ebates + giveaway

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**scroll down find out how to enter to win a $5 amazon.com gift card!**
post your comment before 10/22/2011


it’s not too late to comment on my other posts this week 
more comments=more entries
i want to give these giftcards away!

what it is?
ebates pays you for shopping online. you can receive on average 1-4% cash back simply by clicking through this site to get to the store site. 

how does it work for me?
basically, i use ebates whenever i can. i don’t do a ton of online shopping other than on amazon.com and ebates unfortunately doesn’t offer any cashback for amazon (darn!). however, i do occasionally purchase things from target.com, gap.com or somewhere else. i’ve also recently noticed that they link to a lot of airfare websites, so i’m definitely going to use ebates the next time i buy plane tickets! when i hear of a good online deal or decide to order online, i simply go to ebates first, search for the store i’m using, and click on their link.

this creates a “ticket.” after i complete my order, ebates processes my cashback-it’s that easy!

disclaimer: ebates only processes payment 4 times per year and you have to have over $5.00 (not including your sign-up bonus) accrued before you get paid.

where’s the proof?
while i love getting that extra rebate, i still don’t shop online a lot, so the pay off isn’t as big for me. but i never refuse free money! i’ve earned $49.76 since june 2009.

another note: shopathome.com is a similar website. i also have an account here, but i prefer ebates by far. shop at home requires $20 in earnings before they pay although they do pay monthly if you’ve reached over $20.

*giveaway closed*
enter to win another $5 amazon.com gift card today! 


here’s how to enter the giveaway today:
1) simply leave any sort of comment on this post, that’s it! 
2) get a bonus entry for signing up through my referral link and leave another comment telling me you’ve done so




i’ll randomly select a winner for today’s giveaway at the end of the week! 

inbox dollars + giveaway

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**scroll down find out how to enter to win a $5 amazon.com gift card!**
post your comment before 10/22/2011

what it is?
inboxdollars is basically an advertisement service. they send advertisements via email and you get paid $.01 or $.02 for clicking to confirm you’ve read the email.

how does it work for me?
each morning, after i’ve gotten through my swagbucks routine, i click on my inboxdollars toolbar where it tells me how many unread emails i have. rather than reading them when they come to my actual email inbox, i go directly to my inbox on their site. by doing this, i only check those emails once a day and it takes about 10 seconds to click through them all. i usually receive between 4-5 per day.

these emails are basically spam and i’ve become numb to subliminal messaging. however, i’ve never received any actual spam because inboxdollars doesn’t share my email. i only receive emails directly from inboxdollars and i simply delete them on the spot.

they also require that you earn $30 before “cashing in.”

where’s the proof?
while this is considerably slower-going than swagbucks, i still find it to be an easy and fun way to earn a little extra cash. since january of 2010 i’ve earned $55.24. because of the $30 rule, i’ve only cashed one check for $33.74 and have $21.50 in my account. i roughly spend a total of one hour on this throughout the year.

*giveaway closed*
enter to win another $5 amazon.com gift card today! 


here’s how to enter the giveaway today:
1) simply leave a comment telling me if you had ever heard of inboxdollars before reading this, that’s it!
2) get a bonus entry for signing up through my referral link and leave another comment telling me you’ve done so




i’ll randomly select a winner for today’s giveaway at the end of the week! 

swagbucks + giveaway

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Search & Win

**scroll down find out how to enter to win a $5 amazon.com gift card!**
post your comment before 10/22/2011

i’m being completely sincere when i say, if you don’t use swagbucks yet, you’re crazy.

what is it?
swagbucks is a search engine that rewards you with points on a random basis for simply searching through their site instead of using say, google. 
it’s a simple idea without a lot of gimmicks. i’m under the impression that their partnership with amazon.com makes the idea the huge success that it is. 
how does it work for me?
here’s how i use swagbucks:
every morning when i pull up my computer, i have a system. 
i earn 1 swagbuck for having the toolbar on my browser
i earn 1 swagbuck for answering the daily poll
and i earn 2 swagbucks for completing the NOSO (no obligation special offers)
then throughout the day, i use swagbucks as my search engine instead of google. 
say i’m just dying to know how demi and ashton are doing. instead of using google to search for these arbitrary facts, i use swagbucks. on a random basis i’m rewarded 7 or more “swagbucks” once per day. 
using this process i earn between 11-15 swagbucks per day.
i also use their great referral system [which i’m doing right now] and read their blog which often has hidden codes. 
how do i make the most of this?
the amazon.com giftcards are hands down the best bang for your buck when it comes to swagbucks. one $5 giftcard “costs” 450 swagbucks. using my system above, i can earn about 1 giftcard per month. and who can’t find something to buy on amazon? 
where’s the proof?
since march of 2009, i’ve earned $90 in amazon.com giftcards for spending about 10 seconds a day on swagbucks. roughly, that’s about two and a half hours of time total since i started. i think it’s worth it! 
*giveaway closed*
this week, i’ve giving away one $5 amazon.com giftcard each day in honor of swagbucks!

