Items That Will Pay For Themselves In A Year.

Items That Will Pay For Themselves In A Year.

We all are looking to save money where ever we can, we work hard for our money so why should we be throwing out the window on utilities and other items if we don't need too. Here is a list of ideas and gadgets that will pay for themselves in a short period of time and save you money in the long run.

Solar Outdoor Lighting

I have switched all my outdoor lighting to solar this past year. Even my emergency lights around my home all work on solar now. Solar is a great choice if you want to light up your yard, drive wave or patio. Over the past year or so solar powered lighting has come down in price. You have a one-time investment but over the course of a year it will diffidently for itself.

Programmable Thermostat

These thermostats will pay for themselves in no time if you use them correctly. If you have central a/c this is the way to go to save money on your utility bills. These devices will lower or raise your heat and air conditioning while you are gone so energy and dollars will be saved. These devices are under a hundred dollars and can save you several hundreds of dollars a year.

Water Saving Devices

If you have city water and you have hot water tank you will want to install high efficient water saving devices on all your faucets, especially your shower heads. These devices are very inexpensive and can save you thousands of gallons of water each year. Also by saving water you will also cut down on the amount of hot water you will be generating with your hot water heater. You will save money by reducing the cost of electricity to generate hot water, plus you will save money by reducing the amount of water you purchase from your utility company.

LED Lighting

LED lighting is fairly new to the market place. This type of lighting can be a little expensive when first being purchased. I have heard where families have saved a few hundred dollars a year by switching their lighting in their home to LED. I have tried this yet, but with the cost of electricity going through the roof I may look into this myself.

Hot Water Heater Blankets

I remember years ago purchasing hot water heater blankets to save money on electricity. These items are fairly cheap and easy to install. They basically are an insulation blanket that wraps around your hot water heater giving the hot water heater a double layer of insulation to keep the water hot on the inside. You can also save more money by lowering the hot water temperature on the thermostat on the tank, by doing this and installing a blanket on the hot water heater you can save ten to twenty percent on energy cost which will put more money in your pocket.

Water Filtration System

An average American family drinks about 30 gallons of bottled water each year studies have shown. Tap water cost is pennies while bottled water is equal to dollars. People seem to think that bottled water is cleaner and healthier than tap water, while studies have shown that this is false. Filtration systems like Brita and PUR will cost some money in the beginning and for filters but the cost over a year is much cheaper than purchasing bottled water. Plus you will be helping the environment by less plastic bottles clogging up our landfills.

Smart Power Strips

These little gadgets are awesome especially if you have a desktop computer. When all your computer parts monitor, printer, scanner, speakers, etc. are plugged into this device and you power off your main computer these over devices will power off also. When you power off and everything shuts off there will be no phantom “standby” electricity drawn to the other devices. In the long run you will save money on the powered down devices but you will also save money from the lack of phantom electric usage.

Slow Cooker

A slow cooker is a simple and easy to use device that can save you on your electric usage and save you money on your grocery bill. A slow cooker will use less electricity than a stove or oven, produce less heat which saves your air conditioning from coming on saving your money on your utilities. Also you can purchase cheaper cuts of meat at the grocery store. By cooking slow the crock pot tenderizes the meat as it is cooking. This saves me a lot of money on my groceries each week.

Hopefully this has been helpful for you, I would love to hear back from you on your ideas that save you money each month.

Personal APPS to Help You Keep Track Of Your Finances

Personal APPS to Help You Keep Track Of Your Finances

By Tom Johnson

Looking for apps to install on your smartphone or tablet to help you with your finances, or setting up a budget? Here is a list of some of the ones that I highly recommend.

Personal Capital

This app is amazing, with over 800,000 people using this application to keep track of their personal finances. This is the app of all apps. With its mobile dashboard you can track your net worth, analyze your portfolio by seeing all your accounts on the dashboard, plan for your future with the retirement planner, these tools are all free with this awesome app.

Money Stream

This has been a highly recommended app, this app has been in publications like Wired, Forbes and U.S. News. According to their web site this app will help with organizing your bills and cash flow. The app will create a bill calendar to help you not forget about bill due dates. The application is protected with Military Grade software keeping your data private and secure.

Billcutterz

This powerful tool is designed to assist you in cutting your monthly bills. They advertised to negotiate with your providers like your cable company, cell phone service, internet service, electric and gas companies, plus many more. There expert negotiators analyze your bills to make sure that you are on the best plan for the money, they will also keep track of the service provider you have to make sure you are getting promotions and other discounts that they offer. This way you will always be paying the best rate for your services.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is an online rewards and cashback program for earning these awards for simply doing your normal things online, such as searching the web, answering polling questions, watch videos, play online games, and doing your shopping online. Whenever you sign into Swagbucks you will get rewards for everything you do, these reward points then can be redeemed for Gift cards or another wide range of prizes. In some of the reviews I did for Swagbucks I found people who were earning up to $400 - $500 a month in gifts and prizes.

