So, go to Valentino's on May 7 from 5:30-7:30 and check her out, eat some free pizza, and have fun.
April 12, 2013
Awesome Ames Kids Night
Valentino's has free kids' meals on Tuesday, and now from 5:30-7:30 pm on the first Tuesday of every month, our favorite face painter will be there. Cindi from Princesses and Pirates face painting is just the best. It's amazing how fast she works and how wonderful her paintings look. My kids have always loved finding her at different events and the Farmer's Market.
Swagbucks Special Event
I know I have mentioned Swagbucks many times, but if you still haven't tried it, it's a great time to start! They're having a Spring Into Action event, with lots of extra earnings opportunities through the end of April. Right now, you will get 50 extra Swagbucks for signing up using the code SPRINGIN2SWAG.
Lately, I have been earning about $50 per month from Swagbucks, and I basically do all the earning in the first hour of the day while I drink my coffee and read around the web. Since Swagbucks has added more ways to earn since my original Swagbucks post, here is my official list of ways to earn.
These are my earnings for each day in April so far. The first number is the daily goal, the second is my actual earning for the day, and the third is the bonus I received for making the goal.
Happy Earning!
Lately, I have been earning about $50 per month from Swagbucks, and I basically do all the earning in the first hour of the day while I drink my coffee and read around the web. Since Swagbucks has added more ways to earn since my original Swagbucks post, here is my official list of ways to earn.
- Get 1 SB every day for answering the daily poll on the answer tab at the top.
- Get 1 SB every day for the NOSO stream on the discover tab at the top. (just click no thanks on 3-4 offers)
- Go to the front page, and there are always a lot of 1 and 2 buck videos. Just click through and open all of them and let them run.
- Earn anywhere from 6 to 100 on a search win. I usually get one every morning and just do a few searches till it happens.
- After that, I go through the special offers tabs under discover. My favorite areas are RadiumOne (always lots of 1 and 2 buck videos) and Peanut Labs (tons of good surveys). The PaymentWall page also has surveys. I tend to avoid the other walls simply because they don't have the easy earnings I look for.
- Also under the answer tab are the Swagbucks surveys. You can get 1 buck for disqualifying from the surveys, so some days that is what I am for.
- Print your coupons through Swagbucks (also under the Discover tab) and get 10 SB per coupon that you print and use. I always make sure to leave the coupons I won't use at the grocery store. Then I still get my 10 SB and someone else gets a savings on the items.
- Watch videos for SB. This is under the Watch tab, and you'll get 3 SB for every 10 you watch. I rarely use this earnings opportunity. I don't have the time in the day, and I don't think the time required makes it worth it.
- I prefer using my mobile phone to watch videos with SBTV Mobile. The videos continue to play with very little effort on my part, and I get 2 SB for every 5 videos. This is something else that I make part of my morning routine.
- My favorite new earning opportunity is the daily goal. Every day there is a new goal, and you will get a 10% bonus for every day that you meet the goal. If you hit the goal every day of the month, you get an additional 200 SB in addition to the daily bonus. You can receive over 500 SB bonus just for reaching the goal every day.
- Use your earnings to buy rewards. My rewards always start with $5 Amazon Gift Cards, because they are the best deal. At 450 SB each, it makes each Swagbuck a little better than a penny. You are able to buy 5 of each type of reward, so my next goal is a $25 Amazon Gift Card. I generally get this much each month, so $50 total.
These are my earnings for each day in April so far. The first number is the daily goal, the second is my actual earning for the day, and the third is the bonus I received for making the goal.
4/11/2013
80
109
8
4/10/2013
90
107
9
4/9/2013
110
138
11
4/8/2013
90
167
9
4/7/2013
70
200
7
4/6/2013
70
115
7
4/5/2013
90
239
9
4/4/2013
100
156
10
4/3/2013
80
113
8
4/2/2013
90
199
9
Happy Earning!
March 5, 2013
HyVee Stacking Savings
This is a great week to shop at Hy-Vee. Right now, there are a ton of awesome ways to save. Let me go through it all.
- First, Hy-Vee is again doing the promotion where you buy a small deep freeze for $189.99 and get the equivalent of that amount back in groceries. This promotion lasts through 3/25, so you have a bit for this one.
- Also, you have the fuel saver program, which I have found to be an awesome opportunity to save on my gas and groceries. I have been regularly saving 40-60 cents a gallon! With 20 gallons, that savings can really add up.
- NOW, I have just discovered that you are able to link the Fuel Saver card to Saving Star! Saving Star works IN ADDITION to your other coupons.
- If you use HyVee coupons, plus manufacturers' coupons, then get Fuel Saver gas savings and Saving Star payouts, you can really add up a lot of savings from one shopping trip.
February 16, 2013
Rangoli - Colors of India
This looks like an awesome and fun cultural event, and it's FREE! Tomorrow, beginning at 1 pm in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.
I apologize for not keeping up as well with my calendar. If you need a good place to look for fun free events, you can check The Patch. These are a growing collection of sites, and I notice more cities included all the time.
