Huge Party!!

I am so excited to get to host a HUGE party this weekend. Being a family on a budget I cringe every time someone invites me to a cooking party, tupperware party, jewelry party etc. I so want to go and hang out with my friends but it's saying NO always to things like this that we will get our house paid off in 7 years. So I'm always bummed when I hear about them and then end up feeling bad, that is the main reason I LOVE hosting parties. I get to host a party through Child's Play Party (check out their facebook page and sign up) for about 10 ok we will probably have 15 moms there. We get to have a blast learning more about baby's teething, eating and sucking this weekend. These are all MAM products (check out their facebook page) and did you know how many different things they make?? I didn't! I get to give out bottles, pacifiers, toothbrushes, teethers And for everyone that comes it is totally FREE. How fun is that? I get to hand out $30 plus in free goodies. And all they have to do is show up!

Today I'm making the punch (since it's kind of supposed to be set up like a baby shower) and I will be making sugar cookies tomorrow. I have so much fun doing this and I'd like to thank Child's Play for letting me host my first party with them. If they are all this good I would love to do MANY more and maybe even get to come to some that my friends host so sign up today!!! (if you want to see a picture of what I got scroll down a couple of posts, that is not even all of it!

A freebie for my readers

Today I got I got a sample of Taylor Swift's new perfume...

I also signed up for a book club that I got two free books and a $1.00 check ... odd probably shouldn't have done that now I'll get mail all the time from them and hopefully I don't open them or they will cost a lot

I also got a NIIIICE check for $100 from one of my survey sites, I can't tell how long I've been saving for this because they only let me back up a year and I haven't done anything in the last year. I like this site because it combined two of my favorite sites into one when I was trying to lower the amounts of surveys I did. If anyone is interested in becoming a member of this one just let me know. My laptop is broken but I know I have tested several products for them as well in the last year

Ok now here is where you can get your freebieI got a free five hour energy shot today in the mail and they would like to share one with you. Just go to www.buy5hour.com. that's all it says it takes and you will get your own in the mail. :) Enjoy

Another fun mail day

Well today was another great day for my mailbox.

Justus was super excited to get a birthday card from Geoffery and Toys-R-US it comes with a $3 off any $3 purchase. Head to their website to sign your kids up. I think the max number of kids they let you have signed up is three though. We always let the kids pick out something for around $10 for this gift they love it because it is the ONLY time I will ever take them near a Toys-R-US.

I got a swiffer 360 duster from Vocalpoint.com this is a website everyone needs to sign up for they send freebies several times a year. I can't say what all I have gotten from then because I haven't kept track in the past. I guess I'll add that too the plan for 2012 also got some $2.00 off any swiffer dust and shine product if anyone would like me to send them one just let me know I have 3.

I got two checks today from a couple of survey sites I am a member of. The first was for $10 from Synovate check out their site they are only open to new members at certain times and they are open now. last year I hit the jackpot with them. I tested like 10 products for them- this year though this is only my second check so I've made 20 bucks from them. They send about 1-2 surveys a week so they will not bombard you with surveys that is one reason you don't make money very fast but to me that's ok.

I got another check for another company Mindfieldonline.com it was for $21 it says I have been with them since 2005 and made 106 dollars. That breaks down to 17 dollars a year... lol not very much. However the "problem" with them is I rarely get asked to take a survey and if I do they fill up fast I am often behind on my emails and they are closed already. I don't see not getting many offers as a bad thing because they don't fill up my inbox if that makes sense. Some companies send you 10 + emails a day and you don't qualify for any but you just wasted that much time. That's why companies like these stay on my keep list instead of being deleted.

I also got 2 more checks for Enfagrow formula these will go straight onto ebay- I made 3.50 on these last time and 5.25 the time before that. DO NOT throw your formula "checks" away sell them on ebay. Make your shipping cover the stamp and start your bids at .01 you WILL make some money.

I also got some sears photo coupons but those will go in the trash that place was such a rip off when we went last time. Hope this helps you guys make a little bit of money :)

Yesterday's freebies

OH.MY.GOODNESS yesterday I hit the mother load of all freebies. I got lucky by being online at the right time to get picked to host a party I had already been turned down for. It had to be shipped to my mom's post office for some weird reason and the box was so big she couldn't fit it in her car! She had to open the box and dump it all in her trunk. I am the lucky host of a MAM Rock-A-Bye baby party. I am so super excited to host this party since I am at the age in my life where bottles and teethers and toothbrushes are very important to me. (I may need to have another child soon to use the bottles!) I am the breastfeeding peer counselor so I know a TON of moms that have babies and a lot that have babies on the way so I am happy to be able to get together with a bunch of friends and give them stuff. Thank you MAM for letting us test your products. My friends are so excited! As soon as we opened my hostess package Karis wanted the teether open and it hasn't been out of her reach at home in the last 12 hours! If anyone is interested in coming to this party and they haven't been invited just let me know! I won this party from childsplayparty.com this is the first party I have had for them, it looks like they are fairly new. If you are interested in hosting parties one of the best sites to check out it houseparty.com. I have hosted several parties for them in the past four years. It's always fun to have an excuse to have people over.

