Money Saving Methods

Do you know about Money Saving Methods? It's filled to the brim with, um, money saving methods and money making methods! My sister alerted me to this great blog this week. I sat down last night to check it out and I'm already almost $100 richer!

Turns out Carrie @ Money Saving Methods is actually from my area. If you haven't been over there yet, you must check it out. She has an amazing talent for deciphering all of those "free" online offers that end up costing us more than we get back. She's done the legwork for you and her site offers easy, step-by-step instructions on how to do many of these deals. Andrea @ Mommy Snacks recently blogged on a $500 gas card she was able to get by following Carrie's advice.

Wondering how I made some money? Well, I took advantage of three of the super-easy deals she has up on her site right now!

• Etrade Savings Account - Hurry this one ends today - 12/17! Open a savings account with just $1 and you'll have $25 deposited into your account in 30 days.
• Blockbuster.com - Sign up and pay with Paypal and recieve $25 in your Paypal account within 6-8 weeks. This one is so easy - their lowest plan is only $3.99 a month. You must sign up for the free trial month and remain on through one paying period.
• Sharebuilder.com - Open an account and invest $5 in a stock (there are many that are less than $1) and get $50 in your account in 4-6 weeks. This one ends 12/31. You can sign up every member of your family!

Carrie will tell you exactly what to do in order to be sure you do everything correctly to get the benefit of these deals and you don't get stuck paying for or buying more than you need to. Be sure to click on the link she indicates to ensure you'll get the incentive. These are easy and legitimate ways to make more money!

Work at Home Possibilities - Test Scoring

Working at home as a professional scorer can be a flexible way to make money working at home. Workers score anything from college entrance exams to K-8 and high school reading, writing, math and science. Similar to tutoring, you select the level and subject you want to score and you're given the work based on your preferences and availability.

A well-known company that hires for such work is Pearson. They require a minimum of 20 hours per week, a Bachelor's degree and a PC. (They're not currently Mac compatible.) The pay can be up to $12 an hour. They tend to hire in cycles and will hold onto your resume if they don't hire you right away. To apply with Pearson, click here.

***A $500 Walmart gift card Giveaway***

Wow! The Centsible Sawyer just gave away a $100 gift card to Walmart and now she's offering one for $500!! She's a member of the Walmart Eleven Moms and the others will probably be offering this giveaway on their blogs as well, so check them out too!

Head over to Denise's site and try to win some holiday jingle. She's offering five ways to win!

Work at Home Possiblities - Google Quality Rater

Google is hiring again! Just as I was about to create a post on this job a few weeks ago, they took it down. So act quickly! You never know when this one will fill up. This is a great opportunity because the hours are flexible. You can log on at any time and do the work. It's entirely online and the pay is weekly.

Google hires Quality Raters to rate search queries. Basically you're looking at search terms and trying to interpret what the web searcher was trying to find. Then you rate the search results that come up based on how well they fit what the search was actually for. I tried to make that description as clear as possible. How did I do?

They require a minimum of 10 hours per week, a B.A., B.S. or equivalent and a good grasp of web use and search engines. You'll notice it says "Temporary." That means you could be employed with them for up to a year. My understanding is at that time, you're required to take a 3 month break and then you're eligible to begin working with them again.

The application process for this is quite rigorous. So much, in fact, that they offer compensation just for completing it! You will send your initial application and resume. Then if they respond to you with interest, you're invited to do a sample rating assignment that may take around five hours to complete. (That timeframe is pretty liberal.) They offer a $60 Visa gift card if you complete that assignment but do not pass based on their guidelines. If you do pass, you're invited to do a much longer assignment (possibly 10 to 15 hours) for which you are given a $175 gift card for completing and passing (in lieu of the $60 card).

As I mentioned, if this sounds like something you're interested in doing, I recommend that you apply quickly. They tend to hire in waves and you never can tell when they will stop hiring for this wave. But do check back, because they do this every few weeks. I'm so glad this one came back up, because this really is a great work-at-home job!

Win a $100 Walmart gift card!

Denise at theCentsible Sawyer is giving away a $100 Walmart gift card here. This is another great site for deals and she often posts stores that I don't - like Target and Walmart. This could be a great budget booster for Christmas shopping!!

