The Ultimate Teacher Sale at Mabel’s Labels

Abby H.

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

It’s back to school time and Mabel’s Labels is hooking up the teachers in your life.

Now, through Sunday 8/8, The Ultimate Teacher Sale is on at Mabel’s Labels! Save 20% off ALL of the Teacher Label Products.

INCLUDED PRODUCTS:
Small Rectangle Labels
Classroom Labels
Classroom Name Tags
Custom Classroom Labels
Classroom Line Up Floor Decals
Writeable Disinfected Stickers
Teacher Stamp
Stand Here Animal Floor Decals
Personalized Book Stamp

ABOUT OUR TEACHER LABELS:
Being a teacher is challenging, but being organized doesn’t need to be! Mabel’s Labels provides teachers with the tools for an A+ Classroom.

Small Rectangle Labels – The no-brainer classroom essential that every busy teacher needs
The Teacher Stamp – A fun and easy way to personalize your students work and make them smile
The Book Stamp – Personalize your classroom library and avoid library mix-ups
Custom Classroom Labels – Keep your classroom engaging, colorful, and organized

Sprouts Farmers Market Monthly Freebies!

Abby H.

Sprouts is hooking us up and helping us stay healthy! Every month on the Sprouts app in the Digital Coupon section, there are between 4-6 free items (they are marked “SAMPLING PROGRAM”).

Quantities are limited on the app, so if you are interested in any of these, I recommend that you add these coupons (by opening the Sprouts app, click on digital coupons, and click on each coupon in the lower corner where the little green circle is) to you app ASAP.

This month the following items are available:

  • Hungry Buddha Triple Chocolate or Lemon Blueberry Bar.
  • Root’d Sparkling MULTI Drink Mix Packet
  • Siete Foods Serrano Sea Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips
  • Kitu Plant-based Super Coffee
  • Lightlike “chicken” Fillets or Tenders
  • Jojo’s Goes Hawaiian Bites

Not all Sprouts locations will stock all of these items. I recommend going to a larger Sprouts location to redeem these offers.

Q-insights TV Shows – Pays $100

Abby H.
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Q-insights is another company that I do research groups, focus groups, and online surveys to earn extra money.

They have a lot of stuff in South Orange County, and less often San Diego County. These days they are doing most of their studies online via chat or online surveys.

Right now Q-Insights is currently recruiting for an online study on the topic of Television (most of the questions in the survey link below are about kids and their watching habits).

This study will run from August 16th-18th  You will be compensated $100 via gift card as a reward for a 75-minute online interview.

If you are interested in participating please fill out the survey here. 

California Climate Credit- It’s Back for August and September!

Abby H.

What is the California Climate Credit? This August* your utility bill will include an electric credit identified as the “California Climate Credit.” Your household and millions of others throughout the state will receive this credit on your utility bills.

In the past years, the electric credit was applied in April and October, and the gas credit was applied in April. For 2020 and 2021, the California Public Utilities Commission authorized SDG&E to temporarily shift the electric credit to be applied in August and September.

If you have any of the following utilities: PG&E, SDG&E, SCE Pacific Power, and Liberty Utilities, your August and September bills will have a credit.

Changing the distribution months will not change the total value of the climate credits you receive in a year. The shift will provide bill relief for customers – during the typically hottest months of the year – and reduce bill volatility.

The gas credit will continue to be applied in April. In 2022, the climate credit will be distributed back to its original timing of April and October unless the Commission directs otherwise. The California Climate Credit is part of California’s efforts to fight climate change. This credit is from a state program that requires power plants, natural gas providers, and other large industries that emit greenhouse gases, to buy carbon pollution permits.

The credit on your bill is your share of the payments from the State’s program. The Climate Credit is one of many programs resulting from landmark legislation called the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.

The California Climate Credit is one way Californians are working towards a zero-carbon state. Find other ideas for energy and money-saving upgrades for your home while reducing your carbon footprint at energyupgradeca.org/the-movement.

And if you are looking for more ways to save energy and money, check out Ohm Connect! We’ve been using Ohm Connect for 5+ years and we’ve saved thousands of dollars on our power bill, and earned thousands of dollars in gift cards and cash via paypal!

I cashed out some of our points for a $25 Amazon Gift card last week, and we almost have enough for another $25 Amazon Gift Card!

