Okay guys, I try to not really post a lot about workshops they are really just there if you need/want them. But we had a ton of requests in the Jacksonville area after the first class filled up… so another “Jenn” stepped up and found a location for a workshop next Tuesday night, 4/6, in the Mandarin area of Jacksonville (I have really no earthly idea where that is or what that means but maybe you do). For more details or details on other classes head over here.
I am a pretty laid back go with the flow kinda person but this is probably the shortest notice I’ve ever given on a class and I want to make sure everyone at least has the chance to know about it.
Now I’m off to sleep for the next three days to get ready for this long road trip/spring break!
(Not really I gotta get CVS done :) )
Oh, yeah one other thing Tallahassee folks we would still love to have you join our March of Dimes team!!
Walgreens doesn’t have an amazing reputation for good customer service. It’s sad but very true. However, there is one store that has won me over! If I could, I would drive to Batesburg SC to do all my shopping!
Thanks for making us feel welcome Walgreens!
(thanks Heather for the picture!)
I need your help…
I was contacted a while back by the March of Dimes to see if I could help sponsor a team in a local March for Babies. I checked their calendar and mine and noticed that the one day that lined up was when we are going to be in Tallahassee Florida.
If you are in the Tallahassee FL. area and up for fun on Saturday April 10th, I would love to have you join us at Cascades Park. Registration starts at 9 am and the walk starts at 10.
You don’t have to raise anything to walk with us, just head over here and join our team. If you come out and join us I promise a fun time and I promise fun prizes. Yep I’ll bribe you to join me!
Can’t Join us??
For those you that can’t join us, I would love for you to donate even just $5 (only if you can).
My passion for March of Dimes is from a past need. Many of you know that I am a mother of twins, our story is too long to share every detail but truly my twin girls would not be here today if it weren’t for Sovereign Grace and for the work, support and research done by March of Dimes.
This is our middle child, E. born at 3 lbs and her very dedicated dad working to get her out of the NICU.
The following is a guest post from Koupon Karen. This is the second post in a series.
I have more information about taking surveys and earning money and I want to thank Jenny for letting me share more with her readers. The last time I explained the process of signing up for surveys and a few do’s and dont’s. I hope no one had any troubles getting started and have already started earning money. If you haven’t, that’s OK it may take a little while. Just make sure you filed out the profile or the first survey. Sometimes that takes place of the profile.
One thing I’ve told my readers is taking surveys can be a great way to pay for your Holiday gifts. You don’t have to cash out when you meet the minimum. You can keep the money there and then in August or September start cashing out so you’ll have your cash and gift cards to make holiday purchases. It’s possible you will have enough to cover it all and then buy yourself something too!
Another good thing about taking surveys is sometimes you may get products to test! That’s a really fun part. One time I was sent 6 boxes of tissue. I had to use 1 box each week and take a 5 minute survey each time. Buy the end of the review, I had only put in about 30 minutes of work. I didn’t count using the tissues as work because I just use then as I normally did every day. So in the end I got 6 FREE boxes of tissues and then was paid $50.00 for doing the product review!! How sweet is that.
I’ve product tested diapers, wipes, food, frozen snacks and so much more. You never know what you might get. You also never know when there will be a product test at the end of a survey so make sure you take as many as you can. Even if they don’t pay, they may pay off in the end.
Now it’s great taking surveys and making money, but my favorite reason for taking surveys is knowing that I was able to give my honest opinion on either an existing product or service, one that they are developing or one they feel they need to change. They need our opinions. That’s why even if the survey isn’t going to pay me, if I have the time I still try to take them. Of course if I have a $20.00 survey sitting in my inbox, sorry but I’m going to do that one first!
Someone mentioned in the comments from the last post that they were invited to be part of a $140 Focus Group once That can happen too!! Wouldn’t that be great! $140 for giving your opinion. Perfect!! Another person mentioned that she does two surveys per month for one company that pays $3.00 per survey. That ads up to $72 for the year, not bad either! Those surveys probably averaged about 20 minutes each.
Last time I reviewed My Survey and Survey Spot. This week I have 3 more to tell you about.
- ePoll – ePoll is another good one but I don’t receive many invites from them. I get about 2 a month. Most of them are paid. I just looked in my account and one survey I’ve taken was for a drawing. I still don’t mind because the surveys are pretty good. Now that’s me, you could be different. It all depends on your profile. Always make sure you update it. You earn points for each survey and they average about 500 points per survey. 3500 points will get you a $5.00 gift card.
- SayNation! – I’ve been finding a lot of people don’t know about SayNation! I don’t know how I found them but I joined SayNation! about a year and a half ago. I receive a LOT of survey invites each week. Sometimes a few a day. Of course I don’t qualify for them all but some weeks I do qualify for about 4-6 if not more. Again it depends on how much time I have to take the surveys. You earn points for each survey completed and even the ‘screener’ surveys will yield you a few points. You can cash them in for paypal, gift cards or prizes. It does take 4 -6 weeks to receive your prize but I always get it! I prefer Paypal or Walmart.com but they have a lot of choices. I’ve contacted them a few times and the customer service is slow, but good. Their surveys average about 1000 points and 12,000 points will get you a $10 Barnes & Noble gift card, just to give you an idea. Now when you join SayNation! you must take the first survey, this is your profile survey and you’ll earn 250 points for doing it. There may also be a few more surveys waiting for you right away in your account. They will email you when there is a new survey or it will be listed in your account. I have found that sometimes I get an email, but it’s not in my account so check both places.