here’s how to enter the giveaway today:
1) simply leave a comment telling me if you use swagbucks and how you like it-that’s it!
2) get a bonus entry for signing up through my referral link, and leave another comment telling me you did so.

i’ll randomly select a winner for today’s giveaway at the end of the week! 

free money week

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it’s free money week!

i’ve wanted to do this for a while, because i love free money, and i know most people do too.

so, this week, i’ll be posting on my favorite ways to get free money. 

i personally use and recommend everything i’ll be posting about so if you have any questions or concerns, just let me know. i’ve found that when you’re on a budget, these little extra sources of income can be so much fun!

disclaimer: i consider the money or rewards i receive from these programs to be free because they don’t cost me anything but time. all of these opportunities require some time, but most of them very little. these are all things i find enjoyable and fun on top of a fulltime job and keeping a home.

what’s even more exciting about free money week is that i’m giving away one free $5 amazon gift card every day!

after all, what would free money week be without free money?!

find out how to win an amazon gift card later today!

under construction

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so, i have some fun things coming up on the blog, but i need to re-construct the blog a little, especially because people my mom can’t leave comments. so, come back next week for some crazy blog craziness.

september tuition update

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did i tell you all that bryan’s debit card information got stolen? oh yeah, that happened. catching the four $70 dollar transactions that went through from florida might just be the only plus about obsessively checking my bank account-even on a saturday. we cancelled our debit cards, got the fraudulent transactions credited back to us [over $400 dollars!] and started discussing if it was time to switch to a local bank.

we’ve been using our bank back in ames for the past year. it’s been working out well, the only real inconvenience being that we have to mail in our deposits. but the debit card fraud pushed us over the edge and we decided it was time to turn over the last piece of ames we were holding on to. but, really, it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as that last sentence made it sound.

the good news is that the bank we switched to actually offers us the same perks checking account, which is why we stayed with our ames bank so long.

anyway, though i’ve been trying to switch everything over, our budget sheets are in mild disarray, but the following update is as accurate as always. and that was a long of saying that i really have nothing revolutionary to say this month. here’s the update!

total tuition for 2011-2012 school year: $9,654.00
total tuition paid so far: $2,090.00
savings at the end of september: $1,583.26
difference: $5,980.74
percentage saved: 38.05%
percentage left to save: 61.95%

we still need to save at least $506.74 this semester. i’m not super confident that october will be a good month, because we’re getting our dryer fixed and the estimated cost of that is $140. but you can’t exactly line-dry your clothes when it’s snowing. so it’s a good thing. happy saving!

question

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have you experienced problems when trying to comment on my blog?

my mom literally calls me to tell me what her comment would have been if she was able to comment, but she can’t seem to figure out how.

this is a tough question though, because if you are having problems commenting directly on the blog, you’re not going to be able to tell me via comment are you? so, please, do me a favor and email me or if you’ve traveled from facebook, leave a comment there.

dreams and things

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calculating kids

disclaimer: this post is not what you think it’s going to be.

since everyone knows how much of a tightwad i am, i thought i’d share just how far this can go. and it goes as far a dreams. not “i’ve got hopes and dreams” kind of dreams, but “i’m out cold, fast asleep, dead to the world” kind of dreams.

i dream about slightly altered versions of real life. and then the morning comes and i’m left wondering what’s real and what’s dreamland.

my dream sequence from the other night was as follows:

easily discerned as not real:
i was majorly flirting with a guy who was not bryan. i was practically drooling over him. i’m not going to say who, because there are some things in life that leave me red in the face, but it was bad. in reality, i’m happily married and as a bonus confirmation, i woke up next to my sleeping red-headed husband named bryan. also, this dream has nothing to do with me being a tightwad, it was just funny.

not real, but i wish it was:
i’m floating in water. i’m floating towards something. the something ends up being a bunch of assembly lines. i’m on an assembly line. and all the other assembly lines are full of the one thing i’ve been searching for: dryers for $50 each. hundreds of cheap dryers! i can choose anyone i want! a clerk comes to help me [i’m not on an assembly line any more apparently] and we look at tiny dryers and regular sized dryers and i pick the perfect one and i only have to pay $50 for it. can you tell our dryer is broken?

truly let down by the lack of reality:
the last dream i can remember from the other night was simply that i was driving around and my gas tank was almost full. when i woke up, i considered this, and determined that i must have filled up my tank on monday. when i got in my car to drive to work, i actually got angry at bryan for using over a half a tank of gas by driving 15 miles for adoleo practice last night. and then i remembered the dream. dang it.

i just need my dreams to actually dictate the future and i’d be set. except for the flirting part. sorry that i dreamcheated on you, bryan.

trailer park life

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you know you live in a trailer park when…

you actually pass your trailer on your way home. because even though you’ve lived here over a year, all the trailers still kind-of look the same and you can’t exactly remember which one is yours unless you’re paying close attention.