HOW TO: Save money to vacation

People are different, and all of us to work the way that suits us best.

In fact, I often found that saving money or money budgeting makes me effective. Once I figure out how to make more money or how I can save for example the next summer vacation and I success in it, I start to feel great in all the areas of that days tasks.


These tips may not work for you, but I wanted to share how I do it. I am writing this on the form as I do these when I try to save for a rainy day  or for a holiday trip. Wealthy person is a happy person.
 

1. Make yourself a piggy bank

Yes. If possible, locked one. The following tips are all those who assist it to fulfill the piggybank. Try to think that these money aren't even yours, and that for they should not be touched. Do not count the money. If you know how much you have money in your piggy bank, you easily start to think about all the things it would do (and would take them out before it's time to.).


Our "pig" is a Pringles jar, which I covered with various cut words and phrases from magazines. It is our vacation piggy bank, which is in the deepest corner of the cabinet, which may be touched only when fed with money or when we're about to leave to a (planned!) Journey.

2. Sell off any excess stuff

All that stuff which you really don't need any more, sell it out. Facebook is full with groups where you can sell your stuff with out paying table fees or anything.


In fact I do it this way: If I haven't needed it for one year, I probably won't need it next year either. I regurally go throught our cabinets for a clean up just to find those things. Not everyone of them at the same time, but like 1 cabinet in 1 month.


If you don't own something very valuable collector's items or furniture that you want to get rid of, you probably won't do that much of money. But! The point is to put all these money to that piggy bank for later time.


When selling goods, remember to keep prices reasonable. Although if it is a situation that you need acutely money, then do not overprice. Then easily no one will buy, and you do not get benefits you need.


I could continue to talk about selling goods for like, forever, but perhaps I will leave it to another time. ;)

3. Compare prices

Every town usually has a number of shops that offer the same (or nearly the same), a service or product, but prices differ enormously.


Our town has 6 different food stores, and this is a relatively small place so there's places to choose. Some of these also have their own bonuscards which you should ask about if you benefit from them (and how much).


We usually use two grocery stores that are really close to each other. It is because they are the cheapest on the basis of what we have compared. So...

Let's say that you have been used to buy all your groceries from shop A. Write down (or take the last time a receipt) and go into shop B. From shop B buy all the products which you can get with a cheaper price. Calculate how much saved. Put the money you piggy bank.

Do the same the other way around.

Clothes Shopping. You have budgeted for your outfit, let's say, $ 20, because you've seen one you like already in a particular store. Visit first in other stores, also from second-hand stores. Search the web. Use all possible ways. Also look to your own wardrobe.

If you find a cheaper outfit, do the math for money in between and put that to piggy bank.


Does that sound crazy? Think it this way; normally you already had been used that money, right? So, you don't loose anything as you put it into savings.

4. Save every day

Would you be able to put 0,10$ on each hours work to saving account? Of course you could. Man makes an average of 8 hours of work per day. Every hour 0,10 $ for five days means 4$. Not very much, does it? But .. It is already 16$ per month and 192$ per year.

How this is easy to accomplish? Put your little money to piglet every day or every day 0.80$, or once a week for 4 $. How ever you want. You save in any case, in this way, at least 192 $. And if your piggy bank is a bank account the money also is rising interest.

5. Be a coupon-man

Search the web services that reward that you buy online. There is many of them, I use the kind that operates in Finland, but all over the world can be found companies that are offering these kinf of services.

By using such a sites for the products you have purchased online, you get part of the money back.

This money will be in your user account, and after a certain amount  you can get them to your own bank account.

I put these money straight to my savings account. I've already saved this money and don't need them so why would I spend it now to something stupid?

6. Take advantage of all benefits cards

It may seem silly that there is a hundred million unique advantage cards in your wallet, but at that point when it will save you a lot of money then you're all smile. ;)



These same tips can also take advantage of the poor financial situation otherwise. So do not put the money to a savings account put use them to your daily bases.


But at that point you might want to think about that, whether it would be time to change something else from your life when the days are constantly counting pennys and eating fingers?


ATTENTION: As I don't want to put these on a book, because I think that everyone should be able to read tips how to improve their lives or how to be more positive ect.. I use a lot of time to write these, and if you think you have been getting help from these, you can give me a little thank you. You can use that "donate" button to do it so I can keep on writing these posts.

