My work at home and frugal life

The Frugal Home Ebook Published! $2.99

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:51:00 +0000

Find all of the tips and advice in this website, and at www.thefrugalhome.com, compiled in this great ebook! Buy it for your loved ones as a Christmas present! Only available on Kindle but you can download the Kindle app just about anywhere! I have one on my computer, my phone, and the iPad!

Pick up your copy of The Frugal Home for only $2.99!

Frugal tips on everything from beauty products to weddings!

Psychic and Tarot Card Readings and Other Places You Can Find Me

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:43:00 +0000

You can find me at these websites or join my radio show on Wednesday nights at 8 Central!

Tarot Card Readings

Energetic Communications Radio Show

The Frugal Home

Home Improvement and Design at McCall's Floormart

CloudCrowd

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:53:00 +0000

CloudCrowd is a brand new work at home opportunity! I'm really pushing this as I just started on Thursday and I have already received $50 through PayPal!

You can read more about my experience here or sign up here!

The Frugal Home

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:09:00 +0000

I haven't been blogging much as I have been putting most of my attention into my new website The Frugal Home! I am very excited about this site. I will be moving much of the information you can find here over to the new site as well as adding tons of new information!

So if you are a subscriber here you may want to subscribe over there to keep up on legitimate work at home jobs and tips on living a frugal life!

Leave me a comment at The Frugal Home and let me know what you think of the new site! Also, if you are interested in sharing your own thoughts, ideas or articles check out how you can be a contributor to TFH!

And, while I'm at it don't forget about Nature's Thumbprint and Area Rugs by McCalls!

So I've been gone for awhile. So what?

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:23:00 +0000

I realized this week that I hadn't been on the blog in awhile. Quite awhile actually. I have been busy working my little butt off. Well, its not quite so little any more.

Anyway, I have been writing ehow articles and uploading rugs and being extremely sick. And ChaChaing.

I am really focusing on ehow and The Frugal Home,the area rug site, and Nature's Thumbprint, and will be putting my focus in these areas for the next several months. And ChaChaing of course.

I guess I'm saying don't expect too much out of me for a bit while I get back in the groove of working non stop! I will let you know how well all of this hard work pays off!

All those eggs, one itty bitty basket

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:52:00 +0000

When freelancing you hear many people discussing how you should not put all of your eggs in one basket. This is the best advice I have found in the freelancing world as there are no guarantees in this line of work.

This is why losing www.today.com yesterday is discouraging but by no means debilitating. When one income source, or one egg, dries up then I just grab another egg and keep on moving! I had my own dairy free blog prior to the two today.com dairy free blogs so I may begin posting there again though I think it is more likely that I will post mostly on The Frugal Home.

The moral of this story is to not become to reliant on any one income source, or at least realize that with a freelance job you are just as likely to lose your job as someone who works in an office and that you have to be just as prepared. I have gained and loss many freelance jobs over the years and am always on the lookout for new ones.

There went today.com!

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:06:00 +0000

I received an email this afternoon from www.today.com. They stated that I was no longer going to be paid per post though I would still get a portion of the ad revenue. I am discouraged needless to say as I was in the middle of a goal of writing a post a day for the month of January. I will not be posting for today.com anymore as I do not enjoy it enough to do it for free, or close to free anyway. The email did state that this decision was made on a month by month basis and that it could change but I can't put all that work in for no cash when I can use the time I would have put into that into something else. I have been with today.com for six months or so now and this is the first time this has happened to me.

I will be taking my dairy free recipes and moving on! The four hours a week I spent on my two today.com blogs can now go into The Frugal Home. I will be adding all of my recipes there from now on so be sure to check it out!

Organized and Healthy

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:52:00 +0000

One of the pitfalls of working at home is the lack of someone to keep you on task. I know some people state that they will work from 8 to 5, with an hour break for lunch and not at one point in that time, browse the internet for some mindless piece of information or news.

I am not one of those people.

Over the last two years I have spent some days working diligently for 14 or 16 hours before falling into bed exhausted, and other days surfing the net or watching Dr. Phil and Oprah shows I have taped.

This has left me overweight with terrible back and neck pain, not to mention that I never know what I need to accomplish in the week nor do I always accomplish what I think I should have by the end of the week. On the flip side, if I did accomplish something then I accomplished too much, working 14 hour days for a week, and I end up snapping at my husband, exhausted and in even more pain from being crouched over the computer.

As Dr. Phil would say, How's that working for you? Not very well, Dr. Phil. Not very well at all.

