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My hustle: How I make Part Time Income as a SAHM!

Abby H.6 Comments

When I started this blog, it was to get back to my roots- Helping people save and earn money. As a result, I don’t make a lot of money from this blog. So, I needed to bump up my side hustles to make the part-time income that I’d grown accustomed to. I thought I’d share my best hustles with you.

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If you are unfamiliar with the term hustle, Urban dictionary defines it as, “Anythin you need to do to make money… be it sellin cars…… If you makin money, you hustlin.”

I have two littles to take care of, so keep that in mind. If you don’t have kids, you might be able to spend more time doing each of these activities, which in turn could yield more money!

Surveys online. Here are two fer shure, legit companies that I use. Pinecone Research (they are always looking for 12-24 or Hispanic demographics) pays $3.00 paypal per survey! My other favorite is PaidViewPoint– They only send you surveys that you qualify for, so there is no wasted time. Payout is only $15.00, so I make payout about once a month. It’s not tons of work, and every little bit helps! What I like about these companies is that they only send you surveys that you are qualified for. No time wasted to find out a quota is full or that you don’t fit their criteria. 

Some survey companies also do paid trials: They send you a product, you use it then complete a survey and give your opinions on the product. And you get paid! So it’s a win win. You get a free product, and you get paid!

Secret shopping. There are tons of apps and websites that will help you find secret shopping gigs. I recommend checking out Volition.com for a listing of secret shopping companies (and reviews). A few of my friends recommend jobslinger.com as a great resource. I earn about $75.00/week doing secret shopping and that’s for less than 1 hours work! Some companies don’t need you to buy anything, just go in an evaluate customer service, or audit shelves to make sure items are in stock. Oh, and I can take Bitty Bird along with me!

Turn your Junk Mail into Cash! I’ve been doing this for YEARS, and I love it. You can learn all about Small Business Knowledge Center here.  I just got another $20 Visa GC in the mail yesterday! My forth this year! We get tons of junk mail right now because we refinanced our mortgage not long ago.

Focus Groups. I wrote about them here. They are not a constant source of money, but I do one about once a month or so, and they tend to pay $75 or more for just a few hours of your time. It’s a fun way to share your opinion with companies and earn some great money.

And of course, I use cashback apps. My full list of favs can be found here. No lie, I cash out about $50.00 a month between all of the apps downloaded onto my iPhone!

Then there are of course the old stand-bys to make money:

  • Garage sale (seriously, everyone has too much stuff),
  • Utilizing Resale Shops (Kids clothes, ladies clothes, sporting goods, etc.)
  • Recycling bottles and cans,
  • Driving for Uber or Lyft,
  • Babysitting or pet sitting
  • Selling your plasma. In San Diego, Scantibody Labs is the main company that does this.  There are some pretty strict rules about this so if you have a lot of tattoos or piercings you may not qualify. I have super tiny veins, so I am unable to do it.
  • Selling your stuff on Craigslist, or apps like Close5 or OfferUp.
  • Tutoring kids or offering lessons in an area that you excel in (musical instruments, art, sewing, math, cooking, etc.)
  • Finding items at thrift shops or garage sales and re-selling them on eBay or other sites for a profit.

A lot of these can be done from the comfort of your home, or can be done in conjunction with your normal errands, so there is no extra money spent on gas.

What is your hustle? How do you make extra money?

Frugal Recipe: Bachelor Mousse

Abby H.2 Comments

This is a family fav, and it’s super easy to make. So easy, in fact, even kids can help with this recipe!
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It’s only three easy to get ingredients!

  • 1 Large Box Pudding (any flavor and brand, but I prefer Jello Brand Chocolate or Chocolate Fudge)
  • 1 1/2 cups cold dairy milk (use of soy or non-dairy milk means the pudding won’t set)
  • 1 large tub of whipped topping (aka cool whip)

Directions:

  1. In a large mixing bowl, mix milk and pudding until thick, about 2 minutes.
  2. Spoon whipped topping into pudding mixture, and fold together gently until combined.
  3. Pour mixture into container with lid. Chill in fridge for 2-3 hours before serving.

