Five on Friday {February 21, 2014}

Happy Friday!! I'm linking up with Darci again today for Five on Friday!

One.
We went to an infant CPR class on Wednesday night, and while the class was extremely informative and helpful, I'm thinking that Daniel and I shouldn't have sat together. When they put those cheesy videos on with the *terrible* acting, we had a hard time controlling our snickering. You know when you start laughing in church about something that's not that funny, but you can't stop laughing because you know you're not supposed to be laughing? Yeah, it was like that. Thankfully, we were in the back row. We had the same problem at our childbirth classes during the "relaxation" exercises. Lots of giggling. Oh, and we were total champs at the CPR thing...except when Daniel popped the chest off of his mannequin.

Two.
I have a new money making app to share with you! It's called Checkout 51 and it's probably the easiest one yet. It's a lot like Receipt Hog and Ibotta. One thing I really like about Checkout 51 is that they do offers for things like fresh produce, milk, and bread. I redeemed an offer last week for fresh strawberries, and they have another offer this week for bananas. All you do is select the offers you want to redeem, upload your receipt, and it will be approved within 24 hours. Once you earn $20, they'll mail you a check.

{Click here to see my entire post about several other money making apps.}

Three.
My maternity leave is coming up so quickly {but yet, so slowly}! I knew it would be a *ton* of work getting everything ready, but it has me so completely overwhelmed. It's so hard to try to think about every little detail. I will say, though, that the organization lover in me is having fun putting together this pretty binder. The dividers and perfectly hole punched pages make me happy.

Four.
We had such a good Valentine's Day weekend! We were talking the night before and were shocked to realize that it was our 6th {!!} Valentine's Day together...or as the lady at the Publix bakery wrote...our "6th Valentine Day". Daniel said he knew he was in trouble when she asked someone how to spell Valentine's. And yes, if you're wondering, he did get us me an entire cake for Valentine's Day. What can I say? I'm pregnant and I love cake. Don't worry, half of it is in the freezer.

Here we are on our very first Valentine's Day together in 2009. It feels like so long ago!

Five.
So, just for laughs, and maybe a little sympathy, I thought I'd share a photo of my "balloon feet" as I affectionately call them.  I've been talking about how bad my feet are swelling in my weekly pregnancy updates, and you just can't appreciate it unless you see it. After all, one of the reasons I started this blog was so I'd have pictures to go along with memories. This one is definitely a doozy. It's so bad, I know. If you hate feet, I'm so sorry.

On that note, happy Friday, friends! You'll find me this weekend with my balloon feet propped up! ;)

  

Midweek Randoms {August 7, 2013}

Hi there! I hope y'all are having a great week so far. It's my last week of summer break so I'm trying to soak it all in before I go back to teacher mode on Monday. I'm linking up with Megan again this week for Midweek Randoms!

• One of the apps I talked about in my Money Making Apps post has been updated and I like it so much better! The app is Receipt Hog and you earn coins just by taking pictures of your grocery and drug store receipts. Once you reach 1,000 coins, you can redeem them for $5 in cash {via a PayPal deposit} or an Amazon gift card. My favorite thing about the update is that you now earn a spin at the "Hog Slots" {I know!} for every qualifying receipt. I've earned about 100 extra coins so far at the slots. :)  {My referral link is above. I'd love it if you'd click on it so I can take another trip to the Hog Slots! Ha!}

• If you have an Earth Fare in your area, you're going to want to check this out. Right now, they have a coupon that will get you 2.5 pounds of grass fed ground beef for $10.00. That's only $4.00 a pound! You just have to sign up with your e-mail address to get the coupon. I had Daniel pick some up yesterday on his way home from work and we had hamburgers for dinner last night. They were SO good! The beef was really lean, too. The coupon expires on August 11, 2013.

