You searched for job - Page 3 of 10

Search Results for: job

How To Increase Your Income Right Now

Posted on March 7, 2018February 19, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

If you’re looking for ways to increase your income then you’ve come to the right place. Think about it…

What would you be able to do if you had a little more money at the end of each month?

Now, you don’t even need to clock in overtime hours at the office. Buckle up, let’s get into today’s tips:

Ask for a raise. If you’re like me, Momma then you do a lot for your work. Sometimes it may even go unnoticed when you get there a little early or stay a little late to make sure your job gets done. There is no shame in asking for a raise, especially if it’s deserved. So come up with a few talking points and schedule a meeting with your manager.

Stop eating out. This one is a huge negative we’re guilty of. I even created a no eating out challenge to help us keep more money in our bank each month. Just think about how much money you’re spending by going through the drive-thru or grabbing dinner on the way home.

Earn money just for shopping. I love money saving apps like Ibotta and the Walmart Savings Catcher. They are great ways to earn a few dollars each time you head to the grocery store. I even love using Ebates (referral link) for all of our online shopping.

Sell your old junk online. You can sell clothes, home goods, furniture and so much stuff that you don’t use anymore online. There are plenty of options like Facebook Swap Shops, Craigslist, Ebay, Poshmark, and more.

Monetize your blog. This one is something I’m still learning, but I’ve already made some money from monetizing posts. Whenever I recommend something or an item to you, I can use an Amazon affiliate link (or Walmart, or any store really) and then when someone buys from that link I get credit for it. It doesn’t increase the price for the buyer and I get a benefit for recommending the item.

Lose weight. Have you heard of dietbet.com (referral link) before? It’s a great website for people to come together to hit their weight loss goals. I’ve entered quite a few and have turned my initial $35 investment into over $100.

Sell your skills.. If you have any skills as an editor, proofreader, transcriptionist, designer, or anything then offer them to others. You can sell your services on sites like Fiverr or Upwork. In college I did quite a bit of work on Upwork selling design skills and article writing.

Are We Having More Kids? How Old Am I? What Was My Major? | Answering Your Questions

Posted on February 21, 2018February 19, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

This month’s Q&A is going to be a bit different. I wanted to take time to answer some of the more personal questions I have been receiving from you. Back in December I sent out a four question survey and I offered a spot for you to ask any questions you have – no limit. So, I’ve been working through those questions last month and now today I decided to lump together the more personal ones.

You can watch the video online or down below:

Here are some of the questions you can find an answer to:

How old am I?
How many kids do we have?
Are we planning on having more kids?
What do I do for a day job?
What was my major in college?
Why did I start creating a blog and videos about budgeting?

If you’re looking for some of my older budget Q&A’s, take a look at the past months.

SEPTEMBER 2017 – SPENDING $100 PER PERSON ON GROCERIES, EATING OUT BUDGET, HOW OFTEN DO WE MEAL PLAN, WHAT DO WE ORDER FROM AMAZON

OCTOBER 2017 – HOW MUCH DO WE MEAL PLAN, BUDGETING WITH INCONSISTENT INCOME, GETTING READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS

NOVEMBER 2017 – HOW WE STAY MOTIVATED, CHORES FOR OUR TODDLER, AND BUDGETING FOR CHRISTMAS

DECEMBER 2017 – PLANNING A NEW YEAR, REVISING YOUR BUDGET, AND SETTING NEW GOALS

JANUARY 2018 – HOW WE SCHEDULE OUR MONEY DATES, WHAT WE TALK ABOUT AND HOW WE MAKE SURE OUR BUDGET IS ON AUTOPILOT

Our Evening Routine For A 21 Month Old

Posted on January 24, 2018December 15, 2017 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

What does your typical evening routine for a 21 month old (or around that age) look like?

I’m lucky because both me and my husband are home most nights so we handle our son’s bedtime routine together. We usually trade off jobs for our little guy – one gives the bath while the other one gets his room picked up and pajamas laid out. Then the next night we switch. I’ll admit though… Dent prefers J to give him his bath because he plays a lot harder and splashes a lot more water.

