I'm back!

http://h5.sml360.com/-/bve3 I absolutely love smiley360.com. It's a great site to get free samples and earn points to spend on rewards.

Sorry I haven't been blogging as much as usual. Summer has came and gone and with the back to school grind it takes me awhile to get back in the routine of things. This year, my freshman is on the freshman football team and the jv football team, my seventh grader is in Challenge, Junior Beta Club, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, basketball, and soccer. Between working full time, chauffeuring my kiddos around, cooking supper, entering sweepstakes, cleaning house, and taking care of my dogs, I've been really busy.

Breakfast was at my mother-in-law's today and she made us eggs, fried potatoes, and bacon.
For lunch I made New York Strip Steak which I got marked down at Wal-mart and zesty fries.
Supper was General Tso's Chicken and Shrimp egg rolls which I love! I preheat the oven to 375 degrees, bake both pans for 17 minutes, add the sauce to the chicken and bake everything for 5 more minutes. It's quick, easy, and so delicious! Sorry for my upside down picture LOL Life is messy and not always neat LOL

 

 

I watched The CW's The Flash last night. It is really good and action packed. I'm also loving Gotham. If you love Batman, you will love Gotham. I really like Arrow. Tonight they had the actor from Superman on. It's different from Smallville, but equally good.

I gathered a big bowl of peppers from our garden today, cut them up, and froze them in little bags. I love using them in recipes. It's so rewarding eating things that you grew yourself.

Does anyone else hate doing dishes? It's the chore I put off doing more than any other. My husband is in charge of laundry, my youngest son mows, and my oldest son takes out the trash.

My husband's Dodge Dakota was having problems with the window. It wouldn't roll up, it wasn't out of  track, we could hear the motor, but it would not go up. Finally we took it to the auto shop and $230 later, it's fixed.

Today I did dishes, cleaned out the refrigerator, cleaned the stove, vacuumed, and cleaned the microwave.

Guardians of the Galaxy

If you love Super Hero movies, you'll love Guardians of the Galaxy. It has adventure, action, a little romance, and shows the importance of friendship and working together. We watched it in 3D and loved the effects. For my husband and one child it was $25, but I used my AMC Stubs card so it went towards my $10 reward. With the AMC card for every $100 you spend you get a $10 reward to use toward movie ticket purchases or at the concession stand also you can upgrade your drinks to the next size. Make sure you stay until after the credits for the hidden egg. I love how Stan Lee makes a cameo in his movies too.


We ate at Tequilas afterwards. My son ordered the 3 steak taco dinner, my husband ordered the chicken chimichangas, I ordered 3 tacos to go for my son at home, and I ordered the #6. I love their chips and salsa. We even had enough leftovers for supper.

I love the Cedar Cove series on the Hallmark Channel. It's on Saturday nights at 7PM Central Time. I read the books by Debbie Macomber and loved them too. It's a good family series on that the whole family can watch.

I'm watching the Brady Bunch (1996) on tv now. It is hilarious. I loved the series as a kid too.

A cheap and easy snack: place some tortillas on a plate, top with shredded cheese, heat in microwave for 20 seconds. Yum!

My wins for July

I decided to start writing it down on the calendar every time I win something, because sometimes I forget how much I win each month because it's usually little prizes here and there. For July I won: a $5 Burger King gift card, a 1 year subscription to Better Homes and Gardens, $5 Pizza Hut gift card, $6 Credit for On Demand Cable from M&M's, $5 Wal-mart gift card from Centralia Ford, $6 Movie Credit for On Demand Cable from M&M's, Jason won a Kubota Hat, Keurig Tea 4 pack, M&M's $6 movie credit again , M&M's $6 Movie credit, $5 CVS gift card, free coupon for hair color, and a $20 Virtual visa card which I used on my phone bill It's a fun hobby and I've won some neat stuff anyways

Monty Python's Spamalot Play + Gateway Fun Park

My husband and I had a date night last night and went to see Monty Python's Spamalot Play at Salem Community Theater. It was great! They really did a good job casting each person for the different roles, it was hilarious, the singing was good, and we were thoroughly entertained. The tickets were $12 a piece, sodas were $2, popcorn $1, and candy bars $1. We have watched other plays there as well and they were great also. I like when they did Wizard of Oz and where the witch was melting, you didn't see the grown witch for a moment then a little girl witch comes running out as if the witch melted. We also saw Night of the Living Dead, which they did a spectacular job on.

