Are You Thinking Of New Year's Resolutions Yet?

I usually start my New Year's resolutions around Thanksgiving. Once they are written down, I start keeping notes so I can devise the best plans possible for each one. Of course, they rarely last past March but, it's fun while it lasts! The only resolution that ever really sticks is saving money. It may not be a whole lot of money but, it's something and that's what I'm after.

Unless you already have a trillion dollars saved up for retirement, you're probably trying to find some easy ways to start socking money away in such a way that you won't miss it, right? This is typically my goal and what I try to figure and refigure when working on my family's budget. I don't claim to be Dave Ramsey or anything like that but, maybe some of my tips will resonate with you!

Save Save Save! 

A few years ago we started an "envelope budget" and filled each envelope with cash. After I wasn't able to work anymore due to a disability, it was a little harder to try and stash the cash in the envelopes. (I bartended so this was simple to do with tip money!) Now, I would have to travel 20 miles to remove the actual cash from the bank or I end up paying an ATM fee. (Which kind of defeats the whole purpose, right?) So, I try my best to have cash on hand for most of the envelopes each month. 

The whole point behind this was that we tend to spend less when using actual cash as compared to debit and credit cards. It's super easy to overspend when using a card but, if you can see the real money in your hands, disappearing, you will probably start putting some impulse items back on the shelf. (I overspend at the grocery store most often when I use a card.)

Every family will have different envelopes to go along with their personal budget. 

We have the following envelopes for ours: 

Groceries, gas, school supplies/school store, pizza, clothing/shoes, entertainment. 

Clothing/shoes and even entertainment are very rarely used in full so at the end of the month we take that money and add to our savings. There are a few times during the year when we do have to spend more on clothing and shoes and I do shop online most of the time so, I use bank cards for these purchases. (But, there are ways to save with these too!)

Another tactic we use for savings which have proven to be quite successful is an online savings account. We started this several years ago and also started our children's savings accounts through the same bank. You simply set up a recurring deposit to come directly from your checkings account and you can make this a weekly deposit, bi-weekly, monthly, whatever you choose! I like to have our deposits come each week on payday for each account. Plus, our kids deposit 10% of their allowance each month into their savings accounts. 

It isn't too hard to retrieve your money from an online savings account if an emergency pops up. But, when there aren't any emergencies, it can tend to be too much of a hassle to bother. If you're at the mall and think you need to buy a new dress or new shoes, you will have to wait a few days for the money if you do decide to transfer. By then you may have decided to just keep your money anyway. 

If you do have unsecured credit card debt and need to try to save on your monthly bills, check our Nationwide Debt Reduction Services. They do have options available for you if you are looking to repair your credit and repay your debt. This will help tremendously if you are trying to help your financial situation and save money!

Saving With Credit Cards

Believe it or not, there are some tricks to shopping online and using credit cards. If you aren't a total shopping addict, it could be seriously easy to save money this way! 

There are always so many deals, discounts, sales, even cash back sites to use for virtually everything and anything you can think of. I'm sure you have probably noticed different rewards sites and cash back offers all over the Internet numerous times. If you haven't already signed up for one, make sure you find an offer for a startup bonus! There are programs that will pay you in cash and some will give you a percentage back in points. You can redeem the points for gift cards and sometimes PayPal payments. I have a few accounts with these types of sites and I always check for the best deal before clicking. 

You will have to wait anywhere from 30 days to 90 days to receive your reward so this is an easy way to just deposit the check you receive into your savings account or let your gift cards pile up and use them for holiday shopping, school shopping, or for your linens and towels. As I mentioned, I have a few accounts so, I do have a goal for each one. I use one account for holiday shopping, another for school shopping, and the cash back account for our savings account. I also have our bank cards and credit cards tied to a college savings account so each purchase that fits their criteria will automatically be deposited for me and I don't have to do anything but keep my cards updated! 

