Make Money Working From Home

Most of you who read my posts are either working from home or wish that you were. I do most of my work from home and have been doing so for the past ten years. However, I don't make a "killing" doing it. I make money by doing the following:

• Blog Post Reviews - Payperpost, Sponsored Reviews, Review Me and now, Social Spark.com
• West Telephone Sales online with telephone telecommuting Part-time
• ETS - Scoring student tests online part-time telecommuting
• Substitute Teaching - a bad year - they overhired in our district and there has been no work this school year.

I hope to add some income via blog advertising this year, which my husband does very successfully on the websites he manages. When I first left my full-time job to have my children, I did some consulting work from home in my work field - Human Resources. After that I sold Southern Living at Home products and left that after they refused to let me sell close out products online. Through it all I have Ebay-ed for nine years, very successfully. I now only buy Gymboree for most of my youngest daughter's clothing, because I get such a good return when I sell it online after she outgrows it.

Newsweek published an article this week called "Cutting Back Your Hours". It talks about everything that I do right now as being cutting edge for flexibility with decent money. I could use the decent money. Companies have jumped on our bandwagon, thankfully, by realizing the great workforce that is Stay At Home Moms.

Two placement services that serve this market are 10 til 2 http://www.tentiltwo.com/ and Mom Corps http://www.momcorps.com/. These services help find organizations that hire for project and part-time work. I am signing up with both today in hopes of increasing my hourly pay back to something more professional in range. As they said in the article, part-time doesn't mean low pay anymore, especially if you are a seasoned former professional. I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, I do highly recommend Educational Testing Service (ETS) for relatively high paying part-time work scoring tests. The lowest hourly pay is $10/hour and it goes up from there depending on the test and its scoring requirements. During the holidays, the telephone work for West is good and it helps pay for the holidays for us.

If you have some ideas to share, please e-mail me and I'll write about them.

Saving Money on Kids and Mommy's Clothes

I had this article about saving money on clothing purchases from Family Hack tucked away in my favorites list. I was weeding out my massive list of links today and I re-read it and found it perfect for today's budgeting use! It's a great guide to saving money on clothing by timing your purchases to the store sales system. Give it a looksie!

Feeding Your Family for Less

Why is my dog's photo attached to this article about saving food dollars...you'll see! I think we're all feeling the pinch of rising gas and food prices. I know we are. So from various sources, I've compiled some ways to save money and lower your grocery bill:

Coupons! Every Sunday get the paper and go through the coupons. The coupons alone will easily pay for the price of the Sunday paper. Match them up with the weekly food/grocery sale flyers and plan your shopping accordingly.

Dollar Store! My husband is living in temporary quarters on his own until we relocate. He has saved a bundle by dropping by the dollar store to get some necessary household items. There was an ABC News story recently that showed a chef's challenge to make a gourmet meal using only foods from the dollar store. She did it and saved over $100 on the meal over purchasing items at a high end market. Give it a try.

Wash Your Own Dog! Yes, technically, this isn't grocery shopping. But I save $32 to $40 every time I wash my own dog instead of taking him to the groomer. I buy Hartz Oatmeal dog shampoo for his sensitive skin at the grocery store and I use barber scissors to cut the little matts off. I even use an old hairbrush to groom him with. We have saved at least three grooms and he looks cuter now. Yes that's his handgroomed photo at the top!

Choose generic or store brands of healthy groceries, such as whole-grain cereal and frozen vegetables. Look high and low for them—the most costly options are shelved at eye level. Buy fresh produce in season. Try local farmers’ markets for fresher, less expensive options. Frozen vegetables are healthy and even more affordable than fresh produce, and you can get out-of-season vegetables less expensively.

Make larger batches of your favorite healthy meals. Store labeled leftovers in the refrigerator and take them for lunch the next day. Buy chicken, fish and meat in bulk, and put them in freezer bags in meal-size portions.

Begin a home or community garden so you that can grow your own fruits and vegetables. Or, have an herb garden at home, which is less expensive than buying fresh herbs in the grocery store. I know it's cheaper to buy a basil plant than to buy fresh basil at our grocery store.

Buy in bulk and make your own convenience sizes using ziplock bags.

Send Some Postcards from the Edge

There a few things people enjoy more than getting mail...or is that just me? Either way, I can sure think of a lot of reasons to take advantage of the deal at VistaPrint for Cheap Postcards.

