Ok, so here are the other things I wanted to talk about. So as a family of five on a single income, I'm forever searching for ways to stretch our money. Any saving I can do on our expenses, to free up some money for getting to fun stuff with the boys, is what I work hard to do. Here are some of the things that I've been doing lately to save some of our hard earned moolah. :)
Mystery Shopping
I've only had the opportunity to do this once locally. I hope to get one more shop in before we move. I visited a local salon and had a shampoo, cut, trim, and my eyebrows waxed for free. :) I paid the total and tip after my service, came home and wrote up a report and submitted it. They checked it out, approved it, and sent me a check. Ok, so that didn't "earn" me money, but I got to get some pampering done and it didn't cost me anything. :)
Using ShopAtHome
So over the holidays, I did nearly all of my Christmas shopping online. It's very difficult to get out and go shopping for gifts with three kids in tow. Especially if the gifts are for them. This year, I really took advantage of using ShopAtHome for my purchases. If you aren't familiar, this is the general idea...you go to ShopAtHome, sign in, find the store you're looking for and start shopping. Then ShopAtHome pays you a percentage of cash back. The percentage is based on the company. For instance, at Toys R Us, I got 1% back, but at Snapfish, I got 12% back. It all adds up and when you get to $20, they send you a check. Over Christmas, I earned $45! It doesn't cost anything and it's super easy...so I LOVE it!!
Ooma
What on earth is Ooma? :) Ooma is Free Home Phone Service. You buy an Ooma device (looks like a black box), you hook it up to your cable/dsl internet connection, you hook the other end up to your regular home phone...now you have phone service. You pay a one time fee to buy an Ooma box (which is then yours to have forever). The box can seem costly to start with ($160 for a refurbished model directly from Ooma), however, the savings are great. After you buy the box and hook it up, you have home phone service...for FREE! Ok, the disclaimer here is that you still have to pay applicable taxes every month. But it's not fees that Ooma charges...they are the Regulatory Compliance Fee, 911 Service Fee, Federal Universal Service Charge, and State and Local taxes. And it's about $3.47 a month. Less than $4.00 a month for phone service. Now, I know lots of people are cell only families, but to me, I want to have a reliable phone for my boys to use should there be an emergency. And we've been a VoIP family for years now, so this isn't an adjustment for us. Saving $30 a month will be wonderful, though. :)
Ok, I have a few more things to blog about, but this post is already longer than all of my posts from last week combined. So, I'll wrap this one up and blog again tomorrow...about SoapNuts and dryer balls. :)
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