Use Your Company Benefits!

If you work for a big company, chances are you are entitled to a benefit package.  Most people take advantage of their health care, short term disability and voluntary life insurance.  What many people don't realize though is that most companies offer much, much more!

I found this out yesterday and scored a serious savings!!

I was aware that my company offered discounts at many places, including Verizon (at 20% I was on top of that the day I got my first paycheck!), Sams Club and Dell Computers.  What I was unaware of were the other useful things they offer.

First off, they offer a service where you can call and they will do research on a product or service you are looking in to.  For instance, if you need to take your dog to a pet resort while you are on vacation, they will do the research for you and come up with a few options, including a full report on why they chose them.  That's pretty awesome!  Too bad they wouldn't do my job for me too...

Anyway, as I was exploring the website of things offered, I noticed that they have a contract with Microsoft.  When I bought my new laptop in December we went for super cheap and functional over anything extravagant. I can't complain... I love my laptop and it's been great for the $200 I spent on it!  What I didn't want to spend money on was the software I so desperately needed.  

Microsoft Office is essential to any computer.  I have an older version of Office that I can install, but many of the programs are not compatible and there were quite a few documents I couldn't open.  I was desperately trying to get by without it, but you can only do so much on a work computer where they track your every move.

Even in my most frugal state, I refuse to buy used software.  I feel that unfortunately people are not always honest and CDs and DVDs get scratched very easily.  If something is wrong with them, many times, you are out of money.  And what is the point losing money when you are trying to save it!

So after many weeks of looking online, I came to the conclusion that I was not spending $100-$150 on the software and I would just have to "borrow" my husband's computer to do my office stuff.

WELL, as I was searching my company Microsoft benefits, I found out that all employees get Office 2010 for $9.99!  Yes, only ten bucks!!!  Ummmm yes please!  So now I am happily creating documents and budgeting spreadsheets once again!

The moral of this little story -- use your company benefits -- ALL of them!  Or even if you don't use them, at least know what they have to offer in case you need them!

Survey Says

I have been doing a lot of research lately on finding ways to make money online.  One of the most popular suggestions have been to take online surveys for points on websites to earn gift cards.

I am completely on the fence about this concept.  

For one, I have been using Sunshine Rewards for a few years and have often tried to take advantage of their online survey opportunities.  Well it seemed no matter how hard I tried, I never, I mean NEVER qualified for the surveys they offered!  It was so frustrating that after a few days, I gave up and vowed to never do another survey attempt.

Plus, I don't always like to give out that much information on an online survey (i.e. I never give our annual household income out!).

Anyway, I signed up for a new website to earn points on called Swagbucks.  You can earn points for watching videos, playing games, filling out a daily poll, signing up for offers, searching the web and, of course, surveys.

I earned a few hundred points for watching some videos and searching the web but nothing too exciting.  A $5 Amazon gift card is about 450 points so I was about to abandon my attempt at paying for our diapers this way, when I decided to just TRY out the survey.

Well, just as Sunshine Rewards, I didn't qualify for any of them.  The nice thing about Swagbucks is at least they give you one point for trying to qualify.

Well today I had a breakthrough.  I decided that for one week, that's 7 full days, I am going to attempt to do all the surveys they offer.  So about the first eight of them I didn't qualify for.  Then I saw a new one pop up and I jumped on it quick.  The thing with surveys is the quicker you can get to them, the better your chance to qualify.

Well, it was a big survey... 400 points... and I GOT IT!  I was so excited!  And then, I got another one worth 100 points!  It was so exciting seeing my points go up so quickly!

I still can't say I'm totally sold on the whole survey thing.  Maybe next Wednesday, after my week of surveys is over, I will feel differently (depending on how many I actually get I guess!)  

Do any of you do surveys?  Have they actually worked out for you as far as the earnings go?  I would love some feedback!

Memorial Day Deals

   This is what $20 spent at Old Navy today got me!  I hope everyone had luck on their sales like I did and I hope that no one went too far overboard!!

Sometimes, you gotta shop!

