It happens to the best of us: mysteriously falling short on cash when we could’ve sworn we’d just hit the ATM. Where did all that money go? On any given day, there are a number of ways we leak money – knowingly or not. Here’s a look at how to reclaim some of that money.

Food
One messy money mistake is filling up our grocery carts with way too much. Researchers at Harvard Business School have found that we tend to go overboard on groceries, especially at warehouse clubs, where we think we’re saving money by buying in bulk, but not always, especially considering how much excess food goes straight into the trash. According to the book American Wasteland, families toss out up to 25 percent of their food or roughly $2,200 every year.  [For tips on how to shop smart at warehouse clubs, check out The Best Things to Buy in Bulk]

Read full article here.

My pain is your gain though because I’ve researched plenty of apps and just like so many other things in life, sometimes exactly what you need is already in your possession. You just have to understand what you have.

Case in point, Apple’s Reminders for the iPhone and iPad.  I’ve surfed the App store and downloaded quite a few to-do apps.  Some for free, some paid.  Finally, I went back to Reminders, the built in app.

It’s not fancy, pretty simple in fact. Honestly that’s what I want my to-do app to be – easy. I don’t want to have to take a tutorial, I just want to get things done.

What I love most (yes, I’m releasing my inner fangirl) about Reminders is the view options. I can view my entire list or I can view it by day.  You can set the reminder for a certain day and time or you can make it location based. The reminder will go off if you and your phone are near a certain address – that does put a drain on the battery though.

If you’re like me (and I’d like to think I’m not so neurotic that others can’t relate) then you will love looking at the Completed list. It shows completed tasks by day. Not that I’m ultra-competitive or anything, but I like trying to check off more to-do’s than previous days.

The reminders show up on my iPhone and iPad as banners and also sync with my iCal. I don’t particularly use iCal that much, although I do sync my Google calendar with my iCal. Unfortunately, I can’t sink my Google Tasks with my Reminders but I’ve found that it doesn’t make a difference because it does sync with my iCal tasks.

For those of you who need to do project management, you can create different lists and still view the to-do’s by date.  For me, I create lists for my books and what needs to be done. So I can look at the big picture and then manage the tasks by putting them on my calendar.

Another plus, you can set your reminders verbally by using Siri on the iPhone.

I realize I probably have more than enough tools to run the world, all that’s left is to just go ahead and do the darn thing.

Just think about all the blood, sweat and tears that went into creating your book. The sleepless nights as you wrestled with the revisions and the breathless anticipation as you waited to see your book cover. Let’s not forget, the proud moment when you first held a copy of your book in your hands or saw it for sale on Amazon and B&N.

You may think your roller coaster ride is over but believe it or not, the journey with your book is not even close to being finished. Thanks to the internet and social media, you’ll be doing marketing and promotions for your book before, during and after, long after, publication. (Read more)

It seems every year, I get caught out there in a huge traffic  cluster funk because of some marathon/parade/random public holiday.  So this year, I’m going to help me and you and give you the link to the street closures for the LA Marathon on Sunday, March 18th.

Closures will begin along the entire course prior to the race start, occurring on a rolling basis. All route roads will be closed by 6:00am. The races begin at 7:00am, and streets will reopen on
a rolling basis shortly after the last participant has passed. Plan accordingly!

While this piece is all about living life on your own terms, finding passion and taking control of your life, I need to start with reality. While I hope that anyone can take away something from my little pearls of supposed wisdom, this is geared towards Moms: women who have more than just themselves to deal with.

When you think “living life on your own terms,” you start to imagine a fantasy. “While I find my passion and bliss, my family is so going to love the new me so much that life is just going to fall into place. My happiness will be so contagious that everyone around me will change.” WRONG! You cannot change anyone else. Hopefully your attitude can affect others around you, but you cannot actually change anyone.

Another fantasy, “living life on my own terms will take away all the financial stress in my life.” WRONG. While you may find a job that you are excited about and make some money, it doesn’t mean that the realities of trying to raise a family in today’s economic times are going to change or that you are going to win the lottery. It could take away some of the financial stress (mine did), but once again, let’s deal with reality.

You are probably wondering then, how is living life on my own terms actually going to help me and how do I do it anyway? Okay, let’s roll up our proverbial sleeves and get started. Our goal is a redirect if you will; subtle changes that will lead to a more fulfilled you.

