Finance Friday: MTurk

Hey, so I totally missed Fiber Friday last week. For good reason though, I had a shawl blocking, but my dad also happened to be in the same state as me. So he and I got to sort of hang out and introduce the future in-laws. Fiber Friday should be back next week, hopefully it will be a good one ;)

Do you love Amazon? Do you have an Amazon wishlist a mile long, but an empty wallet? Here's a solution-ish. While I'm yet to see great returns from this, it has helped here and there with some extra dollars.

There's this place called Amazon Mechanical Turk, found at mturk.com . It's run by Amazon, and will link to your Amazon Payments account.

So what is it? Well, it's surveys and tasks. I stick mostly with the surveys because some of the 'tasks' are sketchy like "Download this program and test it". Ummmm.... viruses and hard drive malfunctions anyone?

A lot of the surveys I take seem to be preliminary research for graduate students getting ready for their thesis and such. Some are really short, like 5-10 minutes. But some are over an hour long. (I'm yet to actually take the entire hour to complete the survey though, I'm a fast reader.) And often have quality control questions in them to make sure you are actually paying attention.

The only downfall to this is you have to 'qualify' in order to get higher paying tasks. For the first few months I used this, I could only qualify for tasks that paid $.01- $.50. But, it does add up over time. And when you do start to qualify, you can make a few bucks per completed task.

Then, as you shop on Amazon, during checkout it will ask if you want to use your Payment Account balance, letting you know how much is in there, for your purchase. So, you don't have to charge your card or bank account if you have enough.

If you want the cash, I know that you can cash out the balance, as long as it's over $1.00. Personally I like to set a goal and work to it before withdrawing so it really makes a difference if/when I do withdraw.

This is a great way to get some extra cash during commercial breaks, or during your lunch breaks, even for an hour or two on weekends!

Good luck and happy earnings!

In Recent Months...

      In recent months, I've seen a lot of people in my life be very critical and judgmental of others. In my viewpoint, a lot of this is coming from a "Holier than Thou" mindset. The people are so focused on religion and how things should be according to them, that they are missing the mark on a lot of great things. They are missing opportunities to love those around them, to feel the Spirit, and to serve the Lord because they can't look beyond someone not doing something 'right'.

It makes me wonder, "If you are being this critical of others to me, how critical of me are you to others?". I'm not perfect here, I can be critical and judgmental. However, in the past few years, I have tried very consciously, and sometimes with much difficulty, to not verbalize criticisms to those around me. I try hard to change my thinking when I find myself being critical of others. And it's frustrating to me to have people hop back into high school mode and start gossiping and criticizing to me. What is it about me that makes these people think I'm okay with that?

      This morning I ran into a blog post on a blog that I don't frequent, but for some reason is in my bookmarks. While I feel that this person goes off into left field a few times, overall I think they did well in addressing criticism, especially when it comes to criticism in the church.

If you have time, I think you should check it out, and ponder what it means for you personally and what you can do to improve yourself in the area of being critical, if you feel there needs to be some change there.

Criticism is Bad by In Defense of Women

Cooking, a Love (and future regular post)

Recently while talking with my fiancee, he asked how much it costs me to bake bread from scratch. He was trying to figure out if it was really worth the time of baking it when you could just go to the store and buy a loaf.
I said it was worth it because I like cooking and baking. It was cheaper, but I couldn't tell him exactly how much cheaper. But I felt like (and still feel like) the time and effort are what makes it infinitely better than buying. I love mixing it together, letting it rise, baking it, and eating it fresh from the oven. I get a really satisfying contentment from it.
It's not just bread either, I love baking desserts and cooking dinners. I just like it.
However, he did get me thinking. So I started to calculate how much it costs me to bake and cook the things that I make. I thought maybe perhaps some other people out there would like to know this sort of thing too, so I will be making a regular post of it.
I will be posting the recipes I use, the cost of the ingredients, and how much I get out of the recipe. Keep in mind that I am a single girl, and I shop at Kroger using store brands. Also, one of my pet peeves is when people say 'it cost such and such', but they don't break it down, so I'm going to break it down for you telling you how much each ingredient cost as well as the total cost.
If you have a recipe, or see one on Pinterest, that you'd like me to try and calculate for you, let me know! (again, keep in mind that I'm in grad school, and it might take me a couple weeks to get to it...)

Love you all, if you have a chance you should come over for brownies, peanut butter cookies, or cinnamon bread!

 

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Finance Friday: Couponing made Easy

I don't 'coupon' like some folks do. It's ridiculous. But I still do what I can to save money at the grocery store.

Enter: The Kroger App (disclaimer, I have no idea if other stores have this type of thing, but Kroger does and I love it)

Each week I need groceries (which isn't that often really), I open up the Kroger app on my phone. It has the weekly specials in it. AND coupons. Generally I get my list together before checking the ads, but sometimes I have a general idea of what I need, like some fresh veggies, and see what they have.

The nice thing about this is you can add the item to "Your List" and it gets organized based on the areas of the store. You can pull up your list and it's in an order of sorts that makes sense so you're not running back and forth in the store.

The best part however, is that the coupons get loaded directly to your frequent shopper card. When you scan the card, if you have a coupon for an item it automatically deducts it. You don't have to cut the coupons out, and such.

Super nice too, I can open the app while waiting in line at the post office, while on the bus, over my lunch break when I don't have homework. It's portable coupons folks! I love it.

Bonus tip: When you get your receipt, check it for the survey code. Each survey you complete  gives you 50 fuel reward points, and with the cost of gas these days every little bit counts!

One way to make this Utah girl's heart soar is to send snow to her. It's snowing, and supposed to keep snowing all night. 4-8 inches is projected. In Utah this is no big deal, but here in the South things get crazy. They shut down schools, I got sent home from work early. And even my night class ended early, resulting in me not having to give my presentation tonight.
But, it also brings some disappointment. Or sorrow. Or something akin to those feelings. You see, I've been avoiding doing my dishes, and cleaning the apartment in general actually. Not to mention the half finished skirts and pile of knitting projects, and quilts that are scattered about. While I would love a snow day, I also don't want it because that means cleaning and organizing. And still having to do homework.
It makes me wish I was a little kid again where snow day meant playing and no school, not this grown up snow day is a chance to get caught up with all the work.

Still, I get a smile in my heart when I look out the window!