A program you can't afford to miss...

Whether you are a mom or just have a friend or family member who is...you simply cannot afford not to be apart of upromise. Upromise is an absolutely free, absolutely wonderful program that allows you to save for your children's (or niece and nephew, or godchild, or just a child of a friend or coworker) college. With college costs as high as they are, why would anyone not want to store away money by doing the everyday things we already do? Once you sign up for Upromise you will be given the opportunity to register your credit/debit cards as well as your grocery and pharmacy cards. In my neck of the woods, the stores participating are CVS, Bi-Lo, Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Netgrocer. So essentially when I make my grocery run to the local Harris Teeter (all the while earning money cuz I do mystery shops there too) and use my coupons (that are doubled every single day and tripled about once a month here lately) I can also save even more on select items. When I say select I dont mean just a few; there are hundreds of items and brands that contribute a portion of their sales to your child's college education. Just a sample of what these companies are: Huggies, Cottonelle, Nestle Toll House, Fisher Salad Buddies, Marzetti Frozen Breads and salad dressings, Nestle candy bars, Snyders of Hanover products and the list goes on and on. Any of those products get purchased in your house??? If so, why on earth not let them pay you to purchase them?

In addition to the grocery and drug store savings that you get you also earn money for dining out using your credit or debit card and shopping online through their website. The online shopping is much the same as it is with Mr. Rebates, Ebates, and Cashbaq except with the money going directly into your child's college savings account rather than back to you right away. Whatever way you decide to do your online shopping make sure you are at least using on of these methods to save the most money. As for the dining out part, certain restaurants participate and to find out what restaurants participate in your area you will have to log on and enter your zip code.

Also, you can currently link your Sunglass Hut and McDonald's Arch cards to your account and save money that way too. My personal thought is that if you know you are going to be eating at McDonalds or shopping at Sunglass Hut, go ahead and purchase the gift card, register it on your account and then use it to make your purchase. You didn't spend any extra money to get the giftcard but you did save money for college. Currently these are the only 2 giftcard option available but the site does say that they will be adding more soon.

Finally, you can link your child's school to your Upromise account and help them earn money while you save too! You'll have to check to see if your school is participating (my son's is not currently but hopefully this upcoming year they will start) but if they are go ahead and link up and start helping your school make up for the budget shortfalls.

First step towards productivity

I bought a laptop! Ok, yeah, I bought it the 30th of May but I took the plunge and whipped out the debit card and bought the thing! I must say...I LOVE IT!!! Why, you might ask, did I buy it when the goal is to save money and prepare for the future. Well, the reason is that this lil baby gets me closer to my goal. I can tote it around with me when I go places and even better than that I can use it while I sit right beside my lil boy on the couch watching our favorite shows, checking out him kick butt on Monster Jam or while he does his homework. It's great!!! However, it is further incentive for me to actually do this blogging thing and do it right. The things I learn on the blogs I read are going to be used to pay for my laptop.

The things I am going to use the laptop for...

Taking Surveys
Reading emails
Doing mystery shops
Finding deals and sales
Printing coupons
Doing online offers

Maybe even doing a few more online classes (after all I did get my Bachelor's in Business Management through the University of Phoenix).

Each week I am going to do a post telling how much money I made that week (with the laptop) and how I made it.

So...how much money do I need to earn to be turn a profit off this laptop...$545.00. I wonder how long it will take me...guess it depends on how dedicated I am.

Bye now...off to get started reading emails and doing surveys tonight...while I catch up on my DVRed stuff from when we were on vacation (Trajan is at granddaddy's so I have the house to myself).

Jennifer

I have a confession to make...

I suck! Suck at what you might ask. Well, lots of things but let's start with the most obvious... blogging. You see, I started this blog somewhere around September or October of last year and had the best of intentions of actually keeping it up and blogging regularly. Simply put, I just didn't have (or make) time and honestly, although I can talk a person's head off when they are standing right there in front of me I just didn't know what to say...what does the blogging world want to hear about? Then one day (I admit one day awhile ago...I think you already get the point that I am slow lol) I read on my favorite blog here that you should blog about what you know, what interests you and what is important in your life. So what do I know? Hmm...thinking...still thinking, how about I get back to you on that one. What interests me and what is important to me? My son, church, my family, my friends, reading blogs, saving money and providing a better future for my son.

