We learned through the news in October that health insurance premiums were going up by 20 percent on average in 2017. I overheard a lot of people complaining, and even worrying about their premiums and deductibles going up last year and the year before, which makes this blog a long time coming. 

Let me start by saying Shane and I have never purchased health insurance from the major providers here in the south (Bluecross Blueshield or United), nor have we ever been able to afford it! Neither of us in the last 9 years of marriage have been able to score a job that provided healthcare either. However, we have had health coverage from an alternative place for the last 6 years and it's only cost us $90 a month combined. 

I got a quote for fun from Blue Cross Blue Shield a couple of years ago, but their website has since gotten too complicated to try and get one now. BUT in 2012 or 2013, I could get individual coverage for about $400 a month with a ridiculously high deductible. 

I did a little research, and based on our family income, we would be paying about $300 a month per person for heath insurance under the Affordable Care Act. For that cost, I think we'd be better off paying for all medical expenses in cash... especially when you consider that most doctors and hospitals charge cash patients significantly less than those with insurance. 

Shane and I have been proud members of CHM since we discovered them, and were excited when CHM was given the approval of continuing to provide their health coverage through ObamaCare. (In other words, if you have CHM, you will not be penalized for not having health insurance!) Our family has the Bronze plan: We each pay $45 a month (Josiah has medicaid). If there is a medical emergency, we pay a $5000 deductible (it's the highest deductible on CHM's plans, since the bronze level is the cheapest), and CHM covers 100% of the medical bill after our deductible is paid. To put that into perspective, the best Blue Cross Blue Shield plans only cover 80% of your medical bills after your deductible!

The only "downside" to CHM is doctor's visits (annual check ups) not related to an illness or pregnancy are not covered. I don't consider that a downside at all though; Since I am a cash patient for my annual check ups, I only pay $100 for my annual visits. BCBS wants me to pay $4800 a year for my health coverage, plus at least a $20 copay for doctor's visits. If you take the monthly amount of $45 I pay CHM for my plan and combine it to my annual doctor's visit fee, I'm still paying $4,180 less a year for my health coverage. Oh the things I could do with that extra $4180! For starters, there's most of my deductible for an unforeseeable emergency visit to the hospital!

So if you are gong to suffer from the health insurance premium increase in 2017, or if you are already struggling to pay for health insurance, here is your hope! As an added bonus, if you refer a friend to CHM, you get a free month of health coverage! 

​Bring on 2017! 

Happy Summer! It's my absolute favorite season. Kids are out of school and families are having fun together playing at the pool, exploring local entertainment, and best of all, going on vacations. But for those who work with kids for a living, Summer can be hardest time of year financially for all the reasons listed above: most of our customers are busy and out of town. Ever since Shane began teaching music lessons a decade ago, our Summers have been filled with lots of free time accompanied by boredom. 

Well this year I finally figured out how we could go on some vacations by not breaking the bank or borrowing money we don't have. Actually, I figured out how to go on 3 different vacations, 12 nights combined, for practically FREE!

Here's what I did...  

I think it was about $800 worth of free hotel stays. I became a Hilton Hhonors member years ago after falling in love Embassy Suites. (Hilton owns Embassy Suites, Double Tree, and Hampton Inn. Hotels you can find in pretty much every city or town in the US. Embassy Suites and Hampton Inn serve free hot breakfasts during your stay, and Double Tree gives you delicious cookies when you check in.) Staying at Hilton owned hotels can cost anywhere between $100 to $300 a night depending on location, but as an Hhonors member, I was able to build up points during my stays towards 1 free night. I scored the other 4 free nights by churning Hhonors credit cards. (See next point for more on churning.) We spent 3 of those free nights in Destin over Spring Break in March, and Shane and I took the other 2 nights for a mini getaway at a Hampton Inn in Atlanta. 

Credit Card churning is a game. If I don't pay my bill on time or buy more than I can pay off immediately, I lose. But if I use a credit card to buy things I was intending on buying with money in my bank account, I win and sometimes win big. At the end of last year I opened up a travel rewards credit card. I will not tell you which one, but you can find a good list of rewards offers, pros and cons to each card here. Since we pay our bills 5 to 6 months in advance, I paid enough bills with the travel card to meet my spending requirements and receive a $400 bonus in free travel rewards. Actually this card also gave me 2% back on ALL purchases I made, so I received an additional $200, totaling $600 in travel rewards. Those rewards paid for Shane and my 5 day park tickets to Walt Disney World (Children 3 and under are free at Disney so we didn't have to buy tickets for Josiah). Then I opened a cash rewards credit card, met the spending requirements by using it to pay for more bills and basic necessities, and received a whopping $500 in rewards. This covered most of our food in Disney.

