January 6-12

On Sunday I went shopping with my best friend and then out to lunch. I didn't buy anything at the stores but did earn about 150 shopkick points while I was out. We did lunch at the Macaroni Grill. I had $15 worth of gift cards, but still spent $13. (I had the waitress take the gift card off of the total and then we split the bill. I'm never quite sure what proper etiquette is when redeeming restaurant gift cards while out with friends. Anyone?)

Sunday night I listed a bunch of items on eBay. I had 32 items for sale...I'll be posting my total profit on the items I sold tomorrow.

I had the day off on Monday. I had to stop at Michael's for some picture frames. I got two new 8"x10" prints for Christmas that I wanted to frame, plus I made some artwork on 11"x14" cardboard that needed to be framed as well. I purchased a four pack of 8x10 black document frames on sale for $9.99. All of the 11x14 frames were over $30. I decided to buy a mat with an 11x14 opening so I could use a frame I had at home. The mat was $5 or $6. I had a 40% off coupon for one regular priced item (mat). My total was $14.43 and I paid using an AMEX gift card.

I received a deposit from half.com for some books I sold back in December. The total amount of the deposit was  $26.83, but after I deducted the cost of the shipping that was originally taken out of my checking account, the total profit is $19.45. That amount was added to my extra money/gift cards earned.

Tuesdays mail brought me a $5 Starbucks gift card from Bank of America. They sent it as a thank you for being an account holder. (I got one last year too!) So that brings my total of extra money/gift cards earned up to $34.45 for the year.

I got another invite for a Bzz Campaign...this time it's for veggie burgers. I'm trying to keep an open mind about these!

I worked 12 hours of overtime this week, and carpooled into work with a coworker one day.

Wednesday I was required to take an exam for work that was off site. I was unable to pack a lunch or dinner since I didn't have access to a fridge. I spent $4.57 on lunch and will receive a $9 reimbursement per my union contract as well as about $40 reimbursement for the mileage I put on my car getting to and from the exam. I also bought dinner at work later that night. ($8.15)

Thursday meant it was new offer day on my endorse app. I bought myself a medium iced coffee for $3.01 and will receive $3 back from the app. Love it! I'll be cashing my endorse account next week.

Saturday night I went out to dinner with two of my girlfriends. Total cost $17.

That's it! How did you guys do this week?

Holiday Vox Box

Here are the contents of my latest Vox Box from Influenster!

Included in the box is: 

1 Good Quikstyle hair brush 

1 packet of EBoost natural energy booster

1 Quaker Medleys oatmeal cup

1 NYC Lip Gloss

1 Kiss Nails giraffe print decal set

1 Coupon for $25 off a pair of shoes from Sole Society

Pretty sweet huh?

If anyone is interested in becoming a member of Influenster, leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send you an invite. I have 2 left!

Hamburger Soup Recipe

I found this recipe on Pinterest a while ago. I finally made it a couple weeks ago, and it was delicious!

I tweaked mine a bit so I could use things I had on hand. Here's my recipe...



Hamburger Soup

1 Tbls Olive Oil
1/2 a med sized onion, chopped
2 Tbls minced garlic
1 lb ground beef
1 can condensed tomato soup, plus 1 can water
32 oz. box of beef broth
1/2 bag of mixed frozen veggies (corn, carrots, peas, green beans & lima beans)
1 cup cooked orzo

Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add onion and garlic until the onions are just soft. Add ground beef, season with salt and cook until meat is longer pink. At this point, I drained all of the fat out of the pan and then dumped the contents into my crock pot along with the remaining ingredients.

I cooked the orzo separately and added it to the crock pot shortly before I served the soup.

January 1 - 5th

I did great spending wise this week! I fueled up my car on Wednesday and went to see a movie on Saturday night with a friend. Other than that, I didn't spend a dime.

I received $4 back on my gasoline purchase through endorse.

I also earned my first freebie of the year toward goal #3. I redeemed my I-say points from taking surveys for a $10 Amazon gift card.

This past week I made a huge batch of hamburger soup and I worked on a few DIY wall art projects. I'll post the recipe and pictures of the wall art in a separate post.

Yesterday I had a bunch of eBay listings end and sold five items. Once I calculate the shipping costs and fees, I'll add that total earned to my goal #3 total.

I was also invited to a new Bzz campaign this week to try out a new type of cereal. I'm looking forward to receiving that in the mail and trying it out.

Yesterday I spent the day running errands with my dad and doing some shopkicking while I was out. In just a week I've earned enough points for a $5 gift card....almost enough for a $10 one. And I haven't spent any money being in the stores.

This week I also found out that I did get the promotion at work and I also became an aunt. :)

Earning Extra Money

One of my goals for 2013 is to earn an extra $1000 in cash and gift cards from things like taking surveys, mail in rebates, rewards programs etc.

Here is a list of the programs, websites and mobile apps I plan to use.

1. My Discover card runs promotions where certain types of purchases will earn 5% cash back during a certain month. For me, the best deal is when they run it on gasoline (usually during the summer). I typically only use this credit card for the special 5% items. (For the record, I pay of my credit cards each month and NEVER carry a balance or pay interest.)

