough laundry soap to last two years. Each load takes two tablespoons of powder. I save about $120 a year by making my own laundry soap. Vinegar I can buy a gallon bottle of vinegar for about $2, and it takes the place of almost every all purpose cleaner on the market. Vinegar sterilizes and cleans and it’s environmentally friendly. The only other all purpose cleaner I need is bleach, and that’s only to get tough stains out from my counters and floors. I save about $200 a year by simply buying Vinegar and Bleach. To save even more money, I water both down to 75% concentration. Shower and Toilet Cleaners I can use vinegar and bleach on my shower and toilet, but I don’t prefer to. I prefer to use chemicals specifically designed to clean showers and toilets. My favorite two bathroom cleaners are Oxiclean and Works toilet bowl cleaner, and I can get both of those at the Dollar Store. I also buy my dish soap at the dollar store. This saves me roughly $100 a year on bathroom cleaners and dish soap. Trash Bags I don’t worry too much about the cost of a package of trash bags. What I am more interested in is the size of the trash bag. I can go through a 13 gallon trash bag in a day, so instead of buying 13 gallon trash bags, I buy 30 gallon trash bags. They cost a little more, but I use one 30 gallon trash bag a week verses five to seven 13 gallon trash bags. It saves me about $15 a month on trash bags. All in all I save about $420 a year on cleaning chemicals by making my own, and shopping at the dollar store. This decreases my cleaning budget substantially allowing me more cash for other items such as food and gas for my car.  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
With the sudden advent of Kleenex hand towels, another way to waste money on paper products has been invented. Unless you have frequent company or a guest bathroom that you never use and never walk into, you don’t need paper hand towels. Think about how many times a day you wash your hands. That’s a paper towel or two every time. Now think about how many of those boxes you’d go through a day, week, month year. It’s money you don’t need to be spending when a regular washable hand towel will do just fine. With that being said, there are some household paper products that you do need. Toilet Paper This is a no brainer. We all need toilet paper. Otherwise, we’d be wiping our tail ends on wash cloths or hand towels and then putting them in the washer. While that might save money, I wouldn’t put butt-dirty towels into my washing machine. What I do instead is look for coupons or store sales on my favorite brands of toilet paper. In truth, there are only two brands of toilet paper I buy: Scott and Charmin Basic, and I can find coupons in most Sunday papers that save me anywhere from .50 cents to a dollar per pack. Facial Tissues The cheapest box of facial tissues will do. I can find them for .84 cents a box, and when I can’t, I can find them for a dollar a box. Unless you have a cold or severe allergies, you don’t need the softest facial tissue out there. Also, don’t waste them by using them as paper towels and napkins. Facial tissues are not designed for that. You’ll end up using half a box a meal. That’s wasted money. Paper Towels Paper towels are very versatile. They can be used to wipe up spills, dry your hands, clean a counter, as napkins, and as nose wipes. I recommend using them for draining the grease from foods only. Hands can be dried on a conventional towel. Counters can be cleaned with wash cloths. Facial tissues can be used to blow your nose, and cloth napkins work just as well as any paper product. By using your paper towels for draining grease off food only, you are saving yourself countless dollars on paper towels because you aren’t running through a roll every three days. A three pack of paper towels can last me a month or longer. Napkins I don’t buy napkins unless I’m going camping or on a picnic. For hand wiping needs during meals, I use cloth napkins. Cloth napkins can be washed with the regular laundry and reused, thus, saving me lots of money in paper napkin costs. 
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
There’s no denying that going to the gym improves strength, agility, stamina, and mood, but I have found that it also saves me money. The savings comes in various forms including food, health care expenses, clothing, and impulse shopping. Food Typically, I go to the gym within two hours of waking up, and the last thing I want to put in my stomach is greasy fattening food. This means that I’ll make a pot of coffee and eat two pieces of toast and a banana for breakfast. The cost is minimal. A loaf of low calorie whole grain bread is $2.14 and bananas are .52 cents a pound. Both items last me more than a week. Prior to my morning gym routine, I would stop by Dunkin Donuts and buy an extra large coffee and two doughnuts for $6.50. Since I no longer want the fast food, I am saving over $40 dollars a week in out to eat food expenses. Grocery shopping is the same way. I no longer stop by the snack food aisle. I don’t buy chips, cookies, or boxed meals. Instead, I buy bananas, bread, egg beaters, soy milk, and various other fresh fruits and vegetables. The cost difference to my weekly grocery bill is $20 which means between my lack of fast food and junk food, I am saving myself $60 a week. Health Care Prior to my weekly gym routine, I’d frequently catch colds and sinus infections multiple times a year. I was also plagued with bladder infections. The sinus and bladder infections would send me to the doctor for antibiotics. The cost of a doctor’s visit ranges from $100 to $250 or more not including the cost of the prescription, and I’d visit the doctor two or three times a year. Since I started my gym routine, I have less colds and sinus infections, and the sheer amount of water I drink prevents the bladder infections. Not to mention, I no longer want to drink four Cokes a day. I’m down to two Cokes a day. I estimate the cost savings at $500 a year. Clothing Clothing is expensive. There’s no getting around it, and prior to going to the gym, I’d grow out of my clothes every year. That meant buying a new wardrobe every 12 months because I was too fat to fit into what I wore the year prior. I started going to the gym regularly a year and a half ago and have lost 20 pounds. The result is that I can fit into clothes that I haven’t been able to fit into in years. It’s like buying a new wardrobe except I don’t have to spend money on it. I just have to look in my closet. My shrinking body easily saves me $500 a year in clothing costs. Impulse Shopping My impulse shopping is directly related to my mood. When I’m upset or agitated, I go shopping. I’ll hang out for hours in clothing stores and bookstores and buy whatever is on sale. The purchases would improve my mood, but they were devastating to my finances. More than once, I’d come home with $200 worth of blankets and bedding and $50 worth of new books. It was money I didn’t need to spend, and items I don’t need. These days going to the gym improves my mood and makes me feel productive about my day. I no longer buy items I don’t need. It saves me $1000 dollars a year in impulse buys. My gym membership costs me $150 dollars a year. Going to the gym saves me over $2000 dollars a year in miscellaneous expenses. That’s incredible to me, and one of the reasons I will continue to go to the gym seven times a week. 