(If you would like to know more about credit card churning, please read this blog by Mr Money Mustache. Like I said earlier, it's a game, and also a job. I have spreadsheets I keep track of and I have to stay organized in order to benefit from churning. I'd be happy to show you my spreadsheets and method through email or over coffee.) 

I need you to know we didn't try to be frugal, or hold back on fun because we were "trying to save money." Before the trip Shane and I agreed we would not talk about or worry about money while on vacation because it brings stress and makes vacationing less fun. We are, however, minimalists or at least trying to be. Minimalists only buy or take what adds value to their life and deny anything that causes unnecessary stress or is worthless. 

When eating out, we discovered most restaurants serve way more food than one person needs or can possibly eat in one setting. I learned in Disney World to not ask the server, "How many servings is this?" But instead, "How big is this?" Sometimes Shane and I would split a meal and get Josiah a kids meal, and other times a single meal was big enough to split 3 ways! Oh and believe me, we never went hungry! We ate at the best, most expensive restaurants. When we were planning our trip, we studied reviews of past customers before deciding where we ate, so we knew we would enjoy each and every meal. 

We also minimalized our thinking with souvenirs. I bought a mug I really liked and used it every morning I drank coffee in the hotel room. We allowed Josiah to have a Stitch doll he oddly fell in love with. We never went into souvenir shops with the purpose of buying souvenirs; We only bought what we absolutely loved. 

(BTW, if you are planning a trip to Disney, you need to know the Dining Plans are MORE expensive than paying for your meals individually... unless you plan on eating a filet mignon 3 times a day. There are blogs out there of the best restaurants to eat in Disney, but among our favorites were Via Napoli (Epcot), Le Cellier (Epcot), Seasons (quick service, Epcot), Pinocchio's Village Haus (quick service, Magic Kingdom), and Flame Tree BBQ (quick service, Animal Kingdom). We also LOVED T-Rex in Disney Springs, and the Spirit of Aloha dinner show at the Polynesian Resort.  

As a family of 3, we spent $1,700 total for our 7 day trip to Disney, including flights, hotel stay, tickets, food, AND souvenirs. If it weren't for the churning and minimalist thinking, we would have spent closer to $3000! We ate at the best restaurants, and never skimped on fun. I could have done Disney World for a lot cheaper or even free by staying in a Hilton hotel rather than a Disney resort, but staying on site in Disney was worth it for the experience, as well as the complimentary Disney shuttles to and from the airport and all the parks. Some things are just worth spending money on.

(In case you were wondering, we stayed at the Port Orleans- Riverside. It's one of the moderately priced Disney hotels, but so underrated! We spent a whole day just exploring and enjoying our resort.) 

As for our trips to the beach and Atlanta, they only cost us a tank of gas and food. The beach was free, and for entertainment in Atlanta, Shane and I went to a Braves game. The game was $100, paid for with my Birthday money. Other than that we shopped and ate. 

I've heard it said people can do whatever they want if they want it bad enough. Vacationing is definitely that for my family. My new goal is to get to either Alaska or Hawaii or free in 2017.

Now, go and find ways to add more value to your life! 

There's a popular decor trend going on right now known as "rustic industrial." It involves lamps made out of metal spheres, up-cycled wood projects, and farmhouse tables. I've looked at enough Pinterest diys and watched enough episodes of "Fixer Upper" to declare myself completely, madly in love with this theme. But I didn't own a farmhouse table or metal sphere lamps, and I can't just go to Anthropologie and buy a $1,000 farmhouse table. A few months ago I found free woodworking plans to build a knock off version of a beautiful Anthropologie farmhouse table. I convinced the hubs that though he could not cut in a straight line, he could learn. We could do this. And guess what happened? We did!

The original plans are for an 8 foot table, but to fit in our dining area we modified it to be 6 feet long. 

We invested in a miter saw, a better drill, and a kreg jig. I didn't understand what a kreg jig was but all the woodworking websites said they were worth the buy, so I picked one up. Then hubs and I went out to get the wood and poly coating. I already had a dark stain I liked in the closet from when we had previously redone a $30 dresser we found at the thrift store. 

I should note that though Shane and I have painted and distressed furniture in the past, this was the first time we had ever actually built something. As a Facebook reader had commented, "More like 'Taking on Extraordinary.'" Ha!

I measured out the cuts we needed and Shane cut the wood. Then he did angle cuts. I will admit here that we ended up mis-measuring/mis-cutting a few pieces so we had to make two extra trips to Home Depot for more wood. Shane joked about how the next time we go in, they're just going to greet us by name. Luckily, we just had to replace a couple of 2 x 4s, which were only $2 each. 

