This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.
Summer and winter can wreak havoc on your pout. That’s were lip balms come in handy. To help you avoid spending money on products that don’t work, I tested ten lip balms and reviewed them below.
I wore each lip balm for three days and rated them on their smell, taste, feel and, most importantly, how well they wear. I live in Los Angeles so SPF is very important. If a balm has a hint of color or yummy taste, that’s a plus for me. I listed the results starting with my favorites on down. (more…)
brtsergio / Flickr
This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.
CNN Money recently published an article about a company that lets you make money on your morning commute. The company offers you gigs you can accomplish via your iPhone and then get paid. How cool is that?
I take public transportation to save money on gas, and after seeing the CNN article I started thinking of ways to make money during your free time. Here are four suggestions.
- Get a hobbie – If you love to do something, why not get paid to do it? If you’re a photographer, let your friends and family now you’ll be available to take photos at their next celebration. I recently discovered I’m good at giving cheap haircuts and have let friends know. So far, no takers.
- Use your smarts – Tutor local students. If you are good at math, science or any language, there’s probably someone that needs the help and is willing to pay to get their child tutored. A friend of mine is an amazing graphic designer and during the summer she makes extra cash by building friends’ portfolio websites and designing their business cards. She’s doing what she loves and getting paid for it as well. How awesome is that?
- Pet sit – If you love animals as much as I do, but you can’t afford to have them, how about sitting while the owners are away? Need some motivation to get out and hit the pavement, start walking your neighbors’ dog – for a fee, of course. If pet sitting is not your thing, baby sit.
- Start your own lemonade stand – Go back to the days when you where a little kid and you may either have sold or bought lemonade from the stand in your neighborhood. Put those practices in use and sell what you are good at baking or cooking. I wouldn’t suggest an actual stand in the street unless you can get a food license from your city. My aunt is a good baker and she uses her skills to cater celebrations to make a few more bucks on the side.
What other suggestions do you have to make money at home while avoiding scams and doing what you love?
akeg / Flickr
This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.
More than a year ago, Bargain Babe wrote about a Consumer Reports finding that women pay as much as 50% more for similar products than men. Armed with a pen and notepad, I headed to my local drugstore to see if this was still the case. I compared 26 brands of deodorant, shave cream, face wash, bath wash, lotion, shampoo, razors, vitamins, and hair removal products. In some cases, like shave cream, there were very few brands that made products for men and women.
At first glance, prices for the men’s version of a product were similar as those for women or even higher. But when you calculate the cost per unit, women’s products were priced higher 11 times, compared to four for men’s.
I got to tour the Consumer Reports testing labs as part of the ShopSmart Summit where I learned about two common scams to watch out for. Here are seven photos to illustrate the tour.
CR tests exercise and infomercial equipment. Can you guess which has the worst track record? As the lab manager said, your diet has a greater effect than exercise on your weight, but they can't sell you a diet so they sell you a product and throw in the diet.
Alan_D/Flickr
Like me, Emily is having a hard time with her spending moratorium during Lent. She emailed:
My spending moratorium (for March) got rescheduled after some unexpected costs came up last month, so I decided to give it up for Lent instead. So far so good. Aside from my weekly co-pay at the dr’s for allergy shots, occasional gas refills, and the rare but much needed grocery replenishment (milk, eggs) it’s been so far so good.
Until Monday. I was at (more…)
A reader named Jon shared a clever way he is making extra money.
While browsing Amazon, I noticed that many cookware sets are so much cheaper than the individual items, that it is worth just buying the whole set and selling the excess items on Ebay. Have you ever heard of anyone doing this successfully?
I know a lot of people sell stuff on Ebay to make extra money, but it never occurred to me to sell new stuff that I purchased solely for the purpose of reselling it. Reader Kim wrote in saying she makes $500 a month selling stuff on Amazon. If you want to sell clothes online, The Budget Fashionista lends her tips for deciding which clothes to sell.
Is anyone else doing what Jon is doing?
This bumper sticker is stuck at home during my car-less Lent!
It’s been two weeks since I gave up my car for Lent as a financial experiment and I’m surprised to say that not much in my life has changed. I’ve walked three trips that I normally would have driven, saving myself 12 miles of driving, but I have not needed to hop on the bus or drag my bike out of the basement. Mostly, I’ve been carpooling a lot.
I’ve realized four things now that I’m driving less:
- Walking is more relaxing than driving
- I have more time to call friends and family when I walk somewhere
- Walking (more…)
Family Feud built an entire TV show around surveys. Credit: dno1967b/Flickr
This post is brought to you by Survey Mastermind, a site that helps you discover the best free paid surveys online, paid focus groups, freebies and work from home opportunities!
UPDATE: Tons of readers recommended certain sites and said to stay away from others. Below are their tips.
I’ve been getting a lot of emails recently about completing surveys online for pay. NOTE: I have not tried any of these survey companies, but I’m curious if anyone has. Are they worth your time? Do you trust the companies you are working with?
