The purpose of this page is to list all of the services and products that I use and/or recommend; that I know will help you earn more, spend less, and become more productive.
I wanted to compile them all here so that they’re easy to find.
Disclosure: There are some affiliate links below, but these are all products I love. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.
FINANCES
SPEND LESS:
Airbnb: Why bother with hotels when you can book an entire apartment on Airbnb for much less? You can also choose to book a room in someone’s house. It’s a great way to meet people and get great advice on places to explore in the area. And if you’re traveling with many people, it’s a lot cheaper to just share the cost of renting a house versus everyone fending for themselves in a hotel. Sign up with my code and get $30 off!
Expedia: Expedia is awesome. They search through millions of flights and then list the cheapest ones for you. One of the things I love most about this is I can get up to 10% cash back if I use them with Ebates. Don’t book your flight without consulting Expedia!
Ebates: Did you know that you can buy things online and get money back when you do? For instance, if I want to buy something on the Target website, I go through Ebates like I would Google, Target pays Ebates for bringing me to them, Ebates shares that money with me. It’s called a win-win-win scenario. 🙂
Paribus: Did you know that a ton of stores have a policy where if you buy something and the price decreases later on, you can let them know and they’ll refund you the difference? If you didn’t know that, it’s probably because they avoid advertising it. Paribus keeps track of the price on the things you’ve bought and if the price goes down, they collect that difference for you. Paribus keeps a small cut of the money they got you. It’s free, guys. It’s a free service whose sole aim is to send you money. Get Paribus!
MANAGE YOUR MONEY:
Simple: My favorite banking system ever. Simple has no fees, an incredibly easy-to-use app, an automatized goal system, and super fast customer service. I LOVE this banking app! I also wrote an in-depth review on Simple.
EveryDollar: Dave Ramsey’s free money management app. EveryDollar is an excellent diagnostic tool if you’re first wanting to start a budget and need to see where your money is going every month. It’s also equally beneficial and keeping you on track with your budget. I highly recommend EveryDollar, and it’s one of the tools I use in my budgeting system. If you get the paid version, your transactions are automatically tracked versus you inputting them yourself.
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SELF-EMPLOYMENT
FREELANCING
Internet Scoping School: Internet Scoping School will teach you how to proofread for court reporters and how to edit for court reporters. Editing transcripts is more work than proofreading but the pay is much higher. This is an incredibly unknown niche that is in desperate need for scopists. If you think you might be good at this, it’s a fantastic way to earn a living from home.
Transcribe Anywhere: Learn from the great Janet Shaughnessy to be a general/legal/medical transcriptionist. This is an ultra-flexible, at-home job. In essence, you type out what you hear; it could be from a video or audio recording. There’s an increasing demand for this kind of work with the proliferation of video, and hourly wage is anywhere from $15-$60 per hour.
Bookkeeper Business Academy: This course is for people who might prefer to keep the books for small businesses. I took the course in order to be able to manage the books for my own businesses, and it was fantastic. I highly recommend it if this is something you want to do.
30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success: I have heard nothing but great things about Gina Horkey’s course. If you love to write, you should consider being a freelance writer. Gina makes around $4,000 a month as a freelance writer and shows you how you can achieve that as well. You can sign up for her free mini course.
30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success: Another course created by the incredible Gina Horkey. When I need a virtual assistant, I know exactly who to go to. Her graduates are efficient, easy to work with, amiable, and knowledgeable. If you want to be a virtual assistant, you can start with her free mini course.
BLOG/WEBSITE-SPECIFIC:
Bluehost: Get your domain name and hosting from Bluehost. They’re excellent and integrate with WordPress seamlessly!
WordPress: Forget Blogger or Weebly or Tumblr or anything else. WordPress is the leader in blogging platforms, and it’s the one you should choose to start your blog and/or website. WordPress is what I use because it’s the most popular, the most flexible, and the most versatile. I use the free version.
Genesis Framework by StudioPress: This is a fantastic theme/design software for your blog. It’s the one I use and the one every other blogger I know uses. Genesis is one of the most popular because it’s so versatile and affordable. Web designers love working with it.
Elite Blog Academy: Hands down the best blog course I’ve ever taken is the Elite Blog Academy. It was created by the incredible Ruth Soukup, who is a constant inspiration to me. If you want to successfully monetize a blog and know all the ins and outs, you need to take the Elite Blog Academy. It only opens for registration once a year; if you sign up for my newsletter, I’ll shoot you an email when it’s open.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing: This course was created by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner of Making Sense of Cents. She makes over $50,000 A MONTH in affiliate sales alone. In this course, she teaches you how its done. The fact of the matter is if you want to learn, learn from the best, and she’s the best. This course taught me SO much about affiliate marketing. It is worth every penny and I’d pay much more.
Freshbooks: Freshbooks is my favorite invoicing software. I used it for my first business, and I use it for my blog. You can create invoices that are customized to your brand, you can track expenses and income, and you get a lot of savings using them. PayPal takes just $0.50 per payment you receive when you use Freshbooks instead of their crazy 2%-6% per invoice they take when you don’t use Freshbooks. That alone is worth the monthly subscription.
PLANNERS
Midori Traveler’s Notebook: I don’t go anywhere without my Midori. I love it; I write everything in it; I’m lost without it. It’s essentially a piece of leather with a couple of strings and then you insert the kinds of notebooks you want. This makes the Midori so customizable and the Japanese leather is excellent quality so that it ages beautifully. I love this notebook.
Midori Traveler’s Notebook Inserts: Here are the inserts you can choose for your Traveler’s Notebook. There’s quite a few to choose from. Stay tuned for an in-depth review on the whole system.
Bullet Journal: This is the official bullet journal. Although I don’t use this journal, I do use the system in my Midori. But I know many people prefer to just use the notebook, so here it is. 🙂
Passion Planner: If you prefer more structure, the Passion Planner is excellent. I enjoyed it for many weeks. It’s fantastic for college students. It started off as a Kickstarter campaign and has been a huge hit. Everything is structured by the hour with space for notes and goals, etc.
HACKS
Airtable: Goodbye, Excel. Hello Airtable. While it’s not a replacement for the mathematical and graphical aspects of Excel, it beats it easily in terms of organization. I have all of my business files on Airtable. It’s an incredible resource to organize your life.
- If you want an in-depth look at how to create Airtable files for your small business, you should look into Terra Dawn’s Airtable Business Blueprint which I bought and absolutely loved (and check out her AMAZING post on creating an editorial calendar.)
FreezEasy: How does preparing 20 meals in 2 hours sound? If it wasn’t for FreezEasy, I’d still be eating PB&J sandwiches for dinner. You get 20 recipes you can make in that time and keep in the freezer until you’re ready to eat. Really, anything by Erin Chase is worth getting.
Grocery Budget Makeover: This course is saving me hundreds of dollars a month on groceries. I went to college without a clue how to take care of myself. The Grocery Budget Makeover was a godsend. It doesn’t teach you how to cook, but it does teach you how to shop.
Discover if the freelancer life is right for you!
Watch my 30-minute masterclass to find out if you're a freelancer or an entrepreneur!
No sales pitch, just awesome content!
