Ms Frugal McDougal

My Blog Has Moved!!!!

2008-09-29T20:35:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone!
I have purchased my own domain! Please come visit me at Ms Frugal McDougal! I hope to see you there soon!!!

Work At Home Job Postings!!!

2008-09-25T18:36:00.000-07:00

Today I would like to post some new work at home job listing that are legitimate. As we all know there are lots of scams out there, just waiting to suck in work at home moms. It is a breath of fresh air to know that a company is legitimate and that they are hiring work at home staff from all over the country! One of the great things about the first company we will talk about today is that they consider their work at home staff employees and offer them hourly wages! No sitting by the phone praying for talk time to get your check! I found the first listing today on The Rat Race Rebellion. If you have not subscribed to their newsletter, I highly recommend you do so. You get job listings days before they are put on the website.

Convergsys is hiring in the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

Here is the link to apply with Convergsys

For all those Moms who are looking for non phone work. Personal News Network is looking for authors for their site. They pay their authors a minimum of $100 a month plus sharing in ad revenues.

Happy Job Hunting!

Great Entrecard Credit Contest!!!

2008-09-20T23:16:00.000-07:00

For All You Entrecard Pros Out There!!!!

There is a great Entrecard Credit Contest that just started on The Freebie Reporter. I have included all the information you need to enter the contest below with the contest sponsers! This is a great way to have some fun and earn some free credits while doing so!

70,000 EC Contest

I guess I can’t hold the title of having the biggest Entrecard contest ever. The Freebie Reporter is giving away over 70,000 Entrecard credits (71,000 to be exact) in their new contest. Entering is easy, and it ends in less than a month! You have until October 10th to enter.

The Prizes

There are 18 sets of prizes being given away, meaning a HUGE chance at winning something! Right now only 14 people have entered, with just 20 days left to do so. Since I earn 10 entries for listing the sponsors, here are all the prizes and the sponsors. You’ll see that you can also grab some free advertising spots as well.

1st Prize:

30,000EC from Freebie Reporter
125×125 ad for a month from The Asian Economist
125×125 ad for a month from Free Famous Quotes
1 VIP membership to CreateBanner.com
1 Entrecard banner design from A Phone Sex Life

2nd Prize:

20,000EC from Freebie Reporter
1 VIP membership to CreateBanner.com
125×125 banner ad for a month from Journal Of Journey
125×125 banner ad for a month from Charcotrip.com
1 month blogroll link from A Phone Sex Life

3rd Prize

2000EC from SimpleBrowser
2000EC from Debit vs Credit
1500EC from Positive Thinking
2000EC from Realm of Prosperity
1500EC from NickThrolson
1000EC from Fantasy Baseball
125×125 ad for 3 months from Cash Advance Blog
1 VIP membership to CreateBanner.com

Other Prizes:

EC Credits:

11 Lucky winners will get 1000 credits from one of our fabulous sponsors:

1000EC from Michael Aulia

1000EC from Øblog

1000EC from Better Inspirational Communication

1000EC from Random Detox

1000EC from Multiply Themes

1000EC from Momawannabe

1000EC from Singaporean In London

1000EC from Abhishek

1000EC from SEMscoop.com

1000EC from A Second Cup

1000EC from Kutsara at Tinidor

Advertising:

4 Lucky winners will get premium advertising spots from the following bloggers:

125×125 ad for a month from Positive Thinking

125×125 ad for a month from Gift Reviews

1 month blogroll link from Freebie Reporter

125×125 ad for a month from Freebie Reporter

How to Enter

Entering is super easy. For 5 entries, just blog about the contest. For 10, blog about the contest but list all the sponsors. Additionally, you can subscribe to Freebie Reporter and receive 2 entries. Make sure to comment on the Freebie Reporter’s contest post in order for your entries to count! Hmm, these ways of entry sure sound familiar don’t they?

Pleaes add 1000 EC from Ohio Real Estate to the Contest Above

Thumpin Thursdays Are For Freebies!

