The 256 page book could not have come out at a better time, given the economy, and the relevance to 9.8% of Americans (and counting).

Taking from the skills undoubtedly sharpened over the last 18 books they wrote, Brad and Debra take a step by step, detailed look into how one can harness the power of social networking specifically to land a job or freelance work.

The book is broken into wisely chosen sections that allow for easy review at a later date, and feature dozens and dozens of snapshots of the interfaces on the various social networks, making it easy for anyone, even tech illiterates, to follow.

Each social networking site covered has the following pieces of information:

• What is the site?
• How do I setup a profile on the site?
• What can the site do for me?
• What niche uses are there for the site?

To provide a bunch of perspectives on that last question, the book integrates a lot more outside advice than you usually find in “how to” books, which I found refreshing.

In addition to the instructive content of the book, Brad and Debra interviewed a dozen or so people who have found success through LinkedIN, Twitter, and so on. I consider myself very fortunate to have been selected among that group, and I offered advice on using LinkedIN to accomplish everything from targeting prospects for sales, all the way to sharing your blog with the 35 million users on the site for massive exposure.

All in all, I think that anyone who has been out of the job search market in a long time, or just got out of college and is looking to start their career will find this book clear, interesting, and encouraging during a time when many people need it!

The OpenOffice.org project is sponsored by Sun Microsystems, which is the primary contributor of source code to the Project. Other major contributors include Novell, RedHat, RedFlag CH2000, IBM, and Google.

Additionally, over 450,000 people from nearly every part of the globe have joined this benevolent Open-Source Project with the idea of creating the best possible office suite that everyone can use.

Cut Costs

In the current economy, the entrepreneurial spirit has been challenged in many new ways. Small businesses simply cannot afford to spend money on highly priced software programs, so out of this struggle and need the open-source software movement has begun.

Am I impressed with the results of this movement?

Yes, and it is because great open-source programs like Open Office allow businesses to harness the power of the suite so that they can work toward their own business goals, in all of its steps. The path of the entrepreneur is demanding and so entrepreneurs need to make wise choices as they grow their businesses.

As a Technical Writer, I see software documentation work its way from Project Management through System Design, Programming, Testing, Implementation and Training. So, all these departments depend upon a quality Business Office Suite that can work with diverse file formats and diverse kinds of documents. Open Office can handle all of this easily.

Do you know the cost of a single user license of Microsoft Word?

Well, let us just say that it is well over $100 per person. So, if you have a company of 50 people, do the math: that comes out to a software investment of $5000 just for word processing. This is way too expensive, especially for entrepreneurs who need to spend their money on product development and marketing.

Compatibility

If the same company downloads copies of Open Office for each employee or contractor, they will save big money, pure and simple. Also, Sun Microsystems and its collaborators have done their very best to ensure compatibility of Open Office with both Linux and Windows Operating Systems.

Full Suite of Options

Open Office has all programs that comprise the Microsoft Office Suite: Word Processing (Writer), Spreadsheets (Calc), Database Management (BASE), and Presentations (Impress). It also comes with a simple program for graphics call Draw. So, whether the entrepreneur at hand is developing specification documents, financial spreadsheets, or a critical presentation for financiers, he or she can rest assured that Open Office will come through and meet his or her expectations for Business Productivity software that really shines and that is free and backed by those who are dedicated to the Open-Source software movement.

Entrepreneurship need not be a scary word, especially if the entrepreneur is aware of the range of possibilities that exist out there in the marketplace that will enable him or her to grow a business, and able to rely on quality software programs backed by developers with integrity.

This has been a Guest Post by my good friend and expert technical writer:

Keith Johnson, M.S. Education
Technical Writer & Documentation Specialist
Great Documents Dot Net

When President Obama unveiled Cash For Clunkers, a government program to trade in old inefficient cars at dealerships in exchange for new efficient models, many people applauded the effort for its laudable goals:

• Lowering pollution in the air by having newer, cleaner emission cars taking the place of older cars with worse emissions
• Jump-starting the American auto industry, which had been selling so few cars that dealers, factories, and suppliers were shutting their doors.
• Keeping millions of people working on the factory lines, at the car dealerships (over 1 million employees across the U.S.), and lowering the unemployment rate, a key indicator of the economy. The NADA estimates that 14.1% of all retail sales done in the USA are done by new car dealerships.
• Reducing our dependence on Foreign Oil by having more efficient cars on the road that use less oil.

