Get paid for blogging!

In case you are in the dark, and did not know that you can get paid for blogging, let me fill you in. There are companies out there that will pay bloggers to post about a topic and include a link in your post, for advertising purposes. This is a great way to earn a little (or a lot!) extra money to put towards debt, put towards savings, or just help with the day to day bills.

The most popular site, is Payperpost. The minimum you will earn for a post is $5, and they can go up from there, depending on the advertising oppurtunity. I started posting with Payperpost right at the end of June, and so far I've earned over $150 with them this month just for posts I've written! That's with only one blog. I've just reached the point where I can add another blog to their system, so I can most likely double that income now that I can take opportunities for two blogs, so that could easily be $300 per month just with Payperpost!

Another site I have been using is PayU2blog. They pay $5 per post, and they give you assignments, there's no choices for you in which you take and which you don't. But I've made an additional $100 from them since June also.

Last is a site I've just signed up with and my blog is still pending approval with them, is SponsoredReviews.com. From what I hear, this site pays more for your posts than any other, so I am anxious to give it a try.

If you are interested in other ways to earn money via blogging, be sure to check out my main blog A Problogger Mom.

Grocery Shopping the stockpile method with coupons

For those of you looking to save some money, I wanted to share this method of grocery shopping with you. You may have heard of The Grocery Game, and this is the method that they use. However, it's very easy to do yourself instead of paying someone to help you.

Basically, your shopping should revolve around the sales flyers at your favorite grocery store(s). I tend to shop at 3 different stores, depending on what is on sale. The best way to get started, if you are not familiar with how much you spend on items you buy repeatedly, is to make a notebook of sorts. Keep track of the regular items you buy, and how much you spend on them. Then keep track of those same items by watching the sales flyers. Write down the cheapest price you can buy the item for. It may take a couple of months to find the absolute cheapest price, as the grocery stores rotate what they put on sale. Your goal is to find the absolute lowest price for each item. You may find out through doing this, that one store usually has the lowest prices, or that you can find some items cheapest at one store, and others at another. Eventually, you will come to know a good deal when you spot it, because you will come to know what those rock bottom prices are for your regular grocery items.

The next step is, to "stockpile" items that are at their lowest price. Don't just buy one. Buy as many as you can store or use in a reasonable amount of time. By doing this, you will spend more in some months, and less in others, but overall, your grocery spending will go down.

To even sweeten the pot further, use bulk coupons or price matching. I hear all the time how people don't bother with coupons because they don't find coupons for items they use frequently, or what is the point of saving 10 cents here, 25 cents there. Well, when you shop the stockpile method, you use coupons in the stockpile method also. Don't use just one coupon when you are buying 10 bottles of ketchup because it's at that lowest price point. Use 10 coupons as well as getting the lowest price point. How, you ask? There are lots of place that sell coupons in bulk online. I prefer Ebay just because I am a seller there, and know how it works so it is most comfortable for me. Most coupon sellers on Ebay sell coupons in batches of 10 or 20 of identicle coupons. See my post on Electrasol coupons. If you find that prices are lowest at different places, see if your stores price match. I am pretty sure Walmart does. What this means, is that if you take in another stores sales flyer, they will give you the item at that price. This will minimize making multiple grocery trips to lots of stores and save you time and gas.

So for example, say the regular price of a large bottle of Ketchup is $2.49. Say you find the lowest price point near you, is $1.39. Say you have 10 coupons for -1.00 each. Normal shopping, you would have spent $2.49x10=$24.90 on 10 bottles of ketchup. The stockpile method, you will only spend (1.39-1.00=.39 each) .39x10=$3.90 for 10 bottles of ketchup. The difference is a LOT! $24.90-3.90=$21.00! Now, you will have to figure in the cost of the coupons, but still, this will most likely be less than a 1.00.

Some things to remember:
1. ALWAYS get a Sunday paper and scan the coupons or join a site like Refundcents.com to find out what the Sunday coupons will be. If they have ones you will use, shop for them in bulk on Ebay or other coupon clipper type sites online. Take note of the expiration dates on the coupons and set up some type of coupon storage system (I use a three ring binder with clear trading card protector sheets).
2. Learn when your grocery sales flyers come out and get them as soon as possible and review them. If there is a good deal on something and you need coupons to make it even better, order them immediately. My sales flyers come out on Wednesdays and the sales are valid from Tuesday midnight to the following midnight. I try and review the sales flyers on Wed and I've been known to order coupons early Thursday morning and have them come in on Monday, leaving Tuesday to still shop the deals before they are over.
3. NEVER leave the house without your coupons! You never know what you will stumble upon stuck away on a clearance rack!

Updating this post to reference another similar post I just found on GetRichSlowly here: http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/07/24/save-on-groceries-with-strike-point-shopping/

Money saving tip for shopping on Amazon

I just ordered my Twinings English Breakfast tea in bulk from Amazon's Grocery, and wanted to share with you all this awesome site. You know how you get free shipping if you spend $25 or more on Amazon? Well this handy dandy little tool, will search Amazon's items for you to find items that will get you right up to that $25 mark. The site is called Amazon Filler Item Finder, and I use it all the time. I drink a LOT of tea, and buy 6 boxes of 50 teabags via Amazon, but it only comes to around $22. This tool let me find a Rubbermaid bowl that brought my total just 3 cents more than $25, so I qualified for free shipping!

So go shopping and take full advantage of Amazon's free Super Saver Shipping!