What else do I suck at? Being "domesticated". I just don't have a homemaker gene in my whole body. Cooking, cleaning, sewing, arts and crafts...all of it...it just passed right by me. Now I realize that you probably have a picture in your mind right now of a pigstye messy home...well, being as though I never cook and we are never home, the house isn't "pristine clean" (you know that clean that makes you scared to sit down on the couch or touch anything with your grubby lil hands) but it isn't "dirty" either. Now back to the statement about never being at home and never cooking, that's where the real "undomesticatedness" comes in. As much as I hate to admit it about 95% of our meals come through a drive-thru window and the 5% that don't either come from us eating at my parent's house or by me cooking some out of a box type dinner. Ok...I heard the gasp of horror now please take your hand and physically push your jaws back together. You see this is a confession, which means that I realize that there is a problem and that I need to make a change. That change is already in the works and I am going to chronicle it here on this blog. For those of you reading (or hopefully the masses that are going to start reading since I am actually going to start talking), my desire is that either my blog help those kindred spirits out there who also find themselves wanting to be domesticated but not quite sure where to start or that those of you who are already domestic divas can help me find my way to a more homemaker like haven.

So, back that that question from above about what I know...I'd like to believe that I know a thing or two about being a single working (outside of the home) mom. I need a lot of help but we have certainly improved over the past 6 years we've been practicing this whole setup. However, with that being said, my desire is to take the knowledge that I have gained from the blogs that I faithfully read and use it to continue to improve our life in the present and our lives in the future.

So, what might you ask is the difference between my blog and the thousands of others out there that tell the same money saving and making methods? I'll tell you...although I will attempt to bring new methods of making and saving money that I didn't find on someone else's blog my main goal is going to be to attempt to show those of you who might find yourself a single, working (again outside of the home) mom or simply just a working mom find the time to actually use the methods you find on here. You see, I have been reading these blogs for months and the ideas are SO great and I really want to put them to use but once I get home from working an 8 hour day at the office, picking up my son, running by the gym, grocery shopping, picking up or occasionally cooking dinner I just don't have the time. Well, I don't have the time unless I stay up extremely late or I spend the little bit of time I actually have alone with my son sitting alone in my bedroom putting those ideas to use. As much as I love the blogs I read, sometimes they seem so intimidating. I could be wrong but every blog I read is either ran by a stay-at-home mom or by a working woman without kids. Although I love the things they have to say, most of their lives are very different than mine...it's simply not an option for me to sit down in the middle of a weekday and blog, or look or money making or saving methods online (hence, the reason I am SOO thankful for these dedicated ladies whose blogs I love so dearly). I want to use this blog to not only help others but to also keep myself accountable to actually making the most of my time and resources so that the work these ladies do doesn't go to waste in my life.

So...with that all out of the way...here we go...again. This time, I promise to keep at and work hard at making this blog a blog that people want to read as much as I want to read the blogs I check out daily.

Yours truly...the new and improved Jennifer

Monthly Recap

Alright, the month of January was pretty exciting for me. I started mystery shopping, did a wedding show with my "side job", got a pretty nice bonus from my new "real job", got some money back from Rite-Aid through rebates, and will be (hopefully) getting some money back in the form of a gift card from Walgreens. Wanna see the breakdown?

Mystery Shopping -
# 1 - Market Force - $26.97 (check out the link for the breakdown of what I did to get this)
# 2 - GFK - $16.00 - this was for 1 shop at Harris Teeter that took about 35 mintes or so

Side Job -
I sell Spa Girl Products on the "side" and participated in a Wedding Show which earned me a little bit of money from January. The show was mostly handing out catalogs and letting people try out the product but I was excited to sell a little bit!!!

Real Job - I started in September and we got a "safety" bonus for the year; since I only worked 4 months I only got a partial check. $247 ain't bad!!!

Rite-Aid Rebate Shopping - $7.00 - rebates for products I would have bought anyways. Actually on one trip this month I got 13 items for $0.45 and got a $2.00 rebate!!! You can get Rite-Aid deals at MoneySavingMom's blog

Walgreens - Not sure of my total for this one but I did transfer a prescription and get a $25.00 giftcard for it. Then I turned around and used that giftcard to buy items that I got more rebates for in the form of a giftcard. Pretty Awesome!!!

Some other things I did this month were sign-up for survey sites that pay with cash and prizes (you can find lists of surveys here and here)

Also, did all my searching through Swagbucks (you can sign up here...it's AWESOME!!!)

That's all I can think of for now...

Later!

I got Paid to "Play"

So, as I said on one of my earlier post, I signed up for some mystery shopping companies (courtesy of the advice of Carrie) and I just got my first paycheck deposited right smack dab in my bank account...woohoo. Now don't let the smallness of the amount discourage you, this was only for 2 shops (I'm just getting started and wanted to "test the water" and I work full-time on top of that). My first payday was $26.97...oh yeah!!! Wanna know the breakdown of it? I sure did!

