How to earn money when you have no job.

What do you do when you're down to $46 in checking, $200 in savings and you have no job?

You get creative. That's what you do.

After you're done freaking out because you are down to so little money in your accounts, dry your tears, slather on some valor and peace and calm essential oils and get out your notepad. You're in survival mode and this is where we usually have to make up our minds to fight or run. Are you kidding me? You're a strong woman! You pull up your big girl panties and make a plan!

First make a list of all your bills and get rid of everything non-essential. Then you figure out how you're going to put some funds back in your accounts! Here's some ideas.

Yard sale. Run through every room and hold a yard sale to get rid of stuff! Kids clothes are usually pretty popular as are women's shoes, purses and accessories. The more in-style, the better! Dishes, Nick-nacks, kids toys they no longer play with, etc. plan it for a weekend and you could bring in $200-$500 or more! There are usually "yard sale" groups on Facebook you can list leftover items and continue to earn money after the yard sale is over!

Speaking of those Facebook groups, they are a great place to sell crafts and homemade goods! Know how to knit or crochet? Make up some items to sell. You can also do hand painted items, jewelry, hand sewn items, luxury bath items and more!

Are you good at cooking? Make some goodies to sell in those groups too like muffins, breads, cookies, cakes, or specialty treats!

Offer your services. Babysitting, book work, elderly care, pet sitting, gardening, landscaping, etc. take what you're good at and offer to do it for people!

Blogging! There's tons of tutorials on Pinterest and online on how to start a blog and earn money maintaining it!

MLM companies. I'm not a huge fan of these because you often have to spend money to get started and bug the crap out of your friends and family to get them to buy your stuff, but if you're good at it and it's a product you love, go for it! Some to check out might be Young Living Essential Oils, Mary Kay Cosmetics, It Works! Wraps, Beach Body Shakes, Avon and more!

Finally, there are tons of online survey companies you can sign up under that will pay you to take surveys!

If all else fails, check with the Salvation Army, your churches or charity groups for financial help until you can secure a job or means to financial security! I hope this helps!

If - My motivation

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
 Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
  But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
  Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
  And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
  If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
  And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
  Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
  And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
  And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
  And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
  To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
  Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
  Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
  If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
  With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
  And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son.

Rudyard Kipling

I memorized this poem in 5th grade. It was assigned to me by one of my favorite teachers Mrs. Janey Schurr. I never knew it's exact meaning when I memorized it way back then but as I grew older, I came to love the poem and it became my manifesto by which to live a worthy and righteous life. My teacher knew I loved that poem and when I graduated from High School, she gave me a card and in it was another "If" poem. 

"If" For Young Women

If you can trust yourself though others doubt you
And conquer fears that limit what you dare
So you can then enrich the world about you
With skills and talents that are yours to share;

If you enjoy both quiet introspection
And festive times with friends and family,
If you make time for dreaming and reflection
But still find joy in others' company;

If you can balance dreams with practicality
And deal in facts but never lose ideals,
If you can face the harshness of reality
And find the truths that prejudice conceals;

If you can be courageous when defeated
And humble in the face of victory
Or give your best until a task's completed,
However difficult the task may be;

If you can be sincere when giving credit
And work at building bridges and not walls
Or strive to reach a price until you get it,
Yet never fail to help someone who falls...

If you can temper facts with understanding
And manage well the things in your control
And neither be too lax or too demanding
But keep in mind the worth of every soul;

If you can reach objectives, not begrudging
The patience, time, and effort you impart,
And look at others' actions without judging
And see not with your eyes but with your heart;

If you can take resources that surround you
And use them in the way you feel is good,
You'll be successful... and all those around you
Will be the richer for your womanhood.
-Barbara Burrow 

Now I had two sets of words to live by and I loved both of them because they really dig into your heart and show you what it means to really live. I hope these two poems resonate in your soul and help you to live a more meaningful life too.

It's never too late

For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.
Eric Roth - A Curious Case of Benjamin Button

This is by far my favorite quote, ever. 

