If you’ve been hesitant to try your hand at homemade wheat bread, this recipe is for you! It’s nearly fool-proof, thanks to the addition of a bread machine, and it tastes absolutely amazing!
Homemade Wheat Bread Recipe
There is something about the smell of freshly made bread wafting through the house that is so warm, comforting, and inviting!
I have fond memories of baking bread with my mom and siblings growing up.
We didn’t have a Bosch, so Mom had all of us participate in the kneading. She’d divvy up the big mound of bread dough into five separate smaller mounds of dough and set the timer for ten minutes. We’d all roll up our sleeves and get to work.
Our efforts paid off when the bread came out of the oven a bit later and we got to enjoy a warm slice slathered with honey and butter. Delicious!
With only two arms and two little ones right now, my bread-baking isn’t quite so ambitious. Instead of mixing it all up myself in the big silver bowl like my mom, I put all the ingredients in my bread machine. And instead of five loaves, I make one loaf. But, it’s still homemade bread and it’s still delicious.
I usually make it at least two or three times per week as our little family can eat a whole loaf in one day!
Why You’ll Love this Wheat Bread Recipe
Not only does it taste great and make your house smell amazing, this homemade wheat bread is much better for you than store-bought bread — and it costs much less too!
Homemade Whole Wheat Bread Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees F.)
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cup whole-wheat flour (we grind our own, see note below)
- 1 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast (get this in bulk from Sam’s or Costco)
NOTE: My dad bought me this grain mill for Christmas. I really like it and have found the bread is so much better-tasting with freshly-milled flour. We buy our grain from Whole
Foods — it’s slightly more than I pay for whole wheat flour at the store, but considering it’s organic and freshly-milled flour is much higher in nutrition, it’s worth a bit of a higher cost to us.
How to Make Homemade Bread Machine Bread
1. Put all ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed.
2. Set on dough cycle.
3. When dough cycle is finished, take dough out and shape it into a loaf.
4. Place loaf in a greased bread pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 20-45 minutes (until doubled).
5. While bread dough rises, preheat oven to 350ºF.
6. Once dough is fully risen, bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.
7. Let dough rest in pan for 10 minutes before removing it to a cooling rack.
Wheat Bread Recipe Substitutions
This bread tastes great with honey as well — if you’d like to substitute that for the sugar.
And if you don’t have whole grain flour, you can use all-purpose for the entire recipe.
Easy Bread for Beginners Recipe Tips
Make sure to add the ingredients in the order listed, and select the correct dough cycle.
When it’s time to form the dough into a loaf, you’ll want to knead it a few times to press out any extra air bubbles. Press the dough into a small rectangle (about 9″ x 12″) and then roll up into a log, pressing the seam and folding the ends under.
Keep the dough covered as it rises to prevent it from drying out. And make sure your oven is fully preheated before putting the bread in.
If you don’t have a bread machine, you can mix the dough in a Kitchen Aid or other stand mixer, then cover and let rise for 30-60 minutes. Then continue with step 3 above.
How to Store Homemade Wheat Bread
Once the bread is completely cooled, place it in a bag or food storage container and store on the counter, at room temperature. Do not store in the fridge as this will dry it out.
Homemade bread is best within the first 48 hours. If you plan to store it longer than that, you can slice it and store it in the freezer. Then just pull out a slice or two whenever you’re craving fresh bread and pop it in the toaster.
Homemade Bread Recipe for Bread Machine FAQs
Patience! There’s a chance you won’t get it “just right” on the first time. Be willing to try again and again until you learn the feel of the dough when it’s ready for the pan, or the small of the bread when it’s ready to come out of the oven.
Adding milk, eggs, and butter (oil) to any homemade bread recipe will make it soft and fluffy. Also, allowing adequate rise time will help with the fluffiness too!
Sugar or honey can add sweetness to the bread. You can also add garlic, cheese, cinnamon, or any number of herbs to drastically change the flavor.
Most brands should work for bread — just make sure you pay attention to if it’s “Active Dry” yeast or “Rapid Rise” yeast. Also, if you plan to store your yeast for a longer period of time, it will stay fresher longer in the freezer.
Yes… and no!
You definitely want to let it rise long enough (until it’s doubled in size) but if you let it continue rising indefinitely, the dough will eventually collapse on itself once the gluten structure gives out. Usually 30-60 minutes is a good rise time.
Homemade Bread Recipe for Bread Machine
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water 110-115 degrees F.
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cup whole-wheat flour
- 1 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
Instructions
- Put all ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed.
- Set on dough cycle.
- When dough cycle is finished, take dough out and shape it into a loaf.
- Place loaf in a greased bread pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 20-45 minutes (until doubled).
- While bread dough rises, preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Once dough is fully risen, bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Let dough rest in pan for 10 minutes before removing it to a cooling rack.
Nutrition
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Ask the readers: Tips for frugal moving?
