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Thrifty DIY Home Pest Care Ideas

Thrifty DIY Home Pest Care Ideas

When it comes to homes, there are a lot of expenses for homeowners to deal with. There is an unending list of bills to pay, maintenance items to take care of, and more. The one thing we do not often consider is the amount of money we may spend trying to rid our home of pests. It is an added expense that most of us cannot afford to handle. However, it’s a necessary evil unless you want the bugs to gain control of your home. This is often why people search everywhere for affordable, DIY home pest care options.

Dealing with the Pests

MosquitosHave you ever been sitting at home, minding your own business, and have a palmetto bug run across your foot? Or been lying in bed at night and hear a mosquito or a housefly buzzing in your ear? It is an annoyance that most people must face at some time. No matter how clean your home may be; insects find a way to invite themselves in.

This is why some homeowners opt to have an ongoing maintenance/protection plan. Every month or so, someone from a pest control service will come by and spray all the cracks and crevices of their home to ensure that pests never gain the upper hand. It is very effective and may be required in homes that have serious pest issues, but it is pricy. Some of these services can end up costing as much as a couple hundred dollars per spray by a professional exterminator. Price does depend on the size of your home. Can you afford it on top of everything else?

A Better Option for Thrifty Homeowners

Hot Shot Pest Control If you want to avoid the high cost of professional extermination, it is possible to do it. There are numerous bug control options that you can spray around your home if you want to avoid chemicals and cost. Many of the ingredients may already be in your home.

For those who want faster results, there are many more mosquito control options at propane mosquito traps. They include options like bug zappers, propane traps, and more. There is no shortage of pest control options and one of them is guaranteed to fit into your budget, no matter how tight it may be.

Take Control and Avoid the Bugs!

Every homeowner must deal with some type of pest in their home at some point. Most often, summer seasons, dry weather, wet weather, and just pest migration can trigger an infestation of insects. They are unavoidable. This does not mean that you are stuck dealing with them. It is your home. Not theirs. Before you suffer through another insect invasion, make sure you know what your DIY pest removal options are. You will save yourself, and your family, a lot of headaches.

Affordable At Home Family Events

Affordable At Home Family Events

When you have a family with two or more kids, it can seem overwhelming when you start to consider doing “family” things together. This is because every place you may want to go can become expensive. A trip to a skating ring can cost nearly $100 for a family of five. A trip to the movies is approximately the same, maybe more if you add in popcorn and drinks for it. Going out to dinner, football games and other sporting events, and more are all going to come with a major price tag. For this reason, many families are looking for more affordable at home family events.

Affordable Entertainment At Home

Frugal MomsFamilies began enjoying family game nights as a first solution to outrageous prices. Game nights could be weekly and allow each member of the home to choose their favorite games. Families also took that to the next level with family movie nights. Ordering a movie off Pay Per View or hitting the Redbox machine made it affordable. They could then cook their own popcorn and have their choice of beverages. These at home events are ideal, but as kids get older, they may want to avoid spending time at home. They may outgrow games or run out of movies that they want to watch. Instead, they opt to visit friends and life takes over.

A Better Way to Save Money while Bonding

Communities are also working toward a solution to put the “affordable” back into family life. The goal is to encourage families to live, play, and enjoy life as a family, together. A person within the community may open up their lawn for a neighborhood game night, pool party, or a cookout. Community dinners do not have to cost the hosting family a lot of money. Simply encourage all families to bring a food item. Someone in the community could also set up an outdoor movie night using affordable movie screens and a projector or a television with a DVD player hooked up. Outdoor speakers are affordable as well and you could even add an amplifier for outdoor speakers if you wanted.

Benefits of Community Wide Entertainment

Outdoor Movie Screen For CommunityBy doing a community event in your neighborhood, you make it less expensive for families to get out of the house. You encourage people to get to know their neighbors and spend time as a group. You can host events that take up a single night each week. Backyard games such as horseshoes or badminton, movie nights, barbeques, cookouts in the park, and so much more. The options are endless. Even if it takes a little while to get everyone interested, it will still be worth it. Families and communities in today’s world barely say, “HI” to one another. They work, they go home, they sit on their phones, tablets, PCs, and video game boxes. Is that the way that we should continue to live? Or should we strive to know our neighbors, save money, and enjoy living life?

