The Nitty Gritty Details: Part 4

I realize there's been a delay in my posting, so if you need to catch up on Parts 1-3, you can check them out here, here, and here.

I promised you a Swagbucks explanation for this post. In the meantime, though, Crystal over at MoneySavingMom.com posted an excellent series on how to maximize your earnings through Swagbucks. So instead of beating a dead horse, here are the links for her posts:

15 Ways to Earn More Swagbucks (Part 1)

15 Ways to Earn More Swagbucks (Part 2)

15 Ways to Earn More Swagbucks (Part 3)

I especially like the last post where she gives a breakdown for how to earn enough points to get an Amazon gift card each month--super easy!

What are your favorite ways to earn points quickly and easily?

Show Me the Money

guest post by my mom

Ok, so you’ve heard me talk about MyPoints and Swagbucks, and Pampers Gifts to Grow and numerous other “points” programs. But let’s cut to the chase….how much do you really get from these? I think if I had found a blog post discussing the nitty-gritty numbers, it might have inspired me to start using these methods to stretch our budget sooner than I did. So, I thought I’d share it with you in case you’ve been hesitant to jump into the crazy pool.

With the start of the new year, I began a little income experiment. I started keeping a spreadsheet of all the "income" I generate. Given that I am a stay-at-home mom and don't work outside my home at all, this is a pretty good challenge. The things I include in my "income" are:

:: Gift cards - These are generally used for gift giving occasions (whether I give the actual gift card to the person or use it to buy their gift). I count these as income because it is money that would otherwise come out of our monthly budget. Money that does not leave our account can be used for other things, and we weren't expecting to keep that money, so I've counted it as "income".

:: Cash - Actual money generated from survey companies or any of the points programs where I can turn my points into good 'ol Benjamins. Also under this category are items that I've sold on Ebay, Amazon, or Craigslist.

Those are the guidelines and I plan to see how much is saved/generated during the course of the year (Wow. Does that scream nerd or what?). So here's the tally for January:

Gift cards - $305 in giftcards

Cash - $891 This was an unusually high month because we had some big ticket items that we sold. I definitely don't anticipate a repeat of this every month.

For a total of $1196 generated since January 1, 2011. (!!!!!) Yes, I just about peed myself too when I saw that number. Like, I said, it's not a typical month as far as selling items went, however the gift cards are a pretty good representation.

You want to do it now too, huh? Go sign up at the links above, and check back next week when I give you some pointers on how to get the best bang for your buck for each point system. For additional points programs, read here.

Fantastic Freebies: January

January was iffy. But considering we just moved to a new town, it's ok. Since January was our "getting settled" month, my mom wasn't great at keeping track of all her freebies, but February will be better.

So, here's what she got this month:

- 3 books (yay! She can use these to Book It)

- People food (Kashi cereal--who names food "Kashi" anyway?)

- The best smelling dog food ever. It made me want to eat it right out of the bag. But I couldn't eat it since she had to take a picture of it. So, instead I posed with it.

Financial Goals Update - January

guest post by my Mom

Without further ado, here's how we did in January:

:: Tell Wells Fargo where they can shove our mortgage. 3.63% gone!

:: Add to emergency savings. Definitely an A+ here this month. We're nearly done with our initial goal!

:: Pay for only 50% of gifts out of pocket - This went well. I bought a few gifts and was able to pay for some using money earned from surveys and MyPoints. I bought 5 gifts this month and only paid for 1 out of pocket!

This month was mostly characterized by using our stockpile to come in under budget. Our new home is smaller than our last and so we don't have as much storage space. As a result, we need to be more selective about what we stock up on. So, we're spending the next few months paring down our large stockpile of toiletries and pantry items (these are items that we moved with us from our last home).

Hellloooooo February!

Financial Goals for 2011

Let me assure you, these are not MY goals. These are my peoples' goals. My top goals are:

1. Eat more snacks.

2. Train my baby sister to get me more snacks.

3. Get a new blue toy.

But my people want to use my blog to tell you about their financial goals for 2011.