I lost my job in June and am in the process of moving from Florida to Houston in order to be closer to my boyfriend. I am desperately looking for cheap ways to
get my belongings and car from Florida to Houston. I have been getting
moving service price quotes and it’s looking around $2000 for
everything. Any tips on moving cheaply? Anything I should know to help mitigate costs with moving companies? -Amanda
My advice: If you have more time than money, do everything yourself.
I’ve moved three times in the last five years and haven’t paid a moving service for anything. I always accept all offers of help from friends and family and then just work very hard for the three weeks or so leading up to the move and the few weeks after the move.
One of the great things of boxing up everything yourself is that, as you’re going through things, you’re likely to find a lot of stuff you don’t need. So you can sell it on Craigslist or in a garage sale before you leave and make a little extra money. You can then use that extra money to rent a truck (I’ve always found the best rates for moving van rentals online.) and pay any additional expenses incurred through moving.
Another tip: If you are really short on time and unable to scrounge up free boxes to pack up everything in, try buying them off of eBay. They are loads cheaper there than buying them from a moving company.
What about the rest of you all? What are your best tips for moving on a dime? Do you think a moving service is worth the cost?
Graphic from BoxBundles.com
The Tightwad Gazette: 10 Painless Ways to Save $100 This Year
I’ve really enjoyed reading the first few chapters of The Tightwad Gazette. Believe it or not, I’ve not read any
of the three volumes before. It’s rather fun to hear from another
frugal zealot and I have a feeling I’ll be gleaning a lot from this.
More than anything, I’m being inspired all over again as to why I am
frugal in the first place.
One of my favorite parts of the book so far was Amy’s list of 10 Painless Ways to Save $100 This Year:
1) Purchase 10 articles of clothing at thrift shops and yard sales this year instead of paying department store prices.
Am
I the only person who automatically zeros in on the clearance racks
even if I have a gift card or someone else is paying? I think I can
count on one hand (if that!) the times I’ve paid full price for any
article of clothing. I usually head straight for the 50-75% off racks
and those are often priced much more than I can bring myself to pay.
I
am so frugal that I go on thrift store clearance days or dollar days.
Unless I really, really love the item, $1 is about my top price to pay
for any item in a thrift store.
Garage sales are my favorite of all – especially when it’s the kind where everything is marked under $1!
2) Hang four loads of laundry per week instead of using the dryer.
Am
I also the only frugal person who doesn’t hang their clothes? I know I
should, I really do. I just keep coming up with excuses for not getting
the right equipment to do it. It’s on my list of changes to implement
this year.
3) Once a month make a pizza from scratch instead of having one delivered.
Better yet, teach your family to like homemade pizza
more than restaurant pizza and than you’ll pretty much never have to
order out. We order pizza about once a year around here and I always
decide it’s really not worth bothering. My homemade pizza is so much better!
4) Write a good letter instead of making a monthly long distance phone call.
Hmm,
does email count? That’s even cheaper than a letter, though not as
personal. Most folks, like us, have free long distance on our cell
phones, though, so this one is a bit out-dated.
5) Reduce your soda consumption by four cans per week.
My
suggestion? Learn to drink water and like it. It’s better for your
health anyway. Don’t get me started on my soapbox on soda addictions,
though…
6) Bake one batch of bread per week.
When it’s this
easy to make, I have no excuse. Except the excuse that we’ve not gotten
completely accustomed to homemade bread for sandwiches. Any other time,
though, we much prefer homemade.
7) Save $50 each on two children’s birthday parties by making homemade decorations, cake, wrapping paper, and one present.
Or be a minimalist like me and skip the decorations, give the gift of time or a special outing, and bake a simple cake.
8) Reduce your smoking by three cigarettes per day (or give up smoking altogether and save even more).
No
offense to anyone, but this is about the biggest money-pit ever. And
that’s not even talking about what it does to your health.
9)
Reduce your whole milk consumption by two gallons per week,
substituting dry milk in cooking, homemade cocoa mix, and in
half-and-half for drinking.
We’ve
just decided to cut out milk in most instances except on cereal and in cooking (I
sometimes water that down, too.) so we go through about a half gallon
per week. I’ve heard that dry milk costs have gone up so it’s not
really much cheaper anymore to substitute. Can anyone confirm or deny
that?
(Note: We eat a combination of yogurt, cheese, nuts, beans, and green leafy vegetables in place of drinking lots of milk. We prefer this, and from the research I’ve done, our bodies actually assimilate these forms of calcium better than the calcium in milk. I know some disagree on this, but let’s just agree to disagree, okay?)
10) Pack four inexpensive school lunches per week.
We
don’t have to bother with school lunches right now, but my husband does
almost always take his lunch to work. We’ve figured up that this saves
us at least $1,000 a year!
Inspired by Amy’s list, I wrote my own list of Five Painless Ways We Saved $100 last year. Read it here and see other people’s lists too. What would your list say?