How to Dress for An Interview

How to Dress for An Interview

Everyone knows that your appearance matters. However, there is no situation where it is more evident than a job interview. Did you know that your appearance can make or break your employment opportunity? Do you know how to dress for an interview and make it possible for you to land the big jobs?

Dress for Success

Dress For Interview SuccessOne of the biggest things you need to do before an interview is figure out what type of attire an employer expects. Visit their website to see if there are pictures of the employees. Ask an employee that already works there. There are many ways you can go about discovering what they may expect as a company. For the most part, you can break it down into three types of wardrobe options.

Business Professional. When you are going for the business professional style, you need to dress up for the occasion. Suits for both men and women, appropriate shoes, and even suit jackets and ties. Most of these jobs are for people who want to work as a lawyer or a doctor. Your appearance matters a lot since people have to see you as someone who knows what they are doing.

Business Casual. Dress slacks, polo shirts, dress shoes, are all great for a business casual interview. Women can dress down for it as well. A conservative, comfortable dress or a nice blouse with dress pants are good enough. You want to appear dressed for the job, but relaxed and comfortable. Go in there like you expect to be hired soon.

Casual Clothing. Casual does not mean jeans and a ratty tee-shirt. It means that you should still put effort into making yourself look presentable. Just leave the suit in your closet. Women want to consider pencil skirts, button up shirts, work dresses, shoes with a little heel. Basically, anything nice is good. Men will want to stick with dress shirts, khakis, a belt, and maybe a pair of dress shoes.

What Not to Wear to an Interview

When you are appearing at an important job interview, what you leave at home is as impressive as what you wear. For instance, a casual dress does not have to be flashy red. You do not want to wear anything that draws attention away from what you are saying. It is okay to accessorize, but you should keep it to a minimal amount. Even at a casual interview, you do not want large necklaces and earrings. Facial piercings should be left at home or minimalistic. If you want an accessory during the summer as a man, consider checking out a KD Sunglasses review to see if they match your style. Another tip on what not to wear is perfumes. Women and men both can benefit from wearing less cologne or perfume. If the scent of your perfume makes a potential boss feel nauseous, you will be less likely to get hired on.

Show Off Your Best and Success Will Come

Don’t walk out of a job interview and have the boss talk more about the logo on your shirt or the smell of your cologne than he is about you. If you want the job, you have to bring out your best. After you are hired, you can start to express yourself in a way that is more appealing to you. Your interview is to show a potential boss that you are what they have been searching for. Is your wardrobe able to get it done?

4 Ways to Get Ahead Financially

4 Ways to Get Ahead Financially

Unless you happen to have a high-paying job because of your knowledge, talents, skills, and ability to get things done, you’re probably living from paycheck-to-paycheck. This means that anything that interrupts your flow of income, throws all the rest of your finances out of balance.

Usually, one of two things tends to happen. First, you may have an unexpected expense that exceeds the money flowing into your bank account. Perhaps your car may break down on your way to work. Perhaps a pipe bursts in the middle of the night. Or perhaps you have a health problem that requires out-of-pocket expenses. Since these are emergencies, you can’t take care of them when your next paycheck comes in. As a result, you find yourself unable to pay for your daily expenses, let alone any regular bills. The second is that you lose your job and your source of income is suddenly cut off. Your company, for instance, may not be able to meet payroll expenses and will have to let a few people go.

While you can’t control life’s ups and downs, here are four things you can do to manage your money better so that you can ride out these surprise disruptions to your cash flow with equanimity.

1.Learn how to get a quick loan. Even if you have excellent credit and can get a personal loan from your bank, you may not be able to receive the money immediately. Fortunately, there are alternatives to payday lenders who can quickly give you the money you need. MaxLend can give you an installment loan up to $1250. What’s more, eligibility requirements are minimal. All you’ll need to qualify will be a social security number, a current checking account, and a regular job or other verifiable source of income. Funding is almost immediate and repayment flexible.