- Survey Savvy – I really like Survey Savvy too. I get about 3-5 invites some weeks and I seem to qualify for a lot of them. But what I like about Survey Savvy is they have, from time to time, higher paying surveys. I’ll take a $10.00 survey any day that’s for sure! Of course you can’t expect to always get something that high but I’ve had really good luck with them. They will send you emails when there is a survey available or you can look in your account. They pay cash and once you reach $10.00 you can request a check. I’ve never had a problem getting paid by them. I believe I’ve done product testing with Survey Savvy as well. It’s hard to remember who sent me what.
I’ll be back again with more! Hope your enjoying these reviews. I’ve enjoyed sharing my experience with you all.
Disclosure: This is my honest opinion of these companies. My words are my own and I have not been compensated by these companies to say anything about them. However when you join some of them, it does helps support my blog.
Many of you found out that yesterday was my birthday. I opened my email late yesterday afternoon to so many notes and comments, it was wonderful! I wanted to share the day in a special way with you but decided that I also wanted to just enjoy a nice quiet Sunday… so… lets have fun now!
Throughout this week we will have lots of giveaways and by the end of the week we will have 30 winners. I will announce the winners each day when I post the next giveaway.
To get us started:
Win an Amazon $50 gift card! – 5 Winners
To enter:
- Leave a comment with your favorite Southern Savers store to shop at.
- Follow on Twitter and share a recent store savings
(include this link so your tweet will show up: http://ow.ly/1laec ) - Follow on Facebook and leave a second comment that you do.
Total you will get 3 chances if you do each one!
There are lots of coupons that are sent directly from stores or manufacturers to our homes. I know it can be frustrating to see these listed and not have them, so here are a few tips of how to increase your mailbox coupon stash.
Sign up for online samples. Many samples also come with coupons, and these companies keep your name for possible future mailings and offers. A few of you got the “Thank You Mom” home mailer from Procter & Gamble in the last few weeks. While I don’t know exactly what triggered some of us to get this, it is probably because you asked for samples and coupons from their BrandSaver program.
Sign up for Viral Media Sample sites. They want folks who will help spread the word about the brands they are representing. Most have requirements they are looking for so you may not qualify but if you do they send awesome samples and coupons!
Sign up for e-mail newsletters from manufacturers that you are loyal to. You will get offers and special promotions. This is through a contact form on many websites.
Go to your Grocers Website and sign up for an online account.
This is something most stores offer now. Get a My Bi-Lo, My Kroger, My CVS etc… account. This is a free online account and a great way to make sure that your shoppers card has the right mailing and contact information for you. They will use your shopping history from your card to send coupons so make sure they have the right address!
Some “Home Mailers” are really internet freebie coupon booklets. Sign up for these when you see them.
- Home Made Simple (all P&G products) – click on the cascade coupons
- Home Made Simple – click on the Dawn coupon at the bottom
- There are $10 General Mills booklets available on Coupons.com right now.
I’ve had a lot of emails lately asking for advice on online surveys and if they really work. So I thought we would turn to an expert. The following is a guest post from Karen from KouponKaren. This is the first of a series of posts as she fills us in on what works and what doesn’t!
I know everyone could use some extra cash. You’ve probably heard about how you can make money online taking surveys. And you wonder is this really possible, right? Well I’m going to explain to you how you can earn money taking surveys online but you need to be careful too. The last thing you want is to fill up your inbox with SPAM.
I’ve done the research, I’ve joined the companies and I’ve earned some money. Now I’m going to tell you about them, but first I want to give you a few pointers before you start signing up with Survey companies.
- Never pay to join a survey company or to get a list of survey companies. All this information is free online.
- Open a separate email account just for surveys. Not because you’ll get SPAM, but this way all the survey invites are in one place and when you have time to take some surveys you’ll be able to sort through them more easily. You can get free email address’s from yahoo, gmail, hotmail and aol.
- Please do not expect to get rich by taking surveys. This is simply a way to earn some extra cash. The more time you have the more potential you’ll have to earn.
When you first sign up you’ll need to fill out a profile. This is very important because they will use this information to help match you with surveys. Some companies will ask about other members in your household as well. Again, this will help taylor those surveys to you. If you have babies, they’ll send you surveys about babies/baby products and the such. If you have pets, they’ll send you surveys about pets. You get the idea. Of course you can choose to leave your family information out. You also want to update your profile from time to time as things change in your life.