One of my goals for this year is to live a happier and healthier life and organizing my work at home life is one way of reaching this goal.

One problem with working at home is that, for some of us, we have many work at home jobs and it becomes difficult to figure out how much time each should get in a week and which ones deserve more focus.

I have made a list of my work at home jobs:

Webmaster For Three Websites
Writer for Various websites
Blogger
Photographer
ChaCha Guide

I separated these out even farther but am just generalizing now. The first day I scheduled an hour for this and an hour for that. It didn't work for me, though it may work for someone else. I finally came up with a schedule I believe I can work with. I have decided to work on each item for its scheduled time that week before moving on to the next task.

For instance, I must put in 10 hours toward Area Rugs by McCalls. I will now work on the Area rug site all day Monday and half a day on Tuesday before moving on to Nature's Thumbprint. I will work on NT on Tuesday before moving onto the next task on Wednesday.

While I have given myself a schedule, I have also given myself permission to break it. If I need to put laundry in the dryer then I don't have to make up the time, if I meet friends for lunch, or give the dogs a bath, I don't have to make up that time. This is important because one of my jobs is taking care of myself, my family, and my home, in that order. If I need to get up from the computer because my back hurts, or to keep my back from hurting, then so be it. I am of no use to anyone, my jobs or my family, if I am broken.

I will make up the time if I wasted it by surfing the web or if a project must be completed within a time limit.

I will try to work mostly between 9 and 4. I say mostly because some days, such as Fridays, I may be done earlier and can clean the house for the weekend, or because I have set a goal of making at least $8.00 a day through ChaCha. ChaCha is not always a completely reliable income and it may take me all day to make the eight dollars and I may not even make it if I don't want to stay up late to reach my targeted amount. I am pretty much on ChaCha all day, I just log on and off as needed. I like ChaCha because I can work it while I'm doing all my other work, it is almost like I am getting paid to work!

I guess what all this comes down to is it is important to set up a schedule that works for you and your life. You may need more or less flexibility than I have. What is most important is getting the work done but doing it in a way that is healthy for you and for your family. Working 16 hours will not do me any good if the money I make off of that 16 hours then has to be used for Chiropractic appointments or large amounts of Ibuprofen and Prilosec.

Put yourself first this year, then organize your work at home life, to reach the goals you have set for yourself in a healthy way.

If you need help organizing your home but are short on funds check out this article!

How to Organize Your Home For Free

December Work at Home Real Income

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:49:00 +0000

December was kinda slow with the holidays (we took an entire week off) and I was sick and I just didn't feel like working! :)

December Work at Home Real Income

$130 Photo Shoot
$2.00 Associated Content Article
$5.88 Associated Content Performance Payments
$1.80 VocaLab Survey
$15.00 Demand Studios
$100.00 Photo Shoot

$254.00 Total for December

Not much I know but I'm hoping to do better with the holidays finally being over and I can concentrate on working!

January I will be focusing on Ehow, ChaCha, AC, the area rug site, Nature's Thumbprint, The Frugal Home, and my blogs. Whew! That's a lot to focus on!

I think I am most excited about Ehow as I will get paid from them for the first time this month and because I am going to be spending this year making them a major source of my passive income.

My major financial/work goal this year is to work towards making an average of $1000 a month by the end of the year, every month! Check back and see if I make it!

How were your holidays?

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:59:00 +0000

Did you have a good week last week? Did you eat a ton and spend time with family? I hope you did!

We spent the entire week away from home, part with my family and part with the hubbies. We are very blessed and always have a good Christmas.

One of the gifts we get every year are gift certificates. This year we were even happier to get them as we are not sure what our finances hold for us this year. I know several people who receive gift cards and just go crazy and spend them all before the new year even starts. We try to use our gift cards in a more frugal way.

Some of our gift cards are for food and some are for entertainment or clothing stores or Wal-mart. I put all of these cards back and we use them over the next six months. We save the fast food gift cards for times when we do not have the money to go out to eat but really want a burger or we can use the entertainment gift cards for free entertainment during our poor periods as well or we can use them in conjunction with a great sale and get more bang for our plastic buck! The clothing gift cards are good for when we need a special outfit for a special event, when a piece of clothing unexpectedly falls apart, or during end of season sales.

Check your gift cards and gift certificates carefully as some will deduct a fee from the balance every month you do not use it and, specifically during the financial crisis we are in, some stores may be going out of business and you may only have a short time period in which to use your cards.

What do you do with your gift cards?