2.Get into the habit of spending less than you earn. It’s not easy to spend less than you earn and it is easy to spend more than you earn by using credit cards to float the difference. In fact, most people default to spending far more than they bring in because the cost of living is so high. One way to adjust your income is by planning. There are several excellent family budgeting tools available online, many of them free, that will allow you to track your finances, allow you to plan your expenses better, and allow you to build a small savings account to take care of unexpected expenses.

3.Create a second source of income. Reliance on a single source of income can be perilous. One way of avoiding all the hardships that come from the loss of a job is to have another source of income. For instance, if you’re teaching at a university but don’t have tenure and suddenly lose your job, it can be hard to find another comparable job quickly, especially if you’re someone who has acquired a great deal of knowledge and expertise in a highly specialized field like, say, cultural anthropology. Imagine, however, if you had been regularly publishing during your years as a teacher—you would then have a secondary source of income to help you pay your bills until you found another university that was looking for someone with your unusual expertise. There are two ways to create a second form of income. One is to work two different jobs. The other is to develop some form of passive income that helps you earn royalties.

4.Study investing. The way to start as an investor is to set aside 10% of all you earn. During this period when you are steadily tucking money away, you must choose to study a form of investment, preferably learning from someone who is already in the financial market you’re interested in entering.

In the final analysis, the only difference between you and someone with plenty of money is that a wealthy person has taken the time to study the laws of earning, spending, saving, and investing. This is something that you can do as well. There is no shortage of material online and offline to help you learn the basics of money management.

Becoming More Frugal For Your Family

Becoming More Frugal For Your Family

There are times in life where having a little extra cash in the bank can be useful. Maybe you want to plan a family vacation or you need funds for a sudden medical or automobile issue that came up. Whatever the reason might be, having that money can be invaluable to your future. Unfortunately, not everyone feels like they can save the way they would like to. It can seem like an insurmountable task but there are definitely some simple ways to get more from your attempts to put money aside.

All you have to do to feel inspired is look at these simple suggestions for how to get yourself going. You do not need to go to any kind of crazy lengths to start saving. All you have to do is find a method that makes the most sense for you.

Stacked Bills

Bills never seem to go away. One day you’re paying the mortgage, then the phone bill, after that you take care of all of your utility costs, insurance costs, debt and loan payments, and before you know it the whole cycle has started again for the next month. It can feel like the endless onslaught of bills never stops coming. While this might be true, it doesn’t mean that you have to feel overwhelmed by handling them. You might find that trying to lower some of the amounts you pay each month could be useful.

Take a look at your insurance costs. While you need a plan for your home and vehicle, you might be spending far more than you should on your coverage. If you took your policies out at a time when you did not know too much about finding an appropriate plan, then now is the time to shop around for quotes. See if you are overspending on your policy and connect with a local insurance agency to find a plan that might be more suited for your needs and budget.

Five Dollar Idea

If you are someone who tends to see a lot of cash, then there are some great ways to save without having to even think about it. The next time you have cash on you, take a look at the bills in your wallet or purse. Pull out all five dollar bills and put them in a jar or a safe place in your home. Whenever you break big bills or are given cash, do the same thing and put all of your fives somewhere safe.

This might not seem like much but it can do wonders for your budget. Try this plan out for six months and see how much you save. You’ll be surprised to learn how putting five dollars into a jar now and again can help you to collect a decent chunk of change. This is a great idea for people who carry cash but it is less practical for those who take care of most of their spending through electronic means or debit cards.

Ask Important Questions

Often, taking an extra second before making a purchase can help you to save money. When you are at the store and buy something impulsively, you might feel regret about the decision immediately. This is probably because you shouldn’t really have spent the money. Before making any sudden purchases, pause and ask yourself if you really need what you’re buying. Treating yourself every so often is one thing but making too many frivolous purchases prevents you from saving.

While it might often seem impossible, there are easy ways to set money aside for your family. Dedicate time to discovering additional ways to save and you will be ready to become a more frugal person in no time at all.