I have this printed out and I used to have it hanging by a tack at my desk when I worked at IFA. It reminded me that no matter what, I could always start over. I didn't have to wait for some huge event to take place or for a natural beginning to begin again. I have started over many times. 
Sometimes it was because things got stale. I needed the change, so I would rearrange things and begin again in hopes that I would find a revelation that would set me on the right path to where I wanted to really be. 
I'm still not there. I will be though. I'm sure of it.

It reminds me that sometimes the rules that I was living by were made up and I could break those rules and make my own and start over again! I love making my own rules. Like the rule, the laundry doesn't ever get folded, just recycled into the chair of clean clothes. I hate laundry. 

It reminds me to make the best of things. There's so many times I could have just rolled over and let life run me over. I didn't. I made the best of what was handed to me. I always managed to add a bit of vodka to my lemons....er, I mean water. 

So, here I am, heading into a part of my life, where I chose to completely shake things up and rearrange things. You see, apart from college, I've never lived anywhere but little bitty Cortez, CO. Well, from what I can remember anyways. So, I decided it's time to leave. I'm moving to Colorado Springs, CO in about a week. I hate big cities. They scare me. But starting over somewhere I've never really experienced before is just what I need. I may be 30 and I should be settling down, but remember, it's never too late!

Good things come to those who....

Patience. It's one thing I have never been particularly good at. I know the bible teaches a lot on patience. I specifically avoid praying for God to give me patience because He will then put me in a situation where my patience is tested in the worst way and I get frustrated and angry. Be patient. Good things come to those who wait...

I don't wait. I charge on. I tackle my goals. I hustle. Good things come to those who hustle! Honestly, if good things come to those who wait, why is procrastination frowned upon? 

My lack of patience often gets me in trouble. When I am seeking a relationship with a man, I often just want to skip all the bullshit and go straight to an exclusive relationship because I don't like to play games. I know what I want and if I see it in you, I'm going to go after it. Men don't like being chased. After 4 years, I still haven't learned my lesson and that's why I'm still single. 

My kids notice it too. They've picked up my impatient attitude about certain things. For example, we have been packing the house and I told them we had to pack their toy room. It was a total wreck. I told them we would dump everything in the center, then sort it into boxes to be packed. My son charges in and just starts filling bins without sorting it wanting to just be done with it so he could go play. When I tell him that's not how I want it packed, he asks why it has to be sorted if its just going to be dumped out and messy at the new house? Oh you smartaleck child! He has a point though. I still make him sort it out because it's how I want it done. After 5 hours, it's all sorted and he exclaims "Mom! I have all my Legos in one place to play with now!" Naturally, patience and perseverance in getting the job done paid off. If only it worked like that in every aspect of my life.

If you don't ask, the answer is always "no". If you never take a step forward, you will always be right where you're at. If you always do what you've always done, you'll always have what you've always had. Change. Move forward. Take a leap of faith. Hustle. Sometimes its not always clear what you should do. Sometimes patience is key. Sometimes hard work is the only solution to reaching your goal. So, good things come to those who wait but also those who get up and work their asses off for it. Taylor it to your current goal and either get up and go after it, or have a little patience for the answer to reveal itself. 

Have an amazing day everyone!

Coupon Bootcamp Day 3

I promise we are almost finished! Today we are going to cover stockpiling, coupon etiquette and we will debunk some coupon myths. So, lets dive right in!

First is stockpiling. Now, I get a lot of people that tell me they have no room to stockpile anything. People, I live in a tiny apartment. TINY! It is me and my two kids in 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. I can find some crazy places to put stuff and I literally have a small grocery store in my apartment.

The key to saving with coupons is combining a sale with your coupon so that you are getting your item at a rock bottom price! The Key to saving consistently is to purchase enough of that item at that rock bottom price to last until it goes on sale again. Stockpiling is the act of accumulating items purchased to be able to use at a later time. It means you wait until the item is on sale at a rock bottom price and buying enough to last until that item goes on sale for that rock bottom price again. Buy it when you don't need it right away, but you know you will use it before it expires.

