Sellers Patton / Flickr
I share five must read blog posts about saving money every Friday.
Will you pay for coupons? Coupons.com Savings Club promises to offer earlier access to coupons and higher value coupons for a monthly subscription fee. (Bargain Briana)
In need of a pay raise? The Silicon Valley Blogger shares safe and extreme ways to getting a raise at work. (The Digerati Life)
Amazon is now offering local daily deals. Have you use it yet? (ShopSmart)
Here’s an odd economic indicator. The sales of disposable diapers has dropped suggesting parents are saving money on diapers by changing them less often. (Time Moneyland)
Fight for affordable care by learning how to negotiate medical bills. (Fabulous and Frugal)
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…)
orphanjones/Flickrp
This post is brought to you by Plumbing Q & A, where you can get all your plumbing questions answered.
When deciding whether to do a home improvement project yourself or hire someone, it’s useful to know how much money you earn in an hour. The April issue of Real Simple shares this two-part calculator.
Part 1 Income
Your monthly take-home income after taxes:
Add up all your costs associated with working.
Coffee runs with coworkers:
Commuting:
Clothing:
Dry cleaning:
Unreimbursed business meals:
Child care:
Subscriptions:
Business supplies:
Other:
Total work expenses:
Real monthly income (income minus work expenses):
Part 2 Hours
How many hours do you work in a month (40 hours per week times 4 weeks = 160 hours per month):
How many hours do you spend commuting (round trip commute x 20 days):
Additional hours spent on work (reading, continuing education, travel):
Total work hours:
Your hourly wage rate (real monthly income divided by total work hours):
Use your hourly rate to determine if it is a better idea to hire a professional or do the work yourself. But remember, just because hired help may be cheaper per hour than your hourly rate does not mean you have the money to spare!