Tips for Succeeding at Your Job Interview

Tips for Succeeding at Your Job Interview

Have you just landed a job interview? No doubt you’re experiencing both joy and anxiety. Joy is for the opportunity that may lie ahead, and anxiety reflects uncertainty, unknown and self-confidence. Congratulations to you for taking the next step in growing your career. Stay on the court, and keep your eye on the ball and you’re bound to score. Follow these recommendations from the Human Resources professionals to ensure you succeed in your job interview and walk away with a top notch job offer.

The absolute most important thing to wear to a job interview is a genuine smile and quiet self-confidence. Remind yourself that the only reason you’ve landed the interview is because your experience and credentials meet the defined qualifications for the position. Don’t stress over whether or not you’re qualified for the position. Clearly you are. The purpose of the job interview is to gauge your character, articulation and your ability to think on your feet. The hiring manager‘s job is to determine if your style meets the culture of the company and if you would work well with the team in the department for which you’re interviewing. The interview is clearly a two way street. Not only is it an opportunity for the hire manager to gauge your fit within the company, but it’s also an opportunity for you to decide if this would be an environment in which you would enjoy working and could envision yourself excelling with the team at hand.

One of the best ways to gain that self-confidence about the interview is to do your homework. Thorough research on the hiring company is imperative for many reasons. You need to know about the company, its product and services, its reputation and market standing. Uncovering this information helps you formulate an opinion about the company and its standing. It also uncovers questions you may have for the hiring manager. The more information you have the better. This research and ensuing questions will also serve to demonstrate to the hiring manager your seriousness about securing the position. Prepare a list of questions to pose during the course of the interview. Hone up on standard interview questions and rehearse your answers. The best guidance is to always, always, be honest and be yourself.

The interview allows only one opportunity to make a first impression. Take advantage of the awesome deals offered by Groupon coupons and invest in a classic suit or jacket and skirt from the terrific selection available at Saks Fifth Avenue. Regardless of the level of the position for which you’re applying, it is imperative that your apparel choice reflects a poised and polished self. If you want respect, you have to demonstrate that by respecting yourself and the outfits you chose for the interview. Leave the bling and wild colors for the weekend. A soft scarf or pocket silk is sufficient to add style and polish without being over the top. Presumably, you’re past the stages of understanding the impact of a firm handshake and eye contact. Be confident, focus, be kind and present your true self. Follow up with a hand written note and you’ll have a job offer in hand in no time! Best of luck to you!

A 3-Step Wealth Building Plan Anyone Can Follow

A 3-Step Wealth Building Plan Anyone Can Follow

Does money really buy happiness? Actually, it does if you earn at least $75,000 a year. Beyond that amount, your quality of life can still improve, but your level of increasing happiness will plateau. That’s the conclusion of a study from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School.

However, these findings also imply that if you’re earning less than that amount, you’re not going to be happy. The reason is simple: you’ll have to forego some basic things you’ll need for your well-being and you may not have the resources to cope with any financial emergencies.

While, of course, money isn’t everything in life, how do you at least get to the $75,000 a year mark?

Here are 3 ideas to help you build your wealth:

  1. If you’re in a crisis, then borrow money to get your head above water.

It’s almost impossible to think straight about money if you’re in the midst of a crisis. If, for instance, your car has broken down and you need it to get to work, or the rent is due and you’re one paycheck short, then you need to borrow some money to get out of a bind. If you don’t know anybody who can help you out, then get cash through a lender who provides an easy approval line of credit. Once you’ve received the loan, work hard to get it paid off so that you can now begin to focus your mind on creating wealth.

  1. Increase your earning capacity.

If you’re not earning as much money as you need, then the idea of saving and budgeting tends to sound like an abstraction. So after you’ve pulled yourself out of any imminent financial pressures you may be facing, your next line of action should be to figure out how you can start earning more. You have to decide that you want to earn more than your fear of taking the necessary steps to change your current situation. One reason you may be afraid of change is that you’ve tried one thing after another, fallen prey to one get-rich scheme after another, lost money on investments that didn’t pan out, or didn’t improve your job prospects after taking a few courses in your field. After one disappointment after another, you’re burned out on even trying again. Another reason you may be afraid of change is that you’re finally in a position where you don’t hate your job. Although you hold little to no hope for a raise or promotion, at least you’re able to stay solvent.