Here's an example of how stockpiling saves you money:

Carol Couponer’s family uses 1 box of cereal per week. She sees that her store has cereal on sale for $1.88. This sale comes around every 6 weeks. Carol has 6 coupons for 50 cents off 1 box and her store will double that coupon making it $1 off 1 box. Carol pays $5.28 for 6 weeks of cereal. ($.88 x 6)

Carla Clueless’ family uses 1 box of cereal per week. She sees that her store has cereal on sale for $1.88. She doesn't use coupons. She buys 1 box of cereal and next week when she needs another box of cereal, she pays the full price of $3.69. For 6 weeks of cereal Carla pays $20.33 (1.88+3.69x5)

Products go on sale in cycles. For example, January you will find a lot of health foods on sale. July you’ll find a lot of grilling and picnic items on sale. Go to http://thekrazycouponlady.com/2010/08/17/sale-cycles-how-to-be-a-coupon-psychic/ to see what is on sale during each month and what is clearanced during each month to know what you will be stocking up on each month. A natural question I get asked is "How will I know when an item is worth stocking up on? Typically, if an item is discounted after sales and coupons 65% or more from retail, you should stock up on it.

Now lets debunk some myths about couponing or really what the naysayers are screaming at us!

Myth - Using coupons loses money for that store.

Truth - Stores earn on average 8 cents for every coupon redeemed on top of the face value. So for every 25 cent coupon, they are getting back the 25 cents plus 8 cents. If they turn in 100 25-cent coupons they will get back $25 plus $8 for handling. They don't earn money for taking cash, credit or a check do they!?

Myth – Couponing will cost me more than it’s worth.

Truth – No, you are saving more than you are spending. If you buy 1 newspaper at a news stand, you will pay $2. If that paper has only 2 coupon inserts, you will average $200 in savings. Even if you only use 10% of the coupons in there for the week, you've gained $18!

Myth – Clipping coupons takes valuable time.

Truth – Yes, and there are other things you could be doing other than clipping coupons like cleaning house or cooking. Do any of those tasks pay you to complete them? Lets use the example from before. If I am saving $18 from 1 newspaper and it takes me 30 minutes to clip and organize those 2 inserts I just made $36/hour.

Myth – You will buy items you would not normally buy – negating the savings.

Truth – You will buy items that you would not normally buy, but at greater savings than what you do normally buy. My husband needs lunch items. I usually get bread, cheese, lunch meat, pickles, and chips. One week there were Red Baron single pizza items on sale 2 for $4. I have 10 coupons for $1 off 1. They are regularly 2 for $7. With the sale and with the coupons I can get them each for $1. I buy 10 of them for $10. I would have spent $4 on 2 loaves of bread $6 on sliced cheese, $6 on lunch meat, $6 on chips and $3 on pickles for 6 days worth of lunches. Hmm....$10 for frozen pizzas for a week or $25 for sandwiches and chips for a week.

Myth – All coupons are for food that is not healthy for you.

Truth – I just clipped a coupon for almond milk, greek yogurt, cherry tomatoes, organic prunes, and chicken sausages. While fresh produce and fresh meat coupons are rare, you can still save on those items. If you are getting your household items and other food items for free or close to it, the money you just saved can now be used on the fresh produce and meat! If you do not want to eat the unhealthy items that are on sale – don’t buy them!

Myth - Wont I save more by buying the store brand?

Truth - Not always! Example: Safeway brand Tomato or Chicken Noodle Soup is usually about $.75/can. Safeway ran an ad 10/5 -10/11 with Campbell's tomato or chicken noodle soups at 2/$1 ($.50/ea) That sale alone was cheaper than the store brand, BUT there was also a coupon out for $.40/4 cans of Campbells tomato or chicken noodle soups that at Safeway doubled to $.80/4 making the deal even better at $.30/ea!

Myth - Wont I save more by buying in bulk or the economy size?

