How To Give Yourself A Raise - No Boss Permission Required

by Jerrico_Usher

We've learned a lot in this down economy because we had to! Before the economy fell into the toilet we were less responsible with our spending...

Today many of us have discovered that we've become more frugal with our money, shop more intelligently, and make more intelligent financial decisions. We also discover that through the down economy we also learned a great deal about how much less we could live on, how much further our money could go, and along the way we discovered where we wasted most of our money and didn't have to!

It was hard at first but with practice we simply adjusted- it's what we human beings are good at.

This adjustment brought more than simply aggravation and a fiscal depression, it brought us down a peg to actually appreciate what we DO have. It also gave us insight into our overspending, overzealous procrastination where home insulation upgrades and other variables we never thought to adjust to save hundreds is concerned.

In this article I'm going to tell the story of what the down economy taught me, and how I feel it made me a better person, and a more ambitious person. The end of this article covers some ways you can make your money stretch.

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Penny Saved

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Give Yourself A Raise!

Increase Your Current Money's Value First...
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If their is one thing this "Gas crisis" is doing FOR people it is making them more conscious of their spending habits. One thing I see so many people doing that is ridiculous is trying to make more money, even getting a raise at work, but not monitoring how they spend the money they have/get!

If you make more money and yet waste money because your not metering what you spend for the best deal- then your just being counter productive. The first rule of the rich is not to just throw your money away. Hold on to as much of it as possible.

For the rich money is always held in an investment fund somewhere, so the more you hold onto the more money you have working to make you more money. (rich getting richer)

The difference between the rich and the poor is pretty complex but one thing is simple- In a nutshell the difference is poor people spend money (poor getting poorer), rich people invest it (money spent is money the money earned (interest)).

The money rich people invest is not the money they earned themselves- Its the money their money earned for them!

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Increase Your Current Money's Value First...

Don't Wait For The Economy To Get Better...
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We need to learn how to be more effective at spending our money and acquiring more value for our money first, earning more second.

If you don't learn the first step or use it, the second step will be wasted no matter how much more you make (lottery winner syndrome).

If people don't start learning to stretch their dollar further, especially with raises these days being somewhere in the area of 50-90 cents an hour after a year of hard work no doubt (Wal-Mart associates) then they will always live paycheck to paycheck and struggling at that!

Getting that chump change raise most jobs give you is pretty much worthless but more so if you waste your money anyway!

You can easily give yourself more money than that raise simply by changing your routine, your spending habits, and your awareness. It's easier than you think and anyone can do it.

You will be surprised how much money your throwing away and don't realize it.

If asked, anyone would say that if someone were to put up a website that would give you a dollar if they just printed out a coupon and took it to a specific store, they'd do it in a heart beat yet these same people don't use coupons when they shop, which is the same thing. It's just a mentality switch between them!

If your already going to buy something why not save a dollar on it? That's an extra dollar for gas! You can get coupons online easily for ANYTHING and it isn't hard to find them. coupons.com for one.

Bad habits can cost you dearly... I hope after reading this you will give yourself a raise!

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Look Deeper Into Your Lifestyles, Purchasing,  Etc...

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Look Deeper Into Your Lifestyle
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Below are some ideas and areas I've saved money in just by paying closer attention and changing my routine slightly. Take the amount you save at the end of the month and add it to your paycheck and see how much money a month you will now be earning if you continue to be more responsible with your spending.

You can look at this increase in value (making your dollar stretch) as giving yourself a raise. It is the same money you're earning but because you're taking steps to meter how you spend your money and doing things like recycling and saving, it will be worth more. You can increase the value of your money without depending on inflation/deflation to happen or go away. By spending smarter you in effect increase the value of your money in the same way- only self imposed.

You could see hundreds of extra dollars a month in value! 

