Go for those Samples

Sorry for the delay in posts these few days. My family has a stomach bug working its way through our house. It started with the baby, then with me, and is currently working on my poor hubby. So, of course, he has no hope of trying to get his 40 hours in this week, since he already has mandatory Mondays off and had to take today off. Thank heavens we haven't touched his vacation days yet (he only has seven to begin with, now we're down to six). Fun times! I'm really hoping it will stop with him, and spare our other three children. We can hope, right?

Anyway, to the point of today's tip: how to get free samples. Today I went to check the mail and to my delight I found that General Mills had sent me a whole box of FiberOne Granola Bars. I didn't pay a cent for it, nor the bunch of coupons for $1.35 off one box. I'm to give these coupons to family and friends (no problem) and try the product for myself. The best kind of new product to try is a free one, in my opinion. It just so happens, too, that I'm already familiar with FiberOne and buy those products for our household anyway.

I am also likely to receive more products/coupons like this in the future, too. How did I get this deal? It was easy, and didn't cost a cent. I joined Pssst. This is a word of mouth networking program designed to get the word out there for new products. I'm more than willing to do that if it means I get some perks. I'm always up for some freebies, and also another way to save money on my food budget.

If you're interested in joining you can go to their website. It's entirely free and all you have to do is answer a few questions. I assume this is so they have a better idea of what kind of products you use, and how you can help them get the word out. Anyway, I say it's entirely worth my time, especially since it requires so little.

If you're interested in looking for other freebies you can go to Freebies4mom, Freeflys and Sweeties Swag. Who says you can't get something for nothing? Check it out for yourself!

I Saved Money!

In my mission to cut the bottom line of my budget by lowering my bills, I'd say: Mission Accomplished! My budget plan for my gas bill came and they lowered my payment by $14 a month. I honestly think it will end up going even lower, but I'm happy to see it go down at all.

I also called my motor club company to cancel my benefits and they said if I kept it they would cut my payment 35%, so that was a win, too. They told me if I registered on their website, they even had discount offers for companies I'm already using, so I plan to look further into that to save more money. By the way, I use Allstate Motorclub, and have been with them for six years. I've successfully used the benefits they offer on a few occasions (flat tire once and my car broke down at the grocery store the other time--both times hubby was out of town!).

I already told you that I cut my phone and internet bill by switching to Comcast. I wasn't too happy with my first week of service because they kept having outages (I'm told that's rare). So I called in after the third one in a week and complained (nicely) and they credited my account for my first week of service! It can really pay to let companies know you're unsatisfied.

On that note, when I called to cancel my service with Qwest, they offered to give me six free months of internet if I stayed with them. I chose not to, but they said if I changed my mind at a later date they would offer me some good promotions. We shall see how Comcast does with my service for now, but it's good to know that I can get a good deal if it doesn't work out. See? Playing your company against their competition can save you money, too!

So, all-in-all I'd say I've had a successful time cutting down our spending. I'm not done yet, but I thought I'd let you know my progress and encourage you to do the same. We can make it through this hard economy!

If you're looking for ways to cut down on your grocery bill, you can read my article on Ehow. You can also check out the links I have on this page (toward the bottom) that will take you to coupon and freebie sites.

I wish you all the best of luck on lowering your bottom line. Now go save some money!

Scams and more scams

As cautious as I am, I suppose even I miss things. I decided to look further into the company I mentioned to you all not too long ago. It was called My-Data-Team. When I read the review, it said that there was another company by the same name who had a bad reputation, so I didn't focus too much on the name, but the detailed review I found on them.

Since then, I've continued to look into it and found another report on them on Reviewopedia. One part of that review says:

"I wouldn't call My-Data-Team.com a scam as they do provide some links to freelance resources and show you how to get jobs doing things for webmasters and bloggers such as getting paid to write articles.

They are different enough from the common data entry programs to not be called a scam but their main section on global data entry is still a training system that deals with affiliate marketing."