We found by sticking to a similar routine each night, it makes things a lot easier on our little guy (and us). The nights we have to switch things up or are running behind are the nights we tend to pay for it… plus it may take Dent a night or two to get back on track, too. Here’s are average evening routine for a 21 month old:

5:00-6:00

Pick up the little one from the sitter and come home to help with dinner. We usually have dinner by 5:30 or so and typically J will have it started by the time we get home. So it’s just a few finishing touches then we sit down together at the kitchen table. After we eat it’s clean up time. We usually clean the kitchen together – one of us putting away dirty dishes while the other one wipes down the table and entertains Dent.

6:00 – 7:00

Playtime. We don’t work on any other chores around the house and focus on playing with Dent. If the weather is nice, which it’s the middle of winter in Southeast Missouri so the weather is never nice, we will go outside to play on the swing set. If we’re inside then we play, work on colors and shapes together and just spend time as a family.

7:00 – 7:30

We start our bedtime routine. Dent gets a bath, we read for a few minutes and then it’s off to bed. He’s usually sound asleep by 7:30 on most nights – some nights are better than others, but he’s pretty good about falling asleep quickly.

7:30 – 8:00

We work on any laundry that needs to get done and then we focus on chores around the house. We try to tackle a different house chore each night so by the weekend we aren’t spending all day cleaning or catching up on laundry.

Monday – dishes and clean kitchen
Tuesday – laundry and sweep
Wednesday – dust, clean kitchen and clean bathrooms
Thursday – laundry, sweep and mop

On the weekends we try to keep the house picked up and the kitchen straightened so it’s not hard to get back on track the next week.

8:00 – 9:30

After the house and chores all are done, then it’s time to relax. J and I usually pile on the couch with our dogs, blankets and I grab the laptop. We watch a show on Netflix and I work on editing a video or finishing up a blog post.

Here’s a few tips to make nighttime a bit easier:

Divide and conquer – if able too. If not, then just try to plan as much as possible. On the nights I’m home alone or J is we make sure to get any pajamas laid out before bath time so we aren’t scrambling around.

Get ready for the next morning – I like to make his milk with any medicine (that he gets with breakfast) and his sippy cup for the sitter’s house the night before. I get all the cups, snacks, and diaper bag ready to walk out the door before we go to bed. That way if we’re running behind or he sleeps in then I don’t have to worry about it.

Buy easy to prepare breakfast foods – this goes along with getting things ready (and not much on the evening routine, but it helps!). I like to have breakfast foods that are easy to heat up and serve. So if that means scrambling some eggs before going to bed so I just have to heat them up the next morning then so be it.

Teach your little one to pick up toys – I love that Dent helps pick up toys before going to bed. Now I’ll admit he isn’t perfect, but he does help!

Use a white noise machine (here’s the one we use) to help them sleep through the night. We love our machine, it helps drown out any outside noises, the dogs, and us in the morning while we’re getting ready.

Be consistent – it’s important to be consistent with your evening routine. I know it’s hard to be perfect 100% of the time, but sticking to a schedule really does help your little one to go to bed easier without fighting.

When he was a lot younger we followed a simple routine to help sleep train him. It saved our sanity so much! So, what do you incorporate in your evening routine for a 21 month old? Leave a comment below!

Our Debt Story – How We Got Here and How Far We’ve Come

Posted on January 15, 2018January 15, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Today’s post is a little different than most you’ll see on the blog. Instead of sharing tips and money help, I’m going to tell you a little story. A story about how our family got into over $70,000 worth of debt without realizing it. You see, it’s so easy to spend money. To open a new credit card. To qualify for that new car loan. Before long you have a car that has more debt than it’s worth and a credit card that’s charging you monthly interest more than your minimum payment.

You don’t see a way out. It’s a vicious cycle that keeps repeating itself.

Well one day, we weren’t able to get everything we needed at the grocery store because we didn’t have enough in our bank account and our credit card would work. It was heartbreaking and a huge light bulb moment for us.

We needed more money.

But how?

We had decent jobs, were making good money and we thought we were living below our means. But we were so WRONG.

You can watch our debt story online or down below. Keep reading for more.

We sat down and created a budget. I remember I grabbed an old clipboard and a piece of copy paper, we sat down on my great grandmother’s flowered couch we were given and got to work.

We listed out our income – I vividly remember having to log in to our bank statement to see how much we were making. We had no clue. Our checks were directly deposited each week, so we never bothered to actually look at the stubs. We knew a good guess, but it wasn’t exact and we guessed higher than it actually was.

We jotted down our expenses – again having to look at our online banking to know. We added up our grocery trips, which we made a lot back in those days. Need bread for dinner? Stop after work. Ran out of soda? That’s okay, we can grab some while we’re out.