Truth - NO! Example: Nesquick chocolate milk mix 38 servings is around $7. There is also a smaller 7 serving pouch for $1.10. Without any coupons, it would absolutely make sense to buy the larger 38 serving container. However, about twice a year Nesquick puts out a coupon for $.50/1 which at the stores that double, makes it $1/1. This means you are then paying only $.10 for 7 servings instead of $6 for 38 servings. This works out to just over a penny per serving as opposed to almost $.16 per serving. Buying the smallest size available on sale and using your coupon on it will drive the price per unit extremely low and will often allow you to get items for pennies or FREE!

Now lets go over some coupon etiquette.

#1 rule of coupons: Never ever photo copy a coupon. This is fraud and is illegal!
Only use a coupon on the intended product, size, quantity, and variety that it states on the coupon.
Read your coupon to make sure you follow its consumer guidelines and restrictions. Example, P&G coupons state “limit 4 like coupons per transaction” meaning you may only use 4 of that identical coupon in one transaction. Some coupons have other restrictions that you must abide by.
There are no stores that allow you to use a coupon that is expired, so check that the coupon is within its available useful time period before using.
Pulling out several newspapers from the stand and not paying for them is theft. Similarly, pulling inserts from newspapers you or someone else has not paid for is theft! Don’t steal papers/inserts, more people will lose out than just the news stand owner.
Don’t clear shelves! While product is intended to be purchased, you should leave enough for other customers to purchase some. My rule of thumb is to leave 2/3 on the shelf. If clearing the shelf by simply purchasing what a normal “non-couponer” is unavoidable, don’t feel bad. But, if you would like more than a reasonable amount of certain items, please create a special order with the store.
When price matching at wal-mart, please remember that it is not in their policy to price match items after rewards. ie if Walgreens has toothbrushes that are free after register rewards, walmart will not price match it, nor is it within their policy to do so.
Please be courteous to those around you. You never know when someone around you is watching as you lunge in front of them to grab the very last tube of toothpaste. You’ll end up being ranted about on a coupon page on facebook ;) Also though, the more courteous you are, the more people will start to accept the coupon world and the less you’ll hear “oh, you have coupons” or “you must be a couponer” in those not so nice tones. 

You are now a coupon pro! If you have questions about it at all, please ask and I will answer as best I can! Have an amazing day everyone!

Coupon Bootcamp Day 2

Yesterday we went over finding coupons and sorting them. Today I want to go over matchups and coupon lingo. 

Lets start with coupon lingo:

• Double Coupons: coupons where a store will match the value of the coupon discount. (Safeway and City Market will double any coupon up to $0.50 and Safeway will round any coupon from $0.51 to $0.99 up to $1!)
• Moneymaker: An item that when purchased will earn you money
• Price Matching: When you are allowed to use a competitors price at another store to get the price lower. (Wal-Mart and Target allow this) 
• Rain Check: A slip allowing you to get a sale price on an item that is out of stock.
• WYB=When You Buy 
• BOGO=Buy One Get One (Free or 50% off)
• FAR=Free After Rebate
• IP=Internet Printable Coupon
• IVC=Instant Value Coupon (Walgreens Store Coupon)
• MIR=Mail In Rebate 
• OYNO=On Your Next Order
• OOP=Out Of Pocket
• ManQ=Manufacturer Coupon 
• Q=Coupon
• P&G 7-3=refers to the insert and date it came out
• WAGS=Walgreens abbreviated
• RP=Red Plum Insert
• SS=Smart Source Insert
• P&G=Procter & Gamble Insert
• CAT=Catalina Coupon
• YMMV=Your Mileage May Vary (different results)
• ECB=CVS Extra Care Bucks
• RR=Walgreens Register Rewards
• +UPR=Riteaid +UP Rewards
• SCR=Riteaid Single Check Rebate
• $3/1=refers to the coupon amount being $3 off 1 of that product. You will see several variations
• Exp=expiration
• Stacking: Using a coupon in conjunction with a sale OR using a manufacturer coupon with a store coupon. NOTE: You may NOT use more than ONE manufacturer coupon on any 1 product.
• Overage: Also known as a moneymaker. When an item is purchased and the coupon value is more than the product price, you can receive overage! Currently only Wal-mart allows you to keep your overage as cash back, other stores may apply the overage to your purchase. 
• Purchase: any single item in your order
• Transaction: the cumulative order of all items purchased.
• Several cashiers have mistaken this on coupons that say limit one per purchase. This simply means that you may only use one manufacturer coupon on the item you are purchasing, not that you can only use one coupon in that transaction. If a coupon says limit one per transaction, then you may only use 1 of that coupon in a transaction. If you would like to use more than 1 of that coupon, make your purchase and use the coupon and start another transaction after paying to use your coupon on that same item.

