Do you Squidoo?

Have you discovered Squidoo? Squidoo is a publishing platform and community, within which you can write and publish 'lenses' (pages) about any topic that interests you. Once you get sucked in, there is information on any topic you may think to search for and it's so easy to spend hours there, hopping from lens to lens to lens.



What is the purpose of it? Well, information sharing of course and you can also earn money off your lenses. You can add ebay and amazon links and you can use your lenses to drive traffic to your own or an affiliates site. You can write as many as you like, so the earning potential is unlimited, supposedly.

I'm having fun creating pages, I've done two so far, and it's quite a challenge to make them good ones, as far as looks and content go. Wanna see? Topics close to my heart of course...


Understanding unilateral hearing loss

and

Thermomix - Now you're cooking!

If you're wondering what a thermomix is, it is explained on the above 'lens' or check this post on my other blog. It's only the BEST EVER KITCHEN GADGET around!

Anyway, hop on over to squidoo, sign up, share your interests, look me up and give my pages a rating. Be kind! :0)

Borders - subscribe to their Shortlist for discounts

Another email that popped up in my inbox a couple of days ago is from Borders, the book store chain. Within the email is a link to a 30% off coupon, which can be used on one full priced book and is valid for 3 days. 30% off is not too bad a deal, it's more the 1/4 of the price, right?

To receive these and other email offers from Borders, you need to be signed up to receive the Shortlist Email Newsletter. I signed up in store a while ago, and I sometimes hear the Border's staff (if I am there) asking a customer at the desk if they want to sign up, so presumably all staff will know what you're on about if you ask them about the email shortlist newsletter. You can also sign up online through their website.

Ok. I've also received offers in the past for a discount on buying multiple items (2 or 3), sometimes pertaining to dvds or cds, and some other decent offers that escape me right now.

The best offer I've used was last Christmas, when there was a coupon for 25 or 30% off a full priced book (I forget which) and reading the small print on the coupon there was no limit on how many per customer, just one book per coupon. So I printed off a few copies of the coupon and took them up to the desk to ask if I could use copies. I was told as there was no limit printed on the coupon, yes I could use as many copies as I wanted, just in separate transactions. Yay! That worked well for a book exchange kids Christmas party, books for my kids Christmas stockings and books for posting to a couple of my older relatives.

Now, they may have corrected that no limit per customer coupon......or not, I haven't needed to take them up on a similar offer yet. Even if it is one per customer, to me that's a decent saving and worth looking down my "people I need to buy gifts for in the near future" list.

The emails come periodically although I can't tell you exactly how often, and look something like this...

This is worth signing up to, in your efforts to become thrifty and frugal....although there are other ways of getting hold of books cheaper especially if they're second hand, but it is nice to be able to give the odd new one when you want to.

Free parent stuff, who doesn't need that?!

I've been getting regular emails and newsletters from a crowd called FreeParentStuff recently.

It was something I signed up to a while ago and I've received various free bits and pieces since then, most of which are product samples. They send out an email newsletter about once a month. Currently on offer is a laundry powder sample from ecostore, a huggies little swimmers nappy and a sample of a particular brand of toddler milk.


Free stuff, what's not to love, hey?

Buy your beloved moisturizer and cosmetics at a discount

Like most of us....ladies anyway.....I have a favourite brand of cosmetics and moisturizer. These products can be expensive when bought at department stores, and even more expensive when bought from a chemist.

Well, I have found that I can buy them muuuuch much cheaper on
ebay and Oztion.

Often they are sold in twos and threes, so you can make the most of postage. Just check that you're buying from a reputable seller and make a note of any expiry dates listed for the product you're buying.

I recommend this way of buying cosmetics and moisturizers to everyone I discuss the subject with, it really has saved me so much money.

Give it a try!

Now I'm sure you all know where to find ebay, so here's Oztion, an all Aussie equivalent.

Free and cheap kids activities

Do you need some creative activities for you and the kiddies? Want to get your young ones out from in front of the tv? Here is one person's collection of free and cheap ideas to keep your kids entertained without breaking the bank. Sometimes you just need to be reminded of what you can do.

One of my favourite activities is sidewalk chalk.



Take it out on the driveway - create a base for soldiers, draw an underwater scene - sharks, whales, octopus, starfish, draw outlines of the kids and fill them in, draw a garden, create a story with a series of pictures....the possibilities are endless. You can even feed it to them, well, my one year old walks round with a chunk of it in his mouth at every opportunity....

Are you a DIYer?

My sis put me onto this site, The Instructables, which has step-by-step how-to instructions for every imaginable activity.