The most encouraging thing to remember is that a penny saved, is more than a penny earned. Why? Well, check out this
excellent and simplistic explanation. Quite the motivation for focusing
on reducing your outgo first and foremost before seeking to increase
your income!
We can make millions of dollars, but if we don’t
know how to wisely steward it, we’ll be no better off than someone who
makes below minimum wage. In fact, we might even be worse off than them.
Another great quote from The Tightwad Gazette:
"The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket book."
-Frank McKinney Hubbard
What are some painless things you do in your home that save you $100 or more each year? Tell us in the comments, I’d love to hear!
Originally published January 2008.
Blogging for Profit – Part 7
I want to finish out this series on Blogging for Profit by talking about another way to monetize your blog– through selling ads yourself.
Once
you’ve built up a steady readership, one of the best ways to really see
an increase in income, is to sell advertising on your blog directly to
companies by-passing a middle-man. I’ve done this quite a bit in the
past and have been amazed at how much money people will readily pay to
have a good spot on your blog. It takes a little time and effort to
make the sale and to keep up with advertisers, but you won’t have to
give any commission to a company such as Blogads so your profit margin
will be much higher.
How do you go about garnering advertisers for your blog?
1) First off, you need a steady readership of at least 500-1000 visitors a day.
You might be able to sell ads directly when you are smaller than that,
but you’ll have much better success at going after advertisers when you
have larger numbers to show them. So, before you start chasing down
advertisements, first work on building up your readership.
You might
find, as I did, that you never need to look far to find advertisers
eager to jump on board with you. In fact, once you’ve built up a blog
"following", companies will usually be "courting" you right and left to
get recognized on your blog.
2) When you have developed a solid readership closing in on 1000 visitors a day or more, start looking for opportunities to network with other potential advertisers. If
a company contacts you about doing a review on your blog, build a
relationship. If it’s something you’re interested in reviewing,
consider doing the review, but don’t let it stop there. Offer them a
discounted advertising rate, give them the option of doing a giveaway
on your blog, encourage them to offer a special price or discount to
your readers only. Once you start working with them and they see how
effective targeting your readership can be, you may very well find you
have an advertiser for life.
3) If you a lot of companies aren’t contacting you about possible reviews or asking for your advertising rates, consider becoming proactive. Figure
out some great pricing and find some companies which would complement
your blog’s focus very well and go offer some incredible introductory
pricing to them.
I recommend you just send an email to their marketing
director. Keep it short, professional, and tell them how advertising on
your blog can benefit them. Give them an offer they can’t resist. Offer
to review their products and do a giveaway on on your blog. Go the
extra mile; they’ll take notice.
Send out 20 or 50 such emails
like this and you’ll probably see a nice trickle of response to start
coming back. Once you’ve sold some some advertising on your blog, put a little
link up underneath your ads with something to the effect of "Interested in promoting your product to thousands of moms? Contact me for a discounted pricing package." Sometimes companies wouldn’t think to consider advertising with you if you didn’t spark the idea first to them yourself.
4) Remember that your loyalties lie with your readership first. When you develop a blog readership, you are really developing trust in a brand and that brand is you.
Never forget this. When I allow an ad on my blog, it is somewhat my
stamp of approval on the company or product. Therefore, I often turn
down ads if I do not feel I can give my whole-hearted endorsement of
them or if I feel like they in anyway contradict with my blog’s purpose
or message.
Integrity and honesty are much more important than
making a quick buck. Always let that be your guiding principle when you
are working to monetize your blog.
There’s a lot more I could
say on this subject and on the subject of blogging and making money
through blogging in general, however, I think I’ll close here and open
up the floor for questions.
As
we’ve gone through this series, what questions have you had? Are there
things you’d like for me expound upon or explain more in detail? Here’s
your opportunity to ask! In a few days, if there are enough questions, I’ll
do a Q&A post on blogging. You can leave your questions in the
comment section of this post or email them to me.
Related: Amy has a great post here on blogging and gaining readership.
Poll: Who does the finances in your home?
My husband and I are considering making a radical switch and having me take over the finances and bill-paying for awhile. Jesse has always done the lion’s share of this because he’s the nerd, he’s good at it, and he likes it.
However, we’re both thinking it might be good experience for me to try my hand at it. He also wants me to know how to do it in case something were to happen to him (he’s always thinking of everything to make sure I’m well taken care of!).
Because I’m curious, I thought it’d be fun to do a poll for couples. So, take a minute to vote below:
This should be interesting!
Your testimonials and shopping trip pictures needed
I’m in the process of putting together a promotional DVD for some upcoming events and am needing your help.