This is great poured into a graham cracker curst, or served with fresh fruit! This serves about 6-8 dessert sized portions, and you can make this entire dessert for less than $5!

This is def. a kid-approved dessert. Both of our kids devour this stuff!!

 

How to organize the dreaded toy mess!

Abby H.

One of the things I pride myself on is how we are able to quasi-control the toy mess in our home. It’s a lot of work, but we have a pretty good system, and it might work for you too.

Stage 1: Contain the mess! First of all, a few years ago, hubs bought a bunch of 20 quart Steralite containers with snap on lids at an auction for a song. So, we separated all of the toys by type and put them in boxes with a lid.

IMG_5483Obviously the Legos and Thomas the Tank Engine toys go into larger boxes because, well, we have tons  more then will fit in the 20 quart containers. We also re-use random plastic containers, like these plastic jugs that hard pretzels come in, the large bottles that Nesquik powder comes in, and dishwasher tab boxes.

Stage 2: Label! We label everything. All of the original totes have Kidecals labels, but the newer /larger containers have different labels. I try to do labels that have drawings of the toys too, so it’s easier for non-readers to know what’s in the box without opening them.

I used the terminology that Lil’ Man uses for his toys. The box marked “Guy Men” has action figures and little toys (like his Sesame Street “guys”), and “Mean Animals” (Plastic/Vinyl animals of various sizes).

IMG_5486_2Some of the toys that don’t get a lot of play (or annoy me), are stored in the closet. I rotate the less frequently played toys through, so that all of the toys get loved.

IMG_5485_2Stage 3: Limit Access! Another thing that helps is that we have a three toys at a time rule. Lil’ Man can have three types of toys out at a time. Right now, it’s guy men, mean animals, and cars.

 

 

Pinecone Research is looking for you!

Abby H.

Screen Shot 2016-02-16 at 11.58.22 AMSQUEEE!!! I am super Super excited to share this with you! If you’ve read the blog for a while, you know I love doing surveys at home to earn extra spending cash. My #1 go to survey company is Pinecone Research.

PineCone Research conducts on-line interviews with consumers from all walks of life to obtain their opinions about new products. To become a panel member, all you need to do is complete the simple form here, This will only take a few minutes of your time.

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. Plus, you are free to leave the panel at any time should you choose to do so.

Pinecone has no crazy high minimum pay out (like some other survey companies)- You only need 300 points to cash out for 1 $3.00 Paypal reward. 300 points is just 1 survey!

Nitty Gritty: Registrants who complete the signup form online and align with the recruit target(s) and are eligible for membership consideration will immediately receive an email invitation containing a link, ID and password to complete the full registration process. The link takes them to a brief “staging” survey (6 minutes or less) to gather some further information about that registrant and their household, and to gain agreement to the terms and conditions for panel membership.

Right now they are primarily looking for Males, or anyone aged 18-24, or Hispanic ethnicity. And here is proof that I make money with Pinecone, here is a screenshot showing that I cashed out points:

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300 points is $3.00, 900 points is $9.00 and 1500 is $15.00. So in the past 3 months, I’ve made $36 in less than a half hour, all told!

DIY Fairy Jar (No Glow Sticks needed!)

Abby H.1 Comment

Screen Shot 2016-02-01 at 12.51.22 PMEveryone has seen the Fairy jars on Pinterest that glow in the dark. In fact, you may seen them on Pinterest fail lists too, because, well, the directions don’t work.

Not familiar? Ok, it goes like this: Take a Mason Jar (because after all 90% of crafts/stuff on pinterest involve a Mason Jar), open 2-3 glow sticks, dump them into the mason jar, screw the lid on and shake. OOOH, it’s supposed to look like a magical Fairy Jar. What it really looks like it a fairy vomited into a jar. And glow sticks glowiness only lasts one night (or so).

