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Get Your Black Friday Shopping Strategy Guide!!

AFullCup – Black Friday Guide

AFullCup.com always has uh-may-zing savings – they find awesome coupon codes, link to super great deals, and share tips on how to combine your codes too! So – they are a TOTAL “Don’t Miss” site for your Black Friday shopping planning tonight!

Check out all the ads and deals for Black Friday in one easy to manage spot, and get access to additional coupons and online shopping codes. They also have a few direct links to discussions about some of the BF deals for Walgreen’s, CVS, Target, Walmart, and more.

Share YOUR best Black Friday tip here in the comments too!

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Posted by on November 24, 2011 Filed Under: Shopping, Deals and Coupon Codes | No Comments

I’m a Speaker at Reviewers Retreat 2012!!! {And How to get Discount Tickets}

Join me at Reviewers Retreat 2012!!

I am SO excited to be a part of this event, and can’t wait to share some fun tips and helpful information during my session at Reviewers Retreat. This will be my first blog conference, and I hope to see some of you there!! Read more about the when’s, what’s and where’s of this amazing conference – and find out how you can get a super sweet discount on tickets too:

The 2nd annual Reviewer’s Retreat will be held June 3-5, 2012 at Great Wolf Lodge, Concord-Charlotte, NC. Reviewer’s Retreat is first conference geared specifically toward the issues and challenges faced by bloggers in the product review genre, a topic that is lacking from most conference agendas. Review bloggers, those who conduct product and resource reviews on their site, will converge to take part in sessions on a variety of topics including brand-blogger relations, website design, perfecting the pitch, statistics, photography and more.  This brand-friendly conference welcomes company and agency representatives as building and strengthening relationships between bloggers and brands is one of the conference’s primary goals.

Get your Reviewers Retreat Tickets Today!!

How to score BIG discounts on your tickets!

You can secure your spot at the Reviewers Retreat by purchasing tickets at early bird pricing – only $199 dollars if you buy them now, that’s a savings of $79 dollars!! AND – they’re having a huge Black Friday sale too! Check it out:

On November 25th the first 25 Reviewer’s Retreat conference passes sold using code BLACKFRIDAY25 will receive $25 off the early bird pricing!  (Making passes only $149.99!!) If all 25 tickets are sold, we will randomly select one to receive a FULL REFUND. Yep, that’s a FREE ticket!

Who’s coming with me??!!

If you’ve already bought your ticket, or are planning to get one soon – let me know that you’ll be attending! I’d absolutely love to connect with some of my amazing bloggy fans at this event!

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Posted by on November 20, 2011 Filed Under: Blogging Resources | 2 Comments

The Free Money Tip You Can’t Afford to Miss

I know that most of us are struggling with finances these days, and you know I’m always here to share my favorite solutions. One way that I help our family – {since with Mike out of work, I’m the ONLY one bringing in any income. Yikes} – is to use rewards sites to earn free cash through PayPal, free checks delivered in the mail, and loads of free gift cards to stores we shop at most. And most of these sites have the added bonus of rewarding you with entries into exclusive members-only giveaways, which have much better odd’s than the nationwide sweepstakes you always see. I’ve won quite a few times over the years, and they’re some of the biggest prizes that I’ve ever won, which can be an amazing help – think free toys for the kids, or free kitchen appliances.

How to Get Free Money and Free Stuff Online - Totally Legit, great tips from a real mom!

What’s holding you back?

Many people tell me, “I don’t have time for those survey sites.” Or, “The rewards aren’t even worth it.” Well, I can tell you – they ARE worth it! I’ve done them for years while I worked full-time, and I’ve done them now when I’m even busier running this site and my business – so I’ve never had a ton of time to devote to this. And, if they weren’t worth it, I wouldn’t do it – I have a never-ending to-do list each day, and have to really prioritize!


My Tip: Sign up for as many different sites as you can find. That way, you’re automatically entered in more of their sweepstakes, even if you’re not very active. Then, make a separate folder in your email, called “Surveys” – move all survey invites into that folder when you get them. Next, make some time – 30 minutes a day after the kids go to sleep, or even an hour on the weekend – and go through as many survey invites as you can in that time. Some may be expired, because they’ve been in there awhile, but you’ll complete quite a few. After a couple months, check ALL your balances – you’ll be uh-MAY-zed at what you’re ready to cash in. Promise.

Free Shopping Spree!

I usually only cash out twice a year, once right before summer, and once before the holidays. This year, I’m doing a very low-budget Christmas, and decided to wait until January to cash out all of my sites – then splurge on some fun new stuff for ME! I’ll share my totals when I cash it all out – so that you can see what kind of serious cash and rewards you can earn. Now – Don’t be the only one missing out on this free stuff – get signed up today!

