Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

14 Healthy, Cheap Recipes You Don’t Need To Be A Chef To Make

I never learned how to cook when I was growing up. As a result, I ate out a lot once I moved out on my own. The meals I did make at home were prepackaged foods or something a little kid could make, like cereal or mac and cheese. I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be that way. There are tons of simple yet delicious foods that you don’t need to be a chef to prepare. You also don’t need to spend half the day cooking or spend a fortune. Knowing some easy recipes is a great way to keep the food budget in line while still eating well. Here are seven main dishes to get you going this week.

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

How To Prepare For A Job Search While Still In College

Finding a new job always takes longer than you might think. Whether you’re a college student with a looming graduation or sense pending layoffs at your current employer, the sooner you an begin to prepare for a job search, the better. Here are five ways to prepare for a job search, even if you don’t think you have to yet. Clean up social media pages It’s 2015. There’s no excuse for NSFW pictures on Facebook. The reason is simple: Most prospective employers are checking your social media accounts. They’re looking deeper into an applicant’s past than ever before, in an attempt to find the perfect candidate. Your social media activity can give an employer a glimpse into your beliefs, attitudes, and opinions. And

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

How To Choose An Online Bank: 7 Features To Look For

Personal encounters that previous generations took for granted have either disappeared entirely, or are getting pretty darn close to extinction. Wherefore the milkman? The telephone company operator? The research librarian? And, with ever-growing frequency, the bank teller… Online banks have become a reality, in large part because they are so convenient. Ridiculous fees are easy to dodge, too. It’s not unusual for big brick-and-mortar banks to charge $30 or more a month, even if you’re an outstanding customer—even though they’re already making money off of holding your money. If that makes you mad as hell, it might be time to find an online bank. But how do you choose? Just recently, GOBankingRates.com released a list of top 10 online banks. Ally Bank finished first

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

How to Earn Five Figures a Year and Make Money Writing

Make money writing seems to be an all-too-common promise these days. But not all freelancers are writers, and not all small business owners are bloggers. Still, there’s no doubt that things like, building a blog and writing updates on social media, lead to more traffic and more sales. Whether you’re trying to build a client-based business, or growing your own brand of products and services, getting started as a freelance writer is an important foundation for everyone — no matter what career field, niche, or passion. That’s how I got my start four years ago when I launched this blog, and that’s how countless other solopreneurs have been able to quit their full-time jobs and become their own boss

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

In Debt? No Savings? You May Still Be Able To Buy A House (Not That You Should)

Whenever a study is released about millennials and money, the findings are usually depressing. But one recent study caught my eye because it contained some good news for once. Despite their well-publicized economic challenges, millennials represent the largest percentage of recent home buyers, according to the National Association of Realtors 2015 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends study. Now if you and all of your friends have debt, aren’t making a lot money, and have little or no savings, you may tempted to call B.S. on this study. But I promise – it’s true. Homeownership isn’t just for “adults” in their 40s. We’ll leave whether you should buy a house while in debt for other articles (see why it’s OK to rent and how

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

How Being Organized Can Save Money: Organization Ideas For All Corners Of Your Life

Being organized can improve almost every aspect of you life. When you’re organized, you spend less time searching and you remember important details. You’re on-time for meetings, making you more reliable to those around you. When you’re organized, you can get more done. This might help you get promoted at work or have more free time at home. Some suggest organization may even reduce stress and anxiety. Last but not least, being organized can save you money. Not just indirectly — by making you more productive or promotable — but also directly, by ensuring you never overpay because you don’t have all the necessary information at your fingertips. The good news is, it’s not that difficult to set up routines and

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

How Our Finances Have Changed Since Buying Our First Home

When we bought the house in November, our mortgage, property taxes, and homeowners’ insurance was 75{7dabfd103aa443fce219eea47f0f346a11a54ce587a1a0cbb74f06b9f7a304ca} more than what we were paying toward the rent on our two-bedroom townhome. It was a big change, but one we felt we could comfortably manage considering we were saving such a large portion of our take-home pay in order to fund the down payment. In December 2014, we were pretty much broke. Between buying our first home, buying all those little things you need for a house when you move in (like curtains for windows! Hello Peeping Tom!), and the holidays, we were scraping by. I will say it over and over again—you NEED to have a few thousand dollars in the bank as a cushion after buying

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

How to Price Client Work and Charge What You’re Worth

One of the most difficult aspects of starting your own business is figuring out pricing — heck this is even tough when you’re an established solopreneur looking to increase your rates. You want to get paid, but you also need some experience under your belt, so you may be willing to charge less than you ideally want. On one hand, I think everyone needs to pay their dues and work their way up. It’s rare that you can come out of the gate commanding such high prices — after all, a lot of business is about supply and demand. However, I think starting out working for low wages can make it that much harder to work your way up the price ladder. For example, it’s tough

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

How to Find Affordable Health Insurance When You’re Self-Employed

So you missed the health insurance deadline and had to pay a penalty on your tax return? Don’t worry, you still have options — some of which are actually affordable. If you’re like me, you are probably procrastinating on applying for health insurance because you just don’t think you can afford the $400+ premiums per month. (Depending on your state and whether or not you’re single or married, your premium may be more or less.) Either way, it’s not usually a fun expense that you’re excited about paying. However, I’ve done personal research lately and found a silver insurance plan, in my area, that’s only costing us $250 per month (for my husband and I to be

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

How to Choose the Best Business Checking Account as a Freelancer

As a self-employed freelancer, most of my financial business is done online or with mobile apps. But choosing the best business checking account can be daunting. Plus, you want to make sure you don’t spend extra money on fees. I’ve seen the benefits of technology and how going digital makes me more productive and streamlines my life. Oddly enough though, many consumers and small business owners (about half) still bank at traditional banks! It’s time you embrace technology and the benefits it offers, by finding the best business checking account. Some solopreneurs I’ve spoken to don’t even have separate accounts for their business and personal transactions. Eek! Separating out your business and personal income, expenses, and other financial records is very important. Here’s what

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Frugal Living, Saving Money & Life Hacks

How to Quit Your Job Without Burning Bridges

This post is from new Careful Cents contributor Kayla, who owns the blog ShoeaholicNoMore. Over the next six months she’s documenting her journey to quitting her job and taking the leap into self-employment. Resigning from my very secure, but very boring, full-time job is something I’ve been thinking about constantly for the past few months, ever since I started freelancing online in July 2014. But before I talk about how to quit your job with grace and not burn bridges, let me back up a little bit and introduce myself. I’m Kayla, a full-time credit analyst at an agricultural lender in rural Kansas, a part-time retail employee, and an almost full-time freelance writer and virtual assistant. I started my blog in December 2013 to

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