This year, my people really only have one big goal: Tell Wells Fargo where they can shove our mortgage. They have some other minor goals, but really, 99% of their efforts this year are going towards this single goal.

So, instead of giving detailed monthly financial updates, I've decided to take a different route. I will update you on what percentage of our goal we've completed and what things we did each month to come in under budget. Coming in under our budget is our best way to intensify our efforts, so hopefully we'll make some great progress (and can show Wells Fargo who's boss :) ) while not scrimping on the fun and milkbones.

Their other two minor goals are:

:: Add to emergency savings - They have a specific dollar amount they would like to add

:: Pay for only 50% of gifts out of pocket - This one requires some clarification. They aren't looking to scrimp on gifts, just that they want to be able to use alternate methods of income to pay for the gifts, rather than using the money in their gift savings account. Any money left over at the end of the year in the gift fund will be donated to charity. This is a great encouragement to come in under budget since it means the "extra" money will benefit someone in need!

Tune in each month to see the progress!

Build it up to tear it down

You might remember all my stockpiling from last year. I got some phenomenal deals from Medco and a few other places.

If I had been thinking straight, I would have stockpiled some rawhides. That would have made more sense.

Anyway, now that we've moved to a new house (which I LOVE), we just don't have the same amount of storage for a ginormous stockpile. This lines up perfectly with my people's financial goals for 2011! (More on that later) We're stretching our dollars around here, and what better way to cut back than to use up what you have? We've gotten all sorts of freebies, trial size items, etc., so we're going to use some of those up to make room in the closet. The money saved will be used towards extra principle payments on my people's mortgage. We built up a great stockpile when the prices were hot, and now we're using it up and paring it down to make for less cluttered cabinets. Hopefully, by the time we've used up some of the stockpile, I'll have found where the best deals are in our new town.

As for those rawhides? My birthday is in June. Please buy me these. The stockpile should be cleaned out a bit by then and we will have oodles of room to store rawhides, snacks, and blue toys. There's no need to hold back.

Declutter Challenge: The Final Results

guest post by my Mom

Remember all the 8 million posts last year about decluttering? We had our hearts set on streamlining life, removing clutter, and having a really smooth move. We worked really hard to pare our home down to just items that are used, loved, and/or have super sentimental value. I definitely wouldn't call us minimalists, but we had gotten to a point where sheer laziness was letting stuff pile up in our closets. We weren't using the items, but we also weren't funneling them to folks who would use them. That's pretty wasteful. And lazy.

So, we hit the decluttering hard last year. During the final weeks of our move, I wasn't able to keep count since we were packing and then living out of hotels for about 2 months, but at this point, I think it's safe to say that if I didn't meet the goal, I got awfully close.

The interesting thing, is when we compared our total household good weights from our move in 2009 with our move this year, we were 2000 lbs less. The crazy part? When we moved in 2009, we didn't have a baby. So, in theory, we "should" have more "stuff". Right? No, we have a full TON less "stuff"!

And we don't even miss it.

And we moved into a smaller house and aren't cramped.

And it's less to clean and maintain.

And so I have more time for my family.

If you've been worried about jumping into decluttering, let me tell you, I can't encourage you enough. It's a little bit addicting once you realize just how much you don't miss the stuff you give away/sell. If you have a bunch of stuff in closets or your garage--how much good is all that stuff doing for you? You don't see it and don't use it (which is probably why it's in a closet). Do you really need to keep it? Probably not. Start small, maybe a linen closet or the junk drawer in the kitchen. I promise you, you'll enjoy the benefits of a less cluttered life!

Type A's Need Not Apply

Budgeting is hard work. It's not easy. It requires forfeiting a lot. And about a billion revisions....during the first week. This isn't a test and no one gets a 100%. Don't let anyone make you feel like a failure for not creating the "perfect" budget.