Want more great tips? Check out my most popular post of all time – 10 ways to make money from home – perfect for moms!

Earn CASH rewards!

  • Vindale Research – Earn from $5 to $75 per survey! Mine are usually in the $10-$15 range – but I have gotten a couple that were the top rate. Very cool when you get them!
  • Inbox Dollars – Earn $5 bucks cash today, and request a check every time you hit $20. Earn for shopping, doing polls and surveys, playing games, or just clicking on emails. Plus, if you’re a coupon girl, you earn .10 cents per coupon you print and redeem. Sweet! Another new one that’s super similar {that I JUST signed up with, so I don’t have much feedback for yet, is Send Earnings. It looks almost the exactly the same.} And – see an example of how much I made with Inbox Dollars last year in November.
  • Opinion Outpost – Rewards include get cash, Amazon gift cards, game points, donations to your favorite charities, and more. Everyone is also automatically entered to a $10,000 sweepstakes by joining and taking surveys. Minimum payout is $5 for Amazon gift cards, or $10 for PayPal cash.
  • USell.com – This isn’t a survey site. But you can earn a ton of cash selling your old, unneeded – even broken! – cell phones. I had a whole drawer full, and got cash for all of them. Better cash in my pocket than a drawer of old half-broken phones :)
  • Toluna – Join the survey research panel and start taking surveys to earn cash! Surveys are usually pretty short, so they’re easy when you’re short on time. They also do mini-polls, to earn points even quicker.
  • Upromise – This is a bit different – register an account, install the toolbar, and start earning money that you can put towards your child’s future college tuition. This really does work – I used it, and didn’t even really do anything with it, but earned about $150 in less than a year – with no effort at all, that I cashed out to pay for a few college textbooks last year. If you start it for your kids and let it add up over time, it could be a big amount of totally free college funds!
  • Cash Crate – This one is super cool – I won some contests there last holiday season that I didn’t even know they were having :) They have a TON of ways you can earn money… You just pick and choose offers, things like watch a video and earn .50 cents, join a book club and earn $10, sign up for a brand newsletter and get $1. It adds up quick.

Free Products!

  • MySurvey – Take Surveys, Get FREE Products to try out, and Earn amazing Rewards!!
  •  – Test free products in your home and earn rewards. After you get to see new products and ideas before anyone else, it’s easy to understand why businesses don’t want their new ideas to leak out!
  • Nielsen Home Scan Consumer Panel – Must be over 18. Earn points that you can redeem towards seriously amazing stuff: I used to do this, and redeemed points for kitchen appliances and other cool home stuff. Been trying to get approved again forever!
  • Pinecone Research – It’s easy and fun to see and evaluate new product ideas in the comfort of your own home. You will earn points for each completed product survey, which can be exchanged for cash and other rewards. PLUS you will be automatically entered into a bi-weekly Sweepstakes to win additional cash prizes for your time. Each interview usually takes 15-20 minutes of your time.
  • Minds Pay – Evaluate cool products right in your home, that they send you for free, then share your opinions of them online in surveys – and get rewarded for it. Sah-weet, right?
  • Survey Spot – *Frequent opportunities, average of 24 surveys a month. You’ll earn sweepstakes entries for each survey, to win $12,000! I get TONS of baby products to test from them!

Earn Gift Cards!

  • Valued Opinions – Every survey earns you points, and you turn those into FREE gift cards!
  • MyPoints – Earn with surveys, shopping, and SO much more. Then turn those points into FREE gift cards, hundreds to choose from! {One of my favorite sites!}
  • E-Poll – Earn gift cards for sharing your opinions, and enter to WIN a montly $1,000 giveaway! You’ll even get access to cool new products to test out sometimes, before they even hit the market.
  • SwagBucks – the easiest way to earn free stuff on the web! Redeem for my favorite, Amazon gift cards, or even PayPal cash! {Tip: When doing Amazon GCs, always get the $5 ones. They’re a better value than the $25 ones, when you look at points per dollar :)}
  • Your Word Panel – Share your thoughts with brands who want to hear them, and earn free gift cards from sites like Walgreens, and more.
  • 15 Ways to Shop for Free: Ok – this isn’t a site, this is a list I put together. I LOVE those deal sites that reward you for sharing with your friends… And I earn enough credit to do the majority of my holiday shopping for free. And when you do it right, your friends appreciate it too – who doesn’t love it when a friend finds something totally awesome that you love, at a crazy-discounted price, right? So, sign up for a ton of these sites, get great deals on stuff for you, share the deals with your friends, earn tons of free credit when they shop, and then shop for free! Love it.

Have questions?

