My money and my life

Side hustle challenge site highlight: Scrambly

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 12:05:00 +0000

In today's fast-paced world, finding a side hustle that fits seamlessly into your daily routine can be a game-changer. Enter Scrambly.com—a platform that transforms your spare moments into earning opportunities. Whether you're commuting, waiting in line, or relaxing at home, Scrambly offers a variety of tasks that can help you earn extra cash.

💡 What Is Scrambly?

Scrambly is a user-friendly platform that rewards you for completing simple tasks such as playing mobile games, testing apps, participating in surveys, and signing up for services. With over 160 games and numerous offers, there's something for everyone.

💰 How to Maximize Your Earnings

To make the most of your time on Scrambly:

Complete Your Profile: Unlock personalized offers and earn a 500-coin bonus.
Explore Diverse Tasks: Engage in games, surveys, and app trials to accumulate coins.
Cash Out Regularly: With a low minimum payout threshold, you can redeem your earnings through PayPal, gift cards, or prepaid Visa cards.

Ready to embark on your side hustle journey? Here's how:

Sign Up: Create a free account on Scrambly.com.
Verify Your Identity: Complete the necessary verification steps to unlock full earning potential.
Start Earning: Begin completing tasks and challenges to accumulate coins.

🎯 Final Thoughts

Scrambly.com offers a flexible and engaging way to earn extra income. By participating in the Side Hustle Challenge and consistently completing tasks, you can steadily increase your earnings. Remember, the key to success is consistency and active participation.

Disclaimer: Earnings may vary based on individual effort and task completion.

Side Hustle Challenge Week 1 Check in

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 17:56:00 +0000

So Week 1 didn't exactly go as planned.

My totals were:

Qmee $3.10

Connect $11.04

mturk $4.27

freecash $4

Scrambly $5

Pogo $3.04

Teachers pay teachers $2.87

Total $33.68

Which is less than half of the $10 a day I was hoping to make. But onward! Lessons learned: the game offers from Freecash and Scrambly, while easy to do while watching TV or standing in line or waiting to pick up my kids, take a lot of time per hour for how much they make. Connect is clearly my biggest earner and I think mturk could be too if I put in the time, the problem being that neither of those really work on my cell phone very well so they don't work for those in between times when I'm out and about or waiting. Hopefully a few bigger ticket things will come up soon so that I can start to make up some of the difference.

Side Hustle Challenge: Freecash.com

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 16:03:00 +0000

The first site I want to talk about for my summer side hustle challenge is one of my tried and trues, Freecash.com

Freecash.com is a user-friendly platform that allows you to earn money online by completing simple tasks like surveys, offers, and app downloads. It has quickly become one of the top-rated GPT (Get-Paid-To) websites due to its fast payouts, global accessibility, and a wide range of earning opportunities.

It’s free to join, and you can start earning right away—no experience required.

By incorporating Freecash.com into your side hustle challenge, you can:

Track progress easily with built-in earnings stats
Stay motivated with leaderboards and giveaways
Get paid quickly via PayPal, crypto, or gift cards

How to Make Extra Money on Freecash.com

Here’s how you can maximize your earnings:

Complete Daily Surveys: Each survey pays a few dollars, and they take only 5–20 minutes to complete.
Try Featured Offers: Download an app or sign up for a free trial to earn quick rewards.
Invite Friends: Their referral program allows you to earn a commission when your friends sign up and use the platform.

Users report earning anywhere from $5 to $50 per day depending on the time they invest.

My favorite ways to earn on Freecash.com

I check the featured or recommended games every day.
I make sure to have at least one game installed that credits at least a penny for daily plays.
I open that game every day, then after playing for the required amount of time, I go back to freecash to collect my daily box, which is usually between 1 and 10 cents for free but can be more.
I also look through the games to see which ones have levels I can complete quickly and easily for larger payouts.

Summer Side Hustle Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 17:46:00 +0000

So today is the first official day of my side hustle challenge and I'm not really sure what to report. I guess here's my plan.