So while it may not be a scam, perhaps they aren't all they claim to be. I took their link off my "Make Money" listings and am going to modify my posting about them. I'm doing this because I'm not going to refer anyone to what I myself am not willing to try. That would be bad business on my part.

I found several sites that you can look up scams on. I'm going to give you the links here, so you can do your own homework too. I advise you to always check things out for yourself. Don't just take anyone's word for it, no matter how convincing they sound. I'm going to continue looking for legitimate work at home opportunities, as I know there are some good ones out there.

Reviewopedia
ScamXposer
Ripoff Report
Better Business Bureau

If ever you're being asked to pay money for something, I would advise you to go to any or all of those sites to find out more about the company you're thinking of paying. If it turns out to be legit, it will only make you feel better in the end. If they aren't, then you won't be out that money and will be patting yourself on the back.

Best of luck to you! I'm going to keep on looking for us all:)

Shopping for Money

I can't believe I didn't know about this before now. I mean, I'm always looking for ways to make some money, and I've tried my hand at many things, but it seems there's always something else out there. Well, I'm no longer in ignorance of this particular avenue.

I received an invitation last week to join a company called Shoppers Hotline. I tend to be cautious by nature, so before I even looked further into what the company was offering me, I did a search about it online. They checked out!

So I went to their website and filled out their questionnaire. I thought I was done for when they asked me if my phone was a land line or digital. Well, as of a few weeks ago, it's digital. When I clicked on that option, it asked me if I was sure, because that could possibly exclude me from being eligible to participate. It turns out, since I was willing to use my computer to run their software, I was again included.

What software? What is all this about? Well, I'm going to get paid for doing my shopping. No, I'm not teasing. They sent me a scanner, I installed the software on my computer, and so from now on when I make my shopping trips I will scan my purchases when I get them home. I will answer a few simple questions when they come up, let them know where I shopped, and consequently I will be awarded points that will be redeemed for cash on a debit card. I also signed up for the opportunities they offered for more points by telling them when I do or don't get a prescription and let them see how I use my internet (much like the Nielson Netratings Panel only this pays a bit more). Since I'm not doing anything fishy with my internet, I have no problems with this.

Anyway, I guess that if you have a land line phone then you don't have to install anything on your computer (unless you were going for the extra points), you would plug the scanner into your phone line instead. Easy, easy! And if you decide for whatever reason it's not for you, they include a free shipping return label.

Did I mention that this program is entirely free? I didn't pay a cent. This isn't a get rich quick (or anytime) scheme. This is just a way for you to make some extra money in this bad economy. It's not difficult, it's free and I don't really have to change my habits--only add the scanning step to them. They give you 40 points each week you participate in just the scanning portion.

So, I'm going to give this a shot. I got the scanner today, installed it (easy!) and completed my registration. I then clicked on their "Get More Rewards" tab and Viola! I'm ready to go!

So if any of you are interested, go fill out their questionnaire to see if you qualify (you can find the option to email them about your interest to join). Or for an even faster response, you can call this special number: 1-877-999-2949, ask for operator 10 and tell them member #041119255 referred you (They pay for referrals, so you can tell your family and friends). There's nothing special about my family (well, not to them anyway), and we qualified. Give it a shot and make some extra money from home!

Making Money from Home

Well, folks, making money from home isn't easy, and don't let anyone ever tell you it is. There are a lot of scams out there, and you have to weed through those to find the good opportunities. A lot of the working at home jobs are in sales, and I'm not much of a sales person (though I could be, I suppose, if I had the time and wanted to put the effort into it).

Some of the work-at-home opportunities I've been alerted to just aren't feasible for me with four very noisy little ones at home. But I'll pass on the information to you. These are call center jobs you do from home. They used to be sent overseas, but these companies realized they could still save money by letting people do these jobs from home.

The time is dedicated, so you can't have a lot of background noise going on while you do it (exactly the reason why I can't do it). Apparently you can set your own hours, so that's a real plus. I guess if I wanted to go to bed later, or get up earlier, I could do this, but I really value the little sleep I get with a baby in our home! Haha

Here's the links to those sites (thank you to Jody Connolly, for sending them my way):

Alpine Access
LiveOps
Arise
West at Home


On another note, I've made a few bucks off the survey sites (you can find the links to the ones I use on this site), and I also made a bit from youdata (which they transferred right into my paypal account at the end of the week.

My most promising opportunity ($50 from surveyspot for shopping at a location I've never been to before) has hit a glitch, in that I had problem with the links, but finally got through to participate in the 60 minute panel. There was an issue in the end where the link took me back to surveyspot and mistakenly said I didn't qualify for the survey (which obviously I did, and had already completed it), so I've emailed their member services and hopefully it will be taken care of. They are backed by the Better Business Bureau, so I have high hopes.

I've been checking out some of the employment websites we got at the agency last week. One that is all for those who want to work from home is called Rat Race Rebellion. They try to check out all their opportunities before listing them, but wisely caution you to be careful and check things out for yourself before signing up for anything (especially jobs that you have to pay for).

That's all for today. More to come.

Be More Self-Sufficient

Let's face it, if you don't have something you need, the easiest thing to do is to get it from someone who has it. When it comes to food, most of us get what we need by buying it from the grocery store. There are definitely times when that is unavoidable, and it's one of the biggest expenses here at our house. Okay, so we can't stop going to the store for a lot of our needs, but we can cut a big chunk out of what we spend there by having to buy less. How do we do that? No, we're not planning on booting out any of our kids--haha. But we are planning a garden.

Even if you think space is an issue that would exclude your from this option, keep reading, there is usually a way around this.

In our area, the general rule of thumb is to not plant anything until after Mother's Day--about the middle of May. We use to go and buy all of our tomatoes, squash, watermelon, pumpkin, cucumbers, cantaloupe, peppers and everything else at the garden centers. They were already started for us, and we just took those leafy greens out of their pots and transplanted them in our prepared soil.

We'd tried the seeds before, but the birds got them all, and we never got so much as a baby carrot. Instead of putting our thinking caps on, we gave up on them and would drop about $80 or so on the starters.

This year, we're planning ahead. My hubby got the idea to start our seeds inside. We didn't even come close to spending $80--It was $20 at the most, and with the seeds in each pack, we'll have so many more starters to transplant than our previous seasons that it's laughable.

We've done our homework. We're going to start them next weekend, giving them close to two months before we plant them outside (lessening the risk of freezing). We've saved up our cardboard egg cartons, have potting soil, are getting some florescent light bulbs and setting up shop on a big work table in our garage. For information on lights for your seedlings, you can go here. From what we've read, windowsill light is not always enough.

We've been enriching our soil with grass clippings and manure (fun stuff). And will also be picking up any extra soil or compost we need at the local landfill (saving quite a bit).

Another way to save with coupons, receiving email and postal mail offers, and also get gardening tips is to sign up for Home Depot's Garden Club, or Lowe's Learn2Grow Garden Club. You can even sign up for both and get double the offers and tips. We also have signed up at our local nurseries for offers and email tips. Look in your area to take advantage of those avenues.

We've already planted strawberry, raspberry and boysenberry bushes last year--along with several fruit trees. While the fruit trees won't produce much this year, the fruit bushes should do pretty well.

Not everyone has a lot of space for gardening, and in those cases you can look into container gardening, or even a garden box in your yard. It's a lot of fun, tastes so much better than store bought and gives you sense of accomplishment you can't get by going to the grocer's produce department.

So if you haven't considered doing this before now, you're not too late. If I can do it, anyone can. I didn't grow up doing this, but I wish I had! If you end up growing more than you can possibly use, then you can move on the the next step for self-sufficiency and start canning your harvest!

Happy Growing!