There's no such thing.

:: Take it slowly - Each month is different and presents different issues and obstacles. If you need to, budget by paycheck instead of by month. Once you get the hang of that, then stretch it to the month.

:: Establish a Finance Committee - The committee might consist of just you and your dog. Or you and your spouse. Or just you. But set aside some time each month to evaluate how your month went. What do you need to tweak for next month? What worked well? Did you over-budget for some areas and under-budget for others? Designate time out of your month to really hash out how things went.

:: Give yourself a healthy dose of grace - Your budget likely won't work the first few months, especially if you're trying to create a zero-based budget. Don't beat yourself up. You'll only get discouraged. Find some like-minded friends (even if they're just on the internet!) to help you stay positive and encouraged.

But most importantly....keep at it!

Fantastic Freebies: December Travel Edition

This month's freebies are mostly items collected from hotels since we were on the road. Not pictured (but still free) from this month were 2 single-load Tides and 1 72-count box of Pampers baby wipes. Pictured above are a few shampoos, conditioners, soaps, make-up removal cloths, a sponge, and 2 single loads of dishwasher detergents.

Most of the toiletry items that we collected along our travels have been used already, so this is what's left. The beauty of it is that using these items have stretched what we have for the month. These are items that would have been thrown away by the hotel staff; instead, we just took them with us.

Minimal? Yes. Helpful? Absolutely.

Now that we're settled in our new home, I hope to have more/better freebies to share with you by the end of this month.

Did you get anything good for free this month?

"We're not that desperate"

guest post by my mom

"You guys are just really extreme."

"We're not that desperate."

"We make good money. We're fine."

These are the responses I usually get when mentioning extra ways we earn a little money and stretch our budget. We use things like Swagbucks, MyPoints, Ebates, and InboxDollars. We also collect MyCokeRewards, Huggies Enjoy the Ride, and Pampers Gifts to Grow points. All these things combine to make our budget stretch a bit farther. Did you know you don't even have to buy diapers to join and use the Huggies and Pampers programs? You can find plenty of free codes online (without buying a thing) to earn enough points to redeem.

Who says you have to be desperate to want to make your money go farther?

Let's do a little math and see how extreme this is. Let's say you buy 2 gifts per month over the course of the year and spend $25 per gift--so $50 per month. That's $600 per year. What could you do with $600 per year if you....say.....used gift cards that you earned by using some of the sites listed above instead of using the money out of your monthly budget.

We'll even take it a step farther. What if you used gift cards that you earned from the extreme websites and instead put that $600 into a regular 'ol ING savings account. If you're 30 today, that means that by the time you retire, that $600 per year that you weren't spending on gifts would have turned into nearly $49,000. Can you think of something fun to do with $49,000 when you're retired?

Think about it. That's just a conservative guesstimate. I mean, twelve gifts in a year is a pretty low number. Most people buy that many just at Christmas.

To be clear, I'm not talking about chintzing on gifts or anything. All I'm saying is, if you were planning on buying your mom a sweater from Ann Taylor for her birthday, does she know if you paid out of pocket for it or if you used a gift card you earned for free from opening a few emails? Not unless you tell her.

Or, you know, if she reads your blog.

Contentment

Guest post by my mom

I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content.

We just moved to a new area and Dorothy, we're not in Kansas anymore. I tell you what. THIS is how the other half lives. See the picture up there? That's approximately the 9514th Porche we've seen since arriving.

We've been here a week.

We are definitely preaching to ourselves these days. We worked hard to get out of debt and stay that way and we're not looking to go back. But boy, is it easy to see how you can get stuffitis out here.

What do you mean? You've never heard of "stuffitis"? You know....the swelling of your stuff. Wanting more stuff and convincing yourself you NEED more stuff. Yeah. Stuffitis.