If you have any questions about how any of these sites work, feel free to ask in the comments, or on my Facebook wall, and I’ll answer right away! And I’d LOVE to have you share YOUR story of how these sites have worked for you – for a chance to be featured on Sunshine and Sippy Cups. Thanks for reading – and have a great weekend!

Earn free stuff online with surveys

 

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Posted by on November 18, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies, Busy Mom Solution | 7 Comments

FAN-tastic Freebie Friday! {Happy Veteran’s Day!}

Freebies

It’s Freebie Friday!

This week, I’m going to put together a ton of themed freebie and deal lists – so watch for them all day! I’ll have a holiday baking post, a holiday prep freebie post, some great travel deals and freebies, freebies to help with holiday gifts, and more! And – make sure to enter to WIN in all of my fun giveaways going on now. You can see a list of them all in the sidebar widget —> Over there. See it?? Makes it easy peasy to get your entries in every day! And you can also find my new Christmas Countdown in the sidebar too – showing you exactly how much time you have left before Santa gets here. I can’t believe it’s only SIX WEEKS away! Time to get to shopping, right?? So check out this list of freebies, and watch for more all day!

Freebie Friday List:

Ok, talk to you again soon – watch for the rest of the posts! And, to stay updated, you can always follow me on Twitter, or on Facebook {there are tons of deals that I ONLY post to one of those networks – I spread ’em around, so the more ways you follow me, the more cool stuff you’ll see!} or sign up to get my once daily email update, with all of the days posts in ONE spot, so you never miss anything! Sign up here:

Enter your email address:

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Have a great end to the week! Happy Veterans Day to all of you who have served, or have family who have – you’re amazing :)

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Posted by on November 11, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies | No Comments

Are Pre-Paid Credit Cards for Kids a Good Idea?

Pre-Paid Visa CardTo pre-pay, or not to pre-pay? That is a mom-of-teens question…

I’ve told you guys before that I don’t think enough kids are learning about money management. I remember taking a class in High School called “Single Living”; it taught skills like how to make a budget, how to balance a checkbook, rental agreements, etc. We once did a project where we made our imaginary budgets, and then made a grocery list that we thought would fit our budget – then took a field trip to the grocery store, to write down the actual prices of the foods on our list. 99% of the kids in class were completely shocked by the price of food – and had spent around triple what they thought they would. But, since I’d been helping my mom with grocery shopping for years, I was the only one who actually spent a little less than my budget – and then did a presentation on couponing too!

How I became a frugal momma…

My mom was really honest with us about money. We knew that the reason we couldn’t have everything we wanted was because we couldn’t afford it all. But while we struggled financially while I was growing up, it was never a negative thing – we just worked together as a family to figure out what was most important to each of us, and sacrificed other things to get them. Mom worked 2-3 jobs sometimes – which meant we did more housework, to help her out. We all learned budgeting basics at a pretty young age. But I am SO surprised to see how many people graduate high school with NO understanding of money what-so-ever.

Busy Mom Solution – A tool to help:

I’ve also talked to you before about what a great tool pre-paid credit cards can be. As a young adult, I used them to help me budget. And I really love them as an option to get teenagers used to using credit – once their out on their own, most kids sign up for a ton of cards, rack up a ton of debt, and have no idea exactly how it happened. BUT – giving them a pre-paid card, that you have a lot of control over, can teach them some budgeting basics earlier on. Plus, you take away the temptation to spend their money on drugs, alcohol, or other dangerous activities – you get to see a record of exactly where they’re spending!

Here are some great ways to use them:

  • School shopping: Load an agreed-upon amount into the card, and let your child to their own shopping. When they don’t have mommy or daddy to spend more, they quickly realize that they don’t need those designer jeans as much, when it means they only get 2 shirts for the year. And if they do splurge on the jeans anyway – they’ll soon learn why it was a mistake. Lessons that are important to learn. Working in retail I saw a HUGE difference in the way kids shop when they’re using moms money, or using their own limited clothing allowance.
  • Emergency Cash: So many kids might lose cash, or spend it if they’re holding it more than say – 5 minutes. But, they can carry a pre-paid card, and you’ll know that they always have some cash in an emergency situation – peace of mind is worth it.
  • Allowance: An easy way to give the kids their weekly allowance, without having to run to the bank for cash each week. Or – pay your babysitter each week by loading it onto a pre-paid card. Easy peasy solution.
  • The most important factor: I remember in school, parents would give their kids lunch money, or spending money, and some would use that for alcohol or drugs. When you’re using a pre-paid card like this to give them cash – you get to see exactly what they spend it on. Much safer.