So here is the deal on how to make a legit, serious, awesomely cool fairy jar in less than 10 minutes, no glow sticks or scissors needed.

You need two things:

A jar with a screw on lid. I used an Anchor Hocking jar that my mom gave me (she got it here). You could also use a wide mouth quart Mason Jar.

A string of these cool LED battery operated lights on a copper wire. You get two for $7.99, so really, you could make two if you had another jar.

Here are the totally simple directions:

  1. Wash and dry the jar.
  2. Loosely coil the string of lights around your hand, put hand into jar. let go of the lights.
  3. Leave the end of the string with the switch dangle over the lip of the jar.
  4. Screw on lid (the wire is so thin, you’ll be able to screw on the lid with the wire coming up over the top of the jar).
  5. Turn lights on.

That’s it. REALLY! The batteries last a while, especially if you aren’t leaving the lights on 24/7. If you wanted to get a little fancier, you could spray paint the inside of the jar, allow it to dry, then continue with steps 2-5. I am doing that with my second string of lights. Watch my Instagram feed for photos of that when it’s done later today.

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I can’t wait to share this with Henry when he gets home from school.

 

Thanks to Tomoson and #OakleafLEDLight for the opportunity to try these cool little lights for free. I was not financially compensated for this review, however I only review items that I think area good fit for my family. All opinions are my own!

When DIY meets frugality….

Abby H.

About 6 months ago, I scored 6 new pillows for less than $10 at Sears, using Sears Shop Your Way Rewards, coupons, and a BOGO sale.

When you get new pillows, you need new pillow covers. I headed over to our local AmVets Thrift Store when all of the linens were on sale and picked up 9 pillow covers for .25/each.  What I didn’t realize is that 3 of them were smaller than a standard pillow, and they didn’t fit. I set them aside, thinking I would find something else to do with them.

Fast forward to this morning. I am pulling the sheets, blankets and pillowcases off the bed, and I notice the pillow cases look gross. Like, we’ve had them since before we were married and they just don’t come clean anymore… That kind of gross. I’ve washed them with Oxyclean, borax, you name it, I’ve tried it to get them clean. Enough. I figure 8 years of rotation means they’ve served a good life.

I rifle through the linen closet to discover that about 90% of our pillow cases need to get pitched. Then, I discover the 3 small pillow covers, and I am struck with inspiration.

warposterSee, My motto for for remaining the frugal steward of our family is, “Use it up, wear it out, make do”. That means, basically: USE WHAT YOU HAVE.

I remembered that I also had a few yards of Eyelet lace in my sewing box. BUT, it’s offwhite. The pillow covers were white. But, wait… We have a box of awful tea in the cabinet. I mean it tastes like burnt rubber and camp fire smoke- blergh. But, it’s perfect for tea dying! Ever notice when you spill tea or coffee on your white clothes, it never comes all the way out? Imagine if you took light colored fabric and soaked it in boiling tea or coffee for about an hour and then washed it?  That’s tea dying.

I pull out the sewing machine and some supplies and set to work. I trim the zippers off the pillow covers, measure the lace, and sew it onto the open end of the pillow case. This serves a few purposes:

  1. Lengthens the pillow case about 31/2 inches. Now it will fit a standard pillow case
  2. Makes the pillow case look nice
  3. I am using up what we have in the house, and now I don’t have to go out and buy new pillow cases.

While I was in the closet with my fabric, I also found a piece of unbleached muslin that I cut into a pillow case. I had enough lace, so why not. If you’d like to make a pillow case, here is a pretty easy tutorial to follow.

I boiled my icky tea, wet the pillow cases, and tossed them into the stockpot. I covered the pot with a heavy plate to weight the fabric down so that it will take the dye evenly.

After about 30 minutes, I turned the stove off, and left the mixture until it cooled… Next, I rang out the pillow cases and tossed them into the washing machine to get out any extra tea (and the gross smell).  And now… Ta Da!  Three refurbished pillow cases and a brand new pillow case!