As with any large program which sways supply and demand in an open market, it is interesting to look at the impact of the program to see if the results actually match the goals, as well as find out if the hidden unintended consequences of the program outweigh the advertised benefits of it. Let’s go through this by focusing on the various players in the show:

New Car Dealers

Cash For Clunkers came to a close a few weeks ago, after almost 700,000 old cars were taken out of the commission.  Dealers submitted rebate applications for $2.88 billion, which fell just shy of the $3 billion congress allotted for the program.

While dealers reported heavy foot traffic in their stores, they also weren’t getting their rebates from the Department of Transportation right away. This means that dealers, who already have significant cash-flow issues in this economy due to high payrolls, large leases, big mortgages, and floor-plan financing could now add one more item onto that list: being out $3,500 - $4,500 per Cash For Clunkers trade-in until the government pays them back (which has been a slow tedious process).

Indeed, some dealers were so concerned with the slow process of reimbursement that they stopped offering Cash For Clunkers trade-ins early. Ask yourself, if this program was so successful for New Car Dealers, why in the world would a dealership stop before being forced to stop?

Government

How much money was spent advertising and administering the Cash For Clunkers program? Over 2,000 Department of Transportation workers have spent time going through rebate applications. What about all the other costs?And, equally as important - how much oil was going to be saved by the success of this program?

Environment

Some of the media has already started looking closer at the supposed benefit of trashing the clunkers, and weighing it against the environmental goal. For example, the Las Vegas Review Journal notes that

If the clunker would have stayed on the road another four years, sending it to the junk yard now saves 10.8 tons of carbon dioxide. That translates to more than $400 per ton, if the deal for a new car involved a $4,500 taxpayer-financed rebate.

Under so-called industrial “cap-and-trade” programs in Europe and proposed in the United States — where carbon becomes a commodity that can be traded if a cap is set on the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions — then the price of a credit for reducing a ton of carbon or preventing that much emission is $20 and $28, respectively.

Even if Cash for Clunkers took vehicles off the road that could have been driven for 10 additional years, the carbon price is still more than $200 per ton, Knittel noted.

The National Center for Policy Analysis found that the rebate program cost the government $3 billion and failed to accomplish the program goals except for possibly improving urban air quality.

“There is evidence that removing older cars from the road will cut air pollution, but the numbers indicate that any reduction in carbon dioxide emissions or oil consumption will be minimal — and expensive,” according to the group.

As evidenced above, it isn’t “in the bag” that Cash For Clunkers will make a difference to the environment.

Used Car Dealers

Used car dealers employ many workers as well, and yet there doesn’t appear to have been much thought as to the impact of Cash For Clunkers on them.  Government interference in the market did two things:

• Created an advantage in the battle between used and new car dealers by advertising the Cash For Clunkers program (which only allows you to buy a new car, not a used one).  This means many people who may have purchased a used car now had a government subsidized reason for going to the new car dealer instead.
• Due to the economy, prices of used cars have been going up, as more shoppers can only afford used cars.  This created an inflated demand for the same supply of cars. Cash For Clunkers stipulates that the old car traded in must be destroyed, not resold.The net effect of that means that even fewer used cars will be on the open market, raising high prices on used cars even further - at a time when customers have trouble finding financing and paying for the financing even if they are lucky enough to get approved for it.

Taxpayers

Was this a good deal for taxpayers? They footed a $3 billion bill. Anytime you purchase something, you want to look at the efficiency of the purchase.  How much of an impact is this having?

Under the program, almost 700,000 cars were traded in.  The average MPG of Cash For Clunkers traded in was 16 MPG, and the average MPG of new cars purchased under Cash For Clunkers was  25 MPG. Assuming an average of 12,000 annual miles being put on each car, this would mean saving 270 gallons per year, per car.  Multiply that by 750,000 Cash For Clinkers traded in and you get about 202,500,000 gallons.  Then divide that by 42 gallons per barrel of oil and you get about 4,821,428 barrels or roughly .063% of our yearly oil consumption (since the US uses 20.8 million barrels a day).

