3 Reasons to Clean Out Your Closet Immediately

Let’s get straight to the point. If you’re like me, your closet probably needs an overhaul. Well, mine DID need an overhaul, but I took care of that earlier today. I couldn’t believe some of the things I found in there! There were clothes that I literally hadn’t seen in years, because I had decided, long ago (in a galaxy far, far away), that I simply didn’t like to wear them! It was time, I decided, to do something about this mess. You may ask, “What is the problem with having old, outdated clothes in your closet? Sure, they take up space, but they aren’t hurting anything…?” Well, my answer would be, “That’s exactly what the problem is… they are taking up space–and doing nothing else–serving no other purpose but to take up space.” But that’s not really all there is to it. Check out my 3 reasons to clean out your closet immediately below:

1. To save space. Okay, this one is obvious.  The more crap you clean out of your closet, the more room you’ll have for other stuff.  You’ll have room for new clothes (maybe some that you actually like), new sports equipment, new books, or maybe just more junk that you just can’t let yourself get rid of yet (like that old X-Box that you never play anymore).  Or, better yet, maybe you just want some extra empty space.  After all, clutter contributes to higher stress levels, and nobody likes stress.

Recent Blog Carnival Submissions

The following blog carnivals have been kind enough to feature posts from 15 Minutes to Riches in the past week. I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to link to and review my posts! I hope my readers will take just a second to check out these carnivals–there really is some great information in all of them!  The listings are below:

• Anna from On a Quest to be Debt Free posted about How PB&J Saved Me $1,296 This Year in the Festival of Frugality Veteran’s Day Edition.
• Jeremy Simon from CreditCards.com posted about How PB&J Saved Me $1,296 This Year in the Money Hacks Carnival Aviation Month Edition.
• Mary from SimplyForties posted about Shake a Stick at Unnecessary Gym Expenses in the Carnival of Debt Reduction #166.

Thanks again, Anna, Jeremy, and Mary!

Shake a Stick at Unnecessary Gym Expenses

Are you spending close to $5 on protein shakes every time you go to the gym?  If you’re like me, then you’ve gotten into this habit at one time or another.  It’s just all too easy to be drawn toward that beautiful sound of grinding blenders when you’ve just finished a hard workout.  After all, protein is very important after a good strength training session, right?  Well that’s true; but if you can resist the temptation until you get home, you can enjoy a tasty, protein-packed creation of your own for about half the price.  Check out my delicious, and HEALTHY, protein shake recipe below:

Matt’s Goji-Banana Peanut Butter Protein Shake

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup organic milk ($4 per half gallon / 16 servings = $0.25)
• 1 organic banana – optionally frozen ($1 per pound / 3 bananas per pound = $0.33)
• 2 tbsp organic peanut butter ($4 per jar / 16 servings = $0.25)
• 1/8 cup Navitas Naturals Organic Goji Berries Himalayan Superfruit, 16-Ounce Pouch ($16.50 per package / 16 servings = $1.03)
• 1 scoop Body Fortress Whey Protein Powder – Chocolate (2 lb.) ($13 per container / 28 servings = $0.46)

How PB&J Saved Me $1,296 This Year

How I Saved Over a Thousand Dollars This Year By Changing My Eating Habits

Eating out is one of the worst things we can do for our finances.  While I think everyone should eat out occasionally (it can be very relaxing and socially rewarding), I don’t think eating out for lunch every day is acceptable; although it’s something that many of us do.  I used to eat lunch out five times per week at about $8 a pop.  Putting that in perspective, that’s about $40 per week, or $160 per month, or worse yet, $1,920 per year!

Now let’s fast-forward to today, at which point I find myself eating out only once per week.  At $8 a pop, that’s only about $32 per month.  So, what do I eat instead?  I find that Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches with a side of fruit is an excellent replacement for those $8 meals I had been partaking of.  Later in this post, I’ll explain how to make PB&J sandwiches quickly, economically, and efficiently; but for now, let’s do the math.  I can buy a loaf of bread for $2 and some peanut butter and jelly for about $5.  This makes 10 sandwiches, which, at 4 sandwiches per week, equates to about $12 per month.  This, along with a banana per day at about $1 per pound (organic, ~3 bananas per pound), comes out to about $20 per month or $240 per year.  Adding in our one day per week of eating out, we get $240 + $32*$12 = $240 + $384 = $624 per year.  Subtracting this from $1,920, we get a whopping $1,296 in savings for the year!

Change is in the Air

With the recent election of U.S. Senator Barack Obama, who has come to represent hope and positive change to many Americans, I feel it is time to announce a parallel change (hopefully positive) in the direction of this blog.  When I launched 15 Minutes to Riches, now Wealth Itself, it was intended to focus on teaching people how to launch a profitable blog, with the requirement that no more than 15 minutes per day would be spent working on the blog.

Since then, I’ve realized that this may be too limiting.  There are many other ways to make and/or save money in only 15 minutes per day, and I’ve really been itching to talk about them.  While it’s true that I could launch another blog to cover these topics, I feel it would be counterproductive.  “15 Minutes to Riches, now Wealth Itself” is a slogan that we can each apply to our own lives.  It represents the possibility of living a wealthy and financially-independent life, while still having time to enjoy it.  With that said, you’ll soon be seeing some posts that concentrate on making or saving money, and they won’t necessarily be related to blogging.  I think this is a positive change and I hope that, once my readers have a chance to experience and get used to the changes, they will think so, too.

How Sarah Palin Can Help Drive Traffic to Your Blog

CJ from Wise Money Matters recently wrote a guest article for ProBlogger about pillar articles and why, apparently, Obama and McCain are idiots.  I normally don’t like to post when I have little original content to add to the discussion, but CJ’s post was so informative (on so many levels), that I had to pass this along.  Please note that the purpose of this post is not necessarily to point out that our current presidential candidates are idiots, but to show how effective pillar articles can be in driving traffic to your blog (specifically politically-infused pillar articles in this electoral season).  Check out the post here and let CJ know what you think.

How to Build a Blog for Residual Income – Part 3 (Choosing a WordPress Theme)

This is Part 3 of the series How to Build a Blog for Residual Income.

Perhaps the most critical decision you will make in the initial stages of setting up your blog, is which WordPress theme to use.  The good news is that there are literally THOUSANDS of free WordPress themes available for use…

The bad news is that the best themes can be very popular, and are therefore already in use by a number of more popular blogs than your own (assuming you are just starting out).  However, I think it’s important to use a free theme in the beginning, so you don’t get bogged down by the details of creating your own theme, and so you don’t have to worry about forking out the money for someone else to create one for you.  Once your blog becomes successful, then it may be a good idea to go with an original theme, but I don’t think it’s as important for generating traffic in the beginning.  Your focus needs to be elsewhere for now, so I recommend choosing a free, Adsense-optimized template and modifying it slightly to fit your needs.  Two of my favorites are: