Saturday, February 11, 2017

Make money while nursing

I know, that's a silly title for a blog post. But it's true!  I have a few tried and true (and some new-and-trying) methods to make money while nursing (or vegging, or waiting for your kid to finish going potty, or waiting on hold, ... you get the picture!) 

And I'm a big fan of being Dutch not just saving money, but making money to help my family with the little things to make life a little easier. 

Here are a few things I use: (and how much I've made since December/January when I started focusing more on actually trying with these sites and apps!) 



Websites: 

1. Ebates! - $46.50 
 If you haven't heard of Ebates, it's an amazing online-shop-through rebate app. They work with many types of retailers, including 
Lowe's, 
Target (GET THE DEBIT RED CARD!! USE YOUR WEDDING/BABY REGISTRY BONUS COUPON!) 
Ulta (says the lady who only wears mascara),
 Groupon (yay, date nights! (what's that?!)),
Walmart (did you know they sell extra huge boxes of diapers online that you can have sent to the store nearest you??) 
Kohls,
EBay, (specific departments) 
Amazon, (specific departments)
and a few in-store offers, as well, when you link your card / process your debit as a credit card and select your offer before shopping, but I haven't tried that yet...)
 They also have a browser extension "Ebates Cash Back Button" that lives next to the left of my address bar on my MacBook. It'll nag you if you're on a site that could get you cash back from shopping, and when you click the button it'll ask you if you want to open a shopping trip with Ebates. You know you do, so click it and it'll put a little check / tick / tally mark on the button so you know you'll get money back from whatever you buy. Like your mom reminding you to clean your room because she has your best interest at heart and doesn't want you to break a leg in the middle of the night! 

How it works: You sign up first, and they'll credit your account with $10 just like that!! Get a friend to sign up, and you'll get $25 and they'll get $10 Just. Like. That!   I convinced my amazing dad to sign up and he ordered something he needed and we both got paid (plus he got a percentage back of his purchase!!) 
If you use my link, 

Join Ebates right here! 

you can get a head start on your own Christmas and help us pay a few bills (which we have no shortage of after this past few year's job drought!) 

Sorry that was long. I just find it very fun and a great way to help my family financially :) 
plus, who doesn't love saving?!?!?! 





2. Inbox Dollars - currently $12.08
Another fun website, but this one you actually have to do things. Not big things, but fiddly things. You can take surveys, watch videos for cash, or open spamalicious "e-mails" (basically advertisements) through the inbox you get on their website for about 2 cents each one you open. Not a lot of money, but it takes maybe a minute to go through, and they'll email your actual email address when you have something in your inbox, so maybe a dime a day for very little effort. 
(Steps: Click the "email." Scroll to the bottom and click "Confirm this paid email." [email opens up in a new tab that you can close later]. 
And the surveys are decent as well, if you don't qualify you'll still get a dime or so for your efforts. (woot!) 
you can do your searches through I.D. as well, and only four searches a day get you 2 cents and 2 sweeps. You can get sweeps from other tasks as well, and it's fun to see what you might win. (I haven't won anything yet, but there's always hope hahahaha....) 

Join Inboxdollars! 

and then ... they have coupons!  
It's linked to the coupons from coupons.com, but if you print through InboxDollars they'll credit you a dime with every coupon you use!  (Combine that with rebate apps and you win win winnn!) 




3. Swagbucks - 529 ($5.29) Swagbucks currently
pretty similar to Inbox Dollars - surveys, sweepstakes, print coupons, watch tv, buy things, but they also have "Swag codes" that you can find by searching, or on Twitter or BookFace. 
You can earn swagbucks with all sorts of things, and turn them in for gift cards to scores of different places (I like to stick with Amazon). 

