Thriftism

Want to earn money while sitting around in your PJs? This is not a great rich quick scheme as you will not get rich quickly, nor will you be able to quick your day job. This will however get you some nice spending cash pretty easily. You don't have to call, email, mail, etc anything to anybody. What I'm talking about is taking surveys. For the record, I get nothing if someone signs up--no points, no money, nothing but a great feeling that I'm helping someone else earns some extra money. Pinecone is a company that I've been taking surveys through for 6 or 7 years now--they pay you and are legit I promise. For every survey you take they pay you $3 or you can pick from the wide variety of merchandise, charities, or gifts cards to suit your fancy. Seriously loads of options! I have pretty much always taking the cash (paypal) because I can't seem to decide. Plus cash can always be put towards my trip fund. The surveys are fairly quick and very simple survey to fi...

Are gas coupons worth it? YES! The number one argument I hear is that you don't really save that much for all the hassle you go through to use a coupon. That is pure laziness talking. How often do you buy gas? Whether it's once a week or once a month, those savings can really add up--Think of getting a free tank of gas every year. Or maybe hit up the dollar menu once a week since we don't eat out much while following a tight budget. Possibly it still doesn't sound like much, but those little savings (gas, groceries, survey earnings,etc) are really what keep my budget alive some months. When you're set on saving or paying off loans, a couple dollars goes a long way. Gas coupons are awesome because they are fairly easy to come by as well. Coupons really aren't that difficult to use and walking into the gas station, well that can be an excuse to move around a bit. No one gets enough walking in these days anyway. :) I've listed a few places that you can obtain...

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...

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 ...

 Bean Burgers that Taste Like the Real Thing   <$0.30/serving With all the nice, or at least not freezing, weather we have been having lately, I start to get my summer cravings. In the winter it tends to be soup, chili, anything hot… Spring and summer veer more towards fruit, steak, salads, and one of my favorites- burgers. I absolutely love homemade hamburgers. However, these are not very cost friendly right now. The cheapest hamburger I could find was $4/lb which can easily turn your meal budget upside-down. So I started exploring for some option to get my burger fix without blowing the budget and guess what, beans are super cheap. Beans and rice seem to fit into many of my solutions, but they really work. I was able to make these burgers for less than $0.30/burger, buns and lettuce included! Anyway, these bean burgers actually taste and have consistency similar to a real burger. I won't tell you they are exactly the same, because I don't think that is...

 Rice crackers are a great alternative to wheat/gluten containing cracker that you usually find in the store. They definitely have gluten-free options, but lets face it, nothing is going to be as cheap as homemade rice crackers when you're making your own flour.I know I have brought up my grain mill quite a bit, but I really think the grain mill is awesome. Also, rice is one of the cheapest things you can buy at the store. I think it was around $4 for a 5lb bag. This is where the grain mill comes in handy--rice flour is NOT dirt cheap at the store. Grinding rice flour is really, really easy as is only takes one pass through rather that a couple with the harder items like garbanzo beans. These crackers are one of the easiest recipes I have ever made and is consists of 4 ingredients (plus spices if you flavor yours). 1.5 Cup Rice Flour 2 t Baking Powder 1 T Olive Oil 1 C Boiling Water Seasoning to Taste Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix your flour and baking powder ...