*The links in this post are not advertising, but will take you to more information on the topics that are highlighted.

Free Samples and Advertising

So I found out about a really cool program last night. This program is beneficial for both those just looking for ways to save and make money and get stuff for free, and also for you blog/website owners looking to generate more income. I put all the ads down below here so you wouldn't have to search for them.

First, about the free stuff. You just follow the links to the sponsors and they will give you free samples of their products:








There were so many offers to choose from, I couldn't possibly list them all here. If you have any in particular deals you are looking for, let me know and I'll be happy to check for you.

Now for the money-making opportunities:





Now you site owners are probably all wondering where I got all these, and there were many to choose from. I got them all from Logical Media. I was approved as an affiliate for them and now have access to more offers for my readers and also more revenue for me! They also pay for referrals, if you sign up with them.

So get busy saving and making money!

Another Way to Make a Little Money

I found another way to make a little cash from home, using your computer. If you have an email account and a cell phone with text messaging service, then you qualify to take part. The company's name is YouData (youdata.com). When you sign up with them you are given ads to look at, and paid for each one. You don't have to follow through with any of the offers, just look at them and you get paid. They give you a referral link so you can make money off of others signing up under you, too. It's not a whole lot of money, but any little bit helps and it only takes minutes to make a couple dollars.

To make things even easier, they also offer an email template, with much of the information I have here, for you to send to your friends and family to sign up under you. There's nothing to lose here.

By creating a MeFile at YouData.com, I now control what ads I see and when I see them. I can even put their widget on my desktop so I don't have to login to their site to see the ads I'll be paid for looking at. I can use the funds to buy music and video online, donate to charities, give to my favorite blogs and websites, or keep the change myself and do whatever I want with it.

It's real. They pay. You should check it out.

Click this link to sign up. My MeFile ID, nell79, in the "Referral Code" will tell them I sent you.

http://www.youdata.com/join/nell79


You should also know that they have excellent customer service. When I had trouble receiving the activation code via text message, I let them know and they worked quickly and efficiently to set my account up. I'd say this one is definitely worth your time to check out.

Take care!

Get the Word out

I promised I would share more of what we learned at the employment agency, and I intend to keep my word. She asked if my husband had done any networking. My ears immediately perked up because I've become very familiar with that term over the last few weeks. After all, it's the key to becoming a successful blogger and making a good living off the internet.

Of course, it would apply to a regular job too. It was another "oh, duh" moment. It makes sense that if you have experience and expertise in a certain area, and you're in need of work, that you would get the word out to others in that area. Our close friends and family all know what's going on, but we never thought of telling them, or anyone else for that matter, that my husband was looking for more work and would love for them to spread the word.

If you want to be successful in any business and you are looking to make money, you can't do that by being quiet and accepting things as they are. At most, we get what we ask for out of this life. If you work hard and ask for more, you're more likely to get it than someone who doesn't ask, right?

Anyway, make sure if you're looking for work, that you let friends, family, neighbors and even people from your church know that you are. This keeps more eyes looking and can produce more results for you than you'd get on your own. It's especially important that you connect with people in the same field as you're in so that they can let you know of available jobs too.

As for you blog/site owners, make sure you're networking too. Search out sites that are similar to yours. Connect with the owners and see about doing link exchanges. Make sure you're also connecting with people who would be your audience. Forums are a good place to start with this. One of my favorite places to network and do traffic exchange is LinkReferral.

Now get out there and spread the word:)

$50 Walmart Giveaway

It seems a fellow blogger is looking to pass some of her good fortune on to someone else. This mommy and her family are being featured in March's Redbook in an article to do with coping in this recession. This is definitely a topic affecting so many of us and should be a good read. She's offering a $50 Walmart giftcard to one lucky subscriber of her blog. She also offers a second entry to those who will link to her site about this offer. I just thought I'd pass this along to all of you! If you're interested, just click on the title of this post and it will take you straight to her site.