Join Swagbucks 

and once you get 300 swagbucks you get a bonus 300 (basically, one Swagbuck is one cent). You can get gift cards starting once you have 200. :) 



4. Lozo
This is a fun little site I just found - you can make a list of things you shop for and it'll email you if anything on your list appears on any of the rebate apps or coupon sites (I.e: Redplum, Facebook pages, Ibotta,...). You can also search the available coupons and rebates for things you are interested in buying when you pick up your groceries. 

Join LOZO 




5. Ipsos-Isay - currently 40 points
Go here (hehehe) once you sign up you can fill out surveys for points that can be traded for gift cards). If you don't qualify for a survey, they let you win entries for nice prizes :) 




Apps: Preview - 

6. Lucktastic - currently 22,317 tokens
Scratch Cards / Lotto. You can win 5 to 100 tokens by "scratching" lotto cards, sometimes you can win cash (I currently have 50 cents). There are at least 30 scratch cards a day :)  
15,000 tokens gets you a $10 Restaurant.com gift card, 23000 + gets you $5+ at various retailers. Most of the scratch cards have to be "unlocked" by watching a 15-30 second advertisement, but that's where nursing comes in. You can easily go through these at 4 in the morning while you're half asleep :) 


7. .... more to come! Including how much I am loving rebate apps these days~ 
Right now I'm fighting a cold and need to go feed the baby! :)  

Let me know if you've tried any of these!! :) 

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Read Throgh the Rainbow Booklist Part 2 - Orange

Next on the spectrum of the rainbow comes ORANGE! Orange and red are two of my daughter's quickly-chosen crayon colors. She also enjoys using blue and purple :)

Here are my picks for orange books:

[may contain affiliate links, and any clicks made go toward the purchase of more books or birthday gifts or Christmas gifts for relatives, etc...  ]







1. Jesus Loves the Little Children, by Debby Anderson  - We received this with two other books from my mother-in-law. This is basically an extended version of the song "Jesus Loves the Little Children, with simply adorable illustrations. The "Cuddle and Sing Series" comes highly recommended, and is a nice sturdy little board book. One of my favorite parts of this book is the many cultures represented.  If you are in love with different cultures, this is a fun and sneaky way to introduce differences to your babies :)

*the other two books are Jesus Loves Me & Jesus is With Me
 also by Debby Anderson



2. Green Eggs & Ham, by Dr. Seuss - This one was a favorite growing up, and I'm pretty sure it's a favorite for many  littles :) Most kids like it because it's silly, but grownups like to use it to get their kiddos to try new things (a la Mom Tiger - "You have to try new food because it might taste go-ood."
Some other options to try once you've mastered the art of helping Sam convince your child that green eggs are acceptable -
   Do You Like Green Eggs and Ham - Nursery Edition - it's a board book with an attached squeaky egg toy!!
  The Little Blue Box of Bright and Early Board Books - several abridged Seussical titles for little ones!
  The Little Red Box of Bright and Early Board Books  - P.D. Eastman's dog stories, abridged for little people!


3. Horton Hears a Who, by Dr. Seuss -  Seuss is pretty foundational in modern literature - his whimsical rhymes are catching and lasso in kids (and grownups) to the love of reading!  A person's a person no matter how small, and it's important to remember that kids are just tiny people in the process of growing up!


4. The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, by Beatrix Potter - for any squirrel lover, or for the petty younger sibling, or the kid that likes to get into trouble, however accidentally.
   and The Complete Tails of Beatrix Potter, with four "pages" from the original books size on each page. Illustrations are the same size, so you can hold your little's attention while reading more than one "page." :)



5. Jesus Calling for Kids, by Sarah Young - a great, simple devotional for kids - The author took Scripture and wrote it out in conversational form. Topics include things like homework, friends, and family.



So there are only five on this list - I'm sure there are more, but the past few weeks have been a little on the crazy side. Bug's been awake more and mama and big sister Bear have enjoyed playing with him. Stay tuned for yellow books in the very near future (I'm trying to stay "on top of things.")


What books would you add to this list?