We decided since we didn't really have a lot of money to spend on vacations this year that we would do a day trip. I got on Groupon and found a deal for $50 for a family of four - armbands at Gateway Fun Park in Collinsville, IL good for unlimited rides for 2 hours. This would have been great, but it started raining after we got there, so we couldn't do the bumper boats or the go-carts. We played two games of miniature golf in the rain and spent the rest of the two hours playing bumper cars. We still had a great time, so that's all that matters. Gateway Fun Park is right beside Splash City Water Park. On the way home, we stopped by White Castle to take home a Crave Pack. I love to stop there any time we are near a White Castle. We had stopped at LottaWattaCreek on the way for lunch and split our meals in half for supper and the White Castle Crave Pack was meals for the next day. 

What a busy day!

Today I got up at 5 am, got ready for work, and sat on the front porch listening to the birds chirping as my dogs did their business. Nature has such beautiful sounds!

I'm loving my job as a summer camp counselor. Today I watched as some girls from camp discovered chalk painting when they were coloring on the chalk board and one of the pieces of chalk fell into some water. They then got a cup of water and started dipping the ends of the chalk into the water and chalk painted on construction paper. It looked beautiful! The colors were dark and vibrant! I also played Sorry!, Playdoh, Candy land, and Chutes and Ladder's today.

I went to a rummage sale today, spent $8.75, but came home with 2 Wal-mart sacks filled with a pair of Old Navy shoes for me that look new, 2 tank tops for my husband, a nice blue button down dress shirt that was just worn once to a wedding for my oldest son, white shorts, men's sandals, and a bunch of t-shirts for my oldest son. A couple of the shirts were Hurley. I felt like I did really good. My oldest son has been needing t-shirts and shorts.

I visited my dad this morning. Their new house is pretty much done now, except for a few minor things. While I was there I noticed the IGA flyer. There is a meat sale this week, you can get Totino's Pizza Rolls for 79 cents a box (limit 5), and you can get Orville Redenbacher 3 ct Popcorn for 79 cents (limit 2). I bought $52.52 worth of sales :)

I then went to my eye appointment for another glaucoma test. I don't have to take medicine yet, but they are keeping my condition closely monitored.

I stopped by CVS and spent around $13 on Chef Boyardee's Spaghetti & Meatballs & Ravioli, which were $10 for $10 and Hershey's candy bar packs which were 3 for $3.

Wal-mart was my last shopping stop for the day. I picked up the ingredients for Strawberry Soda Pop Cake and some snacks for the week. No sales picked up this time, but I did buy generic when I could.

My youngest spent the night with a friend so I picked him up, went home, and we ate 2 boxes of our Pizza Rolls for lunch. Microwave 6 on a plate for 1 minute. It just doesn't get any easier than that, plus it fed a family of four for less than $2.  Afterwards, we went back to town to visit my parents and for my oldest to mow their yard.

Once we got back home, I weeded and watered the garden, threw my egg shells on it, cleaned the pool some more and changed the filter. Unfortunately I didn't get the filter on right and lost some pool water before I noticed, so I fixed it and added some more water. The good news is the pool is finally starting to look almost blue. I got the dishes done. Fixed us leftover spaghetti and broiled some hamburger buns with butter and garlic powder on them to go with it and made Strawberry Soda Pop Cake. It was good, but it will be even better tomorrow cooled all the way.

My beautiful little garden:

Strawberry Soda Pop Cake

1 box yellow or white cake mix
2 boxes strawberry Jello
1 1/2 c. boiling water
1 can strawberry soda
1 box Dream Whip and 1/2 cup milk for each packet opened - use 2 packets
1 box instant vanilla pudding
1 1/2 c. milk

Mix cake as box directs. Bake in oblong pan. Mix Jello and boiling water until dissolved. Add soda. Make holes in hot cake and pour Jello-soda mixture over cake. Put in refrigerator to set.

ICING:

Whip together until very stiff: 1 box instant vanilla pudding, 1 1/2 c. milk, 1 box Dream Whip + 1/2 cup of milk for each packet - use 2 packetsSpread on cake. Keep in refrigerator.

The cake is so good and moist! I only wish that I had taken the picture before I cut the cake.

Tri-County Electric Annual Meeting

Every year since we've been on Tri-County Electric, we have went to their annual meeting. Everything is free. Our children have gotten to jump on bounce houses and get ring pops, free pencil, they serve breakfast (we no longer eat the breakfast though because we don't like it), sodas, water, lemon shakeups, for lunch they have bbq pork sandwiches and chips, if you register before 10am you can get $10 credited to your account, they have shuttle buses at the mall to take you to the Tri-County building across the street, and they give out prizes. One year they even had the St. Louis Cheerleaders come and the boys got their pictures taken with them and we got autographed pictures. Today my youngest had to sit by two different women on both trips on the shuttle bus. They were so sweet. They told him that they don't bite and asked him questions about himself. The last lady told him he has beautiful eyes. It made him blush. Our oldest didn't go with us because he was spending the night at his friends.

We also window shopped at Jenney's, Claire's, Hibbett Sports, Hobby Lobby, Kroger, Glik's, and Rue 21 today. It definitely gives you a sense of what is in style by doing this. I saw a lot of short shorts, shirts with spaghetti straps, lace, bedazzled, jeans with holes in them, Hurley shirts and shorts, and got a sense of where some of their clearance sections are for future reference.

I went to Kroger today for my free Zico 14oz coconut water, but they were all out. This was an offer through SavingStar ecoupons that can be loaded onto your Kroger card, CVS card, or now some stores will let you scan the receipt through the SavingStar mobile app, but my phone doesn't support the newest version.

We stopped by an area Ford dealer today because I had gotten a flyer saying that I won something. I ended up winning a $5 Wal-mart gift card, so that was worth it to me. It was on our way home anyways pretty much.

Once home, I swam for awhile, trimmed trees, picked blackberries, weeded and watered the garden, gave my mom's dog some water, and picked us up some KFC for supper. Right now if you buy a 10 piece meal or larger they will add 2 free sides in addition to the sides your already get. We will have some for lunch tomorrow too. For dessert we had our leftover Strawberry Soda Pop cake. It tastes much better chilled! My arms are so tired from trimming trees today! I definitely need to start working out.

I'm entering a few more sweepstakes tonight, looking outside for the Super Moon, then signing off until next time.

My experience with Hashimoto's, hypothyroid, and for a brief time hyperthyroid.

When I was in my early 20's, I had some labwork done and was told I was hyperthyroid. At the time, I was thin, had endometriosis, but other than that felt well. I always had a little bit of a stomach pooch. I was moody then also. At this point, my doctor felt I did not need medicine and didn't do anything. I had a laparoscopy for my endometriosis and took a nasal spray to correct the sporadic endometriosis through my body.

I had my boys in my late 20's. Afterwards, I started experiencing very heavy periods, cramping, weight gain, etc. I went to the doctor and was told I was hypothyroid, but I didn't need to take meds. I saw a nurse practitioner over the heavy periods. She recommended a novasure? kind of a less invasive hysterectomy I guess, but I chose not to do it and went back on the birth control pills for awhile to help with the symptoms.

In my mid 30's I gained even more weight and started having migraine headaches. I saw a neurologist, but he couldn't figure out the problem. I was on pain meds and that was about all their help. I finally got relief after a spinal tap. After the spinal tap, I had the worst headache ever and stayed on the couch for about a week. After it finally went away, my migraines did not happen daily anymore and when I had them they were lessened in intensity.

Last summer, I started experiencing back pain, pain in my hands, and in my feet. The doctor did xrays and sent me to an orthopedic center. I was told I had a bulging disc in my back and I had arthritis. I started doing physical therapy over the summer and started taking more pain meds. I also told the doctor how I was always tired. My hair is also very brittle and I'm really moody. I had blood tests, an ultrasound, and a thyroid scan done. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease and hypothyroidism. I was put on 25cc Synthroid which was later bumped up to 50cc. I do feel better, but still experience tiredness and stiff joints.