1) If you have saved money by visiting MoneySavingMom.com, would you be willing to write a concise testimonial (2 paragraphs or less) detailing how MoneySavingMom.com has helped you cut your grocery budget or changed your mindset on money in general? If so, please email me with your testimonial by Wednesday, August 13, 2008 (that’s two days, folks–sorry for the time crunch, I’m under a deadline!). Send your email to moneysavingmom @ gmail.com (remove spaces). If possible, please send along a picture of yourself/your family. Also, include your name and state.
2) If you have a picture of a really successful shopping trip you had as a result of a hot savings tip on MoneySavingMom.com, would you email me it to me along with the information on how much you saved? If so, please email me with your testimonial by Wednesday, August 13, 2008 (that’s two days,
folks–sorry for the time crunch, I’m under a deadline!). Send your
email to moneysavingmom @ gmail.com (remove spaces). If possible,
please send along a picture of yourself/your family. Also, include your
name and state.
All pictures and testimonials may be used in promotional materials for MoneySavingMom.com so by emailing them to me, you are giving me permission to use them as such.
Thank you so very much!
Blogging for Profit – Part 6
For those of you who are just joining us, we’re talking about how you can make money through blogging. I encourage you to go here to read all of the previous installments in this series.
There are many different ways to offer advertising on your blog. We’ve talked about affiliate marketing, today we’re going to cover a well-known and widely-used money-making method, namely, Google Adsense.
Google Adsense is an advertising program which is easy-to-use, easy-to-sign-up-for, and easy-to-implement. Advertisers bid on search terms and how much they want to spend per day on advertising. You choose how you want your ads to look and you add code to your blog where you want the Google ads to show up. Once the code is added in, Google takes care of serving up relevant ads based upon the content of your blog and what advertisers have bid on.
To earn money with this program, your visitors just have to click on ads. Every time someone clicks on an ad, you earn a little money — usually somewhere between $0.05 and $1. It varies depending upon what the advertisers have bid. Obviously, the more traffic you have and the easier you make it for people to see and click on your ads, the more money you will earn.
When you have earned over $100, Google will cut you a check at the end of the month. At first, it can be slow going, but as you build up your traffic, the checks will start rolling in much more rapidly. I’ve been amazed at the potential in earnings just from this simple thing!
As with most advertising programs, while there are some great features, there are also some downsides. I think the biggest downside to Google Adsense is that you cannot control which ads are shown on your blog.
Google automatically pulls up relevant ads based upon your blog’s content. For many blogs, this is not a problem, but if you care about what ads are showing on your sidebar, you may sometimes find the ads Google believes to be relevant to be very non-relevant or even offensive to your audience.
For instance, my previous blog was an overtly conservative Christian blog. When I tested Google Adsense on there, many of the ads which were served up from Google were anti-Christian and ones I would not want to run. However, on this blog, since I mostly talk about saving money, I’ve not had a problem so far with any offensive ads pulling up–most have been quite relevant and helpful.
You can choose to block websites you don’t want advertising on your site, but this requires a lot of policing and a lot of work–something which probably isn’t worth your time. So, depending upon your blog’s content, Google Adsense could be a good thing or a bad thing.
Another downside is that you only get paid when you earn $100. If you have a very small blog, it could take you a year or more to actually get a check–and that could be rather disheartening! I recommend you test run Google Adsense on your blog for a few weeks and see how it goes. You might find you really like it and are earning well from it or you might find you don’t like the ads being shown and it is not really learning much for you.
I also encourage you to try having your AdSense ad blocks in various places on your blog. You can have up to three ad blocks per page, so experiment and learn what works best. I’ve found it very interesting that ad placement can make such a difference in earnings. Keep testing until you determine what works best for your blog and blog audience.
Have any of you had experience with Google Adsense? If so, what do you think of it?
Related: Pro-Blogger has a thorough post up on why you should use AdSense on your blog. It’s well worth your time.
It will be a long time before I’ll be able to eat another hamburger
It will be a long time before I’ll be able to eat another hamburger
Remember that I said we were going to use our economic stimulus check to buy a 1/4 of a cow from a local farm that specializes in hormone-free grass-fed beef? I was so excited to tell you about the great deal we got on this and how we found a freezer to store it in for a steal off of Craigslist.
However, that was not to be.
Oh, we bought the meat alright–all $614 worth of it. And we bought the freezer, too. We were thrilled with the whole experience and were looking forward to lots of great hamburgers and roasts and steaks over the next number of months.
We didn’t get a chance to eat any before we went on vacation, but I couldn’t wait to get back and get cooking. I had visions of all these various dishes I could make and all the great grilling we could do. Since we’ve cut back on our meat consumption for years in an effort to keep our grocery budget low, this high-quality meat was going to be a real treat.
We arrived home from our week-long excursion to Arkansas refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to get back to real-life. As we were unpacking our bags, I went to throw something into the recycle bin in the garage.
I noticed a somewhat-strange smell when I opened the garage door and went to investigate.