Now that you know how to read the matchup sites, You can begin to know what you are getting and for what price. So first fire up Google and type in your favorite store and "coupon matchup" and see what it comes up with. One of my favorites to follow is thekrazykouponlady.com because she shows matchups for multiple different stores and she shows what items are a really great and good stockup price with little icons next to them and even gives you deal scenarios for what you could buy to get it down to a certain price. Other great ones are wildforwags.com, krogerkrazy.com, and supersafeway.com. I'm located in Colorado, so these usually cover all my bases for stores I want to use. I go to these sites, select the products I can see are going to be great stockup prices, add them to my list, pull the coupons needed for it and head to the store. 

Some of these sites will let you know that there is a rebate on an app to earn cash back. These apps include Ibotta, Mobisave, checkout 51 and more. These apps usually will deposit money you've earned into a paypal account that you can then transfer into your checking account or you can use the money you've earned on giftcards for places like starbucks, toysrus, red lobster etc. It is to your advantage to use these apps. You can also download the app for certain stores and often these have places to download digital coupons that will further reduce your bill by applying coupons at checkout usually by using your store loyalty card before paying. 

We still have a bit to go over, but you are well on your way to becoming a coupon pro!


 

You saved how much???

In 2011 there was a crazy show called Extreme Couponing. I watched it once. I thought, hey, I can do that. It looks easy! So I watched a few more episodes and found a blog that explained how to do it and I set out to be a couponer. Maybe not as extreme as they were on the show, but I was going to save my family some money! The very first time I went shopping was at Walgreens and Wal-mart I believe.

Total retail of these items was $53.19 plus tax. I spent $21.34 including tax, a 60% savings. 
I continued to shop in this manner and I added up total savings from my first trip May 2011 to December 31st, 2011 and I had saved my family over $3500.00 by shopping the sales and using coupons.

Throughout the years since then, I have continued to coupon and save myself money to the point that I had basically a small grocery store in my home (that I now must move to Colorado Springs). This mini mart has saved my derriere on multiple occasions however because there were times I didn't have any money at all to buy anything but I didn't have to worry because it was all in my stockpile for me to use. 

It wasn't long after my divorce that I decided that I wanted to start teaching people how to do this and I didn't want to charge them because its hard enough to try to save money without everyone around you trying to take it from you just to teach you how to save it. So, I partnered up with one of the W.I.C. technicians and we taught at the health department in Cortez. I put on 1-2 classes a month and even did drawings and door prizes. 

Now it's your turn. I want to teach you how to start couponing. 

First things first. Gotta have coupons. Probably the best place to get coupons is going to be your local newspaper. Where I live, that is the Sunday Denver Post. I get 4 of them because I can generally use up to 4 of the same coupon in a transaction or in a day. I would suggest getting a newspaper for each member in your family and rounding it up to the next even number. So, if you have 5 people in your family, get 6 newspapers. Even if that person is a baby or a fur baby, get a newspaper for them. It works out better this way. 

You can also find coupons from blinkies at the store (the little dispensers that blink and dispense a coupon), tear pads, hang tags, peelies, in or on product, in store booklets or that are handed out with samples. You can also sign up for coupons from websites of the product or the store itself. Or you can print coupons from places like coupons.com, redplum.com and smartsource.com. Printable coupons will only allow 2 prints per ip address, so if you have multiple computers, you can print multiple sets of 2 of that coupon. Additional good places to check for coupons is magazines and store booklets. All*You magazine is one that has coupons in every issue. Walgreens and Safeway put out a monthly booklet with coupons in it. City Market (Kroger/King Soopers) will mail you exclusive coupons based on your shopping habits with your loyalty card. There are also some companies that will mail you coupons for connecting with them either on facebook, twitter, e-mail or calling them!