I'm going to take surveys, do offers, and play games on "beer money" type sites, focusing on the ones that I've learned over the years are the best paying ones. Early on in the summer, before other things start kicking up, this is going to be the primary stream of income so it will probably be a lot of time per day because this is still really trading time for money. I plan to take surveys while waiting in lines or at pickup for my kids and when watching TV at night, but to get to $10 a day I may need to kick it up past that.

I'm going to make one thing a day that will hopefully make money in the future. This may be a piece of content I'm hoping to eventually be able to monetize in the future, a printable to sell on etsy or teachers pay teachers, or ... something I haven't thought of.

Apply to an opportunity, sign up for a site, or bid a freelance job every day.

Spend some (at least a little) time learning a skill that can help with making money in the future every day.

Let's try this side hustle challenge thing again, shall we

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 07 Jun 2025 21:46:00 +0000

Hi friends. So you know how last year i said I was going to do a side hustle challenge for a week and promptly made it two days?

Oops.

So now that it's summer and I have some time, I want to try this side hustle challenge thing again.

I want to set my expectations a little more reasonably this time, so here's my plan:

My goal is to make $10 a day for a month in side money, starting Monday June 9. Last time I said $33 a day and really don't think that was a reasonable place to start.
I'm going to check in once a week instead of every day. I will tell you my totals for the week from all the sites I use and average that out by the day to see if I'm making progress towards my goal.
At least once a week, I will separately write a post about a site I'm using for my side hustle challenge and what I like about it.

I hope you'll stick with me, and hopefully I'll stick with me!

Side hustle 2024: Day 2 check in

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 02:29:00 +0000

So it is day 2 of my side hustle 2024 challenge and this is how things are looking:

Eureka $5.30

Mistplay $10

Brand club $9.10

Qmee $1.30

Total $25.70

Side hustle 2024 challenge: Day 1 check in

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 02:45:00 +0000

Hustles that paid me today:

Mturk 1.20

Qmee 1.40

Connect cloud research 5.80

Total 8.40

Not really close to the $33 goal but it's the first day. We'll see.

Side hustle 2024 challenge: Spotlight on Paidviewpoint

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 15:51:00 +0000

I'm going to start the official tabulations for the side hustle 2024 challenge on April 1 to make the reporting and calculations clear, but until then I figured I would take the opportunity to spotlight some of the programs I use to earn extra money from home, so that if you want to follow along, you can join them too.

Today I'm going to talk about Paid Viewpoint (referral link: if you sign up, I will get a referral credit. Thanks).

Paid Viewpoint is one of my favorite survey sites. They don't have as many surveys available as some other sites, but it also isn't a constant router where you can spend hours getting rejected without actually earning any money. When they send you a link, you will qualify for at least a 10 cent trait survey, or more if you qualify for the survey. As you complete the trait surveys, your trait score will increase and you will get invitations to surveys more often. Once your trait score is close to 1000, you should get one to two invitations a day. The trait surveys are fairly quick, so if you don't qualify, you aren't going to spend 20 minutes only to find you only made 10 cents. If you do qualify for the full survey, it's usually pretty well paid, and you can easily rack up a few dollars a day.

One of the bigger downsides is that they have a $15 minimum for payout, and especially at first it may take a while to accumulate that much. Once you reach $15 though, they pay out within 72 hours to Paypal.

So go ahead and get signed up for Paid viewpoint today and start building your trait score. Hopefully it will help with your own side hustle 2024 challenge!

Have you tried Paid Viewpoint? What do you think of it? Is there another site you'd like me to spotlight or review?

Four figure month: side hustle 2024 challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 15:40:00 +0000

I've decide to start a side hustle challenge for myself for 2024. I thought about what a good goal might be for extra income from home, considering I now have 2 kids, a house, and a full time job. I had seen some people online setting goals of $100 a day in extra income from side hustle jobs, but that didn't seem reasonable to me. I thought about how much money would be possible while also feeling like an accomplishment and what I settled on was that if I can make $1000 a month through extra income from home side hustles in 2024, that feels like a lofty but achievable goal.

