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Have you been shopping online? We know many of you have – and we want to be sure you know about Ebates, the free online website that pays you cash back for shopping at thousands of places. It’s so easy!
We use Ebates all the time and as an example, look at the cash back we earned from our Kohl’s order on 11/21/12:
This is in addition to any savings I received from Kohl’s and Finish Line directly!
Go here to sign up for your free Ebates account.
Then, each time you shop start at Ebates and type in the store in their search box. It will bring up a screen that you click on and they automatically take you to the website you entered. Magically and behind the scenes Ebates tracks your purchase and records your cash back bonus. You do not have to do anything!
Ebates sends your cash back bonus out every 3 months. You do have to have a balance of at least $5.01 to receive a payment but if you do not it just carries over to the next pay period.
This program ROCKS and it is a great way to save money.
It is 5/10/13 and that means it is time for our weekly reminder for those of you participating in the 52 Week Saving Challenge. It is time to make your week 19 deposit.
If you don’t know about the 52 week Saving Challenge we told you about here, check it out and join the fun!
It is time to make your week 19 deposit. The amount for week 19 is $19.00, or $34 if you decided to work backwards.
Remember, at the end of the year all participants will end up with $1378 in their savings accounts!
It is not too late to get started! You could start this week and make a $190 deposit and you’d be right on track!
We’ve told you before how we like to save money on gas, and we know it is a hot topic for many of you. Kroger shoppers are lucky enough to earn Fuel Points for the purchases they make in the store. Those points can be redeemed for savings off of gas.
For example, 100 fuel points = $0.10 off per gallon of gas
There are so many retailers to pick from, and you can buy gift cards at Kroger or buy them online here.
Right now you can earn 4X the fuel points on some gift cards, and 2X the fuel points on all others (except Kroger gift cards).
It really is worth the effort to think ahead and see if there is something you will be buying that you could pay for with a gift card and earn fuel points.
Jim did just that this week on a large home improvement project he was starting. He knew he would be spending at least $400 in supplies at Home Depot so he stopped to Kroger first and bought $400 worth of Home Depot gift cards. This earned us 800 fuel points, which is equal to $0.80 off per gallon of gas (up to a maximum of 35 gallons). That is a savings of $28!
Here are some other suggestions for gift card uses:
We are already 1/3 of the way to our year end goal of having $1378 saved!! Be proud of yourself for your accomplishment this far – you are doing it!
If you don’t know about the 52 week Saving Challenge we told you about here, check it out and join the fun!
It is time to make your week 18 deposit. The amount for week 18 is $18.00, or $35 if you decided to work backwards.
Remember, at the end of the year all participants will end up with $1378 in their savings accounts!
It is not too late to get started! You could start this week and make a $171 deposit and you’d be right on track!
Join Nielsen Home Scan Consumer Panel and you can earn valuable points, which are redeemable for electronics, household items, jewelry, toy, gift cards, and more. The cool thing is that there is no landline phone line required with this Homescan signup.
The National Consumer Panel focuses on measuring consumer attitudes and behavior. The panel is made up of people just like you, whose opinions help manufacturers and retailers make decisions on what products to develop or improve. It is a chance to make a difference in the consumer marketplace.
It is FREE to join, so check it out for yourself here.
It was the first weekend of really lovely weather here in Michigan and we were very happy to spend some time outside in the yard. One of the projects we have underway is expanding one of our flower gardens. We are tripling the size of one of our gardens and are super excited! When we bought our house it was a dream to one day have many lush flower gardens and this gets us one step closer!
One of the projects we wanted to add to the new garden area was a walkway. We knew we wanted it rustic, because that is our style. We are not one to use factory produced pavers – we prefer natural elements or repurposed items in our gardens. Jim has a large stash of wood pallets that he uses on various projects so we decided to use the pallet wood for a garden walkway.
The pathway we wanted to create was about 18 feet long and we used 3 pallets to create it. The cost for the 3 pallets? Nothing. Zip. Zero. Free.
Here are the steps if you want to try this freebie for yourself.
Lay your pallet on the ground and using a circular saw cut the wood slats up the center. You will need to make a cut on each side of the center piece of wood. This will give you slats that are about 20″ long (give or take, depending on the size of your pallet).
You do not need to measure, and in our opinion the more beat up the wood the better. You can use whatever condition of pallets you want; we wanted to keep nail holes and even some nails in place to give it that aged charm.
Once you make the cut, use your hands to pry up the wood from the pallet frame. You may need a pry bar or hammer to do this. Alternatively you could use the circular saw to cut this side as well.
Once you have all the pieces cut, you are ready to tackle the garden!
We decided where we wanted the path to go, and marked the shape on the dirt so that we would stay on track as we began to lay down the wood.
Then we used a hoe and a small garden shovel to level the dirt. We started at the beginning (by the rocks) and slightly dug out the dirt the size of the wood slat. We did not want the wood sunk way down in the dirt; we wanted them to be mostly level with the ground. Because of this you need to dig out some of the ground to make room for the wood.
Once you lay the first piece you simply continue along your pathway, moving the dirt as needed to lay the wooden pieces. We mixed the different sizes of wood slats and made the edge random, for a more relaxed feel. That is our style!
This is really a simple project and it is perfect for adding charm and a casual feel to your garden. Now we are hoping for a nice rain that we know will help tamp down the dirt and set the wood slats in place.
Here is the finished project:
We love how it turned out!
PS: Wondering what is under the tarp? It’s a large metal trough that Jim rescued from the trash and sunk in the ground. It is going to be a new water fountain for this garden!
Total cost of this project: Zero
(And just a couple of hours of sweat equity).
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Read more at http://diyshowoff.com/2013/04/28/that-diy-party-1-2/#Jaq42At3ihmaRZqM.99
Can you believe how fast this month went?
Have you joined us on the 52 week Saving Challenge we told you about here? If so, this is a reminder to make your week 17 deposit. The amount for week 17 is $17.00, or $36 if you decided to work backwards.
Remember, at the end of the year all participants will end up with $1378 in their savings accounts!
It is not too late to get started! You could start this week and make a $153 deposit and you’d be right on track!