After the cuts were done and sanded, it was time to assemble! Don't be deceived though, assembling was a little tricky! We had to make sure everything lined up correctly, and it required one of us holding things down while the other screwed everything in. Tricky, but still fun.  

The next day I re-sanded the table to get it smooth enough for my liking, then stained the whole thing. I let the stain dry for a day, then applied the poly. 

The day the table was officially done, I was able to sell our old dining table and chairs for $300 in order to make room for our new one! 

The total cost of wood supplies, sand paper, poly, and screws was $118. We will be building a bench for one side (I'll update you on that soon!), but in the meantime I found these chairs on clearance at Target that I thought would go well. I bought 4 of them for $189. That brings my total of supplies for the table up to $307. If you subtract out the sale of the old table from the cost of supplies and chairs for the new one, I was able to get this beautiful farmhouse dining set for $7! (Still waiting on those chairs to come in. I'll show you pics when they do!)

Do you like it? We're going to build a similar one now to put outside, and are open to building more for our friends and family! Maybe we'll start a furniture side business... :)

​There are 5 different places I'm pulling in extra income for the holidays. Here they are...

I've talked about this previously here, but there are apps you can download on your phone that will pay you for taking pictures of your receipts! For everyday spending, I use ReceiptPal and ReceiptHog. Right now I am liking ReceiptPal more because they credit me per receipt submission, and they except receipts from any and all purchases. I have already racked up enough in the last month for a $5 gift card. ReceiptHog on the other hand, gives me points based on how much I spend and does not accept gas or restaurant receipts. If I was a bigger spender I'd make more through ReceiptHog, but I'm a "just buy the necessities" kind of person. Either way, it's worth keeping both on my phone because if I'm going to take a picture of a receipt, it takes 3 more seconds to submit it into two apps instead of one. 

There are also apps that pay for grocery receipts. The two I use are Ibotta and Checkout51. I have already gotten paid $10 through Ibotta and have almost $5 sitting in my account. I have over $7 sitting in my Checkout51 account. 

Total made in receipt apps to date: In the last three months that I have downloaded and used all 4 of these receipt apps, I have made about $27. All I had to do was take pictures of my receipts! 

I discovered Perk Points in the beginning of October when I started actively searching for ways to make extra $$ for Christmas. I have earned $10 a week since I opened my perk account and most of it is passive income. I earn points by streaming their "Perk TV" videos on my phone. I let videos steam all day (and most of the night) on my phone, only occasionally checking a box that asks if I'm still watching. I also will get on and do the "Perk Scratch off" stuff when I'm watching TV. I have to be more active with earning points doing the scratch offs, but I typically rack up 500 perk points while watching a tv show every day. 

Total Perk Points to date: I have redeemed $35 of perk points in Amazon gift cards thus far. 

I learned about about this one in the beginning of October. Ebates pays you for pretty much all your online purchases. I opened an account and bought my son's Fall/Winter clothing through The Children's Place. Ebates automatically sent me $2 via Paypal when they were notified of my purchase! I also recieved a $10 Target gift card for opening an Ebates account and spending more than $25! If you buy ANYTHING online, you should definitely have an Ebates account. Don't forget about those hotel bookings when you travel for the holidays! I booked a hotel reservation via Expedia.com through ebates for 10% cash back! 

Total made in Ebates to date: I have shopped 2 more times online through Ebates since The Children's Place and booked a hotel for $120, redeeming $12 back. Between the shopping, hotel booking, and Target gift card, I have made $26. 

Cash Crate is my new Swagbucks. (Is it me, or has Swagbucks made it rediculously hard and extra tedious to earn points for gift cards?!) With Cash Crate, I get paid actual money for taking online surveys. I opened an account with Cash Crate two weekends ago and have already earned $22! I take one survey a day and "check in" for an extra 3 cents.  
(Note: The earnings posted on the banner above are my actual earnings to date!)

Total Made to date from Cash Crate: $22.

Credit card churning is basically taking advantage of the rewards and sign up bonuses credit card companies offer for opening and spending on those accounts with them. Everything from gas and airline miles, to cash back for every day purchases. It is like a game and it is not for everyone. If you buy what you cannot pay for, credit card companies will win and you will get hurt. The only way to effectively win and make it worth it is to actively seek the best bonuses and do just enough to get the bonus, making sure you CAN afford (maybe even pay off immediately) each and every purchase made.

This one was NOT for me when I opened my first credit card account 8 years ago! My husband and I have made some bad financial decisions in the past that we are still paying for, including getting our first credit card in order to buy our basic necessities when we were unsure of our financial future. In other words, my husband and I did not fully trust the Lord to provide for our basic needs when we were first married and have paid the price with credit card debt.

