Cash back for shopping online

photo © 2006 Rob Lee | more info (via: Wylio)
Ok, so I wouldn't buy a shirt that looks like a dollar bill, but I'm certainly up for having my online clothing purchases (and all other online purchases for that matter) turning into free money.  I've found a super-simple and very legitimate way to earn a couple extra bucks. 

If you do any online shopping, one of the easiest ways to basically get paid for the purchases that you'd make anyway is to use a cash back website.  They're super-easy to use.  All you do is go to the cash-back site, then

1. Sign up.
2. Choose a store that you want to shop at (most sites have hundreds to thousands of choices)
3. Shop as you normally would, and get cash back on your purchase. 

Just got the latest notification of a rebate check on its way to me.  Yippee!  This year I earned over $18 cash back on my regular Christmas shopping, and I now make sure that any purchase I make, whenever possible, goes through a cash-back/rebate site so that I don't have to pay full-price.

My personal favorite cash-back site is Ebates.  It's the granddaddy of all rebate sites, and is ridiculously easy to use.  When you search for the store you want, it tells you how much cash back they offer, and there are often double cash-back deals around major holidays like Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc.  They have thousands of stores to choose from, including names like Land's End, Gap, Babies R Us, Target, Shoes.com, Bath and Body Works, Sephora and the Apple Store. 

I can always find a use for a little extra cash.  Plus, It's not much effort for a busy mom to use something like Ebates.  Just a few seconds of effort... so easy even a (fill in the blank) can do it.  

Saving money and getting famous. Well, not really famous.

 One of my very favorite things is saving money on quality products.  I've met more and more moms, especially in recent years, who've been dipping their toes into the world of couponing to save money on their grocery and household bills, or like me, jumping in and swimming around. 

In fall of 2009, I was fortunate enough to be personally tutored in how to coupon by my friend Kim from MavenOnAMission.  With her encouragement and coaching, I applied what I learned one step at a time, and a few months later I was saving 40-50% on my grocery and household bills, and my family was eating healthier.  

In the summer of 2010, the Orlando Sentinel held a 'Super Saver' contest where they chose the top 10 essays about how people used the newspaper to save money.  As you can guess from the photo, I was one of the winners, and got featured in a print ad campaign.  (They also did radio spots; some of my local friends have heard me on Magic 107.7, but I've not heard myself yet).  While saving money for my own family is rewarding and gives me a sense of accomplishment, I'm also eager to help other moms learn how to save so that they can be better stewards and have more room in their budgets to pay off bills, have more fun, save towards a financial goal or give to their churches or charity.

Along those lines, my first post of 2011 was actually on my friend Kristy's savings & couponing blog, 4our2cents, about my trip to CVS and paying $1 for over $40 worth of stuff.

I'm thankful and honored that Kristy asked me to guest-post on her blog, and it's inspired me to write more about couponing and saving on Mommy's Favorite Things.  If you're new to couponing or not even sure you want to try it ---that Extreme Couponing show is giving it a bad name -- don't worry.  I'll take it one step at a time. 

In case you were wondering, I won a gift card for my Super Saver essay too.  Winning money --that's another one of my favorite things. 

New Year -- Can I Get a Do-Over?

To be quite frank, 2010 was not my best year for writing.  I feel like I let this blog wither like an unwatered houseplant.  Now here I am with the watering can, plant food, and new sunny window to revive it. 

Here's what you can expect for 2011... toy reviews, couponing tips, and family-friendly recipes, to name the main categories.  I'm still centered on the things that help make a mom's life easier, more enjoyable and help save money.  In addition to Mommy's Favorite Things, I also write websites that go more indepth on the stuff I talk about here.

In any case, if you've been following me (you super-loyal and patient person, you), I want to thank you and also apologize for my spotty posting.  I'm kicking it back in gear.

All the best,

Erin
Mommy's Favorite Things

Spicing it up with some new recipes

I love to try new recipes, and couponing as well as the Eat from The Pantry Challenge that I did in January in February has helped me continue to stretch my creative muscles to use the food we have on hand or what's cheap.  This year I've already found a couple of great go-to recipes that are easy to fix and extremely tasty.   My current fave:  Shrimp Fried Rice.  When you're able to get shrimp and rice on sale, it's a fairly frugal recipe to prepare, with sesame oil being a possible exception if you don't use it much.

If you like to make things ahead, this is a recipe for you.  It's SUPPOSED to be prepared with leftover cold rice, so I just cook that and dice the vegetables earlier in the afternoon during my daughter's nap.  Near dinnertime, just saute the shrimp and follow the directions.  Dinner on the plate within 15 min.  At least to my taste buds, this rivals takeout...mmmm!

Mini Apple-Cheddar Meatloaves is another recent find which can be whipped up in a short amount of time to rave reviews.  It's ground turkey-based, so there's an added level of healthfulness.  To cut the prep time, opted to put my onion and apple in the food processor to get it into small pieces rather than shred them.  You can also substitute regular breadcrumbs for panko. 

I've been able to get amazing deals on pork tenderloin in the past couple of weeks, but I really didn't have any pork tenderloin recipes.  Enter Pan Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Blue Cheese and Olive Stuffing.  This isn't a cheap recipe to prepare, nor is it quick; but it's easy and tastes fan-freaking-tastic.  Think restaurant-quality-impress-your-guests delicious.  I'm still dreaming about the sauce.  From all the money we've been saving, it was a bit easier for me to fork out the extra cash for olive tapenade and blue cheese to make this splurge meal.  Well worth it for a dish that makes me miss going out to nice restaurants just a bit less.  ;)

Best of all, my 2 year old will eat all three of these!  Woo hoo!

photo courtesy of dearbarbie on flickr

Being paid to shop

How fun is that?  I'd mentioned that I started couponing a number of posts ago, and it's really been saving us a lot of money.  Our grocery/household/personal care expense savings are hovering around 47% as of 2 months of couponing.

When I talk about it with friends who don't coupon, one of the questions I get the most is 'do you end up buying a lot of stuff you don't need?'  Here's my answer: I only buy stuff I don't need if it's either free and it's something I can give to a food pantry or other charity OR if I can make money by purchasing it.  Extra bonus if I can give it away.

One of my fave couponing and good-stewardship-of-your-finances websites is Money Saving Mom.  Here's her post giving readers a heads up on how to make $13 on Bayer meters at Walgreens as well as how to get free Lipton Tea and Theraflu.  I'm not diabetic, but I can certainly use $13 and give a glucose meter to charity so that someone who can't afford a meter can have one.  Everybody wins!