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
When it comes to eating, I often fight between saving money and saving time. To spite the numerous 30 minute dinner articles, I’ve never found a dinner that took 30 minutes. Usually, it’s more like an hour to an hour and a half, not including cleanup. I don’t have that kind of time. Chances are if I’m cooking, I also need to be doing something else. Tonight was no different. I needed to eat, go to the gym, and write. One solution was to put on my gym clothes, run to subway, buy a $5 sub, go to the gym, and skip the writing, or try to write after the gym in the hour that I’d have before bed. The five dollar sub saves time, but it costs money. I have frozen chicken patties in the freezer and frozen Rallys French fries. Both take 20 minutes to bake, and I can write while the food cooks. Since I had already eaten out twice today (breakfast and lunch), I decided no matter how healthy Subway is, I didn’t need to spend $15 on food for the day. I opted to save money versus saving time. Now, let’s say I really wanted that sub, but I didn’t want to go to Subway for it. Buying a sub kit can cost anywhere from $8 to $13, but that also means that I need to drive to the store, buy the sub kit, drive home, assemble it, and eat. I’m not saving money, and I’m not saving time. The third solution involves everything separately during my normal weekly shopping run: ham, turkey, lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapeños, mayo and a package of sub rolls. A half pound of ham and a half pound of turkey will run me somewhere between $7 and $8. Shredded lettuce is $1.50 to $2. Tomatoes run $1.50 a pound. Mayo I can pick up for $2 and jalapeños run about $1.80. The pack of sub rolls could cost me anywhere from $1.50 to $4. The out of pocket cost is around $20. I know I can make at least four subs taking my per sub cost down to $5.00, and I can use the leftovers for other things. However, if I don’t feel like making and eating four subs in a week, the food rots which translates into wasted money. For the single person, it’s the eternal catch-22. Do I potentially save money and risk wasted food, or do I save time and spend more? It depends on the day. However, for the sub example, I’ll almost always eat out. It’s cheaper, faster, and I don’t have to worry about rotting food in my 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 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
If you’re like me, having $10 to go out to eat at the end of the week is a good week. You don’t buy $5 lattes every morning. Your at home coffee is Master Blend in a Folgers container which you then put in your free plastic reusable Dunkin doughnuts mug because you don’t want your coworkers to know you drink generic coffee and had toast and peanut butter for breakfast. So, how do you get ahead when you can’t make ends meet in the first place? Plan ahead. By plan ahead, I mean budget for everything. This includes food, gas and miscellaneous expenses. I always start my shopping with a dollar amount and a meal plan. My dollar amount is typically $50 a week for everything including toiletries, soap, paper towels, Kleenex and food. On bad weeks that means that most of my shopping trip is paper products and not food. I’m not above wiping my tail with a wash cloth, but I’d rather not. Off hand, I know that 24 rolls of toilet paper are going to cost me $11, and I use roughly one roll a day. I’m a girl, I can’t help that, so I budget for it. Twenty four rolls is 24 days, and I try to do that the week after rent is due. Rent is always a tight week for me. I also know that every week I need at least five 2 liters of Coke. That’s between $5 and $6.25. Bread is $1.00. Sometimes I can find it for .75 cents. I also run through a large container of coffee twice a month. I budget for $6.00 twice a month for coffee. Generally, the first week of the month and the third week of the month. I can’t afford bottled water so I buy one 24 ounce plastic bottle and refill it until I lose it. Generally, one bottle costs me $1.50 and I use it for 10 to 14 days. I run through about three boxes of Kleenex a week. I tend to use for napkins more than anything else. I can buy generic Kleenex for .84 cents a box. I can buy Suave for .87 cents a bottle. A bottle of Shampoo and Conditioner tends to last me between two and three weeks. I also keep my hair short in order to use less of both. Paper towels I can find in three packs for $2.85. I generally need one 3-pack a month. The things I have listed so far total $32.61 before tax. This means that I have roughly $15 dollars to spend on food. What do I buy? Bananas, soy milk, cereal, eggs, butter, potatoes and ketchup. That’s it. I know that’s what I’ll eat. I know those foods will last me a week until I can spend another $50 dollars on mostly food instead of mostly paper products and coffee. Notice that I didn’t say I clip coupons. I don’t. I buy generic, and as a general rule, there are no coupons for generic products. When I do have coupons, I always look at the coupon, subtract it from the price of the brand name good and then look at the generic equivalent. It is very rare that a coupon will bring the price down below the cost of the generic. With that being said, I only buy Colgate Total toothpaste, and there are coupons for that. When I find one I grab it and use it, but that’s the exception and not the rule. I also don’t tend to buy in bulk. Bulk costs more up front and with a $50 a week limit on my grocery and paper products bill, a 48 ounce container of handsoap at $5.00 is typically out of the question. Plus a small .98 cent container will last me at least a week, and I wash my hands about 20 times a day. A dollar bottle of dishsoap also lasts me about a month. Planning and budgeting is really about knowing what you need and how much of it you need to meet your needs. I have a pretty good handle on the things I use regularly, and I have a good handle on how much I eat every week. It makes a huge difference when I go shopping, and I tend not to overbuy. 
