Can I ask about your opinion????

We all answer questions each and every day. We even provide our opinion, solicited or not, but we do. We make choices each day about what we will wear, where we will go, what to buy, how much to spend, the list goes on and on.

I decided to sign up for some research panels to earn some extra cash to fund some bicycle rehab projects on my other blog. By earning money specifically for that project, it projects a zero impact on any current savings I have going on in the Frugal house. Call it confusing, but for me, it works.

For example, we have a coffee can that holds all of our spare change we have in our pockets, find on the ground, or whatnot. When we cash it in, it specifically will pay for some activity. We do it about once a year. 2008's cash in was about $92. I believe 2007's went to a fun evening at the Derby Lane dog track. Great buffett and a lot fun on betting on the dogs!

Here are the survey companies I signed up for. They are legit as I have been contacted on one panel and I know of two friends that have been contacted as well. Pays about $80 for a couple hourse of work.

http://www.superiorresearch.net/

http://www.taicompanies.com/

http://www.accudata.net/

I was on the Nielsen Media Research panel for about a year. No monetary compensation, but I did get to use a Smartphone by Cingular with internet access. I paid for the phone service, but also received $50/month to pay for the service. It was basically a free cell phone.

I have also been playing around with some on-line survey companies. Simple point and click, a few minutes here and there. After about a week and a few hours of my time, the balance is just over $15.00 between them. Not a lot, but as referenced above, I have bicycle parts to pay for. Those companies are:

www.inboxdollars.com

www.spotsurvey.com

Lastly, I added Google's AdSense to my blogs. Just click on each of the advertisements, if they interest you and I will receive a small fee. About $.50 a click so far. Thanks for clicking!

So all in all, to generate a bit more out of the air funding, Research panels, online surveys and saving pennies. They will all add up in the end with little impact to the frugal household budget as we rebuild two special bicycles.

Thanks for reading!

Can you spare some change brother?

Guten Abend! I have attached this link for an article I found about some money saving ideas.

I was thinking about something my son once told me; if a person stopped to pick up every penny them came across in the street or sidewalk, they would have collected over $180 in their lifetime. Folks that is $180 that you don't have right now! I don't care if the penny is heads up or heads down, it's still a penny. Those do add up.

We have a frugal coffee can that holds the spare change we find in our pockets, purses or drawers, about once a year we will take the can to a change counter and cash them in. Last time it was over $90. Talk about an evening out then on your spare change alone.

Some folks I know subscribe to the envelope method for their budget. Great idea, spend only what you got, not what your gonna get. Take the change from that each week and move it into another envelope. Over the next few weeks, you will have found yourself some decent entertainment money.

Enjoy the article, it is from 2005, but still pertinent today. Follow along if you wish as well. Thank you for your time and suggestions. http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/10/pf/saving/frugal_living/index.htm

Christmas is going to come early....

To keep our lives simpler, we Frugals have decided to begin our Christmas shopping for 2009 now. No pressure here, just a perusal down the end caps at Target for the soon to be hard to get items and beat the rush this fall. Now these hard to get items may not be because they are so popular, they may be because they are last years model and everyone under the sun already has that game, widget or gadget or so I've been told.

For example, when you see a drugstore start to sell those digital picture frames just like the office type stores, you know there is a glut on the market.....hmmm gift ideas?

Now we will take the lessons learned from 2008'a holidays and apply them to this years holiday season. We strategically plan for a month for Black Friday. (www.bfads.net) Our lists are checked and cross-checked against each competitor. We will then position ourselves at multiple locations to pounce on those bargains. Oh yeah, it can get violent, but hey, if I'm saving a few bucks, I willing to bleed a little. This year we are going to concentrate our efforts at one store location....Bass ProShops.

This is a store that knows how to treat it's customers on Black Friday. Picture and feel this.....40ish degrees and windy, 5 o'clock in the morning and the potential crowd headaches in front of you. Bass ProShops is glad to meet you with hot coffee, biscuits and donuts. Man o man, I'll turn to being a hunter just to continue to shop there.

Bottlecaps!

Happy New Year.

One activity we Frugals like to participate and redeem is mycokerewards.com. The Coco-Cola company has put togther a redeeming program using their bottlecaps, 12 can cartons and case cartons.

Each one of these is worth 3, 10 or 20 points that can be entered on line here: http://www.mycokerewards.com

Over the past couple of years we collected enough to have earned a Wii game, two pieces of luggage and a Lord of the Rings swag gift. Pretty cool! Very quick turnaround and pay no shipping costs either!

Dr. Pepper and Pepsi both have similar programs for free items and music. Haven't tried these programs yet as our soda pop consumption is decreasing, but will give them a try as we play around with different money saving ideas.

Stay tuned!