Works for Me Wednesday: Swagbucks

Have you heard about Swagbucks yet?

I just recently read about them and I gotta say, it seems like it could be a great deal, especially if you do a lot of your shopping on Amazon or are a coffee drinker.

Swagbucks is a search engine that you earn points for using. It's super easy to sign up, does not require much information, and took me less than a minute. All you do is sign up, confirm that you signed up, and download a search bar. You can then earn "bucks" by using the searches or referring others to Swagbucks. That's it- easy peasy!

If you're doing searches anyway, it can add up Swagbucks gives you results from search engines like Google. You get three points just for signing up. After you earn 45 "bucks" you can redeem them for $5 gift card from Amazon. If you hold out until you have 50 "bucks" you get a $5 gift card from Starbucks. There are several other things you can redeem your bucks for at the Swagstore if you're not into Amazon or Starbucks.

While $5 bucks does not seem like a lot of money, it's really not such a bad deal for doing something that you do anyway. If you order gifts for Christmas off Amazon, it can put a nice little dent in your Christmas budget. Every little bit helps, especially if it does not take a lot of time and I can incorporate it into something that I already do. It works for me!

Works For Me Wedensday: Taming My E-mail

Ya'll.

My e-mail has been out of control for awhile. Crazy out of control! And as a result, I was not noticing and/or not responding to important ones and watching the pile get higher and higher.

I'm excellent at keeping junk mail that comes in the mailbox out of my home, but e-mail? Crazy.

Part of the issue is the fact that I have five e-mail accounts.

1. One for this blog.
2. One for job hunting and other professional issues.
3. A personal, friends and family only address.
4. Work address for College I
5. Work address for College II.

The other part is the fact that I'd get on in a spare minute, read the e-mail, realize that I did not have time to answer most of them, then forget about them. Bad, bad, bad.

Then I found this wonderful advice from Simple Mom.

Now I have a much better, much less chaotic system that works for me.

Unlike Simple Mom, I did not consolidate my boxes because that does not work for me. I still check all my individual e-mail accounts. Nor did I worry about closing out my e-mail so I would not be distracted by the "ding"- that has not been an issue for me personally.

The real gold for me lay in her problem # 3

Problem #3: I’d read emails, then wait until I had more time to reply to them. This resulted in a backlog of too many emails to ever have time for responding. An in-box full of emails needing a response is not a pretty thing.
Solution: I only read emails when I can give them at least a five sentence response. If I don’t have time for that, I leave it unread. If it seems urgent, then I’ll close out what I was working on and give that email my full attention. If it’s not urgent, then it can wait. The world won’t stop.

Perfect! I've modified it a bit for me- I will read them, but if it is not urgent and I do not have time to give it a response, I move it to a special Reply ASAP folder. Many of my e-mails can be answered in a few words, so doing this and not worrying about the longer ones has greatly cut my clutter. I no longer leave any e-mails in my inbox. They get filed, or responded to and deleted. I go back to my urgent e-mail once a day and respond, then delete. No more clutter!

I also now have a special folder for student work. Many of my students e-mail me their papers, and I was worried that I'd accidentally manage to delete one. One of my colleges sends out billions of announcements and I get a little delete happy. Having the special folder helps me be more careful.

For more WFMW ideas, go here!

WFMW: Making food healthier

In an attempt to eat better, I've been trying out some of those sneaky kiddo recipes and testing them on my husband and roommate. Yesterday I made these brownies that had black beans instead of flour in them! They were actually really, really good. Half the pan is already gone, and they were amazed when I told them that I substituted the flour...with beans! With the price of flour going up, substituting beans is not such a bad idea. I'm on hold at the library for books like this:

Hee! It works for me!

What is your favorite sneaky recipe? Share in the comments!

WFMW: Getting it Done The Night Before

I love that Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer is rerunning one of her "greatest hits" for Works for Me Wednesday. I'm taking a page from her book and rerunning one of my past WFMW posts. Hey, the occasional rerun works for me!

Getting it Done The Night Before (ran April 11, 2007)

With frugality and simple time saving, something that has worked for me is doing things the night before.