New PinchMe Samples Drop 8/10/2021!

Abby H.

Sample Tuesday is Coming 8/10/2021- Mark your calendars, set an alarm on your phone!

Don’t have any idea what I am talking about? PinchMe! Join PINCHme and receive free samples that you can provide feedback on.

PinchMe is awesome! Once you are signed up, they will email you reminders when new samples are about to drop, and remind you when it’s time to leave feedback.

Answer a series of questions about your household and shopping habits in the Member Profile. PinchMe learns what you like and offer samples just for you.

Once you’ve had a chance to try the samples, complete a short feedback survey to tell PinchMe what you think of the samples.

I get PinchMe samples every month. Here is what arrived at the end of June for the June 2021 boxes. The One Bar was really good.

What are you waiting for? Sign up here and get on the free sample bandwagon! I’ve gotten all kinds of awesome sample/trial size items, as well as full-sized items to try out from PinchMe!

Cents of Style RODEO Inspired Graphic Tee’s!

Abby H.

** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. 

Favorite Tops

Yee Haw, or whatever cowboys say. Cents of Style is stoked to present their New grpahic Tshirts! With RODEO Inspired Graphics Starting at ONLY $19.99 w/code: SADDLEUP

This sale only goes until 8/10/2021, so if these cute styles appeal, you best get to getting!

These shirts come in sizes S-3XL, and as always, shipping is free on purchases of $35+!

Earn Gift Cards and Rewards with UpVoice!

Abby H.

In my list of monthly side hustles, I noticed I’m almost ready to cash out on UpVoice, and I wanted to share it with you again in case you haven’t signed up and started earning.

Screen Shot 2019-08-26 at 8.06.04 AM.pngI posted about UpVoice in late 2019 (see my original post here), and for a while, the program was down for some updates, and it’s back! Not only is  UpVoice back, but you can earn points the usual way, you can also earn points for referring your friends and family.

Do you spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin, and Amazon? If you do, consider joining UpVoice! UpVoice is BrandTotal’s user panel. They use the data that they collect from the UpVoice panel to build special insights for brands on their advertising activities and the ad campaigns of their competitors.

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I’ve been a member since August 2019, and I’ve earned over $140!

All you have to do is:

  • Click on the extension’s icon and go to the new “Referral” tab on the dashboard.
  • Copy your unique referral link.
  • Share it with your people through text messages, email, social media platforms, or any other way.

That’s it! Earn $5 (300 tokens) for every referral who fills out the qualification form on the website, installs the Chrome extension, and gains their first 100 tokens. You earn rewards for up to 20 successful referrals.

To get started, click here.

This post contains my referral link- if you click on it and install, I may earn a referral bonus.

Monthly Side Hustle Totals July 2021

Abby H.

I decided that at the end of each month in 2021, I’m going to post the breakdown of how much I made doing each side hustle/cashback app. My complete side hustle list can be found here and my complete list of Smartphone Apps can be found here.

I know some of you are curious about how much I make doing all of the hustles that I wrote about, and while I do a year-end update, I know some of you don’t wanna wait till the end of the year and that’s understandable.

Some of the side hustles I do frequently, like using the Fetch Rewards App every time I go shopping.

Some of the hustles are more passive but have cumulative rewards so even though I do them each month, I may not receive a payout each month. It doesn’t make them any less valuable to me, they just take a longer amount of time to earn the reward. Honestly, those are fairly low-time investments, so I don’t feel bad that they take a long time to earn a payout. SBKC and Achievement are two of these.

And some I do in fits and starts. For example, I may not spend a lot of time doing PaidViewPoint surveys for a few weeks, and then I’ll get two or three emails telling me that I have time-sensitive or higher-paying surveys. Then I’ll rush over to the site and do five or 10 surveys and earn five or 10 bucks. It just depends on what’s available at the time.

Some of you might notice from this list that there are a number of research studies, I’ve been trying to do at least 1-2 a month because they tend to pay a lot better than surveys. I have been posting research studies and opportunities on the blog whenever they come across my email. I hope some of you are also applying for them and receiving opportunities to do them too.

