How to Save Time and Money while Grocery Shopping

 If I'm being honest, I’m not a big fan of grocery shopping.   I dislike the crowded aisles of people.  Especially the ones who stop their cart right in front of the item that you need and then spend a solid five minutes trying to decide which loaf of bread they want.   I always find myself cringing at the cash register as I watch the numbers go higher and higher above what I had budgeted for the week.  

Grocery shopping had also become a huge time suck.  I’ve heard people say before that time is even more valuable than money because once it’s gone, it’s gone.   You can never get it back again.    I truly believe this and it’s one of the biggest reasons I want to become completely debt-free so I can have the luxury of spending my time on work that I chose to do and not work that I have to do to pay the bills.     

These past couple of months of social distancing due to Coronavirus resulted in my husband and I trying out the Walmart Grocery App where customers can order groceries straight from their phones. I really enjoyed how the app keeps track of your total price as you add items to your virtual cart.  You can also sort items by price so it makes it extremely easy to make sure you're getting the best deal for each item.  Then you choose a pickup time that's convenient for you.   When you get to Walmart, look for the designated area Walmart grocery pickup area.  You should check in on the app, selecting the numbered spot you parked in and the color of your car.   We've never had more than a five-minute wait for a Walmart employee to bring our groceries out to our car.  It could not be easier. 

 Right now they are only allowing 100 people in the store at once.  There's always a large line of customers out the door whenever I pull into the grocery pickup area.   I'm surprised that more people don't use their pickup service.   Maybe they don't realize how simple it is or they think that there's a cost for it.   I think there may have been a fee when the service first came out but there isn't anymore. If you haven't tried it out yet, you can get $10 off your first order by using this link.   


Something that might turn people off from getting their groceries online is that there is less opportunity to use coupons.   I was excited to learn that one of my all-time favorite grocery coupon apps Ibotta now offers coupons for Walmart Grocery Online.  There are so many coupons on here that I always find at least a few to earn for each trip.    There is a section of coupons that are not brand specifically for things like bread, milk, and eggs.   So there's always a usable coupon for your grocery list and the savings add up fast.   You can cash out once your earnings have reached $20.  You can earn a welcome bonus after redeeming your first coupon by using my referral code mvmrryf when you sign up. 

Learn Graphic Design with Skillshare in Two Months for Free

Graphic Design is an exciting career choice for anyone interested in art. People who hope to earn a living from their creativity have so many more options today due to technology.   The best part about a career in graphic design is that you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a degree to enter the field.    If you want to work for a company then yes, an associates or bachelors degree may be necessary.   But if you want to become a freelance graphic designer, putting together a great portfolio of your work can be all you need to earn a decent living.   The average yearly Salary of a freelance graphic designer is $62,451.        

So how can you learn graphic design without paying a hefty tuition? The answer is Skillshare.  Skillshare has over 17,000 classes on many different subjects.  All classes are based around a project that you will complete to practice as you learn.   Here are ten classes that together will give you a well-rounded skill set in graphic design.  And Remember, with each class project you complete, you will be growing your graphic design portfolio to show future clients.  

1.       Basics of Photoshop: Fundamentals for Beginners

This class covers the basics Photoshop.  You’ll learn how to edit images, add typography, choose colors, and create compositions

Class Project: Design a Mood Board.

2.       Graphic Design Basics: Core Principles for Visual Design

This class will teach you the five basic design principals, how to critique your own work for effectiveness and balance and how to apply what you’ve learned to future projects.

Class Project: Design a layout combining images and typography.

3.       Typography That Works: Typographic Composition and Fonts

This class will teach you a variety of typeface elements and how to best utilize them.  

Class Project: Redesign your business card.

4.       Digital Lettering: Designing Typography for Headlines in a Visual Layout

This class will guide you through finding inspiration, sketching concepts, designing your headline, and creating a final layout.

Class Project: Letter a headline from your favorite publication.

5.       Intro to Graphic Design: Illustrating Badges and Icons with Geometric Shapes

This class will teach you how to  basic geometric shapes in Illustrator to craft complex visuals in a minimal amount of space.

Class Project: Create a set of icons or badges using basic geometric shapes.

6.       Illustrating Patterns: Creating Hand-Drawn Wallpaper

This class will take you through her process of illustrating your favorite household objects, then turning the drawing into a repeat pattern for wallpaper.

Class Project: Create wallpaper with hand-drawn illustrations

7.       Illustration for Designers: Create Your Own Geometric Animals

This class will teach you how to master vector illustrations. You will Learn practical ways to simplify complex forms, create unified compositions, and style with restraint.