2. My Bank of America Visa also does cash back....3% on gas, 2% on groceries and 1% on everything else. This card also gives a 10% bonus on your cash back if you have it deposited into your BOA account.

3. Ebates & Mr. Rebates. These cash back shopping sites are great. You earn a certain percentage of cash back on purchases at hundreds of online retailers. You just need to be sure to use their links to get to the retailers web page.

4. Endorse. This is a mobile app that I recently found. Each week they offer cash back on different items. You scan take a photo of your receipt with your smart phone, check off the items you bought and submit it. They have offers like 100% cash back on a cup of coffee or 10% back on a tank of gas.

5. Shopkick. This is another mobile app I was just introduced to last week. They give you points just for walking into certain stores in your area. You can also earn points for scanning the bar codes on certain items, by making purchases at certain stores and by clicking through their "look books." You can redeem your points for gift cards from places like Target, Best Buy, Starbucks etc.

6. Plink. This site gives you points when you link up your credit card and make purchases at certain retailers.

7. Mypoints. I've been a member of this site for about 6 years. I open a few emails every day and take surveys once in a while and usually get $50 - $100 in gift cards every year.



I also use the following sites to get freebies, coupons and sample products:

Vocal Point
MyInsite
She Speaks
Influenster - Leave a comment with your email address if you'd like an invite. I have 2 left!
BzzAgent


What sites/apps do you use to make extra money or earn gift cards?

2013 Goals!

I will be going into super saver mode this year. I've picked up so many tips along the way, and I've been applying a bunch of them, but sometimes I slack off and get lazy. Here are the goals I've come up with for the upcoming year.

1. Pay off my mom and dad. I owe my parents $592. I'm not even sure what it's for...but it's going to be the first priority this year.

2. Continue saving 10% of my net paycheck each week to put towards a new car. My car is 12 years old, but I know I can make it last until I save up enough money to pay for a new one with cash.

3. Earn $1000 in "extra money" (and gift cards). I participate in a bunch of rewards programs, so I'm hoping between those, mail in rebates, selling unwanted items on ebay/craigslist, credit card rewards, mystery shopping and taking surveys I can rake in $1000 in extra cash and gift cards.

4. No spending money on clothing or shoes for myself. This will be a tough one, but I did an inventory of my closets and drawers and I have more than enough clothing. I am most likely getting a promotion at work in a few weeks. This will require a completely new set of uniforms, however, my agency will provide me with a purchase order that should cover the expense of all of my new uniforms and equipment. So while there will be some new clothing coming into my home, it won't be paid for by me.

5. Continue trying to make the majority of my meals at home. Treating myself to take out when I work a double shift seems to be a good compromise.

So that's it for the year. Clothing and eating out are where most of my discretionary money gets spent, so hopefully that will help out big time. What are your 2013 goals?

Review of 2012 Goals

I’m trying to get back into blogging. Although I didn’t post much of anything this past year, I was scrimping and saving just the same. Here’s how I did on my 2012 goals I set for myself in this post here.

11.       Have 3 “no spend days” each week. I’m not sure if I passed this one or not since I stopped keeping track about three weeks into January.  One thing I did learn over the past year, is if I make something too difficult, I won’t keep up with it. I tried to be so organized at the beginning of 2012 by creating a spreadsheet to keep track of what I was spending and saving, when I was exercising, how much water I was drinking each day…all that in addition to the spreadsheets I use to do my budget and keep track of my rebates. It was just too much. My guess is that I averaged 3 “no spend days” each week, but I don’t know for sure. FAIL.

22.   Get my emergency fund up to $10k. PASS!

33.       Pay off my mom and dad: I paid them down. I owed $1700 at the beginning of the year, and I’m down to a little over $600. This will be my first priority in 2013.

44.       Build a short term emergency fund of $1000. For a while this was a PASS! But I had to dip into it, and it only has $300 in it now. Second priority of 2013 is to get this back to $1000.

55.       Save for a new car. PASS! Once my emergency fund was up to $10k, I started putting 10% of my net paycheck into a separate savings account for a new car. I have over $3300 saved so far.

66.      Work out. PASS!  Again, I didn’t keep track of this, but I worked myself up to being able to run 6 miles over the summer (all at once…without stopping!) I also bought a few dumbbells, kettle bells and a yoga mat and did some weight lifting each week.

77.       This was a three part goal….Do a better job of eating more healthy: Pass! I all but gave up on drive thru food. I had a sundae from McDonalds once, but other than that, I didn’t get anything from McDonalds or Burger King all year. I did hit up a  Wendy’s one day and Taco Bell a few times, but that’s such an improvement over how often I was eating that stuff before. Drink more water and less soda. I all but gave up soda too. I think I averaged maybe one soda a month...again, way better than have 2-3 per day like I used to. I bought myself a Brita water pitcher for home and use the water cooler at work all the time. Bring lunch/dinner to work: Pass! I was pretty good about this most of the year. I allowed myself to get take out for one meal on days that I was working a double shift. There were definitely times that I was too lazy to pack something for work or didn’t have anything in the house to bring, but overall I did a pretty good job.

88.       Find a storage solution for the alcove in my dining room. Pass! I bought a buffet table last winter and I absolutely love it.