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
Whenever I see an advertisement for a product or get an email for a discount, the first thing that enters my mind is that I have to spend money to save money. I received an email from JCPenney. The subject read “Save 80% on clearance merchandise.” Another email from Victoria’s Secret read “Free Summer Tote With Purchase.” In both of those instances, I have to spend money to receive whatever discount the company is offering. Most of the time, I opt to keep my money. However, when I do decide to spend it, I ask myself three questions. 1. Do I really need it? Say you've been thinking about purchasing a Nook for the past week. The most basic Nooks are selling for $50. That’s a really good price considering they were $119 at one point, and about $200 when they first came out. I researched the specs. It’s just an e-reader. All I can do is buy books and read them. If I want to check email, I have to buy a Nook Color which costs $129 or pull out my laptop which already has an e-reader on it. Needless to say, I decided not to buy. While it's not a lot of money, if it's not something you actually need, you should save that money instead. 2. Can I afford it? If I determine I really do need it, do I have the cash to purchase it without harming my financial stability? I have a 50% rule for large purchases. I will only spend 50% of my savings for large purchases. In 2008, I needed a new bed. I had been sleeping on a futon for 10 years. The mattress was worn and no longer comfortable. The result left me with a sore back more mornings than not. The problem was that beds are expensive. The cheapest bed frame I could buy was an adjustable metal frame from Walmart for $35.00. The cheapest mattresses were between $300 and $400. I also knew that if I bought that combination, I’d be looking to replace it within two years. I decided to search for a good price on what I really wanted – a Queen Canopy. I found one at Value City Furniture for $999.99. It was perfect. It was just my style. However, the frame plus the mattresses were going to total about $1700.00. I spent the next year and a half saving all my extra money. I saved until I had twice the cost of the bed. Then I purchased it. It took me six months longer to save twice the total, but I was much happier in the long run. I had the bed, and I still had money saved. 3. Will purchasing the item enhance my life? In October 2009, I decided I had had enough of running to the Laundromat every time I needed to do laundry. It wasn’t that it was expensive; it was that it was time consuming not only to do laundry but to plan a week or two weeks worth of outfits. I decided to buy a washer and a dryer. However, I didn’t want to spend $1000. I only wanted to spend about $500, and if I could get away with paying less, I wanted to. I scoured websites. The cheapest washer/dryer set I could find was $650. I didn’t want to pay that much. I decided to wait for the Black Friday sales after Thanksgiving, and I kept my eyes peeled for any early deals. The week of Thanksgiving, Sears had a sale. It was a washer/dryer set for $499.99. I jumped on it. It was a better washer and dryer than the set for $650, and I’d save $150 on the purchase. The catch was that I had to purchase it online. I was leery. I had never purchased anything so expensive online before. I sucked it up and placed the order. It didn’t go smoothly. At first, I was charged twice. I called the company and they looked into it. After two days of tense waiting, I was only billed once. Thankfully, I did not see an overdraft charge. Like the bed, I made sure to have double the money in my account. By using these questions, I very rarely make a frivolous or unneeded purchase. They force me to think about what I really need verses jumping on every sale that crosses my eyes. 