I do try to cut back on gluten and dairy and joining Facebook support groups for Hashimoto's and hypothyroidism has been a huge help. It makes me feel so much better knowing that others have experienced this and can give helpful tips in coping with this disease.

I've adapted and changed some things in my life, which has helped. Before the arthritis in my foot, I was doing karate and the couch to 5k program, now I take walks. I make sure I take my meds. I try to focus on the positives. I did have one reflexology appointment and it did wonders. I felt better for weeks afterwards. As soon as I get some extra money, I will definitely go back. I also bought a chair massager with heat and that has helped my back tremendously.

I'd love to hear your story.

Save A Lot Foods

 

These are only 68 cents at Wal-mart and Save A Lot. You heat them up in the microwave for 3 minutes. They are so good!

 

 

I was disappointed that there were only 3 very small Salisbury Steaks, but it tasted really good. I also fixed mashed potatoes and parmesan toast (toast buttered with parmesan cheese spinkled on it) to help fill my family of four.

 

I'm the only one in my family who likes Pasta On the Side Alfredo, so I probably won't buy it again.

 

Shanee's Parmesan Chicken Tenders were really good! The only one who didn't like it was my youngest. He didn't like the parmesan crunchy crust.

 

 

The whole family loves El Monterey Chimichangas and their burritos. We also love their tequitos, especially over salads with salsa on top. Yum!

Love family time!

Wednesday we took the day off from our chores and went to Mt. Vernon, IL to go to Lonestar Restaurant, Hobby Lobby, Petacular Pet Shop, and a pet store inside a dog groomers on the west side of Mt. Vernon.

The Lonestar food was really good. I ordered the Perfect Chicken sandwich, my oldest son ordered the fish and chips, my youngest had the chicken strips and fries, and my husband ordered a burger and fries. I love their rolls too. I just don't care for the price.

I'm so glad Mt. Vernon got a Hobby Lobby. All we did was window shop, but I love to check out that place!

Petacular Pet shop and the other pet shop are small pet stores, but they have fish, guinea pigs, rabbits, birds, and reptiles. The pet store on the west side is going to expand soon and offer more pets.

I am doing really good this year keeping my garden weeded and my pepper plants and tomatoe plants look great! So far we've gotten one jalapeno and it was good! I went blackberry picking yesterday and got 1/2 an icecream bucket fool. I made blackberry pie the past two nights. I rinse the blackberries, place them in a bowl with 1 1/2 cups of sugar, mash and mix it up, pour it into a pie shell and then place a pie shell on top, sprinkle with sugar, and bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. It is so good! Everyone in my family loves it! One night I served it with icecream on top and another night we used whipped cream. I think I prefer the whipped cream.

Here's some of the things we've been eating this week that I would like to review:

 

These were only 89 cents at Save A Lot. I found out my boys don't like them anymore though. They said the chicken does not taste like chicken, so I won't be buying them anymore.

 

 

 

I bought this on sale, but after trying them I will not buy the beef and peppers anymore. There just wasn't enough sauce, but it did taste ok.

 

Our whole family loves the Buffalo Style Chicken Strips that you can buy at Save A Lot.

 

Everyone, except my youngest enjoyed these Chewy Fudge Mini Brownies. They package says it makes 12, but I was able to make 16 Brownies :)

 

My boys did not like the Chili Cornbread, my husband said he wasn't sure if he liked it or not, but I loved it.

 

Today I played Sorry and Checkers with the kids.

 

Saturday we went to Long John Silvers for their free fish and fries and ordered hushpuppies and small drinks for the four of us and it only came to $8.60 I love paying only that for a family of four. Afterwards we went to the movies to see Transformers. I had a Fandango gift code for $10, used my AMC stubs card to avoid the $2.50 convenience fees, plus Amazon sent me 2 free Amazon music codes to use, plus I split it into 2 orders, so my husband got 2 free Amazon music codes as well. The movie was awesome! We all loved it!

The shrimp popper without the shrimp

The paramedics visited us today at summer camp to explain about CPR and the equipment they use. I feel like everyone; adults and children should take a CPR and First Aid class. A month ago, I renewed my CPR/First Aid certificate.

