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The Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter
Feature Article - Planning Can Make Saving Money More Fun
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It's been a long couple of days. Gage and Ariel are both sick. Not a lot of symptoms; Gage's fever hit 101, so I'll be calling the doctor, but I haven't checked Ariel's. Neither kid has a good appetite. Ariel has been extra tired while Gage barely sleeps - therefore I don't sleep much either.
I hate waiting to find out what to do. Tylenol has only helped a little, especially for Gage. I was really hoping it would at least let him sleep, which it hasn't. Poor kid wants nothing more than to be held. I can get him to nurse sometimes, but his appetite is way, way down. Fortunately, he still likes to be spoonfed his solids, so I added extra milk to his cereal to get a little more liquid in him. That lead to the thought of an ear infection or something making him not want to suck, but then he started nursing again a little after we wondered about that.
I'm taking a break to finish getting this newsletter out - good thing I had it most of the way there, or I would have had to skip this week.
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Living on a tight budget is hard, but it’s a reality for most single income families and many dual income families. It’s just not easy to keep up with everything you need and want these days.
Let’s take a look at that again. Are your wants ruining your budget?
I know it’s nice having the TiVo, the cell phone, dressing your kids in fashionable clothes, but is it all necessary? If you’re living from paycheck to paycheck, or even close to it, it’s time to take a strong look at your budget.
This, of course, means that the first thing you must do is write out your entire budget. Don’t skip anything. You might even average out the costs of birthday and other presents just so you’re ready when such expenses hit.
Compare this to your income. Do you have enough left over to save for emergencies? If not, what will happen when your car breaks down, for example? It’s time to get your finances in order so little emergencies like that don’t become a full blown crisis.
Look at that budget. What do you really need? Is the cell phone vital? Is it on the right plan for how you use it? What about cable TV or other entertainment subscriptions? Are you eating out too much or overspending on things you don’t really need? It’s time to start cutting.
Now, cutting back is no fun, so you need to set goals. These will help motivate you to stick to your new budget.
Set a goal for saving money on the kids’ clothes, for example. Have them be in on the reward so that there’s motivation for them too, of course. Hit the discount, resale and thrift shops – you might be surprised at what you can buy for less. It’s a good lesson for the kids that they don’t HAVE to have the latest fashions to look good. A good reward could be having a friend come stay overnight, going to a favorite (affordable) activity and so forth.
Don’t forget to save on your groceries. Start clipping coupons and pay attention to how the grocery stores are laid out. Stores typically have the goods they want you to buy right at eye level, so look up and down to see if there are more affordably priced options. Avoid convenience foods, as these are often more expensive and less healthy than making it yourself. Reward yourself if you reach a certain percentage in savings over your old spending habits.
Make sure the whole family is involved. Is your spouse buying lunch every day at work? Talk about switching to homemade lunches. Share your goals and priorities so that no one feels more deprived by the changes than everyone else. It’s very hard to save money when everyone else is resisting and/or sabotaging your efforts, deliberately or not.
Make sure you understand the difference between needs and wants if you’re having trouble cutting back. Society makes it easy to feel like you need the latest gadgets, toys, movies, etc. But if you’re tight on money, it’s time to forget about that and stick with your true needs.
Finally, don’t forget to consider working at home if you are a stay at home parent. There are legitimate work at home opportunities out there, from jobs that should not cost you anything to get started, to home business opportunities that probably will have a startup cost as well as advertising costs. Consider which is best for your needs, interests and skills. Be extremely careful of work at home scams, as you can’t afford to lose money when your budget is already tight.
Stephanie Foster is the owner of Home with the Kids, a resource that knows that there's more to staying home with your family than just business. For more stay at home tips, visit the site at http://www.homewiththekids.com/ and subscribe to the free newsletter.
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I'm sure many online marketers have kids and they often come over to the desk when you are busy working online to ask questions like "what are you doing dad/mom" etc.
How many of us actually tell them what we are doing or better yet show them?
I have been guilty of being "to busy" to answer questions or saying not right now daddy's busy.
All this changed the first time I actually took the time to explain to my daughter just exactly what I was doing.
My daughter has some "challenges" that I won't go into here but the result of me explaining a little bit of what I do and why to her has been no less than inspiring to me.
She took an interest in this whole marketing thing, especially wondering why people buy things and what makes them buy one item instead of a similar one.
We have had lots of conversations about this and looked at lots of products and ads, everything from tv, ebay, online sites and even the wso's on the forum. We've discussed Christmas and observed the transformation of stores and tv ads during the holiday season.
She has learned a lot about:
* Integrity and honesty in promoting a product and many of the various ways to get the attention of the viewer.
* How a buyer that feels fooled or cheated won't be back and will tell people they know not to buy from you.
* Wanting to "belong to a group" - she was sitting next to me when we watched hundreds of people fill up a much anticipated members site that just launched with a limit of 500 members. She witnessed first hand how building anticipation and exclusivity can work.
* Selling something you are passionate about - how it won't seem like work and you will probably have a better chance of success when the passion you have for a product show's through.
Soon all these evening conversations and lessons lead to Stephanie wanting her own website to sell something from.
First she needed some money to launch her site. At the time I was an active power seller on ebay. Her little brother Thomas was really into Bionicles (a toy) and was always cruising ebay looking for a deal on the latest Bionicle. One night we were at Wal-Mart and as usual in the Bionicle section with Thomas. The little toys were on sell at less than half price. Stephanie suggested that we could buy them and sell them on ebay. We did, we bought them all and sold almost all of them at retail or above. She helped design the ad and suggested posing some out of the boxes for pictures and was involved in the design of the auction ad. Enough was made to start her website. More ebay auctions followed to raise a few more dollars.
After some discussion Stephanie decided what she wanted her website to be about.
She decided on:
* The pet niche - an area she is definitely passionate about (three dogs, hamsters, guinea pigs, fish and turtles make their home with us).
* She picked out several private label products (from a marketer we met in an online forum) and a few click bank products to promote.
* She chose the domain name freepettips.com
* She bought the website to use a starting point for her site (she picked it out from ebay for $25). You can see the beginnings here - http://tomdean.net/Pets (it's not finished this is just the starting point).
Her site will be complete soon and will include private label products about dog care, click bank products, resell rights products for dog/cat recipes, articles, adsense, and two of her very on products written for her but based on what she wanted them to include. One is on buying and caring for hamsters the other is on guinea pigs and includes plans for the guinea pigs home and an outdoor guinea pig play box. Of course I will be the one to finish up the site and get it on the web but the concept, product selection, chosen design and her products were all decided on by her. Think of all she will be learning from this process. She is involved every step of the way.
Many of her own graphics will be used on the site and in the products. She went from coloring graphics with crayons (her other passion) to drawing them in a paint program using a pen mouse that she purchased from her ebay proceeds.
All of this from dad just answering some questions and deciding not to say "I'm busy right now".
I know we all get busy and stressed especially when that site is just not working out or your latest mailing didn't do much for you. But take some time when the little one ask what you are up to. You may be surprised by how much they are really interested in what you are doing and how much your time means to them. You will also be surprised with what they can teach you if you just listen.
Tom (A proud dad)
Tom Dean is a Work at Home Dad who runs multiple websites including The Dean Report. A site for Newbies that Offers Free - Templates - Grahic Headers - Tools - Tips and even - Complete Websites Visit - http://tomdean.net - for more information.
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