Thriftism

Budget! Budget! Budget! I always have to watch what I'm spending on things to make sure we can still afford to go on our big trip every year and to keep socking away money into savings for the future. This means I jump at the chance to get something, or anything, for free. Samples are amazing and they can have some pretty good ones too. Just last week I got a 7 week supply of Align probiotics. That's over $40 in savings. While most samples are not nearly this high in value, every little bit helps. There are a couple of sites I follow to find out about samples: Sampleaday and Freebiesfrenzy . They send you an email every day listing the samples available. Free things vary from stickers to coffee mugs to food, you just have to keep your eyes open for the really good ones. I found a few good samples offered today: Free PediaSure after rebate @ pediasure.com Huggies Diapers and Natural Care Wipes   2 Lipton Ice Tea K-Cups and $0.75 coupon  There are quite a few more t

I love taking surveys, or rather I LOVE making easy money! Search for "Survey", "work at home" or "easy money" for all the opportunities to make money through surveys and various other sites that you can earn free stuff or free money. While those are all fun, I am constantly on the lookout for more money making ideas. Recently I was able to join the National Consumer Panel . For this opportunity, all you need is a smartphone and to record what you're buying. Then all you have to do is scan your purchases and hit transmit at least once a week. Pretty simple huh? I did say qualify in there as they like to keep a blend of different households rather than having only one type. It wouldn't be good research if they could only see what a four-person household making 75,000/ year was buying. It seemed pretty simple to qualify though- take a short survey and they will be in touch. They also send out other short surveys on different products or on your

Happy Summer! We are finally having warm, actually HOT, weather. With it being over 80 almost every day last week, it was far too hot to eat warm food. There was no way I was going to cook anything after working out in the garden for hours. Salads have proven to be my savior on sweltering days, so there may be lots of different salad recipes coming out soon. J To begin my salad adventures, I've chosen one that feeds my buffalo sauce addition. Side note: buffalo sauce can be combined with just about anything and taste even better! If you're like me you don't have a whole lot of time during the week between work and housework and still trying to do some fun things in there too. That's why I try to cook all of my food on the weekends to reduce wasting that time during the week. If there are any ingredients on my salads that need to be cooked, I do it ahead of time and freeze them or store in the refrigerator if possible. For my chicken salad-I have a