When we started adding up our eating out totals, that’s when reality set in. That’s where our money was going. We were wasting it and on what?

It was shameful.

After we created our first list of income and expenses, we just stared at it. There we were – 20 something year olds and we were in shock. We had no clue what we made, what we spent and where our money went. But here it was in black and white.

We then sat down the next night, because the first night was a doozy to create a new budget. We talked out every expense – how much should we be spending on groceries each month, what about eating out, why is our cell phone bill so high? All of these questions we had to answer and we had to do it ourselves.

That next week I spent the better part of a day calling companies to see about lowering bills, turning features off and researching lower cost options. We switched car insurance providers, removed some fancy features from our cable lineup and set hard budgets for eating out and groceries. We also decided to start using cash instead of our debit card and credit card. It was a hard transition at first and we used our debit card a few times as a safety net.

But after a few months we started to see progress. We were actually able to get everything we needed at the store. We cherished our date nights out or dinner with friends because we didn’t do it all the time anymore.

The first time we were able to send MORE than the minimum payment to the credit card company was a great feeling. We knew we found something that worked.

Each week we would sit down together, on that old couch, and update our budget. We made sure we weren’t going over and we checked to see what else still needed to be paid. We stopped paying bills late because we created a bill tracker to help us. We kept it on the clipboard we used that first night. It became the budget clipboard. Our budget was printed out each month and placed on the clipboard that sat next to our fridge. We also kept our tracker, our debt payoff letters, and debt thermometer on there, too.

The first time we received a letter stating a debt was paid in full, was amazing. We were so excited. I wanted to frame it and actually looked around our house for a frame, but couldn’t find one – I knew going to the store to buy one would be defeating the purpose. So I put it on the fridge. Then another one came and another one. Finally we started keeping them with our budget spreadsheets so we could see them every time we sat down to update it.

It’s been over four years since we started tackling our debt. We aren’t done yet, but we are close. We have two school loans left and my car. Our plan is to have my car paid off when J gets out of school next spring. Then we will be focusing on our school loans and saving for our dream home.

Each month I share a recap of our budget from the previous month. You can check out last month’s here and see our current debt payoff totals.

Having a budget has helped us more than just paying off debt. It’s given us financial confidence. J has been able to go back to school full-time, which means we’re down to just my income. And it’s okay. We’re doing great. We’re still able to live the lifestyle we were living before he quit. Sure we aren’t able to put as much into savings or put towards our school loans, but we’re still making progress. Before he left his job and started school, we did a few things:

We built our emergency fund

We saved enough for our insurance deductibles

We paid off all other debts except for my car and our school loan

We sold J’s truck and bought a small car to save on gas (he drives close to 3 hours a day, 5 days a week to get to class)

Need More Help?

If you’re looking for a great tool to help keep your family on budget, then check out out my budget spreadsheet. Each month is laid out right in front of you where you can keep track of what you budget and what you actually spend. Now you’ll know in real time how you’re doing each month.

Top Budget Busters and How To Beat Them

Posted on January 12, 2018January 11, 2018 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

You’ve tried, Lord knows how hard you’ve tried to keep your budget under control. But out of nowhere an unexpected purchase just throws you off. Now you’re annoyed and want to give up.

Sound familiar? Well it should because that’s most of us (maybe even all of us). As Moms, we work hard all day to keep our home organized, our lives and family members in order, we have to manage our time, kids’ time while getting to work every day to provide for our families. It’s hard. The last thing we need is something to through our perfect plan into a tailspin.

Maybe you forgot to stock up on something you typically buy in bulk, you’ve run out and didn’t save room in the budget this month. It happens.

Perhaps you have an unexpected work event or something comes up and you need to hire a babysitter last minute.

For my family, it’s always something with the cars. One needs new brakes, the other needs new tires and they both need an oil change. With my husband driving a lot more lately, we go through a lot more gas, oil changes and tires than we used to. I try to budget for them using a simple method we use for any big expense, but it gets tiring. This year I vowed to do a better job scheduling these “unexpected” expenses.

The bottom line is we know their coming, at some point. We don’t know when, but we know it’s going to happen. So what we’ve started doing (and I talked more about it in my December budget check-in) is budgeting a flat amount each month to put aside. That way then something comes up, we can transfer money from a savings account to help cover it. It might look a little strange in that particular month’s budget spreadsheet, but at least we know we have the money set aside and we won’t be pulling from our emergency fund or taking away from another category.