2008-09-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

I found a really great place to enter some contests. The cool thing about Starpulse is that you do not have to enter your information every time you want to get in on a contest. They store your information and all you have to do is sign in and click enter to win! My fingers get really tired of putting my info in at least 20 times a day so this is a BIG plus for me!

They also send email updates each time a new contest is released so you do not miss out on any of the great opportunities they have to offer you! Good luck on entering there! They have some great giveaways going on right now!

Walmart is giving away free samples of Huggies Diapers. Get yours today!

Walmart is giving away free samples of Crest today too!

Here is a link to a free sample of the new Pledge Multi Wipes and Spray As a Bzzz agent I got these in the latest campaign to try out. I really like the way that the wipes clean. I used them on my laptop and my table I keep it on. They cleaned quickly and did not leave behind any streaks or dirty areas. The only issue I had with them was the smell. It smelled something like industrial cleaner and I was not impressed with it. It was not awful but I would not want to smell it for any length of time. Thank goodness the smell dissipated pretty quickly. So try these and let me know what you think!

Image courtesty of xymonay at stockxpert.com

Just Another Manic Monday

2008-09-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone
I am under the weather here with my yearly bout of bronchitis I seem to get after my allergies run rampant. So this post will be short and sweet.
Freebies for today:
K-Pac Rescue Your Hair offered by Joico. Fill out a short survey and receive the free samples.
Get a free sample of Secret Obsession by Calvin Klein

Sweepstakes for today:

Enter Farm Rich Sweeps for a free trip for two to Hawaii!
No Nonsense is giving away a free trip for two to New York City!

Have fun with those! Hope to feel better and see you back on Wacky Wednesday with more freebies, tips and tricks, and fun sweepstakes to enter!

Fabulous Friday Free For All!

2008-09-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

TGIF! I am always so glad to see Friday come! The weekend is a reprieve from homework and sometimes from work for me! However being a writer, I can never tell when an assignment will come in so I have found it is really important to enjoy my free time when I find it. Even if it is 15-20 minutes during the day. Those are my "sanity" moments. If I did not have those times to just unwind for a few minutes and let my mind and body see a bit of peace and relaxation, I do not think I would be able to make it through the week. I can absolutely see how so many people are stressed in this life just because they do not allow or afford themselves the time to relax! No one is going to give this to us! We must be firm and take the time for ourselves.

OK, now that you have read my pearl of wisdom for the day on to the fun stuff. Finding new freebie sites is one of the fun things that I do just for me. It is sort of like Christmas in July when I am able to find new and exciting things in the mailbox every week or so!

Today, I found a new opinion panel for new products that is very similar to Bzzz Agent that I have discussed previously here in my blog. This one however, is for women only. It is called She Speaks I have just signed up for this one and am very excited about it. If it is anything like Bzzz Agent it is going to be a lot of fun working with them. The person who referred me to the site had already been invited to several campaigns so I feel it is a good site to try out! If you are not familiar with the process, they send you free products out and you try it. You then evaluate the product and tell others about it and report this back to the company. It s great way to get to try new things and get excellent freebies.

Now for my personal tips for the day. First I have found a second use for Debbie Myer Green Bags. They only advertise them for produce. I have found that you can use them for meats and cheeses as well. They work great for sliced cheeses and lunch meats. I have not had any problems with my cheese getting hard around the edges since placing the block in my green bags.

Second tip for the day is if you are tired of your Reynolds Wrap falling out of the box every time you try to get a sheet out, there are two little tabs on the end that you can depress which will hold the roll in the box. I was amazed that I had not found this years ago! It works great!

Third I have found 101 uses for wood clothes pins in my house. The most common use is for chip clips. My kids break all my chip clips and I hate for my chips to get stale. I tried the wood clothes pins and they work much better, are a lot sturdier, and do not break nearly as easily. They are much less expensive than the chip clips as well. I am getting some of those tiny square magnets to attach to them so I can put them on the refrigerator when not in use.

If you want to decorate them to make them cuter you can make little bugs or other creatures by using pipe cleaners and foam sheets. Allow your kids to help create them. It only takes a few minutes and you have custom chip clips with little expense or fuss!

