Work in Progress

been putting this together for a few friends of mine.  Thought it might help out some people here.  If you have anything to add, please do so!!!  The more information the better! 

HOW TO SAVE MONEY AND EARN WITH LITTLE EFFORT

Coupons:

o   Most of these are sites where you print and clip coupons.  Others have coupon codes for on-line shopping.

http://www.afullcup.com/

http://slickdeals.net/

http://www.iheartthemart.com/

http://coupondivas.com/

http://www.save.com/coupons/

http://www.retailmenot.com/

http://smartsource.com/smartsource/index.jsp?Link=MKRU3JAAR6CCY

http://www.southernsavers.com/

Grocery Stores:

Bashas?: http://www.bashas.com/

Kroger: http://www.kroger.com/Pages/default.aspx

Safeway: http://www.safeway.com/IFL/Grocery/Home

o   When shopping pay attention to the lower left hand corner of the label the store uses to price on the shelves... this tells you how much you are getting /oz./unit or whatever. Great to price compare the different brands.  Bigger does not always mean better? but usually it does.  Also, just because there is a VIP price, does not mean it is the best price on the shelf.

o   Use your VIP card. At Safeway and Fry's the amount you buy equates money off at the pump. Fry's goes through Fry's stations, Shell, Circle K and possibly a few others. Safeway has their own pumps and others such as Texaco... probably more. A hundred dollars spent in the store = 10 cents off at the pump. You can let it build up or redeem each time.  Right now Fry?s is having a double your points deal.

o   Log in and use your VIP card: Fry's and Safeway have coupons on line. I'm not talking about the stuff you have to search for, print, clip and forget in your wallet or purse. I'm talking about you log-in with your VIP information and they have the coupons there.  Usually there are what seems like a hundred of them. Click on the coupons you want and they automatically load to your VIP card. Once you use your VIP number at the register the coupons will automatically come off before you pay.

o   Double coupon day: A lot of the grocery stores around town have double coupon days... so that fifty cent coupon is now worth a dollar. Most stores will redeem coupons on double day for up to a dollar of the value. So that dollar coupon is worth 2 and that 1.50 coupon is worth 2.50. Big savings there.

o   Look for freebies on sites in relation to your VIP card.  Often times you will also get an e-mail from the store letting you know of freebies they are offering. For instance in the last month I have redeemed a free jar of Tostitos Salsa, a box of Betty Crocker mac and cheese, and another coupon for doubling my gas points. I have another one on deck for a free box or bag of some popcorn, a bag of charcoal and Quaker granola bars. Don't have to pay a thing for any of them. So you're saving a dollar (mac and cheese) to a couple dollars (salsa) for stuff you may have wanted already.

Freebie Sites:

o   Sign up for freebie sites... You can do this by visiting the site yourself, or some of them are on Facebook.  Just do a search on Facebook for ?freebies? or similar terms and you can ?like? them in order to have them post in your daily feed.

http://absurdlycool.com/

http://www.afreebieempire.com/

http://www.allyou.com/coupons-deals/daily-free-samples-00411000069695/

http://www.freebieshark.com/

http://www.thatfreebiesite.com/

http://www.couponersunited.com/category/freebies/

http://hip2save.com/category/freebies/

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/freebies/

http://sweetiesfreebies.com/category/freebies

http://sweetiesfreebies.com/freebies/birthday-freebies

http://freebies2deals.com/

http://freebies4mom.com/freebies/free-samples/

http://www.heyitsfree.net/

http://www.shesaved.com/category/free-stuff

http://www.startsampling.com/samples.iphtml

http://samples.target.com/?empty=1

http://instoresnow.walmart.com/In-Stores-Now-Free-Samples.aspx

Surveys and Task Sites:

o   http://www.swagbucks.com/  For doing tasks, you can earn points and trade in for gift cards.  Most tasks are things like watching advertisements or answering survey questions.  You also have the opportunity to earn points if you make purchases on different sites they recommend.

o   http://crowdtap.com/portal  This is a survey site, but now they randomly award the gift cards.  I haven?t received one yet.

o   http://gather.com/  This site hasn?t worked correctly in a couple months, but when it does function, you get points for posting pictures and articles along with commenting on other people?s stuff.  The more you interact on the site the faster your points build to trade in for gift cards to Target, Home Depot, make donations, and a few others, or cash out on PayPal.  I don?t usually interact a lot, so it takes me a year to earn $50.