So the first thing to do is identify what it is that is holding you back. What thoughts, feelings, and ideas do you have about your current situation that makes you reluctant to find new ways of increasing your income? In other words, identify your constraints. Next, decide what direction you need to start moving in to make a positive shift in your income. Finally, lean into your new idea. Think of developing your money making capacity as similar to increasing your physical strength and endurance. The worst thing you can do to get fit is to join a gym and have a few intense workouts. You’ll end up sore and exhausted and it will  take a week or two to recover. So just as you would ease into an exercise program, you must work at strengthening your money making muscles in a gradual way.

  1. Develop a structure to keep more of what you earn.

After you’ve increased your earning capacity, focus on reducing your spending levels. First, create a family budget so that you know where your money is going in the first place; then, put aside a certain amount each month to build up your savings. Once you have saved enough money, your last and final step is to learn how to invest your money so that your money, rather than your labor, now starts to earn money.

So whether you want to be a millionaire or just comfortable, the main thing you have to do to live a better quality of life that will improve your chances of being happier is to earn at least $75,000 a year. More power to you, of course, if you go beyond that threshold.

5 Steps to Taking Your Business Global with Virtual Offices

5 Steps to Taking Your Business Global with Virtual Offices

When it comes to owning a bricks and mortar business, most business owners are content with getting the business of their own local area. That is the only business they can get! People in their local community. When it comes to the modern entrepreneur, sometimes that small catchment area just is not enough. The biggest reason to go global with a business it to increase the potential of your business to expand and grow. There are a whole heaps of markets that are out there for the taking when it comes to taking a business global. For example, if you’re based in an Asian market, can you extend beyond Asia?

All you have to do is run your hand over a map and you will surely find an opportunity to grow your business and find a new potential customer, somewhere in some way. Finding the right opportunity for your business is great! It’s what every business owner wants. But when you start to grow, so too do your costs. They will start to grow dramatically when you begin to scale internationally. What you must do to keep your costs low is look at starting up with a virtual office that is going to keep your costing down, and your ability to grow up, up, up!

Here are the five steps you should take to grow your business globally with a virtual office:

Look at your target market

You need to assess where your ideal customers live and what they do on a day to day basis. This will factor in to a number of the decisions you must make about your business in the first stages of growth. For example, if you find a large market for your product and or service in Malaysia, do you need a local staff member on your team that does work for you with the local market. Finding the right people in the right area for your virtual team is imperative, but this begins with identifying your target market.

2) What infrastructure is needed for growth

It is important to look at what kind of infrastructure your larger business will need. Do you need someone to manage customer support? Who is going to field incoming enquiries? A growing business needs many more hands working. Looking for a virtual office provider that offers all of these as standards will tick another box.

3) Map your growth

The biggest mistake that a business makes is not ensuring that you are mapping your growth so that you know what your next needs are going to be and anticipate them before they even occur. This is going to be the key to growing your business in an ultra-effective method.

4) Keep your costing low

As a business grows, it is important to make sure that costs are low so that they do not get out of hand. Using a virtual office will allow you to grow well and grow strong. A virtual office is fantastic at separating your business from the competition when it comes to pricing. The lower your costs, the lower you can set your prices, and the more profit you can make on your product or service.

5) Due your due diligence

It is extremely important when doing business in new markets, to do your due diligence. This is an important step in every business decision, and something that is extremely important as your business begins to scale and grow. When choosing new markets, and the virtual office that is going to facilitate that growth, make sure you are looking into their processes, and background so you know that your business is doing the best job possible.

Why Buying In Bulk Can Make Better Financial Sense for Your Family

Why Buying In Bulk Can Make Better Financial Sense for Your Family

In the current climate, purchasing foods and other sundry items can be pretty darn expensive. Doing a weekly shop can often erode away a pay check pretty fast. However, there are a few things you can do to lessen this financial burden, and one of the easiest ways to achieve this is by purchasing your foods and other essential household items in bulk.