Alright, here goes:

1st shop - Sonic Drive-In (YUMMY!!!) - got paid $5.00 to sit for approx. 20 minutes and enjoy my yummy food and then I got $5.75 in reimbursements for my purchase (I ended up spending like $0.50 cents cuz I ordered a more expensive menu item...mozzarella sticks instead of fries or tots) So all in all that translates into about $15.00/hour with free lunch. Not bad huh? BTW, as far as I have seen so far, the Sonic shops have the lowest shop fee and reimbursement of all the fast food shops at this site.

2nd shop - Five Guys Burgers and Fries (again...YUMMY!!!) - total pay $16.22 - breakdown: $8.22 reimbursement (burger, fries (that I shared with my son) and a drink) and $8.00 shop fee. Total time in the store 30 minutes maybe (we eat kinda quick) = $16.00/hr and free lunch! In case you are wondering the reimbursement amount for this shop is actually more than what I got; I can't eat the "regular" size burger so I get a little burger and the cost is a little less. I believe the actual reimbursement is $10.00 but I could be off. This is also one of the shops that you aren't required to do alone; you do have to pay for the other people in your party's food but they can come along and join you for dinner while you "shop" the store.

Ok, so how awesome is that?!?!?! $26.97 in food and "pay" for going to restaurants and eating food I love and just offering my opinion on the service, cleanliness, quality, etc.

You interested in mystery shopping too??? Well, the company that I performed these shops through is Market Force. Some of the other companies they "shop" for are McDonalds, Office Depot, and Verizon Wireless.

I've done 2 shops so far this month and I have 1 coming up on Friday so this month ought to be a pretty nice "payday" too.

Finally...

So, I finally have the internet (and cable) at home again...Trajan (my sweet son) could not be more excited; he thanked God for it in his prayers last night lol. With that being said I plan (ok...hope) to really get with this blogging thing. I love looking at all the frugal blogs out there and secretly (ok maybe it's not really a secret) desire to be like them someday. I mean I look at the sales papers each week and I clip coupons; I can do this right??? Well, I can at least get started. With that being said, here is a list of the things I am currently doing to try and whip us into financial shape this year!

Mystery Shopping - I've signed up with lots of companies; some I like and well one I don't like so much. Since I just started in January I have yet to actually get paid/reimbursed so I am going to slow down a little until I get my first round of checks just to make sure it really is worth the time and effort. As soon as the checks start rolling in (hehe) I will report back as to what the verdict is.

Surveys - I've also signed up for lots of online survey sites and have quite a few more to sign up for (not having the internet at home makes for difficulty in doing all the "online" things you desire to do). So far my favorites seems to be Lightspeed Panel and Zoompanel but, like I said I have several more to sign up for so once I get back in the swing of things I will be able to more accurately report which is best for me, and maybe, just maybe it might work for you too.

Search Engines - I search everything, and I do mean everything (I even type in hotmail on swagbucks.com to get points) through search engines that reward me for using them. So far the ones I use are swagbucks.com (use referral email jennbpbc@hotmail.com please and thank you), blingo.com, an mysearchpoints.com. So far I have managed to get my mom on board with me for swagbucks and I have 53 points (and growing). Pretty good for just me and one referral huh? Seriously, if you are still using google.com, yahoo.com, or any of the others to search for stuff, may I ask WHY??? Why not use a site that you can earn free stuff for doing the stuff you are already going to be doing??? Seriously, it's free and you earn stuff for doing it!!!

And as always...sale shopping, couponing, and the drugstore "game".

What kinds of other things do you do to "earn" money for you and your family? Are there things I am missing? I am sure there are so how about you tell me and let me join in on the fun.

Oh, and I can't forget all the cashback websites! I have a check coming this month from ebates.com, I am going to sign up for cashbaq.com today and earn some money, and I am signed up with Mrrebates.com too (haven't earned anything there yet but it will come). These are great sites that pay you back for buying the items you already were going to purchase online. If you decide any of them are for you, use me as your referrer (??? lol) for that too (jennbpbc@hotmail.com).

Later!

Jennifer

Mid-Week Frugal Progress Report

Alright, so one of my goals for this year is to become more "frugal" and I am looking for absolutely any way possible of doing that. I have found so many amazing resources from amazing people online and I feel like I have accomplished a whole lot this week; so, I am going to write myself a mid-week progress report and give myself a little pat on the back. So...here goes...