Level Money   

This superior app can take the headaches and frustration out of budgeting. Many of us hate to budget so this app has been great for me to use. Level Money automatically updates your available cash as you make purchases each and every day. With this app you can set up tools to do the work for you. You can track what means the most for you and your budgeting system and you can put to the side the things that don’t mean as much for you. Level Money is safe and secure.  With its 128-bit encryption service Level Money is just as safe as banks and financial institutions. Give it a try today.

ISpending

With this app you can monitor your daily, weekly, quarterly and even yearly expenses so that you can set up an effective budget. This seems to be a very simplistic app. You can do some customization to the app and in the long run it is a very effect app for your finances.

Budgt

This application for smartphones has been mentioned in several business and financial journals to help with your expenses. Day by day it will create a new budget for you based on how much you have spent each day. This app has many useful features and tools for helping you budget, track and forecast your  finances.

All these apps for your smartphone and tablet technology are awesome. I have not had any negative experiences with any of these applications. To get the best use out of these tools is just to use them to help you get better control of your financial dreams.

How To Make Extra Income

Are you in need for some extra income to supplement your full time job?

By Tom Johnson

There are many of us out in the work force that just need a little bit more income each month to help supplement the pay that your present full time job offers us. Many of us just need a side job or business to put an additional $500 - $1000 a month in our pocket to pay off bills, or make ends meet, or to put away for retirement. The list of jobs that I am going to talk about I have actually done most of these jobs myself or know someone who has done one of these jobs while holding a 40 hour a week regular job. 

Let’s take a look at the list and see if one of these jobs can help you.

Office Cleaning

I was able to do this job in the evenings and on the weekends when businesses were closed. I would work from 6:00 – 9:00 pm four nights a week. Most of the time I would do the work for about $20.00 an hour. If you do the math I would clear about $850 - $900 a month. This is a great part time business that a person can do with their spouse. I have known several people that started doing this as a part time income source and turned it into a full time business.

House Cleaning

This is one job that I have not done myself, but several friends of mine have done this or are doing this presently. One particular friend works full time at a hospital in our town and she gets off of work at 3:00pm. When she gets off work she goes home and changes clothes and runs out for a couple hours and cleans two houses. So she does not get burned out she does this three nights a week. She is paid $40.00 per house and if you do the calculations she makes around $900 a month average.

Grass Cutting

Since I live in Florida lawn business can be big money. When I have needed some extra cash I have hooked my small trailer to the car and loaded up my mower and weed trimmer and gone out and cut lawns. A small lawn I charged $25.00 and a larger yard I would charge $40.00 dollars. In our area we see several husband and wife teams out cutting and trimming lawns. This also can start off small and grow into a full time business.

Pressure Washing Homes and Driveways

This is a great job to do in the summer, especially here in Florida when it is hot nine months out of the year. I have paid friends of mine up to $150.00 to pressure wash my house and $100.00 to pressure wash my roof. This is another job that can be done in the evening like my friends do or on a weekend.

Blogging

This is a great opportunity to sit at home in the evening and write articles about what you like. This is what I did to get my business off the ground. You do not have to quit your day job and it can be done in just a couple hours a few nights a week. You may have to invest some time to build up credibility and grow a following, but once this has been accomplished it can bring in a great side income or full time income. I personally do it for my future in order to have a nice residual income when I retire.

Handy Man Service

This has really put been a blessing for me and many of my friends. There are a huge population of people that do not know or are scared to death too try and tackle small jobs around their homes. Sometimes it can be a 10 minute small job that can put an extra $25.00 - $50.00 in your pocket. Larger jobs can put much more money in your pocket every month. Both here in Florida and in Chicago I was able to find work just by word of mouth. There are plenty of people that just don’t know how to do things for themselves or don’t have the time, this is where a good and honest handyman comes in handy.

Computer Repair

I have fixed people’s computers for years, and have made some serious extra income while still holding down a full time job. The only expense I had was a small add in the local paper in the classifieds. I also would put a small ad on Craigslist which I picked up a few computers each month from. I would charge less than the competition and I was always totally honest with the people and not sell them something that they did not need. By doing this I would get a lot of referrals and repeat customers. I have paid for several vacations and mission trips to Central America.

Music Lessons / Tutoring

If you are musically talented like my neighbor is you can make some serious money giving in home music lessons. My service manager’s wife is a full time teacher and she does private tutoring on the side to help supplement her family’s income. Both of these do require some special talent, but most of us do have our own things that we are talented at that we can offer people.

In today’s tough financial times most of us need extra money from time to time. I hope that these ideas have opened up some thoughts of what you can offer people in exchange for being paid for your services. All of us have talents in one thing or another, sometimes you just need to sit down and give some thought to what you can offer to the general public. Just put on your creative thinking cap!