I want to take you back to a time in my life about 6 years ago. At that time I had a 2-year old girl and a 3-year old boy. I put my career on hold to be a stay-at-home Mom and I had temporarily moved from Los Angeles with my husband to North Carolina for his job. This was a difficult time for me. I do not regret one second of staying home with my children until they were in school (I will never get that time back) and I do not regret for one second traveling to wherever my husband needed to go for work (it is important to stick together as a family), but I was lost. I gave up anything and everything for myself. In retrospect, it didn’t have to be this way. I was living a life that I thought I was supposed to live: loving wife (not always so loving, but I tried), doting mother (I actually did that maybe too much), and home-maker (always a hot meal, but not always with a smile on my face). Once again, I am so glad I made those choices, but if only I had known then what I know now.

I know that so many of you can relate that all it takes to be a mom and wife (or single mom for that matter without support of a husband). I know that all of you understand the there are only so many hours in a day and with all that we have to give to others, there just isn’t time to give back to ourselves. That needs to change. Right now. I am going to tell you how.

10 tips to living life on your own terms:

1. See The Signs. Are you stressed? Impatient? Feeling like you lost your identity?

2. Find your passion: What do you love to do? What would you do for free? What did you used to make time for in your life?

3. Make the time: Look at how your day is structured. Where can you find some wiggle room for YOU? What can you say “no” to in your life? Whether it is an hour a week or 8 hours a day, find the time. Now!

4. Strategize: Who can you delegate some of the tasks in your life to? Are you looking for a job, a hobby? Get your plan together

5. Get your spouse on board (if you have one): Time to let your spouse know that you need something for yourself. You may get some resistance (change often brings that about), but let him (or her) know this is going to bring you more happiness and therefore you will be a better wife and mother.

6. Get your kids on board: If your time for “you” is going to affect your time with your kids and they are old enough to understand, let them know that mommy is a person and that she needs something for herself. They may not like it, but you are showing them happiness in adult life. A lesson that you cannot teach without actually living it.

7. State your claim: Don’t say, “I am thinking about going to a painting class to start painting,” say, ” I am an artist!”

8. Reach out now: Do you have a friend you can buddy up with if you are thinking of starting a business? Are you looking for a job and know a friend of a friend who is in that field? Call! Email? Facebook? Reach out to your “village.” You may be surprised how big it is.

9. Try, try and try again! Do not give up. What you think you wanted may change and that is okay. As long as you are looking for something that fuels you and that you are passionate about, you are living life on your own terms.

10. You’re on your way: You are doing it! You are starting to live life on your own terms; finding something you are passionate about and applying it to your every day life. You may find that you have a just a little more “pep” in your step.

For more on living life on your own terms, please check out my new book, “The Mother’s of Reinvention” Reclaim your identity, Unleash your potential, Love your Life!

© 2012 Jennifer Pate, co-author of The Mothers of Reinvention: Reclaim Your Identity, Unleash Your Potential, Love Your Life

Square Credit Card Reader

1.)   Snapdat (Free) It was only a matter of time before business cards went digital. No more running out of cards or having to do another print run because you have to update your info. Snapdat allows you to create a business card with your picture and custom background. You can send them from your phone via email, Facebook or Twitter. It also creates a vcard that can be added to the contacts.

2.)   Sign-N-Send (Free) or Easy Sign ($.99 per 5 pages) As it always happens, the minute I leave the house, I get an email with a document that needs to be signed and retuned five minutes ago. Sign-N-Send makes it really easy to open up a document and add your signature to it. The free version includes a first page that has ads.  Easy Sign is free and includes three free credits. It’s $.99 per five pages after that. I like this app better because it’s more user friendly in terms of adding the signature.

3.)   Jot Not ($.99) It’s like having a portable scanner in your purse. You can take pictures with your phone of documents and turn them into easy to read .pdfs that can be emailed.

4.)   Square (Free) On those lucky days when I find someone who wants to buy my book but doesn’t have any cash – TADOW! I have Square, a credit card reader that’s compatible with Android and iPhones. With one swipe (maybe two cause sometimes it can be a little touchy) I can charge their card, and email or text them a receipt. It’s easy to transfer the funds to my account. No need to worry about bounced checks or carrying change around anymore.

5.)   Evernote (Free) I love Evernote!  I have it on my Mac, iPad and iPhone.  Keeps all my ideas and lists in easy to organize notebooks.  It syncs easily and best of all it’s free.  Check out this article about other ways to utilize Evernote – gave me tons of ideas and made me realize I had been underutilizing the app!