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  Are you looking for the best job in this bustling economy? Here are some tips to make sure you don't get screwed. We don’t allow second jobs. Watch out for this one especially if the pay is low. Typically, this requirement should only come from a job paying $35,000 or more a year. It has to be a livable wage, and trust me, the company interviewing you knows what constitutes a livable wage. The individual applying and interviewing should also know his or her minimum livable wage. If the job is below those thresholds, proceed with caution. The pay is salary instead of hourly. Typically, a low wage job is also an hourly job. I didn’t see salary until I was making $40k a year. Even my $35k assistant manager job in 2007 was hourly. At $20k a year, you really don’t want to be answering phones all night after you’ve left the office or checking work email in the middle of the night. The company isn’t paying you for that, but if the job is salary they will expect it even if they didn’t specifically tell you. The company is in transition. Two companies I worked at were in transition. At the time of my hire, the latter had just fired quite a few of their middle managers. The goal was to hire new middle managers with better qualifications and fresh eyes. By the time they downsized me in 2009, they had let most of those new hires go and reposted the jobs with a salary decrease of $13k, and reduced requirements. If they can transition the old out, they can transition the new out just as easily. You are extremely overqualified. The last job I applied for required a high school diploma and a couple years of office experience. I applied because I wanted office experience. At that point, I had ten years of retail experience, a year and a half of sales experience, and a Masters degree in Human Resources Development. In other words, I know how to handle and deal with people. The job was phone and computer-centric. I figured if they were a growing company, I could run my own office in a couple years. I was wrong. What they wanted were my ideas. After that, they didn’t need me. Needless to say, I didn’t give up my other income when I started the job. I did share my ideas. One of them was used against me during the exit interview which I found slightly amusing. They had yet to implement the idea. The bottom line: apply wherever you like, but pay attention during the interview process. The interviewer will give hidden clues to the company’s direction, viability, and expectations. If you choose to accept the position, great, but keep your night job. The company may have a hidden agenda for hiring you and once that agenda is met, you will be let go.  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 Univeristy (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
Starting a new job is exciting especially if it comes with a significant pay increase from your last job. In five years, I tripled my income. What I didn’t do was increase my standard of living, and it was tempting. One job added $5000 a year to my income. I figured out that I could buy a new Cadillac and a house, but I held off. As exciting as the pay increase was, I didn’t want to jump into more debt and bills than I could handle. Plus, if the job didn’t work out, I’d be financially screwed. Here are the things you shouldn’t buy for the first three months after starting a new job. New Clothes When I’m looking for a new job, I typically buy new clothes for the interviews. I want to look fresh and presentable at each interview. Plus, if the company requires multiple interviews, I’m not stuck wearing the same outfit for each interview. The interview shopping sprees typically mean that I’ve already increased my professional wardrobe. I shouldn’t need to buy new clothes for the job itself, and I don’t want to. If the job doesn’t work out, then I’m stuck with hundreds of dollars worth of new clothes that I don’t particularly need, and can no longer afford. Lifestyle Upgrades It’s tempting to take the new job and pay increase to the store or the car lot, or to the real estate agent’s office. Hold off. I’ve had a lot of friends and family take their $2000 a year raise and spend $2000 in the first week on new computers, cars, home upgrades, and even new houses only to have the job not work out. In the worst case scenario, they’ve had to file for bankruptcy. Items For The Office Upon entering a job, I always want to make the space comfortable. This could mean buying a new office chair, bringing in my own coffee and coffee maker, buying pens, pencils, paper, notepads, and phone upgrades. Don’t do it. Aside from your new company not liking your changes, it’s money you don’t need to be spending straight out of the box, and items you may not be able to recover if they let you go. The reason to hold off buying any new and/or expensive items is to make sure the job is the right fit for you and the company. Waiting three months also gets you past the initial evaluation stage. After that you can feel comfortable in your new position and newly increased budget. 
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  Why buy at thrift stores? Most people argue that thrifting is a great way to make some money on the side and that it can become some sort of hobby. That is perfectly possible. In fact, I greatly encourage supporting these stores.