Class Project: Create a geometric illustration of your favorite animal

8.       Mastering Logo Design: Gridding with the Golden Ratio

This class will teach you about the Golden Ratio and when to use it,

Gridding a complex logo in Adobe Illustrator,

Incorporating Golden Ratios to create natural marks, and

Fine-tuning techniques to ensure perfection.

Class Project: Design a logo using the Golden Ratio

9.       Digital Illustration: Doodles to Designs

This class will teach you how to digitize, publish and polish your doodles.

Class Project: Creating an art print you can sell from your doodles

10.   Game Design: Design Your Own Print-Ready Cards for Table Top Games

This class will teach you about Breaking down a card design into easy-to-understand blocks.

You’ll learn about free resources for prototype iconography and art, using InDesign's DataMerge to make revising cards a snap.

Class Project: Design your own print-ready cards for table top games

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The links to these classes are my referral links which will give you two months of premium Skillshare for free. You can cancel any time before your two months are up without having to pay anything.   If you decide to keep going after your two months, premium membership is $96 a year and I’ve found it to be extremely worth it for unlimited access to all of their classes.  

Do Something Every Day To Get You Closer To Your Dream

My mindset has been going through a transformation lately.   I was lucky enough to come across Eric Thomas The Hip Hop Preacher's YouTube Channel.   He is by far the best motivational speaker I've ever heard.   He speaks with so much fire and passion.  He makes you believe that absolutely anything is possible. Eric used to be a homeless high school drop out and now he's  a super successful motivational speaker with a PHD.

Eric talks about how most of us give 80% effort in what we do and that's being generous.   He asks us how different our life would look if we gave 110% in everything we do.  Honestly, I  think I've been operating more at 50%.  I've been discontent ever since the year began.  I don't enjoy my new job.  I look at other jobs that are available to apply for but I don't think I would like them any better.   What I really want is to be able to work from home full time.  I want to be able to make a living from my passions like writing, cooking, and art.   I have anxiety about my current job as well as being in debt and not being able to afford a house.   I was frustrated that none of these things that I want have happened yet and then I heard Eric Thomas say "You don't get what you want, you get what you earn!"  

I realized that maybe God put this discontent in my heart for the purpose of moving me forward.   It has really pushed me to stop procrastinating and get serious about my goal of working from home.  It's really comforting to get stuck in the visualization phase of our goals.  There comes a time though when we need to put in the work and take action.    I woke up this morning with a thought standing out in my mind that inspired me to write this post.    I'm going to do at least one thing every single day to get closer to my dream of quitting my job and working from home.  I will share weekly updates here to keep myself accountable.  

Do you have a big goal that will change your life once you achieve it?  I would love to hear about it!  

Create a 10 Minute Video Tutorial and Earn $100 with the Skillshare September Challenge.

If you are looking for an easy way to earn passive income from home, without a lot of time investment then you should check out Skillshare.    Skillshare is a  a website with a very large collection of short video courses on any subject you can imagine.

Skillshare rewards it's instructors very well.  Each month they offer a new teacher challenge.    For the month of  September you will earn a $100 bonus and 1 year Skillshare premium membership for free.   The new instructor who creates the most popular course this month will earn a $1000 Apple gift card!  So you can upload a video as short as 10 minutes and be guaranteed $100!  

I thought that this was too good to be true at first.   I created a 25 minute video about how to use a website called Zazzle to design and sell products.  It was not great by any means because I was super nervous.  But sure enough I had the new teacher bonus in my Paypal account by payday the next month and I had access to the free year of Skillshare premium.  I really enjoyed browsing through all of the different classes.  It gave me some great ideas about what kind of content does really well and how those classes are formatted.    

If you don't want your face on camera that's fine.   You can make website tutorials by recording your computer screen.   I like to use Screencastomatic.   It's a free screen recorder that is super easy to use!

Aside from the new teacher bonus, once your course reaches 25 followers you will then earn a monthly commission from Skillshare.   The average instructor earns $300 a month but those who have created a lot of courses and grow a large following earn a few thousand a month.

In short, you don't have to be a professional to earn money on Skillshare.  You just have to know enough about a topic to create a 10-30 minute video about it.      

1. Sign up for Skillshare here
2. Join the September Teach Challenge here
   

Simple Ways To Build Up Your Emergency Fund Quickly

 

With the start of the new year and my foolish 20s drifting farther away in the rear view mirror, it's become painfully obvious that it's time to start acting like an adult.   It's not cute or  funny anymore to be broke.   After 30 it just starts to get embarrassing.
I'm working to pay off my debt and I'm on track to be 100% debt free by the end of the year.  At the same time I want to build up a starter emergency fund of $1000.    Not only does having a fund in place help you to feel more relaxed and stress free but It will also give you a confidence boost.   Gradually seeing your emergency fund grow will make you feel like you have your life under control.      
I've started adding  $50 to my emergency fund from each paycheck.  This is a good start but I want to bulk up my fund even more .  Here is a list of simple things I'm doing to grow my emergency fund more quickly. 