You could advertise your blog with a targeted mailing campaign.....and get them in as few as three days. You can thank your readers for their patronage. You could advertise an upcoming special sale on your website or offer great coupons. How about mailing all your friends about your daughter's upcoming wedding and have them save the date? I just got one of these in the mail today for a relative's July wedding. They did a simple postcard with simple colors and topped it off with a personalized stamp with their photos on it - it was cute! You could invite your friends over for a post-holidays cocktail hour or sleepover (or both!) Why just let the kids enjoy them (the sleepovers, not the cocktails).....

Anyway, quick postcards are an efficient way to get your message out there. You can create your own design online or have them do it for you in black and white or color. Prices start at 24.99 for an order of 100. I've used them for other print orders and they do a wonderful job - very fast and very high quality! I'm printing some to send from my vacation island to make everyone jealous!

A Great Way to Hire Help to Fix Up Your Home

HireAHelper.com is a great new site that makes it easy for you to Hire A Helper to assist you with your move, help clean your home, come weed the yard or for just about anything you need an extra helper for.

Sometimes you don't need a whole moving company, you just need some Moving Help, perhaps an extra guy or two to help load the heavy stuff into your van. I know we paid my brother-in-law and one of his friends to help us move a few year back, but now they are too old to call upon for such jobs. This site is a great help to match you up with workers willing to do the job for you in your area.

To find available Moving Helpers, you just follow easy steps to find local help. You can search by zip code to find willing workers for just about any job. You pick the worker or company to hire, they will contact you back and you pay HireAHelper via credit card. They will pay your contract worker when the job is done. They have a job ratings section available so you can check in advance to see if others have been happy with their work, before you hire them.

In addition, the site has a learning area to help you find out more about things like how to pack for a move successfully and a lawn and garden care guide. It contains wonderful information to get you started on your household jobs. It's a great way to find individuals you need for just a short job or for a longer term contract.

Great Deal on Eyeglasses!

Whoa! I couldn't believe the great value here at Great Discovery: www.ZenniOptical.com for prices on eye wear! They actually offer $ 8 Complete Prescription Eyeglasses plus a Case! If you've been reading my blog, I had a not so great time purchasing glasses recently at a major retailer. My daughter may need glasses this year as well so what a great site to save money! I think they offer some pretty cool styles too! I need sunglasses, so I'm going to give these a try!

Chase Has Sucky Credit Card Consumer Practices Afoot

Yes, I know my title could be better, but it's true! We just received a nasty little surprise from the Chase credit card folks. We've been cardholders for a number of years now, with never a late payment. We had been enjoying a very nice interest rate for a number of years and now they decided to increase it to the usurious level of 19.49%. In reading the notice mailed to us, it said they had used credit bureau information to increase our interest rate over 13% from it's prior level, effective in January 2008. I immediately checked our credit bureau and found nothing amiss. We have paid perfectly to everyone, every time.

I then went to Chase's website, hoping to find out more. That's where I found this little gem of a press release waiting:

"Chase Will No Longer Increase Rates Based on Credit-Bureau Information
WILMINGTON, DE (November 19, 2007) - Today, Chase Card Services announced the expansion of Chase Clear & Simple, an ongoing program designed to help Chase customers better understand and manage their accounts, with the adoption of new, clearer pricing practices.
Chase is eliminating a practice, commonly used in the industry, of increasing interest rates for individual cardholders when their credit-bureau scores decline. This change is effective on March 1, 2008."

Oh, really! I was shocked....here they are cleaning house, perhaps of people like us,with low interest rate cards, before their March 1st "consumer-friendly" lending practices begin. Could we be the only ones....I really doubt it. UPDATE - I am definitely not the only one - check out the various unhappy customers at the Chase Sucks discussion board. Also, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan has launched an inquiry this month (Dec 2007) into these unfair interest rate practices. I will be writing my letter to the Senator today.

Buyer Beware, the adage says, when the actions don't match the words, integrity is certainly not there! I recommend that you stay away from Chase Visa and Chase Mastercard, because their company doesn't stand behind what they are saying.