  • Total out of pocket: Zero Dollars
  • Time: about 2 hours (most of it was waiting for the dye pot to cool)

Now if you want to make your own pillow cases, the tutorial I linked to above is pretty easy to follow, and it’s a great way to use up scraps of cotton fabric that you may have hanging around the house.  Since pillow cases and fitted sheets tend to wear out first, you could also cut up orphaned flat sheets too.

 

 

Get paid for your opinion: Focus groups!

Abby H.4 Comments

There are lots of online survey companies, but their payouts can be small and take a lot of time to accrue the amount of points needed to cash out.

In most large cities, there are research companies that run focus groups weekly.

How to find them?  Google “Your city name focus group”.

In San Diego there are the following research companies:

Another way is to look on Craigslist.  Go to Jobs and in the search field type “Focus Group”.  Some smaller companies may post ads for focus groups.  Recently I participated in a mock jury style focus group and was paid $90 for 5 hours of work.  Yesterday I participated in a focus group relating to housewares and received $40 for just an hour! I found both on Craigslist.

Right now on Craigslist there are a couple great opportunities in the San Diego area.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies! (Egg Free)

Abby H.
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Yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

I had a can of pumpkin open the other day and I decided to make cookies. Part of the show that hubs is in has a scene where all the characters eat cookies on stage. They had been eating Madeline’s, which are super tasty, but high in calories.

So I opted to bake something a little lower in calories. I also made the cookies quite small (1 tablespoon, instead of two), to cut down on calories.  I added pumpkin instead of the eggs and some of the fat to lower the calories and add fiber and fruit.

In keeping with the spirit of using up what we have in the house, I also used only brown sugar, as we were out of white sugar.Lil’ Man was a big helper- He added the chocolate chips and helped scoop the dough onto the cookie sheets. He’s going to be a Master Chef yet!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 c butter (or use vegan margarine if vegan), room temp
  • 1 15 oz can of pumpkin
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 1/2 c flour (I used AP, but feel free to use wheat or even 1 for 1 gluten free)
  • 3/4 c. almond meal
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • dash salt
  • 2 c. chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, cream the first 4 ingredients until smooth using a hand mixer on medium.
  3. Add remaining 4 ingredients until a soft dough forms, using hand mixer on low, or by hand with large wooden spoon.
  4. Stir in chocolate chips.
  5. Drop spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 9-13 minutes.

Makes 3-4 dozen cookies.

Variations: This recipe is east to make as vegan, just sub out butter for the solid fat of your choice. To make GF, sub in GF flour of your choice.  To make it nut free, omit the almond meal and increase the amount of flour to 2 cups.

 

New Recipe: Artichoke Bruschetta Casserole!

Abby H.

Artichoke Bruschetta CasseroleI’m on a new recipe kick right now. I don’t often get inspiration from Pinterest recipes because they are either things we don’t eat, or are overly complicated or cutesy. Instead I draw ideas from cookbooks, magazines, stuff I see at the grocery store while  I cruise the aisles,  and Buzzfeed’s Tasty Videos that are all over Facebook.  I was jonseing for Olive Gardens now defunct Spinach Artichoke dip the other day, so imagine my surprise when I stepped foot into my local 99 Cents Only…

IMG_1755I found a jar of this Bruschetta at 99 Cents Only the other day and small jar of Artichoke dip. I knew I had to take them home and concoct something delicious!

I set to work in the kitchen to find some other ingredients that would pair well to I could whip up something fabu for a meatless meal. I pulled out a bag of frozen spinach and cheese to compliment the flavors of the dips.

 

 

IMG_1754We had a spaghetti Squash on the counter, so in order to keep the dish healthier and full of veggies and fiber, I opted to bake up the squash and use it instead of the traditional noddles or pasta in a casserole. If you’ve never cooked with spaghetti squash, I posted a tutorial here.

After rummaging through the freezer and fridge, I assembled the ingredients and got working! There is no photo of the finished product because it got eaten up quickly.