From how to make cake pops

to how to fold the best paper airplane

to how to unblock your sink

how to restore old furniture without power tools

and how to make dung beetle truffles.


Cool, huh? That's just a few obviously, there are hundreds more. It's worth a trawl if you're looking for recipes, activities for the kids or a how-to tip for round the home.

I want to try making these lego shaped gummy candies



using this vegan recipe (no gelatin, gelatin being made of animal parts.....doesn't bother me overly when eating marshmallows though, so a little hypocritical of me)

So please have a look at this site, it is very useful, as well as supremely cool!

WDYT - Points for viewing email advertisements

WDYT or whatdoyouthink.com.au is a points per view site. Once you sign up, you will start receiving emails that have a 'view' link in them.
The link will say "VIEW" - click here to be awarded 5 WDYT points'. When you click the link it will open a tab in your web browser with some sort of advertisement page. So just by doing that you will be awarded 5 points every time

Now, the points add up and can be exchanged for gift cards to major retailers Target, Kmart, Myer, and Bunnings Hardware, or you can use them to bid in on-site auctions. The site also has opinion polls which you can vote in - no points for these, and will send out invites to surveys from time to time, which are rewarded with points.

Your points don't expire, and this is truly the easiest program to be part of, every time you open your email you'll see if you have anything from WDYT. Click through, then stay around and read the page if it interests you, or don't.

Here it is, get clicking!

This one is open to Australian residents only.

A money saving mum site

I came across the savingmum website today, which is a site filled with money saving ideas submitted by Aussie mums. Relevant of course to mums everywhere, Australians aren't the only ones that have to fill lunchboxes, or clean the toilet, or grocery shop on a budget.

You need to join to gain full access but it's all free. Well worth a read, mums are often a fantastic source of ideas and I like some of the recipes I've seen in there. Find out how other folks are able to keep their budget down.

ATM charges

I was hit with a $2 charge for using an ANZ ATM the other day. Ouch. Now, I know if you use a 'foreign' (meaning not linked to YOUR bank) ATM, then your bank will usually charge you a fee for doing so.

However, I bank with HSBC. HSBC have very few ATMs, so their customers may use another bank's ATMs a certain number of times per month without incurring any charge from HSBC. Make sense? But due to recent changes to ATM fee reform, I'll now get hit with a charge every time I access my account through a 'foreign' ATM, but this charge is NOT from my own bank.

This charge, called the ATM owner fee, is from the bank whose ATM I use, .

Moral of this story?

• Make sure you know where the ATMs are that you can use with no fees being charged. That usually means ATMs affiliated with your bank.

• Know how many times a month you can use them without being charged.

• Check your bank statements to make sure your bank is not charging you when it shouldn't.

And check this easy to read link on ATM Fee Reform so you know how you're being charged.

Gardening in a small space

Do you love gardening? For health reasons, or maybe for mental health reasons? Or maybe you loathe it but find it necessary in today's economic climate. Whichever it is, you may be like me and have very limited gardening space. I remember my parents having what seemed to me as a child an enormous veggie garden, but these days many of us live in the city and suburbs on small blocks of land, covered mostly by what we live in. Meaning the house of course, in case you're asleep on your feet, hehehe
BUT, I've found a way to grow lots of potatoes in just four square feet of garden space. Or you could even do it on the balcony of an apartment too.

But why grow your own potatoes, when they're usually so cheap at the store? Well, if you believe everything you read, it appears that various levels of pesticides are routinely found in non-organic spuds. Check out this link at The Wedge, a natural foods co-op.

That aside, when you grow your own, they often taste better and you know exactly what has been used on them while growing.

The idea is to grow them upwards, instead of spread out, using a box system.

So, find out how it's done in Sinfonian's square foot garden. Scoot down through the article to where the pictures are, that's where the instructions are. Make sure you read some of the comments of people who have tried this, one suggests building up the sides with bricks, another says you can use straw instead of dirt.

Myself, I've used layers of straw and dirt when doing garden bed spuds in the past, which worked well. I'll be trying this out at our new house, which means hopefully in the not-too-distant future.


So, spuds anyone??

Kids activity for a rainy day - no cook playdough

A good frugal/thrifty activity for the kids, playdough is a must for every household with small children. Usually I make the cooked variety but my sis, the Slightly Mad Quilt Lady, has posted a no cook playdough recipe on her blog that is even easier to make and less messy too.....no sticky pot to scrub out (ha, have I mentioned before that I'm lazy??). What else can you do with the kids when the weather is too icky to get outside? Well, a few mind numbing options come to mind, but this option is the best one....

Oh, and don't forget to read what the Slightly Mad Quilt Lady says about playdough and chickens....