Here are the top budget busters and how you can beat them. You can watch online or down below:

Groceries – You’ve planned your meals, looked through your pantry and freezer before going to the store. You took inventory of everything else that you might need for the next few weeks, too. You do your grocery shopping, you make sure to stick right to your budget. You get home and a few days later you realized you forgot something – something more than a few dollars. You have to have it, so you head back to the store. I recommend having bigger items that you need on a regular basis on auto-ship. We use amazon and we may make a quarterly trip to Sam’s Club for anything else. But we typically get the same items each trip and we get enough to last us until our next visit. Amazon Subscribe and Save is a great feature – I know other stores have this ability too. We have our baby wipes, toothpaste, toilet paper, paper towels, etc. on this.

Not planning easy dinners – You finish your meal plan and are super proud. You have a week’s worth – or two – of delicious and healthy meals. Flash forward three or four days and you’ve had a heck of a day. You’re tired, your spouse is tired, your kid is tired and you do not want to even think about cooking dinner. That’s why you need easy dinners. Something you can throw in your crock pot that morning (we use ours a few times a week during busy times – like holidays and tax season). Something you can bulk up to have leftovers one night during the week. If you have a lazy Sunday then make a few freezer meals to have ready on those nights.

Traveling and Eating Out – Traveling can be a real budget drain. You may book your tickets at a good price, get a good deal on your hotel or be staying with family and friends, but when it comes to eating – that’s where you loose most of your money. Try to be prepared. If you’re driving then pack a bag and cooler full of snacks, easy lunches and drinks. That way you don’t have to stop at a fast food place to get lunch on your way. You can pack your kiddos’ snacks so you don’t have to buy something when you get there or stop at a thousand different places when you’re kid gets hungry – and they’re always hungry. Look around for local deals like groupon, coupons or sign up for their reward programs a few days before you leave to get any coupons or special deals.

Car maintenance – Take a look at how much you spent last year on car maintenance. Then get a monthly average. You should be setting aside that amount each month into a savings account. That way when an expense comes up, you have the money set aside. Also, take a good look at your vehicles and see if they will need to be any repairs this year. Will you need new tires? How are your brakes? When was the last time you replaced the battery? I know not everything you can be prepared for, sometimes a car just breaks down but having some money put aside will make the sting a little less painful. We took our annual spending for anything car related, divided by 12 to get a monthly average. Then we added 10 dollars to it just to be on the safe side. If you can’t afford your monthly average, then do what you can. Put back whatever amount you can or set aside any bonuses you have for maintenance.

For more information and budgeting help, check out these posts:

How To Afford Anything You Want

How To Tracking Your Spending

Our Favorite Budget Template

Need More Help?

2018 Goals for the New Year

Posted on January 1, 2018December 8, 2017 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

I’ll be the first to admit I will probably date a few documents with 2017 for the next few weeks until I can get the hang of it. No matter how many times I repeat to myself “2018, 2018, 2018” I still end up dating with the wrong year. This will go on for most of January, which it does every year. At this point, I’ve just accepted it.

This time of year J and I sit down for our quarterly planning meeting to plan the next few months in advance. Planning the next three months out is one of the biggest YES things we’ve ever done. We don’t plan out each day in detail, but we make sure to plan out any out of town trips we need to make to visit family, birthday gifts we need to buy, any bigger purchases that are coming up (like car maintenance, home repairs, etc.). This planning helps us make sure our budget is right and makes sure that we’re on the same page.

So before you get too much further into 2018 (I know, today is only day one), make sure to sit down with your significant other and have a calendar in front of you. We use our Google calendar to organize our entire lives. We each have our own calendar and then we have a joint one that we can both see. Whenever I have an out of town conference or he has a late class then we can put it on our joint calendar so we both know about it. I don’t necessarily put my doctor appointments and client appointments on our joint calendar because they don’t affect him.

This planning also works great for when we’re out with family and friends. If we want to schedule a dinner out or a weekend visit, then we just look at the joint calendar. If that day or time is open then go ahead and schedule. It’s an unwritten rule in our house that when it comes to family and friends, we like to do whatever we can to be there. So if there isn’t anything scheduled, then mark it down. Whatever is on the calendar is something we’ve committed to and that means a lot to us.