Since then, we have successfully paid off thousands of dollars in cc debt and have gone from being abused by the system to using it to our advantage. We now have a credit card that rewards us cash back for all purchases we make. I use it to pay for pretty much everything, including bills (as long as the biller does not charge a fee for cc usage) and pay it off immediately. I have earned $75 for successfully doing this since August. I also just opened a new checking account in order to redeem a $100 bonus offer (plus they pay 10 cents per transaction!). I plan on using this account for all purchases of $20 or less. I have another cc that I keep and rarely ever use that gave me $20 just for activating my card and using it for one purchase.

This is the easiest way by far to earn extra money, as long as you are financially responsible and do the math before deciding to sign up for offers and purchase things. If you feel you are responsible enough and want to get into cc churning, I highly recommend this article from Mr. Money Mustache. I also refer to nerdwallet.com for details of the current and better cc offers available. 

Total made to date from credit card churning: Since August, I have made $195 between rewards on purchases and credit card/ debit card bonus offers. 

It may be too early to decorate for Christmas, but it's definitely time to start planning on making those Christmas purchases! Happy holidays! 

I am not only a shopaholic, but I'm a grocery shopaholic. Just last week, I went to the grocery store not needing ANYTHING but milk, and I came home with $60 worth of groceries. This is not an unusual tale for me. What's worse is I over stock up on groceries, but another problem I have is I CANNOT STAND clutter or having too much of things. So, what do I do? I bring all those unneeded groceries home and in order to make them fit in my pantry and fridge all nicely, I THROW AWAY perfectly good food that I figure I won't eat before it goes bad. It's terrible, but I also know I'm not the only one who does this. 

Other than resisting the urge to grocery shop when I do not need to grocery shop, here are 5 ways I have found I can stop my food wastage, as well as make what I do have spread out further. 

I am guilty of this every. single. time. they go on sale. I use about a pound of that 5 pound bag to make baked potatoes or something with one night's dinner, then the rest are left to rot in my pantry. I found out I could just make all the potatoes at once and freeze into single servings of my favorite potato sides! I'll use some to make mashed potatoes and freeze (my husband likes this a whole lot better than the boxed stuff). I'll take some, bake, slice in half, blend the innards with salt, pepper, bacon, a little milk, and place back into the potato skins topped with cheese. I freeze and have twice baked potatoes ready to heat up whenever I want! From time to time, I'll slice up some of those potatoes and pre-fry and freeze for quick french fries later. 

I talked last month about how I meal plan. The biggest thing for me is to use my planned menu as more of a guide and not a law. I don't force myself to eat what I have on the menu, but when I need dinner to be served quickly, it's nice to refer back to a list of everything I can make based on what I have on hand. 

In addition to meal planning, I like to make and freeze the things my family likes to eat for breakfasts and deserts. I make and freeze biscuits for quick baking in the morning. I make cookie dough, pre-freeze in single serving balls on a cookie sheet, then throw them all into a ziplock bag and refreeze for those nights where we want a little something for dessert. It's so much cheaper to do this than buy the pre-made frozen stuff at the store, plus you can control the ingredients! 

I know a lot of people don't like meal planning. Actually, I'm the only one I know who enjoys it! I thought I'd share my strategy with you in case it could help inspire or encourage you if you are one whom gets stressed meal planning. 

Here's the main reason meal planning is stress free AND enjoyable for me: I look at our schedule of weekly meals as a guide and not a law. Do I follow my meal plan exactly how it is laid out every week? Nope. Sometimes it's Tuesday and I'd rather have tacos than the scheduled beef tips. Or, I've been running errands all day and I'm just too tired to cook so my family opts to eat out. Even though I break the rules I meal plan because 1) It tells me exactly what to cook on weekdays where I just need to get food on the table before Josiah loses his stuff, and 2) my strategy of cooking quick easy meals weeknights and saving the more intricate cooking for the weekends works, saves money, and gives me something to look forward to instead of dread. 

If meal planning is something you dread because of the time it takes to plot out your family meals, then this post will not change your mind. My method takes time. However I believe that taking the time to plot it out in a day saves time the rest of the week. In other words if I do not meal plan, I spend time every single day trying to figure out what to do for dinner and having this conversation with Shane way too much: "What do you want for dinner?" "I don't know, what do you want for dinner?" "I don't know, what are you craving?" "I don't know..." This is exhausting. 

When it's meal planning and grocery shopping time, I look at 3 different things: what I have, what's on sale, and what I want. I take inventory of the food I have in my pantry, fridge, and freezer. I am looking specifically at what vegetables, starches, and meats I have. Then I take a look at the sales ad for my local grocery store. I do not coupon much these days, but I do stock up on items I eat when they are BOGO at Publix. When looking at the sales ad I think to myself, "What's on sale that looks good and/or will give me what I need to cook meals my family likes?" 