I'm Doing Only Online Christmas Shopping This Year

As I've written before, I really hate going to the malls to shop for Christmas presents. I totally avoided Black Friday by shopping exclusively online. I've never had any trouble returning items and I'm saving gas too. I've been shopping for tech bargains this year, as we are looking at getting a new computer for our online business soon. We've had our current one for over five years and I'm kind of worried about it failing unexpectedly - which has happened with a prior computer! We're like to look for the best deals and I really like techbargains.com because they do the searching for us. We've signed up for the email newsletter which will send us alerts for the items we want to buy. I liked that I can choose what deals

I'm also in need of a new digital camera and was pleased to use this service and the site to compare deals. They have a wonderful database with reviews and comparisons, so it has been really easy to choose between the models. They keep the site updated 24 hours per day, and they add new deals several times per day. I love finding coupons and they have tons of them, so check it out, save some gas and find what you need online this year!

Coupons to Help Your Christmas Budget

It's fun to think of what you'd buy for someone for a holiday gift if money was no object. First of all I'd be buying a new house for our entire family. We're tired of being "homeless". I'd also be buying a household of new furniture to go with it. Perhaps some mission-style furnishings and neo-antiques to go with them. I think I'd like it be on the river with a lot of land for the animals our children want to surround themselves with. The children will be needed lovely new winter clothing and a new tree house. And of course, there would be a new doghouse and pet supplies for our dog, Buddy and cat, Mocha.

Unfortunately, when I think of all that, I have to remember that we are on a strict budget for this Christmas. We are still saving up to move to ANY new house. We'll probably have to make do for a while with old furniture when we do more. For now we can use Coupon Chief promo codes and coupons to help us have a little more money leftover when we are shopping. The holiday shopping season really already here and Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away. We'll be stuffing stockings soon!

Since I won't be shopping at a certain named store you just read about in my last blog post, I found coupons for our new shopping favorites. I happily located Target deals with great discounts you can use to shop online. A favorite pet store of mine is PetSmart. They have great deals for all the animals, including Buddy and Mocha. Just go to PetSmart deals to see a variety of discounts on purchases and shipping. The kids will enjoy a few more fashion packages under the tree by using Old Navy coupons to help save. Enjoy the savings and have some hot chocolate on me!

Now My Kids Like to Clean Their Room

Whoa, I bet you think I'm lying, don't you? Well, anything can be done with the proper motivation. Our Chore Chart motivator is toys. Without motivation my children are basically slugs when it comes to cleaning. That's why we are starting to use the PAYjr allowance system.

PAYjr, the leading online allowance and chore program for kids, has launched a new partnership with Target. Now, allowances can be loaded directly, electronically, and automatically to a free and reloadable Target Gift Card. The perfect program to teach kids 12 and under how to manage money.

We have set up an online Chore Chart for each child, which was easy to do. When each kid completes an assigned chore, we review it and approve payment which will be allocated to that child's Target Card. We have always found it difficult to keep a regular chore chart going and slipped up with tracking - this solves all the problems and makes rewarding them easier.

The children love Target, and they are looking forward to earning more to pay for their toy purchases.

Grandparents Plan Financial Security for Kids' Holiday Gift

As we countdown to the holiday and plan our gifts for the season, I am asking that everyone, parents and grandparents, other family and more, take a look at a gift of financial security for the kids.

Our children have more toys than they ever play with. We have weeded and tossed, especially with the toy recalls. They still have easily 200 plus items crowding the room. I hate to do the math as to what the dollars "invested" in toys would have added up to put instead into their college fund. Countless thousands. I am not advocating a toyless Christmas, just a more moderate one.

AARP did a survey of grandparents about gift giving. Some of the key findings were that gift giving is mostly tied to key events, like Christmas and birthdays, not a surprise. 83% say they give because it makes them happy. But some answers were revealing about what they might really wish would happen regarding the gifts.

• A small financial gift can grow to huge amounts with the power of compounding. Yet only 22% of respondents have opened a savings or investment account for grandchildren. Those that did were most likely to put money in the lower return accounts, like bank savings accounts.
• On average, grandparents spent a median total of $600 in gifts or cash on all their grandchildren last year.
• Less than one in five (19%) have given money and/or gifts worth $1,000 to a grandchild for a single occasion or at one time.

Just imagine if only a portion of that was invested in a 529 College Savings plan. How much further along would your kids be in college preparation?

Just think about buying one less toy and giving that amount to the college savings plan your family has in place or create one - everyone will thank you later when they are debt free upon graduation.

North Carolina Coupon Site Saves You Money!

At NCNatural's Adventure site they have a wonderful list of national Online Coupons where you can save money on national brands, while supporting a great North Carolina website. You can get money saving coupons for your favorite retailers, like Lillian Vernon and Franklin Covey, two of my favorites for gift giving opportunities.