After we have our planning meeting, we also like to talk about goals for the new year. What do you like most about a new year? I love the idea of new beginnings, which means new goals and new successes. For me, I love creating action steps to help reach our goals. Now J has his goals, I have my goals and then we have family goals. We like to think of our family goals as the driving force behind our decisions.

This year our word is simplicity. What can we do in our day-to-day lives that can help simplify everything? For us, it means saying no to more and saying yes to what we actually want to do. It also means making sure our budget tracking is easy to maintain and encourages us to stay on top of it. That’s why we created the easiest budget template because we wanted something easy. We wanted something that didn’t take hours to fill out each month and something that told us exactly how we were doing with our money.

I won’t share J’s goals with you because he didn’t sign up to be a blogger like I did. But I will show you my personal goals and some of our family goals. It’s funny that some of mine and J’s goals and our family’s goals are pretty much the same. I think that’s the price you pay when you become a parent – you’re sole focus is the family.

As you can see most of my ‘personal’ goals involve my family. The ones that are left involve my blog or my day job as a financial specialist. To me – building those goals will help me reach our family goals because we will be able to provide more for our son.

What are your goals for the upcoming year? Try to keep them short, sweet and to the point. Don’t put too many details in your annual goals because then it makes it harder to achieve. What we like to do is take our bigger goals and then break them down into smaller ones. That way we can focus on one thing at a time and measure our success. If you’re curious, you can check out last year’s here.

Our Favorite Time of Year

Posted on December 27, 2017December 27, 2017 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Christmas is my favorite time of year. Something about the cold air, the bright lights on the Christmas tree, time with our family, and watching our son’s face light up on Christmas morning.

We love being with a family, eating good food and making new memories with our little guy. Last year, Dent was still so young that he passed out half-way through opening gifts and after an hour nap we could continue (ha!). This year, he loved it. He was showered with way too many gifts, but he loved every second of opening them. J and I stuck to our Christmas budget and was able to buy Dent a few smaller gifts just from us, which meant a lot to us.

This year I wanted to make a conscious effort to be more present. Sometimes I get so caught up in wanting to take pictures and video so that we never forget this moment, that I don’t actually enjoy myself. So this year was different. Of course I took some pictures, but I wanted to make sure I was right there with him when he opened some of his gifts. I even asked J to snap a few so I could be in them this year.

As Moms we get distracted by trying to be perfect – the perfect wrapping job, the perfect gift to be given, the perfect picture, the perfect everything. And it’s to just be the organizer of everything and let Dad be the one in the pictures and the one helping your child open each present.

But not this year!

This year, I wanted to be right along side him. Of course I still took a few pictures and J was nice enough to take a few of me with our son. I think there is a fine balance between having the pictures to remember those important memories and then making sure you’re apart of those memories, too.

My Secret Grocery Hack Weapon | The Mommy Hook

Posted on December 18, 2017December 18, 2017 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Affiliate Disclosure: Please note when you click links and purchase items, in most (not all) cases I will receive a referral commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link.

Here I am pulling into the garage after what feels like the longest day. I’m tired. More like beyond tired. But of course we need groceries. We like to go to the store once every two weeks and we had waited way too long this time around. We had no food, no snacks and very little milk and with a toddler that can’t happen. I barely had pulled into the garage, put the car in parked and turned it off when our son decided to start screaming. He was tired and hungry. I had a back full of groceries, a kid begging to get out of his car seat and three dogs barking to greet their boy on the other side of the door. Usually we go grocery shopping as a family, but it still seems like we need an extra set of hands. J helps carry in the heavy stuff – water, sods, dog food and then he takes the dogs outside so they don’t run over Dent when he walks in.

I try to grab as many bags as I could while wrestling our son to get him out of the seat. And of course he’s taken off his shoes and socks so walking barefoot across the cold garage floor was out of the question. It took everything I had to not drop him or drop the bags or fall walking up those steps to get inside.

Then after unloading I had to go back out for another load. This time the crying kid and barking dogs were on the same side of the closed door and I just wanted the day to be done.

What’s one thing as a Mom you wish you could have? For me, it’s an extra hand to help me carry all the grocery bags, diaper bags, work bags, and every other type of bag that you can think of.