In order to make that four figure month of $1000, I decided to break that goal down into $33 a day. That seems both doable and like it will start to make a dent quickly. My accountability goal is to post here dailyish with an account of how much I've made and to start to keep data on what side income gigs are the most profitable or successful.

I hope you'll stick around and I encourage you to set your own big goals.

10 ways to save money

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 04:21:00 +0000

10 ways to save money

Create a budget and stick to it.
Reduce unnecessary expenses such as eating out or subscription services.
Shop around for deals and discounts.
Consider cutting back on luxuries such as cable or streaming services.
Look into ways to increase income, such as getting a side job or selling items you no longer need.
Pay off any high-interest debts as soon as possible.
Save automatically by setting up a direct deposit from your paycheck into a savings account.
Avoid impulse buying and take the time to think about a purchase before making it.
Invest in long-term savings plans such as a 401k or IRA.
Cut back on transportation costs by carpooling, biking, or taking public transportation.

Great deal on glue sticks with Brand club

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 17:22:00 +0000

Do you have an account on Brandclub? Right now, you can buy a 4 pack of giant student glue sticks on Amazon for $4.27 and instantly get $3 back!

Make extra money doing literally nothing

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 03:01:00 +0000

Looking for easy ways to make extra money? This is the easiest one yet! With Honeygain you can make extra money doing literally nothing. Just install the app on your devices and you'll rack up points for the data it tracks. Sign up now with my referral link and get $5 free. Cash out when you reach $20.

Looking for more ways to make extra money? Check out these related posts:

5 ways to make extra money by shopping

4 apps to make extra money taking surveys

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 21:51:00 +0000

One of my favorite ways to earn extra money while sitting on my couch watching TV with my family is by taking surveys. It isn't a way to get rich quick, but it's easy and reliable and doesn't take a lot of mental energy to do.

Qmee has quickly become one of my favorite survey apps to make extra money. You can cash out to PayPal instantly with no money or to Venmo with as little as a dollar. Sign up with my referral link and you get 50 cents to start.

Swagbucks is the granddaddy of all extra money sites but I just keep coming back to it. Lots of surveys along with other offers, and plenty of ways to cash out.

Eureka is a newer survey site. They do have a minimum for cashing out to PayPal, but they make it easy for you to make extra money with their surveys by paying you even if you don't qualify and by offering bonus surveys after every cash out. Use my share code B8A1WB on Eureka and unlock a $1 survey just for signing up.

Super pay me is another great site that offers lots of options for ways to make extra money. Lots of survey routers and offer walls, and you can cash out to PayPal instantly once a day.

That should be enough to keep you busy for a while! Is there anyone site you like to use to make extra money taking surveys? Leave it in the comments!

5 ways to make extra money while shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 13:56:00 +0000

These days with inflation as high as it is, everyone could stand to make extra money in their spare time. One of the easiest ways to make extra money is with the shopping you're already doing anyway. Here are my 5 favorite apps to help you make extra money while shopping.

Do you shop at Amazon, Target, or Walmart and gave certain brands you tend to be loyal to and buy again and again? If so, Brand Club is a great app for you to make extra money doing the shopping you already do. Simply link your store accounts, sign up for clubs for brands you typically buy, and then shop as you normally would! When you sync your account (up to twice a day), you'll make extra money for what you already bought. You can also earn extra money by taking surveys about the brands you typically buy.

Another great way to make money with your regular grocery shopping is Fetch. Scan your grocery receipts or link your Amazon and email accounts to sync your e receipts, and you'll make extra money every time you buy one of their featured brands.

You can't talk about apps that give you extra money for shopping without mentioning Ibotta. Ibotta is the mother of all grocery rebate apps, with thousands of deals and Cashback offers available for hundreds of stores. Make extra money by meeting bonuses every week to make it even sweeter.

One of my favorite ways to make extra money while shopping is with the Drop app. Simply link your credit card and activate the week's card linked offers and you'll automatically get cash back every time you shop. You can make extra money on the app by taking surveys or playing quick games as well!

Last but not least is another, newer set it and forget it cash back app called Pogo. Simply link your credit card and you get cash back on literally anything you purchase. You can also get paid for checking in with location rewards and make extra money with simple surveys.