• Two words: Shark Week. I know I am probably going to be in the minority here, but I've never been into it. I've tuned in a couple of times this week, though, because another one of my favorite money making apps, Viggle, is doing 600 point bonuses for some of the shows. Just the few minutes that I've watched have confirmed that I am still NOT a fan. I think this is because I cannot handle gory footage {I can't even watch someone get a shot on TV}. Oh my goodness, the actual aftermath of shark bites that I saw was way too much for me. Just one more reason that I will never ride a jet ski in the ocean again.

• My mom is hilarious. My parents were recently in Ohio for business and while they were there, they bought a bunch of produce from a farm in my hometown. She made this yummy corn {cut off the cob} for our family cookout a couple of weeks ago and I just raved and raved about it. They went back to Ohio to take care of some business stuff last week and on their way home, she texted me saying she was coming home with lots more corn. We went over to their house the night they got back and my dad told me to check out the fridge. Um, wow, Mom! You weren't kidding! :) I love it!

• I cooked some rice in my beloved rice cooker yesterday because I'm making my 15 minute fried rice for dinner tonight. This is a meal I always look forward to because it's so quick, easy, and delicious! I usually serve it with these egg rolls, too. SO good!!

I hope y'all have a great rest of the week!! :)

  

Money Making Apps for Your Smart Phone!

You may want to open this post on your phone so you can download the apps a little easier. :)

Here are some of my favorite apps that I use to make a little extra money. No, you're not going to make a ton, but I love earning gift cards to places I actually go and getting PayPal deposits into my bank account every now and then. Keep reading to learn how!

Receipt Hog - I never thought I'd be happy to say, "I'm a hog!" until I downloaded the Receipt Hog app. You start out as a runt and as you scan more receipts you eventually reach hog status (yes!). :) All you do with this app is take pictures of your grocery and drug store receipts. Dollar Tree works, too! You get a certain number of coins based on your pig's status. Once you earn 1,000 coins, you can redeem them for $5.00 in cash which will be deposited into your PayPal account. Easy! :)

{Update: Receipt Hog has been updated! Click here to read my post about the new features!}

Ibotta - This app gives you money back for buying specific products they have featured. These products vary and change every couple of weeks. The cool thing about Ibotta is that it's over and above any savings you may have already received at the grocery store. You just tap the "Earn" button underneath the item you purchased, scan your receipt, and scan your item. Once you earn $5.00, you can get a deposit from PayPal. Right now, they have a special offer going on for new users. You can get $10 if you complete five offers within your first two weeks! Combine that $10 with the savings you already got per product, and the five items would probably end up being close to free! Gotta love free stuff! :)

Viggle - I've earned over $200 in gift cards in the last year with Viggle. It takes a little effort, but not too much. The basic concept is that you use an audio check in feature to check in to a TV show and you'll get one point per minute that you watch. You don't have to stay on the TV show to get points, though. You'll get points from the time you check in until the show is over. That's really all you have to do to get points on Viggle; however, there are some ways to maximize the amount of points you earn. One is called Viggle Live and it's offered for several shows that come on during prime time. Basically, it's trivia questions about the show you're checked in to. The more questions you get right, the more points you earn. Another way to earn more points is to look for bonus videos. These are usually worth a lot of points! They can be found in the "What's On" tab and sometimes inside of a Viggle Live trivia game.

App Trailers - It takes a little longer to earn rewards with this app, but it doesn't take as much effort as Viggle. For this app, you're just watching trailers for new apps in the app store. They're usually about 15-30 seconds. When I log in to this app every day, all I do is watch the new videos that have come up and then I play the free daily scratcher game for that day (under the "Redeem" tab-see pic below). This takes me about one minute per day. I always redeem my points for Amazon gift card codes, but there are several choices including Gap, Starbucks, Target, iTunes, and more.

I hope you can use some of these apps to make a little extra money! Comment below if you have any questions or if you know of any other money making apps! :)

You can also find some great money making websites here!

Note: Some of the links in this post are my referral links; however, the people at these apps have no idea who I am. I just really like their apps.