Thankfully, we live in a not-so-ritzy neighborhood, so it's easier to steer clear of all the flashy stuff since most of our neighbors don't have it either. I feel like Dave Ramsey should send missionaries out here. I mean, I'm quite certain that there are many folks in our area that CAN afford the big house(s), 5 cars, yacht, etc. But I've gotta believe that a large portion of the people driving all these fancy cars are just trying to keep up with the Joneses. And the Mellons. And the Carnegies. And Vanderbilts. And Rockefellers. And the list goes on.

It's easy to see how you can get so caught up in what others have that you forget what you DO have (and let's be honest, it's not all YOURS anyway). Be sure to count your blessings frequently. I'll help: You're an American, you (clearly) have internet, and therefore also electricity....

And when in doubt, just remind yourself...

I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content. I WILL be content.

Sigh of Relief

Guest post by my mom

If you've been reading this blog for more than a week, you know that we had to move out of our house. It wasn't an ideal situation. In fact, it was kinda a crisis. Mostly because with two dogs and a baby, we were pretty limited as to where we could go. My husband is in the military, and we were scheduled to leave for an entirely different state in about 6 weeks. As a result, we really couldn't rent a new place for a month--where we currently live, there just aren't options like that which are financially realistic for us.

We are huge fans of Dave Ramsey. So, we are very committed to staying out of debt. And yes, we really mean no debt. No credit cards. No store cards. No gas cards. No student loans. No car payments. "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law" Romans 13:8.

Add these two things together and we were surprisingly prepared. We moved ourselves out of our house. And paid for it. Because we choose to live well below our means (which, we understand is weird), we were able to just focus on figuring out where to stay. While that was still no easy task, it was far less stressful than figuring out where we were going to stay AND accruing debt from a move or worrying about how we were going to pay for it.

I don't mean to sound boastful at all. But we are truly thrilled with how much traction we're able to see in our life since adopting Dave's Baby Steps. We're able to actually see progress in our goals which is an amazing feeling. While we're still living out of a hotel at the moment and aren't sure exactly where we're going to live when we move, we've still breathed a sigh of relief because this situation never became a financial burden or crisis. We set the goals to get out of debt and stay that way, and it's paid off more than we could have imagined.

As the year comes to a close, many folks start thinking about goals for the new year. Even if you're not into Dave Ramsey, I would highly encourage you to sit down and actually write out goals (both financial and personal) for the new year. Jot them down in a place that you'll see them regularly, so that you can refer back to them throughout the year. If you happened to do that in 2010, evaluate where you're at. Are you ending the year where you thought you'd be? Are you happy with your progress--or lack of it? If you aren't seeing the results you'd like, think about trying something different for the new year. It doesn't need to be Dave Ramsey's program (though I can't recommend it enough!), but try something different.

Now to work on my own goals list for 2011...

There, but for the grace of God, go I

It's kind of ironic when you think about it. I write about saving money (among other things) and, even with all our efforts to be wise stewards of what we've been blessed with, the effects of the rough economy are still knocking at our door.

You've probably notice my blog absence. And, by "you've", I mean all three of you who read this. Two days after my last post, my people found out that the house they've been renting was being foreclosed on and they had to move out by the end of the month. That gave them 2 weeks to pack up their belongings and figure out where they were going to live. No small task when you weren't planning on going anywhere for another 2 months. Oh yes, we were planning on moving to California--still are. But that's not until December. This was October. October is not December.

So, that's my reason for my lack of blogging. I am having my mom type up a few posts for me which will publish over the next week-ish. I am still doing lots of fun dog-type things, so there is still plenty of writing material....there has just been very little writing time.

Just wanted you to know I'm working on it. I haven't forgotten the three of you.