In the profile, you’ll need to give them information about you like where you live, your birthday, place of business and things like that. Also if you happen to earn a lot with any one company they will require you to give them your social security number for tax purposes. At that point there’s no way around it, but until then they don’t need it. But be prepared to give them a lot of information about you, the more information you give the better the programs can work. Some of it will be required and some will be optional.
Once you join and set up your profile you’ll begin to receive emails when they have a survey that possibly matches with you. Now I say possibly because what you’ll receive is what I like to call a ‘screener’ email. The screener will ask you more detailed questions to see if you match that particular survey. Now don’t get discouraged if you don’t qualify for them. Most of the time it just may be they’ve already filled their quota with survey takers that are your age, or female or that live in your state. It’s hard to know. Sometimes these screener’s will be quick and sometimes they’ll take a little longer. Some companies will give you credit just for taking the screener survey either with points or an entry into a sweepstakes. I’ll explain what companies do what as I talk about them.
What can you earn with survey companies? You can earn cash, gift cards, prizes or entries into big drawings. Each company does their own thing. I personally like to get the cash or gift cards!
Personally I’ve earned a nice amount of cash taking surveys. It does vary per month because I don’t always have time to take the surveys that are sent to me. As I’ve become busier with my blog I’ve had to put them aside. Most surveys average out to about 20 minutes and pay on average $2.00 a survey. I’ve had months where I’ve made about $100 or more. That’s taking about 3-5 surveys a day, of course I don’t qualify for all of them. While your sitting watching TV you can breeze through a few.
Those are the basics you need to know to get started but I’d be more than happy to answer any specific questions. You can leave a comment here, email Jenny or go to my site and contact me through there. I will read the comments on this post for those of you that have questions.
To get you started, here are 2 of my favorite survey companies and what I think about them.
- My Survey – I love My Survey. They are well organized, the screener surveys are usually quick and I feel they reward you appropriately. You earn points when taking surveys and the points can then be cashed in for cash (in the form of a check) or prizes. I’ve always requested a check and usually get it within a few weeks. 100 points equals $1.00 and you can cash in when you have 1000 points or $10.00. When you don’t qualify for a survey you’ll get 5 points. It’s not much but it can add up quick. I like their website, it’s very easy to navigate which is always a plus. I’ve never had any problems so I haven’t contacted customer service so I don’t know how good that is. I’ve been a member with My Survey for about 4 years now and love it. Once you join you can also refer your friends and earn 150 points when they join. They will send you an email when there is a survey available or you can check your account.
- Survey Spot – This was the first survey company I joined way back when. Survey Spot will send you a lot of emails for surveys, which is nice. But they don’t pay cash for all surveys. A lot of them will be for entries into drawings. But I did find that once I started taking a lot of them, then I received more surveys that were for cash. They probably want to see who is going to actually take them before they send the cash ones. I have read on message boards about people that do win the sweepstakes so they really do pick winners. The thing with Survey Spot is, if you stop taking the screener surveys, they will stop sending them to you. That happens to me every now and then when I just get to busy to take surveys but once you log into your account, they start to come again. If not you can contact customer service and they will help you out.
Using a Buy Price List
I posted this a year ago yesterday, but after seeing the video below I thought maybe it was time to re-feature this helpful tool.
One of the biggest parts to saving on groceries is to know what a stock up price is for the products you buy. Prices for each item will vary week by week at the grocery store, and your goal is to only buy them when they are the lowest price the store is going to offer them at. To do this it helps to have a lowest price list (on paper or in your head). When an item is in the price range or lower then you stock up on it!! Sales run on cycles so you won’t see this low price again for 6-8 weeks, get enough to get you through until the next time you see this price.
To help you, here is my Buy Price List.
The prices are after coupons and sales, and are for my area. You may find that milk is much cheaper in your city or other items are more expensive. You will also find that sometimes a deal comes and makes these prices seem like retail prices. Those deals are great, but you should not plan your list off the occasional incredible deal or else you won’t buy anything for long periods of time, waiting for only the free deals…
To make your own list you can use this Blank Version. For a long time, until I had prices in my head, I kept this sheet in the front of my coupon binder, or folded up in the back of my coupon box.
Note: Your prices will fluctuate as manufacturer’s raise prices or as new coupons come out. This just give you an idea to go buy.
Many of you have already noticed and tried your hand at the new comment platform. We have had this in the plans for a while and I’m so excited to have it started. There are still a few kinks to work out… like getting all of the old comments pulled over but we are working on it!
I know change is tough for some but I want you to see the awesome features that made me scream “I WANT THAT!”
The biggest feature for me is Comment Sorting:
If someone has a deal to add or you find another coupon, leave a comment. Then others can click the “Like” button. Now any comments that are liked by others can quickly be seen by sorting by “Best Rating” . Now at the end of the week when Publix has 500 comments and you have 10 minutes you won’t have to spend too much time to quickly see extra deals to grab!!
You can share your deal in other places:
If you found a freebie at CVS and want to share it now you can leave a comment on Southern Savers, Facebook and Twitter all at the same time!
Other Features are just small little things that all add up.
If you ever have suggestions or comments please share. I’ll always listen to anything that can make Southern Savers more helpful.