Even when you calculate out the value of all the oil we’ll save, it still only reaches $361,607,100 (assuming a $75/barrel cost)…which is just barely 12% of the cost of this whole program.

Others will say that this program was good for the U.S. automotive sector, but looking at the best-sellers under the Cash For Clunkers, only 2 were American owned:

Top 10 cash for clunkers purchases

1. Toyota Corolla
2. Honda Civic
3. Ford Focus
4. Toyota Camry
5. Hyundai Elantra
6. Toyota Prius
7. Nissan Versa
8. Ford Escape FWD
9. Honda Fit
10. Honda CR-V AWD

Consumers

Let’s face it. Salaries haven’t been going up, and most Americans have debt. Almost 700,000 used cars have been taken off the road.  Assuming they were truly all in working order (although bearing in mind the Cash For Clunkers incentive is greatest for someone to game the Cash For Clunkers system in order to make the most “profit” they can by giving in the most useless, valueless car, and getting the most rebate for it), we now have 700,000 people who could have kept driving cheap used cars (lower cost to fix, lower insurance, no taxes on transaction) who have spent at least an additional $10,000 to buy a new one (either through financing or cash they had).

In addition to that cost, they immediately got a tax bill on the purchase, which in my state (New Jersey) would amount to $700-2,000.  Next, add in the higher cost of insuring a new car, and you are quickly seeing that there are many hidden costs in the transaction.

Now, you might say that they are saving money because of the more fuel efficient cars.  The fact remains that the average driver in America drives 12,000 miles, and even switching from an inefficient car to a new efficient car on the top ten Cash For Clunkers list would only yield about $675 in savings in the first year (assuming a $2.50/gallon cost of gas).

Next, you might say “it will pay off in subsequent years”, but right now the cash value for the cash strapped customer is more important. That cash can serve to invest in an appreciating item (as opposed to most new cars, which lose 40-50% of their value within 2-3 years), or that cash can be held in case of an emergency, like the loss of the person’s job.

Consumers tend to delay large purchases during bad economies until they can delay no longer, and Cash For Clunkers moved up a lot of purchasing decisions, no doubt.  We can expect lower car sales in the coming months, all things being equal, since some of the future months demand for new cars was “stolen” and used during this program.

Additionally, other large purchases, such as home appliances, home improvement, large furniture (already markets in trouble), are likely to see a decline in sales in the coming months due to fewer consumers being able to afford them while paying off their recent new car purchases.

Could It Have Been Planned Better?

I think a better Cash For Clunkers would have worked like this:

If you had a very old clunker, you would be able to trade it in for a more efficient used car, one which was a financially sound purchase for you, given the economy.  Someone who has, say, a 2004 model, can trade in for a brand new more efficient model, and still do it responsibly from a financial point of view.

The old cars traded in would not be scrapped, but rather keep getting traded in by someone with a less efficient car.

The net effect of this program would be:

• that more cars could be traded in than under the current Cash For Clunkers
• we wouldn’t be wasting tons of energy and trashing the environment by scrapping old cars that still worked
• everyone could participate in this program, whereas in Cash For Clunkers only cars deemed by the EPA to have 18MPG efficiency or lower could be traded in for the rebate.
• the used car market supply wouldn’t be artificially whittled down, preventing used cars from costing more.
• other big purchase industries (appliances, home improvements, etc.) wouldn’t get hurt nearly as much, since customers wouldn’t have to spend huge amounts of cash to trade up just one step higher.
• Americans wouldn’t be placed into worse financial condition by being forced to buy a $14,000-$20,000 car just to redeem a rebate.

What do you think?

Conclusion

The really important lesson here, that I think should be taken away, is to challenge proposed ideas for these types of programs to look for the unintended consequences in advance, and have an open discussion about them.  While I don’t expect us to always or even frequently predict them accurately, I do think that just ignoring them is a guaranteed way to fail in looking at the outcome of such a program on the country as a whole.