Easy money, where are you?

OK this doesn't totally go for my blog, but I have this huge bumb inside me, that I have to talk about.

There is no such thing as easy money. I'm sorry, but there isn't.

Don't go for these hoaxes. Everytime someone says "Just started 2 days ago and already doing 5000$ a week!" IT'S A HOAX.

Usually you click on that link that someone
- send to you
- tweeted on Twitter
- posted to Facebook
- You found on someones website

I admit, I have clicked these too! I wouldn't be writining this now if I hadn't.

Ok all of them are not hoax, but you still won't do those millions in one month. Usually you have to buy something to read or watch (oh, what a coincidence) or "pay us 20$ and you will get it back eventually."

See they already have told you this isn't something you should go by, but most of us don't see them just because they are only thinking all of that money they will get.

Ever read that little print on site? Just in the bottom? "There's numbers are just an example. We can't guarantee that you will get this money also."

So, if you are motivated to do some work and get some money ect, you really should go to speak someone
- who works with a real company
- has real workers who you can see face to face
- doesn't force you to buy anything
- helps you to do that job and get along
- there's real products, not just air

And don't fall for a pyramide scheme! If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Today one person contacted me to work with him.
"So you just give me 15$ money, and then I'll help you recuit 4 people and they give 15$ also and then you will get your money back. You don't have to sell anything."

.. So I just give you my money, and my friends gives their money too, and then we'll all be rich? 

This kind of makes me angry too, because there is a lot of good social network businesses and world wide too! And these people who don't really do anything but take your money pollutes it all.

Remember.

If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Eat healthier

Most of the things that we choose to do daily effects how we feel and how we interact, how we do our jobs.. But there's more in that.

So you're getting more positive on the inside, but. Are you still tired? Do you still feel like you don't get to be the person you want to be? Rolling in bed by nights?

There might be another reason than you being negative. And that's your eating habits.

Eating healthier and regularly really helps you to be more perky and gives you a boost to carry on in work and other life situations.

Here's my advice. For a week, look what you eat and how regularly. Do you skip breakfast? Or lunch?
Remember to eat, but not healthy enough? Because I can tell you, pizza ain't great lunch.. It's tasty, but not good for your health. ;)

My breakfast is usually oatmeal or smoothie or fruits.. or all of them! Depends on day.
Besides that eating healthy, do you take any extra vitamins or omega 3 ? Usually (especially during winter) human needs more C and Omega than they get from their food. Did you know, that almost only thing where you get Omega 3 is in fish? And how much you should eat fish to get enough... That's so much that you couldn't do that, trust me.

But changing even some little things in your daily eating you should get some results. And what's even better, it helps maintain normal weight so if you have some kind of problems with weight (too much too less), good healthy food will help you to get in better weight.

But as for recepies, I'm writing a book about them so you can see them later!


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How to motivate yourself to work

We all know that feeling on Monday morning when

• last nights staying up was REALLY bad idea..
• and I totally should have not watch that horror movie..
• why that alarm clock sounds so loud?
• why didn't I look up for those clothes early enough?

ect. I could do this list as long as I would want to but that's not the point here. Everyone of us has those mornings when everything just feels bad, and going to work is really frustrating.

First of all, you should prevent that with couple of things.

1. Load your coffee machine before hand (last night) to win some time in the morning and to get some more time to wake up without doing anything (and this one really gives me a good mood when I don't remember that yes I really did load that coffee machine!)
2. Make sure that those clothes your suppose to wear are clean, ironed and fresh so you don't have to waist time in the morning to try to find clean clothes.
3. If you're like me and "don't have time" to eat breakfast in the morning (or you get sick of eating in the morning), slice some orange to your fridge last night. It's fresh and good, and you don't have to do anything than just eat in the morning.

With these simple things done, your morning will already be better.
But what if I still have a bad morning? 

It's ok. It's normal to have bad days. This is what I do at those days.

• As I've told before, be thankful. So, when you wake up a little cranky, think about at least 5 things you are thankful for.
• Smile. Stand before mirror and just smile. Sounds stupid, but it works. Trust me.
• When you get yourself smiling, say "I can do it!". Say it out loud. REALLY LOUD. Yell it! YES! YOU. CAN. DO. IT.
•  Listen to good mood music, at least on your way to work. Sing along. LOUDLY. ;)

•  Think about those reasons why you do what you do. Why you love your job? What does it give to you? (if it really doesn't give to you anything, I recommend to change your job but DON'T do it as a random act, think about it all the way trough and have a backup plan.)

