20 Smart Things to Do with $20
After you switch to Shield Security Systems of KC~
Today, everyone is looking for a way to save money, that sometimes means making sacrifices.
However, when you switch your Business or Home Security System monitoring to Shield Security Systems of KC, you won't be sacrificing anything yet still be afforded an average of $240+ per year in savings!!
*If you are paying more than $21.95 per month~
you are paying too much!!*
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Unfortunately, ADT does not honor their side of the 3 year contract by raising customers rates without permission or notification!
We find this unacceptable at Shield Security of KC.
Most ADT Landline Customers signed up at a monitoring rate of $35.99. By the time their 3 year contract is complete, their monthly rates have increased to over $45, on average. I've seen some rates as high as $65+ per month!!
Stop giving ADT your money and put that $240+ a year savings to good use. This averages out to be $21+/- per month in immediate savings one realizes upon switching to us.
I find that I’m usually much happier if I am able to save my family money without having to compromise. Now, I am elated if I can then turn that $20 bill into something that lasts, something that stretches out into even more savings (and perhaps some saved headaches) down the road!
That is why I am reaching out to all of the Kansas City Metropolitan (and surrounding areas) neighbors I can, to let them know these savings can be theirs- without any hassles, long term contracts, credit checks or sacrifice to their 24/7/365 Monitoring Service!
OPTION #1
OPTION #2
NEW EQUIPMENT OPTIONS
It's really a no brainer, when you think of it like that. Plus it's a seemless, hassle free transition; that I oversee every step of the way for you. We use an electronic signature system for our customers convenience and ease, while providing you with your own signed copy immediately for your reference.
20 Smart Things to Do with $20
Add to Your Emergency Fund
During our big financial turnaround, one of our biggest milestones was building up a healthy emergency fund. Our target was to have six months of living expenses sitting in a savings account.
How did we get there? Being careful with our spending was one big part of it, but another part was adding these little $20 windfalls to the pot when we would find them.
If you stick that $20 bill into your emergency fund, you’ll probably forget all about it tomorrow. However, in a few months, when a real emergency happens – you suddenly need to fly to New York to visit a very ill friend, for example – that $20 bill will be there for you to help make that emergency easier.
Not only that, it will earn a little bit of interest while it waits for your emergency.
I consider money put aside like that to be a gift to my future self, arriving exactly at a moment when I will really need it.
Start a Business
(Youtube videos, for example)
Believe it or not, $20 can be the seed money for a number of businesses.
Want to start your own website? $20 will pay for the domain name and for a few months of hosting.
Want to start making Youtube videos? $20 can pay for some of the material you might need for your first few videos.
Want to start a lawn care business? $20 can buy you the first batch of gas you’ll need.
Take that $20, add a bunch of your own effort, and you can turn it into a lot of money.
Buy Some Flowers
Every once in a while, I’ll take $5 to the local florist and buy a handful of seasonal flowers to decorate our home with.
They’ll usually last just a week, but during that week they contribute a splash of bright color and some wonderful scents to our home. They liven up our dinner table in a fresh and vibrant way.
With a found $20, I can do this four times. I can get a few tulips for a springtime table, some lilacs in the late spring, a few cornflowers and daisies for the hotter months of the year, and a few asters in the fall.
If you’re feeling self-conscious about having guests over, flowers in a vase on the table can add a great deal to any room, making it feel much more comfortable and inviting.
It takes just a touch of color and freshness to make a real difference to the interior beauty of your home. Flowers can provide just the right touch.
Directly Help a Person in Need
How about paying your luck forward, particularly if you don’t need it right now? If you keep your eyes open, you’ll see lots of opportunities right in front of you to put that money to good use.
If you see someone struggling with being able to afford their purchase at the grocery store, slip that $20 bill to them to help out. Tell them that you’re just paying forward a good deed.
Perhaps you’ll see a homeless person who looks hungry. Buy that person a sandwich and bring it back to them so they can have the joy of a full belly.
Maybe you’ll be blown away by the skill of a street musician. Put that $20 bill in their case or buy that person’s CD.
There are many opportunities for you to turn that small windfall into a real life-changer for someone else. Pay the good fortune in your life forward to them, and encourage them to keep paying it forward.
Detail Your Car
Is your car a little dirty, inside and out? Does it make you feel a bit embarrassed to have someone ride with you? Do you just feel more positive when you get in your car and it’s nice and shiny and feels new(er)?
You should take that $20 and use it for some auto detailing. Pick up some car surface cleaner and a few rags, then head down to the local car wash.
Take the remainder of your $20 and pay for a car wash, then drop some quarters in the vacuum and give the interior of your car a good cleaning. Use the rags and the surface cleaner to make the inside sparkle a little.
It only takes half an hour or so to transform a drab and dirty car to one that looks quite nice on the inside and the outside. It might give you the motivation to do something like get involved in a carpool now that you have a beautiful and presentable car.
If nothing else, it might just lift your spirits a little at the start of each work day, at least for a while.
Give to a Charity
This kind of goes hand in hand with the earlier suggestion of directly paying it forward to people you see that are in need of help, but instead of doing it directly, you’re giving aid to an organization that can, in theory, pool resources and do it even better.