You guessed what it was… our whole entire freezer full of meat was off and completely thawed! Not only that but it was room temperature and wreaked of spoiling meat!
Apparently, it rained while we were gone and the electric outlet our freezer was plugged into was shut off as a safety mechanism. (We didn’t know that our garage outlet did this or we sure as ever wouldn’t have hooked our freezer full of meat up to it!)
Gratefully, since we had just purchased the freezer, it wasn’t also full of other things, too. Had it been a few weeks later, I very likely could have had it full to the brim with food in addition to the meat. It was still quite a big disappointment, though, not to mention being disgusting.
I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say it will be a very long time before I’ll be able to eat another hamburger again. So much for our bright idea of buying meat in bulk.
Note: It looks like we’re going to be able to recoup about $140 from our renter’s insurance, but since our deductible is $500, that’s all the recourse we’ve been able to drum up. Oh well, at least it was our economic stimulus check and not money we’d worked hard to set aside for this purchase.
Blogging for Profit – Part 4
Yesterday, I talked about making your blog more visitor-friendly. Today, I want to talk a bit about boosting your blog traffic. If you
want to make more than a few dollars a month blogging, increasing your
blog’s traffic and readership is the best way to do so.
1) Read Blog by Hugh Hewitt.
This is my number one recommendation to all bloggers, especially
beginning bloggers. Check your library if you’d rather not buy it.
2) Pick a topic.
The biggest impact Hewitt’s book had upon me was to pick a focus for my
blogs and to try and stay on track with those. When you come to this
blog, you have a good idea what you are going to get. I love blogging
and I love saving money, so meshing the two together into a blog called
MoneySavingMom was perfect for me.
When
you pick a focus for your blog, try to go with something that is broad
enough to encompass what you are passionate about and broad enough to
have a large enough market for it. Also, aim for something which you
think you could write about for years and never tire of.
3) Write often.
One of the best ways to boost your blog traffic is just to blog. If you
are trying to increase your traffic and readership, I recommend you
spend the bulk of your time improving your blog and adding content to
your blog. Updating your blog at least three times per week helps you
establish a regular readership. When people know you almost always post
everyday or every other day, they are more likely to visit your blog
more frequently.
4) Write well.
I don’t claim to be a "good writer" but I do try to at least follow
basic grammar rules, avoid repetition, and abstain from typographical
errors (though I do make those regularly if a post is typed somewhat in
haste!).
After you type up a post, read over it before posting it, and
then check it again after you’ve posted it to make sure it posted correctly
(sometimes fonts or layout will be haywire and your audience will
appreciate you for fixing this before they read it).
How
do you learn to write well? Well, write. 🙂 That’s one of the best ways
to learn. The more you write and have people critique your writing, the
more your writing will improve. In addition, read well-written blogs
and books. Over time, by filling your mind with good writing and constantly
practicing your writing skills, your writing will invariably improve.
Write
often, write well, and have an eye-pleasing blog and you’ll never have
a problem having some traffic–probably an ever-increasing amount of
traffic.
Not only will you find that writing often and writing well allows viral marketing begins to take effect
(someone finds your blog, likes it, links to it, and then their friend
clicks on the link thus finding your blog, likes it, and links to it
and on and on it goes), but you will also notice that you start getting
picked up in search engines.
Having search engines (i.e. Google) find your blog is one great way to easily drive more traffic to your blog.
In fact, this is where I get probably 30% of my blog visitors from–many of whom find my blogs initially through a search engine search. They like what they see and start regularly visiting my blog. The more
content you have with relevant search terms and the more often you
write, the more readily search engines will turn up your blog in search results.
5) Link frequently and liberally.
If you find another post which you liked or found interesting, link to
it! The blogger will love you for it and just might return the favor
sometime. In addition, link to and promote blogs you like. Not only is
this a great way to show appreciation to a blogger but it will often
land you on their blogroll as well.
Here are a few other ideas – some are things I’ve done, some I’ve heard work well:
-Join blogging "leagues"–there are thousands of these and I’m sure a few would be a fit for you.
-Put a link to your blog in your email signature.
-Send the link to one of your best posts out to friends and family. Or, be pro-active and send it to some of the widely-read bloggers whom you think might be interested
-Submit posts to Carnivals–Again, there are thousands of these and I’ve heard that participating
really boosts your traffic and introduces your blog to many who have
probably not heard of you before.
-Comment on other blogs–well-written regular comments on blogs can often bring a nice stream of traffic your way. But please, pretty please, do not leave comments just to get people to your blog. Comments which sound like an infomercial for your blog or which serve no purpose other than to try and get people to click over to your blog are not something most bloggers or blog readers appreciate. Join in the discussion, share something helpful and thought-provoking, and you’ll likely find other people will wander over to check out your own blog as a result.
For a more exhaustive list of ideas, check out Super Blogging’s post on 75 Ways To Increase Your Site’s Traffic.