I begin a grocery list of things I need combined with BOGOs to stock up on. I then set that list aside and get on Pinterest. More specifically, I have a board I go to titled, "Tried it, it's legit." This is where I store all of the recipes I have cooked and my family has enjoyed. (I don't have everything I cook on there, but I have enough variety to remind me of other recipes I enjoy cooking/ eating while scrolling through.) When looking through my Pinterest board of family approved meals, it's easy to sort out, pick and choose what meals I'll cook. You might be asking here, "What about trying new recipes?" I try new recipes ALL the time! If I don't particularly crave or desire to cook what I have listed for dinner, I give myself the freedom of subbing the meal out with a new recipe. 

Now that I have matched meals I want to make from my Pinterest board with ingredients I have and the grocery sales, I make my grocery list. I'll show you this week as an example since I just finished grocery shopping. 

*Note: I normally only plot out my meals one week at a time. However I went $30 over my $50 budget at the store this week, so I decided to plot out two weeks in advance. I will have to go to the store next week for little things like milk, but I have no need to buy anything for dinners because I have over two weeks worth of shelf stable and frozen or freezable food. 

In my fridge/ freezer:

• about a cup of cooked, shredded chicken
• a few pounds of ground beef (I buy, divide up, and freeze meat from Costco)
• one bag of precooked and diced chicken and sausage for jambalaya
• 1 pound shrimp
• pepperoni
• beef tips
• diced and frozen veggies (green beans, broccoli, bell peppers, and onion)
• homemade, made in advance and frozen french bread
• frozen red beans (pre-cooked in advance)
• cheese (mozzarella, mexi blend, and cheddar)
• butter
• eggs

In the pantry:

• Rice
• 8 oz cans of tomato sauce
• salsa
• tortillas
• red potatoes
• baking basics (flour, sugar, etc)

You'll notice above I had a few things in my freezer that were pre-made and frozen. This makes putting dinner on the table during the week quick and easy. I take a couple of Saturday afternoons a month to prepare things like dinner rolls and breads. As for the red beans mentioned above, I slow cooked enough for 6 people last time I served them for dinner and froze the leftovers. Making double the servings I need for some meals gives me future "heat and serve" dinners for the times where things are just too crazy to cook. I do this most often with spaghetti and meatballs. 

I saw and noted the following on my grocery list of things to buy based on the sales ad:

• ham steaks (used in Ham and Cheese Rotini. It is a fabulous, cheap, and quick meal!)
• lots of Pasta: thin spaghetti, elbows, and ditali for a soup
• hot dogs and deli meat for lunches
• bread and hot dog buns
• Not on sale but needed: milk, more eggs, bananas
• other basic necessities

Forgive the blurry, pixilatedness, but here is a pic of my meal planning notes on my computer. The orange note is a general recording of soups i want to make when the weather gets cooler and permits it, as well as some breads I want to make in advance and freeze. The blue note is where I recorded all the meals I wanted based on what I had, what was on sale, and what just looked good from my Pinterest board. 

Finally, here is the official list of what I'm cooking on what days for the next two weeks. I try to diversify the meals each day. For example, I like to make/eat Mexican food once a week so this Thursday we're eating tacos and next Thursday, quesadillas. I also try to cook things that are quick or go in the slow cooker during weeknights when our power company charges FIVE TIMES the normal rate of power usage (Alabama Power charges 25 cents per kwh hour 1-7pm Monday through Friday, and 5 cents per kwh hour the rest of the week.)

Here are other things I look at when I am arranging meals for the week...

• The Weather forecast. It's still in the 80's here in Alabama, but the high will only be in the 70's on Friday. I will celebrate this by making chicken soup. It's going to rain on Saturday and I find Jambalaya comforting on gloomy weather days. 
• Events and expected moods. Sundays are football days in our house (we don't care about college football here... all about the NFL) so I let those be junk food days. Pizza is also something I only cook on weekends because I have to warm my pizza steel in the oven for an hour before putting the pizza in. (Plus I have to make the dough in advance). Mondays are my busiest days during the week, so I always plan Monday meals to be ready in the slow cooker, or a "heat and serve" entree. 

That's all there is to it. What tips or advise do you have to make meal planning less stressful and more enjoyable?