Fantastic Freebies: September

Didn't I tell you this month was going to be good? Here's what I got:

- 2 boxes Marcal Small Steps tissues

- 1 box Pampers wipes

- 6 single load Tides

- 4 servings Proportions dog food

- 2 samples Emergen-C

- 3 samples Oxy face wash

- 1 sample Downey fabric softener

- 1 full size sample Aveeno body cream

- 1 full size sample Aveda body wash

- 1 sample Nivea body wash

- Sample pack of Post-it notes and Post-it tabs

- 25 custom thank you notes from TinyPrints.com with envelopes

- 1 sample Stayfree

- 1 sample pack Seventh Generation baby wipes

I'm telling you....minimal effort = lots of goodies. Check out Toni's thoughts on freebies too.

Consignment shop

I have no idea what a consignment shop is, but my people keep talking about taking some of my baby sister's stuff there. I mean, "consignment shop" just isn't a phrase that Fod and I toss around very often. So, I Googled it.

Consignment: shipping to a dealer who pays only for what is sold and who may return what is unsold. First used circa 1668.

Ok, first off, that sounds like shots at the SPCA. You get neutered and get shots if you get a home. If not, well....*shrug* I hope this isn't the same thing. I also asked Fod what it was and he said that it was a place that people could take cocker spaniels who steal lunch meat. I hate to draw attention to myself, so I just left the subject alone.

Ahem.

My people took a big bin of my baby sister's stuff to this "consignment shop" and got money in return for it! After further clarification, apparently she took stuff to this shop where they decided what they wanted and then they gave her a check for the items. My people then put the money in my baby sister's college account (since all the stuff was hers to begin with).

There are lots of consignment shops around, you just have to look (or Google). Definitely check them out!

Fantastic Freebies: August

For the next few months, I am going to be keeping track of what I get for free during the month and then sharing it with you at the end of the month. I know a lot (you know, all 3 of you who read this) of you think that freebies are few and far between, or that they're not "the good ones". So, hopefully this will dispel some of that and encourage you to use freebies to stretch your budget. Without further ado, here's the loot from August:

This is a combination of free samples I got in the mail, as well as things I got free with coupons. The Pampers wipes, Tide, and Clean and Clear face wash are all things I got free with coupons. The rest are from signing up for freebies on sites like MoneySavingMom.com and FreebiesForAll.com. All told, I got:

- 2 single load Tides

- 2 full size Pampers wipes (72 count)

- 3 different samples of Redken shampoo and conditioner

- 2 different samples of Head and Shoulders

- 3 travel size Clean and Clear face washes

- 1 sample Dove shampoo and conditioner

- 1 sample Pantene shampoo and conditioner

September is already looking like it'll be a good month based on what I've gotten so far and the month is only half over! Hopefully it continues!

It's MYpoints, not YOURpoints

And I'm hoggin' all of 'em. Well, except the ones I share with my people because they don't have any good dog stores listed when I cash in my points. Someone really should do some marketing research. I feel like I am probably not the only dog in the blogosphere--I mean, there's DogBook for crying out loud! (You know, like Facebook, but for the canine contingency.) Know your demographics folks. That's all I'm saying.

But I digress.

So there's this website called MyPoints.com. The general gist of it is that they send you (what I would consider) junk email. You click on said junk email and get points awarded for your clicking. You can also get extra points if you shop through their site, use printable internet coupons from their site, and complete surveys, among other things. It's super easy and I think I probably spend a grand total of 15 minutes per day clicking through these. In any case, as you accumulate points, you can use the points to cash in for gift cards. I recently let my people have my points (I think you now understand my beef with MyPoints.com corporate since there are NO pet stores listed--I am forced to surrender my points for things like clothing, home decor and dining out....which sounds good except I don't get to go to the restaurant!!).

Again, I digress. I will try to stick to the facts this time.

I gave the points to my mom to use and she cashed them in for Pottery Barn gift cards. She then used the gift cards to buy towels from Pottery Barn. Have you rubbed your snout a Pottery Barn towel recently?? Snugglicious.

The best part was that she didn't have to pay for the towels! The total for what she bought would have been $80, but with the gift cards, she didn't have to pay at all--free towels!