A few weeks ago while I was traveling for work, I was sent an email from the makers of The Mommy Hook. They wanted to send me one to try out. So I did a little research and quickly typed back – yes, please! I need one of these in my life. Here’s the low down on The Mommy Hook – it’s a clip you can use to carry grocery bags, diaper bags, and store bags all with one hand. Plus, it can even clip on your stroller to help carry all of those shopping bags. Our stroller doesn’t have a big under area for storage. I can’t even fit our new diaper bag under there.

On one of our recent grocery trips I put The Mommy Hook to the test. Because of course I went close to nap time when our little guy was already tired, it was close to lunch and we were both getting hungry. So after stopping at Walmart for a few household items and then going to Aldi for the rest of our meal planning stuff it was time to haul everything inside.

J was there to help, so he carried some bags in and then went back to get Dent. Here I was trying to carry in the rest of the bags (because Moms like to make only one trip to get the job done) and here comes Dent. He wants me to pick him up since he’s just so tired. I pulled out the Mommy Hook and grabbed the rest of the bags, the diaper bag and then picked him up. It was a breeze getting everything inside.

I think it’s safe to say that I am a fan! This might be my new favorite grocery hack!

You can get The Mommy Hook on Amazon and they come in different colors, too. They are under $8.00 so they make the perfect gift for any Mom (or Dad)!

I did receive The Mommy Hook at no cost, but have not been paid otherwise for this review. All the opinions are my own.

20 Ways To Make $100 Fast

Posted on August 16, 2017August 10, 2017 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Are you looking for quick ways to make a buck? Well you’re in luck! I have put together a great list of 20 ways to make $100 fast.

Now most of these on the list are things I have personally done and can share with you my opinion. But before you take on any job or sell anything, please do your research. Make sure it’s from a reputable company or from someone you personally know. There are too many times people are taken advantage of and you should protect yourself.

Alright, now that my little disclaimer is out of the way let’s dive in. Here are my 20 ways to make $100 fast:

Sell old phones, laptops and tablets

You can find different online companies, like gazelle.com that offer to buy old electronics (I have never used gazelle before, so please do your research). You can also sell old phones, computers and such online through craigslist and Facebook swap shops. A lot of times people are looking for parts and are willing to pay for an older phone.

Sell old clothes

This is one of my favorite ways to make extra money! All you have to do is clean out your closet, your husband’s closet and your kids’ closets. You can sell on Facebook Swap Shops or create an Ebay account to sell. I have sold older coats that I no longer wear on Ebay before and it’s super easy. Plus Ebay will give you a few credits each month so you can list quite a few items at no cost. Now you will pay a processing fee for selling, but it was minimal in my experience.

Have a Yard Sale

I’ll admit I have a love/hate relationship with Yard Sales. Here’s why – you can put so much work into them and then end having a dud. Plus during the summer when it’s so hot, the last thing I want to do is sit outside most of the day. However, with that being said I still love yard sales. It forces us to clean out closets, get rid of items we no longer use and then we try to make some money off of them. You can even come together with another family or with your neighborhood to hose a giant yard sale. When you offer a multi-family yard sale then you typically end up with more buyers, which means increased number of eyes looking at your items. If you’re looking for some great tips on how to host a successful yard sale then check out this post from Money Crashers.

Sell Items You Don’t Use

This goes right along with selling old clothes and having a yard sale. If you aren’t using something and haven’t used it in a long time then get rid of it. You could easily make some cash and make more room in your house. For instance, our old bassinet we had just sitting in our little guy’s room. We hadn’t used it in months (I’m pretty sure we stopped using it before he was even three months old) and our little guy was over a year old. We decided it was finally time to sell it. We made back over half of what we paid for it, which was awesome. Now we cleared a corner in his nursery for the growing pile of toys.

Volunteer for Overtime

If you work in a service industry type field then you may be able to volunteer for a few hours. I know in the tax and accounting field a lot of overtime is earned during tax season, which is a great way to make some extra cash. So just keep you eyes and ears open to see if any extra help is needed. You can score some brownie points with the boss and make some money too!

Take Part in Your Company’s Customer Referral Program

A lot of workplaces offer a referral program – either refer a new client or a new employee. This is a great way for you to earn money on the side, just by promoting what you do for a living.

Offer Baby Sitting

I know a lot of parents are afraid of leaving their children with people they don’t know. So offer babysitting to people you trust and who trust you. You can put up flyers around your church or work to offer babysitting a few times each month. You could make some serious cash!