Just a few months ago Shane and I came to the conclusion that the only way we could put more money back into our pockets was if we only ate peanut butter and bread for a year straight because there was, "no way we could save any more on everything else in our lives." Then I discovered we could save more on our utilities. Then I cut our cell bill down drastically (see my blog on that here), etc, etc. I am constantly reading blogs with titles like, "How to save money on this" or "How I live well on $10,000 a year" because every time I think I know all the tricks of the trade, I find out I'm wrong! 

I recently read a blog about saving at grocery stores. The writer said she doesn't coupon, but she does make money by taking pictures of her grocery receipts through a smartphone app. I did a little research and found not just on one, but FOUR different apps that pay people to take pictures of their receipts! (There are probably more than four apps; these are just the ones I found to be the most legit.) I decided to download and use all of them because though I'm probably not going to become wealthy by taking pictures of my receipts, it takes so little time and effort it's worth a try. I've had these apps on my phone for two weeks now and have made about $13 between all of them. If I keep going at that rate, I'll make about $300 a year for simply taking pictures of receipts of my day to day purchases! 

Two of these apps are specifically for grocery related purchases, and the other two are for pretty much everything else. Here are the four different apps I'm using...

I use ibotta for grocery purchase rebates, but they also have offers for shopping, restaurants, and other things. Since I've had this app, I have taken a trip to both Publix and Costco to get only the groceries I needed (ie: I did not buy anything for the sake of getting a reimbursement from ibotta). So far I have accumulated $4.60 from this app and once I hit $10, they will Paypal me the money. They have specific brand name things they will pay me for purchasing, but they also offer to pay for generic things, like any loaf of bread, or bananas.

Of the two grocery receipt apps I have, this one definitely has the highest payout. To earn my rebates I have to watch a short video ad, scan the bar codes of the items purchased, then take a pic and submit my receipt. The other receipt apps just have me taking a pic of my receipt, but I suppose this app pays more because they have me do the 3 step process. 

*PS: If you download this app, join my team to help both of us make even more! Just sign up and type in the referral code: hiexetk)

This is the other grocery app. Every week they let me pick my own offer, which is a generic, "We'll give you 25 cents to buy bananas, onions, or tomatoes" kind of thing. Basically, another app that pays me to actually buy what I need. I like that this app takes grocery purchases from anywhere, including Aldi! I have made $5 from them thus far and they will mail me a check once I hit $20. (I have more money here than I do with ibotta because I filled out a survey once I downloaded the app, and they gave me a $1 bonus for my first receipt submission). 

This is definitely the easiest and most lenient app that pays for receipts. They pay for ANY receipt purchase I submit. All I have to do is take a pic of my receipt and send it. No telling them what I bought, how much I spent, nothing. The only requirement is that the purchase was made within (I think) 30 days of submitting a receipt. I have submitted 24 receipts thus far and almost have enough rewards to redeem 2 $1 Amazon gift cards. 

This is like the "gamble using your receipts instead of actual money" app. They give me coins based on how much I spend at grocery stores, and slot spins for all other purchases. (They do not accept gas or restaurant receipts.) The slot spins are like the slots at casinos; Sometimes I get 10 coins, sometimes 0, but I have the chance to win $100 or a free shopping trip. It's kind of fun, but not something I'm really making a significant amount of money with. They will Paypal me $5 once I reach 1000 coins. Right now I have 394 coins. 

*PS: download this app, and you and I both get 10 free slot spins if you use the referral code: hass5045.

Honestly, you can file these apps in a category titled, "Get rich slower than a snail slow," but you'd still be making money off something that takes little to no effort! Once I have a receipt, it takes me about 30 seconds per app to submit it for my rewards. It's not for everyone, but I think it's worth a try. 

I've met some millionaires in disguise. I say in disguise because they don't look, act, or even dress like they have money. You have to get to know these kind of people because it isn't until you hang out with them for a while that you find out they have money and can buy clothes that aren't from the thrift store, and don't have to eat cans of soup every night for dinner. But the thing about these kind of millionaires is it is because of their frugalness that they have as much money as they do. 

Personally, I cannot live a life of thrift store clothing and canned soups for dinner day in and day out. It's fine occasionally, but it would not make me happy and I feel I'd miss out on things in life (I really enjoy shopping and food). However I have recently discovered a few ways I could cut my bills drastically, and even make money with no effort. I'll tell you about the making money part next blog, but right now let me tell you about two bills I cut and saved our family $2300. 

I used to be in charge of accounts receivable at a wholesale clothing company. My job was to make sure the boutiques that ordered our clothing paid on time for their orders, or at least paid in general. My boss wasn't one who liked to give raises, but instead I received a bonus every few months based on how many people paid on time. I used the last bonus I received before leaving that company to purchase iPhone 3s for both Shane and I. We faithfully paid over $185 a month for our cell bill since that day 7 years ago, and actually came to believe we could not live without our iPhones. 