My blogger friend Nicole from Nicole’s Nickels wrote a guest post for BargainBabe.com with really easy tips to make sure you only work with reputable survey companies. Definitely read it before you check out any of the eight offers below, which I received recently. (more…)
jwalsh/Flickr
I’m having second thoughts about giving up my car for Lent. Not because of my business trip to Los Angeles that will pose a particular public transportation challenge, but because a video shoot I’m doing that was moved from today to next week and the location is three hours away!
Three hours by car, that is. By bus, train, and foot I’m guessing it will take me five hours to get there. I need to be on location by 10 a.m. Yikes! It’s an all day shoot so I won’t start my trek home 5 p.m. Double yikes!
Also, it’s supposed to snow Thursday. Yikes, yikes, yikes.
I can throw in the towel, brace myself for a long commute and stick to my pledge, or exempt myself from autolessness for work. Thoughts?
To rent or not to rent? Credit: dennis/Flickr
Perhaps as a sign that going car-less for Lent is a good idea, yesterday for the first time I saw a bus go by my house. I can’t pretend to need a car when there is a bus route at my doorstep, can I?
Didn’t think so. Where I was in doubt about this sacrifice, you had none. Other than Linda O., commenters unanimously want me to ditch my car keys.
Final answer? I’m going car-less for Lent, which starts Wednesday, Mar. 9 and ends on Easter Sunday, Apr. 24, 2011. (The end of Lent is debated, but I’m sticking to Easter). During my auto fast, I’m allowed to drive my car on Sundays, which is another issue hotly debated among Catholics. I’m not religious, so instead of giving up a sin for Lent, my twist is that I’m giving up a financial sin.
Owning a car is a financial sin? One calculation shows that driving takes $7,095 out of my community each year. Not only is that a lot of money leaving my pocket, it is a lot of money leaving my community. By riding my bike, I’m improving my health and reducing my pollution output. By taking the bus, I’m supporting local economy. By taking a taxi, I’m really supporting the local economy.
Just one problem. During my auto fast I have a business trip to Los Angeles. I no longer have a functioning bicycle in Los Angeles, so I may have to rely on buses. Or, I could exclude business needs from my fast, just like I did during my no-spend month, which means I could rent a car in Los Angeles.
Would renting a car on a business trip during my auto fast be cheating?
No car means no cruising for Dogwin!
I’m not religious, but most years I give up something for Lent to remind myself what sacrifice feels like. It makes me grateful for all that I have, and mindful that many others have much, much less. It’s also a fun way to challenge myself to save money. Last year I gave up meat after calculating how much more expensive meat is than vegetable protein.
This year I’m considering giving up my car after reading that driving takes $7,095 out of my community each year. My yearly auto expenses are much less than $7,095 because I paid for my used MINI out of pocket. But certain auto costs do go out of town. My insurance company is out of state and if my car broke down, there is not a repair shop in town to service it. By not driving I am redirecting out-of-town dollars to in-town dollars, in theory.
What makes giving up a car interesting is that I’m not sure I’m going to save any money by not driving. A trip to (more…)
Digital Vincent/Flickr
Kim emailed me saying she is selling things her family doesn’t need to bring in extra income. I failed at selling my crap on eBay so I had to know how Kim is doing it. She writes:
My husband is recently in the job market, so the family finances needed a boost. He had been an avid dvd collector and my #1 son told me to sell off some of the dvds that we weren’t interested in watching again. I just put in the serial number on the back and the website told me whether they were selling or not, and approximately what price they would sell for. We keep about 40 on Amazon
at any given time, and have sold just over 100 in six weeks. Some of the best sellers were (more…)
Jeff Keen/Flickr
Emily emailed me with plans to save money this month starting on Tuesday. She wrote:
I have decided to make your spending Moratorium an annual adventure, and this time, I have decided to include my new boyfriend (his choice, not mine!) Of course, we will still pay for essentials (including my allergy shots) but only what is absolutely necessary. I just wanted to let you know, and thank you for your inspiration.
Best of luck Emily! I admire your boyfriend for joining in and really glad you didn’t push it on him. Forcing your spending decisions on another person is a recipe for breakups and a big difference between being frugal and being cheap! He must be quite a catch, at least financially!
Is anyone else going on a spending moratorium? Or maybe a spending spree?
Dottie Mae/Flickr
This post is brought to you by Savings Account Comparison, finding the best savings account online.
On the way home from a ski trip my friend Emily told me she saved $800 over two years without thinking. WHAT?!?
Emily signed up for a Bank of America program called Keep the Change. It puts aside the change rounded up to a dollar from every purchase she makes with her debit card. So if her groceries comes to, say $32.50, Bank of America takes $.50 from her checking and puts it into a special savings account. If she spends $12.03 on lunch, $.97 is deposited into her special account. If gas cost $28.46, she automatically saves $.54.
Each time she makes a purchase with (more…)
Here is the clip of the interview I did on Marketplace Money, which runs on NPR across the country. The story is “Tips for staying financially fit.”
As reader Harvey commented on my post Friday about the radio spot, “It is the January 7, 2011 edition. You are near the beginning – the fifth and last blogger to be interviewed. You can listen directly or download the podcast.” You can also read the transcript of the entire clip, though it’s fun to hear my voice on the radio (at least, for me it is!).
Thanks for summing it up and providing a link, Harvey!
