Have you heard of SWAGBUCKS?

I recently learned of SWAGBUCKS from a friend. I had never heard of it until today. So what is SWAGBUCKS you ask? Well from what I understand it is a site that gives you bucks/points that you can redeem for merchandise or gift cards or many other things. Check the site out, it is really neat. Anytime you use a search engine like Google or ASK.com do it on SWAGBUCKS to earn points...it is that easy. You can also promote it on your blog, like I have done and if your readers go through your widget, you get points if they sign up! You can also earn points by referring people to sign up.

In this time of economic difficulties for many of us, trying something like this is a no brainer for me. If I can earn points while doing what I normally do anyway, then redeem those points for free gift cards for say...Amazon, I am doing it! Lord knows we could put those gift cards to good use with my husband being unemployed. Whether it is $10, $20, or $50...every little bit helps. Doesn't it?

So, I encourage you the check out SWAGBUCKS, you have nothing to lose but much to gain! And if you click on the ad on the right I will get referral points...just sayin' if you decide to register.

Sorry for being MIA.

It has been a difficult few weeks in my home. For one, MY laptop died!!! It was working one minute and the next it was gone. As it was we were down to two computers in the house, mine and my teenage daughter's. Her's was on its last leg and today, her laptop died. I tell ya these things don't last much longer than two years it seems. So sad! Naturally she is feeling lost now that her 'best friend' is gone. And this just one day after we were up and running with a refurbished desktop computer we were blessed with by a family member. Now we are down to one computer, again...sigh.

Adding to the computer crisis, four of my children have been sick for the last 11 days. I suspect it is the 'swine flu', albeit very mild. I don't mind so much if it is the H1N1 flu. I'd rather we all get it now while it is mild because it may mutate to a stronger virus this flu season. I don't plan on any of us getting the vaccine, I don't agree with vaccines, but that is a whole other topic.

I hope to be getting back to blogging soon. Just trying to figure this whole computer situation out. And soon because school starts in September and two of my kids that I homeschool do their math online. It really is an excellent program and one I don't want to discontinue. If you are intersted here is the website... ALEKS math.

Until next time,

Michelle

Bulk Cooking Weekend - Monthly Plan

Today I will be baking 10 dozen muffins (6 dozen apple and 4 dozen blueberry) and 6 dozen biscuits. These are great to bake and freeze because you can pull out 1-2 muffins/biscuits, pop them into the microwave for 20 seconds and they come out hot and fresh. YUM!

You will find all my muffin recipes and biscuit recipe on my cooking blog...Cookin' Cheap.

Tomorrow I will be making triple batches of black bean soup, taco soup, beef stew and chicken noodle (I will not add the noodles until the day we will eat it). I will place the soups/stew in ziploc freezer bags, lay them flat on one another and into the freezer they go!

I will also be preparing 6 pounds of taco meat (half ground beef and half ground turkey) and 10 dozen meatballs.


Have a lovely weekend all!

Adding to this months 'plan'...

I wanted to stop in briefly to add to my 'plan' for July. At the moment my parents are visiting for the week so I won't have the time to blog daily but I did want to add that we are going to be building a small chicken coop. To house about 7-10 chickens. We had built an 8x12 coop to house 27 chicks we had bought. Unfortunately we had to sell them because we didn't know if we would be staying in our home or not. Plus we needed the money. We still don't know, but I have to tell you...we miss those chickens somethin' awful! So, we are going to build a small coop with some left-over scraps of material we had from the last coop. I think my husband will be successful, he is a great coop builder!

The next thing we would need to do is buy some chickens. Not sure how we will get money for that just yet, but I am praying about it.

Enjoy the week and I will post again on Friday (my parents leave that day) about my bulk cooking weekend!!!

July 1st...plan for the month.

It is a new month and I thought I would share my plan (which is still a work in progress) for the month with all of you. I do believe it is helpful to see what others are doing to make ends meet, which can be inspiring. I hope by posting this it will get your creative juices flowing!

1. Make monthly menu

2. Try to save $100.00 worth of food for our emergency preparedness pantry.

3. Plan out my bulk cooking weekend for July 11 & 12.

4. Continue selling items in attempt to get our utility bills current (especially before winter comes again)

5. Figure out how to school our three kids in the fall...borrow/purchase curriculum.

A given...KEEP TRYING TO GET A JOB!


This is just a start. I will add to this as the month goes on.

Blessings,