​                                                       Declutter

If you live in a small apartment like I do, then Decluttering will benefit you in many ways.   You will be able to find things more easily.  You won't go out and buy something you already have just because you couldn't find where you put it.   You will also be less stressed when you look around and everything is organized and clean.  

DVDs, CDs, and Video Games:  We have a huge collection of these that take up way too much space!   So we are going to go through all of these and If we haven't used them in the past year then we probably won't.   We just got a Roku for Christmas that we can stream Netflix on.  So we have an even less need now for physical dvd's.  Decluttr.com is a website that will buy back your used CDs, DVDs and video games.   You just have to type in the barcode number.    They will even pay for shipping.   They have an app as well for Android and Iphone  that is really useful because you can just scan the item's barcode and not have to type each one individually. 

Clothes:  We are going to go through the same purging process with our clothes.   If we haven't worn it in the past year then we don't need it.  It's just taking up much needed space.     I researched  websites that will buy your used clothes but I was disappointed  to  find that pretty much all of them will only buy back high end designer clothes.  That doesn't do much good for an Old Navy/Walmart girl like me.     So I decided we're better off just donating our clothes to charity and claiming it as a tax deduction.   

Books:   I do most of my reading on the Kindle so I don't have a ton of books to sell.  My husband has a few textbooks though that I am going to look up on a site called Bookscouter.com, they also have an app if you want to be able to scan the barcodes.  Bookscouter will compare prices for your book with tons of different vendors so you can see which one will buy it for the best price.   This is a very useful tool!   If you don't have any books of your own to sell then you could go to your local Goodwill store and start scanning  the used  textbooks to see if you can make a profit.  

            Take a 10 Minute Survey Break   

There are not many survey sites out there that I will bother spending time on.   I got fed up fast with spending 30 minutes on a survey just to get told the last minute that I don't qualify for it.  So frustrating!    There is however one survey that I love because it only takes about three minutes and I get paid for it every time.    A little trick I'm going to share is that you can do the same survey on three different sites each day! Just make sure you clear your internet cookies or better yet do it on  different devices.   I do it on my laptop, kindle fire, and phone.    The first site is Treasuretrooper.  After you sign up, you should click on the cash surveys tab and click on survey #8.
 Sunshinerewards  is the next survey site.   The survey page will be the first one that opens and you will want to click on Opinion Central Daily Survey Router.      
FusionCash  Is the last Survey site you will visit.   After you log in you will click on the FC Surveys tab at the top right of the page. On that page you will see  a Daily Surveys table on the left of the page.  The first survey is Openion Central.  That's the one that you want.   

Completing these three surveys shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes a day and will earn you about $42 each month to add to your emergency fund.   

                                                  Watch Some Videos
 
 You don't even have to watch them.  You just have to let them run in the background on your phone or tablet when your not using it.

PerkTV: This app is the best!  They pay you for watching movie trailers and app videos.   I recommend the app videos because they're shorter so you get more points faster.   You just have to hit the "i'm still watching" button once every two hours but other than that it's completely passive earning. You can run it on up to 5 devices at once and I've made more money from this than almost any other online venture.   I've redeemed $150 in Walmart gift cards in the past 3 months.   We use them to pay for our groceries.    They have a large gift card collection as well as a paypal redemption option.     You can get 50 bonus points if you use my referral code c5c69681 

Swagbucks  is my next favorite app.  I talk about it in great detail in one of my previous post you can read here.

                                 Take Pictures of your Receipts 

 There are a number of apps that will pay you for sending in pictures of your receipts.   Sometimes they will give you rebates for specific groceries you bought but other apps will give you paypal or amazon cash for any receipt you take a picture of no matter what you bought or where you shopped.   This blog post will give you details on all the free apps that will pay you for your receipts.   

                              Cash Back Online Shopping

 I know what your thinking.   If you're building up your emergency fund than you shouldn't be online shopping.  That's very true but sometimes its unavoidable.   Maybe you got invited to a baby shower or a wedding.    Or your child got invited to a birthday party.   With many major retailers having free site to store shipping, you can save a lot of money shopping online.   The two cashback sites I use most often are  Ebates and MrRebates.   Sometimes one of them will have a higher cash back amount than the other for the store that I'm looking for so it's a good idea to check both.    
                                               Clickworker
                           
 Clickworker is a  site that pays you to do short tasks.  The one I've been focusing on is search engine evaluation.   They show you a search engine term and then an ad that would pop up when someone searches for it.  You then rate how well the ad  goes with what the person is searching for.   Its really easy once you get the hang of it. You get 5 cents for each one you do and it only takes a few seconds.   It's pretty easy to make $9 an hour on Clickworker.  
                                  