I believe everyone should shop at thrift stores, but not because of the price. I believe people should frequent thrift stores so that we are consistently reusing things people no longer had any use for. There are plenty of perfectly good things worth buying used. Why waste them by buying new? It saves money, but also makes economical sense. But, of course, you have to have enough people donating useful enough items for people to want to shop there. Back in 2014, we lost a hometown thrift store that I frequented, AMVETS. Honestly, the quality of their donations had declined to the point that no one shopped there anymore. There’s a Salvation Army store across town, but it’s not exactly convenient for me. It’s a beautiful store with a donation center with people that actually help you with your donations, which is really cool. I still donated things there, even being that far, because I don’t want to see another thrift store fail. I’ve wanted to write something for a while about why shopping at thrift stores is a good idea. But when I did a little research, I discovered something that I probably should not have been surprised to find. There are plenty of guides out there on how to buy items at thrift stores. On the first page of Google alone, there are five or six solid lists of what to buy and what not to buy at thrift stores. The advantages of shopping at thrift stores are obvious: major bargains that can save you a bundle, convenience of having a very wide variety of items available to you, and finding items you might not otherwise find outside of a specialty store. Sure, you can donate unneeded items for charitable tax donations. That’s a perfectly fine reason. Many thrift stores do represent certain charities; the Salvation Army, in particular, has a famous chain of thrift stores. Of course, there are many thrift stores that don’t support charities, but they’re no less legitimate; they are still promoting reuse, which is good. Many thrift stores do benefit from great acts of charity from people who are moving or downsizing the “stuff” in their house. But most of the time, people just dump whatever they don’t want on these stores. And there's a lot that's purely junk. The employees there are often forced to sift through to separate the trash from treasure. Sometimes, they don’t, of course, and navigating the store’s wares becomes a sort of treasure hunt. Of course, isn’t the sifting through the chaff part of the fun? The point is, you’ll always have donated junk. But it seems like junk is becoming the majority of what’s being donated. We need more quality donations. Things like baby clothes and maternal clothes are well-known items that make fantastic bargains at thrift stores. Heck, there are people that buy them from thrift shops and sell them on EBay! Is there anything wrong with that? Of course not! Selling people things that they need at a discounted price is still excellent, especially if their local thrift shop either doesn’t have those things, or they don’t happen to have one. What I’m saying is that the perception that I’m seeing on Google is that people want to figure out how to game the system to profit the most from it. It’s important to remember that we must sustain these types of stores. In that case, knowing what people need most at a bargain is good to know, but we need to make sure that enough supply remains in the stores themselves. As it turns out, there is often no need to buy new for most things. As many thrifting guides will point out, there are plenty of things out there that have certain novelty factors to them and many of them end up at thrift stores. Once you’ve gotten one or two uses out of them, they’re often thrown to the back of closets or thrown in some pile in the basement or attic (or both!) If people were more open to donating the items they didn’t need, think of how thrift stores would flourish. Not only are you helping charities, but you are helping low-income families make ends meet by giving them valuable items at deeply discounted prices that are often very lightly used, or well-used but still functional. You’re also saving other people a lot of money. Yes, there are those sorts of “thrift” stores that sell actually new merchandise at discounted prices because of overstock, liquidation sales, or because they have been otherwise “misplaced.” Those are sort of different. There is another kind of thrift store in my own hometown called Chic 2 Chic, which also has a thrift shop version, Chic 2 Charity. At Chic 2 Chic, they take donations of designer items. Some of them have never been worn. It’s also a sort of consignment boutique where donators can actually make some money if the item sells. It’s a cool concept. I’ve never been much for designer brands, but from what I hear, the prices are definitely low. That being said, I don’t think there should be any stigma about shopping at thrift stores, especially with all of the specialty sorts of thrift stores popping up. But despite the good stuff that Chic 2 Chic is doing, making nice clothes available for cheap, I think the classic general thrift stores need more help than ever, especially in our current economy. If each household in the United States donated one item a week to their local thrift store, you’d be amazed at how much stuff we keep in our homes that we really don’t need. You don’t have to actually go down there. Put one item aside a week and after a few months, you may be surprised just how much you have to give. We need to start giving more away and stop spending our money on things for simple novelty reasons. And if we really don’t need or want something that we can’t return, donate it, don’t throw it away. There’s a reason dumpster diving has become such a huge thing today. People throw away a lot of useful things. I’d like reach out to everyone reading and ask if you have anything that you don’t use anymore that you could let go. As long as it’s still usable and in decent condition, I urge you to donate it to your local thrift store. If you can get a charitable tax deduction for it, that’s excellent. I’m just sad with seeing thrift stores fail because the majority of people that shop these days at many thrift stores are bargain-hunters looking to buy out all of the valuable items. This doesn’t allow the low-income families that need the stores to carry things that they need to buy them. What do you have to donate today? Chances are, if you get people to donate just little things here and there, thrift stores could actually thrive even more than they already do. 
Do you have or want liability car insurance? Individuals that own their cars and drive older cars often opt to reduce their monthly premiums by dropping their car insurance from full coverage to liability only, but what is liability insurance and what does it cover?
Liability Insurance Basics A certain amount of liability car insurance is required in every state, except New Hampshire, which does not mandate a specific amount of insurance. Instead, drivers who wish to forego car insurance, must prove financial responsibility in accordance with the state’s insurance laws and regulations. When you purchase and maintain a liability car insurance policy, it protects you against a catastrophic financial loss in the event that you are in an auto accident and are determined to be the at-fault driver. This type of insurance policy pays for the another driver’s auto accident-related injuries and for the repair or replacement of his or her vehicle. For example, let’s say that you impact another vehicle because you were driving distracted. After an investigation into the accident, your insurance company determines that you are the at-fault driver. If you have liability insurance, your insurance carrier will pay for the other driver’s accident-related expenses and any injuries that occurred to the passengers up to your policy limits. You would be responsible for paying for your own car repairs and medical expenses. Liability Auto Insurance Coverages Liability auto insurance includes provisions for bodily injury, personal injury and property damage. Some states also include underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage in their liability insurance policies. When looking at your insurance policy, you will see a set of numbers separated by slashes, usually in the format of 30/50/10, that indicate your policy limits. The first number indicates the maximum your car insurance company will pay for bodily injury for one person. The second number indicates the amount of money your car insurance company will pay for injuries to all of the occupants of the other vehicle. The last amount indicates the policy limits for property damage, which includes the repair or replacement of the other driver’s vehicle. The Importance of Choosing the Right Policy Limits The caveat to getting the right liability insurance policy for your vehicle involves choosing the right policy limits. You should choose policy limits that would cover most accident and injury scenarios, which means you may want to choose a policy that has higher limits than your state’s minimum insurance requirements. If you choose limits that are too low, you could still be sued by the other driver for the remaining amount of their vehicle repairs and medical bills. You car insurance agent should be able to help you choose car insurance policy the right limits for your local area and driving habits. Determining When to Purchase a Liability Only Auto Insurance Policy Drivers who drive older vehicles that aren’t worth much or who have recently paid off their car loans are free to purchase a liability only policy. If you are still paying money to a financial institution, your lender may not allow you to purchase an auto insurance policy that only includes liability. This is because the financial institution wants to protect their investment in the event that you default on your car loan. In order to determine if a liability auto insurance policy would be good for you, you can ask yourself a few simple questions.
