September Totals

September Totals
clothes Loads dried outside - 3
Secret shopping - $49 (through 9/6) this doesn't include reimbursement amounts or free stuff.
Associated Content -
Surveys -
eBay -

This month I'm doing two "extras" - a children's consignment sale, and a garage sale. We had some annual expenses we need to cover (auto registration, children's shots, etc.) and need about $500 extra this month. We hope to raise about $200 from the garage sale, and another $100 from the consignment sale. I'm also looking for eBay fodder as I prepare for the sales.

Super Secret Shopping Day!

Well today's one of those rare days when everything I do is Secret shopping. I love it when that works out.

This morning was breakfast at a local fast food place. They have me evaluate the drive through and the walk-in. After I complete my walk-in portion-- I drive to a nearby business, fill out that portion, then come back (I usually change my hair, slip on a jacket and sunglasses...) and do the drive through. I must taste the drive through food--but I'm usually not hungry anymore (having just eaten!) so I bring the rest home to dear husband. I do drink the second cup of coffee though-- as he's not a coffee lover like me.

They paid me $7.50 and the two breakfasts.

After spending some coupon time, I'm off to lunch with the family at a local sit-down restaurant. This one was chosen as it is near my broker's office-- where I need to drop off a 401k rollover check. BBQ for the whole family. The kids are looking forward to this part.

Then it's off to the grocery store. I'm working the coupon angle, and I get to buy $10 worth of groceries on their dime while I evaluate the store. I'm doing two of these, and it just happens that the store I'm evaluating is doing a deal where when you buy items, you get a $ off your next purchase. This will make the second store be worth about $17.50 in groceries. Plus I get make a cool $10 on top of the groceries- all within 5 miles of my home.

I did the Walgreens P&G deal this week-- so I won't have to use up my whole $10 on milk, as I have a Register Rebate to buy that this week. All in all, a good shopping day!

August Totals

August's Totals to Date: (upd 8/4)

Secret Shopping: $23.00 (4)
Surveys: $5
Loads dried outside: $1.40
Focus group: $100 (cash)
Free Meals (primarily from secret shopping): $42.00 (3)
Free Groceries (couponing):$24.00
Free Groceries (secret shopping):$18.00
eBay (Garage sale items): $21.41

Dang! Electric Bill

If you follow this blog at all than you most likely already know what I'm doing to cut electric costs.

MY ELECTRIC BILL WENT UP $7 this month.

Now sure, I know-- it's summer in Texas. And yes, we had our in-laws here for a week in June, during which we had to lower the A/C temp. I was really hoping for a decrease.

Here's some of the things we've done: (with fees, our electric works out to 13 cents per KWH.

• Not using the dryer.
• Ditched the outside fridge
• Not using the "heat-dry" cycle of the dishwasher.
• Washing clothes on mostly cold/cold cycles.
• Turned AC up to 85 degrees all the time.

Although rationally I know it would have gone up even more. (Even at 85-- the AC cranks on frequently in Texas) but I was REALLY hoping to see a drop. OH WELL!

On the positive spreadsheet side, I've snagged a few more secret shops this month. These included another grocery shop and a movie shop. I'm going to add them to the July total once they are paid.

Cutting Cable to Save Money

I wanted to pass along a site which is FILLED to the brim with information on couponing. FREE information. No clubs to join, no nothing. These women share their advice and helpful hints and you learn bundles about saving money.

As you know by now, I won't spend a buck to save one.

The site is called hotcouponworld.com in case you were wondering, this isn't a referral link. As mentioned, the site is FREE. It's helped me, so I'm including it here. If you are interested in a for pay couponing link, feel free to email me-- and I'll pass that along, along with my referral code!

Giving Up Cable

When I told my sisters we were cutting cable, they looked at me funny-- like maybe we were living in cardboard boxes and eating out of dumpsters to save money (hey!....) But I decided to give it a try. When you are truly nickel and diming your budget, drying clothes outside to save 60 cents a load-- it's like a $60 chunk you can save all at once. That's a lot of coupons!

Now before you start whining, I kids too. They get bored too. So this week, they are watching a few Disnet movies to get over the hump. No what, I haven't heard ONE "I want Sponge Bob" complaint, not one. And a funny thing happened--- I'm managing to make it without HGTV ot the Food Channel, too.

Next month, instead of paying the $60 bill, I'll buy a TV antenna. (A good one.) Then we can add back PBS for the girlies. In the meantime, we are finding new games to play. Here's just a few thing we can do for $60 a month as a family:

Eat at CiCi's - $16.00 (one still eats free)
Go to the local Pool/water park ($6/pp) twice
Buy new sidewalk chalk 50+ times. (not that we need to!)
Blow a full container of bubbles 120 times.

You get the idea...

Wash Your Crocs in the Washing Machine

Money saving tip for today - Did you know you can put Crocs through the washing machine? You can! This will prevent your kiddos from needing a new pair before they are outgrown.

I washed a pair yesterday, and they came out looking brand new! (Tip-- take any Jibitz out first.)

Do not put Crocs in the dryer!

Here's a bonus $ tip isn't for everyone.... POTTY TRAIN!
I have one who has been less than willing, but we went after it over the last two weeks. By going ahead and being consistent and persistent with training, we can now save $20/week by not buying diapers!

July earning update.

Published another article through AC. (warning: If you're a Dave Ramsey junkie, you might want to take a deep breath before reading...) Here.

Asociated content : $23.06 updated 7/12
Secret shopping: $104 (updated 7/12)
Surveys through Survey spot: $15 (updated 7/12)
Loads dried outside : $6.80
eBay sales:$59 (this is only selling stuff that would be bound for the garage sale pile, but the kids are worried...)

Updated 7/9- added a grocery secret shop, plus another movie secret shop. TIP: Grocery secret shopping is not worth going out of your way for! I ONLY take the ones I would shop near anyway. Otherwise, it is too little money for too much work!

Today's secret shopping: I ge tto buy 3 packages of candy on my way home, and they are paying me $12 to do it, plus picking up a movie rental-- $6 for doing that, on top of the movie. This weekend I have a grocery shop-- which will add $9 to my very tiny grocery budget for the week.

7/12 update - Got a SUPER secret shop at a high end department store (purchase/return) paid $27! Plus another movie shop, and a lunch. I also got another article published with AC- it's on (what else?) Secret Shopping! I have several more lined up this month.

100 Ways to Save a $1 without paying for anything

There are many, many money saving ideas on the web. And we are in need of saving money. (Really?) But what I find myself becoming frustrated with, is that most of these ideas COST something!

Now when you are truly living on a shoestring budget, you can't pay for money saving ideas. Like buying a new energy efficient dishwasher. Sure, that would help the electric bill, but how is shelling out $800 plus going to help my bottom line? Not saying it's not a good idea, just saying this is not my focus.

So what is my focus? My focus is to finish Dave Ramsey's baby Step 2 by applying every available cent to pay off debt. This requires living on an extremely tight budget for a while. Every penny counts. So I started looking for ways to save $1 a day, without spending any money. I'm not talking about "cut your morning latte and save $4" kind of advice (c'mon, really? If I had $4 to blow a day on a latte, would I need these ideas?) I'm talking about serious STRETCHING here.

So I'm starting the list. Real things that real people with no extra money can do to save $1/day. Sometimes, it might be more. But $1 a day, combined with the CrashCrate, Associated Content and Secret Shopping Dollars, hopefully will make a $10/day difference, and that starts to add up.

Today's $1 tip: Stop your dishwasher before the "dry" cycle. If you have an older dishwasher, you have to do this manually by opening the door to the dishwasher. If you have a newer dishwasher, do not choose the "heat dry" setting. Almost all of the cost associated with running your dishwasher has to do with heating the water, and the dry cycle. Now this little tip is probably only going to save you 50 cents for today. This of course doesn't take into consideration how much it heats up your kitchen, requiring extra A/C in the summer. Here's our way to get the other 50 cents. We have started using 1 cup and 1 plate per day, per person. Each person has a cup they use throughout the day, that gets washed at night. And one plate. After breakfast, they use their napkin to clean their plate. (We are still using paper napkins for now, I wouldn't recommend this if you are using cloth napkins.) I usually have to wipe my kiddos down after waffles with a baby wipe in the morning, so I use this wipe to wipe their plate at the end. Not impressed? Well in the summer, this move is allowing me to do only 1 load of dishes a day, instead of two. We occasionally have to get out a second plate or fork, but not often.


Bonus tip: You can stretch your dish washing detergent by adding regular baking soda in a 50/50 ratio. Baking soda is in most households, and so is dishwashing detergent- so hopefully that one won't cost you anything.

Wohoo! Free Money from Telling People What You Think!

If you enjoy telling people what you think, here's a great outlet. I found a site called Associated Content where you can write an article, and they will pay you!

I just had my first one published- on what else? free activities for families. It paid $5 more dollars toward our debt snowball this month, an easy and fun way to make some extra cash.

In addition to CashCrate, which has earned me $6 so far this month. Not bad for 2 days... With CashCrate, you also get paid on your referral's surveys. Not a bad deal.



Totals for June:
CashCrate $5.75
Associated content $5
Secret Shopping $78.75
Dryer loads saved (63 cents per load) : 2

Solar Dryer Can Save on Electricity

We at Penny Pinching central are looking for drastic ways to cut the bills this month, really trying to think outside the box. So yesterday, I decided to start using the solar dryer this summer, instead of my electric dryer.

Solar Dryer? -- okay really just a fancy way to say I dried outside using a clothesline. A typical dryer uses 4.7 kWh per load, and on most days I do one load. (Some days two.) With taxes, our electric company (here in Texas, electricity isn't cheap...) charges with taxes 13.299 cents per kWh.

So for 1 load I save about 63 cents, about $18- 19 bucks a month. Probably more with the extra loads. Is it worth it? You bet! It took me about 5 minutes to hang the clothes up on hangers and another 5 to bring them in. But I saved time on folding, because most of them could be moved directly to the closet.

I don't have an officially line yet-- I just hung the hangers on my patio set. But if this works out- maybe I'll string a line inside my fence.

A lot of HOA have rule against clotheslines, so be sure to check your neighborhood first. Most though, just say you can't have laundry hanging in full view. So if you have a fence, that's easy enough to work around.

As promised, a list of Secret Shopping Companies

Secret shopping is a great way to stretch the family budget. (Rubber dollar, remember??) You won't get rich secret shopping-- but it can definitely make you feel less constrained, especially on the food/entertainment budget.

Here's a list of companies which I personally know to be reputable. Meaning, they pay, they don't sell your information and you do not need to pay them to be a shopper. Enjoy!

Service Evaluation (LOVE this company! Great stores!)
SecretShopper
Volition (okay, not an actual Secret Shopping company, but a great resource)
A Closer Look
A Top Shop
Amusement Advantage
Ardent Services
Bare Associate International

There are many, many more-- and I'll try to update this list with more of them. One thing to consider is that most tend to concentrate in one Geographical area. And the more reliable, well written results you give for one company, the more jobs they will offer.

Earning Extra Money by Secret Shopping

I’ve been doing secret shopping now for a couple of years, and I wanted to put a post in here, in case anyone else wants to try it. I can’t tell you who I’ve shopped, because each company makes you sign an agreement saying you won’t. It’s part of the deal.

I will tell you we’ve eaten a lot of great free dinners, seen free movies, and gotten free groceries. It’s not a ton of money, and it won’t replace a full-time income (darn!) but—lots of them you can bring kids in tow, which is a definite plus. And the key to the plan here is that EVERY PENNY COUNTS.

Do not pay for this.

Legitimate secret shopping companies do not charge a fee to sign up. I consider companies that charge a fee for a list of these companies to be a scam. Since the companies tend to be pretty localized on where they offer shops, it may take some digging to find the ones that work well in your area. Start by checking internet bill boards with a search for Secret shopping companies. Here’s a tip, use keywords like “best paying secret shopping company Texas” or “quickest secret shopping company Dallas” rather than just “Secret shopping”. This will bring up more bulleting board entries, and that’s where you’ll find a lot of information (good and Bad) on legitimate companies. One thing I’ve found that really helps is to get certified ($15) through MSPA. They are not a secret shopping company, but rather a professional organization for secret shoppers. After getting certified through them, I noticed the number of shops I received went up, and the dollar amount went up also.

I’ve gotten shops that pay/give free merchandise everywhere from $5 - $105 dollars. Last month, I ate free fast food 3 times, fed my family barbeque at a sit-down restaurant for free, watched 4 free movie rentals, and got $10 in free groceries at a store I shop weekly anyway. Not a bad way to stretch the budget.

Where to start?

Start at the Mystery Shopping Providers Association website. www.mspa.org Take the Silver Certification test (currently costs $15.00). Please note that this fee is NOT a “membership fee” – but a test you take to certify you have the skills to do a decent job. You will get a certificate number, which many of the legitimate shopping companies ask for on their sign up page. There is also a list of legitimate companies, offering jobs. You will need to sign up with each company separately, over the Internet.

Then you’ll want to bookmark on your computer a list of companies that are legitimate, and check their website daily. Most will send out email reminders when jobs are posted, but I find by the time the jobs are posted, most of the great assignments are gone. Check this list daily. Different companies post on different days, so if you can get the day they post (look for a pattern) then check it several times that day.

Be flexible. Many of the better jobs I’ve gotten were emergency calls, last minute fill-ins. These usually pay better, because of need.

Downsides?

Many companies (but not all) require a purchase, and reimbursement is slow. Mystery shopping is slow paying work. It’s taken some companies as long as 2 months to get me a check, even though you enter your results the same day. So don’t blow your grocery money. Many are switching to Paypal payments, and that has sped up the process. Also, once you get started, you can use your Paypal card instead of a credit card to fund shops requiring a credit card. (Some do.) I started out by taking only the jobs with no purchase requirement, or that used a membership I already had (at the time, things like movie rentals and tanning). In fact, I still keep my movie membership and use it only when I have shops that pay for the rental.

Another downside is that many of them ask you to pay cash. This was never an issue for me, as we are trying to live cash-based anyway. But it does take some planning ahead.

Have you Tried Survey Savvy?

Making a few bucks, a few minutes at a time..
I like to do some surverys on line for a little extra cash. I find that in 5 or 10 minutes a night, I can make a buck or two after the kiddos go to bed. I'm doing these for a couple of different companies, and we've gotten a $15-20 check every other week or so. Not bad for spare minutes.

So I recently started with Survey Savvy, and I've been HAPPILY surprized by how many paying surveys you get pretty quickly.

Want to check it out? Here's how...
Click on the link below to sign up:
https://www.surveysavvy.com/?id=3011326&action=join

Then..fill out the portrait's on the site so they can match you with the available surveys. New ones get posted every once in a while, so it doesn't hurt to check back. They have tiny cups of coffee to tell you how long they take (5 minutes a cup) but I found they went much faster than this. Might be slower if you are on dial up.

You can make money from referrals, too. Most of the surveys I've taken are pretty quick.

DID YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE of KROGER's cereal DEAL TODAY?
3 boxes of cereal (General Mills) and a Gallon of milk for $5. That's a serious deal if you have little people in the house. This is what Jim Cramer would call a "M'on Back"... which I did-- a second time before the deal ended, since we go through 2 gallons a week.

Rubber Dollar Starts Today

Why Rubber Dollar ?

We have to stretch them as far as possible, as if they were rubber. It's all about creative financing.

A little about me. I have two small children (still hoping for a 3rd) and.. I've got debt. This is the part I'm hoping to change. So today we started making SERIOUS changes. And, started the blog.

I will post ideas, recipies, and help I've gotten along the way- along with nifty ideas to make money without going back to work full-time.

(in interest of full disclosure I have a part-time job I call "the mall job")

We're also trying to redo and outdated house on the SUPER CHEAP. So I'll include things we've discovered along that journey, too.

Mary Kates