So those are my five faves, what are the ones you can’t live without when your home office goes mobile?  Tell me in the comments below.

Sibylla Nash is an author and freelance writer. You can visit her at sibyllanash.com.

From Oprah Winfrey to Steve Jobs to J.K. Rowling, entrepreneurial success stories are the stuff from which American dreams are made. Much like these famous names, the six self-made millionaires we’re profiling have one thing in common: Thanks to hard work, determination and sound advice from mentors, friends and family, they’ve been able to build thriving businesses from the ground up.

The rise to the top can be bumpy. In fact, some of the entrepreneurs we talked to were homeless during the early years of their companies. That’s why they all agree that it’s important to help others in need. All, including Radio One’s Catherine L. Hughes and Life is good co-founder Bert Jacobs, give back to the community by volunteering time, donating to charitable organizations or running their own charities.

Learn how these six diverse entrepreneurs — from a t-shirt designer to a media mogul — turned meager beginnings into multimillion-dollar success and what advice they offer to budding business tycoons who hope to follow in their footsteps.  Read full story here.

Contractors and boyfriends have a lot in common. They sound great in the beginning when they show up on time and the bathroom remodel is zipping right along. Then all of a sudden our phone calls aren’t returned as quickly and after the fifth unreturned call being sent straight to voicemail, we realized we’ve been dumped for a pricier job.

Neighbor2Neighbor.com offers to be that middleman, no promises, they just get the couple in the room and see what happens. Best part? No memberships, no cost, no commitment.  You can peruse their site to find local contractors, read an interview and testimonies from happy customers. Rest assured, there is a vetting process, so not just anybody who uses Vistaprints and has a toolbox can profiled on their site.

Check out this quick interview with Mara Schoner, publisher of Neighbor2Neighbor.

How long have you been in business?

We started neighbor2neighbor in 2005 after two waves of renovation on our Venice Beach fixer-upper.

What inspired you to start this type of business?

We seemed to encounter two types of contractors: the few good, reliable contractors, or alternately, undependable, easily distracted workers on whom we had to keep a close watch. In one case a contractor did a great job up until the day before he was done. He requested that we pay him prior to finishing because he had some bills to pay. And he never showed up again!

We wished that there was some way to find out who the good people were. And when we found them, like Borite, our pest control service, it was clear that they had their business figured out on so many levels: customer service, knowledge in their field, honesty and integrity.

The problem was that it took a great deal of time, organization and energy to find the good companies. And even referrals from friends or online services were not always reliable. For our termite problem, I interviewed ten pest control companies from the Yellow Pages over the phone, from which I chose six to come to the house. The process was educational and once I had met so many people in the industry, it became apparent that Jack Launius of Borite was by far the best. He talked at length about the treatment process, showed me easily five times as many places where the termites were infesting than the other companies, and taught me a ton about termites and the safe treatments he uses.

I would have loved to have had the time to interview ten contractors, plumbers, roofers and electricians, but truthfully that was just too much work for us. But I thoroughly enjoyed the process of vetting these companies, and it was rewarding to find the diamond amidst the others. During and after the remodel we kept thinking there should be some resource out there that does a thorough job of vetting services.

Finally we decided we could do that work.

My partner Mark’s background in journalism editing, photography and writing, combined with my background in writing and research made us believe we could do neighbor2neighbor pretty much just the two of us, which is what we did for several years when the kids were little. Now we have some part-time help, but we still do the vast majority of work ourselves.

I’m also someone who loves helping people and giving advice. neighbor2neighbor gives me an appropriate venue to get the advice giving out of my system so I don’t drive my friends and family crazy!

Everyone has contractor horror stories, what do you think is the biggest mistake homeowners make when hiring a repairman/vendor to work on their home?

The most common problem I hear from our readers is people thinking they can save money by going with the cheapest contractor or bid. Almost always, they end up paying more when the contractor “finds” problems during the job, or when the work is done incorrectly and needs to be redone. It is true, particularly with older homes, you never know what you will find when you open a wall, but a good contractor will take these “surprises” into consideration. Moreover, someone who charges a proper rate will pay for worker’s comp insurance (which protects you, the homeowner) and he or she will pay their employees a living wage in accordance with their experience and work ethic. We all want to save money, but in the end a deal that looks too good to be true probably is. Also, over the years I’ve grown to really appreciate how important well-run small businesses are for the local community overall. When you spend your dollars wisely on first-rate services, you’re contributing to a healthier local economy.