We had a good Christmas despite not having much money to spend. Ok...we had NO money to spend. But I did spend some anyway because kids don't understand that. Jason and I got a few nice things too, including an awesome quesadilla maker that is the best thing ever! I tried it out last night and fell in love. It was like at first sight but love at first bite. It makes some darn good quesadillas. I can put just about whatever I want in it as long as I put it in a 10 inch tortilla. That was MY favorite Christmas present!
We also got some grocery gift cards which really helped out on my last shopping trip. I haven't been to the store in a couple of weeks so I really filled my cart. This was the first time in months that Jason kept the baby (Jo is really sick so I insisted he had to stay home). I just had to take one of the others so I took my daughter and dropped her off at the grocery store's tree house (best idea ever). I got to the register and my bill totalled $310 before my card savings. After card savings, the bill totalled $199. Over $100 in savings isn't bad. I had 3 or 4 coupons too which helped make it that low. I used our two $20 gift cards so I only had to pay $159. Cart overflowing, I made it home and crashed on the couch, announcing loudly that I was NOT bringing anything in. I am really sick too. Jason got the hint and brought everything in and even put it away. I helped a little with that. Then I am hungry so I go and raid our newly stocked kitchen only to find that there is NOTHING. Yeah, there is plenty but I didn't get anything I could just grab and eat. Too bad sandwiches don't make themselves. I am not feeling well enough to cook AND eat. Just eat.
I browsed the bills and this is where the exploding head comes in. Car and house payments are due right now: $1000. Gas bill is almost $800. Electric is almost $400. They are both due immediately. Plus the water bill, phone bill, sewer/trash bill and a few others I know my head is avoiding. I practically peed my pants reading our latest gas bill because I know we couldn't have possibly used as much as they are saying we are. Our gas dryer is broken and we don't overuse our heat. Yet the bill shows that we used TWICE as much gas as we did last December. Last December we had a freakin gas dryer. This December we don't, and nothing else has changed. So how on Earth has it doubled? We do qualify for LIHEAP which helps with your gas or electric bill over the winter months if you can't afford it. Unfortunately unemployment still doesn't send paystubs and Jason STILL hasn't called them (he tried one day for 15 minutes but gave up after the busy signal started to drive him nuts) to get a copy of what he is being paid. Every time you try to call unemployment the line is BUSY. Always busy. My mom was trying to get her paystubs from them and spent 5 hours calling them nonstop. FIVE HOURS! She said she just kept hitting re-dial over and over again. And they don't let you request or access info like that online. They should, considering you can't call them. I just want to cry. Can't get the LIHEAP without proof of income but can't get proof of income because the unemployment office is too busy. I wonder if I can tell them that and just send them a copy of our initial statement of what he will make...? Probably not. It's what he makes every week but that would just be too easy for everyone.
I am absolutely not making enough cash online to pay all these outstanding bills.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Make money at Wellness 360
You won't get rich but you will make a few bucks a money just by keeping track of what you eat, watching exercise videos, reading health articles and other easy things. You can sign up for free here: Wellness 360
My favorite way to rack up points is with the food intake tool. You simply enter what you have eaten for the day (or days if you miss a few). If others have entered the same food before then you will be able to make a selection from the list and it will save you the time of entering calories and nutritional info.
Keeping track of your earnings is very simple. You receive points for participating on the site but you can also see how much money you are making when you view your report. I have consistently made about $3 a month but I do not visit the site daily. If you visited every day and utilized all of the tools and articles available you would probably make about $10 a month. When you refer friends you can make even more. They pay quarterly, when you have made $25 or more.
Just as cool as making money, they keep track of your caloric intake so that you can monitor your eating habits. Very helpful if you are on a diet or trying to get/stay healthy. By keeping track I know that I have lost 5 pounds since joining the site and it helps me want to keep working on it!
My favorite way to rack up points is with the food intake tool. You simply enter what you have eaten for the day (or days if you miss a few). If others have entered the same food before then you will be able to make a selection from the list and it will save you the time of entering calories and nutritional info.