PINECONE

Ok Saturday in the mail I got two free magazines. Fitness and Parenting the Younger Years. Today I got my little sample of toothpaste and scope from Walmart- I do believe this is the sample I blogged about in the past! I thought I got something else but I have already forgotten.

Today however I'd like to focus on well my favorite survey site. It is called Pinecone research and they are by far my favorite. Why? Because you qualify for every survey you take. About once a week you will get a household survey to fill out, these usually seem pretty random and all over the place but I have decided it is because they have a handful of surveys for the week and they want to know if you fit good with any of them. If you don't you don't get a survey if you do. You take the survey and get THREE DOLLARS for every survey. That may not sound like a lot of money but in survey land it really is. These surveys can be rather lengthy 15-25 mins but you won't get kicked out midway for not qualifying and sometimes they go faster. They are always about new products and if you fit what they are looking for you may get to test the product and then fill a survey out about it and receive another three dollars. So far this year I have made 48 dollars and tested one product. Since moving to Meade I have not tested near as many products as a did in Atwood I did change my PO box address to my street address and then tested the very next time I took a survey so Meade people use your street address to register. They are also pretty exclusive they only allow new people in at certain times this week is one of those times. :) here is the link to register http://www.pineconeresearch.com/signup/ds647.aspx

freebies

Yesterday I got $17 worth of glade product coupons.

Today I got a free product to try for a week with the family - I can't say what it is but I would say it retails for about 5-7 dollars. I am not sure what survey site it is from since I have about 12 I never know who is sending me what until they send the follow up survey.

I also got 10 free postage stamps in the mail. I work for a company that sends me mail and then the day I get it I call it in and they keep track of how long it takes to get here. They only need one person in per zipcode so if any of my readers outside of Meade are interested let me know. I don't really feel it's worth it some days it takes me 5 minutes to enter the stuff and sometimes I don't get anything which is great. The kids enjoy getting Ranger Rick and another kid magazine like that plus national geographic each month.. and it supports the post office and since that is my mom's livelihood I do it to support her. I just don't really see it as being enough of a payment but if you like receiving catalogs anyways you may enjoy it, most of mine goes straight into the recycling bin each day.

I have been pretty bummed this last week as it just seems everyone is struggling financially, I wish I could help more, I mean it's only so far a couple postage stamps or a free sample toothpaste can go. I just wanted to remind people if you don't have health insurance through yours or our spouse's job and your kids are also uninsured, in Kansas PLEASE look into getting on Healthwave. It is actually really great insurance we have had it for our kids since Kjell has only ever gotten a plan for himself through his job and to get the family on was like 800 bucks a month. If you qualify DO it. We actually make "too much" for the limit now but we still get to have it we just have to pay 20 dollars a month. I don't think you can beat that price. There are also other programs available for women and children (ages birth to five or pregnant women) it is called WIC, they give you checks each month for certain foods and that can help out a lot. If you don't have much money in savings you may also qualify for food stamps. Times are hard and you should feel any shame in taking advantage of the products that are there for you. At least that is how I feel about it.

online shopping

Nothing free in the mail today, but I did get a package that I ordered and it reminded me of a website I always check out before I order online. before placing any orders go to retailmenot.com and see if they have any specials for the site that you are ordering sometimes they won't but sometimes you get lucky and they do. Also- before you buy ANYTHING on line create an ebates account and they give you a percentage back (in form of a check sent every 3 months) it's not a lot if you don't shop on line that much my last check was for almost $7 the hard thing is to remember to USE the site... I just realized with my last order... I didn't!

Also thanks to being in the right place at the right time and increasing the writing on this blog I got picked to host another party! I am so excited it is a MAM party and I have the details but I have to get ready to go to work so I won't be able to post about it today. I will be needing ten moms to come and I think I already have seen interest from 6 or 7 I will probably invite 12 because I'm sure someone will end up not being able to come or have a sick kid or something. :)

my feelings about credit cards

Well today was kind of a bummer of a mail day. I got a free Martha Stewart Living magazine and the rest was mostly junk- but that's ok we also learned that Kjell is going to win the Publisher's ClearingHouse 100 million dollar prize just like everyone else in town. So we will be counting on that money coming in soon. ;) The biggest bummer was today was the day that I got TWO credit card bills. We only have two credit cards that we use so to get them both on the same day... not so fun.