Why am I telling you about this? Because the larger lesson all business owners can learn here is:

If you want your business to be special in a customer’s mind, don’t just spend money on the areas that directly produce revenue (such as the register, the signage, or the labor) but spend wisely on other areas that your customer touches or sees (such as the magazines at a dentist’s waiting room). The thoughtfulness that goes into those areas will truly stand out in your customer’s experience, and encourage him to return.

I was at the Toy Fair in New York City a few months ago, where thousands of toy companies show off their newest and greatest products.  Having an educational rug manufacturer as a client was the perfect excuse I needed to spend a few days there.

While just having a booth at trade shows can certainly be a useful way to drum up some big business because the shows are audience aggregators, in a bad economy you need to take it a step further to get the most out of the trade show - if nothing else because of the high cost of having a booth.  Here are some tips I’ve put together in the hopes of helping other trade show exhibitors.

Be a Good Neighbor

Team up with your booth neighbors.  Big buyers often show up to just a few booths, but you can improve your odds of getting noticed by sharing those contacts and introducing them to your nearby booths.  Spread the wealth and they will thank you, and often reciprocate.

Offer Something

Everybody likes to get something, whether it’s free popcorn (two enterprising exhibitors had that idea), free promotional items, an entry into a raffle, or some free advice.

One of the most enjoyable moments this year at ToyFair was a wooden toy maker’s “Wine & Cheese” event.  They gathered several dozen people and spoke about their unique value proposition while hungry buyers sipped dry red wine and nibbled on exotic cheeses. The speaker had their attention for a good 15 minutes before even a single person left - what could you sell if you had 15 minutes to talk about it with a prospective buyer?

The tactics are:

• Offer something that people want, since the primary purpose here is to draw people into your sales funnel.
• Try to offer something that will be used at the booth, so that you have their attention and time.
• Be sure to introduce yourself, your company, and your value proposition. If you can get the booth visitor to take marketing material and to offer their card, all the better.

Unique Value Proposition

What is so great about your product or service? Tell me something I don’t know about it, and that makes a difference.  That’s your unique value proposition (UVP).

Let me show you an example of the problem that arises at these booths. My rug manufacturer client has the absolute lowest prices in the industry and top quality (a great feat accomplished by lean operations).  However, when you see the rug display, you don’t know to ask about those two questions.  They are unasked questions. So, lacking any UVP, you just keep walking by, because maybe you have a rug supplier already, or maybe you have seen rugs before, and they don’t excite you.

This shows the importance of answering these unasked questions either verbally or through the use of signage (e.g. “We have the lowest prices, top quality”). After all, who doesn’t want the top quality for the lowest price?

Without signage or active verbal action to answer unasked questions, you are missing out on a lot of business - without even knowing it.

The Social Butterfly Gets The Pollen

Get social at the shows.  Add buyers, merchants, and publication representatives to social networks, and hang out after the trade show to socialize, whether at a bar, over dinner or other event.  There are often shows, happy hours, or “parties” after the trade show ends, and a lot of business gets generated because of it - months and years later, in some cases.

A great way to do this is by inviting 10-15 people from the trade show for a nice dinner.  It will set you back some cash, but you’ll make a great impression and stand a good chance of offering your UVP to each of them, since few people run away in the middle of a meal.

Reach Out and Touch Somebody

Don’t be afraid to talk or reach out to shake a passer-by’s hand. Remember - if they don’t see you, they can’t possibly buy from you.

If someone walks by your booth and doesn’t even look at your booth, step out of your area and say “Hi!”.  What will most often happen is the person will look at you (to see who told him hi - after all, it would be embarrassing not to respond to someone he knows), and then he will take a quick glance at the “context” of that hi - the trade show display.  This instantly puts you in the running for getting more attention and sales, since the person otherwise wouldn’t have seen your items.

I did this over and over during the trade show, and got quite a few business cards handed out as a result of these interactions.

The Miracle of Context

Our brains work better when items are put in context. For example, think of how strange it might be for a foreigner to see everyone dressed up in green on St. Patrick’s day in the USA. Without knowing what the context is (St. Patrick’s day), the foreigner might just make the assumption that we are weird or greenophiles.  Show your products in their context (e.g. - video of kids playing on carpet) and you’ll connect better with the buyers. One might not see the use of an item until it is presented in context and he sees someone else deriving benefit from the item.