 Is there a hard project in your work? THERE IS A REASON, WHY THEY GAVE IT TO YOU. They trust you to handle it. They think that you have the knowledge to do it. They KNOW you can do it, so do it!

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What makes you negative?

When you're trying to make your life more positive, try to think about those things that makes it negative.

So for example, there's a friend you see weekly or read his/hers posts on Facebook, chat with him/her and every time he/she gets you upset. No matter what you try to say, everything is a "No." for him/her and he/she always finds a way to say something negative.
These guys usually are those friends of Facebook etc who only post negative comments on anyones status.
Ditch them. Or if you can't/won't totally throw them away from your life, at least hide them from your feed. Stop calling them, they usually get the point.

You really don't need those guys in your life! If they have nothing nice ever say to you, don't be with them! And usually these same guys are the ones who only call you when they need something, do you really want to be that guy who always gets called when money/favor are needed?

And, this really culminates to this.. BE POSITIVE. Why? Let me show you thru a picture.

So. Let's begin with that negative attitude of yours in upper left corner. You are negative, you attract negative people. And a human being is going to be just like his surrounding people are..
Try to be that positive person without changing anything else. Don't change your friends or anything, just be positive. Pretty tough, hu? Yes, I know. I tried.
The truth is, that if everyone who is surrounding you, is negative, you will be too. You can't escape it, if you won't change anything. 

BUT. When you are surrounded with positive people, you can be positive and you will encourage others on what they do! Well isn't that nice? Again; positive things happen to positive people. And thats straight way up.

Didn't yet delete that really negative person from Facebook? Do it now. Start your new positive life, step by step. Not sure about some of the people? Just hide them from your news feed.

It's kind of a small step, but it's something. If you dare, you can 'delete' some of those negative persons from your normal life too, like deleting numbers or just decide "I'm not going to call him/her, until he/she changes his/her attitude."

Simply clever! I can admit, that within first weeks I didn't delete anyones number. I just deleted couple of "who's this?" guys from Facebook and hid those negative persons.

It didn't take more than one day that I felt huge relief because I didn't need to look at those "boohoo my life sucks" statuses! I really, really, really recommend this for all of you.


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That big dream

As I started to do those little thing what I mentioned on my earlier post I began to feel more positive and more focused on aiming my life to a certain path.

What's your big dream? Think about it for a while.

What have you done to get to that dream of yours?

What should you do to get to that dream of yours?

Your dream can be small or big - we all have both of them. But for now, pick up that one witch you think you can have in next 6 months.

Write it down on a piece of paper, and put that paper somewhere where you see it every day (wallet etc.). Now every time you see it, you will selfconstantly start to think about that aim of yours, and what's best, you start to act like you already have it and/or will get it.

See my point here?

Write your dreams down, so you can visualize it and start doing things to get it.


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4 points you should know to be a positive person

So now you know something about me and my past. I know you're probably wondering "wheres the tips?"

Don't worry, I'll give them to you one by one. OR as a list (like now.)

So when I was struggling with my life and was trying to think some ways to help my husband (and me on the side) to be better persons, I started to read.

1. Read a lot

I went to these conventions and happenings where every successful person kept saying "Readers are leaders." So, I started to read. A lot.

First it doesn't matter what you read, it's more of the idea of reading. Well of course if you just read Cosmopolitan or Donald Duck or something like that it won't help you but if you concentrate to some good novelty or what's even better, for life changing books, I bet you feel better.
Me for example, I find Stephen Kings books good to read. They are fiction, but they're wrote in good way and I need to use my brains as I read. (So thanks, Stephen!)

2. Think positive

If you are a negative person, negative things will happen to you. That's just a thing that no one can deny. And if you think you can.. Maybe it's time for you to change your point of view?

So in the morning when I wake up, my first thought is "This day will be awesome!" It usually is.

  3. Take time to yourself

I usually take 1 hour in the morning for my self to think what should I do next. Do this as you think it would be easiest for you. It can be a wakeup 1 hour earlier than normally so your family is still a sleep. I usually do some lists about "tasks for today" or "what things should change".
PS. I will do a post about these things separately.