Did you recieve gifts you didn't want? Learn how to do a white elephant gift exchange so you can get rid of those unwanted gifts!

How to do a White Elephant Gift Exchange

Income Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:09:00 +0000

I have been writing for various content sites online for two years now. My promotion techniques have been virtually extinct as I have not wanted to mess with it, have wondered how much it actually helps, and have felt my time is better spent learning SEO techniques.

I have learned a great deal about SEO techniques over the last year and have seen the results they produce.

I have been on some forums lately and some people push promotion while others seem to take the same hands-off approach I've been taking. I've decided to do a little experiment. I am going to promote a few of my articles in all the ways I hear others doing so, such as with Digg or Twitter or posting them on my blog. The only one I refuse to do is send out an email to everyone in my contact list as I don't think my friends and family would appreciate that. Besides, those that have asked do get an email when I publish something, mostly my husand and parents.

I have already chosen one article, a new article that has not had time to simmer yet. I am also going to choose a few old articles that have not made much for me and see if promoting helps them gain more page views.

Wish me luck and here it is! My first article promotion!

How to Become a Morning Person

October and November Work at Home Real Income

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:03:00 +0000

Here's my work at home real income for October and November. I know! I'm behind!

October Work at Home Real Income

$4.10 from AC Performance Payments
$405.00 Demand Studios
$60.00 Photo Shoot

Total
$469.10

November Work at Home Real Income

$40 Photo Shoot after book
$675 Demand Studios
$58.05 Today.com
$13.17Associated Content
$8.42 AC Performance Payments
$0.49 Paypal dividends

Total
$795.13

As you can see I did pretty good the last two months, especially in November. Don't expect that to continue, as Demand Studios has not added any new articles in quite some time and I have only written one for them since before Thanksgiving.

I have been ChaChaing and writing for ehow and AC lately. It's the holidays so I'm going to start putting more effort into other areas once the New Year comes around and I'm hoping DS gets some articles I feel comfortable writing!

Broadway Diner in Columbia, MO

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:39:00 +0000

I don't usually talk about restaurants I visit on this blog but my experience last Saturday at the Broadway Diner in Columbia, MO was so crazy that I can't help but talk about it!

My mom and sister we're in town for the weekend to help me with a photoshoot (1 year old triplets!) and we went shopping Saturday morning. While waiting for one store to open we decided to grab breakfast. I suggested a Columbia, MO landmark, the Broadway Diner. The Broadway Diner is small, very very small, but when we pulled into the parking lot I knew we could get a seat. We were able to get a seat, the booth right next to the door. My mom and sister sat with their backs to the door while I sat across from them facing the door. It seemed the entire town of Columbia, MO tried to cram into the small space right behind our booth and the door immediately after we sat down.

Just to be fair, this part was not the fault of the Broadway Diner. Three women, two sisters and a friend (this being how much we came to know them over the course of our breakfast) lined up directly behind our booth, pressing against the back of the bench my mom and sister we're sitting in. And by pressing, I mean leaning over and pointing at the food my mom and sister were eating. My mom and sister could not even sit back comfortably.

We tried to ignore them until the area they were standing in cleared some and they did not move. Then. Then! My sister half turns in her chair and pushes with her elbow to try to get them to step back some. This doesn't work as the lady then just rests her arm on top of my sisters.

Let me make this clear. These were not young girls. These women were probably my mom's age and they we're well dressed and groomed well. Women who should have known better. Women who never stopped their conversation through our entire experience.

No, I'm not done.

My sister then turns back around and her expression turns to horror as one of the ladies places her large purse on the back of the booth. The purse then promptly falls into our booth and wedges itself behind my mother's back and the back of the booth she is sitting in and trying to eat her breakfast! The woman reaches down, grabs the purse, pats my mom on the shoulder and says, "I'm sorry!". She then places the purse again on the back of the booth!

At one point my mom makes a nice, but obviously a your bothering me comment to the women. They do not care.

We try to quickly finish our food to just get out of there before one of us makes a scene in the tiny restaurant. Speaking of the tiny Broadway Diner in Columbia, MO. It's dirty. Dirty! To be honest, though, I can get over some dirt if the food and service is good.

So the service was adequate, not that the server wasn't there just that she was so unhappy with her job. My mom liked her pecan pancakes, my sister said her veggie omelette was blah, which I could imagine because I believe they just didn't put any seasoning on mine at all.