Start Pet Sitting

Not that I want to compare a child to a pet, but people will do some crazy things to keep their pets comfortable. Offer to some friends who are planning a vacation to take care of their dogs while they’re away. More than likely it will be a lot more cost effective then a kennel for your friends and you could earn some money while doing it.

Sell Your Photography Skills

Are you an avid photographer? Well you could be making money. If you’re willing to upload your pictures to a site like shutterstock then you could turn your hobby into a side job. Online photography sites typically offer a way for you to sell good, quality images without much of a startup cost.

Apply for extra work

There are so many websites and job boards online that are looking for someone to edit images, grammar check posts, and even ghost write a few posts. By joining a place like Upwork, you can put together an online resume and then bid on different jobs. I actually use to write on Upwork quite a bit. I would put together articles for other finance sites and even created a handout for a gym owner in Australia once.

Clean Houses

Put together flyers to put around town, at your church or online to offer some cleaning skills. Cleaning houses could turn into a regular side job that makes some pretty consistent money for you.

Detail Cars

How many people do you know that actually enjoy cleaning their car? And it’s so hard to find a decent person who can detail a car without overcharging. Put together a weekend job where you detail cars. The startup cost is minimal and you can earn some serious money for the time you put

Create on Fiverr

Can you quickly proofread a short document or have a simple way to create an image? Well then you could be making some money over at Fiverr. It’s a cool site that you can sell your services or products for $5.00. Now you can offer an upcharge for any special add-ons, which is great. I have personally used Fiverr on several different occassions and always end up with great service.

Offer Tutoring

If you are profecient in a subject at the local high school or college then you can turn it into a weekend gig. Offer tutoring to local students on the weekends or one evening a week.

Ghost Writer on a Blog

If you have some writing skills then you can easily turn that into a gig. A lot of sites that publish articles multiples times a day are always looking for ghost writers.

Offer your Editing Skills

Along with becoming a ghost writer, you can offer your editing skills as an on-going job to websites and bloggers.

Become a Social Media Manager

If you know you’re way around the major social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest then you can easily offer yourself to bloggers and smaller companies. They are always looking for a strong social media presence, but may not have the budget to hire some in-house full-time. So offer your services on a small hourly or flat rate fee.

Donate Plasma

If you don’t mind donating blood then you can try your hand at plasma. There are quite a few places that will actually pay you to donate.

Give Up Cable

I know this one might be a bit harder to do because you probably have a show (or two) that you love, plus you may be a sports fanactic like my husband. But if you’re willing to go with out your cable then that could potentially save you MORE than a $100 a month. There are other services available to help with cutting the cord. You can get the Amazon Fire Stick (affiliate link), you can try Hulu and Netflix to make sure that you still have some entertainment for the little ones. We love our Fire Stick and have discovered a ton of great shows – for us and for our little guy for free.

Stop Eating Out for a few weeks

If you find yourself eating out way too often then try taking my No Eating Out Challenge. You will be surprised by how much you save just by eating at home and taking your lunch with you for a week.

Which ones are you going to try to make $100 fast? I know we love selling old items online and through yard sales as a quick way to get rid of junk while making money.

Why I’m Glad Our Son is Growing Up With Dogs

Posted on August 4, 2017July 25, 2017 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Before getting into the many, many reasons why I’m glad our little boy has three dogs to call his best friends I want to tell you a story. This story took place when I was only nine. My best friend in the entire world was a Rottweiler named Storm. We did everything together – played in the mud, laid in the grass, played ball, and he even watched over me as I rode my bike up and down our street. The best thing Storm did for me every day was walk me to and from the bus stop. Each morning I would load up my backpack and head out the door with Storm right beside me. He would wag his little stump of a tail as I talked about all the fun things I was going to do in school. He would sit patiently at the end of the street until the school bus came, then he would walk home to wait until it was time to pick me up again. No matter the temperature or weather conditions, Storm never failed. He was always by my side.

One day while waiting for the bus like we had done hundreds of times before, a man in a red SUV pulled up. He didn’t live down my street and I had never saw him before. He rolled down his window and started talking to me. I wasn’t sure what to do. There was no one else around, so I answered. He complimented by dog and me. At this point Storm was now standing a little in front of me with my hand on his back. He was keeping a close eye on this new stranger. He told me he liked to take pictures and would love to get one of me and my dog some day. I replied with the fact the school bus should be pulling up any minute. He then asked if I would go with him to get his camera so we could come back to take pictures. All the red flags and alarms were going off in my head. This was a BAD man.

