** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.
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+!
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.
I 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.
I’ve been a member since August 2019, and I’ve earned over $140!
All you have to do is:
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.
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.
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.
**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.
WOO- 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.
Please stay safe you guys!
Talk Back: What are you cooking for dinner this week?
A new month means that it’s time for the monthly update of free food resources in San Diego.
You can still find resources here for Central and East County, and Here for North County.
If you are located outside San Diego County, call 211. If you are not familiar with 211, here is their website and it can point you in the right direction.
San Diego Food Bank Distributions for August 2021 can be found here. Enter your address (or just your zip code) and the map will show you all of the distributions in your area or closest to you. You can filter by the days of the week to find food when you are available. If there is an income requirement/limit to participate, each location/listing will say such.
Neighbor distributions are intermixed with the San Diego Food Bank Distributions, however, they have no income requirements, and you come as you are. These Distributions are primarily fruits & veg, however, some locations may also distribute canned goods, dairy, and bread.
Super Pantry Locations can be found here (this listing is countywide). The San Diego Foodbank website also has resources for Diaper banks, free food resources for seniors, and more.
Here is my 2021 Free Summer Lunch for kids post. It’s got all sorts of great info on where and when to pick up free lunches for kids all summer long. Most kids start school within the next few weeks, so these distributions are coming to an end. However, kids will be able to get free lunches at school throughout 2021/2022 school year without having to apply or reside in a low-income home.
If you know of other resources, please leave a comment! And feel free to share this post with anyone you may know in need.
Here is your monthly reminder! A new month means new printable and electronic coupons!
The printable coupon market is slowly coming to an end. Smartsource no longer offers printable coupons, and you may notice that there are fewer coupon inserts in your Sunday newspaper. This is in favor of more offers available on apps. But if you love printable coupons….
One of my favorite websites is the Sunday Coupon Review. It helps me plot out scenarios in advance and I can email friends to ask for coupons in advance. Remember if clipping coupons isn’t your thing, but saving money is, check out my list of Smartphone apps that can save you the big bucks! New offers are added on the Smartphone Savings Apps all the time!
August is back to school time! Deals on School supplies, lunch food, kids clothes, and electronics. Ibotta has a great cashback deal right now on school supplies and lunch food, check my post here.
For a complete list of types of foods and items that will be on sale, check out this post on the cycle of sales.
Here are a few of my favorite new coupons:
Save $1.00 on ONE (1) DANIMALS® 6pk Smoothies
Save $2.25 on ONE (1) Chameleon Whole Bean Coffee, Ground Coffee, or Cold Brew Concentrates – Shelf stable packs
Save $1.00 on ONE (1) Undercover Snacks 2 oz pack of Quinoa Crisps
Save $1.00 on ANY TWO (2) Clorox® Cleaning or Laundry Products (*excludes $1, trial size and travel size).
Save $1.50 on Any ONE (1) Finish® Quantum® 22ct+, Finish® Max-In-1® 24ct+, Finish® Deep Clean 38ct+ Dishwasher Detergent, Finish® JET-DRY®
Save $2.00 on ANY ONE (1) MAUI MOISTURE® Shampoo or Conditioner (excludes all Travel & Trial Sizes)
Save $1.00 on ANY ONE (1) Garnier® Fructis® shampoo, conditioner, treatment or styling product. (exclusions apply)
I read about this last week, got busy, and forgot to share this!
The state of California is joining cities like Chicago and Boston in offering free school lunches and breakfasts to students. Previously students families had to meet certain income requirements to qualify for discounted or free school meals.
I’m so glad that this is now available to everyone. There are a lot of people who didn’t qualify but are facing food insecurity.
For more information, The NPR acrticle here has some deets. Be on the look out for information coming from your school district in your email or as a flyer in your kids backpack the few day of school.
Santee School District sent out an email earlier this week.
Friends and points together? How refreshing!
Now through 8/6, earn 4,000 points when your friends use your code to sign up for Fetch. Even better? They’ll get 2,000 points of their own. Head to the app to start spreading the word!
If you haven’t signed up for Fetch Rewards yet, or want to learn more, check out my post here. Find the Fetch Rewards app in your app store, and when you download it and scan any receipt, use my code ND2TB when you sign up and you’ll score 2,000 bonus points. I’ve earned over $175 in rewards in 2021 alone, just by purchasing my regular groceries and scanning in all of my receipts (grocery, mass merchandiser, gas receipts, restaurants, you name it).
This is some pretty cool news! Dream Dinners is launching its new Meal Prep Workshop program in August!Your friends pay $50 to attend and learn about Dream Dinners. They’ll each receive three pre-prepped medium-size meals (Each meal feeds 2-3 people) and assemble a seasonal grill marinade trio, plus they’ll enjoy delicious samples of our food. We also have some exciting perks for them if they place an order at the workshop!
This is a great chance for you to get out of the house and have a fun night out with friends!
Space is limited, so if you are interested, contact your local Dream Dinners for more information and to book your Meal Prep Workshop.
Here in East County, it’s the La Mesa location. Call or Text (619) 460-6800 or email: lamesaca@dreamdinners.com