It's a beautiful morning here in Pittsburgh!  The sun is shining, it's hot out already and its only 9:30 a.m., it is going to be a beautiful Memorial Day!  I am so happy to be going swimming and spending the day out in the sun with friends that are family!

I decided to get up early and get some stuff done.  I'm not a morning person so sometimes that is hard for me, but I got up about 7:45, showered, took out the dog and made brownies for the party this afternoon.  Once the brownies were safely put away (after I ate 3 for breakfast... ooops), I decided to jump online and work on clipping some coupons.

On my quest to save money, coupons are an essential part of my now daily routine.  I also was going to go onto Old Navy's website and see if there were any great sales on flip flops, as mine are quickly dying and I need to replace them.

I convinced myself that I only  needed flip flops, no other purchases allowed and that was all I was going to look at, this way I was going to not spend too much money.  As soon as I picked out my favorite colors I was going to walk across the street to the grocery store and get my gift card (gotta get those gas points!) and order those suckers through Ebates.  I had it all planned out.

That's when I saw it... their memorial day sale ad.  Obviously I knew they would be having sales and excellent deals and I even flipped through the tank top section when I saw they were having $4 tanks.  That's a good price, but I wasn't sure how long they would be sight unseen and target usually has everyday $6 tanks, so I was getting ready to head to the flippers when there was a little bubble that said tanks are $2 in stores!  TWO DOLLARS for tank tops.  I AM SO THERE!!!

I called my husband to let him know that I was going to buy a few tanks today and not to be mad when he gets home and sees the bags.  Kevin would actually never get mad, but this just lets me quietly validate my need for shopping!  He agreed and told me to have fun, but to be sure to use the credit card since we get points back for that and I'm not using Ebates!  Wow... I have trained him so well!

I think the most important thing when trying to save is to let yourself live at the same time... within reason!  I am not going to the store to spend $100 on new clothes that I don't necessarily "need" I just want.  I am most likely going to buy 3, possibly 4 tanks and spend under $10.  That's a deal that no one should pass up!  I think everyone should be heading out to Old Navy to buy summer tanks today!! (Unless you live in Pittsburgh, then stay away, I want a good variety when I go!)

Don't deprive yourself of opportunities like this when you are trying to save.  You will more-than-likely burn out and end up spending serious money when $10 could have gotten you through 3 weeks without spending.  I think that should be in the savings 101 handbook... let yourself buy things you need occasionally!  Three new tanks are like a new wardrobe between wearing them and layering them.  Add colorful flippers on top of them and you feel like a new person!

Happy  Memorial Day everyone! I hope everyone scores some major discounts and savings today!

I love Ebates

So on my quest to get my Disney vacation paid for, I was following along with my blogger friend Carly (disneyweddingblog.com) who happened to do a whole blog about how to get a free Disney vacation from doing some online work!

I love Carly's blogs. They are witty and fun and truthful.  If you have any love for Disney at all, I highly suggest checking them out!

Anyway, she posted a link to Ebates as a way to earn cash back from shopping online.  Truthfully, I do not shop online that often anymore (wish I would have known about this during wedding planning!) But occasionally, there are things I need to order.

Well, all you do is sign up for this site (its free!) at http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=N5lCR5H7Jmbs%2B5n92bfFPg%3D%3D

After that, you just start shopping and you get cash back when you place orders!  Each store has a different amount you get back... but really what could be better than being paid for shopping?

When I was planning my wedding, I used Sunshine Rewards to do basically the same thing, and was able to pay for some of our hotel with my savings.  Well, they dropped a lot of their important vendors, and Ebates has EVERYTHING so it was an easy switch!  Not to mention, they have coupon codes available.  And with many stores doing free shipping, there is no reason NOT to shop online!

If that's not enough, when you sign up, you get to choose a $10 gift card that they automatically send you after your first purchase of $25 or more using their site!  Umm... hello, that's free money right there!