Wacky Wednesday's Steals and Deals! Wicked!

2008-09-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

I have run across some awesome giveaways and sweepstakes in the past week. I am really excited to be able to share them with you here. A lot of these allow daily entry and none of them require purchase to enter!

Quiznos and CBS.com have a sweepstakes that you can enter daily. The grand prize entitles the winner and 9 guests a free trip to Las Vegas for either a season ending or 2009 NFL draft party!. This includes air fare, hotel accommodations and a VIP night on the town!

Southwest is giving away 4 free round trip tickets to any of the destinations that they fly to!

Ghirardelli is giving away a trip for 2 to the Chocolate Festival in San Fransisco. Other prizes include Half spa days and free chocolate! Yummy!

Aquapod and Nestles have an instant win game right now! You can win several different nice prizes.

Some freebies for today include:

If you are an avid reader like I am this site will come in really handy! It is called The Paperback
Swap. It is completely free of charge. You only have to pay for any books that you mail to other members when swapping. It's a great way to get new books and to not accumulate tons of books that you cannot keep up with!

Nature Made is giving away a 14 day supply of vitamins free! Yes you heard it right, free! Sign up now before this one gets away!

Capture Dry is giving away samples o its dry carpet cleaner for filling out a short survey.

I will have more deals for you on Friday! So check back with me then for more freebies and cool contests, giveaways and sweepstakes to enter for great prizes! Until then have fun!

Image courtesy of LoopAll at http://www.sxc.hu

Freebies of the Day!!!!

2008-09-02T23:18:00.000-07:00

Hello!
Here is one of the freebies of the day!

Dove Hair Therapy Choose from the Shine therapy or Enriched Therapy

I got this in my email today and this is a great one from Nestle. You can fill out a registration form and join the Very Best Baking Team.com You can get great recipes, sign up for sweepstakes, get coupons for excellent Nestles products and more. I love to bake in the fall and get ready for the holidays and what better way to do that than to check out the recipes for Nestles goodies? I sure cannot think of any! I love chocolate chips and can think of a million ways to use them. My whole family is a bunch of chocoholics. Sometimes I seriously try to think of desserts that do not contain chocolate for something different to serve!
So enjoy!

Earn Extra Cash Doing Demos Handing Out Samples!

2008-08-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

Here is an example of one of the ways you can bring in extra cash for your family while still staying at home with your children. There are needs for part time merchandisers and people who do demos and hand out samples to customers who are walking through stores such as Walmart or Sams Clubs. These positions are not full time and are not steady work but will help to give you extra spending money or help to pay for extra things that the kids need from time to time! You can even make a nice little nest egg if you pick up more than a few of these per month!. The beauty of these is you take the jobs that you want when you want. I found this listing today on the Work Place Like Home Board and wanted to share with you so you can see what a nice little jewel this is and few people know about these types of positions. STEEL Agency (Promotions and Event Staffing Agency) is looking for professional and reliable people for upcoming promotions and events NATIONWIDE!!! Our jobs are easy and fun. Some of our promotional jobs consist of: Hand out free samples Hand out brochures or other marketing materials Greet customers Demonstrate a product Register people at a booth for a convention or tradeshow Etc.... Pay - Varies per job but ranges from $13 - $30+ per hour Schedule: Flexible. You can choose what jobs you want to apply for and work If interested in working promotions and events, visit here to register: (THERE IS NO FEE TO REGISTER WITH US: http://www.steelagency.com/promo If you are interested in learning more about these types of positions I highly suggest that you visit Narms. You can sign up with them and get up to date listings of merchandising and other ongoing positions that are available in your area.

Some Neat Freebies To Check Out

2008-08-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

Would you like to get some neat freebies and samples? I always love to open my mailbox and see what surprises are there for me! It's always fun to try new things and to get free samples of things that I use already! Here is a free sample for Cascade from Walmart. They have some excellent samples that are available each month. Here is a great way to get a sample of Pledge Multi Purpose Wipes plus a $1.00 coupon toward your next purchase! I think that this is a wonderful way to try new things before I spend a lot of cash on them. The ones that really work for me I can then purchase with the satisfaction of knowing that they work well and are worth the $$$ I spend for them!