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Some Ideas:

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  • Don't drive across town to save a few pennies on gas
  • lower electric bill. Leave central heat and air on.. get ceiling fans to distribute air faster
  • auto insurance.. go directly to the insurance company not the agents. Another trick I learned was you can get a free quote online but this doesn't mean you have to go through the agent or company that gave it to you. Once you have the company offering the best insurance Google the company and see if you can deal with them directly skipping the ridiculous "agent" fee.
  • coupons
  • shop online and use coupon codes for free shipping
  • monitor your spending, ALWAYS look online for a better deal, especially for big purchases. Do your research!
  • Don't take your car to a mechanic shop, Hire a Mobil mechanic cheaper with the same experience
  • Magic Jack for phone service
  • Always get unlimited phone service on a cell phone
  • buy in bulk by putting yours and a friends money together then split the goods using tupper ware if you have to (i.e. for sugar and other things like that) buy a big pack of toilet paper and paper towels and split the costs and the savings! etc..
  • Get a motorcycle or moped just for getting to work, use your car for everything else to save money!
  • Invest part of your money and never put it into a low interest "savings" account, move it into a CD once you have enough.. try not to spend your money if you don't have to let it earn you money and spend that! this is the trick to being rich and getting richer!
  • Your credit rating can be costing you more on everything. Get your credit squared away with one of those automated credit companies, then start building your credit up. This will get you a better interest rate when buying a car, house, or getting a credit line anywhere.
  • Recycle. I see so many people purchasing plastic in the form of water bottles and aluminum in the form of cans (from soda) and even regular aluminum foil for cooking. Dirty or not it can be recycled (you can simply rinse it off). With the amount of money you pay for the CRV (California redemption value or whatever yours is called) not recycling is throwing that money away. It doesn't take much to do this, just put a recycle bin next to the actual trash can, store the cans/foil/plastic bottles in hefty bags and once a month take them down to the local recycling trailer/building. You'd be surprised at how much money you will add to your base paycheck!
  • Pick up every penny you see and when you get home put it into a jar. You would be surprised how many people don't do this and have no idea how many pennies they see. We have somehow trained ourselves to think pennies are worthless but fail to realize that every 100 pennies is a dollar. Furthermore you can bank on this because people often don't want their pennies believe it or not.. I used to ask my friends if I could have their pennies, and I was amazed at how easily they parted with them. Again they thought they were worthless and didn't put much stock in keeping them.. It got to the point where my friends would AUTOMATICALLY give me their pennies along with a few jokes like "here's some pennies Jerrico for your collection".. In one year my "penny Jar" which was made up of these pennies and pennies I found on the ground randomly was over 100.00!!!
  • Your Ideas? Leave Them In The Comments Section Below Please :)
Updated: 11/28/2012, Jerrico_Usher
 
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Jerrico_Usher on 12/13/2012

thanks Katie :) just like in the real world work hader and act on opportunities- the difference online is nobody is standing in your way.

katiem2 on 12/13/2012

I've been thinking I could use a raise, more time off or on vacation as I do like to be moving and shaking. Great inspirational thoughts on how to get that raise. :)K

Jerrico_Usher on 11/30/2012

it does if your a selfish corporation :) Michelle had to point the satelite/cable thing to me and I was upsetttttt

Mira on 11/30/2012

That's a good point there. Loyal customers are not only not rewarded but really ripped off sometimes. It doesn't make any sense.

Jerrico_Usher on 11/30/2012

actually new customers get an apparent good deal- until they find themselves locked into a 2 year contract and in the second year your rates DOUBLE (this happened to us with direct tv), so you end up giving it to them one way or another- the savings are a myth... but switching can save money over competitors... congrats on your 570.00 savings!

Jerrico_Usher on 11/28/2012

Grow your own food

Jerrico_Usher on 11/28/2012

Thanks!

Ragtimelil on 11/28/2012

Cook from scratch.

Mira on 11/28/2012

This was a nice article. It read really well :)

Mira on 11/28/2012

Eat healthy. Sometimes it costs less. :D


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