Once you start collecting coupons, you're going to want to sort them in a way that makes sense to you. I have a binder with baseball card sleeves and page dividers for each category like baby items, pet, health, etc. You can choose to sort them also by grouping that weeks individual inserts in a sleeve or a folder. Or you might use an accordion folder. Whatever works best for you and makes the most sense is what you should choose. The first time you do this, it might take a bit longer and I hear a lot from people that they just don't have the time to do this. If you're committed to it, you'll start to realize that the time it takes you to clip those coupons, sort and file them, it's actually paying you to do so with the amount of money you just saved. I set aside time every Sunday after church to do my coupons, write out my grocery list for what is on sale at a stock-up price then I do my meal plan for the week based on what I have or will have in my pantry or fridge and add anything else I need for those meals to my grocery list. I then pull my coupons and go shopping. I will teach you more about that process tomorrow. For now, go, collect some coupons! 

Be greedy!

Money. We have to have it in order to survive. We often hear that it is the root of all that is evil. But is it?

 

 So, if greed is the seed, then what am I talking about today? I'll tell you what I am not talking about. I'm not talking about religion, or loving money so much it consumes your life and takes over your morals, integrity or manners. What I am talking about is success and work ethics. 

In 2001, at the age of 15, I started one of my first jobs working at a restaurant as a dishwasher. It was called Shiloh Steakhouse. If you ever get a chance to go through Cortez, Colorado, stop there because they have some amazing food! I worked after school 4 nights a week and then most of the day Saturday. I was responsible for taking a cloth to the silverware and water glasses to get all the water spots off of them and to make sure that all the dishes that went out to the diners had no remnants of food or leftover lipstick stains. I hated shining silverware and water glasses, it was mundane and I didn't see the point to shining the silverware of water spots. The wait staff usually made really great tips and were also compensated a little more because it was a practice of the restaurant to take a percentage of each wait staffs tips and divide it among the kitchen staff. I usually only got $5-10 each night but it was enough to put a little gas in my '74 chevy pickup and cruise Main street for a bit on the weekends. 

I remember one day seeing a notice on the schedule that there was a mandatory employee meeting on one of the days the restaurant was closed. The majority of us that worked there hated our boss because he was just that, a boss, not a leader. What he said during this meeting though has stuck with me the rest of my life and I still put it into practice today. He started out with a dustbin full of dirt and straw wrappers and toothpicks and orange rinds which he dumped on the floor. Then he pulled out a box of dishes that had stains and chips and remnants of food and lipstick which he placed a few at each table we were sitting at. He then pulled out a box of containers with rancid and moldy food from the walk-in refrigerator. For each section of the restaurant, he pulled out something that would make the respective employee cringe for seeing that their work was not done properly. He yelled. Loudly. He said he used to be proud of what he'd accomplished with this restaurant, but now looking at the mess us employees were turning it into, he was ashamed he owned it. He said,

 "I want you all to be greedy! I don't mean that I want you to start robbing one another of opportunities. I want you to want the whole restaurant to succeed so the customer is happy in the end and tips better, which means better tips for everyone. It also means that customer will tell someone else how great we are and recommend us to them."

For me and my other fellow dishwasher, this meant clean and polished dishes because if the dishes aren't clean then the wait staff has to replace them and that makes them look bad. 

I worked there for just over a year and got a taste for almost every position in that restaurant because people would call in sick, so I would "be greedy" and cover for them. I took these words with me to every job I worked. I wanted the company as a whole to succeed, so I developed a "greedy" attitude. I don't call it being greedy so much as I call it taking on the "its my job" attitude. 