Two months ago I heard about a cell company called Republic Wireless. Republic Wireless gives away cell phone service for as low as $5 a month. The only "downside" is in order to sign up with Republic Wireless, you have to use one of their Moto smart phones. Shane and I thought over the possible pros and cons for a few weeks before switching, but ultimately it came down to a "might as well try it" decision since Republic Wireless doesn't make you lock into a contract. We bought two of their $10 plans (unlimited talk and text in and outside of internet service). I decided to try life on a smart phone without a data plan, and Shane bought 2 GB data for $30 a month. Here's the cool thing though: Republic Wireless refunds whatever data you don't use! Our first bill was $55 with tax. That's already saving about $130 a MONTH from switching over from iPhones. Shane and I discovered that pretty much every public place we go has free wireless internet, and this month they refunded us $22 for Shane's unused data! With the refund and charge for this coming month's phone service and data, we only owe $33. Total savings per year on our cell phone service: $1,824! http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-7831370-11663663-1393258234000

The Moto phones are pretty cool, by the way. I got the Moto e and Shane the Moto x. (We sold our iPhones and broke even on the Moto phones.) Neither of us are really missing our iPhones. So far I've been able to get all the same apps downloaded on my Moto and the camera on Shane's is WAY better than the one he had on his iPhone 5s. 

In a previous blog, I talked about how I planned on cutting back on our power usage at home. Alabama Power charges FIVE TIMES more for usage from 1pm-7pm on weekdays, so I changed my routine of power use around that. I sold our dryer and began line drying our laundry. I turn the air up to 80 during the day with the ceiling fans running to help keep the house cool. I try to save all my cooking from scratch for the weekends, and I have begun doing mostly slow cooker recipes for weeknight dinners because the slow cooker uses less energy than the oven. With these changes our power bill has been $40 less every month. Total annual savings of $480 a year. 

We are now working on cutting our water bill. We're trying not to take long showers, and I am working on doing less laundry and dishes. Not that we're being dirtier, but I used to wash every tshirt, even if it was only worn for 2 hours. Consolidating laundry to fewer loads and same with dishes in the dishwasher also help. 

$2,300 in annual savings was done with no effort or really sacrifice. It was just a matter of us changing our routines and becoming aware of what we're spending and using. We'll end up saving some (like actually having some in a savings account), and hopefully get some business and student loan debt paid off. Just for fun, here are some things that we could also hypothetically do with that $2,300:

• Splurge on a big shopping spree. 
• Take our family on a 5 night Disney Caribbean Cruise. 
• Stay for two weeks or more at the beach through vrbo.com.
• Get round trip flight tickets to my hometown El Paso, stay for a week in a hotel, get a car rental, and have $800 left to spend on food and a bunch of entertainment. 
• Buy 2 one-way flight tickets to Australia to visit our friends that are MOVING there next month. :(

And the list goes on and on. I might not become a millionare because of my penny pinching, but with just double checking our day to day bills and asking myself with everything I buy, "Do I really need this?" I can sure get a lot of fun stuff! 

it's been a month since I've updated you on what's going on in our lives. Since my last post about getting rid of "necessities" like my couch and dryer, I've been quite the busy little bee! Here's a synopsis: We sold our sectional, chair, and ottoman for $500. We actually sold the set to a couple that is doing the opposite of us... they want a place to sit in their kids play room, where we wanted to get rid of furniture for the sake of a play room, ha! I also sold my dryer for $75. The end result with the money was two completely transformed rooms, and a mini vacation. I'll talk about the play room later, but here's our new "living room"...

This is an extended room off of our home's master bedroom, by the way. In the 7 years we've lived in this house, this room has transformed from an office, to Shane's music room, to Shane's music teaching room, to just an empty useless room for the last year. Since we wanted a play room in our living room area, we decided this small room would make a cozy movie room. The total cost we spent on our new living room was $250. I got the pallets for free by batting my eyes at the manager of Home Depot (they usually sell their pallets back to the company they come from). I used 2 whole pallets in the back, and the one in the front was cut in half. I painted the walls with colors I had stored in our closet outside. (I like painting things so I have a few to choose from.) I had a slate brown/ grey color I used to paint the back wall (not shown in the pic below...the orange fugly color was the original wall color), and I used up the leftover mint green I had gotten for our bathroom a couple years ago on the other walls.