Hip hip hurray! Snuggles for everyone!

Make it stretch

Freebies. Lots and lots of freebies.

Most frugal/personal finance blogs include links to sign up for freebies. If you don't already sign up for these freebies, you should start. It's amazing what you can get and it costs you nothing more than a little bit of time. You don't even have to go get your freebie (though, sometimes there are ones where you can print out a coupon to use in a store), it just shows up in your mailbox! Mailbox freebies are much more fun than bills. Sometimes there are even freebies for dog snacks. Those are the best! Some websites with good freebies are:

www.moneysavingmom.com

www.couponingtodisney.com

www.andfreebiesforall.com

www.hip2save.com

...but I digress...

...back to how to stretch your budget. If you're getting these freebies, they are a PERFECT way to stretch your grocery budget. While a toothpaste freebie isn't going to last you a month, it might last you 3-4 days. Get 2 of these and you've got a week's worth of toothpaste. Same thing with body wash or lotions/facial products. The more of these freebies you get, the longer you can go between buying the full-sized products. If you're super coupon savvy, you can even get the full-sized products for free after coupons, in which case you're really stretching out the time before you need to actually pay for the product.

Here are some examples of freebies I've gotten in the mail over the last month:

Toothpaste

Hair samples

Body wash

Lotion/face product

See, lots of stuff, right? And that's just in about a 4-6 week time frame. We also got dog snacks, which I (reluctantly) ate (Science Diet ones--blech--I had to force those down), otherwise you'd see those too. Anyway, the point is, don't underestimate how far you can stretch your dollar when you use freebies to supplement your stash 'o goodies!

How do you get out of debt?

You just d0. You have to get fired up about it. Not just kinda, sorta, on board with it. But passionate about what you want your future to look like. One of the most motivating things we did as a family was to sit down and figure out how much money would be OURS (and, obviously, therefore how many boxes of milkbones we could buy) if we didn't have to pay for anything other than the usuals (utilities, gas, groceries, etc.). Meaning, no payments. No house payment, no car payment, no school loan payment, no personal loan payment, no insert-whatever-kind-of-payment. Talk about freeing. My mom's least favorite speech she got from my Gramma when she was growing up was: "In the amount of time you've spent complaining about fill-in-the-blank, you could have had it done and moved on to something else. You're making this harder for yourself than it needs to be." How many of us do that? We spend tons of time complaining about how much stuff costs, how we want/need something new, how exorbitant our bills are, how we wish we could afford to go on vacation. When something is truly important to you, you'll make it a priority. If having money is a priority, you'll make it work. Probably one of the funniest things I've heard in a long while was when my people mentioned to friends that they use a budget, coupon, etc. The response from their friends was "well, that's nice that it works for you, but it's not for us". Really? Saving money isn't "for you"? Having money isn't "for you"? Hm. Good thing I don't share a checkbook with them! Yikes!

In any case, find something that will help keep you on the straight an narrow if you're truly motivated to get out of debt and stay out of debt. Maybe it's figuring out how much money you can free up by not having payments, maybe it's realizing you can finally take that big family vacation, maybe it's knowing your children's only limitations in life will be their own ability not your inability to pay....find what it is and keep that in sight. Then, well, put your money where your mouth is and be weird.

I only use half a dryer sheet

Yup. I cut them in half. No joke. As soon as a new box of dryer sheets arrives in our house, I whip out my scissors and snip snip snip. See?

They work just as well. Maybe less noticeable with the scent, but most folks add cologne or perfume/body spray and deodorant anyway, so who cares if your clothes smell like your dryer sheets? I mean, as long as you don't smell bad, you're all set, right? This means a box of dryer sheets lasts us a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time. I just bought this box a few weeks ago and this was the first time in a year that I had bought dryer sheets. Many times there are nifty freebies available, like this:

Then, I cut those in half too to stretch between buying boxes of dryer sheets. This works for us!