Another case in point was when I worked at IFA country store. My official job title was receiving clerk. The job description included checking in shipments, unpacking the merchandise and labeling it, securing it and receiving it into inventory. I was also in charge of returns, cycle/inventory counts, till counts, and daily sales reconciliation. Nowhere in that description does it include helping store customers in any way, shape or form. Yet, every time I walked through the warehouse and there was a customer that needed pet/livestock feed loaded and I was able to load it for them, I would do it. If, on my way to the upper level offices I saw a line forming at the registers, I would stop and check a customer out to get the line moving. If, while counting inventory a customer came into my view, I would stop and ask if I could assist them in any way. It was never in my job description, but it was my job to make sure I was doing everything in my power at all times to help the company succeed. 

Having this mindset has always been what has earned me the most raises. So, while I'm not exactly "greedy" I am definitely motivated by the overall success of the company I work for or even the company I run myself. I want to be successful myself and sometimes that means helping others succeed too. So, be greedy, or whatever because it is your job to define what success means to you.

Have an amazing day!

Your money works for you, not the other way around

How many of you know at this very moment how much money you have in cash, checking, savings etc.? Not very many people could tell you where all their money is at this very moment. You should know these numbers. Every penny. At any given moment. Why? Because if you know where every penny is, you can put it to work. Instead of you working hard for your money, make your money work hard for you! I'll show you how I do it.

First I want to go back several years to see how I handled money when I was young and had no clue, so lets rewind to the year 2000. I was a freshman in High School and my first lesson in record-keeping came from filling out my record book for my Supervised Agricultural Experience in FFA (Future Farmers of America). I learned how to keep track of money spent on animal feed and vet bills and at the end, how much I sold my animals for at fair. Granted, this money during my freshman year wasn't actually mine for my steer and hogs and rabbits, it was my "parents" money. I logged every receipt though of everything used for those animals and I could see at the end what, if any, profit I made off my animals. 
This was a good start for me in learning to keep track of all my expenses. It was also my first lesson in accounting. 

That's where I want you to start. I want you to fire up your spreadsheet and put your headings in for date, description of transaction, debit (spent money), credit (deposited/earned money), and balance. Here's the difficult part of this, you need a separate sheet for each account you use money from; credit cards, checking, savings, cash and any other accounts. For descriptions, don't just type wal-mart because you're going to look at this later and think what the eff did I spend money on at wal-mart on this day. So write that it was something like wal-mart (clothes) in the description. It will help you to categorize what you spent your money on. If you pulled money out at the ATM, add it to your Cash ledger, if you spent money on your credit card, you need to set the formula to calculate the balance due with interest. 
Keep track of where your money went for one month. The following month instead of seeing where your money went, I want you to tell your money where to go. All of it. I know you're thinking, "but I want to save my money, not live paycheck to paycheck". You will, because there is a method of budgeting that works really well! It's called the envelope system. Some may have heard of it. Some of you may have even purchased the full how-to book by Dave Ramsey. I went backwards and saw somewhere about an app called mvelopes. It also has a website https://www.mvelopes.com/ where you can create a free account (the app is free too) and it has all the education you'll need to successfully tell your money where to go. I was successfully using this system for a few months when I decided to purchase The Financial Peace Planner which I read in one night and it was the exact same stuff on the mvelopes website that I was able to read - for FREE! I sold the book back to thriftbooks.com. 
People!!! I was able to successfully, and for the very first time in my life, pay what bills I had and I was able to save away 2 months worth of money for expenses in case anything bad happened and was working on a third months worth when I left the bank. A quick rundown of how this system works is this: 1.) You get paid 2.) you place what you've earned into "envelopes" with specific purposes for that money like a rent envelope, a grocery envelope, a savings envelope etc. 3.) you only spend what money is in that envelope on what it is specified for and you can't overspend because all you have in that envelope is $x.xx. For example, you have $200 in your grocery envelope and you go to check out and it comes to $202.98. You best be putting something back because all you have is $200! Its just good practice. There is room for shuffling, you can borrow from one envelope to put in another, or you can plan ahead and say you know your electric bill ranges between $55 and $75 a month throughout the year. Average that out and put that amount in the envelope every month and on the months you still have money left over in that envelope, it will come in handy for the months that the electric bill is higher. 4.) You tell ALL of your money where to go. So if you've divided out money into envelopes for all the bills, and you have some leftover, then put the rest in your $1000 emergency fund envelope or create an envelope for debt that you can start eliminating! I don't want you to be looking at your bank account and see that you have $30 and think that you can spend that on whatever because you have it. I want you to go to your app and see how much you have in your everyday spending envelope and don't go over budget. For me it was more important to save money for the "what-if" scenario than to pay down debt, so I started saving for my 3 months of expenses.  
Stick to it. Put it in habitbull that you will reconcile your mvelopes account each night and that you will use the app any time you spend or earn money. You can thank me once you're debt free and sitting comfortably, right where you want to be! Have a great day everyone! 