Josiah helped. :)

Next I headed to Old Time Pottery and found the fabric and pillows. I spent $50 on the decorative pillows and $30 on the fabric. The foam for the cushions I bought online from Home Depot. Each piece is 6' x 2' and 3 inches thick. I used 4 total rolls. I measured and cut the foam to size and used self adhesive spray to glue them together.Two rolls of foam were used on the bottom, then I cut, sized, and glued 2 rolls on top to make the cushions 6 inches thick. I spent $100 total on all the foam ($25 per roll). Since I'm not a very good sower, I cut the fabric to fit our custom new couch and ottoman, then used a little of the self adhesive spray to wrap and stick it to the foam. 

To finish it off, Shane and I took a trip to Atlanta and had ourselves a mini vacation in Stone Mountain Park, then headed to Ikea to finish out our new living/movie room and also furnish our play room. I found the picture of the city of Paris for $30 and the decorative vase in the corner for $20. We also got the bigger pillows for some back support for $20. 

That's all for now! I am still working on our play room, but will update you on that as soon as I complete it! If you're wondering, we've spent $450 total out of the $575 we received for our couch and dryer split between the two rooms, with no plans to spend anymore. There is a chair and ottoman in the play room and I'm hand making a tepee. Trust me, it's cool! ;-)

PS: You may be wondering based on my last post about how our cell/power bill changes are going. We switch to Republic Wireless next week and our projected savings will be around $130/month. Our power bill from June to July went down by $40 and we're hoping we can double that savings in energy this month. I've learned a big part of this new way of saving is really just breaking old habits! I'll talk more on all of this later. :)  

There are 2 changes we are making to our fancy "keeping up with the cool crowd of nerds" electronics.

1. Phones and Phone Service. We are getting rid of our iPhones, which is HUGE for us. Shane uses his a TON for work. Not just for texting and emails, but specifically for apps that better his lessons with students. However Shane has an iPad that carries all the apps he needs (and it's way easier to use with students in lessons). With the freedom of saying goodbye to our iPhones comes the opportunity to pay so SO much less for cell phone service. We researched it and have decided to switch to Republic Wireless. Their lowest plan is just $5 a month for unlimited talk/text/data. We currently pay $180 for our phones and data. We're going to save a CRAZY amount of money! I'll let you know how it goes when we switch over next month. 
   
2. We are saying bye bye to Shane's Macbook. I have a $200 Chrome Book and I LOVE it. It does everything I need it to. Shane has the top of the line Macbook with all the memory and cool things. Shane is ALWAYS grabbing my Chromebook at home and he also steals the front desk Chromebook at the studio to use during lessons. He brings his Macbook back and forth from work, but he rarely turns it on. It turns out he doesn't really need his Macbook like he thought he would when we bought it. He actually likes the Chromebook more! We think we can sell his Macbook for $800, which will put $600 back in our pockets after he buys his own fancy schmancy budget friendly Chromebook! 

Ok this is the crazy one, but it is the one I am most excited about. Let me first go on a rabbit trail and tell you about about a book my aunt gave Josiah for his birthday called, "The Big Orange Splot." The story goes like this:

Mr. Beanpot and all of his neighbors have houses that look the same and are the same color, "and they like it that way." Then one day a bird is carrying a pail of orange paint and spills it on Mr. Beanpot's house. His neighbors say, "Too bad you have to paint your house!" and Mr. Beanpot says (in what I assume to be an Eeore attitude) "I suppose I do." Well Mr. Beanpot doesn't paint his house the same way it had always been, or in a way that the neighbors approve of. He paints it a trainwreck of rainbowness. Then he sits in a hammock in the front yard and drinks lemonade...with his pet crocodile. Like a boss. The neighbors get annoyed and think he's gone insane. Anyone who finds the courage to talk to him about the matter ends up going home and painting their house into some crazy messed up thing. In the end all the neighbors have crazy looking houses and say, "Our neighborhood is us aand we are it. It is all of our dreams and we like it that way." 

I tell you that story because Shane and I have been inspired to forego the typical "have the same furniture as everyone else and set that furniture in the designated rooms" mindset. Because it's our house and we can do whatever we want! Well I don't like how our dogs sit on the top cushions of our couch and frankly, I don't find our couch to be very comforable. So we are selling it. And we are not replacing it. No couch.

Yeah, maybe we'll eventually get a rug and some floor cushions. We actually think we want to make our living room just a giant play room. We'll put some sweet things in for Josiah, and maybe a pool table for us at some point. We're talking about taking our small office and making it into a movie lounge area with our TV and some cushions on the floor. It's liberating to realize that our house doesn't have to look like every one else's and we can be children again and let our imaginations run wild with how we want our house to look and be set up!

The whole idea is this: we're going to strive to get rid of the unnessessary things that do not make us happy in order to make room for the things that do. We might be crazy, but I'm excited because we are not going to be suckered into paying for things we don't really want or need anymore! 

I'll keep you updated on the ensuing craziness and how it all unfolds.