Tips on Saving Money

Friday, October 22, 2010

{Expired} Join the Money Saving Mom Survey Panel & earn up to $30 per week (1,000 more spots available!)

This survey opportunity is now open again to another 1,000 participants. This opportunity is now closed. All who registered are accepted into the program.

I worked closely in previous months with CampusFundraiser to bring your discounted All You magazine subscriptions. CampusFundraiser also has an Online Survey Program and they would like to test this program outside of a collegiate market, which is their normal demographic.

They contacted me and asked if I would be interested in testing this with 50 of my readers. When I read the details and discovered that the accepted participants would have the opportunity to make up to $30 per week each week, I jumped on it as I knew many of you would be thrilled to have such an opportunity.

Please note that CampusFundraiser is paying me a small amount for each survey participants complete in exchange for me helping them to find trustworthy participants. If you do not feel comfortable participating based upon this knowledge, I totally understand.

Here are the details on the program:

There are three different survey opportunities which participants will be able to participate in:

Invitation Survey: These will come every couple of days and provide you the opportunity to complete one survey. They will usually be titled “Movie Survey” or “Need Women 25-35? to give participants some understanding of what type of survey it is. If you are qualified, you move on to participate in the survey and will normally earn 50 market points, which translates to $1 but sometimes, $2, $4 — with the highest surveys ever having been $11, $20 and $45. You will be told in the invitation if the survey is of a high value. If you are not qualified (i.e. they are doing a survey on a man’s razor and you you are a female) you will be “screened out” and will earn usually 5 market points or $0.10 for the attempt.

CF Daily Survey: This will come to your email a few times a week but there is no need to wait for it’s arrival! Copy and paste the link to your desktop and complete a survey every day. The survey pool will continue to offer you opportunities until you are able to complete a survey or the opportunities are out. If the latter happens, simply return to the link later in the day. There are no points offered in screening out of a daily survey and 35 market points ($0.70) offered for your regular Daily complete.

Daily 5 Survey: You can copy and paste the Daily Survey link to your browser and complete up to five surveys per day! There are no points for a screen out, but you’ll get 35 market points or $0.70 for each of the completed surveys. This opportunity informs you of the time involved in each survey (5 minutes-35 minutes) so you can easily decide to return later if you don’t have the time.

Taking advantage of all 3 opportunities can earn an individual around $30 a week or more!

How do you get started?: Click here and register your information to become a part of Money Saving Mom’s panel. The panel is open to another 1,000 participants and will likely fill up quickly.

Please disregard the collegiate or group wording that will be peppered entirely throughout the registration process and remember you are the first participants outside the collegiate market to have been approached with this opportunity.

At the end of the registration process, you will be given a username and password at the bottom of the last screen. Please save this for your records. You will need this when checking your account activity going forward.

To check your account activity, simply go to www.campusfundraiser.com and click on “View Your Account” in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Use your login information here. Your activity will be found on the Current Fundraiser Tab, Survey Fundraiser 2010/2011.

How do I get paid?: Once you have earned $25, (which can be on a weekly basis if you are an active participant), just contact CampusFundraiser to request a payout. Make sure to provide your address information during registration and allow 3-4 weeks for processing and mailing of payment.

Please contact mrijos@campusfundraiser.com with questions or to request a payout and please refer to the fact you are part of Money Saving Mom’s test panel.

Activity is updated every few days and will not be available live.

Once registered, you can respond to and complete surveys online, easily making a few dollars per day as you surf the net. Because of CampusFundraiser’s strict privacy policy, your information will not be shared with any 3rd party or the survey companies themselves. Everything will be filtered through CampusFundraiser themselves and come via email from cfsurveys.com so as not to be confused with any other program you may be taking advantage of.

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Buying Special Diet Foods on a Budget

Guest post by Anne from When Food is Dangerous and Quick and Easy, Cheap and Healthy

These days, it seems like everyone has to deal with diet restrictions, either for themselves or a family member. Diets can be restricted by a variety of health conditions. Diabetes, heart disease, food allergies, food sensitivities, bowel diseases, celiac disease and lactose intolerance are just a few reasons some people are forced to change their diet — sometimes drastically.

Making the necessary changes can be daunting, especially when you begin to research the costs for replacements and substitutions. I should know! My husband has ulcerative colitis, a condition that does not allow him to eat either excessively fibrous or highly acidic foods, and my son has multiple severe food allergies.

Learning how to cope with these varied diets on a limited budget has stretched my creativity to say the least. If you are struggling in a similar situation, here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way:

For most people, whole foods are still an acceptable and desirable part of their diet: meats, fruits, vegetables, and certain grains, seeds and nuts. Focusing on those foods will not only make you healthier, but help you stick to your budget. Avoid overly processed foods with long lists of ingredients that could create dietary issues.