So those are my five favorite ways to make extra money while shopping. I hope you find it helpful, and it gets you through this challenging time. Did I forget an app you think I should mention? Please leave it in the comments!

Disclosure: all links in this post are my referral links and if you sign up through them, I'll make extra money in that app. Thanks so much for supporting my writing in this way.

Free money for shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 18:01:00 +0000

I'm at a place right now where I could use a few extra bucks every month to help stay afloat. Have you ever been there? I think most of us have. So I've come up with a few ways to get paid a little extra money for things I do anyway.

Get free money for shopping when I scan my receipts

Do you grocery shop? Do you want to make free money for doing it? When I go grocery shopping, or really any kind of shopping, I always make sure to get a receipt. Why? Because I can scan that receipt on several different apps and get paid for all of them.

The app Fetch pays you for all grocery receipts you scan, and pays a little extra if you buy items from brands on their list. Register with Code GM0PW to get paid $3 in points.

Coinout is my new favorite receipt app to get free money for shopping. It pays a random amount of money, from one cent to 10 cents, for every receipt you scan, no matter where it's from. You can also forward receipts from your email to them for credit.

Ibotta is probably the granddaddy of all free money receipt apps. The rebates on Ibotta are pretty big if you buy the items they're promoting.

Get free money for shopping without doing anything extra

Probably my favorite app to get money for shopping without even thinking about it is Pei. Just link your card on the app, shop where you normally do (places like Walgreens, Starbucks, McDonalds), and watch the free money roll in. Use my referral link: yinylh to get a free $5 when you get credit for your first purchase.

Another app like this is Drop. With Drop, you choose 4 stores you frequently shop at (options include Whole Foods, Trader Joes, CVS, and more), register a credit card, and every time you shop at one of your preferred stores, you get free money back! Use my referral code qi1mf to get a free $5 when you link your first card.

All the free gift cards

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 21:19:00 +0000

First, sign up with a Swagbucks account, if you don't already have one. This is my referral link, if you don't mind.

Under special offers >> Trial Pay (or just under special offers if you're on a mobile device), there should be an offer that says by a $10 gift card through Gyft. It may say to buy a target gift card or starbucks or whole foods, but whatever it says, when you click on details, it will say "or any other gift card."

Buy a gift card you will use anyway. You may or may not also have a $5 promo gyft card for first signing up (which would be a free $5 added to your gift card).

Check out with google wallet. You will earn 50 points on the gyft app, and you will also get an emailed gift card for a bonus $5 toys r us gift card.

You will earn 450 points on swagbucks, which is enough to redeem for a $5 amazon gift card.

Earn money and gift cards for the holidays: Swagbucks

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 01:06:00 +0000

One of the ways I like to save money is to earn little bits of money in my spare time to offset some of the costs, especially around the holidays. I thought I would highlight some of my favorites here.

Swagbucks is my favorite. Sign up and then complete a variety of simple tasks - answering polls, searching the web, watching videos, clicking through slide shows and earn points that can be cashed in for gift cards or paypal cash.

My favorite way to earn through Swagbucks is to install the video apps on old phones we have around the house that run on wireless. There are several of these apps now, and you can just set the videos to play and forget about it while you go about your life.

Sometimes I also do some offers for larger quantities of swagbucks, things like signing up for mailing lists or free trials of paid subscription sites. Just be careful that if you do that, you cancel anything you don't want before you end up paying for it.

I usually earn between $25 and $50 a month through this one site, in my spare time while I wash dishes or watch TV with my kids.

Free blogging ebooks for Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sun, 11 May 2014 14:14:00 +0000

Happy Mother's Day, mom bloggers. Blogelina has a fantastic bundle of ebooks about blogging available right now. Check it out, and sign up!

Cheap Dr. Seuss books and a free gift!

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 02:18:00 +0000

This week, for Dr. Seuss's birthday, get a free gift along with your welcome package when signing up for the Dr. Seuss book club. So, for $5.95, you get 5 books and a gift! Great to build your kids' library or stock your gift closet.

Remember, when you sign up for this offer, you are signing up for a monthly book club and will get shipments every month.