Cool features:

  • Lock and Unlock Your Teen’s Card with a Simple Text.
  • Monitor Purchase Alerts in Real-Time on Your Mobile Phone – so you can quickly catch problems before they get out of control.
  • Family or Friends Can Reload Funds – which is great for holidays, birthdays, or graduations.
  • Plus – there is NO risk of overdrafts, and no credit risk for them. It’s a safe way to learn to use a card responsibly.
  • You can see where they spend it, to ensure they’re being safe.

What do you think?

Have you used pre-paid cards for your kids? Are you for, or against the idea? Are there other ways that you help to teach your kids money management? I’d love to hear your tips! If you’re interested in learning more about pre-paid cards – the one I use is the Bill My Parents card, from MasterCard. You can also use this now at Amazon – which can help the kids learn about safe online shopping too. The rates are totally reasonable, and I’ve used them for a long time with no problems. My boyfriends two other daughters are teenagers now, and budgeting, money, and allowance are topics we’ve been giving a lot of thought too – I’d love for you to share your thoughts, ideas, and tips in the comments….

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Posted by on November 7, 2011 Filed Under: Shopping, Busy Mom Solution | No Comments

New Feature: Weekend Window Shopping! {Best of Today’s Deals!}

Weekend Window Shopping – Start your holiday gift shopping now!

Welcome to a new weekly feature – “Weekend Window Shopping!” I’ll bring you the best of all the daily deal sites in ONE post, easy peasy. Then you can shop the hottest products, at the lowest prices – in you pajama’s. Love it, right? These deal sites are a great way to start stocking up on Christmas gifts at a super low price! And always check to see if you can combine them with Cash Back on sites like Ebates, Inbox Dollars, or MyPoints too, for more savings. So let’s get started….

Weekend Window Shopping –

Metro TableTotsy KidKraft Sale!

Ohmyheck, do I looove me some KidKraft toys!!! I’m really wanting to get the red play kitchen – but we don’t have room for it yet. And this play table is uh-MAY-zing! I got this for the boys last year, and it is the coolest thing ever. The top flips over to solid wood, so you can use it as a coffee table too – it is really high quality. Find this sale on Totsy today! All KidKraft toys are around 50% off – some more, and you can save over $100 on some of the big sets! SHOP TOTSY TODAY!!

Zulily – Plan Toys 60% off!

Another great sale to help you stock up on some really great quality, well-built toys for the kids for Christmas – check out the Plan Toys selection in the Zulily sale event today! “A green company with commitments to safety and child development, PlanToys proves that eco-friendly, socially responsible toys can be made with superior quality. Their goal is to create toys that inspire imaginations while promoting physical and intellectual development.” I love these toys, they really do last. SHOP ZULILY TODAY!

HomeSav deals - glass fireplace HomeSav ME – Modern Elements Sale!

Ok seriously, how cool are these?? There are around 20-30 styles to choose from, all very modern and super unique. They’re an eco-friendly spin on a fireplace – read more: Their fireplaces use bio-ethanol, a clean, renewable and environmentally friendly fuel. The combustion of ethanol results in a clean emission of heat, steam and a negligible amount of carbon dioxide, so there is no smoke.” SHOP HOMESAV TODAY!!

Open Sky – Tom Colicchio Sale!

I so love Open Sky… I find some of the most interesting products here that I never would’ve found on my own. You choose your favorite designers, chefs, and celebrities to follow, and get deep discounts on their picks each week! Today Tom Colicchio has this Crown Maple Syrup Trio at a great price – perfect for breakfast when you have holiday guests, right? This is the same syrup they use in their famous restaurants. Very cool. SHOP OPEN SKY TODAY!

Get Shopping!

Get some great deals at all of these sites, and check out the details on each one – you can earn credits for sharing YOUR favorite deals with your friends! Everyone loves a deal, right? Have a great weekend!

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Posted by on October 29, 2011 Filed Under: Shopping, Deals and Coupon Codes | No Comments

Win What YOU Want Contest – Learn More!

HUGE Giveaway from UPS My Choice!

Sign up for a UPS My Choice account, and you’ll not only get some amazingly helpful services, but you’ll be AUTOMATICALLY entered to win one of the over $238,996 in prizes their giving away!! Wow, right? Check it out on the bottom right corner of the page.

What you Can Win!

UPS My Choice is giving you the opportunity to win one of HUNDREDS of trips to awesome events around the country – from the most exciting sports championships to the hottest new concerts! 25 {super-duper} lucky winners will airfare, hotel accommodations, event tickets – and even spending money too! – for 4 people! Super exciting.

What is UPS My Choice?

If you do any online shopping, you NEED to sign up for this – I love it. Become a member of UPS My Choice to get delivery that fits your life! Get alerts before packages arrive, electronically authorize packages for drop-of, re-route to other locations and many other options. So sign up today – and get automatically entered to win!!

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Posted by on October 28, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies, Contests | No Comments
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