Things that get done the night before in my household:

Lunches are packed. This means that we won't forget and have to run out and buy fast food during lunch hour. We usually take leftovers, so we don't have to worry about soggy sandwiches. We usually pack up lunches as we are cleaning up the kitchen for the evening. Even if we are taking a frozen meal, we put it in our lunch boxes and put the lunch box in the fridge. This may be especially helpful to new frugalites who think they don't have time to pack lunch in the morning. Getting your kids to pack their lunch the night before can help stop the school morning rush as well.

Set up the crock pot. If we are having a crock pot meal the next day, I will get all of the ingredients in the lift out pot the night before. I also put the heater part on the counter to remind me to turn it on the next day. It is so much easier when I don't have to chop things and throw stuff together in a half asleep state! Just pull it out of the fridge the next morning and pop it in the heating part- poof, you're done, and dinner is taken care of!

Pack purses/backpacks/briefcases and put them by the door. This was amazingly helpful when I was a graduate student who commuted. If I forgot my books or homework, I could not just rush back to the dorms to get them. When my bag was packed and ready to go the night before, I could grab it and go! Again, for those of you with children, having all the homework and stuff they have to take to school the next day all ready at the door the night before will be a time and sanity saver in the morning. I still use this method with my substitute teaching bag.

Know what you are going to wear. I don't actually lay out clothes, but I do actually go into my closet and look at them, just to make sure everything is ready and clean, does not need to be ironed, etc.Getting stuff done the night before saves time, and often in saving time, I save money as well. Hey, it works for me!

Works For Me Wednesday: Getting Home Stuff Done at Work

I'm currently working outside the home at a job that is either feast or famine. I'm either so busy I feel like I'll never get it done, or I have nothing (not a thing!) to do for days at a time. At first I was frustrated by this. There is so much to do at home- why am I staring at a computer screen for 8 hours accomplishing nothing? How can I make sitting in an office productive?

Then it hit me- I can do a lot of my "home" work here. (At this point, I need to point out that I have a very flexible employer who is excellent at work/life balance, and they don't care if we use the internet/phone etc for personal use as long as we get our actual work related work done. Your mileage may vary- be sure to know your employer and their policies!) Now I combine my home life and my work life quite well. Here's what I do from work when there's not much else to do or on my lunch break during busy times:

• Clip coupons and scan sale ads for good deals.
• Make menus and grocery lists
• Buy postage and arrange for carrier pickup from the post office website. Woo! One less trip for me to take after work!
• Write letters to friends and family.
• Put books that I want to read on hold via the library website- one five minute stop after work to pick up my already gathered up for me books.
• Research items that we may need to purchase. For example, I did a lot of my car research at work when we were looking for a new car.

There's a lot of stuff you can do with the internet and the phone. I called and had my Roth IRA start auto-deducting from my account every month so I no longer have write out a check and pay for a stamp. All it took was a phone call! There is so much you can take care of- I'm not even touching the tip of the iceberg here.

The feasibility of this may differ from person to person, or job to job. I've had jobs where we were pretty much not allowed to do anything non work related, even if it meant that we sat and stared at the wall when we were not busy. But if you are not in that kind of situation, use it!

If you work outside the home: What "home" stuff do you do from work? How flexible is your employer regarding internet and phone use? If you do not have an office job where you have access to computers/phones all day, are there other home things you accomplish at work? Share in the comments!

More ideas here!

WFMW: The Chore List

A long time ago, I was talking about redoing my household notebook and making it prettier and more useful to my current life situation.

Well, that did not happen. I just did not get around to making it super pretty. And then I went and got myself a job, which means I have even less time to be creative with my notebook.

What I did get around to doing to was to re-do my daily and weekly chores quite a bit on a piece of notebook paper. I wrote down my daily chores, and then my weekly chores in a separate area. I've been intending on fixing it up to put in my notebook with my other stuff, like our house and pet sitter section, our "emergency evacuation" section, and our frugal ideas section, but I just have not done it.

Yesterday I realized we've been doing quite well just using the piece of paper, which is posted on the fridge. So I've decided that, for this season in my life, I'm going to leave it at that. The chores are getting done, I am not stressing about making it look better, and it's in a place where I see it every day. Hey, it works for me!