Add Interactivity/Action

Everybody is a kid when it comes to a trade show.  What I mean by that is all the things that fascinated and got your attention as a kid (e.g. - videos, moving lights, other people asking questions, anything that moved fast) all work in a trade show setting where there are one hundred places to look, and your brain must select by “priority” what to look at .  Adults, just like kids, love shiny moving objects. What exactly should you do? You have plenty of options - even juggle something…do anything to catch peoples’ eyes.

Follow Through

In my business networking tips post, I explained how important it is to follow through after the actual event. The most important after show activities are:

a) Take every business card you can get your hands on, and then do the data entry as soon as possible after the event so you don’t forget any small details that might give you an edge in selling to the prospect.

b) Be sure to make contact with each prospect within a week or so - you don’t want any one of them to forget your look, personality, etc. - lest you become just another faceless caller.

Got any tricks up your sleeve? Let me know in the comments.

They say that during a recession, people flock to education to survive. In that spirit, I’ll be covering topics in my marketing glossary in the coming months. Today’s topic is one of my favorite, because it is very powerful when used properly, and doesn’t require any upfront costs.

One of the hardest jobs of a marketer is to find a targeted audience for his/her message. After all, the odds of someone outside the targeted audience buying are very low, and probably not worth the communication and sales effort, until you have exhausted all likely buyers.

This is where an Audience Aggregator comes in. An audience aggregator collects a large quantity of people from your target audience, and has either their contact info in a database or another easy way to communicate with them.

Let’s look at some examples of an audience aggregator:

• Your local car garage is an audience aggregator for people who own/drive cars.
• The National School Supply and Equipment Association (NSSEA) is an audience aggregator for sellers of school supplies and school equipment.
• A pediatric doctor’s office is an audience aggregator for reaching parents.

I think you’re starting to get the point. Now let’s look at what you can do with an audience aggregator.

Uses of an Audience Aggregator

Great, so you’ve found an appropriate audience aggregator for your marketing goals. Your next steps should be one or more of the following options:

• team up with them in a partnership
• buy their list
• advertise with them

And now, for the benefit:

You can reach many people with low cost, all of whom are “pre-qualified” for something you targeted. The worse the economy gets, the more important reaching pre-qualified leads will be.  During good times, you can spray your marketing dollars everywhere, but in a drought you need to conserve your “marketing water” and only use it on the “plants”that will respond best to the water.

A Client Example

A massage therapy instructor client of ours who had been doing very well until this recent economic mess asked us for some ideas on how to reach more prospects for the seminars they run around the country.

Determining the target audience

The only people who would even think of taking the course were licensed massage therapists, since the course counted as continuing education units (CEUs). Furthermore, CEUs were not required by each state, and some only during certain years.  We knew that people are likely to push off a $380 course for as long as is legal, given the economic climate, so we focused on seminar locations where CEUs are due this year.

Finding the audience aggregators

We then found the largest massage chains with locations within 50 miles of a seminar location, and mailed flyers to each of them.  Each location had on average 20 licensed massage therapists, giving us the most value out of each mailing.  Even if a massage therapist didn’t need to or want to take a seminar this year, we asked for their contact info to stay in touch through our email marketing.

The results

The feedback on our effort has been fantastic, and the massage chains were actually happy to hear from us.  Imagine that - people who want to hear from advertisers.  We’ve just sent out email newsletters to the largest group we’ve had yet - and the client has been in business for 24 years!

An audience aggregator will help you weather the storm and make up for the lower interest of buyers, without costing you the farm.

One of the really irritating things about tires is their proclivity for developing tiny leaks.  This leaves you feeling like a Russian Roulette player each time you step in your car, wondering if this time your tire will burst.

Fortunately, my experience with punctured tires hasn’t been all bad - it led me to find a mechanic a few years back who, while having far from the newest equipment in his garage, more than made up for it with the mental equipment he had acquired through experience.