                                      Do Some Searches
There are a few search engine sites that I put into my daily routine because they're so easy and take little time.  

Bing Search:  You can get 15 points a day for searching  on your computer and 10 for searching on your phone.   You can also get daily points for answering trivia, watching videos and taking quizes.   They do pay in gift cards instead  of cash but I figure it will still be nice to have some Starbucks and Burger King gift cards saved up if I ever get laid off.    You can earn $10-$15 in gift cards each month if you spend a few minutes on Bing each day.

Inboxdollars and Sendearnings  are sister sites.   They each have a search engine feature that pays you 1-5 cents per search.  You also get a 10 cent bonus for searching 4 days in a row.    They have a lot of other features as well like cash surveys, cash videos and paid emails.   What I love about these sites is that after you make $30 you get put in a Gold Member pool and every time someone new signs up they become a Gold Member's referral and you earn a referral commission.  This makes them  two of the few survey sites that you can earn passive income from.       
       
                                            Conclusion       
​                                      
Well that is my list.   I hope you enjoyed it and got some ideas for adding to your emergency fund.   I have no trouble earning at least $200 a month from doing the simple things on this list.    If you have any other ideas for ways to build up your emergency fund, please feel free to comment below.

Cash Back for Taking Photos of Your Receipts

Don't throw those receipts away! The following apps will give you cash back just for sending the pictures of your receipts.   

Walmart savings catcher will look at what you have bought and if any other store has the same product listed for cheaper, than Walmart will pay you the difference in the form of a Walmart gift card. You can submit 7 receipts a week.  Don't just stop the savings with your own receipts.  You can benefit from other's grocery list too!  On one shopping trip a couple of weeks ago, I happened to find a couple of long receipts in the parking lot on the way to my car and got almost $10 cash back from scanning them into my Savings Catcher app! 

Ibotta has a huge list of products that you can earn cash back for buying.   My favorite thing about ibotta is that a lot of the products on the list are things that most people buy every week and they don't even have to be a specific brand, such as yogurt, milk, eggs, and bread.

Bonus: When you sign up they will ask you if you have a referral code.  If you enter mvmrryf you will get a $10 bonus when you redeem your first rebate and I will get a $5 bonus. 
  
Receiptpal rewards you for any receipt you take a picture of from the past 30 days.   It doesn't just have to be for groceries, it can also be for restaurants, toy or clothing stores.  Pretty much anything you would get a receipt for.   You get rewarded in the form of various gift cards like Restaurants.com, BestBuy, Lowes, Home Depo, Target, and Walmart. 

Receipt Hog will give you points for every receipt you snap a picture of, regardless of what you bought or what store you shopped at.  They pay in virtual coins that you can redeem for Amazon or PayPal cash.  They even have a fun little slot game that you can play as a bonus for snapping receipts.  You can win some pretty nice prizes like $100, 400 coins, and you an even get redeemed for the price of your last shopping trip.

Shopkick: This app is a little different than the others.  You get awarded "kicks" for different things such as  checking in on your app when you walk into the stores on the list.   You also get paid for scanning products when your in the store.    Some stores such as Old Navy and JC Penney will even award you a kick for every dollar you spend there.    You can redeem your kicks for an assortment of gift cards. 

Here are the additional honorable mention grocery apps that I use.   They don't always have a product that is on my list but there is a good chance that they'll have at least one or two staples.  It’s always worth giving them a look before you toss your receipt.  You don't want to leave any rebates unclaimed.

checkout 51
Savingstar
Snap by Groupon
Shrink -Get an extra $1 with bonus code ZLYZFJ

Update:  I wanted to add a couple of apps to the list that I recently discovered. 

Checkpoints:  This app is similar to Shopkick in that it pays you to check into stores and scan items.   You can also earn 500 points a day just for letting videos continuously play on your phone.    I like to start the videos before I go to bed and then by the time I wake up I have a ton of points added to my account.   You can use my bonus code heathermgc68  when you sign up!  

Find and Share: This is a great app that gives you a percentage cash back from different stores and restaurants you stop at.   They have tons of stores and restaurants to choose from.   I even got cash back from shopping at the Dollar Tree!  All you have to do is take a picture of your receipt. Bonus code when you sign up- HGXC.

Kellogg's  Family Rewards: If you buy any Kellogg's products then just take a picture of your receipt to get rewarded.  You can Download the app or use the Kellogg's Family Rewards website. You can redeem your points for gift cards or cool products like camping gear and kitchen appliances.