 

Artichoke Bruschetta Casserole

Directions:

  1. Clean and bake the spaghetti squash. For info on how that’s done, check out the tutorial here.
  2. While the squash is baking, mix together the two dips in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Add the spinach and half of each cheese. Stir until completely mixed.
  4. Prepare a 9×9 glass pan with spray release.
  5. Place all of the spaghetti squash shreds/”noodles” in the bottom of the baking dish, and smooth down to create an even layer.
  6. Pour the dip mixture over the top and smooth to evenly cover the squash.
  7. Top with the remaining cheeses.
  8. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese has started to brown and bubble.

This dish is gluten free and vegetarian. To make it vegan, use dairy-free cheese! If you HAVE to have meat, this would be great with grilled chicken, or Italian sausages mixed in or served along side.

This recipe serves 2 as a main dish or 4 as a side dish.

 

 

 

5 Easy Steps to Going Green!

Abby H.

5 Easy Steps to Going Green!

A few weeks ago I went to the Moms Meet Wow Summit and learned a lot of ways that any family can start their journey to going green. And it is a journey. It’s not something that you wake up one morning and think, “Today we go green!”. Or at least it shouldn’t be. Think about how much stuff you’d throw away: Cleaning supplies, food, household goods. That woud make a lot of trash all at once, and that’s definitely not the direction you’d want to go in.

Here are 5 steps to start your going green journey (all of these we’ve implemented at our house):

Reduce: In order to reduce our carbon footprint, we re-use as much as we can.  For me the first step was to reduce the number of cleaners we had in the house, since a lot of them aren’t too environmentally friendly.

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Re-using packages helps the environment!

I made up some of the Dr. Bronner’s All Purpose cleaner (¼ c. soap in a quart of water in a spray bottle. Add ¼ tsp. tea tree essential oil if desired.) using a sample of the Baby Unscented Pure-Castile Liquid Soap, and I put it into a bottle that used to hold another cleaner. I washed the bottle thoroughly before mixing up the new cleaner. It REALLY gets the kitchen clean and because it’s an all purpose cleaner, I use it in the bathroom too! I really like that Dr. Bronner’s products are biodegradable, organic and are safe enough that you can brush your teeth with (but, yes, it does taste like soap!!).

 

 

 

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Sturdy Thirty-One bag and the Banana Box!

Re-Use: I re-use as much as I can around the house. We’ve got re-usable lunch bags for Little Man (and that classy banana box too- keeps the bananas from getting beat up in transit), and one for the car (it’s replaced our car snack box). I cut up old beat up bath towels and use them to clean up around the house. I re-use containers as well. I cleaned out an empty formula canister and put Nesquik powder in it instead. I even re-used the formula scoop (since it’s smaller than the usual portion size, we use less each time!).

Recycle: We have a recycling bin with a lid on the patio and we put our recycling in it. Once it’s full we take it to our local Re-Planet Recycling center. We earn a little money and help the planet- nothing better! It’s a great teaching tool for Lil’ Man!

Walk: We are fortunate to live within walking distance of a grocery store (which is closing soon, but will re-open as a Smart and Final soon), as well as a park, and a few other places that we like to go. When it’s possible (aka not 100 degrees), I put Birdy in the Stroller, and we walk as a family to pick up whatever we need or to go have an adventure. There is a second bonus: When we are shopping, I am limited to what we can carry in the undercarriage/storage area of the stroller. It really helps me stick to my shopping list! Not only are we getting exercise, but we’re leaving our car at home and that cuts down on the pollutants that are in car exhaust.

Replace non-green stuff with a green counterpart as we can: When we finish up with a non-green product, I replace it with a green version. Like the cleaner above, once I used up the last of the Windex, I replaced it with the Bronner’s recipe for cleaner. We ran out of paper towels a few weeks back, and in it’s place, I’ve been using  lint free cloths instead. I just wash them with the other towels when I do the laundry each week. I picked up AmazonBasics Microfiber Cleaning Cloth – 24 Pack for only $14.99. A few towels added to a load of laundry doesn’t cost anything extra either.