ISA in collaboration with the India Cultural Association (ICA) of Central Iowa is organizing an Indian bazaar reminiscient of village fairs in India. Journey through India’s culture through live Bollywood and classical dances, Fashion shows with traditional Indian costumes, Mehndi/Henna application, display of ethnic arts and crafts, ancient and modern Indian architecture, live and recorded music performance and for your palette, tasty Indian snacks for a nominal charge! Admission to the event is free!
I apologize for not keeping up as well with my calendar. If you need a good place to look for fun free events, you can check The Patch. These are a growing collection of sites, and I notice more cities included all the time.
40 Days, Revisited
I apologize for not finding a lot of time to post lately. I will have to make some time soon. In the meantime, I am again doing a 40 day purge challenge in my house for Lent. You can click the 40 days link to read more of what I did the last time that I did this.
Our work and school schedules don't allow for a lot of time each day, so we are using the weekends to catch up on everything. This time my children are old enough to get to help me. (Lucky them!)
Today, we started on all of the kitchen cabinets. We have pretty minimal cupboard space, so I have to be very choosy about what I keep.
The tupperware/storage containers seem to be the part that really gets out of hand, so I put my kids to work sorting. I filled a kitchen garbage bag (no picture of my trash can, sorry) with mismatched lids and containers, then cut back to almost nothing for our keep pile.
In the toss pile, I made a bag with clean food containers and lids--this will go to our church. They serve a community meal, and they use the food containers to package up leftovers to send home with people.
The rest of the containers will go to our food pantry or the clothing closet in town. They are good containers with matching lids, and someone will get use from them.
That is our first three bags, and the kids are out in the yard picking up all sorts of garbage that has collected in our yard over the winter. It never ceases to amaze me how much shows up when the snow melts away.
Just like last time, I will keep a tally.
Trash: 2
Donate: 2
4
========
1 bag of clothes from each of us, divided:
Consignment store for the best ones, 1 bag.
Clothing closet donation for still nice clothes, 2 bags.
One bag of clothing that isn't good enough for donation: USagain bin. Read the link for more information, but this is a for profit organization that takes anything you donate.
Trash: 2
Donate: 5
Sell: 1
8
========
2 bags of wire hangers from the dry cleaners/uniforms, sent back to where they came.
Trash: 2
Donate: 5
Sell: 1
Other: 2
10
========
Kids' room cleanout: one bag of less important artwork to the trash, one bag of toys for donation and one for consignment.
Trash: 3
Donate: 6
Sell: 2
Other: 2
13
=========
Surprise snow day cleaning: sorted a huge tub of outgrown clothes in the laundry room, stored by size for future wearing, one garbage bag for the clothing closet, one tub for the consignment store, one bag for the USagain bin.
In kids' room, toys and books for donation. One bag of books to donate to the library, one bag of toys to donate to the clothing closet, one bag of toys for consignment.
Cleanout of fridge, freezer, and pantry: one bag of outdated food.
Trash: 4
Donate: 10
Sell: 4
Other: 2
20 --we're halfway there, on February 27. It's the 15th day of Lent!
=========
One bag filled with grocery bags, recycled at the store.
21
Our work and school schedules don't allow for a lot of time each day, so we are using the weekends to catch up on everything. This time my children are old enough to get to help me. (Lucky them!)
Today, we started on all of the kitchen cabinets. We have pretty minimal cupboard space, so I have to be very choosy about what I keep.
The tupperware/storage containers seem to be the part that really gets out of hand, so I put my kids to work sorting. I filled a kitchen garbage bag (no picture of my trash can, sorry) with mismatched lids and containers, then cut back to almost nothing for our keep pile.
In the toss pile, I made a bag with clean food containers and lids--this will go to our church. They serve a community meal, and they use the food containers to package up leftovers to send home with people.
The rest of the containers will go to our food pantry or the clothing closet in town. They are good containers with matching lids, and someone will get use from them.
That is our first three bags, and the kids are out in the yard picking up all sorts of garbage that has collected in our yard over the winter. It never ceases to amaze me how much shows up when the snow melts away.
Just like last time, I will keep a tally.
Trash: 2
Donate: 2
4
========
1 bag of clothes from each of us, divided:
Consignment store for the best ones, 1 bag.
Clothing closet donation for still nice clothes, 2 bags.
One bag of clothing that isn't good enough for donation: USagain bin. Read the link for more information, but this is a for profit organization that takes anything you donate.
Trash: 2
Donate: 5
Sell: 1
8
========
2 bags of wire hangers from the dry cleaners/uniforms, sent back to where they came.
Trash: 2
Donate: 5
Sell: 1
Other: 2
10
========
Kids' room cleanout: one bag of less important artwork to the trash, one bag of toys for donation and one for consignment.
Trash: 3
Donate: 6
Sell: 2
Other: 2
13
=========
Surprise snow day cleaning: sorted a huge tub of outgrown clothes in the laundry room, stored by size for future wearing, one garbage bag for the clothing closet, one tub for the consignment store, one bag for the USagain bin.
In kids' room, toys and books for donation. One bag of books to donate to the library, one bag of toys to donate to the clothing closet, one bag of toys for consignment.
Cleanout of fridge, freezer, and pantry: one bag of outdated food.
Trash: 4
Donate: 10
Sell: 4
Other: 2
20 --we're halfway there, on February 27. It's the 15th day of Lent!
=========
One bag filled with grocery bags, recycled at the store.
21
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