So as a money saver- I just thought I'd throw out there how I view credit cards. Use them if you can and only if you know how. I know a lot of people who can not use them who if they see a 299 dollar chair that is screaming their name if they were a CC user they would buy it, but if they had cash they wouldn't even think twice. Those kind of people don't need credit cards and that is fine they are not for everyone. I like credit cards because they pay me. I only use a card that has no annual fees, and ones that "pay me back" in cash. Right now we have a discover card and a chase freedom card. I like it when they do the 5% back- which both of these companies do (on certain items changes every few months. ) The discover card only makes you .25% up to a certain amount if it's not their 5% back promotion so that is the only time we use it. Chase is 1% back on everything and 5% back on certain items. Here is the most important part of Credit card usage. YOU HAVE TO PAY THE WHOLE PAYMENT DUE EACH MONTH. I can not say that any louder. :) Take for example my newest bill if I pay in full this month I'm done paying if I pay the minimum I will have it payed off in.... 17 years. Never pay the minimum!!! That is probably enough about CC if you have any more questions feel free to ask.

what to do what to do

Ok so when we bought our house Kjell and I got into more debt than ever before. Some people would say "aw it's a house payment debt is good" but sorry to me I hate any kind of debt so the goal in our family is to pay off a 30 year loan in 7. (we better since our adjustable rates kick in in seven years and can raise our rate by 2% a year. I love our loan company ING because when I called in they said here is the amount to pay off the house in 30 years. (of course they are going to give that to me) and then they said- and here is the amount to get it paid off in seven.. I was surprised they gave it to me without me asking. They said well we are in the business of giving loans not owning homes so we want to help you as much as we can. OK long story short we started out with a 60K loan and wanted to do something special every time we got 10K paid off. Because we truly sacrifice in other ways- hardly ever eating out, limited shopping, garage sale for clothes etc. So Next month we will hit our first 10K off and I was wanting help finding a way to celebrate for our family. I had thought eating out at a nicer restaurant with the family but I just didn't feel that was "special" enough. So I wanted some ideas. Kjell thought maybe we should start with an eating out meal and then progress a bit more each time we hit another 10K however I have no ideas of what to do. I know some people can't post to the blog so feel free to post on facebook! Thanks! Oh yeah we know what we are doing when we get it all paid off. going on a big family vacation because... well we never have unless it was with our parents minus a trip we got to take when we went to CA for a wedding a few years back but we had major help paying for our airline tickets.

am I an extreme couponer

I was asked am I an extreme couponer and my answer would have to be no I am not. The main reason for this is that I live in such a small town that does not even double coupons (yet! I'm still working on my courage to go talk to the manager to get a double day going) and we have basically three very limited places to buy groceries at. Now would I be an extreme couponer if say I lived in Independence MO like we did when we first got married. I would look over three sales papers and figure out which places have the best deals (with coupons and sales) and then pick up the rest of what we needed at Aldi. I do not have that luxury any longer and am only able to make it to Dodge or Liberal about once every two months and so I can only REALLY coupon shop then. Now do I stock up on items when there is a good sale BY GOLLY YES!!! My biggest things I stock up on are cereal (anything at or under $1.50 a box is a great price) I also stock up when diapers are on sale. (if you are a coupon shopper, and I think I have said this before you want to Almost always buy the smallest package to get the most out of your coupon. ) When I can get diapers on sale at 8.99 is when I usually buy them. But do I go crazy, no and since that stupid TV show came out I can't ever get a tube of toothpaste anymore.

I think you should buy what you need and know what you can use. When they have toothpaste at dillons I want to go in with my TWO 50 cent coupons and get my 88 cent toothpaste for FREE because dillons doubles but anymore I go in and all the toothpaste is GONE because somewhere someone needs 30 tubes of toothpaste and that gives them a rush. Now I know some people donate these to homeless shelters and that is a GREAT idea but seeing that show on tv where it looks like people have their own little stores that bothers me. Maybe it shouldn't but I see it more as hoarding than actually saving. If I have that many items I am sure I can find someone who could use them more than me having 30 enter item here sitting on a shelf.

How does it affect the economy- well companies like it because you are buying their product with your coupon. Stores don't mind doubling because they hope you will buy other items if they can pull you in.

Some of you who want to start couponing may ask how do I get coupons- best answer if you know someone who gets the Sunday paper just ask if they use their coupons- we have never bought a Sunday paper but we have family or friends who are willing to save them for us every week. Get one or two of these people and you are pretty well set. Another GREAT place to go is to the recycling center and look through sunday papers. Somedays you will find some someday maybe not but it's worth a shot.

survey site

Well in my mailbox today I only got free return address labels. I was excited to get some cute ones from St. Jude's hospital.

One of the survey sites I use a lot has openings right now. It is usually closed but they are looking for new members. I have been with them a long time (long enough I don't remember my user name so I can't see my history for how much money I've made ) Well since i can't log in the only thing I can tell you is this year I know I have made $10 not a whole lot of money but they also aren't pushy only getting maybe 1 or 2 surveys a week, I know in the past i have gotten to try a lot of products for them. boy this one just sounds fun doesn't it.... sorry for some reason I can't find my log in stuff... grrr. anyway it really is good lol here it is.

https://www.globalopinionpanels.com/landing5?lang=en_US&sourceid=1135&cid=3661

Also another blogger I follow that I won a prize from this week so I figured it was time to give a shout out is: www.mommieswithcents.com I try to enter all her giveaways and have won.... 4 I think in the last year. This time i won a velco bulletin board. I've won a book, a whole bunch of kids lip gloss and makeup kits, a book, and some toiletries. I've never won the products I really wanted to win but it's still fun to win.