Get What You Can – In Huge Quantities!

Firstly, I’ll start by saying that it is not possible to purchase every single item on your shopping list in bulk. Fresh food items such as milk will not keep, so purchasing in bulk makes no sense, and will lead to a lot of waste. So, unless you use evaporated milk for example, you won’t really be able to purchase these items in bulk.

However, with that being said, there are many items you can get, that can be stored for lengthy time periods, and the rule of thumb usually is, the more of something you buy, they cheaper it will be overall.

euro coins

Don’t Be Afraid To Drop Big Name Brands:

Big name brands are often priced at a premium. But the truth is, a lot of generic products are the exact same quality as these bigger named items. And the dirty little secret that they don’t want you to know – many of these generic brands actually produce the products for the big name brands anyhow. The big brand names simply wrap the items up in their own packaging and sell them on as their own. It just makes better financial sense to pay the lower price for these generic items, and best of all, you don’t have to skimp on quality at all!

Dry Goods Will Last For Ages:

A lot of dry goods can be stored in your larder or other cool & dry places for absolutely ages. You can get massive sacks of rice for many times less than those little packets you buy in stores (weight for weight), that will keep in your larder for a very long time. And things like dried beans, pasta, dehydrated potato and ramen noodles also have very long shelf lives. Those students are onto something! The same goes for tinned goods – these often have very long lives as long as the integrity of the tin is maintained. Things like baked beans are pretty much the same, regardless of the brand name, so generic is a great option for purchasing these kinds of things also.

Other Items:

Many essential items such as bleach, toilet paper, kitchen roll etc can be purchased in bulk at considerable savings also. Sure, you may get some funny looks heading to the checkout, but its well worth it for the savings that can be achieved. Also, fresh herbs can easily be preserved in a little oil, and popped into your freezer, much cheaper than those jars of dried herbs you buy at the supermarket. Why not see how you can make savings by buying in bulk!

Looking to Get A Raise At Work, But Don’t Know How To Go About it?

Looking to Get A Raise At Work, But Don’t Know How To Go About it?

One of the hardest things you can ever do in work, is approach your boss to ask for more money. It is the stuff of nightmares for a lot of the workforce, something to be dreaded and feared. However, it doesn’t need to be this way at all. There are some tips you can follow, that may just result in you getting that all important boost to your finances – and we all know how even just a little extra these days can make such a big difference to families out there.

It’s All in the Ask!

First of all – if the raises haven’t been dished out all round your workplace as of late, then you will have to take matters into your own hands. After all, if you don’t ask, you don’t get! But, how you ask is just as important. You want to be able to demonstrate your value to the company, and be prepared to show the difference your being there in the company has made.

Prepare the Evidence:

Being armed with a little evidence in support of your claims is never a bad thing. It may be that your boss has never actually seen or observed these benefits to the company. So, if you have made unique contributions that are measurable, wield these during your request. If you have customer testimonials, these are gold! Make sure and highlight all of your achievements, especially in the past year.  Another piece of evidence you can arm yourself with is salary statistics based on industry standards. Is yours below the average? It may be that your boss is so genuinely busy doing his own day to day tasks, that he or she is unaware of the lay of the land.

Choose The Right Time:

If your company holds annual reviews, this is not a good time to hammer the boss for more money! Chances are, he or she will be getting the same requests from everyone they have to review for the year, and your request has the chance to be “snowed under” or forgotten. A far better time is to wait until such a time as your own tasks change, or you have performed a task that is beneficial to the company, or has added value to the company.  Say for example, you’ve just completed an important project for the company. You could approach your boss, demonstrating the value added to the company, and requesting that you share in that added value by way of a raise.

Don’t Lose Heart to a Rejection:

There’s always a chance your boss may decline your request, but it’s important not to lose heard. Request that you revisit the scenario in a few months, and there may be a chance that you then get that all needed raise. It may simply not be in the budget right now, but later on down the road, there’s always hope!

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