Another bonus to using credit cards are rewards programs. (You can easily double dip when shopping online!) There are so many different options out there to fit different needs. Our favorite allows us to choose whether to receive a check, statement credit, or credit to be used for shopping. We use this one card to pay bills such as our cell phone bill and we use this one for anything from business expenses to clothing and shoes. We do our best to pay this card off in full each month so there aren't any fees or interest added. (If there is an emergency, this is one of the last ones to be paid in full but, we typically manage it well.) It's a lot of fun to watch the rewards pile up and at the end of the year, we make a decision on what we're going to use the money for. We actually used the money to pay a month on our mortgage payment a few times! But, you could also take this money and deposit into your savings!

Always pay attention to anything you might receive in the mail from your cards too! Sometimes you'll find offers for no interest purchases and other ways to save on your card. Just pay close attention to the fine print. While the "No interest for 12 months" might be an incentive for you to splurge, you may end up paying more in the long run if you do not pay it completely off within those 12 months.

If you are in need of any advice regarding unsecured debt, check out Nationwide Debt Reduction Services! 

There are so many small ways to grab a few extra dollars to stash! It may take a little extra time for math and planning and you'll need a notebook to keep track of some things but, it gets much easier after you're used to it! Just set some goals, sign up for some programs and you'll start seeing savings and money (or gift cards) coming in that you can use to save or for whatever you choose. 

Save Money Shopping Online AND An iPad Pro Giveaway

How much of your Christmas shopping did you do online? I did 95% of my shopping online and I was still shopping just a few days before Christmas. I didn't have to drive to a crowded store, find a parking spot, nor wait in line to check out. I did my shopping on my couch while the kids were at school. Not only was it easier - I saved more money and got paid to shop! Yes - shopping online lets you search for the best deal and when you shop through Beesavy you will earn cash back on all your online purchases. Yes, there will still be a need to go to an actual store and I do love to walk around a mall to try things on and enjoy the scenery, but online shopping is a much better choice. If you have never been paid to shop online, you are going to love this! It's just 1 extra step and you shop. Beesavy keeps track of your purchases and gives you cash back on your purchases. Here are a few examples:

• Walmart - 2%
• Best Buy - 1.5%
• Uber - up to $50
• Hotels.com - 2%
• 101 inks - 14%
• Ancestry.com - up to $8.75

There are over 2,000 of the top online brands where you can earn cash back! All your purchase will add up and Beesavy will send you money! I usually get a nice check back after Christmas so we like to put it away for a Spring Break trip. You could use it to get a pedicure or go out to eat. This is "free" money! Ready to sign up? Click here to join and use the referral code Busymommylist

Do you want to know what's even better? Getting paid when your friends shop! And that's what makes Beesavy's social shopping concept so unique. Refer your friends to Beesavy and you will earn a 10% cash back bonus whenever they shop! This isn't a limited time offer, you will earn this bonus forever...there is no limit!

Giveaway Details:

• iPad Pro (value $599)
• Dates: January 11 2017 - January 30 2017 winner selected and announced the first week in February.
• US Only

Enter on the Giveaway Tool Below:

Entry-Form

 

The blogger is not responsible for the prize. The event is organized by SavingYouDinero.com and the prize is provided by Beesavy.

I Recently Found Groupon Coupons

** This is a sponsored post. All opinions and statements are 100% my own! **

I often look for local deals on Groupon. Especially when they have gift cards for pizza shops, restaurants, or my main weakness, subscription boxes! I often find some great gifts for the holidays, birthdays, and anything else that needs a celebration. Plus, sometimes, you can grab a bonus for yourself!

I owe my nifty homemade cheese making skills to Groupon. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have found some sweet deals on cheese making kits, which led me on some super fab adventures in the past few years. Now, I'm able to whip up anything from cheddar cheese curds to mozzarella to farmers cheese.

I also shop online regularly and I always search for coupons, discounts, free shipping, and of course, check in with my cash back and rewards sites to find the best deal before shopping literally, anywhere online. Little did I know that Groupon had coupons for extra savings while shopping online!

When you think of Groupon, what do you think of? I have always just assumed this was the place for deals on events like, hockey games, concerts, gift cards, and some fascinating gift ideas. But, you can also find Groupon Coupons for places like, Puma, Kohl's, Sprint, and Shutterfly. I actually just found a Groupon Coupon for free delivery fees for Edible Arrangements! I will probably be using that one! I recently used a couple of coupon codes for Nike, which were for 20% off of my purchase and after checking out the Puma deals, I may as well start some back to school sneaker shopping!