This morning we had Cinnamon Rolls with icing that I bought from Save A Lot. They were really good.

For lunch, I made Nachos with cheese and we had shaved turkey lunchmeat. It was a quick and easy lunch and tasted good.

 

When I heated up the soup, I just did not add the milk when I heated it up and poured it over the tortilla chips.

 

For supper, we had fish, shrimp poppers, and hushpuppies. The problem with the shrimp poppers I bought is that it is all breading ........ you can't see a single piece of shrimp. My youngest, says, "Mom are you trying to be like Michelle Obama and feed us shrimp poppers made totally of wheat?" LOL

 

 

I did think the hushpuppies and the fish were good though :)

 

My oldest son did his mowing today for my mom. He is saving up money to buy the Xbox One. I believe it is never too early to teach children to have a good work ethic and to work for what they want.

 

 

Loving summer :)

Today I played Uno, Twister, and put together an Angry Birds 3d puzzle and an Avengers 3d puzzle with a great group of kids at summer camp.

I came home and made my family Spam for breakfast. I love the stuff! It is cheap and I had several coupons, so I stocked up on it.

I worked on cleaning our pool. Our cover fell in this year, so needless to say it looked like pond water. I have placed about 15 packets of shock in it, a bucket full of sanitizing tablets, ran the filter, changed it several times, and used the net on the pool for the past week. It is finally starting to look like a pool again.

My husband and I weeded our garden. I didn't have to water it today due to the rain. I love it when it rains :)

For lunch, I fixed Banquet Hot and Spicy Wings and Save A Lot's Hot and Spicy Chips. Everyone loves it at our house.

 

For drinks today we had Lipton tea and I made some generic Lemonade for the boys.

 

I did my 20 reps of each part of our weight machine today. I'm really trying to do that every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. That's the same day that my some lifts weights at school to get ready for football.

 

For supper, I made Save A Lot pizzas and we had Mandarin Oranges with it. The pizzas are only 99 cents and are delicious.

 

I'm still reading the 2nd Game of Thrones book. I love it and the tv series. I feel like the books give me a better insight as to what the characters are feeling.

 

My husband and I caught up on some of our dvr'd shows like Penny Dreadful and Devious Maids.

 

I cleaned out my closet yesterday and was able to put aside 4 large armfuls of clothes for a rummage sale and 1 big box of books. I keep telling myself, if I don't love it, get rid of it!

 

The Japanese Beatles are loving my cherry trees. Luckily when I spray them with Seven spray, it keeps them off.

 

Well I am off to clean our bedroom while my husband watches wrestling and my boys play their video games :)

 

 

2nd Week of Summer Break & Summer Camp

My 2nd week off from being a Teacher's Aide has come to an end. This week I have cleaned my bathrooms and started cleaning my closet. I feel like I always get behind through the school year, between working, chauffeuring my boys to different activities, household maintenance, helping with homework, going to games and practices. It's hard to balance working, being a mom, and being a wife.

Second week of summer camp went well. The boys have enjoyed making paper airplanes, playing Mario Cart, Wii Sports, and Mario Superstars on the Wii, and drawing and cutting out super heroes for pretend play. I drew Super Dog for the boys to play with today :)

I have kept my garden weeded and watered and placed the cages around my five tomato plants. Yesterday I trimmed some of our trees and cut off the damaged fabric from our gazebo.

My find this week I'm proud of is the Kool-Aid canisters that say 25% more free. It's not much, but it makes an extra half gallon for the same price. I didn't find anything at the rummage sales this past Saturday. I'm hoping I do tomorrow though.

My mom placed paint stripper on her latex walls and that seems to be helping take the paint off.

Ramblings from a mom on summer break :)

My first week of summer break went really well. As I said in an earlier post, I am working part-time as a summer camp counselor. We have been playing the Wii, Uno, Jenga, Twister, coloring, cutting, using glitter glue, making paper airplanes, playing kickball, Candyland, Crazy 8's, doing the Avengers 3D 100 piece puzzle, etc. It has been a blast!