If you find a place to donate some school supplies so a kid has pencils and notebooks, buy a few and drop them in the container.
If you see a donation box for the local food pantry, slip that $20 bill in there. It’ll buy a poor family some food.
If you’ve always thought about giving some money to a particular charity but always backed away, don’t back away any more. Write a check for $20, mail it in, and put that $20 bill into your account to cover the check.
Not only will you help out some people that really need the help, you’ll feel pretty good about doing it, too. Giving to charity invariably lifts my spirits.
Get a Rechargeable Battery Starter Kit
We have a number of devices around our home that rely on AA and AAA batteries, from children’s toys to remote controls. It doesn’t take long for the cost of those batteries to really add up, and that’s when rechargeable batteries come in handy.
If you start off with only a certain type of rechargeable batteries with that starter kit, then just keep buying those when you need more and recharging them when they get old, you’ll soon reach a point where you never run out of batteries. Whenever something runs out of charge, you just take out the batteries, toss them on the charger, then grab some fresh ones out of the drawer.
It’s a pretty sweet system, but it takes time and there’s a lot of money involved. You can get started with a $20, however, by buying a starter kit that includes a few batteries and a charger.
Our preferred rechargeable batteries are eneloop batteries, and you can get a charging pack and four AA eneloop batteries for $20 over at Amazon.
After that, whenever you need new batteries, just buy eneloops. When you switch out batteries and see eneloops, stick them on the charger and then toss the charged ones back in your battery drawer. You’ll never run out of batteries again.
Go on a Field Trip (and Take Your Kids)
(tickets to a museum or zoo)
Want an easy way to spend a great day with your family (or just by yourself)? Go to a local museum or a zoo.
$20 is usually enough to get an adult and a couple of kids in the door. If you have a backpack, put some drinks and a meal in there so you can eat while you’re touring the place (obviously, check the restrictions of the place you want to visit). If you can, look for coupons or discounted days to visit.
A day at the museum or at the zoo can provide a ton of family time and can provide some learning opportunities, whether you’re with your family or by yourself.
We usually pencil in at least one museum visit and one zoo visit per summer and a $20 bill will pay for a significant portion of that visit.
Buy a LED Lightbulb (or Three)
Going forward, LED lightbulbs simply going to be the most cost-effective solution for lighting your home. Modern LED bulbs last twenty times as long as incandescent bulbs and use only a small fraction of the power. I’ve been using LED bulbs in my office for years and I’ve yet to se one fail.
Still, they’re expensive. The idea of spending $8 or $10 or $20 on a single light bulb seems painful to many people and for good reason – we’ve become used to the idea of cheap light bulbs.
Over the course of the lifetime of an LED bulb, however, you’ll typically save $100 over the cost of using a similar incandescent bulb. That’s because you’ll need to buy 20 incandescent bulbs instead of one LED bulb, plus they’ll gulp down more energy, too.
Use that $20 to buy one or two LED bulbs and install them in your home in appropriate sockets. Your savings begins immediately with lower energy bills and, over time, you’ll save due to not having to buy replacement bulbs.
It’s a simple step that many people avoid because of the up-front cost – but that $20 bill makes that up-front cost disappear.
Visit a Thrift Store (My FAV!)
Walk into a thrift store with a list of things that you actually need around your home and a $20 bill and there’s a good chance that you’ll mark at least a thing or two off that long list – and you’ll get it at a steep discount.
When you find a little cash, you’ve found a perfect opportunity to hit the local Goodwill or secondhand store and see if there are any items there that can fill the little nagging needs around your home. Perhaps you need a replacement picture frame or a new toaster and you’ve been putting them off. You can find both at the local secondhand shop.
Plus, if you’re using a found $20, you’re probably fixing that little problem you have without hitting your checking account at all. That faulty toaster problem is solved. The need your son has for a few new shirts in his rotation? Solved.
That’s the power of a found $20 spent at a secondhand store.
Buy a Fan
On many summer days, the temperature around here rides the fine line between whether or not it makes sense to turn on the air conditioning. Obviously, it’ll save money if you manage to avoid turning it on because the A/C is so pricy, but it’s so warm out.
That’s when it’s time to take advantage of a fan.
A fan cools you off by taking advantage of convective heat loss. Air moving around you increases convective heat loss, which means that you feel cooler regardless of the room’s temperature.
What that means is on a marginal day, a fan can really make the difference between flipping on the expensive air conditioning and just leaving it off.
Buy a fan and plug it in on a marginal day. Leave the A/C off. You’ll save some real cash that way.
Have Fun!
Even though there’s always something useful to do with a $20 bill, sometimes it really is best to just spend it on something purely fun.
The last time I found $20, what did I do with it? I spent about half of it at an ice cream truck with my kids and I put the other half into my savings jar where I save up extra cash for my annual trip to Gencon.
You may not think these suggestions were the most useful way to spend that $20, so PLEASE include your favorite ways to spend $20!
Thank you~
Tiffany Saunders
(913) 333-9335 Mobile
Thank you~
Tiffany Saunders
(913) 333-9335 Mobile