4. Enjoy those little things

Yes, I know it's a cliché, BUT.. Think it this way; "Oh what a horrible morning, I overslept like ten minutes and now I can't brew coffee at home and now I need to go to ** to eat my breakfast..." OR "So ok, I overslept today for 10minutes and YES , it's time for my FAVORITE latte for that cute little cafeteria! Ohh and maybe a bagel.."

Which one is you ? Which one you prefer?



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Be Positive

So first of all, I should probably tell something about me so you can see what kind of person is writing here.

I'm from Finland. Yes, that cold cold place where everyone is kind of grumpy and doesn't want to talk about anything else than "How's weather?". So it's pretty hard try to try to get someone on a good mood if she/he doesn't want to talk to you about anything.

You know the thrill where neighbors know "everything" about you, you know "everything" about them just by looking as how they live (via window of course). But, when you ask them directly.. Hah, I know. And this isn't really positive, right?

So I moved to other city couples of years ago along with my fiance. We're talking about a lot of miles between my current living spot and my hometown so I was a bit scared. At that point I still was very positive about getting new friends and getting a new beginning in this new town.. So I started to look for job in this new place and got one. Yeah!

But what did my friends do when I told them? Almost all said "This will never work" "I'll give that a year and then she's back" "Why would anyone be that stupid?" "Well good luck for you trying to survive there..."

Like WHAT? Well needless to say, I wasn't really positive after that. I was actually very depressed to move, as I did not have any friends here and all my hometown friends were like that.

So those couple of years went, I got some friends from here but mostly all of them turned their back on me. You know that moment, when you meet someone and you're both like "oh I hate this city I have no friends let's be friends!" and after a while you realize the reason he/she didn't have friends was because he/she is a moron, and nobody warned you before hands. Yeaaap, and multiply that like thousand times and you have my life story. People even tried to get me and my husband not to get married!

So I was a blanket. That person who always was there to loan money, help out ect.. But just because I  was craving for attention clearly by the wrong way.

So I got really depressed. I stayed only in home. Nothing more. I didn't want to get out of that door. My husbands work obligates him to be a lot away from home, so instead of going to market to get some food, I just tried to survive with some leftovers and macaronis from cabinets. Obviously, this isn't a way of life.

Well couple of years went like that and then this sense came back to my head. I need to do something.
Remember earlier as I told my long term friend called me?
He lives in my home town. Well as I had that thinking stick to my head, that I don't need anyone from my before life, it isn't too hard to realize why I didn't want to work with him or why didn't I believe in myself.

But this is true, he was mine - ours - turning point.

Well I didn't start to work with him - yet - but my husband did. And as they started to do business and I stood by my husband (of course) I realized how sad this person felt. This person who I love with all my heart, with my own depression I didn't realize he's so deep in it.

So the turning point? Yes, positive people. But also, I wanted to help my husband. I wanted him to success on what ever he's going to do. And if I'm negative, he will be negative, and it won't work.

So, lesson today;

BE POSITIVE, SO POSITIVE THINGS CAN HAPPEN TO YOU.

YOU CAN DO IT!

I know how hard it is to stick to being motivated, as I had some setbacks in my life too.

So lately I have been thinking that what should I do to be happier, to be successful, to provide good future to my family.

As I had been really thinking this for a long time, I mean for a REALLY long time.. It was about a time to something really happen. So what happened that made me think this?

I met my long term friend for a cup of coffee. He offered me a job, but I didn't take it. I needed it, but I didn't take it. Why? Because I was so negative by the time. I only thought, that I will never success or I will lose my money, time, husband.. Time wasn't right for me to do business with this guy.

Well, time passed and we didn't really connect. But one day he called again to ask me and my husband to meet him. So we went and he cooked some nice food for us (Spaghetti Bolognese btw, and it was GOOD.) and we talked about real things in life. Not about money, not about how unhealthy we feel.. Just some positive, nice things that has happened in our lives.

That was the turning point of my life.

I realized, that to be positive, I need to see positive people. I can't co-up with my life if the only people beside me is negative!

There started my journey to be a better, positive person, and that's the reason I started to write this blog.

This is one of my ways to help others to do the same.

I hope you will start to follow my roads to success and learn something yourself too. So please click subscribe and feel free to share this. :)