The last time I thought a tire had a hidden leak, he whipped out a spray bottle with a 20/80 mix of liquid soap and water.  I was about to tell him “thanks, but I just got a car wash done the other week” when he started spraying the tire.  In a small area by the rim, I noticed a neat effect.  Bubbles started growing and bursting at a fast rate - a leak!

So folks, next time you think your tire is losing air, use a spray bottle and some soap to check, and enjoy the confidence of driving safe.

JetBlue has always had creative marketing programs, like its customer bill of rights. JetBlue is back at it again, and has sent out a press release detailing its “Promise Program“. Under the Promise Program, JetBlue will refund your ticket fare if you lose your job (with some additional terms attached, of course).

This is an effective marketing program, because many people are hesitant to purchase tickets in the future at a time when the “future” is so uncertain.  This takes out some of the risk to the ticket buyer which is at the root of the problem for many customers.

As always, there’s fine print. The two questions I have about this program are:

• Doesn’t this program discriminate against self-employed workers?
• If JetBlue doesn’t accept the request, they automatically charge you a $100 cancellation fee, and return the rest in credit…don’t you think that should be optional? It doesn’t sound terribly fair.

Please watch as Jackie describes what happened:

Summary of the Video:

Jackie buys goat milk from Whole Foods, and the milk needs to be shaken each time before use. However, when she shakes it the milk flies all over the place because the carton lacks a tight seal.  The next time she visits Whole Foods she notices the milk carton has a cap, and has text right near it stating “Customer Requested”.

The company could have just added the cap and left off the “customer requested” label, but they are showing that they listen to their customers AND expressing that it made a difference, and that’s a great PR victory for that company.

The time and place of that label is also important. The company put it near the actual changed area (the cap), and a customer sees it at the right time to make the decision to buy.  I’ve discussed the importance of delivering the right message at the right time in the past.

The Lesson:

Next time your company institutes changes to a product or service, based on feedback, think about how you can show your customers that you listened AND make it clear that it was a direct result of their feedback.  This is sure to encourage future feedback from your customers, further improving your product.

Did you have a similar experience where a company let you know it changed a policy, product, or service because of customer feedback? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

If you’ve been paying attention to the media, you know that the long talked about recession is upon us. As gas and food prices rise, many consumers are left wondering how to adjust their budgets accordingly. Self-sufficiency skills, long seen as a thing of the past, are back in vogue.

I recently discussed how to recession-proof your career, and some readers asked what accompanying lifestyle changes they should make. Today, I’d like to recommend a few changes that the average consumer can make to help get through this recession without feeling too much of the strain.

1. Convert to a Cash Economy

Make the switch to cash for your household purchases, or use one credit card for everything and pay it off in full each month. Doing so will help you to be more aware of your spending, and make it easier to cut out unnecessary or expensive luxury purchases. Using cash will also help you with Tip #3, as well.

2. Save an Emergency Fund

Set aside money each month for your savings account, with a goal of amassing three to six months of living expenses. In case of an unforeseen job loss or medical expense, this money will be extremely useful. Living paycheck to paycheck is harder than ever as prices rise - adding a cushion will help you to feel more secure in tight times.

3. Live within Your Means

If you regularly spend more than you make, now is the time to re-evaluate this pattern. Consider switching to a zero based budget, allocating a purpose for every dollar. This will also make it easier to fund the emergency fund mentioned above, while helping decrease the amount you charge on high interest credit cards monthly.

4. Limit Your Media Exposure

The media survives by drawing attention to current events, and sometimes hypes them up to be worse than they really are. Limiting your exposure to recession and depression oriented news stories will also help to keep your stress level low.

5. Learn New Self-Sufficiency Skills

We have all been spoiled over the last decade by the lowest unemployment rates ever, eating at restaurants nightly, and having others do the dirty work. These may be luxuries we can no longer afford.

Learn a new skill that helps you live self-sufficiently, such as installing doorknobs, basic plumbing, changing your own oil, painting, cooking, and canning food. Too busy, you say? Spend time with your kids and turn it into a lesson for them by having them hand you the tools while watching, and you’ll be raising self-sufficient offspring.

If you’ve been afraid to try any of these skills, rest easy - the rise of internet video can give you dummy-proof instructions.