July was a smaller month for me side hustle-wise. I spent a lot of time with the kids, and we had out-of-town visitors. I have been doing a lot of reviews and such but don’t pay cash, but rather pay in-kind (Tryit, Influenster, Social Nature, and BzzAgent). Each one of those sends a product or samples. In July, I received a $200 vacuum cleaner from BzzAgent, and skincare valued at over $75 all in exchange for a review!

I try not to take the sample only offers because it’s not worth my time to review a bunch of sample size stuff. Especially when I can be working with brands and companies that offer me products that are full-size, or they pay me with cash. Because really, as nice as say five dollar tube of deodorant might be, I can’t really pay my utility bill with it.

  • Fetch Rewards: $40
  • Research Study/Focus Group: $110
  • Capterra: $50
  • Ibotta: $26.00
  • Pinecone Research: $12
  • Field Agent: $12.50
  • SBKC: $20.00
  • UpVoice: $10
  • Misc. Rebates: $25
  • Class Action Lawsuit payouts (these I didn’t apply for, I just received checks in the mail) $80
  • Bitmo Perks: $5
  • Ohm Connect: $25

Talk Back: How much do you make each month on your side hustles? Do you have any that you love and want to recommend? Leave a link in the comments below! Please no MLM or Direct Sales Opportunities. 

Looking for a Smartphone? Check out Gazelle for Deals on Pre-Owned Smartphones!

Abby H.

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Back to school means that some of us will need new phones. Why pay extra for a brand new phone, when you can save some money and pick up a pre-owned smartphone from Gazelle?

Gazelle has tons of great deals right now:

OR, if you need a laptop:

You can also sell your unwanted smartphones and laptops to Gazelle to earn money! I’ve sold a couple of our old phones and iPads to Gazelle. It’s a great way to earn some cash and keep electronics out of the landfill.

 

8/1/2021 Weekly Meal Plan

Abby H.

0a5e9dab796cea8a07eabe4eb4795b9e.jpgWOO- 17 more days until school starts! Not that I’m counting, but the big kid yesterday was lamenting that it was *still* summer vacation and that we wanted to go back to school.

For the most part, summer lunch distribution is over, and we’re using up coupons and other freebies to stretch our end-of-summer frivolity.

There are a few events that we are going to this week, including this one.

I went to the grocery store on Friday and stocked up on snacks, and we also did a big Costco Trip to stock up on some staples that we were running low on (and a rotisserie chicken, because, YUM).

And I’ve been getting a lot of really great freebies from Social Nature lately too. It’s fun to try new foods.

We are skipping our CSA box this week, we’ve still got a lot left from last week.

Veggies and fruit are delivered by Yasukochi Family Farms CSA. For $25, it’s a great deal. I don’t have to pick anything, go to the store, or carry it upstairs. I can’t go to the store and get the same amount we get weekly for $25. Seriously. It’s a deal. I spend about an hour on Monday afternoon cleaning and prepping veggies for the rest of the week.

I meal prepped over the weekend and got lots of veggies roasted, rice for lunches, and the rotisserie chicken broken down. I may be making some soup this week too.

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done (I try to update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste. If you are looking for a kitchen inventory printable, I have made my own and you can find them for sale here on my Etsy Store.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day.

Breakfast: Coffee with 1/2 and 1/2  for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids.  The kids are nuts about pancakes. The Big Kid has been on a protein shake kick in the AM.

Lunch: I have a plastic tote in the cupboard full of self-serve snacks. I buy treats and snacks in bulk and fill up snack-sized zip-top bags. The kids are digging leftovers from dinner, or quesadillas.

Dinner: Usually, I do a crockpot meal on Mondays, but now that we are home all the time, we’ve been having an odd combination of fully home-cooked, scratch meals, and frozen entrees and veggies. I have been posting our meal plans on Instagram too- As well as pics of stuff we are doing to keep busy.

  • Sunday: Chef Salad (lettuce, spinach, bacon, hardboiled eggs, carrots, corn, leftover roasted veggies)
  • Monday: Chicken Arabiatta, chopped salad, garlic bread
  • Tuesday:  Breakfast for dinner (Pancakes, eggs, fruit)
  • Wednesday:  Nugget night: Nuggets, crackers, cheese, fruit
  • Thursday: Impossible Burger taco salad
  • Friday:  Takeout Night
  • Saturday: Leftovers, fruit

Please stay safe you guys!

Talk Back: What are you cooking for dinner this week?