Free Electrasol Dishwasher Detergent coupons

If you are not a coupon user, you may still want to take advantage of this deal. Last week in the Sunday paper coupons, was a coupon for free Electrasol dishwasher detergent. These typically run about $4.00 a box. They offered the same deal last year around this time, and I stocked up big time. I bought 4 local papers, just for that coupon alone, and I also bought a lot of 10 of these coupons on Ebay. I still have 4 unused boxes under the sink! So say you buy 10 of these coupons on Ebay for $10, that's the cost of about 2 1/2 boxes, but you end up getting 7 1/2 boxes for free! One note of warning if looking for these coupons on Ebay, there are also lesser coupons out there for Electrasol, so be sure you read the auctions carefully to make sure you are getting coupons for the free detergent. I am using Auction Ads to the right and above to hopefully show you a few auctions you can check out right now! Hmmmmm....other things seem to be showing in the ads, hopefully it will pick up the Electrasol auctions soon!

The heat is on, summer has arrived!

We are preparing tonight for the heat wave to hit us here tomorrow in the Pacific Northwest. I actually don't mind the heat myself, it's the humidity that gets old really fast. Temps are expected to get in the high 90's and low 100's. We usually only get one or two small blasts of heat like this each summer here in Western WA, so it's not too bad.

I have opened every window in the house for the night, and am in the process of pulling out all the fans. One way to keep your house cool during the high temps such as this, is to open all the windows at night and blow the cooler air in all night long. Then get up as early as possible before the air starts to warm for the day, and shut all the windows. If you have south or west facing windows, if you can cover them with white poster board or cardboard on the inside of the windows, this will help reflect some of the heat away.

We have been doing this for years, and often have friends ask if we have a/c because our house is so cool, and no we don't have a/c. Just doesn't get hot enough here to justify it as this is a relatively mild climate. Several of our friends have commented they don't feel safe with the windows open all night. That's where are dogs come into play. If anyone was lurking around at night, they'd be sure to let us know!

Stay cool everyone!

Competitive Eating contests...blech!

What is the deal with these food contests? I'm sorry, but they are just foul. I want to be ill just thinking about the folks cramming endless amount foot in so quickly! The hot dog contests, oh man, I don't even know what to say! I don't eat meat or chicken to begin with, but hot dogs are even worse. I guess it's just part of tradition. At least the pie eating contests. I don't know, just not impressed I guess! I can think of so many more appealing ways to make a buck or two.

Big Brother 8 premieres tonight!

Don't forget! CBS, 8:00 pm ET/PT

I have to admit, I am a reality TV junky. Big Brother is probably the trashiest of all the ones I watch, but I can't seem to stay away! I will be looking forward to meeting the new cast. According to the CBS website, the twist this season is that each houseguest has a known enemy also in the house with them!!!

Mwua haaaa haaa haaa! Should prove to make things verrrrrry interesting!

Do you believe in the Law of Attraction otherwise known as The Secret?

I just finished reading the book, and WOW. That's some amazing and powerful stuff in there! I think I have always unknowingly believed, but did not understand all of the rules, especially the impact of negative thoughts. I have alway been a positive, non-worrying, non-anxious, go with the flow type person with a smile on my face. Many people I know have commented on it in fact, about how positive my outlook on life is. And deep down, I believe it was the Law of Attraction at work.

I saw The Secret show on Oprah awhile back, I think it was in April, and I was highly intrigued. I checked online at the library to get the book, and 40 some odd people were before me in line! But I just picked it up on Monday and while at the park today with the kids, I finished the book. I will be getting one for myself next time I'm at the bookstore, I think it will be very handy to have it close by to remind me of what NOT to do. The last year or so, we've been struggling to get to a comfortable place financially, and I think I have spent WAY too much time focusing on the debt, which according to The Secret, only draws more debt too us. I also never really used this way of thinking on myself for healths sake. I'm pretty healthy as far as I know, but could stand to lose a few pounds. I will be "visualizing" a skinnier me, and focusing on checks coming in the mail from now on, instead of worrying about how many calories I just ate, or how many bills are in the mail. It will be interesting to see what happens.

What I'm most excited about, is I left the book on our bed after picking it up at the library, and my husband picked it up and read it through cover to cover. I think if both of us are focusing on the right things, nothing can stop us!

The joys of summertime

The weather here has been just perfect for the last 5 days, and it is expected to remain like this for at least another week or so. It's in the low 80's, humidity is not too bad, the kids are enjoying our little Intex pool to the max. I live for days like this! People think it rains in Seattle, but you know what? The summers make it all worth it. July-September are generally just perfect summer weather, hot, but not sticky-gross-I-need-air-conditioning-hot. With clear blue skies. Thank goodness I have a laptop so I can enjoy this weather and still get in a little blogging!

Do Over

So this was originally my very first blog. I had abandoned it, and have started several others, but always loved the name of this one, and feel it suits me to a "T". So I am having a "Do Over" here. I am turning this into my own personal blog.

So let me introduce myself. My name is Tamara. I am a mom of three girls. I am a WAHM and work at making money online in all sorts of legal ways, from selling on Ebay, to blogging and also by using GPT/PTC (Get paid to/Pay to click) type sites. I have other blogs that talk about these things, so please check them out.

A Problogger Mom
Ebaymomblog
My Pay to Click Sites

I am also thrifty, and try and look for the best deals possible when shopping. This is a passion of mine, a hobby, but also a necessity. I think I have an addiction to the internet. When not on the computer, I am usually busy with the girls or out working in the garden. We raise chickens with the girls and they show them in 4-H. We currently have about 25 birds, all different kinds. We are gearing up for the state fair in August.

So there is a little peek into my world for now.