6. Get Gadgets That Offer a Return

Technology has always been a way to improve productivity during hard times. Don’t wait for it to happen, bring the technology into your home with gadgets that lower your costs of living, and also provide healthier ways to live. What kinds of products can do this?

Aerogarden - This little gadget lets you grow vegetables and herbs right in your kitchen. I began looking into this product when vegetable prices were climbing faster than Jack on a beanstalk. It grows your food without soil, so there’s no mess, and apparently grows higher levels nutrients in the vegetables than you’ll find in a supermarket.

The best part is that the vegetables will grow all year round. While the machine isn’t as inexpensive as I would like to see, I do think it is a good deal, and they have several versions ranging from $80-$210.

If you grow 30-40 pounds of vegetables, you’ve already covered the cost of the machine, and you are no longer subject to the rising prices at the supermarket.

Breadmaker - While there are plenty of brands out there, the SunBeam breadmaker I use is very reliable, easy to clean, and was a great price.

Why in the world would I want to make my own bread? Well, for starters, wheat prices have gone up a lot over the last few years, and I love making whole wheat artisan breads for about $1 a loaf. Compare that to your average supermarket offering the bread for 3-4 times that amount, and you’re setting yourself up for savings.

Brita water pitcher - Bottled water is a huge industry, and it often just involves selling municipal water back to us at outrageous prices. The Brita pitcher lets you take water from the sink and purify it, saving you a few hundred dollars a year, and carrying heavy bottles home each week.

7. Drive Less

The costs of car ownership and driving in America are huge. Between maintenance, monthly payments, insurance, gas, parking, depreciation, and many others, you pay thousands of dollars a year.

However, owning a car isn’t the only option to remain mobile. Consider selling your car and taking a train, bus, subway, bike and you can save more than 10% of your salary each year, if you are an average American. If you have two cars in the family, sell one and coordinate use of the car you have left. If you live near friends, sell your car and pay them a bit to drive you short distances as needed.

If you can work from home, even for one day a week, you’ll see significant savings.

For those of you who love crunching numbers, figure out the REAL cost of driving with this calculator.

8. Save on Groceries

Would it surprise you to hear that I rarely buy grocery products at full price, yet don’t clip coupons? I do this by my flexibility in eating seasonal foods which are on sale, and I make a weekly shopping list of all the 50% off items before entering a supermarket. Each week the supermarket circular cycles through various products and categories on sale. This allows me to get the very best prices each time by waiting for the “low tide”.

For example, La Yogurt’s little yogurt cups have a huge fluctuation on price, and it all depends on the week. I’ve seen it at 29 cents each on some weeks, and all the way up around 99 on others. It all depends on when you buy it, so keep your eyes open, and stock up when you find it on the lower side of the range.

Remember to plan ahead and keep track of what you have in your house so that you don’t run out of anything essential while waiting for an item to be on the 50% off sale.

9. Guard Your Health

Staying healthy is probably the most important thing you can do to recession-proof your lifestyle. This is because health care costs are no joke, with America’s total spending averaging out to $7,900 per person in 2008. In fact, spending just one night in a hospital can cost your $1,000-$2,000. This makes it a pretty high priority to guard your health against avoidable accidents, diseases, and stress. Thankfully there are some good steps we can take to improve our health without too much of a hassle.

Manage Your Sleep - Many experts note that your body’s immunity drops off a cliff if you don’t get enough sleep (7-8 hours). This is quite possibly the single best way to keep healthy.

Eat Your Veggies - All sorts of disease risks can be reduced dramatically by eating a colorful selection of vegetables. It’s a lot cheaper to buy an eggplant than to deal with the disease it could have prevented later on.

Reduce Stress - Stress is the silent killer. Look at which situations are causing you stress, and word to reduce or eliminate those situations. Like the saying goes, “it’s not worth getting a heart attack over.”

Exercise Daily - Going out for a walk or run each day can lower your chances of catching a cold, as well as improve your heart’s health. You’ll be killing two birds with one stone, because your stress level will go down as well.

These tips should give you quite a cushion to make ends meet, and hang in there - times will get better!

Do you have any tips you’d like to see added? Let me know in the comments below!