Within moments he had started opening his door. My hand left Storm’s back and next thing I know my protector had jumped through the car window towards this man. I took off. I ran as fast as I could back to my house. Screaming for my Mom and Dad. By the time I reached the front porch Storm was by my side.

I told my parents what had happened and they immediately called the sheriff’s office. To this day I’m not sure exactly what happened next, but the man did live in the neighboring subdivision and within a few months he moved out of town.

Storm saved my life. I truly believe he saved me. I know I couldn’t have out ran this grown man at only 9 years old, but because of Storm I got away.

That story is the main reason I want our son growing up with dogs. Dogs that will protect him, walk with him and keep an eye on him. Just like Storm did for me all those years ago.

Now there are many other reasons I want our son growing up with dogs, which aren’t as scary as my story.

Dogs are loyal. The moment we brought our son home our three dogs knew he was theirs to take care of. They get up through out the night to sleep by his crib or just to peek their head in to make sure he’s okay. Tiny, who is my scared-of-everything dog has to be near him at all times. She follows him, and if he cries she’s the first on by his side – often pushing me out of the way.

Dogs teach responsibility. Dogs are a huge commitment. It’s important for our son to learn to care for another being. He is learning how to pet gently, play with them and will eventually learn how to feed and take care of their water bowl. At an early age it can help your child feel needed and they can learn the importance of having a few small jobs around the house.

Dogs help with learning new skills. I can remember sitting on the front porch until it was too dark to see reading a new book to Storm or one of my other dogs. Reading out loud to your dog can help your child learn new cognitive skills. Kids who talk to their pets show improved cognitive skills and imagination.

Dogs can help your child be healthier. Dogs want to play, a lot. Chase toys, run in the backyard or just keep your child moving around the house. By having a dog (or in our case three) we’re never short of a dog wanting to play. Taking our son outside in the backyard with a bunch of dog toys will keep him and our dogs occupied. This give him a chance to be outside in the fresh air, play with more than just those annoyingly loud baby toys and shows the dogs just how great their new human brother is.

Dogs can boost a child’s self-esteem. This goes back to teaching responsibility. By having our son help with a few tasks each day he can feel proud of what he has accomplished. Not only is he taking care of a living being, but he’s helping out Mommy and Daddy around the house. I can think back to where my job growing up was cleaning up the yard (you know what I mean….). It was dirty and smelly, but I knew it had to be done. I felt proud knowing my dogs yard was clean and healthy for him to be in. My parents were proud because I helped (and because they no longer had to do it). I knew what it mean to pitch in and help out, and that was pretty great.

I know it’s important for our little man to have dogs in his life, just like I did growing up and just like J did. To me a dog is a best friend, someone who knows all of your secrets and never judges you. Someone you saved the last bite of your grilled cheese for and laugh when you get slobbered with kisses after being gone all day. That’s the love I want our son to know and feel. The protection at the bus stop will just be an added benefit and will give me a peace of mind.

Share:

You can watch the video online or down below:

Share:

5:00-6:00

6:00 – 7:00

7:00 – 7:30

7:30 – 8:00

8:00 – 9:30

Here’s a few tips to make nighttime a bit easier:

Share:

You can watch our debt story online or down below. Keep reading for more.

Need More Help?

Share:

Here are the top budget busters and how you can beat them. You can watch online or down below:

Need More Help?

Share:

Share:

Share:

Affiliate Disclosure: Please note when you click links and purchase items, in most (not all) cases I will receive a referral commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link.

I did receive The Mommy Hook at no cost, but have not been paid otherwise for this review. All the opinions are my own.

Share:

Are you looking for quick ways to make a buck? Well you’re in luck! I have put together a great list of 20 ways to make $100 fast.

Sell old phones, laptops and tablets

Sell old clothes

Have a Yard Sale

Sell Items You Don’t Use

Volunteer for Overtime

Take Part in Your Company’s Customer Referral Program

Offer Baby Sitting

Start Pet Sitting

Sell Your Photography Skills

Apply for extra work

Clean Houses

Detail Cars

Create on Fiverr

Offer Tutoring

Ghost Writer on a Blog

Offer your Editing Skills

Become a Social Media Manager

Donate Plasma

Give Up Cable

Stop Eating Out for a few weeks

Share:

Share: