Coupon Monday part 6

Good Afternoon!! I’m back home and things are getting back to normal. Our trip was a lot of fun and full of different adventures, including a breakdown on the first day. I’m glad to be back home though as much as I miss the country.
I’ve been out of the loop with the sales that are going on in my area for the last 2 weeks. I am honestly looking forward to getting back to couponing. It’s something that helps relax me.
I know last week we reviewed everything we’ve covered so far. For the next couple weeks we are going to go through knowing your pricing and how to track prices so you can get the best deals. It’s going to be an intense and interesting couple of weeks.
This week we are going to start with price books. Now I know what you’re thinking, “here we go! I’m going to be spending the rest of my life in the grocery store writing down prices for everything on the shelf.” That’s not even close.
A price book is just where you write down the cost of products you normally buy for a couple weeks. This way you know on average what the product costs you and when it will go on sale. You’ll also know when you’re getting the best deal. This will help you to know when to stock up on an item.
There are a lot of ways you can do your price book. You can either have a small notebook or you can have a clip board with several sheets of lined paper. You can even create a spreadsheet. You can write down the prices while you’re in the store or when you get home with your receipt.
Then when you see an item on sale in the store’s weekly ad you compare it to the prices in your price book. If it’s not lower than the prices you have recorded then it’s not a great deal. You can still buy it but it’s not a stock up price.
You want to see what the prices are going to be at a couple different stores. In the Keys we have Publix, Winn Dixie and Kmart. So I would want to track the price of say, potato chips at all 3 stores.
Usually staples are always listed in the store’s weekly ads. If you don’t buy an item every week, you can track the prices in the weekly ad. This is also an easy way to get started.
Once you get the hang of it try moving up to a bigger notebook. It’s a little bit harder the more items you track but it’s worth it when you can stock up on items for next to nothing. It can take some time but it will save you money.
Try to track just 3 items you normally buy over the next couple weeks. Let’s see how much you wind up saving. Please let me know either in the comments or by email. I love to hear success stories.
Have a blessed, safe and inspiring day.

Have a blessed, safe and inspiring day!

Homemade Saturdays

Good Afternoon!! Sorry about Thursday and Friday’s posts. I got a tad busy getting packed up and ready to head home. We are back on the road.
I did try some baby oatmeal though. This was super easy to make. I think it was better than the store bought version. I used old fashioned oats. I threw them in my blender and made them into a fine powder. Mix the powder with formula or breastmilk and your ready to feed your baby.
When I tried it I used cow’s milk. It tasted just like oatmeal. It was just a little mushier.
I’ll be back on my regular schedule on Monday with couponing Monday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

Work at home Wednesdays Part 5

Good morning and Happy Hump Day! We have covered a lot of work at home opportunities so far. There are a ton more ways to work at home online.
We are going to move offline for a couple weeks. We’ll move back to online work in August. This week we are going to go through just one opportunity.
Baby sitting is a great opportunity to make money from home. I babysat through my teenage years. I used to make fairly decent money.
As an adult, I am considering doing this to help with my family’s finances. I don’t know about anywhere else but in the Keys daycare is incredibly expensive, especially for infants. Every daycare charges $150 a week for infants. That’s $600 a month that you have to pay whether your child is there everyday or not. It’s almost impossible for a family to pay and still keep their heads above the water.
Yes there are programs out there to help with the cost. However you have to qualify for them. The income cap for these programs is extremely low.
You can babysit for families and offer a lower rate than the daycares offer. In my area I would offer a rate of $120 a week for full time. If I was going to babysit only for a couple hours I would charge an hourly rate.
A lot of the high school aged girls babysit in my area and only charge $8 per hour. Some of them charge even more. My rate is $10 per hour per kid. Usually if a family has more than two kids I’ll give them a discount. I’ll tell them I’ll charge $20 per hour instead of $30.
There are a lot of ways to market yourself for babysitting. (This is where we go back to the computer.) You can promote your babysitting availability on Facebook. You can also join Care.com. It’s free to join as a basic member. You can promote yourself and you also search for jobs.
You can also promote yourself offline through word of mouth. This is one of the best ways to get jobs. Your clients already know you and like you. They are more likely to recommend you to their friends and family.
This is just one of many ways to make money from home without the necessity of a computer. Hope you’re having a great week. Have a blessed, safe and inspiring day.

Have a blessed, safe and inspiring day!

Trip Update

Good Morning!! It’s a beautiful day here in Indiana. We have been having so much fun!
This past Saturday we went to the fair! My oldest had a blast. He went on every ride he was tall enough for about a million times.
I have been able to work in the garden in the mornings. We have been picking strawberries, cucumbers, cooking herbs, peppers, lettuce. You name it, we’ve picked it.
My oldest helped plant corn. He was so excited this morning to see it had sprouted already. It’s a shame we will be leaving before it’s ready.
We also have gone to an Amish town that’s close to our cabin. We bought some baked goods, jerky and meat. My husband and his sweet tooth had to get some candies too.
My city slicker oldest son has started to be more of a country boy. He has been catching bugs and helping collect eggs in the morning. He’s really been enjoying the great outdoors.
My husband has been working to help repair fences, work on antique cars and do tractor maintenance. He actually enjoys working outside with his hands. I’m so glad he’s enjoying himself too.
This coming week we have a lot of fun planned. We are going to make a slip and slide down a big hill. We are also going to go to an Amish quilt shop and craft shops.
I’ll be back tomorrow with work at home Wednesdays. Hope you’re having a great week.

Have a blessed, safe and inspiring day!

Couponing Mondays Part 5

Good morning! Happy Monday! I’m still on vacation and haven’t been doing much shopping at my normal stores. I’m not sure what the sales have been like or what the coupons have been like either.
I’ve been really out of touch since we got to Indiana. Where we are I don’t get cell service. Luckily we do have internet access so I can submit my posts for all of you.
Last week we talked about combining your store coupons, manufacturer coupons and sales to get the most bang for your buck. This week we are going to review what we have learned so far. I want all of this to stay fresh in your mind before we move on.
The first week I posted about couponing was about knowing your store’s savings programs. In Florida we have Publix and Winn Dixie as our main grocery stores. Up north, there’s all kinds of different stores. Winn Dixie has their rewards program and includes it with the fuel perks. Publix has different programs, like the Publix baby club.
The following week we covered knowing your store’s coupon policy. This is so important. You will be amazed at which stores have really strict policies.
The week before last we went through combining manufacturer and store coupons. You can combine the two on a single item as long as the store’s coupon policy allows it.
I know there’s a lot of rules and thoughts running through your head. If you have any questions about any of this please email me. I will get back to you as quickly as possible. I’m only checking my emails once a day right now so I may not get back to you until the next day.  But I will respond. Have a great week.

Have a blessed, safe and inspiring day!

Homemade Saturdays

Good Saturday Morning!! Hope you are creating a great weekend. Whether you’re stuck inside because of bad weather or outdoors having fun, make sure you are having fun. We are going to a county fair tonight.
Last week we started a new series. I’m testing homemade products and comparing them to the store bought versions. I tested homemade apple baby food already and I’m not much of a cook, but it was easy and delicious.
This week I’m going to talk about homemade baby rice cereal. This one was harder than I thought. The first batch I made was an utter failure. I thought maybe you could just blend dry rice into a fine powder.
That didn’t work so well. My blender was able to get the rice pretty fine. Not fine enough though. It was still a little chunky
So I had to rethink my plan.
I decided to cook the rice first. I let it dry out some. Then threw it in the blender. It still didn’t come out great.
On this one if you’re going to give your baby rice cereal, just buy it from the store. It’s such a pain to try and make it at home. Your baby will also like the store bought version better. I know mine did.
Have a great rest of your weekend. I’ll be back Monday with more couponing information!!

Have a blessed, safe and inspiring day!

Rewards programs Friday part 4

Good Afternoon! Happy Friday!! It’s time for rewards program Friday.
We have covered a lot of rewards programs already. Today we are going to talk about Receipt Hog.
Receipt Hog is a program that rewards you for receipts from any store. You’re given points based on the total dollar amount spent. You can also earn extra points through spins. You earn spins for every receipt you enter once you’ve reached hog wild. Hog wild is when you have entered a receipt every week for 5 weeks.
Once you have earned 1,000 points, you can redeem your points for $5 or a $5 Amazon card. It takes a lot of receipts to earn 1,000 points. I have only earned 440 points and have been at this for about 3 months.
It’s not as easy to earn gift cards or cash but there aren’t any hoops to jump through like some of the other programs.
Tomorrow I’ll be back with my review of homemade baby rice cereal. Have a blessed, safe and inspiring day.

Trip update

Good Morning!! I’m having such an incredible time. I’m really enjoying being out in the country again!
We have been having a lot of fun. My oldest has gotten to ride his first 4 Wheeler and he’s absolutely obsessed now.

We spent some time planting corn and picking strawberries yesterday. I loved that. It really helps relax me.
We had a pretty good trip up. We did have a breakdown in Georgia. Thank God we were able to hobble over to an exit that had a hotel. There was also a tow truck in the driveway of the hotel. The driver of the truck was able to refer us to someone who was willing and able to work on it on Sunday.
After getting the truck fixed we moved right along through Tennessee and Kentucky.

At about 10pm, we finally reached our destination. We were all so relieved to get out of the truck. Especially after the twisty roads we had to use to get here.

Well I’ll be back tomorrow with rewards programs Friday!! Have a blessed, safe and inspiring day.

Work at home Wednesdays part 4

Good morning! It’s hump day! And today is all about working from home.
Like always just a reminder to please be safe with your information. I have applied for or checked out a lot of these opportunities but not all of them. So just remember there are a lot of scams.
This week I’m going to switch gears a little. I’m still covering work at home ops but these are a little different. These are home businessed.
The first one is Scentsy. This is a great program. I have worked the Scentsy business and enjoyed it very much.
Scentsy if you’re not familiar with it is wickless candles. You have a warmer and scented wax cubes. The warmer melts the wax and releases the scent. There are tons of scents to choose from. You make 20 % of your sales. There are bonuses available for high sales.
Another company is Amway Global.

Lianniecreations.etsy.com

As most of you know I spent the majority of my weekend traveling. While we were on the road I hunkered down and started working in the crocheted baby blanket I have been working on here and there for months. It’s finally done.
I’m so happy that I could finally finish it. It has definitely been a rough project. For some reason this time my heart just wasn’t in it for a while.
Now it’s done and I can move on with my crafting life. My next project is going to be a mixed media piece but I won’t be working on that until we get back. So for the next couple weeks I’ll be posting about our trip instead of Lianniecreations.etsy.com. This includes Thursday of this week.
Also starting when we get back Thursdays will have a new topic. I haven’t quite decided what yet but I feel like I don’t get enough done between Tuesday and Thursday for there to be much updating. I’ll be back tomorrow with work at home Wednesdays. I’ll post a pic of the blanket on Thursday with our trip pics.
Have a blessed, safe and inspiring day.