Getting An Affordable Liability Auto Insurance Policy In order to get a liability policy that meets your needs and your budget, you need to shop around. This means filling out quote forms and getting estimates from several different insurance companies. Once you have all your quotes, you can quickly compare them against each other. Just make sure to pay attention to more than the monthly premium amounts. Car insurance policies that are well below the market may have numerous detailed exclusions, or they may not meet your state’s minimum insurance requirements. Sources:  Image © Lyn Lomasi; All Rights Reserved Many kids love to garden. Not only do they enjoy it, but they can be pretty good at it too. My own children do most of the gardening at our house. They prefer it that way. Here's some great tips and resources for gardening with kids.
Invest in a Good Wheelbarrow Not only will kids enjoy pushing around the wheelbarrow, but generally, the natural soil isn’t good enough to plant in. This means that the kids will need to transport different types of soil. A wheelbarrow is the easiest and most fun way for kids to do this. Use Colorful Plants Kids love bright colors. Choose plants with a variety of colors, rather than selecting only one or two colors. This will make the gardening more fun for the kids. Choose Simple to Grow Plants Not all plants are easy to grow. Kids get excited to see their gardening results. Choosing plants that are simple to grow will help increase the odds of favorable results. Choose Native Plants This goes along with the last point. By selecting plants that are native to your area, this can make the plants easier for kids to grow. Create a Maintenance Schedule Creating a schedule of when to feed and water plants can help kids keep track of what needs to be done in the garden. I suggest hanging it near their chore chart if they have one.  Lightening your hair with some highlights or throughout is a fun way to get a new look. But bleaches and lighteners can sometimes be harsh on your hair, with lasting effects. What some people don’t know is that there are some effective natural lightening methods that work on all types of hair. Get the lighter look you want with these healthier ways to lighten ethnic hair.
Prepare Your Hair for Lightening Before lightening your hair, some advanced preparation is necessary. Make sure your hair is clean, dry, and does not contain any product. This way, the lighteners will not react with any of the ingredients that your regular hair products contain. It is recommended to shampoo only with a good non-chemical shampoo to remove all oils and other residue. Leave conditioning for afterward, as the conditioner may also interfere with the process. Be sure to wear clothing that you don’t mind being damaged, as some of these lighteners may have a bleaching effect on clothing as well. Lemon Juice Hair Lightening Spray This mixture can lighten your hair significantly. Therefore, it is recommended to only use this method if you are looking for a dramatic lightening effect. For naturally dark shades, expect this to create a light brown to brownish blonde highlighted look. The lighter your hair is when you start, the lighter it will be when you finish the process. If your hair is colored or lightened, measure the results by the tone of the current color. To prepare this lightening spray, you will need one spray bottle, a bottle of distilled water, and a bottle of lemon juice from concentrate. Blend the water and lemon juice half and half in the spray bottle. Shake to mix it thoroughly. Once the mixture is made, spray it onto dry hair and brush through until the hair is saturated. Leave it on until the hair is lightened as desired. Going out in the sun will help speed the process. Leave the hair down so that it is exposed to the elements. Do not leave the mixture on for more than a couple hours, to avoid excessive dryness. Rinse the hair thoroughly. Do not shampoo. Apply a good conditioner to the hair and scalp and use only oils to soften and style for the first 24 hours. After this, you can style as usual. This is to help seal in moisture and avoid dryness and irritation. Do not use this method on hair that has been chemically treated recently, as it may cause dryness and breakage. Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Lightening Rinse The effects of this lightening rinse can vary from person to person. On darker hair, it may simply result in bringing out natural highlights. For the best results, the recommended distilled water is a must. Vinegar is good for deep cleansing and softening your hair. Therefore, this method has added bonuses. To create this hair lightening rinse, combine half apple cider vinegar and half distilled water in a large bowl. After your hair has been shampooed and conditioned, rinse it with this mixture, rubbing and making sure that it gets into all of the hair. Leave the rinse on the hair, as it is a rinse and not a solution. Do this frequently to slowly lighten your hair or bring out natural highlights. Style as usual, paying extra attention to your usual moisturizing process. Chamomile Tea Hair Lightening Rinse When lightening your hair with chamomile tea, expect to bring out natural highlights. The effects will occur most obviously in areas that are naturally lighter. This is simply a way to further highlight what you already have naturally. On some people, other areas may lighten slightly as well. To create this lightening rinse, make a pitcher of chamomile tea (any brand will do, as long as it is 100% chamomile tea). Once the tea is brewed well, chill it until it’s cold. After shampooing and conditioning the hair, rinse thoroughly with the tea. Do not rinse the tea off. Repeat regularly for the best results over time. Style as usual, making sure to moisturize well. Hair Lightening After-Care Remember that lightening your hair is an extra process your hair is being put through, even when the process is natural or healthier than other options. Even though alternative methods may be safer, you should still give extra care to your hair to help avoid dryness and breakage. Follow the after-care styling and conditioning instructions included with each method for the best results. Be sure to also condition the ends and provide extra hair oil on them to help prevent breakage. Article last updated 7/28/2023  Proper hair care starts when kids are babies. But tweens will usually start showing interest in caring for their hair themselves. This is a necessary skill. It especially comes in handy for when the kids are not with you, such as at school or at a friend's house. Whether their hair needs some extra maintenance or a full-on routine, tweens need to know how to properly care for their own hair.