Rat Race Rebellion Work At Home Job Listings

2008-08-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

Rat Race Rebellion is one of the best resources online for job postings. It has weekly online "want ads" as well as very informative do's and don'ts that concern working at home or telecommuting. They have a weekly email list that you can subscribe to which allows you to get the weekly list of jobs available before they go on the site for people to apply for. This gives you a bit of an edge as there is very stiff competition for any good job or career in the work at home field.

Please don't be discouraged! There are positions available. However, you do need to be realistic. If you have good qualifications and a good background or excellent experience in a certain field you are going to have a much better chance of landing a job at home in that field. The big mistake many women make in trying to work at home is applying for any and all jobs that are available whether they are qualified for them or not. Then they are disappointed more often than not. Employers are often times very disgusted by this as well and have voiced this more than once on the work at home forums. So keep this in mind when applying for work at home jobs please! It benefits you and the employers as well. So consider this part one of your work at home tip for today!

Part two of the work at home tip for today is take out your resume and really give it a good going over. Have someone else do this as well. Resumes that stand out are something that every employer says that they look for. A professional and concise cover letter with your strengths and what you can bring to the job should be included as well. This is very important and can make the difference of whether you get that second look by a human resources agent or not so it is worth taking some time to tweak or have someone do it for you! Happy career hunting!

2 More Work At Home Forums

2008-08-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

Today I would like to go over two more work at home forums that have been very helpful to me and many others in the work at home field. I have used the first forum for years for many purposes not just work at home but for hobbies and other things women enjoy as they have a lot of folders for various interests.

This forum is WAHM.com forum. This was one of the first big work at home forums for women and has wonderful resources for work at home jobs in the telecommuting folder. It has separate folders for certain companies as well, however I have found much more concise particular information that I needed on Work Place Like Home. I really like WAHM for its writing and blogging folders They are wonderful and a wealth of information for anyone who is contemplating freelance writing for a career.

The second forum I would like to mention today is fairly new but has gained a large following! It is called The Work At Home Mafia. They have great work at home resources as well. One of the areas that I feel that they excel at is listing jobs that do not require phone work.

Most of the work at home jobs are customer service type jobs and require that you work on the phone and need a quiet area to do so. This can be very hard for women with small children who can cry or yell for mom at a moment's notice. Therefore there is a real need for home jobs that do not require phone work. The board owner has really dedicated herself to find these types of jobs for people who need them. She has gained a huge following due to this.

Tomorrow we will discuss more about where to look for work at home!

Til then!

Image courtesty of lincolnrog at stockxpert.com

Excellent Resources For Working At Home

2008-08-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

I highly recommend anyone that is contemplating working at home to do their homework first! There are many scams that can be devastating to women in particular who just want to stay at home with their children and earn a decent living. This can really put a bad taste in any one's mouth about working at home in general. The key here to success is knowing where to look and who to ask when you are sure about a company. There are three wonderful forums that can give you almost any of the information that you need about work at home jobs as well as information on scams. You can also get the "skinny" on average money to be made, the things you will need to work there, and what requirements are necessary for the job. These are things such as a quiet office set up or a land line phone, etc. If you are new to the work at home world I suggest you take a few days and read over the forums before you jump into anything. There is a wealth of information on the boards here and forewarned is forearmed in this business!
The first board that I recommend is Work Place Like Home They have a general work at home folder and also individual folders for the bigger work at home companies with particulars about what you need to work for them, what steps are required in hiring and what average wages are earned. They also tell you whether you will be an employee or independent contractor. They have an excellent folder on scams there as well! The people there are very friendly and job openings are posted there frequently in the work at home folder as well.
Check back tomorrow for more!

Ways To Get Cool Things Free!

