Friday, March 23, 2007

How to Save Money 101: Guidelines on Bargain Shopping - Be Frugal, Never Cheap

Saving money is something we always love to do. At the same time, a surprising number of people don't spend a couple extra minutes to save money. Sure, if an item is on sale, they're happy to buy it and save the money. The sale may be the only reason why they bought the item at all.

But this line of purchasing is just buying sale items by convenience. The person is ready to buy something, and it the particular item happens to be on sale, so they buy it. What you should move towards is knowing how to make your own sales quickly, effectively and easily. I'm talking about mastering the art of quick bargain shopping.

Fact: By spending under a minute of search-time online, you can save money on ANYTHING. I really mean it - a big part of my book, Scraping By, is on quick and easy bargain shopping. I developed a system of knowing how to get cheap clothes, cheap groceries, cheap electronics.... without BEING cheap. In other words, you can purchase the high quality items you want and save money. My methodology allows you to get what you want for less, without having to buy cheap knock-offs and imitations. In fact, I discourage getting cheap versions of what you want - it's a bad investment in most cases (this doesn't apply to disposable or edible/drinkable items.)

So what are some pointers I can give you, here and now, to save you a ton of money right away? In this day and age, all bargain hunting should start on the internet. First and foremost, craigslist and ebay.com are your best friends. If you are looking to buy any item, search for it on google and put the word 'craigslist' at the end of your search string. You may happen to find someone selling that exact item on craigslist, somewhere in the country. If the price is right (and you trust the seller), oftentimes the seller is willing to send you the item no matter where you live. As for ebay, that's a no brainer. If you are not at least checking ebay.com to see how cheap you can buy an item for, you are probably wasting a TON of money in different areas of your life.

I think that saving money is a lot of fun. Unlike the pre-internet days (aka the Stone Age), finding bargains takes a matter of seconds. Chances are, if you make it a habit to just do a quick check on the internet for cheap buys, you'll save, on average, about $5 a day over the year. And that's huge - if you save $5 a day, you're saving a total of $1825 for the year... That's a pretty substantial amount of savings for just taking an extra minute before you make any purchase.

To learn all of my system for saving money (and making money quickly through incredibly easy, high-paying, pay-per-hour part time jobs), download my book at www.scrapingbysmart.com

I hope this information helps you save a lot of money.

-Erick Broderick, author of Scraping By: How to Turn Small Jobs into Big Money

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Changing Jobs: I know how stressful it can be to change jobs - Make a stress-free career change.

Changing jobs can be a stressful experience, filled with worry, doubt and overwhelming choices. Maybe you hate your current job and want out immediately, but you're afraid you won't have enough money to survive if you leave now. Maybe you want to make a change careers, but know the process will take a while or result in a temporary pay-drop. Maybe you don't even want to consider changing jobs because you fear that changing jobs would be too much of a financial risk right now. In the end, the urgency is created by the money. And it is the urgency that creates the stress.

I was recently in this position. I hated my full time job last year and wanted OUT immediately. I was so burnt out from doing real estate rental sales. I quit because the money I was bringing in was far below the personal toll it took on my time, energy and social life. However, I did had no idea what I wanted to do for work. Getting into another unfulfilling job was the last thing I wanted. So I set out to find a way that I could make enough money to survive without having to commit to a full-time job until I was certain that it was what I wanted. To discover what I truly wanted to do for work, I also wanted to have ample free time to reflect on what I truly desired to do full-time.

So I had four wants: to make enough money to live comfortably, to have ample free time to figure out what I really wanted to do for work (and to apply to jobs), to avoid committing to any full-time position until it was sure it was what I really wanted, and, if possible, to build my resume so that I could get the best position possible when I interviewed. How did I solve this problem?

The simple answer is that I created a system of working multiple easy, high-paying part-time jobs. I wanted to work easy jobs so that I would be able to stay relaxed, even while I was working. But I needed the jobs to be high-paying, since I live in Boston, one of the most expensive cities in the nation. To fulfill these wants, I needed to find jobs that would fill these requirements, otherwise I would be no better off than when I was working my awful full-time job.

Unfortunately, part time jobs often do not build resumes - so I also needed to solve this problem. My solution was figuring out the fastest possible track to get promotions to management positions in these part time jobs. That way, I would be gaining management experience, which is an excellent resume builder.

Working part time granted me the ability to choose my schedule, all the time. I could interview whenever I wanted. I could take extended vacations if I felt like it. And, if I wanted a lot of money at the moment, I could work a ton of hours and bring in a huge paycheck for that week.

It requires discipline and mindfulness, but it is able to meet all my requirements. I was able to work easy jobs and make great money. In fact, over the course of last year I made almost $40,000 working only an average of 24 hours a week doing only part time jobs. It is possible.

I wrote my book, Scraping By: The Smart Way to Turn Small Jobs into Big Money, to outline exactly that process. Through a lot of trial and error, I was able to perfect a system that kept me well-paid and relaxed. In fact, I loved these jobs. They were easy jobs, my co-workers were tons of fun and I was able to gain great management experience.

To read about my system, go to www.scrapingbysmart.com. I detail exactly what I did to make great money with high-paying, easy part time jobs, as well as ways to save money, bargain shopping and all sorts of tips to live well between full-time jobs.

-Erick Broderick

Friday, March 16, 2007

Earn great money without sales, commission or tips. $15-$30 per hour!

I bet you're checking out this ad because you want more money in your life. Maybe you need it. And making money can be a real struggle, especially if you don't know what are your best options.


"Scraping By" is my new eBook. It teaches you all about how to make money in high paying, enjoyable, easy part time jobs, without working for tips, sales or commission. Learn ways to bargain shop on everything you buy: clothes, groceries, electronics, furniture and more.


I know all sorts of people busting their butts as salesman and waitresses - they hate their jobs and they sacrifice their personal lives to work these terrible jobs. Worse - when you average out how much money most of those people are making, it's pretty pitiful (even really great waiters/waitresses earn an averages of only $13.50 per hour!!!). Don't be a sucker - you should be paid a guaranteed amount of money per hour for your work. It's what you deserve.If you're not earning at least $15-$30/hour for your part-time job (or even full-time job, for that matter) - it's time for you to get the money you deserve. Stop working for less than you're worth.

Now you have a chance to get the best part time jobs!

To get Scraping By, click here!

-Erick Broderick

P.S. Yes, I am promoting my book. I know there are a lot of other guys on the internet pushing products that promise you big money, savings, your wildest dreams, etc. I am not those guys - I want you to know that I am extremely accessible and want to guide you to success - e-mail me, send me questions/comments on my blog and participate in my online forum. It is my mission to help get you the money you deserve.