Keeping track of your earnings is very simple. You receive points for participating on the site but you can also see how much money you are making when you view your report. I have consistently made about $3 a month but I do not visit the site daily. If you visited every day and utilized all of the tools and articles available you would probably make about $10 a month. When you refer friends you can make even more. They pay quarterly, when you have made $25 or more.
Just as cool as making money, they keep track of your caloric intake so that you can monitor your eating habits. Very helpful if you are on a diet or trying to get/stay healthy. By keeping track I know that I have lost 5 pounds since joining the site and it helps me want to keep working on it!
Bit the Bzz bullet and got the Game Wave system
I am a Bzz Agent and recently was offered a campaign called the Zapit Game Wave Game System. The catch- this one I would have to pay for. $50. I love games so the siren song was powerful.
I bought it! It is my Christmas AND birthday present. I wasn't going to get myself anything and normally I wouldn't spend money on a Bzz campaign but Jason (boyfriend) spent $40 on an Everquest 2 expansion pack without discussing it with anyone first (he said there was no discussion- he was going to buy it no matter what). So I decided that I would try out the Game Wave, a DVD game console by ZAPiT Games. Plus it could be a present for the entire family if everyone ends up liking the games that came with my order.
I signed up for the campaign kind of late (the very beginning of December) so I figured that it would come either right before Christmas or possibly even after. But to my surprise it came super fast. It arrived less than 2 weeks after I placed my $50 order. In addition to the system (which has a suggested retail price of $99, comes with 4 remotes...and includes batteries, matching remote dock, all cables that you will need and one trivia game) I got 2 additional remotes and 4 additional games. The extra games are Rewind- a trivia game, Letter Zap!- a word game that can be played two different ways, Gemz- a color/shape matching game and Click!- a game that is a race to solve a mystery puzzle. The 4 extra games come in dvd sleeves instead of cases. Bad when you have young kids but good if you take it with you a lot.
The system is meant to be a multi-player game. Up to 6 people can play at once. It is a family game system so even kids can play. Right now there are 13 games offered and it says they are all are violence-free. It also doubles as a DVD player. Very cool!
I checked out the website to learn some more info:
http://playgamewave.com/index.cfm
It goes into detail about the games that are available (I hope I can buy Veggie Tales in the future!) and where you can find one in a physical store (looks like it is available a mostly religious stores but there is a map to show exact locations). You can also purchase everything online. You can even try out one of the games on the site. Reviews and other information also available.
Stay tuned to read about my experiences with the Game Wave...!
I bought it! It is my Christmas AND birthday present. I wasn't going to get myself anything and normally I wouldn't spend money on a Bzz campaign but Jason (boyfriend) spent $40 on an Everquest 2 expansion pack without discussing it with anyone first (he said there was no discussion- he was going to buy it no matter what). So I decided that I would try out the Game Wave, a DVD game console by ZAPiT Games. Plus it could be a present for the entire family if everyone ends up liking the games that came with my order.
I signed up for the campaign kind of late (the very beginning of December) so I figured that it would come either right before Christmas or possibly even after. But to my surprise it came super fast. It arrived less than 2 weeks after I placed my $50 order. In addition to the system (which has a suggested retail price of $99, comes with 4 remotes...and includes batteries, matching remote dock, all cables that you will need and one trivia game) I got 2 additional remotes and 4 additional games. The extra games are Rewind- a trivia game, Letter Zap!- a word game that can be played two different ways, Gemz- a color/shape matching game and Click!- a game that is a race to solve a mystery puzzle. The 4 extra games come in dvd sleeves instead of cases. Bad when you have young kids but good if you take it with you a lot.
The system is meant to be a multi-player game. Up to 6 people can play at once. It is a family game system so even kids can play. Right now there are 13 games offered and it says they are all are violence-free. It also doubles as a DVD player. Very cool!
I checked out the website to learn some more info:
http://playgamewave.com/index.cfm
It goes into detail about the games that are available (I hope I can buy Veggie Tales in the future!) and where you can find one in a physical store (looks like it is available a mostly religious stores but there is a map to show exact locations). You can also purchase everything online. You can even try out one of the games on the site. Reviews and other information also available.
Stay tuned to read about my experiences with the Game Wave...!
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