A Problogger Mom

Yes, I have been very very bad. I have done the biggest blogger no-no and not posted in forever. I apologize to all those who have checked in and noticed.

 I don’t really have a good excuse. I did pick up my Ebay selling over the winter, and that just kind of took over. It seems spring rolls around, the sales slow down, and that is when I get the blogging bug again. Sorry to disappoint.

Are you ready? I am honestly still in denial. I just cannot believe the holidays are upon us. It was JUST Halloween for crying out loud, and now Thanksgiving and the years biggest shopping day are just days away. Check out the Black Friday Ads here. If you are like me, and do a lot of your shopping online, don’t forget to earn cash back rewards by signing up and going through Bigcrumbs first before you shop. All those little cash back reward do add up over time. Between me and my referrals, I’ve earned almost $250 back since November of last year when I signed up. Can’t beat that!

Michelle Gartner from Smart, Not Cheap, tagged me awhile ago to participate in the Moolanomy My One Piece of Money Advice Meme. Sorry it’s so late, but here it goes.

 If I could offer one piece of money advice, it would be to PAY YOURSELF FIRST! I’m sure you’ve all heard it before, but how many of you actually do it? To the max? Maybe you contribute a bit to your 401K, but do you contribute enough to get your full company match? That’s free money! Do you have any going into savings as well?

Did you get everything done you wanted to this summer? I know that we are WAY behind! We wanted to refinish the decks, put in more garden beds, add Garden Lighting and way more. I am putting at least the smallest deck on my to do list this week when the kids go back to school. Luckily, it is the one that faces south and needs to be done way more than the big deck we have out front. I’ve already scraped, and I’m going to pick up sanding paper for my husband’s sander shortly, so wish me luck!

We just got back from our last scheduled camping trip of the season and had a blast. The car is unloaded, the laundry is going, I’m about to run out and pick up something for dinner and hit Home Depot for a few things we need for projects around here tomorrow.

 We had a blast at the fair, I promise to post an update on how the girls did soon. I also have been tagged by Michelle and Dana, and promise I’m not neglecting you! Just been a crazy two weeks here! Only one more day until school…..WHOO HOO! I feel like I have so much I’ve put on my list to do when the kids go back, I’m not sure where to start first! Hope to be back here posting regularly, now that our crazy end of summer routine is over.

I am always on the lookout for legitimate ways to save money and/or make money online. I’ve recently come across an online site that will help you save money when you shop online, and I wanted to share it with my readers. The site is www.deallocker.com and it is all about saving money online with free online coupons, and sharing these deals with your friends. They offer online coupon codes and discount codes for all the popular online stores, as well as for specialty niche shopping sites.

This is a test post, using problogger Paula Neal Mooney’s tried and true method for drawing massive visitors to your blog. Don’t worry, I will also be providing lots of relevant information on the recent California earthquake and  information on Los Angeles earthquakes in general.

Here is a link to the Southern California Earthquake Center and here is a link to the NY Times article on the August 9th earthquake in the Los Angeles area. Many people may also be interested in the massive 1994 Los Angeles earthquake that registered as a 6.6 on the Richter scale.

This is a sponsored post.If you are trying to get more incoming hits to your blog, another unique way to advertise your site is by using car magnets. I have seen more and more of these on cars lately, advertising everything from preschools to dog walkers, so why not your blog? I always keep a note pad in the car with me since I am a list maker by nature, and I am always jotting things down on it that I need to look up on the web, from houses for sale in my neighborhood, to businesses I want to check out online.

I last posted my online earnings on June 21st. Now that August is here, I decided it is time to update you all. At the last report, my total online earnings via blogging, advertising, affiliates, pay to click type sites, etc was $128.90 for the month of May and the first 3 weeks of June.

As of today, my total is $409.15, which means in the last 5 weeks or so I have made an additional $280.25. This does NOT include an addtional $75 I have earned for referrals to Payperpost. I will only receive this money when each of those referrals follows through with writing a paid post and gets paid for it 30 days later. But if you would like to include it, that would make my total online earnings since May $484.15, or just $355.25 for the last 5 weeks or so.

Whoo hoo! A new fun thing to play with! I signed up for Sponsored Reviews last week before leaving on our camping trip, and just found an approval notice in my inbox! I’m looking forward to figuring out how that site works as I have only heard good things about it and that you can earn a bit more from them than you can with other paid posting type sites.

I also just signed this blog up with Payperpost, as I have finally reached the point of having over 10 approved posts on my old blog.