Saturday (we'll include this in this week because it was such as AWESOME deal) - At CVS I got a bottle of Fructis Shampoo and 2 One Touch UltraMini Blood Sugar Monitors for $2.77!!! Oh yeah!!! How did I do it? (Unfortunately these deals are "expired") I got the shampoo on sale for $2.99 and used a $1.00 off coupon - $2 ECBs for the shampoo and then I got the Ultra Minis (the other was sold out) on sale for $19.99 each and used 2 "up to $20.00 off" coupons. I had $2.00 ECBs from buying something last week (I forget what) and so once I used those I paid nothing but the tax...my savings - $42.97!!! Woohoo...now...I am not diabetic and the plan was to give these to my church emergency care ministry but they don't need them...know any charities I could donate these to?

Tuesday - signed up for a custodial account for my son with Sharebuilder (thanks to Carrie @ moneysavingmethods.com - http://moneysavingmethods.blogspot.com/2009/01/method-madness-marathon-bank-offers.html) . This promotion "earned" me $50.00 plus $1.00 in stock and only "cost" me $5.00 ($1.00 in stock and $4.00 in fees). I don't actually "have" that money yet but I am going ahead and counting it since I wanna brag.

Wednesday - signed up for a high interest checking account (also thanks to Carrie @ moneysavingmethods.com) which got me a $25.00 "bonus" in the new account and will net me who knows what over time

Finally, some other things I did this week that I didn't actually get "paid" for but will hopefully work out nicely in the long run are:

Searched with www.swagbucks.com (use this link http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-register&rb=291705 if you want to sign up...it's FREE and you earn points for searching the website for really cool stuff!!!) and "earned" 9 points so far!!!

Signed up for www.blingo.com (use this link http://www.blingo.com/friends?ref=mJB2XJcMmUi6cDf3h9KbGY0k8Q4 if you want to sign up...it's free like swagbucks but you randomly win prizes for searching using this site). I probably won't use this one as much but I will use it at least a few times a day to see if I win anything. The cool thing is...if I win and you sign up under me then you win and if you win then I win (even if one of us wins the car!!!) How awesome is that???

And last but not least...signed up to do two mystery shops the beginning of next week which will earn me free food and $12.50...

Not too shabby huh? At least not for a newbie!!!

Anyways, I was excited so I thought I would share...if you saved something really awesome this week or signed up for something really cool...let me know!!!

Thanks!!! And goals...

Thank you all who posted to my blog asking for links to "frugal" blogs and sites! I am so excited to check out each and everyone of these and not only that; but to pass them on!!! I can't wait to look back in a few months and see the progress I have made with the help of all of you! The pastor at my church always says "If you always do what you've always done; you'll always get what you've always gotten." Well, I have always lived paycheck to paycheck, spending money on things I probably (definitely) didn't need and then looking around wondering why it was I ran out of money before I ran out of week. No more! 2009 is going to be the year that I stop doing what I've always done and start doing what needs to be done to get me to where I want to be and more importantly to where God wants me to be. With that being said I am going to chronical my attempts and "frugality" here on this blog; even if it turns out to be for nothing more than for my own personal remembrance. So...to start things off I'm going to list my goals and how I plan to get there...(you will notice that these are all types of goals...not just those related to being frugal)

1. Hear from God - in order to do this I have to open up the channels of communication. I plan to do this by praying more, reading more, and simply remembering to just get out of the way. It never ceases to amaze me how wrong things go when I try to "fix" them and how right and easy they go when I just get my hands out of the way. I got quite the lesson on this just this past Wednesday...

2. Be a better steward of what God has given me - I am a firm believer that everything I have has been given to me from God and that God will not give me more until he knows I can be trusted with what I already have. Well as hard as it is to admit, I have simply not taken care of that which I have already been entrusted with. My home, my car, my health, etc. can at many times be described as "messy"...not nasty, mind you, but messy...in need of some straightening up. In essence, if someone were to ride in my car or stop at my house unexpectedly, I would feel the need to ask them to "excuse the mess." It's going to take some work but in 2009 I'm going to clean up my "mess(es)" and treat them as if they really are of value to me.

3. (probably should be 2a) Be a better steward of my finances - Yesterday at church, my Pastor made the comment that those who have just $100 (any "small" amount will do) would answer the question "How much of that belongs to God?" as "$10 or 10%"...that is the tithe, right? But that those who are truly blessed financially would most likely answer the same question "All of it." It's just a difference in thinking...those who "have money" see things differently from those who are "had by money." Everything I have belongs to God, he requires that I give him back 10% and then he allows me to keep the other 90% of that; how generous of Him!!! But, if I take that other 90% and blow it on silly stuff that isn't going to last or hold no true value then what motivation does He have to bless me with more? I want to take that 90% God has left with me and really do something with it. Of course, I want to support myself and my son but I want to help others too. I want to really give back; I want to be the cheerful giver that God loves! This is where the "frugality" comes in...I want to make sure that I am getting the best deal through coupons, comparison shoppings, ebates.com, etc., I want to make sure that I am thinking through every "impulse purchase" to make sure that it is really "necessary" and I want to make sure that when I find a great deal that I share it with someone else so that they can be blessed too!