With my own family, I have still been helping my mom scrape Latex paint off of her walls. It has been a chore. I saw a Youtube video about using Ammonia and water, applying it to the walls, let it set, then scrape; it was supposed to be really easy, but it didn't work either. Now my mom is using a paint remover, applying it, and letting it set. Hopefully, this will make the job easier.

My boys have been playing a lot of video games on their Xbox 360. Because they had good grades, they received coupons for free rentals from Family Video. I love this program. I believe children should be rewarded for good grades. At the end of each quarter, I give my boys one dollar for every A and 50 cents for every B. They don't receive anything for anything less.

Yesterday I tried a new recipe. You mix one banana with 2 eggs and cook in a skillet like a pancake. It doesn't taste as good as pancakes, but I'm sure it's much healthier as long as you didn't cover it in syrup.

Today I used a dollar coupon for Secret deodorant at my local Dollar Tree and only had to pay 8 cents for it. I love couponing!

I love Dr. Pop soda. It tastes really close to Dr. Pepper and is cheaper. I know I need to try to give up sodas for my health, but I really only drink a few a week usually.

 

I found a really quick and convenient lunch to feed my family.

It only took about 5 minutes in the microwave and tasted great. I love to cook, but sometimes quick and easy is the way to go.

 

 

Of course, this is our quick and easy breakfast above for my boys. Although sometimes, I cook eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, or potatoes for breakfast. Cereal is also good for breakfast or a lot of times we eat it as a snack.

 

Enough rambling for now...................... until next time.

Summer Break - Saturday, Sunday, Monday

Saturday we went to see A Million Ways to Die in The West. It was funny, but not as funny as the previews. Usually we just try to see action movies at the theater because of the cost, we like the stereo effect of the theater, and when available we like seeing it in 3D.  I always use my AMC Stubs card to save money. Afterwards, we ate at Tequila's Mexican Restaurant and shopped for plants for our garden at Bucheit's. We bought tomato plants and pepper plants. We still have pickles and salsa canned from previous years. We got home and my husband tilled our garden, then I planted our garden. It's small, but I love the feeling of accomplishment I get from planting our own food.

We have been helping my mother scrape latex paint off of paneling. It's not an easy job, but we are making some progress. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make this job easier?

Breakfast for yesterday: Hot & Spicy Sausage & Fried Potatoes
Breakfast for today: Bacon & Fried Potatoes
Lunch: Tony's pizzas
Supper: Aldi's Buffalo Chicken Chunks with Ranch dressing
Dessert: Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate Brownies
I bought Totino's Buffalo Chicken Pizza Friday and it was delicious; just the right amount of spiciness.

I started cleaning my house for the summer today. I got my knickknacks above my kitchen cabinets washed, the top of the refrigerator, bagged all of the trash, cleaned mirrors, dusted, mopped, vacuumed, weeded my garden, fed the rabbits, and did dishes. All of this, plus I worked 2 hours today as a summer camp counselor.

I've also made more progress on the second Game of Thrones book. I love the characters. I also watch the series and play the game on facebook.

I also worked out today on our weight machine and did 20 reps of everything. I read that once you turn 40, you start losing muscle mass, so I thought it definitely can't hurt :)

I've been catching up on Cougar Town, Salem, Resurrection, Penny Dreadful, Sign, Sealed, Delivered, etc. I love watching TV series and movies.

I played the Xbox 360 game, White noise Friday night for the first time. I found 3 of the 8 recorders, on normal level, before I died. I don't think I did too bad. My son wanted me to try it. He says it is scary if you play it by yourself in the dark.

Pizza Hut Blake Smoky BBQ

My husband received an email advertising the three new bbq pizzas at Pizza Hut. They look delicious! We got an email/online order deal to buy a large pizza, get a medium bbq pizza for $5, and add a 2L for $1. With tax & delivery charges added everything came to $20.77 and my husband has leftovers for his lunch tomorrow. We chose the Blake Smoky BBQ pizza and it was sooooooo good! Yum! I liked it because it was so different too; not just the same thing we usually order :) Now I'm getting off of here to enter the survey on the back of the receipt for a chance to win $1,000. Wish me luck!

I love using Ebates!