So for my first Ebates experience, I went with Express.  Express is not a store I shop in often.  Not only do the clothes not fit me (hello...preggo!) but I think their clothes are extremely expensive!  We have a store called Gabriel Brothers that sells their "damaged" stuff and my only Express clothing comes from there... at $3 a shirt!  Anyway, for whatever reason, I had $35 in gift cards there.  On top of that I got a $10 off birthday card in the mail for having a credit card (from back in my skinny days!).

Since I had the $10 off, I figured it would be a great time to go in and get some accessories.  I got a pair of sunglasses, a canary wristlet and a blue bangle bracelet for $35 after my coupon... the exact amount of my gift card.  Now I did pay for shipping, which ended up being $8 since I used my entire gift card.

However, I got $1 back from Ebates and qualified for my $10 gift card from Target (that's where I chose since I shop there the most!).  All in all, I came out $3 ahead and got some great stuff!

This site is definitely worth checking out!! I am officially addicted!!  To save more money, if your grocery store does gas points like ours does here in PA, go buy gift cards for the store you are going to shop in, get the gas points at the grocery store and the cash back online!  It's like double the savings, plus you are less likely to spend more than you wanted if you already pre-purchased a gift card!

Is money really everything?

I know, kind of a weird blog title for a blog that's supposed to be about saving.  But seriously, is money everything?

I know friends who have an overabundance of money, can travel whenever they want and never even look at their credit card statement before they pay it off (wouldn't that be nice... I scour ours making sure there are absolutely no mistakes!)  However, all the money in the world has not stopped them from losing parents, losing marriages and anything else that happens to the rest of us.

So I guess my question for the day is... how much does money really matter?

I have been toying with this question all morning as I am stuck on the couch due to some recent pregnancy complications.  This is the third time that these complications have reared its ugly head in the 21 weeks I've been pregnant.  There's no "medical" reason for them that they can discover, despite many tests and ultrasounds.  The word they throw out there... stress.  Most likely due to my work environment.

Well isn't that just great.  Like the last thing I need is to not be able to bring home an income before this baby is born and in the middle of us moving.  See, I recently left my position as business office manager is a very successful nursing home to take over the medical records director position.  This was supposed to be a great move for me, less stressful and more laid back.  WRONG.  Wrong on so many levels!  I walked into a complete disaster with tons of stuff to do and the person training me is not giving me very much time to learn a thing!  Most important, I am on my feet all day and have to lift and go through boxes.  Not the best job for a preggo.  Apparently my body tells me this job may not be the right fit!

So that brings me to the blog title... is money everything?  I have decided that, although my salary is decent and pays the bills, my health, my sanity and the health of my baby girl are SO MUCH more important than a paycheck!  Thankfully, I am married to an amazing man, who, all the way across the country on business, agrees with me completely and supports my (sometimes crazy) ideas and decisions.

Looks like this weekend is going to be a long weekend of thinking about what I need to do, being even more creative with money than I have been in the past (no fears... I am still going to get us to Disney this winter for free in addition to everything...) and figuring out a way to still earn at least a part-time income.

My goal is to have a plan by the time hubby comes home....

A Weekend of Fun

With our attempts at trying to save money/pay off debt/just try to get by, we have really limited ourselves in our "fun" spending.  We cut vacation out and instead of our yearly Florida trip we are going to visit a friend a few hours away.  We have bought nothing for ourselves outside of food and necessity.  There is a point where this gets very old and very tough.

Two things happened this week that made not spending money almost impossible... one is that we found out our baby-to-be in a girl and the second thing is that summer arrived in Pittsburgh and my growing belly does not accommodate any of my pre-pregnancy clothes.

So we needed to do some serious shopping!  Ok, well I needed to do some shopping for myself and we just couldn't help ourselves with buying things for the baby!

First stop:  Macy's.  I am not a fan of Macy's.  I don't shop there... ever.  I think they are usually overpriced and I find it very hard to find anything for my age (too old for the junior section, too young for the adult stuff).  Aside from dresses, shoes and purses, I am shopping elsewhere.  However, no matter how many times I make this known, my mother-in-law gets me a Macy's gift card for every occasion.  Part of me thinks she does it on purpose... but that's for another day...  So here I am with $100 in Macy's gift cards.  One thing you should know is that I'm a gift card hoarder.  I hold on to those suckers for rainy days where I just NEED to shop and don't have any money to do so.  I am also EXTREMELY frugal with gift cards.  I know, completely opposite of how I am with our real, hard-earned money.  I guess I just want my free money to go pretty far.