This is an affiliate link

Giveaway: Old El Paso Frozen Meals

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 01:31:00 +0000

Through the My Blog Spark program, I was recently given the chance to try one of the new Old El Paso frozen entrees.

(SIDENOTE: I took pictures for this post. Awesome pictures. Lots of them. Before I ate the quesadillas. And then I LOST THE CAMERA WITH THE PICTURES ON IT somewhere in my house. Ahem. If I find it, I'll add them.. Because they were awesome. Sigh.)

I got a package in the mail with a coupon for a free Old El Paso frozen product, a $10 Visa gift card, and a beautiful chips and dip platter. (Remember this, it will be important later.)

At the store, I looked at the products available and decided to get steak quesadillas because my somewhat picky 3 year old kinda loves quesadillas.

They were really easy to make, they only took a few minutes in the microwave to come out melty and perfect. I momentarily doubted my decision because quesadillas are pretty easy to make anyway, so I wasn't sure I needed a frozen product.

The Old El Paso steak quesadillas, though, were nothing like the quesadillas I make at home. They had A LOT of steak, red and green bell peppers, and salsa verde. They were DELICIOUS. And even though Miss Three saw the peppers, said she didn't like green things, and made me pick them all off before she would eat, she enjoyed them too.

The package said it was a meal for 2, so I paired it with some rice and leftover beans for me and the husband and an apple for the kiddo to stretch it a little. The package contained 4 quesadillas, and we were each satisfied with one. That meant I had one left to eat for lunch the next day. SCORE.

So if you're looking for a quick, easy meal (and I usually am), the Old El Paso frozen meals get my thumbs up.

Still reading? Good! Go to the Old El Paso website and check out the selection of frozen meals. Come back here and tell me in a comment which one you'd like to try, and you will get a chance to win a prize pack identical to the one I got (see why that was important??).

Disclosure: I was sent a prize package in exchange for my review of this product. My opinion can't be bought, though. Not even with delicious, delicious quesadillas.

Good deal on Gevalia coffee

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 11:22:00 +0000

Right now, you can get 2 boxes of Gevalia coffee for $9.95 and free shipping if you buy through my referral link. The deal is good on 8 ounce boxes of coffee (regularly priced between $6.99 and $9.99) and 12 count boxes of k-cups. My buy price for k-cups is 50 cents a cup or less, so this is a great deal for me. Plus, after getting so many free samples, Gevalia is one of my favorite brands of coffee.

Disclaimer: If you buy coffee through my referral link, I also qualify for a free box of coffee. No pressure though. Ahem.

Spring Clean your finances: Budgeting for recurring expenses

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 27 May 2013 13:22:00 +0000

Once you have your monthly budget set up and working, the next step is to plan for your periodic expenses, things like your insurance premiums, taxes, or any other budget item that comes up less often than every month.

There's a reason why I think this is the most important next step in getting your finances in order, before you even think about emergency cash reserves or debt reduction: You've ALREADY spent this money. You don't have it anymore.

Let me say that again, in case it wasn't clear.

You don't have this money anymore. It's already spent. You may see it in your checking account and think, Hey, look at all this money I have to buy pretty things for my house, save for my kids' college, or pay off my student loans. You're wrong. It's an illusion. It's not there anymore. It's already spent.

Do you need to re-read that a few times in order to internalize it? It's okay. I'll wait. Let me know when you're ready.

So. Now that we have that clear, let's talk about what to do about it.

If you're making a new, specific budget every month (which you should be) and you have a ton of discretionary cash (which you probably don't if you're reading this), then you can just adjust the specific month's budget by decreasing other spending to make up for the big payment you have that month.

If you don't have the cash, no matter how much you cut down on movies out, then you need to think about those expenses before the month when they're due. This should not be money that comes out of your emergency fund or causes you to go into credit card debt because it isn't an emergency. It isn't a surprise. You know exactly when it's coming.

So, what to do.