4. Be a better mom - don't let the fact that this is number 4 fool you...it is certainly incredibly important to me but it has taken this position because I believe that if I can accomplish the first 3 goals that this one will follow suit. I am a single mom to an amazing 7 year old; however, we are incredibly busy and often times he gets pushed to the side because of all our other "activities". In 2009, I want to make sure that I spend more "quality" time with Trajan, making sure that he knows that he is what is important to me...not all the other stuff we have going on.

5. Get healthier - well this one just had to be in there because it just wouldn't be right if it wasn't. I can honestly say that I am almost 1/2 the person I was 4 years ago. I had gastric bypass in April of 2005 and since then I have lost approx. 140ish pounds. I still have a ways I would like to go but even if I stop right where I am pounds wise I have made a huge impact on my health. Ok, so onto the "goal" - I don't diet...honestly, It just stinks!!! However, I do thoroughly enjoy exercise and plan to get "healthy" this year through it. I have discovered some absolutely amazing classes at the Y and have to "reign" myself in to keep them from completely overtaking my life. Those classes are: Yoga, Kickboxing, Zumba (oh how I LOVE this class), hip hop dance and belly dancing!!! If you are a member of a gym or consider purchasing a fitness DVD in the near future I would highly suggest any of these (especially Zumba)!!!

Ok, so now onto my financial goals (no explanations...just goals):

1. Pay off bad debt - ok, maybe a little explanation on this one...I have some old bad debt that I haven't been able to pay off from my marriage (I am divorced now) and some bad money management that I would like to have paid off by the end of 2009 (or at least 75% paid off)

2. Have at least 1 month's salary in savings by the end of 2009 (stretch goal - mid-2009)

3. Start a college savings account for my son

4. Increase my monthly giving by 5%

5. Purchase a home!!!

Alright, so that's what I have so far. I know many of you who responded to the previous post asking "Who all is out there?" have goals like this of your own and I would absolutely love to hear your opinions, suggestions, or even concerns about mine. Those of you who just stop by to visit...what are your goals?

Thanks!

Jennifer

Who all is out there???

Alright, so one of my goals for 2009 is to be more "frugal" and one of the ways I have found to accomplish this is by checking out the blogs that are out there by those of you who know much much more than I do. Believe me, I check out all the "frugal finds" daily and often find myself completely engrossed in the things I find...I simply have to force myself to close the page and get to work. With that being said, I am certain that there are LOTS of blogs out there that also have LOTS of information that I simply don't know about; and believe me, I would love to know about YOU!!! If you are seeing this post and feel that you have "vital information" to the masses who want to be frugal but don't know where to start I want a comment from you. This post is partially for me, partially for my step-mom (she recently lost her job and she is BRAND NEW to even coupons!!!) and partially for all my church friends who are as obsessed with coupons and deals as I am but aren't as experienced as you guys (and all those people who visit just to find all this information in one place...hopefully hehe).

Some sites I already frequent and LOVE are (hope you guys don't mind I promoted your sites as my favs without asking first):

www.moneysavingmom.com

http://thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com

www.dealseekingmom.com

www.moneysavingmethods.com

www.commonsensewithmoney.com

www.frugalinvirginia.com

www.inboxdollars.com - earn money reading emails, playing games, taking surveys, etc. (if you sign up use referral ID jennbpbc@hotmail.com)

www.ebates.com - oh how I love this site!!! Not only did I find my son's Wii game on ebay (through ebates) for much less than at the brick and mortar store but I also got $$$ back on top of my savings!!! I swear almost every online store is on this site and it is soo easy to use!!! (use jennbpbc@hotmail.com as the referring email for this one if you sign up too!!!)

and most recently (still getting acquainted with this one) - www.swagbucks.com thanks to moneysavingmethods.com

I also frequent www.marybethwhalen.com just because I absolutely love how candid and down to earth her posts are!!! Someday I want to be a mom like her...a girl can dream right :)

Are you a blogger I should visit daily and love too??? If so, please introduce yourself and I will be sure to come by...

I need all the help I can get!!!

Jennifer :)