Aldi

Do you have an Aldi grocery near you? If so, it can be a good way to make your food dollar stretch even further. We go a couple times a month, and stock up on staples ~ flour, non-fat yogurt, shredded cheese, salad dressing, etc. Trips in and out are quick, since there is only one brand ~ none of that standing there for 20 minutes trying to figure out which brand of cereal is the best buy! It's worth trying ~ most of the things we've tried have been pretty good, and leave us enough extra pennies to splurge on the name-brand things that we're really picky on! Most stores only take cash, debit (and maybe food stamp cards, I'm not sure), so leave the checkbook at home.

A couple of my favorites:

~ Ginger sesame salad dressing (makes a great marinade)
~ Plain, non-fat yogurt (cheap in 32 oz tub, great as sour cream substitute)

Happy eating!

Cashduck Proof of Payment

Advertisers paid for our Winnie the Pooh nursery redecoration!

We just finished up the Classic Pooh nursery! Had such fun repainting, doing Pooh bear silhouettes, finding great Pooh bear border and bedding to go along with it, too! And the best part was that someone else paid for it :-)

Last month was the big GPT (get-paid-to-try) experiment. I'd been reading about these sites that pay you to complete surveys, try products, etc., and thought that I'd give it a shot. I was hoping to at least earn enough to buy a couple packs of diapers! Having read a few hints, I got a gmail account (to handle all the spam that comes), a free voice mail number and learned how to clear cookies from my web browser.

WELL......... it turns out that it was even better than I'd thought it would be! I joined 3 sites, made sure not to repeat offers, and focused first on the freebies. These are things like filling out surveys, giving your email address for contests, etc. I tried a few paid trials ~ you can get paid to try out Blockbuster Online, or sign up for some online photo sites, etc. One of the sites (Deal Barbie Pays) was running a great contest where you could get up to $1.00 extra for each offer you completed in a day ~ since I was fairly new to this, there were LOTS of offers I hadn't done yet, and was able to earn an extra $100! Another site, Cash Lagoon, offered payout very quickly ~ within 24-48 hours to your Paypal account ~ great for funding some of my ebay purchases!

Between the 3 sites, I was able to earn enough to totally redecorate the nursery! Paint (with scotchguard, so the crayon will wipe right off!), painting supplies (rollers, brushes, drop cloths, etc.), a super cute bedding set, new baseboards, wallpaper border, etc. In just 3 weeks I was able to earn around $500!

This won't replace my main WAHM job as an online tutor, but it's definitely a great resource for some extra cash for specific projects, with minimal time investment. :-) If you never tried it, now's a great time to give some freebies a shot and just see how it goes!

Another contest.......

http://www.5minutesformom.com/1411/sick-bear-contest/

What to do when the stomach flu hits your little ones? A mom has come up with a neat idea, a Sick Bear cup just the right size to handle the onslaught from little tummies. It comes in pink or blue, with handles so that little ones can hold it themselves. Great for car sickness, too! Maybe they need one for mommy-bears-to-be as well!

Head on over to the site to enter and win by Tuesday!