2008-08-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

There are many ways to get cool things free to try out. There are freebie lists that you can join which will let you know about new free things that you can sign up for. I have gotten lots of things from free antiperspirant, toothpaste, zip lock bags, new perfumes, Scott tissue paper, to free contact lens solution, coffee and more. I sign up for offers when I have a few free minutes. It does not take long and you can really get to try some neat merchandise. I love to try new things but hate to pay the price for something new until I am sure it will perform as it is supposed to.
This is a great way to try before you buy!

Another way to do this is to join companies who pay people to do beta testing of their products or will give you free products just to give them an honest review of the product once you have used it for some time. If you would like to sign up for some of these companies Google "product testers" or go to http://www.volition.com and click on their link to get paid for trying out products and such.

One great company I have joined and am very excited to be a part of is Bzzz Agent. They let you join campaigns for new products according to your family demographics and your particular likes and dislikes. I have been with them for about a year now. I have received a new Sonic Care System with the ultrasonic cleaner free, Listerine white strips, the new Zip Lock Screw Top Containers, Glade Flame Free Scented Candles, and more all free. I was required to tell others about these products and then write a report on the site about how I liked the product and the response I got from others when talking to them about it. The last campaign I got on was for the Game Wave Zap It Family Gaming System. It is a game system that is played on TV similar to Play Stations. I got it and 7 games for a greatly discounted price in order to try it out! You cannot go wrong if you want to do things like this by joining Bzzz Agent!

Frugal Tip Of The Day!

2008-08-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Since gas prices are ever on the rise, all of our groceries have gone up in price as well. I have been looking for ways to make my food that I buy last longer. I hate the fact that I spend a lot of money on fresh produce and then it goes bad in the refrigerator 3-5 days after I get it.
I have been looking for something to help with this for some time. I was working doing customer service for an online shopping company and saw Debbie Myer's Green Bags. I was a bit skeptical, but knew I had 30 days to return them if they did not work as stated. So I purchased a set of those and the produce wash that came with it. With all the salmonella and E Coli scares on produce I was happy to get this too.
I tried the green bags and was thrilled with the way that they kept bananas and lettuce from going bad. Before the green bags, bananas would last maybe 3 days before they were overly ripe. I had bananas in the green bag for over a week and they were still very good.
Lettuce is something else I lose quite frequently. It stays in the green bags for longer than a week and is still very crispy and fresh! For those 2 items it was well worth the purchase.
I spray all my fresh fruit and veggies with the produce spray and so far none of us have ever gotten sick eating anything like that.
The bags are reusable and just wash, and turn inside out and dry before using again. So good bargain for the $$$ they cost!

Ms Frugal McDougal Is Born

2008-08-23T17:13:00.000-07:00

This is my hubby's pet name for me. I have always looked for ways to save money since I was a single mom for five years with two growing boys to support. Old habits are hard to break! I have gotten him on the savings train in a lot of ways now, though.
My kids think I am cuckoo because I refuse to shop in the malls. I have spent a lot of time and effort finding ways to dress and support my household and my children without spending hundreds of dollars on designer clothing. This can be done and it is not hard to do at all! It just takes some time and a mindset that you do not have to spend $60 on a pair of Limited Too Jeans in order to be cool in the workplace or at school!
All of this really came home for us when three years ago I had to leave my very successful massage practice due to health reasons. I had to relearn all the old tricks and find a few more to figure out ways for our family to do well without my income. I realized after some research that I did not have to be "without" income. I could work at home!!!! HOORAY! So I set out my work at home search for work that I could do with my health issues and still be here for my children as we could not afford day care with our present money coming in.
Some things I found I could do very quickly were online surveys and some paid forum posting jobs. These didn't require any experience except for common sense and to be able to post in a forum which I was very efficient at!
I immediately joined Greenfield Online and NFO Forums. I am still a member of NFO and continue to do their surveys today even though they do not pay out straight cash as they did in the beginning. They give points for surveys and you can build up points to cash in for a check, gift cards or merchandise. This does not work out to be as much as I received in the beginning but it is fun and I still enjoy finding out about new products on the market as well as being able to influence them to a certain degree. Needless to say this did not feed our family, but it did help out with some spending cash and for extras that we needed at the time.

Image courtesy of crisderaud at stockxpert.com