How do you know where traffic is coming from? Install a Sitemeter or Statcounter on your blog.
It’s free and easy to do, and then you can have real-time visitor
information. I highly recommend you do this from the get-go as it is
not only exciting to watch your traffic count, it also gives you the
ability to figure out what is working and what is not working as you
can track where visitors are coming from.
For those of you who blog, what are your best tips for boosting your blog traffic? Share them in the comments section.
Swap-A-DVD
For those of you who love PaperBackSwap (and if you aren’t a member, you should check it out!), they’ve recently started another club called Swap-a-DVD.
Similar to PaperBackSwap, when you sign up with Swap-a-DVD,
you post 10 DVDs you already own and would like to pass on to someone
else. After you have completed that, you are given 1 free DVD credit
which you can use to request one of any of the DVDs in their system.
Then, when anyone requests any of your ten DVDs and you ship them out
and the receiver notes that they have been received, you get an
additional DVD credit for each DVD you ship out. You can
continue shipping and listing DVDs like this and then choosing DVDs to
have shipped to you. You only pay postage on the DVDs you ship out.
Here’s the best part, though: when you refer someone else to Swap-a-DVD
or PaperBackSwap and they sign up and list their ten DVDs, you automatically get a free
DVD credit. I’ve gotten a lot of free book credits through PaperBackSwap this way!
Another
great thing is that you can set up a wishlist for your account. If they
don’t have a certain DVD you are interested in right now, you can add
it to your wishlist. Then, when someone else lists the DVD, you get an
email letting you know it’s been listed and giving you first dibs on
getting it.
Tired of Missing Deals?Join Our Hot Deals List!
Click here to sign upBlogging for Profit – Part 3
Yesterday, we talked about starting a blog and writing on it –two no-brainers if you ever want to make money blogging! Today
I want to talk about what to write about and how to make your blog more
visitor friendly. Both things are very important if you want to
establish a steady and ever-growing stream of regular visitors.
1. Be yourself.
When you first begin blogging, it might seem daunting to come up with
anything to say. My biggest piece of advice when you first start out is
to be yourself. Share from your own personal experiences and wisdom. Think about what unique perspective you have to bring to the table; do not try to be someone else or to copy someone else’s blogging. Be you!
2. Learn from others, but don’t copy their ideas.
Going hand-in-hand with being yourself, do not start a blog and just
mimic or parrot other people’s blogging ideas. You won’t ever get very
far if you never do anything original.
If you want to be a
better blogger, I highly recommend you spend time hanging around
well-known blogs with large readerships. Observe what they are doing
right and what is working for them. Then, figure out how you might
implement their ideas in your own unique way on your blog. However, as
I said above, do not just copy their ideas on your blog.
It is imperative that you set yourself apart, so don’t be afraid to try original things and find your own voice and niche. It takes perseverance and will likely mean you try and fail on occasion (I’ve certainly been there, done that, got the T-shirt!), but you can’t succeed if you don’t starting by trying.
[And here I must insert a piece of advice to newbie bloggers: Please, PLEASE, PLEASE do not make the mistake of filling up your empty blog by copying and pasting blog posts into your blog from other blogs. You should never, under any circumstance, copy and paste a full blog post into your blog without written permission from the author. Blog posts are copyrighted and copying and pasting them into your blog–even when citing the source–can be infringing on copyright rules.
If you find a post from another blog that is especially helpful to you, you are more than welcome to copy and paste a paragraph or so into your blog, making it clear that you are quoting another blogger, and then encourage your readers–with a direct link–to go and read the rest of the blog post on the original author’s blog.]
3. Use variety.
Variety is the spice of a blog. If you always post the same length of
post in the same way on the same topics, it can get dull very quickly.
A few ideas:
-Write longer posts and shorter posts and freely intermingle the two on your blog.
-Post pictures at least a few times per week.
-Try adding in video or audio every now and then.
-Post about your view of a particular current event.
-Share a quick tip.
-Ask
a question of your readers (wait until you have more than a handful to
do this, though, otherwise it will look a little lonely if there aren’t
any comments!).
-Answer a question from a reader in a post rather than in the comments section.
-Share a funny story about something your child did or said.
Also, don’t
be afraid to stand up on your soap box every now and then. Most of the
best bloggers are those who are not afraid to speak up and speak out on
subjects they are passionate about. And do
join in some of the blogging-themed days (such as Frugal Friday or Works-For-Me Wednesday) on occasion, too. You’ll
usually get a nice amount of traffic as a result, plus it gives you
just another idea to blog about!
4. Use short paragraphs and always leave spaces between paragraphs.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across a blog which was
fairly well-written but a bear to actually read because of these
monstrous paragraphs followed by monstrous paragraphs. Make your blog
easy to read by breaking up paragraphs after every 4-7 sentences or
less and always have a space between paragraphs.