You can like Groupon on Facebook to stay up to date with the latest deals and coupons!
You can also find them on Twitter!

Have you checked out any Groupon Coupons? Let me know what kind of deals you have found! I actually just found a New York Times digital subscription coupon I am going to grab. It's terribly annoying when I try to read a newspaper article online, only to find that I have "Gone over my 5 monthly free articles" and must now subscribe to read more! (Plus, it makes me look less nerdy if I have a digital subscription rather then having it delivered to my house!)

School Shopping Deals with Ebates #GivingBackPack

I was provided $25 by our sponsor Ebates to purchase a backpack and school supplies. I was not compensated in any other way for this post. Ebates Back To School #givingbackpack #ebates
 It's that chaotic time of year again when we start rummaging through all of the sales ads, and trying to salvage from last years stock to see what, if anything, we can reuse or if we're lucky, open from our stock pile of school supplies, or even make look new again from an older sibling.
 School supply shopping should be a super fun time, (at least it was when I was growing up) but as a mom of 4, it's not so exciting anymore!
 I usually pick up odds and ends throughout the year, online, offline, anywhere I see a pack of markers, pens, paper clips, erasers, anything that I can use in my office or for crafts, I'll grab it! We sometimes end up with little crates filled to the brim with pencils, but no sharpener in site. That's when I grab 1 of my piles of sticky notes or to do list tablets and start making a priority list of what we need asap! (I don't know why it's been so hard to find a decent, dependable sharpener over the years) They just don't make them the same anymore.
Of course, with all of my top secret cubby holes and little office crates, we end up with way more then we need. Which is a good thing, because we are always gathering supplies for children who may not be able to go to the stores and grab the cute butterfly erasers, scratch and sniff stickers, pencils, folders, binders, and the character backpack of their dreams.
This year is especially fun, because we partnered with Madame Deals and Ebates, and we are participating with their #GivingBackPack event.
Lucky bloggers, such as moi!, were given a very important task.....Find a backpack and stuff it with school supplies, as much as you can for $25. We love challenges and we love donating to our community so it's been a blessing to be a part of this awesome event!
 I posted on my personal Facebook account, asking my friends to message me about any local school kids who may be in need of a backpack filled to the brim. (We usually take some to the guidance office at the elementary school each year) but we wanted to first try and find somebody nearby, so we could maybe cater the supplies to him or hers, liking. I received a message from a friend, about her granddaughter who will be starting kindergarten this year. Of course, Genevive was more then happy to help with this task!

We found out that this little girl loves the movie, Frozen, so we searched online for a Frozen backpack. 

Of course, I logged into my Ebates account, and started hunting. 

I had to shop on Toysrus.com for my 11 year old son's birthday, so I checked there.....

Toys R Us had a special deal, get a free lunch kit when you buy a backpack!! (SWEET!!)

Genevive picked the backpack and lunch kit, (she's 7 and also loves Frozen!)

The backpack was $16.99, the lunch kit was free, free shipping, (since I had other items), and 1% cash back from Ebates!! 

Besides all of that awesomeness, I had a $5 reward on my Toys R Us card!!

Between The Dollar Store, Walmart (online through Ebates, of course) and our stockpile, we had so much, we barely fit it all in!

We spent $11.99 on the backpack and lunch kit,  $8 on Walmart.com, the extra  from CVS and The Dollar Store, (totaled $5) and we threw in the glitter glue pack, some lip balms, stickers, a couple pencils I picked up at Rite Aid for 10 cents and Genevive had the bright idea to fill her Frozen lunch kit with some extra snacks that we receive from subscription boxes, case purchases and review opportunities.
We did go a little over our $25, due to the items we added from our stock at home. But even if I add those items up, it maybe would've cost another $5.
We are delivering her backpack tomorrow afternoon, since I am a friend of her grandmothers, and Genevive is so anxious to meet her new Frozen fan friend, she has not been able to stop squealing and jumping up and down since she helped create this overstuffed, little girls dream come true!
The boys wanted to help with this project, which they did! We will be delivering 4 other backpacks to the school, Monday, and they are in charge of filling those up.