Instead of purchasing items like breads, sweets and snacks, learn how to make them yourself. That way you know exactly what ingredients go into each food item and you can tweak recipes to meet your dietary needs.

I learned early on how to make bread that strikes the balance between my own and my husband’s dietary needs – a mix of whole grains and regular all-purpose flour. For my son, I’ve learned how to make everything from granola bars to fruit leather so as to provide healthy, inexpensive snacks that are safe for him.

This may require some creativity. My husband can’t have tomato sauce, so when it comes to pizza and pasta, I have learned to come up with a variety of creative sauces. Instead of pizza sauce, for example, I use barbecue sauce, ranch dressing, alfredo sauce, or even just olive oil and some herbs. One of my favorite pasta sauce substitutes is actually pumpkin-based!

When first learning about my son’s allergies, I spent a great deal of time researching both local and internet-only sources for flour substitutions because of his wheat allergy.

I learned that the Walmart Supercenter is surprisingly the cheapest source for rice and chickpea flours. Amazon.com’s Subscribe and Save program is probably the cheapest way to purchase Bob’s Red Mill grains and flours, among other foods. Local ethnic markets can also be great inexpensive sources for things like tapioca starch or other food alternatives. I have found that a locally owned organic market is the cheapest place to buy coconut milk and coconut milk yogurt, which I substitute for regular dairy products in my son’s diet.

This one can be very difficult. My husband simply has to live without some foods he used to love, even healthy foods, like spinach and corn on the cob. There just are no substitutes for those foods!

For my son, the choice was a matter of budget. The only “cheeses” and store-bought breads he can eat are prohibitively expensive, so he simply does without. Except for basic food substitutions, like the coconut milk, I almost never buy him specially made and packaged “allergen-free” foods. I either make it myself or forego it altogether because the cost is not worth it to me. And let’s be honest, most of those substitutes taste nothing like the real thing, so what’s the point, anyway?

This principle applies particularly to food-allergy sufferers, but has useful applications for other diets, like gluten- or lactose-free. You don’t really need to shop from the “allergen-free” section at the health food store, and that should be a relief to you if you’ve ever taken a peek at those prices!

Instead, be a detective, and take some time to browse the detailed nutrition information on packaged foods to find ones that are naturally free of allergens, or whatever food it is you have to avoid. I discovered early on that while my son could not have the traditional Cheerios or Gerber Puffs as a first finger food, Kix were a safe option. As a toddler, he still loves them, and I buy them whenever I can get them cheap on sale and with a coupon.

Similarly, I’ve found a variety of safe snacks and convenience foods — all available in any regular grocery store, and often available for cheap on sale and with coupons — that I keep on hand for those times when making his food myself is not an option, or for when we’re on the road without the usual emergency snack or meal from home. Of course, when dealing with allergies, always proceed with caution when trying a new food.

Because of our various diet restrictions, certain foods I used to dislike, or had never experienced, began to creep into my regular menu. For example, I never had much experience with winter squash because my mom never cooked with it. However, since my husband has a limited range of fruits and vegetables he can safely eat, I’ve realized it’s necessary to incorporate all that he can eat, and that includes winter squash! I’ve found some really creative ways to hide it in foods while we adjust ourselves to the taste and texture.

When I was nursing my son and was therefore on his restricted diet, I found that almond milk was my favorite substitute for cow’s milk, and since then, I’ve learned to buy it when on sale — with coupons of course! — to use as a cheaper substitute for baking and cooking.

This is sometimes difficult for me when I get discouraged by the amount of money or time I spend on making and procuring safe foods for my family. It’s imperative, though, that I keep my mind focused on the blessings to be found in our enforced diets: for one thing, we all eat a lot healthier than we would otherwise! A positive perspective goes a long way in helping me continue to improve my efforts to provide safe, healthy, and affordable foods for my family.

Anne Simpson blogs about living with life-threatening food allergies at When Food is Dangerous, and about preparing healthy foods without sacrificing time or money at Quick and Easy, Cheap and Healthy. She is mentally preparing herself for whatever dietary needs her second son may have when he arrives early next year!

Do you have an idea for a guest post? I am always looking for high-quality, original (i.e. not published anywhere else online) content with tips and ideas Money Saving Mom readers can use. If you would like to submit a guest post, please follow the Guest Posting Guidelines.

photo credits: whatsername; kaintuckeean; Elana’s Pantry

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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Q&A Tuesday: What do you do if a business refuses to acknowledge that they shorted you over $40?