Where should YOU start?

A question I am often asked by those that are inspired by my strength, resiliency and "heart" is "where should I start?" 

You should start with goals. Big. Hairy. Audacious. Goals. Make them your wildest dreams. Make them lofty goals. What is your pinnacle?  Now when do you want to achieve those goals by? 10 years? 5 years? 1 year? Great! write it down! 

I personally choose to limit mine to 5 years or 1 year because it's more attainable. Then I break down each goal like a Christmas tree graph to what I needs to happen to achieve that goal. For example, I am way overweight and my big lofty goal to fix that is to lose 80 lbs in 1 years time. What do I need to do in order to make that happen? Well, I'm going to break this down into months and say I need to lose about 7 lbs per month. I will ask myself a few questions about this goal. 1.) What habits do I need to make or break in order for this to become a reality? 2.) How much money do I need to make/save for this goal? 3.) What kind of people do I need in my life to help me along the way? 4.) What amount of time do I need to carve out in my schedule each day/week/month for this goal? 5.) What things must naturally happen first before other things can happen to achieve this goal? 6.) What can I be doing each day to get one step closer? So to answer each question for the weight loss goal: 1.) I will need to eat balanced meals. I will need to exercise. I will need to sleep well. I will need to stop with all the sugar and snacking mindlessly. I will need to plan my meals. And I will need to really increase my water intake. 2.) eating healthy means that the healthier foods cost a little more so I will need to adjust my grocery budget accordingly and start looking for coupons for those items that should be on my grocery list. 3.) I will need someone to motivate me and keep me accountable. That means a workout buddy and someone willing to go on the diet with me. 4.) I will need to set aside time each week for better meal planning as well as time each day for exercising. 5.) I couldn't really think of anything logical for this particular goal that needed to happen first-second-third-last sort of deal. Some goals are just that way. 6.) This is really where I will fine tune the goal and lay it out with habits I'm making or breaking. I like to use habitbull (ios) 

it helps me track a habit that I lay out and I can set reminders for so for this one, I would say, drinking half my weight in ounces of water would be my habit, so 110 ounces (I hate just water, so I add either fruit or drop some Young Living essential oils in it for taste) a day would be my goal for that habit and I'd track it every day for the set amount of time on habitbull. 

(If you have any questions AT ALL, please don't hesitate to contact me! If you'd like to try some oils, go here: https://www.youngliving.com/vo/#/signup/start?site=US&sponsorid=2633254&enrollerid=2633254

Another would be tracking every meal in the myfitnesspal app to make sure I am staying within my limits of carbs, protein and fat (I'm doing the Ketogenic diet or low carb high fat) and yet another would be to walk for 15 minutes a day, 3 days a week for 2 weeks to start out then add more time/days or additional exercises. Not really something trackable, but I will also use only a 9" round plate to eat off of because the plate looks full

and you have smaller portions whereas when you want to fill the 12" plate and end up overeating. I might also track that I'm cutting out all drinks except water, coffee or tea with zero calorie sweeteners (I like truvia because it doesn't give me a headache). I will continue to break it down into habits to make or break and track each one of them so I am working on some part of this goal every day and I will measure my success by the 7 lbs per month breakdown. If some months I lose more than other but it still balances out to be on track for the year, then I will still be successful. 

                                   

So go now. I want you to make some goals for yourself, for your family, for your career, for your love life, for your spiritual life and for your recreational time. Make them BIG and break them down then run full steam ahead and smash those goals! Have an amazing day everyone!