I found out through a friend that Motherhood Maternity has a shop inside Macy's and although you can't use Macy's coupons, you can use their gift cards.  I promptly gave up my dreams of new bedding and went straight to the maternity section.  I was able to get shorts, two tops and a bathing suit with my gift cards and still have $15 left over.  All in all, I think I did pretty well and I was comfortably cool during our 87 degree day in my shorts and tank.

Problem number one taken care of.

Problem number two:  I just NEEDED to buy things for little girl.  This was much harder as we would actually have to PAY for these things.  As luck would have it, there was a big consignment sale going on in our neighborhood.  My husband and I agreed that $100 would be more than enough to satisfy the weekend and that was all we could spend.

Now I know what you're thinking... $100 is a lot of money for clothes!  Well, it is but we were also looking for some things to keep at his mom's house for when we visit.  She lives 2 hours away and I am not lugging everything for each visit.

We walked out of there with a bouncer for MIL's house, four pairs of shoes (excessive I know, but they were soooo cute!), a bathing suit for Disney, a book for me about being a mommy, and a bunch of little outfits and onsies.  Total spent: $45.  I was extremely thrilled with my purchases (I only bought name-brand clothes from Gap, Old Navy and Disney) and I felt like we got a lot for our money.  Too bad I have to wait until October for her to get here!

Last but not least we stopped at the mall so Kevin could buy a new pair of shoes with his Dick's gift card.  Due to our awesome savings at the baby sale, we had extra money left over to put toward the shoes he really wanted.

We ended the night with a stop at Bahama Breeze for dinner, making it feel like we had a great "vacation" day saving money and getting what we needed.

Sunday morning we got up early and took our dog to the local animal shelter for his annual rabies shot at their $10 clinic.  MUCH cheaper than the local vet's office where we always seems to spend $200 for them to do an exam and shots and tell us he is healthy.

When we got home from our spending extravaganza weekend, we had $17 left in our pockets.  All in all I think we had a great weekend on a very small budget!

PS that $17 went right into our Disney-saving fund :)

Stretched to the Max

So my initial savings plan is not going as planned.  I wouldn't necessarily say it's bad -- our bills are paid, there's food in our mouths and we are happy.  BUT we still aren't getting anywhere.

So the question turned from how much can we save to WHY can't we save ANYTHING?  In our defense there are things that have come up that have wiped out our savings.  First, we are moving.... thank God!  We are going from paying $1600/month in rent to paying around $1000 for a townhouse in the neighborhood we want to stay in.  Much, much better.  But in order to get that townhouse, we had to spend our savings on a security deposit and first month's rent.  That's pretty hard to come up with when we're already paying a ridiculous rent in our current place.

Adding to that is the stress of knowing we are paying two rents in June!  UGH!  Not ideal but definitely necessary! 

I wish I could say that as soon as July rolls around we will be financially set but that is not the case either.  Our car needs some work (like $1000 worth of work with new tires and a new tailpipe thing...) in order to pass inspection.  Oh Pennsylvania how I love the mandatory annual inspection that never seems to have everything be ok.  Add on top of that bridal showers, baby showers, weddings and 12 weeks unpaid maternity leave and we are pretty much tapped out through the end of the year.

Time to start getting thrifty!  Without realizing it, my credit card gives me cash back each month in either credits to apply to my balance or I can cash out in gift cards.  Ummm the credit card just got a lot more use!  Not only is it earning me points, but it is helping us budget also as a better way to keep track of our monthly spending. 

So with all that is going on and all of our monthly bills, when I tell my husband I want to go to Disney World for a week in January for our anniversary and attend a Disney event that a blogger I follow is hosting, he looks at me like I have five heads.  I promise him that with my thriftiness I can get the trip paid for....   

Here we go....