My boyfriend ran into a situation about a month ago with Dunkin’ Donuts. He paid for a $2 coffee at the drivethru with a $50 bill. He received $7 as his change and no receipt, so he parked the car and went inside to get the receipt and $40 they didn’t give him. The clerks working said they couldn’t open the drawer because the manager wasn’t there.
He went back the next day to speak to the manager. She said she would watch the security tapes and call him that day. He never received a call. He called her back the fallowing day and she rudely told him to “stop trying to rip them off”.
We are truly honest people. We’ve both worked in retail and know how to handle customers. We’ve contacted Dunkin’s consumer care (three times!) and have received no response. Is there anything else we can do? -Vicki

First off, I’m so sorry about this! What a frustrating situation!

In this case, since there’s no receipt and likely no transaction record — as your boyfriend paid with cash — it comes down to your word against theirs. How far you take it will depend upon how much time you have and how much $40 is worth to you. Here are some suggestions I would have for dealing with this type of situation:

I had a really bad experience at CVS one time where the manager accused me of stealing and told me rather loudly to never come back to the store. He didn’t incorrectly charge me, as was the case with you, but he did treat me in a very rude manner for using coupons as intended. As soon as I arrived home from the store, I wrote out what happened in very in-depth detail. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t forget anything in case I couldn’t get ahold of someone at CVS corporate for a few days.

{By the way, CVS corporate was very polite and apologetic and actually wanted the manager to call and apologize to me personally. I told them that wasn’t necessary, but did ask that they clearly inform this particular store’s manager and employees of how ECBs and coupons worked. Apparently it worked, because that store became very coupon-friendly!}

I see that Dunkin’ Donuts has a contact form and a 1-800 number on their website. I’d contact them through both at least once a day or every other day until you get a response. I’d also call the local store and politely inform them that you are contacting corporate and also reporting this to the Better Business Bureau. They need to understand that this is improper treatment of their customers and will result in consequences for them if they don’t resolve it.

Don’t give up if you don’t get a response within a few days. Keep trying until you get through to someone. But don’t ever allow yourself to be frustrated or flustered with someone on the phone or through email. Showing common courtesy as well as professionalism will always get you much farther than ranting and raving will.

If you cannot resolve this with the local store or with the corporate headquarters, I’d suggest filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. There are some good tips here if you plan to go that route.

If this had happened to you, how would you respond? What suggestions or advice do you have for Vicki and her boyfriend?

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Reader Tip: Saving Money on Paper and Printer Ink

Feel like you’re going through paper and ink like water with all the coupons you print? Erica from EEEndeavors, emailed in some tips to help you save money on paper and ink:

Reuse Your Paper: Most commonly, three coupons will fit on one 8.5×11? sheet of paper. If you only print one, clip off that coupon (as straight as possible) and re-insert to print an additional two coupons. If extra wording or graphics printed with your first coupon, make sure to flip to print on the other side.
Reuse Other Paper: Stop and think about how many papers are thrown away from school or the mail. If it has a blank backside, use it! To avoid confusion, it’s a good idea to “X” out the side that has writing but not a coupon.
Change Your Printer Settings: Change your printer settings to print in Grayscale (only uses black ink) and in Fast Draft mode (uses less ink and prints faster). You can always easily change these settings for when you need higher quality prints, but it is expensive and unnecessary when it comes to coupons.
Fill Your Own Cartridges: I don’t suggest this for color cartridges as I think it’s too risky, but it’s hard to fail if you’re just filling a black ink cartridge. It is messy, but practice makes perfect (and reading directions sure helps!). I paid $14 for my last refill kit, which is enough to fill an average of 20 ink cartridges. If you consider the cost of a factory refilled, generic cartridge (usually $12), this is a $226 savings!

For more helpful tips and ideas, check out Saving Money on Printer Ink and Save Up to $20 Per Year By Switching Fonts.

photo by Renway2007

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Reader Tip: Work-from-home jobs available with NEW Corp

If you need/want a legit work at home job that pays hourly, every other Friday and has paid training, my company, NEW Corp Home-based Customer Care Representatives, is hiring for customer service and tech support. We opened a bunch of new training areas in several states – some that have virtual training available. I have been working for this company for four years now. -Rachel

I don’t know anything personally about this company, but I checked the website out and it looks legit. If you’re looking for a work-at-home job, check to see if they have a training center in your area. If so, you can read the Frequently Asked Questions to get a feel for what the job would entail. And then you can apply, if you’re interested.

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Looking for more? Click here to read other posts about Income-Earning Opportunities.

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