"My grandmother would have died of shame if she’d thrown away the juice from a pickle jar," says Laura Butler. "My ancestry is Scots-Irish and Polish. Thriftiness is in my blood. " As co-founder of UpLift Group, a data and analysis startup for condos and townhomes, Laura's thriftiness comes in handy a great deal of the time. "Startups are all about thrift," she says. "Thriftiness isn’t cheapness, it’s maximizing the bang for your buck. Saving a nickel at the cost of hours of your time is not thrifty." Today Laura is sharing her best budget-friendly and time saving tips for a productive home office so you can save your pennies, and your effort, and get back to work.
... moreCanva Subscription
Canva lets you design good-looking, personalized stationery like notes, letterhead, and business cards. It also has a high-quality print service. Instead of spending $4.95 on a single mass-produced thank you card, you can get 50 unique ones for $30.
That Ol’ Algorithms and Theory of Computation Textbook From College
Why spend money on a monitor stand or platform for your tablet when you have textbooks lying around that you haven’t opened in 20 years? They cost a bloody fortune when you were a starving college student so you should get some use out of them. Plus, you’ll save shelf space while increasing your nerd street cred in a video chat.
West Elm Mid-Century Double Pop Up Coffee Table
You can spend money on a desk and other office furniture. Or you can make your comfy den a command center extraordinaire. The Mid-Century double pop-up coffee table is a great desk, coffee table, and TV dining table all in one.
Wide Ruled Rebel Recyclable Pens and Notebooks
Elizabeth Geri is the retail genius behind Wide Ruled Rebel. She sells writing products that aren’t just easy on the eye, easy to use, and easy on the pocketbook. They are good for the environment too.
Dell New XPS 17” 64 MB x64 Laptop
If you want to be productive and treated like the serious business person you are, you need a productive serious computer. A couple of tablets, a smaller laptop, and an extra monitor don’t cut it and they cost about the same in total as this gorgeous machine anyhow.
Cats from Seattle Area Feline Rescue
Adopt some adorable rescue kitties from SAFe. Cuddling cats will keep you warm in the office and lower your heating bills. They will improve your mental health and productivity during crazy work periods. And they will adorably embarrass you in your online meetings, making you more approachable to your co-workers.
MAC lipstick
Fancy cameras and lighting for video chats can be really expensive. An intense shade of MAC lipstick like Viva Glam or Chili will make you look great at 1/20 of the price.
Nexcare Transparent Wound Tape
So your face looks great on camera now you have lipstick, but what can you do about wrinkles and puffy cheeks? Cat filters only go so far. The solution is clear surgical tape in strategic locations to lift ‘em up and pull ‘em tight.
Breville Nespresso Coffee Machines
Pick your level of fancy and then buy it on sale somewhere online. You’ll save $10 a day in lattes and it will pay for itself in a few months.
Stripe Atlas
Stripe has a whole kit to cheaply and easily incorporate a business as a Delaware C Corp. Besides avoiding dumb and costly mistakes with things like 83(b) elections, you get access to a whole set of discounted and free services for startups.