Show them by example. The first step in teaching tweens to properly care for their hair is as simple as caring for your own. When they have a good example to follow, it's much easier to get the point across. On the other hand, if your hair is mess, why would they trust that what you have to say about hair care is correct? Anything you are telling them to do is something you should also be doing yourself. My kids already know that if I am telling them something about hair care, I have either been doing that myself with my own hair or theirs. If your family has various hair types, like in ours, make sure they understand which things you cannot do with your own hair, but that are great for theirs. Always have the proper supplies within reach. It's much easier to keep up a hair care routine if your tween has easy access to the supplies. Don't make her search for the basic supplies needed, like a brush, comb, shampoo, conditioner, or hair accessories. Everything your tween needs to style his hair should be in a convenient location for him. This will avoid frustration for everyone. You may be thinking about hair products that could be toxic. We have a general rule about toxicity in our house. If something's toxic enough that you'd worry about the kids using it without you, it doesn't belong in the house anyway. We generally purchase or make our own hair care products that use only natural and safe ingredients. Make it a part of the daily routine. There should be a set time for your tween to maintain her hair each morning. She should also know that even if she brushes and styles her hair at that time, there may be extra maintenance throughout the day. Most hairstyles will have to be adjusted at some point during the day. Knowing to do this will also help your tween feel more confident at school and in other public places. Explain the purposes of each item. While you may think it is obvious, there are some things your tween needs an explanation for. He may know what the item is, but does he know the purpose of it as well as why it needs to be done? For instance, myself and two of the kids use Intent.sive Etheric Custom Hair Growth & Restoration Oil in our hair care routine. For us, it helps keep frizz under control, reduces breakage, prevents dandruff and dry scalp, and more. They may know the routine and that a particular item is part of it, but let them know the reason that routine is in place. Teach them easy hairstyles. If you expect your tween to maintain proper hair care, simple styles must be taught. Of course you can also teach them elaborate hair styling techniques. But start with the basics and make sure they have plenty to choose from. This makes it easy for them to get ready in the morning. It also will help if their style comes loose at school and they need to improvise. Girls lose their ponytail fasteners often. Make sure they know how to style their hair both with and without accessories. My tweens know how to style their hair so well that they prefer to always do it themselves. Explain what happens to hair not properly cared for. Not only do tweens need to understand what happens when they style their hair, but they also need to understand what happens when they do it incorrectly. Show them what non-managed hair looks like, if possible. Talk about how people can go bald, get knotted up hair, split ends, and more when the wrong products are used or when nothing is done at all. Have them look in the mirror when they first wake up and ask them if they would go to school that way. If they are homeschooled, like mine, instead ask them if they would go meet their friends that way or go to a sports practice or library like that. When they can visibly compare well kept hair to that which isn't, they may better comprehend why proper hair care is so important. by Richard Rowell, Write W.A.V.E. Media Staff We searched for a great RV for several months to make our big summer trip from Denver to the East Coast to visit friends and family. The search was focused on travel trailers for about two months. But finding one that our Toyota 4Runner could tow was a real challenge. Almost every time we found a great deal on Craigslist, we couldn't tow it without first acquiring a new vehicle. Eventually, we found a couple great deals on Craigslist, but one turned out to be a scam and the other was a major project. I was not going to shell out thousands of dollars for a salvage project, nor was I going to pay over retail value out of desperation. Just to see what was possible at dealers, we checked out a few places, traveling all over the Denver metro area. But the prices were sky high. There was absolutely no way we would shell out the 20 grand for a brand new travel trailer. We decided to shift the search to motor homes. But the cheapest motor homes we found from dealers, even really used, started at over $20,000. After becoming discouraged after looking at so many dealers, I simply thought that it wasn't going to happen. We checked Craigslist, and while there were decent ones for about $4000 to $5000, they all had issues that would cost at least another $1000 or so before we could even drive them away. Sure, we could negotiate. But the good listings were at least 2 hours from us. It wasn't working out. Then, a miracle happened. We found this beauty.    