o   http://www.pineconeresearch.com/  If you ever see an advertisement or get an e-mail invitation for Pinecone Research, this is a reputable survey site.  You will answer questions and they will pay you.  Often times they will send you full sized samples of products (at no cost to you) they want your opinion on.  They pay directly to your PayPal account.  At the time I was participating over five years ago, it was up to five dollars per survey.  Totally simple to do and takes little time.  This is nothing to make a living on, you only receive a few surveys a month, but hey, $15 extra to the credit card sure does add up after a while.

o   http://www.i-say.com  I haven?t participated on this site until today in five years.  But it?s similar to Pinecone.  You complete surveys, they give you points.  You redeem these for donations, gift cards or PayPal account money.

Additional Tips and Sites:

o   Skip the Cox Cable and Direct TV. When do you really sit down and appreciate commercials and the like? Forget the DVR. Get Netflix, Hulu or the like if you have to have any service at all. Forget Red Box, Block Buster and even Netflix to a point... Rent DVDs from your library. It's not only free and you can request from all libraries in your system so you?re not restricted to only your library?s collection... But for all of the above, you can get a season of TV at a time with NO commercials at all. Savings of up to $50 a month depending on what you were/are using.

o   Sign up for e-mails to all the restaurants you regularly haunt... Most of them send out buy one get one offers, coupons for free meals, appetizers, drinks and etc. Papa John?s always has a buy one get one, as does Pei Wei. Ra Sushi sent me $20 for my "half birthday". There?s a good start of restaurant list under the Sweeties Freebies Birthday URL.  On that note, the wild animal park has a free entry for you in your birth month and Michael's Crafts stores always send out what their sales are...  It?s not just restaurants that want your business, so sign up for any e-club of a store you regularly shop at.

o   Highly recommend making yourself a separate email for these, freecycle and any other email list you sign up for, though. They often sell your information, so you'll get quite a bit of spam... I use Gmail and they have a pretty decent spam filter.  Be sure to check your spam folder every so often, but only a handful of my wanted mailers end up there.  Gmail is a free e-mail service.

o   It's more of a girly thing, but clothing and make-up swap parties are getting more popular... That way you can give away the stuff you don't like anymore and someone else who appreciates it gets things they like.  A friend had one recently that another mutual friend attended.  Since the party host was getting rid of all her fat clothes, the mutual friend bragged to me later she was ecstatic because she walked away with a whole new wardrobe.

o   http://www.freecycle.org/ is a site that is for people across the nation. You go to the site, plug your zip code in the orange box and it will find you the group for your area. What it is, is a post board for people who want to get rid of stuff (or are looking to obtain stuff) that is in good condition, but they just don't want to keep it, nor haul it to the dump/goodwill.

I'm part of the Scottsdale group, and I have gone to people's houses because they were offering fruit off their trees that I picked off. I got oranges and limes that way for free.  I've received clothing, shoes, belts, moving boxes, greeting cards, magazines and probably a lot of other things I'm not thinking of from there.

I've seen things offered such as: furniture, food, baby necessities, exercise equipment, computer equipment and more. If you're smart (even though you're not supposed to), get some of the items, and Craig?s List them at a later date to make a profit.

o   http://artlinkphoenix.com/first-fridays/  If you need a night out at the beginning of the month, check out First Friday in Phoenix.  Many of the museums and other cultural locales have free entry.  There are tons of art studios open with munchies and alcohol.  Street vendors are in different places with bunches of roach coaches to choose for food.  Many of the bars and clubs have some great deals on food and drink on those nights as well. 

o   http://www.2ndfridaynightout.com/  Mesa has 2^nd Friday.  Similar to First Friday in Phoenix, just a different town.

o   http://www.scottsdalelibrary.org/culture_pass  If you want something to do with another person, check out Culture Pass.   This is a program through the library system.  You check out a plastic card from your library with the cultural place of your choice listed on it.  In return you get a paper receipt that allows two people one free entry each sometime of your choice during the week.  Some things you can visit are: The Phoenix Art Museum, Botanical Garden, Phoenix Zoo, AZ Science Museum, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and etc.