5. Proof-read your posts before and after publishing them.
Need I say more? Read over your post at least once before hitting the
publish button, then read over it again after you hit the publish
button. Don’t know how to spell a word? Look it up on Dictionary.com. Sloppiness in blogging will detract from your
blog and will greatly hamper your blog’s ability for growth.
6. Write your blogging ideas down. If
you come up with a blogging idea as you’re going about your everyday
life, write it down at once. You may think you’ll remember it later,
but if you’re anything like me, there’s a good chance you might not.
I
have a place in my planner where I write down my blogging ideas. I never get to all of them, but the ever-growing list serves to remind me of things I am hoping to write about and when I sit down to blog, I usually have a waiting reservoir of post ideas to cull from.
I’ve
just barely scratched the surface on the subjects of being a better
blogger and coming up with creative blog fodder. What do you think makes a great blog? Why do you visit the blogs you do? What makes you continue to return to a blog or add it to your feedreader? Tell us in the comments section so we can all be enlightened!
Simple Tips for Living on Little
I
am often asked how we made it through my husband’s three years of law
school on a part-time income without accumulating any debt. Well, it
wasn’t the easiest thing ever, but with some creativity and the
blessing of the Lord, we survived.
Here
are a few ideas which allowed us to live on $800-$1000/month without
going into debt:
Tithe. Recognize that all the money you have is given to you from God and you are to be a good steward of it.
Read the autobiography of George Mueller and get in a habit of asking God for your provisions.
I can tell you story after story of amazing ways God has answered our
prayers for specific needs–from providing a washer and dryer for
free, to furnishing our home for $100, to anonymous gifts in the mail
just when we needed it most, to a good sale at the grocery store on
something. God has provided above and beyond many things we have asked
Him for. It has been truly amazing to see His provision.
Pay cash for everything. Don’t
even think of buying something if you don’t have the money for it. (For
more encouragement in this regard, I highly recommend Dave Ramsey’s books, radio show, and Financial Peace University.)
Pare down to the basic essentials. It is amazing what you can live without.
Make a budget and stick to it. Pay for the essentials first. If there is money left over, put the bulk of it in savings.
Regardless of how little you have, put a little money in savings every month. Even if you only have $5 to spare, put it in savings and little bit, by little bit, you’ll start to see your savings grow.
Don’t buy expensive gifts. Make
something or write a letter, it’s much more meaningful when you put
time and effort into a gift anyway. (There are lots of great frugal
gift ideas here.)
Have one vehicle. It wasn’t my first choice, but we lived for quite some time with only one vehicle. Our situation was such that I couldn’t walk anywhere (we were not in the best part of town and it would be a very long way to try and walk anywhere even if it were safe), but we managed just fine.
Stay home more.
It’s amazing how many things you don’t know you are missing out on, if
you’re not out window shopping. Staying home and just spending time
together as a family is much more fulfilling anyway!
Don’t buy anything you don’t need and only buy things if they are on sale.
Don’t eat out. I repeat, don’t eat out. You’ll save yourself a bundle of money.
Find ways to have "free dates" with your husband.
Pack a picnic and go to the park. Or, go to a bookstore and browse
together. Make some homemade mocha and play a game. The possibilities
are almost endless on this one. (More cheap date ideas here.)
Learn to utilize the library. I love our local library–I can go and check out as many books as I want and never pay them a cent (well, okay, so long as I return our books on time!).
Pack a lunch for your husband to take to work everyday. Add up how much you’ll save in a year by doing this and you will be amazed!
Cut back on meat consumption. We only eat meat about 3-4 times per week and really have not missed it much. More ideas here.
Stick to simple meals. Cook and bake from scratch.
Last but not least, make it fun! It’s a game for me to see how well we can live on how little. Learn to enjoy saving money. And, like Get Rich Slowly admonishes, don’t let a frugal lifestyle become dull and boring.
What are some of your best tips and ideas for living on little?
Originally published October 2005.
Blogging for Profit – Part 2
Yesterday, we started a series on blogging for profit and I talked about how important it was that you begin your blogging venture with a dedication to be in it for the long haul.
Building up a readership which in turn will produce a steady income from blogging takes time. But it is so worth it; I’ve experienced this firsthand.
I used to think that making a decent income from blogging was pretty much impossible or unreachable for most people. Then I started learning more and experimenting more and I found that it really wasn’t hard to make the equivalent of a part-time or even full-time income from blogging. With effort, time, and patience, I’m learning more and more just how much potential is out there–it’s practically limitless!
Did you know there are a number of bloggers making a
six-figure income from blogging? Some are almost making seven figures!
From blogging! Anything is possible nowadays!
To begin earning money blogging you must first start by, well, starting a blog. Blogger is a free and easy way to begin, though I’m not such a big fan of Blogger after my whole spam-block debacle!
After you set up your blog, write! I recommend you set a goal to post something three times per week. You can always blog more often than that, but three times per week is a manageable goal and one that most people can accomplish.