We could have even gotten over this but, no, it must get worse. I was the first done eating. Because I felt bad that I had brought my family into this experience and because they came up to help with the photo shoot, I went to the cash register to pay for the meal. While I am paying, the owner (the owner! Of the Broadway Diner!) runs over and cleans our table. The table in which my mom and sister are still eating. Did you get that? Still eating!

We just left. We were done. Well, we had no choice to be done since our food was taken from us. We then spent the rest of the day aggravated that we hadn't said something to the rude woman or the owner.

Broadway Diner in Columbia, MO. I dare you.

Internet Girl Friday

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:47:00 +0000

It seems that everywhere I go today people are talking about this Internet Girl Friday website (is that not the cutest name?)so I figured I needed to mosy on over and see what all the buzz was about!

Internet Girl Friday would be a good work at home opportunity for those who already have experience as an office assistant. It seems that a virtual assistant does all of the same jobs that an out of the house assistant does.

Internet Girl Friday has a training program, which is good because it means they take themselves, and their employees seriously.

Take a look at www.internetgirlfriday.com to see if this may be a good work at home fit for you!

My first coupon adventure

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:12:00 +0000

Over the weekend I went shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. We've been trying to tighten our budget even more for many reasons including building our emergency fund, christmas presents and me having to work less because I got burnt out and am now sick with a very dirty house.

Anyway, I got online to look for all of those fancy printable coupons everybody talks about. I went to couponmom.com I've seen this site on tv but wasn't impressed. For one thing, it was cluttered and then the coupons are actually from coupons.com, a site I had already went to. I clicked on about ten coupons but only three would print. Finding the ten was a reach, as I don't use most of those items.

I also went to coolsavings.com. I found more coupons I could use but none of them printed even though the site said they did. I had to search for help specific to my question and the basic answer was that I may have tried to print too many.

So I went to Walmart with my three printed coupons and a coupon for scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner I got out of a bzz kit. For the three printable coupons I couldn't find the brands offered on the coupons but I was able to get the scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner for cheaper than the generic with the coupon.

So my first coupon adventure was a dud. I saved $1. I'm not sure what I did wrong. I know people talk about this double coupon stuff but my grocery stores don't seem to offer that and if I don't use these items or can't find the brands then it doesn't work either. Any help or suggestions?

Constant Content

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:18:00 +0000

I signed up for Constant Content over a year ago and threw an article up there. Constant Content lets you put your articles or photography up in a kind of marketplace where clients can search and purchase your work. I didn't do much with Constant Content because I was focusing on Associated Content and I wasn't sure about spending the time to put something up there and not knowing when I would get paid.

Well, based on the one article I gave Constant Content the return takes about a year! ;) I just received an email from Constant Content asking if I would accept $10 for one of my articles. I accepted but I will actually only get $6.50 after Constant Content takes their cut. And you have to make $50.00 before they send you any money. I have heard that quite a few people get good results from Constant Content and obviously, it does work and would probably work better if I had more articles up. The best part? The article was bought for usage which means another client can purchase it as well.

You may want to try out Constant Content if you are a writer, photographer, or illustrator.

Frugal Find: Online Layaway Sites

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:58:00 +0000

Well, it may not be the frugalist find but online layaway is a great budgeting tool and will save you money on interest if you were to charge the same item and pay interest.

I know of two online layaway sites, here are some pros and cons of each.

Online layaway site #1 : www.lay-away.com
Pros
Put any item on their site on layaway.
Monthly payments
No credit check
Cons
$35 restocking fee if you do not pay for over a month
Limited items to choose from
6 months is the longest online layaway term available
Online check only

Online layaway site #2 : www.elayaway.com
Pros
Put any item on their site, or on their associated merchants sites, on layaway
Monthly Payments
No Credit Check
Large variety of items on their site alone without vistiting merchants
3 month to 13 month online layaway terms
Cons
1.9% financing fee on any item put on online layaway
$25 restocking fee
Site is very slow

I checked over both sites and have to say I lean towards the online layaway site www.elayaway.com. The only issue I have is that the site was way too slow. I don't know if they are experiencing high traffic or what.

Online layaway may be the way to go for your holiday shopping, especially with the credit freeze at this time. Plus, you won't be paying credit card interest by charging it. Yes, Elayaway does have a 1.9% fee but that is still cheaper than charging. You may want to see if the item you want is available on lay-away.com, if you can pay it off in six months because it does not have the fee but you may like the lower payments and longer terms available through Elayaway.

I may use this service for some items in the future. Have you used an online layaway site? Let me know your experience!

PS
I just tried Elayaway in Firefox and the site is much quicker.