I recommend setting up a separate savings account, with instant cash transfer privileges, just for your recurring expenses. I call mine my "Freedom account" - I'm pretty sure I stole that from Suze Orman - and it's separate from my emergency fund. (If you're extremely disciplined, you can do this as an entirely paper and pencil exercise and just keep the money in your main checking account, but you have to remember when you see the money that it ISN'T REALLY THERE.)

Then, make a list of all the expenses you have that come up a few times a year. I include Christmas on this list now, but I didn't when I was first starting out (we just had some arts and crafts Christmases for a few years). Figure out how much you need, how often for each one. Then, you have to fund this account. There are two main ways to do this.

Monthly Deposits

I divide my recurring expenses by 12 (or by 6, for the ones that come up twice a year) and figure out how much they are actually costing me per month. Then, I have my savings account set up to automatically transfer that much money out of my main checking account every month. For each of my recurring expenses. Then when I get a bill in the mail, I just log on and transfer the money back to my checking account. No worries, no stress. I know the money is there, I know that's what it's there for.

This puts a huge dent in my monthly cash flow because all of these items are line items on my budget every month. When I think about how much money I have available to spend, I always take this out first. This is annoying, but in the long run it's really a good thing.

Lump sum deposits

If, right now, you don't have enough money in your monthly budget to add line items for each of your recurring expenses, you need to be a little more creative about how you fund them. Here's how I recommend doing this with lump sum deposits:

Make a list of all your recurring expenses. List them in order of when they come due, and if you have more than one due in the same month, list them in order of importance (as in, if you run out of money and can't pay one, which one will hurt you and your family less). Then, every time you get an extra influx of cash - some extra income, a tax return, a gift, a three pay check month - fund those expenses in the order they are on your list. So, if you get $400 from doing an odd job for your neighbor, the first $300 might go to your life insurance premium, and the next $100 would go to your real estate taxes. Transfer that money to your freedom account, and check off on your list what you have funded. Continue to do this until all your expenses for the year are covered.

Again, I really recommend you do this BEFORE you do anything else with your money. Before your emergency fund, before your debt reduction. It will give you peace of mind because a bill will never take you by surprise and ruin you again.

(I think, ideally, your goal will be to adjust your cash flow so that you can eventually do monthly deposits. This gives you even more peace of mind than the lump sum method, which still relies a little bit on "magic money.")

I keep my freedom fund in an ING Direct account (which isn't called that anymore. I think it's Capital One 360 now). When I started doing this, it was one of the highest interest accounts you could find. It really isn't anymore, but because it's so easy to use I have kept my money there. If you are interested, I can send you a referral link which will give you an extra $25 when you open your account (and give me a little money too). You can also search BankRate to find which banks have the highest interest and find an account that way. I do recommend you put this money in an account that makes you at least a little interest. If it's just going to sit there, it might as well work for you.

In which I get free Tasty Kake Kandy Bar Kakes

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 27 May 2013 01:39:00 +0000

Let's talk about Tastykakes.

When we lived in Texas, we suffered from severe Tastykake withdrawal. Every time we went to visit our family in New Jersey, we would come back with boxes of Kandykakes stuffed in our suitcases. My Mother in Law used to mail them to us. It's possible we have a problem.

Now that we live on the east coast again and can regularly get them in our grocery store, we don't hoard them anymore, but we do always have a box in our refrigerator. Right now, I think it's coconut cakes.

So, imagine how excited I was Influenster sent me a free Kandy Bar Kake try. Free. Kandy Kake. Some of my favorite words right there.

I promised my two year old that we could share it after dinner, but I forgot about it until after she went to bed, which meant I had to wait another day. (Insert impatient foot tap here.)

We finally ate my Tasty Kake Kandy Bar Kake tonight, split three ways (yeah, yeah, I let my husband have some too). It was as good as I'd imagined! It was like a regular peanut butter Kandy Kake but in bar form. It had a nice creamy center and was much more compact and portable than the traditional two cake package.

I will probably buy these again because, y'know, we have a Tasty Kake problem. Mmmm, cake. They regularly sell for $4.49 per family pack, but I am pretty good at spotting sales on them.

I was given this product for free to try from Influenster. Influenster is a great way to get free products to try if you are a social media maven. If you're not a member, leave your email address and let me refer you!