Yes, it’s totally Denver Bronco’d out. That was the best part of it. The price was very reasonable. It looked like there were only minor things that we could easily fix. When we checked it out, not only were the issues relatively minor, but it turned out to drive beautifully. It seemed too good to be true. Fortunately, it was for real. The guy was super nice and extremely honest about everything. He'd gotten it from someone for a good deal, and it was already mechanically sound. He put all the cosmetic work into it. The only thing that didn't work was the fridge. While inconvenient, we can always repair or replace it. It also needed new tires. But considering how old it is, it was worth replacing them, especially with most of the major components having being rebuilt beforehand. After negotiating down the price due to the necessary repairs to the fridge (which can be pricey) and the tires, we got a great deal that worked for both of us. The guy made a fair profit and got cash in hand. We get to fulfill a live dream for both myself and my partner Lyn. The hardest part was the waiting to get the registration tag and getting back over to where it was parked to drive it away. So, the BroncoBago (as it’s come to be called) is a 1977 Winnebago 23 footer with a rear bathroom. It sleeps 5 to 6, which is perfect for us. Most of the original stuff is still in it and outside of that fridge, still works. It's totally decked out in blue and orange. Really, pictures don't do it justice. Sure, it's 40 years old. Of course, there are risks involved with an older vehicle, even one that works fine now. But for something so vintage, so well-maintained, and with so much character, this is a deal that no one should have passed up. The idea that only two other parties even came to look at it (and only one with a serious offer) blows my mind. It's unique, vintage, and fits our needs. And yes, we will tailgate with it. That is kind of the point after all. But we can do whatever we want with it. I want to thank Ryan, the guy who sold it to us, for rescuing a piece of history. He helped make a dream come true, and that's priceless. We'll be making so many memories, and plenty of content about the RV Life in the months and years to come. The BroncoBago is ours now. She's my baby and I hope my baby girl Nova will inherit it someday. More photos coming soon!
by Tara Bard, Contributing Writer
When I won my wedding in 2009, I was relieved. At the time, my husband-to-be was unemployed and we had no idea how we were going to plan or afford a wedding. On a whim, I entered a contest and received a call from the contest organizer, explaining that I had won.
Following the sense of relief, I realized something: we had less than a month to plan the wedding. How did we pull it off? Decide what's important. When you have a limited time to plan, you need to decide what's important and what isn't. Since my husband-to-be was unemployed, I simply gave him a list of things to take care of. I was working full time and had no way to do everything that needed to be done. My notes looked like this:
When it came to other items, however, I was fully involved. Although I didn't have much time to select a dress and have it altered, I crammed as much dress shopping as I could into two days. My matron of honor graciously accompanied me on this quest and kept me on task. Trust others. When you're short on time, you need to trust others with the details. Two of my bridesmaids flew across the country on short notice for my wedding. I didn't want to burden them with the additional expense of a dress. Instead, I showed them a photo of my dress, which included a navy blue trim, and asked them to match the navy. I just had to trust them and didn't even see their dresses until the big day. They coordinated on their own and all picked something similar. Their outfits also cost under $50 each, and they were able to select dresses they'd wear again. A friend also offered to design our wedding website. She updated it with details as they were added, which was seriously important considering it was all so last minute. My mom (a very organized person) also stepped in and managed the RSVPs for me. I just sent her my list and handed everything over to her. My matron of honor hand made chocolate favors for me as well. I loved what they did on everything even though I didn't have a huge role in each aspect. (Those chocolates helped with lingering wedding stress, too.) Use the Internet. Etsy became my best friend when I planned my wedding. I was able to find simple, affordable, handmade personal touches that really made our reception sing. I searched using our theme (nautical) and colors (navy blue, white and yellow). In some instances, I just sent the designer samples of our wedding invitations and clips of things I liked along with the money and let them design it. They all did a great job. DIY last minute items. There were a few last minute touches and decorations I wanted, but didn't have time to order them. Armed with $30, I hit the local craft store and purchased some supplies such as ribbon and cardstock. Using my existing scrapbooking equipment including a papercrafting machine, I personalized my reception in the last 48 hours before my wedding. Patronize local businesses. When my husband had a list of things to take care of in a limited time, he went to local businesses to tackle the list. He was able to accomplish multiple details in each trip. We were also able to check on the progress in person. This eliminated a lot of stress from our wedding planning. Despite the fact that the wedding was last minute, people really enjoyed it. I was really worried about ordering food from a place I'd never even patronized, but it turned out to be a highlight of the reception - all because I went on a friend's recommendation. This post was originally published on Examiner.com. |
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