ChaCha Add-Ons

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:41:00 +0000

Travis, over at Scoping the Extremes,left a comment with two add-ons for ChaCha users and I thought they were so great that I didn't want you miss them if you didn't read that post!

Here are the links to both of them. The first will help you fill in often used phrases quicker, and the second (my favorite!) gives you a Shift Helper that keeps track of how long you have been on this shift, how much money you have made and how many questions you have answered. These are must haves for anyone working for ChaCha!

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1347

http://forum.chacha.com/showthread.php?t=79446

Today is the first day

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:36:00 +0000

I am so excited. As I said with my last post, I finished my office. I have been working in there the last two days. I am finding that I am much more productive when I am away from the television. I actually finished my Demand Studios articles at 3 today. I've been working from the time I got up until I crashed. (Putting out four articles a day). Obviously, a great deal of that time was wasted and today I was done early enough to pick up the house before making dinner.

I am most excited to be able to work on some of my other jobs since too much Demand Studios will rot your brain. Seriously. It. Will. Rot. Your. Brain.

I have a home office!

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:09:00 +0000

I have been working on putting my home office together this weekend. It has been a lot of work and I'm exhausted but I got the bulk of it done! I am so excited to have a place to go and work. I am hoping it makes me more productive and organized. I find that I spend more time on my work at home opportunities than I probably need to because I've got the tv on or people calling or I feel pulled to do a load of laundry or clean the bathroom.

I am hoping that having a space will allow me to focus better so that I can work on more work at home opportunities than just Demand Studios. I would also like to spend some time on creative things like painting or crocheting as well as just being able to keep the house clean. And start working out again because I can finally get to the treadmill.

I did two Associated Content articles this weekend and it was so refreshing to write in a format other than the strict rules of Demand Studios.

Here are my bookshelves. I was given these (the bookshelves) for my birthday and am absolutely in love with them. They look so nice in my room and they hold almost all of my stuff!

Chemistry.com commercial

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:23:00 +0000

Have you seen the new chemistry.com commercial with a woman saying she promises to take out the recycling even though he's better at it and he promises not to take himself to seriously?

Is it just me or does it seem an awful lot like she's promising to do the chores and he's promising to be in a good mood?

Not my idea of chemistry.

Cloverfield

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 01:14:00 +0000

We just watched the movie Cloverfield. Fabulous movie.

I just wish they hadn't shot it the way they did because I could barely watch it.

It made me so dizzy I thought I was going to throw up.

Rant

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:03:00 +0000

So I recieved a rejection for one of my Demand Studios article on Making a Poker Table. A harsh rejection. A rejection that made me want to cry. So I emailed the guy they say to email when you have questions. So I did. And he made me want to cry even more. For one thing, he YELLED SPORADICALLY THROUGHOUT THE EMAIL. I'm sure he was just trying to seperate his words from mine but I had the feeling I was being berated even more than I already was.

Not a good day, especially since two days ago they gave me an article increase to 20 articles at a time. Nothing like being on a high and getting slapped right down to a low.

August September Work at Home Real Income

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:53:00 +0000

Ok, here are the last two months worth of work at home real income!

August: Work at Home Real Income
$9.11 Associated Content Performance Payments
$64.48 Dairy Free Blogs
$315.00 Demand Studios
$388.15 Total

September: Work at Home Real Income
$4.97 Associated Content Performance Payments
$5.00 Amazon.com gift certificate from epoll.com
$135.00 Demand Studios
$144.97 Total Cash Plus

A kitchen and dining room worth of laminate tile www.mccallsfloormart.com
Bathroom vinyl www.mccallsfloormart.com
Total = Priceless hehehe

As you can see Demand Studios is making up a large portion of my work at home real income (not to mention the area rug website). I'm still getting back into a rhythm after the utter craziness of the last two months (and here come the holidays!)so, while I will still be mostly focusing my attention on demand studios, I will also be working on the other sites I use.

Here is a section of my paypal account showing payments from Demand Studios and Associated Content (as well as payments going out to my etsy.com addiction!).

First Group Photo Shoot and Classes

noreply@blogger.com (realityrain) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:13:00 +0000

I had my first group photo shoot and I was so nervous! I took a family picture with a group of 17. 17 people! The family seemed to really enjoy the pictures and I have aleady set up other photo shoots with them! This is so gratifying and has convinced me to enroll in two class at a time when I probably have too much stress anyway!

The classes I will enroll in are an SEO class and a digital photography class. I love learning and I really hope the photography class helps me take even better pictures!