Swagbucks

I guess I never explained that Swagbucks widget over there, and I see a few readers have signed up.  This one is a similar GPT site to some of the others I've detailed.  You can earn "bucks" in several ways, but the main way is through searching through their site.  If anyone has used Blingo, it's very similar--but it is better in that the search engine is through google and you can actually find what you're searching for.  I just use it like I would use google and every once in a while, I win a buck.



You can also earn swagbucks by doing offers (I generally avoid the offers because a lot require you to pay or remember to cancel some trial offer.)  They have a shopping portal you can use as well, giving bucks for each real dollar you spend when clicking through them to shop.


I use all the GPT sites as something that gives me a little bit of unexpected income, but I don't expect any to really give me some huge amount of money.  For that reason, I don't give them a lot of time.  Like MyPoints and InboxDollars, I click their emails and shop through MyPoints and just let the points build over time.  The extra time in emails is negligible, since all I do is click and delete.

The "swidget" on the right will sometimes contain a code that will get you from 1-5 bucks, so I just click on the check for codes button a few times a day to see what happens. 

Keep up the Freebies, eh

We may as well keep rolling out the freebies.  The music is good, don't forget the Kindle book freebies from the previous Amazon post, and here are a few more that look good.  Right now, I'm sipping a cup of free coffee from a sample I did previously.  Some of the ones listed in previous freebie posts may still be good, so go back and look at the good ones.

• Free Globetrotting magazine. 
• Another good Aveda freebie.  Remember these have to be printed and taken into the store.
• I love the 3M samples.  They always come, and they usually have some good coupons in the package.  Too bad this one is only for Australians.  I guess I have some Aussie readers, so this one is for you. 
• Free fruit bar.
• Free energy drink.
• Free lip pallet.
• Free 4 color pen.
• Free Atkins starter kit.
• Free organic notepad.

That should hold everyone over for another few days.  There are also some new $5 magazine subscriptions from Amazon, so take a look over there.  Lots of health and cooking related magazines for your New Year's Resolution.

Free Music Downloads!

I was perusing the music downloads section at Amazon and discovered a wealth of free music downloads.  Most of these, I've never heard of, but who knows if you'll like something until you give it a listen?  I will only link to a few of them, but if you go just to the bottom of any listing, you'll find a whole scrollbar full of free music from all over the world.  (BTW, I've totally heard of Kate Walsh, so don't be giving me a hard time about calling her an unknown.)



If free doesn't cut it, there looks to be a huge selection of $5 downloads for filling your new MP3 player HERE.

Cooking Day

If you're new to my blog, you may want to click back through my previous posts for many (I hope) helpful tips.  While I don't completely practice Once a Month Cooking, I do often take advantage of having my husband home to distract the kids and do a lot of cooking.

I posted about the big sale at Fareway earlier, and I had some chicken and ground beef to prepare and freeze.  In a little over two hours, I had meat for 9 meals prepared and in the freezer.  First, I prepared the chicken breasts to bake.  I used a can of Swanson's chicken broth, then seasoned the breasts with salt, pepper, and garlic and placed 4 whole breasts into a large stoneware pan.  I put them in the oven at 350* for around an hour and 15 minutes.

I started them baking in the oven, then started browning the hamburger.  I did two pounds with onion, garlic, salt, and pepper, then two more pounds with taco seasoning.  I always start by sauteing the (one whole) onion and (2 cloves) garlic in a little bit of olive oil, then add the meat.  My big skillet will do two pounds well, three pounds get crowded.

As I get the hamburger browned, I put it into my big bowl and cool it in the fridge.  Once it's all cooled, I bag it flat and put it into the freezer.

In the meantime, the chicken has been in the oven for a little over an hour, so I pull it out.  I freeze the broth in a bag to use later, then cut all the chicken into pieces, bag, and freeze.  The four whole breasts made 5 bags with around 1 pound of meat each.

What I like about this style of cooking is that it allows me to cook more from scratch, and the work that I do saves me doing the same prep work four more times.  There are many easy recipes I can put together using these already cooked items.  The chicken breast is healthier than canned chicken breast and cheaper than buying pre-cooked chicken at the deli.

Need a fast meal?  Pull out a bag of chicken or ground beef, throw it in with some tomato sauce while you boil a package of pasta.  Throw it all together and you've got a quick pasta meal.  Chicken and noodles are so much easier when you can throw the chicken in with the broth then cook some egg noodles in the broth.  All of these can become quick one pot meals, or you can make something a little more time consuming without as much prep work.

I used the chicken broth tonight to make some creamy vegetable soup, and it really enhanced the flavor to use the broth I had cooked.

Household Money Saving Tip #2 for 2010

 A Bright Idea

We moved into our current home a little over 6 years ago, and I noticed we were changing light bulbs constantly. As a larger home than our previous one, and with more rooms to light, it was crazy to be going through as many bulbs as we were. Shortly after that, our local Ace hardware store started having sales a couple of times a year, in conjunction with our local utility company offering instant rebates, where the CFL (compact flourescent light) bulbs were 99 cents each.

The limit was 12, so I bought to my limit and started using the CFL bulbs to replace every light in the house as they burned out. While we have saved money on our electric bill, the most amazing thing to me is that many of our bulbs are now approaching 5 years of use. The other day, a bulb burned out in a lesser-used socket, and I thought we were at the beginning of the replacements phase.  Much to my surprise, it was the lone remaining incandescent bulb in my house.

If you live in my area, be on the lookout for Ace to run this special again.  When these bulbs can run in the neighborhood of $6 each, you have a tough time seeing the savings, but at 99 cents each they are really worth it--especially with coupons.

If you aren't in my area or don't want to wait for the sale, there is still a decent sale going on right now, with some coupons to sweeten the deal.  You can print two Target coupons on their site (per computer) for $1.50 off GE bulbs, then two of the coupons from coupons.com (on the right, but also HERE).  Stack the coupons for a savings of $2.50 per bulb.

SAVE $1.00

GE Compact Fluorescent

CLIP

While this isn't necessarily a new concept, I am surprised at how many people don't follow this simple step for money and energy savings.  Give it a try.