If you want to develop a strong readership (and a strong readership is one of the cornerstones to profitable blogging), it is much better to write less often and write regularly, than to write and only do it in fits and starts. In other words, posting consistently three times every week for months, will develop a much stronger readership than posting 15 posts once every 3-5 weeks will.
It’s a proven fact that people like to read blogs they know are going to be regularly updated. So, make the commitment to write three times per week, and then get to it!
Q&A: How much should a family of eight spend on groceries?
If you spend $40 a week on groceries, what do you think a family of 8 should spend on their food bills for the week? -Kate
My
goal price range is $0.25-0.50/person for breakfasts and lunches and
$1.00-$1.50/person for dinners. Basically, I shoot for it to cost
around $2/person per day for food and household items. However, we
don’t actually spend that much since we have two adults and two little
children and only spend approximately $38-40 a week on food and household
items.
As our children grow older and we have more
children, I’m curious to see how much we’ll need to adjust our budget.
Since we have not raised our budget by much in spite of our expanding family, I’m hoping we can continue to keep it low.
I would
like to never go above $75/week–no matter how many children we have (and we’re hoping for at least eight or more!), but I have to test that out with a
brood of children before I can say for sure! One thing I do know is that the longer I bargain shop, the better I become at stretching our dollars.
When
you are first starting out with creating a budget and a menu and
sticking with it, I suggest you begin with something very doable.
If you’ve never had a grocery budget before, just sticking with the
same budget every week is a new challenge. Start somewhere but don’t
make it too hard at first. Keep it simple.
For a family of
eight, maybe you could try to stick with $150/week? That would be about
$21/day or about $2.60/person per day ($0.87/person per meal). Your
eventual goal might be to cull that down to around $100 or less, if
possible, but start out with something manageable. This is supposed to
be a fun process not a stressful process! If $150 sounds way too low,
try starting out with a $200/week budget. As always, starting somewhere is better than not starting at all!
Whatever
you do, choose a budget amount that you think is possible, but might
be a little bit of a challenge. Keep in mind your family’s eating
preferences, where you live and what the prices are in that locale,
what your husband likes to eat (don’t scrimp there!), how often you
have others into your home for meals, and how much time you have
available to spend cooking and planning.
I also think it is good
to not have the budget so low that you can’t splurge on certain things
sometimes. We splurge every week on organic hormone-free milk and eggs
from a local dairy. We also often use our overage from CVS to splurge
on "fun things" like dark chocolate and ice cream. Always remember that
the purpose of saving money is not to deprive yourself, but to make the
most of what you have!
Once you feel comfortable with your
current grocery budget and feel like you could do better, try shaving
off a little more and a little more until you get your budget down to
where you’d like for it to be. Remember, if at any time in the process
you stop looking at it as a fun challenge and start seeing it as a
stressful frustration, back off a bit and allow yourself a little more
wiggle room.
As you gradually improve at your bargain-hunting
skills, are able to stock up on good deals, and start planning your
menu more based upon what is on sale at the store and what you already
have on hand, you’ll find it becoming easier and easier to lower your
weekly budget.
What is your weekly budget and how many does that regularly
feed? Do you include your household items in that budget? Are you
satisfied with your budget or do you think you could improve it?
Blogging for Profit – Part 1
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked in person or by email
how one can make money online. I’m no expert and still have much to
learn but after lots of reading, learning, and trial and error over the
past few years, I have found many ways to make a very decent income
online.
Since one of my passions is helping moms come home so they
can be there for their children, I’m always happy to share what I’ve
learned in hopes that it will encourage those of you considering
"making the plunge" from two incomes to one or that it will help those
of you who are struggling to make it on one income.
Despite what some of the ads might portray, making money online doesn’t just happen; it takes work–lots of work. But if you stick with it, the work eventually can really pay off.
Over
the next few days, I want to share about one of my
favorite ways to make money online–blogging. I believe that blogging
is something anyone can do and anyone can also make money off of it.
As
I said, though, it takes time. You cannot just put up a blog, write a
couple of posts, and expect the money to start rolling in. No, it takes
time, effort, and consistency.
So, my first piece of advice for anyone who would like to make money blogging is to be prepared to be in it for the long-haul. This might seem like a no-brainer but I think sometimes people miss the big picture when it comes to making money online.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about choosing a blog topic and the actual writing of
the blog. These are important facets that you must have in place before
just jumping ahead to making money blogging. Because, as we all know,
if you don’t have traffic, you can blog all day, but you’ll never make
a penny.
Have you made money
through blogging? If so, how? Share with us, we’d love to hear! Once I
lay the foundation here, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite blogging
money-makers and those which haven’t worked for me.
Related: Darren Rowse, the ProBlogger, tackles a related issue on his video post here. It’s worth watching.
Originally published October 2007.