Works For Me Wednesday: The Key Hook

This is such a little thing that I almost feel silly posting it...but have a designated place for your keys and your purse. My husband put a nail in the wall near the door for my keys about a month after we married. It changed my life! I never have to look for my keys anymore! They're on the hook. I keep my purse in the same spot as well. Get into this habit and you'll save a lot of time. If you take the habit with you when you travel, then you'll know where your purse and hotel key are when you have to evacuate at 2 AM during a fire as well! Hey, it works for me!

WFMW: Dog Food Storage

We keep our big dog food bag down in the basement, because it is an easy place to store it. But who wants to go downstairs twice a day for a measly cup of dog kibble? My solution? A 12 quart plastic box. We fill the box as needed, and we keep it upstairs in a kitchen cabinet. We even have a measuring cup that stays in the box, so we don't overfeed our sweet girl. No more going downstairs for food every day! It works for me!

Sarah, the cutest dog in the world! (Except your dog, of course.)

Works For Me Wednesday: Car Edition

Today's Works For Me Wednesday is all about cars!

I keep a simple plastic grocery bag clipped to the cup holder as a garbage bag. It's amazing how much cleaner this has kept my car. All those little wrappers, pieces of paper that you somehow end up with, junk items that people put on your windshield...have a bag there and you won't have to dig out your back seat later!

Keeping a few magazines in the backseat has saved me from going insane during times when I have been stuck somewhere, waiting for a tow truck, early for an appointment, etc.

I used to keep a small overnight bag in the trunk when I commuted for grad school. I lived in Colorado at the time, where it was not unusual to start the day sunny and end the day with a blizzard. I had several people who I could stay with if I was not able to get home, and the overnight bag ensured that I would have something to sleep in, a toothbrush and something clean to wear the next day.

I also keep change in my back seat ashtray. I learned this from a friend who lives in a big city where you always have to pay for parking. I only keep nickels, dimes, and quarters there, since meters don't take pennies. I have never been without parking meter money since I started doing this. I'll also admit to using it as an emergency lunch money fund when I worked outside the home. There was usually enough in there to get a few items off the dollar menu. Hey, works for me!

Works For Me Wednesday: Shopping for Clothes

I try to shop for clothes when I'm in a "fat mood" as much as possible. That sounds awful, but really, it's not so bad. It acheives two goals:

1. I don't buy as much, because I feel like a lot of things look icky on me when I'm in a fat mood.

and

2. When I do buy something, it looks good on me and makes me feel good, even when I'm in a fat mood. I avoid the whole closet full of clothes but nothing to wear syndrome.

It may sounds harsh, but it really works for me!

WFMW- Sick and Tired, But Still Frugal!

One of the perils of using the pantry method of cooking (where you buy whatever is rock bottom priced and make your meals around that) is that you sometimes are just not quite sure what to make with your seemingly random stash.. This is why I love the All Recipes Ingredients Search. You have a pile of rice, some chicken, and tons and tons of cheese? Voila, tonight we're having Salsa Chicken Rice! The ingredients search can also help you get out of the rut of eating the same five meals over and over and over, which can be nice. And when you have the cold from Hades and can't think worth beans, it does the thinking for you.

I have been sick this week. I'm thankful I hit the motherlode sale on tissues a few weeks ago (Free after coupons and rebates at Walgreens) because I'm going through them like crazy. Yesterday I used three boxes. Three! This is also a good time to pull out all of your time saving tricks. Crockpots can really save you at a time like this. Yesterday I threw pork chops and assorted seasonings in the crockpot first thing in the morning, and proceeded to sleep the rest of the day. My husband made rice and microwaved some vegetables when he got home. Dinner was ready, even though I was pretty much out of commission. Today I feel much better, but as a precaution, I'm getting the casserole assembled and ready to go. If I'm dying on the couch by dinner time, the guys can just pop it in the oven. I'm sick and they're tired, but we can still eat inexpensive meals at home. Works for me!

WFMW: Laundry Detergent Caps

I love those huge things of liquid laundry detergent. I don't love how the caps, which are also used to measure the detergent, get gummed up. Yuck, and what a mess! Walking all the way upstairs to where there was a sink was a pain in the rear. It was even worse when I had to use the laundromat- there were no sinks, and my apartment was across several streets and on the second floor. I got so frustrated with the gummy, yucky detergent caps.



One day, it occurred to me to rinse out the cap under the running water of the washing machine. No more yucky caps! Hey, it works for me!