Making Sense of Your Day at Home

Working at home isn't a perfect arrangement. Last night I was settling in on the couch with our son, Jaden, to watch a Christmas special while Serge, who recently started doing a little side work from home, sat down at the computer to work. Jaden said, "Why do you guys always work? I don't like it." I gave him the classic "Well, we have to work so we have money to buy things" line.

And for us that is true. As I've said before, I work at home because we really can't afford to live just on Serge's income. But Jaden's comment fell right in place with my thoughts lately about making the most of what I'm doing with my life. Sometimes my work-at-home-mom status kind of cramps my stay-at-home-mom status and I realize that I've focused really on one more than the other.

I've realized that based the personalities of my children and I, we are not going to get the most out of our days without some kind of plan. We do not have a rigid schedule at all, which lends itself to flexibility, but also tends to find us at 4 p.m. having done nothing to speak of all day long.

I personally am always doing something all day long....just not with the kids. So here's my plan for doing things together with the kids and really getting something out of our day:

• Playtime - Doing whatever specific play they want to do a few times during the day.
• Christmas activities - This time of the year is so much fun, so I'm going to try and incorporate something from it daily - decorating, making something, shopping for donation items, etc.
• Reading - We have so, so many books and the kids really like to read, so I want to make more of a point of having a reading time other than bedtime.
• Learning - Jaden doesn't like to color, but if you give him an activity like counting, letters, etc. he really enjoys it. Incorporating something like this would be a good way to give him a head start, since he'll be starting kindergarten next year.
• Activity - Now that we no longer have our Y membership, we'll need to find some kind of activity to do, whether it's going somewhere like the library or preschool open gym or something different at home, like playing a new kids website.

Lots of people who don't stay at home or those who are new at it don't realize that it does sometimes take a little thought and coordination - this mostly depends on the kids' personalities. What kinds of things do you do to keep your day running smoothly? Are you a strict schedule keeper or is your day different every day?

Money Saving and Making Ideas - Holiday Shopping Edition

I'm back! I took an unannounced hiatus over the last week to spend time getting things back on track. Sometimes I just take on too much!

I've tried to dedicate Mondays to offering you a way to save money or a way to make money. In honor of the holiday shopping season which officially kicked off this weekend, here are a few ways to save and even earn when shopping:

• Couponing is the number one way I have found to save while shopping. You can often get so many products incredibly cheap or even free by using coupons. Sites like Money Saving Mom and Mommy Snacks offer some of the best advice for saving money on groceries.

• Check out CVS' ExtraCare Rewards Program. Here are some details on the basics. CVS offers "Extra Bucks" on certain products every week in the form of a printed coupon on the bottom of your reciept. It's basically like cash back (to be spent at their store only) with a few stipulations. With the right combination of coupons and using Extra Bucks you can easily take a home a cart full of household items and dig for change in your purse to pay the tab. I haven't paid for toothpaste, shampoo, razors or makeup since I discovered this program!

• For those of you hitting up the Cyber Monday deals, sign up with a company like Ebates or Big Crumbs to save even more. Shopping through these sites can help you earn discounts or rewards. When you find a deal online, log into your account and find the store through the site to purchase and get more bang for your buck.

• MyPoints is another site where you can earn points by doing your online buying through their site. When you sign up with them you'll get regular emails alerting you to different sites and companies that match your interests and ways to earn points. Sometimes it's as simple as registering on their site, which you can use a separate email account for. Even if you never sign up for anything, often just clicking on the website will earn you 5 points. Those can really add up. You redeem the points for gift cards from more than 70 merchants. If you start now, you have plenty of time to score a few gift cards by next Christmas!

• Take advantage of pharmacy gift card offers. Stores like Target, CVS, Walgreens, Kmart and others often have coupons to get a gift card when you fill a new prescription at their pharmacy. If you have one to fill anyway, you might as well get a free gift card for it! Pay attention to ads or look on websites. Most CVS stores will even honor competitors' coupons.

• Finally, as I discuss in this post, reviewers are still being accepted for the Webby Awards. This is not necessarily shopping-related, but it is timely and it's a great opportunity, so I really want everyone to know about it! The first session just ended and there are two more. This is a great way to earn actual cash by reviewing websites in your spare time. Although it is temporary, it offers a nice payday when checks go out early next spring!