We had a lot of fun with this project, I am very grateful for Madame Deals and Ebates for allowing us to be a part of this.
We love helping our community and have always believed that ALL children deserve new school supplies!
I have been a member of Ebates for a long, long time, and although I forget to log on sometimes, I always love shopping online and I usually always remember Ebates the second I'm ready to check out. (I desperately need to remember to log on!) I am usually doing 20 things at once, of course!
You absolutely have to sign up if you shop online! I am a member of many, many, many cash back sites and Ebates has always had the most and the best retailers available.
Oh, one more thing! Not only do you have cash back from Ebates, but retailers sometimes have some very nice discounts and coupon codes available to Ebates members!
Ebates – Where it Pays to Shop Online. Ebates is the pioneer and leader of online cash back shopping. Ebates pays members cash back every time they shop online as well as provide them with the best coupons and deals online. Founded in 1998, Ebates Inc.’s websites have paid over $250 million in cash to its members. That’s why millions of people have joined Ebates. Sign up today!!

Very Helpful Coupon and Deal Site!!

I always check out all the coupon and deal sites, especially before I go and buy anything. Whether it's granola bars, or school clothes, I always figure that somewhere, I can get it cheaper:)
If you are looking for PsPrint coupon codes, this site has tons of them!
This is organized very well, and has an amazing directory of tons and tons of shops and stores! You just click through the directory, by letter, (alphabetical order), and find your store, and click for all the codes! They have them updated often, and have info on products, prices, pictures, anything you need to know about each store! It definitely saves you time, because they already did all the work for you!
Free shipping.com is actually a very cool program, from what I read on this site! I never really knew much about this money saving idea, until I read about them. You can also check them out on Clarus Marketing.
They also have cash back offers, and soon will have the option to print coupons. You can check out their blog, and read posts that range from free shipping, to reviews, to advice on shopping, groceries and more.
I am more satisfied with this site, then some of the others that seemed to have popped up over the past couple years. I like to have legitimate reviews, coupon codes, links, and actual proof that the coupons worked! (By the way, you can vote on the codes that work the best and you can add coupon and discount codes to the site as well!)
What coupons mean..
All in all, this site is sure to save busy moms and dads, lots of time and hassle! Just bookmark the site, and make sure you visit every time you are planning on shopping!
Have you ever used any codes from this site? Are you an email subscriber? Please comment and let me know what you think, especially of this site compared to others of the same type.

Hurry! This Deal ends Sunday!! Buy One Get One Free 3D Puzzles!

These are so cool! $14.99 plus $2 for shipping and handling, is a price I am personally going to grab this deal at! My 8 year old, Aaron, would love these puzzles! Not to mention, this is an excellent way to keep him away from his Gameboy and the Playstation 3!
He loves puzzles, as most kids do, and 3D puzzles are extra cool!!!
You can even use these for 2 seperate gifts!
This is definitely one of those deals I am keeping as my favorite holiday deals, and as a favorite gift for kids!
Puzzles are a great way to keep your kids minds in motion! They, just like blocks and Legos, help with problem solving, creativity, help teach patience, and what a reward when they have them completely built!
I started a deal with my kids last year, we are not buying, giving, any technology type gifts at Christmas, and we are well stocked on board games, cards, story cubes, puzzles, and things that kids should really be playing with!
We normally spend $50 per kid at Christmas, (this total is after discounts, deals, cash back, etc), so it may not seem like a lot, but Aaron will have 2 gifts for $15 to open, just with these puzzles! Plus, the kids do get a couple neat surprise gifts to share with each other. After all, Christmas is not about gifts and who gets what. We are hoping to instill these values in our children and teach them to be happy for what they have and grateful for the little things, and learn what Christmas is really about!
**I personally do prefer to purchase American made items, and I always try my best to find that, however, this is getting more rare, and this is very sad! But, when I am looking for something in particular, I search brands, and country of origin, before I decide what I buy for basically all of our purchases**