The are growing, and updating the site everyday to add new offers from hundreds of merchants. This is great way to find money saving deals and to do your Christmas shopping ahead of time and online to save gas money.

It's really easy to find the merchants you love. So take a look and don't pay retail this holiday season!

Learn About Finance and Stocks in a Free and Fun Way

If you enjoy social networking mixed with cutting edge learning about stocks and investing, you'll enjoy using MyWallSt.net. You'll make new friends and enjoy the benefits of having them available to help you make financial decisions, especially stock picks. You can socialize while you increase your knowledge to build your own net worth, plus it's free! You'll trade real stocks with virtual money to learn about stock-picking quickly.

This is the cutting edge way to stay on top of the financial markets, with real time information and discussions. If you are new to investing and stocks, you can improve your learning curve quickly by using the investing tools to try out your stock picking without the risks of using real money. As a mom or a parent, what a great way to build your knowledge in an easy and fun way! It's been a while since I did our family's investing, but you definitely can make some bad mistakes if you don't know what you are doing.

Traditional financial magazines can be dated, so this helps you stay up to the minute on Wall Street news. Go check out all the fun at http://www.mywallst.net/. It's easy to set up a profile and start trying out new investing strategies to grow your family's nest egg today! Get that college fund ready!

Time to Decorate for Fall (and Halloween!)

I know it seems early to get those pumpkins out, but now is the time to order and get some great decorations ready for the cooler weather. Online Discount Mart is offering a chance to get some new and cute Fall and Halloween Yard Art at fantastic prices.

They are also having a really good sale on the end-of-summer yard art and decorative items. It's a really great chance to stock up on everything to make your garden and porch a little nicer for the cooler weather that we all hope is coming!

A cool idea is to pick something up for your child's teacher for decorating the classroom!

Common Home Insurance Mistakes

I found this list of common home insurance coverage mistakes. It's very relevant given the supposed increase in potential hurricanes starting on August 1st. So take a look, Moms and Dads! Don't be crying and scratching your heads when something bad happens! My BIL's house nearly caught fire and burned down last week due to some frayed wiring in the attic. Things can happen! Oh, and check your fire alarms in your home - the batteries were out of theirs cause they had beeped too much!

1: Flooding Not Included
About 33 percent of policy holders still think flood damage is covered by a standard homeowners or property and liability policy, according to the study. To get flood insurance you need to get it through the government. Here's your first move: Go to floodsmart.gov. You'll be able to gauge your risk of flood and get price estimates for your home. If you live in a flood zone, you don't want to be without this coverage.

2: Prevent Mold
34 percent of homeowners think mold damage is covered. But mold, like rot and termite infestation, is generally not covered by a homeowners insurance policy. There is no separate mold policy you can buy. But there are steps you can do to minimize your risk. Keep the humidity level in your home between 30 percent and 60 percent by using air conditioners or dehumidifiers. Put exhaust fans in kitchens and bathrooms. And don't install carpets in damp areas such as basements or bathrooms.

3: Sewer Backups Are Your Responsibility
37 percent of homeowners think damages from a sewer line break on their property that connects to their sewer system are covered. But homeowners are responsible for the maintenance and repair of their house and the pipeline between the city sanitary sewer main, usually located under the street, and the building. The cost for coverage is about $50 a month according to the Insurance Information Institute. Water-starved tree roots may be a big factor in sewer blockage. These tree roots make their way into sewer line cracks and grow over time. So, if you have a lot of trees in your area, you may want to investigate these policies.

4: Get Earthquake Coverage
Just like flooding, Earthquake coverage is not covered under a standard homeowners policy. You can get coverage from private insurance companies. Deductibles can range anywhere from 2 percent to 20 percent of the replacement value of the structure. In California, homeowners can also get coverage from the California Earthquake Authority (CEA), a privately funded, publicly managed organization. Did you know that Charleston, SC had the largest earthquake in the southeastern United States and that it will happen again one day?

5: Cash Value vs. Replacement Cost
We just want to mention one more misconception: the difference between actual cash value and replacement cost. 12 percent of people surveyed didn't know which kind of coverage they had. Remember, actual cash value is the amount it would take to repair or replace damage to a home and its contents AFTER depreciation. Replacement cost is the amount it would take to replace or rebuild a home or repair damages without deducting for depreciation. An actual cash value payout could be thousands of dollars lower than a benefit calculated at the replacement cost according to the NAIC.