100 ways to save on groceries, part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:24:00 +0000

11. Know your prices. At first, you may actually want to keep a price book where you keep track of both the regular price and the best sale price at each of your favorite stores for each of your favorite items. It's a lot of information to keep track of, but if you don't know the prices, you won't know whether you're saving. After a while, you will just *know* which sales are rock bottom sales and which aren't.

12. When something is on "sale," but isn't a rock bottom sale, buy a few of them if you need them, so that you won't have to pay full price, but don't go crazy. When it is at its lowest price, buy enough to get you through to the next sale this good . . . which could be six months to a year away. (Within reason. If you have the money and storage space to do this.)

13. Learn the sales cycles. Certain items are on sale at certain times of year. Barbecue items, for example, tend to go on sale at the beginning of the summer and cereal in the fall. If you can buy enough during these sales periods to get you through the year, you will save a ton. Most stores also have a 12 week sale cycle. There will be some kind of sale on a particular item every 3 months or so.

14. Consider shopping at more than one store if you have time. Most areas have a cheaper and a more expensive grocery store. The more expensive store will tend to have better loss leaders and promotions, while the other store will have cheaper everyday prices. If you just buy the sale items at the expensive store, and everything else at the cheaper store, you will save a lot of money.

15. Try a discount store. Stores like Aldi, Bottom Dollar, or Save-a-lot can save you a bunch of money, particularly on items that don't tend to have coupons, like produce and milk.

16. Try a warehouse store. Some items are considerably cheaper at a warehouse store, like Sam's Club or Costco. Yeast, spices, meat, and bread products come to mind. Just make sure you know your prices (see above) because not everything is cheaper. And consider whether you're saving enough to cover your membership costs.

17. Try the drugstore game. Rite Aid, Walgreens, and CVS typically have some of the best sale/coupon deals. Sign up for a membership card at each of them, read a good deal blog (like Money Saving Mom), and pick up these free or nearly free items every week.

18. Check out Amazon. With free shipping for subscribe and save products, often you can get a better deal on paper products and certain bulk food items by buying online.

19. Consider buying your cleaning supplies and beauty products at a big box store like Target, but be careful of groceries which are often more expensive, at least than sale prices.

20. Be aware of the coupon policy for each store. Do they double coupons? How many of each coupon will they accept? Can you stack a manufacturer coupon with a store coupon? (More on coupons next week.)

Spring Clean your Finances: You need a budget

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:35:00 +0000

I decided that for spring, I would start a new Monday series on some of the basic truths that I have found about personal finance. So, I'm starting with what I think to be the core of everything: a budget.

You need a budget. In some way, shape, or form. If you want to make any changes or progress to your current financial situation, you need a budget.

Your budget can take a variety of forms, and I've done many (a book, a sheet of paper, a spreadsheet, Quicken), but at it's most essential it is this:

You need to know how much you intend to spend on each of a variety of categories. Then you need to spend that much, and only that much.

That's it. There's no other magic than that. But if you want any control over where your money is going, if you want to have more left at the end of the month, if you want to have more to save or to spend on areas that are important, you need to sit down and pay attention to it.

So, here's the most basic form of a budget.

Make a list of everything you spend money on in a month. Do this with your bank statement or credit cards if you want. Make a list of how much you want to spend on each of those categories. For non-fixed expenses, this can be based on how much you were previously spending, or it can be an adjustment or goal. Make sure this doesn't add up to more than you make in a month. If it does, adjust something. If you have money left over, assign it to something (a saving goal, a loan repayment, a service you'd like to add on).

Then, during the month, you have to check in. Keep a total of how much you've spent in each category. You can do this every time you spend, or you can update it weekly. If you overspend a category (which you really should only do in an emergency!), adjust something else to make up for it. The money has to come from somewhere.

That's it. That's the whole budget. There are software solutions that will do some of the heavy lifting for you (Mint, for instance, is free), but you can do the whole thing yourself with a sheet of notebook paper.

Just do it.

Do you have a budget? How do you keep track of it? What strategies do you use for budgeting?