Every time I shop online I use Ebates. You can get a percentage of your purchase back and what's not to love about that? I have gotten Ebates checks back for purchases at Lowe's, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, etc.  Click here to sign up: http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=yeAfGSRCiBU%3D It is free to join. I don't do a lot of shopping online so my checks aren't really big, but it is a nice way to get some extra spending money. I think my last check was around $9.00, but every little bit helps.

Surveys that I love :)

Doing surveys is a good way to make extra money or rewards for bills, Christmas, Birthday gifts, etc. Some surveys take a little time and others are more lengthy, but I feel that they are worth it, especially if you can watch television at the same time and multitask. I have also done some surveys where you get to preview parts of a movie before it comes out, which I really like. I have also received some cool samples from doing surveys, such as; shampoo, conditioner, Campbell's soup, coupons for free salads, candy bars, etc. The rewards are endless.



Zoombucks http://www.zoombucks.com/index.php?ref=burnum
Zoombucks is free to join and allows you to earn rewards for completing various activities.

Inboxdollars  http://www.inboxdollars.com/?r=ref13170663
At Inboxdollars you can earn cash by completing surveys, reading emails, and more. When you earn $30, you can cash out and get paid.

Survey Spot
http://www.surveyspot.com/general/refer-a-friend?Referer=L1EEYtRmJI4CWWuPCCDaSl5yx7iuAehS
At Survey Spot you can tell researchers what you think of their products and services or give your opinions on the issues of the day and get prizes and rewards for participation.

https://www.expotv.com/register?rid=134989 Review products and post videos for points.

Want to help others? Give blood.

My husband and I don't have a lot of money, but today we potentially helped others by giving blood. All it takes is a little time, minor discomfort possibly, you may have to deal with some rude nurses or hopefully you'll have nice ones, but for the person who may need your blood someday it will mean the world to them. We also got an apple juice and a Keebler's Double Fudge Bar at the end, so you could say my husband and I went out for dessert & juice for free ;)

Free Family Fun

I love going to scholar bowl meets! They do not charge admission, you can learn a lot of trivia, you can test yourself on the questions (in your head of course, don't blurt out the answers LOL), and it's fun to see how much the children know. I used to love to play Trivia Pursuit as a child, so this is my idea of fun.

Our town used to host movie nights in the park, which we loved. We would bring our own bottled sodas and candy, lawn chairs, and slumber bags for the children and spend the next few hours watching some great family films for free.

I love shopping at Aldi's

I really love to shop at Aldi's. They have products that Wal-mart doesn't, I can fill an entire cart for a lot less, and I love their fresh produce. I always make sure I bring a quarter for their cart return system and I bring my thermal bags so I don't have to search for boxes or pay for their bags. I do prefer getting fish sticks at Wal-mart, but I like many of the items Aldi's has.

Home and Garden Shows

I love to go to Home and Garden Shows. They have a low entry fee - usually just a couple of dollars, most provide candy, so when you take your children it is like trick or treating in the spring :), you can register for prizes (I have won an electric heater, a basket of lotions, t-shirt, college credits, disaster preparation bucket, wind chimes, chip clips, plastic cups, cup cozies, a birthday party at the bowling alley for one of my sons, 2 tickets to the rodeo at our county fair, and my husband won a t-shirt), you can learn about different services in your area, get a free newspaper, local tourism guides, sample apple cider, blackberry cobbler, cookies, strawberry shortcake, apple cobbler, beer bread, dips, and it is a fun cheap way to spend time with the family.

Save money by skipping delivery charges

We recently bought a new bed and saved ourselves money by shopping around, finding the lowest price, and skipping the $30 delivery charge by picking it up in our truck. I highly recommend Chapman's furniture in Salem, Il. We have bought an Ashley kitchen table set, bar stools, Ashley couch, love seat, recliner, and a twin bed and they have all held up well. They have very good service with a smile :)

Save money by installing your own microwave

Recently our microwave broke and we got a new one through Lowe's on sale with 2 gift cards we had plus we had to pay the difference. There was free delivery which was good. The installation would have cost $100, but my husband and I read the instructions and installed it ourselves and saved the money. It only took us twenty minutes to install so it was well worth it.