Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

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BevMoore
Posts: 1012
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:04 pm

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by BevMoore »

Can you mix the two foods together?

Bev
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

BevMoore wrote: Sat Jul 07, 2018 9:58 am Can you mix the two foods together?

Bev
Bev I have been doing that.. I even use my hands to mash them together thinking he will have to eat more of the kibble. No. He will eat the chicken and then he will leave whatever kibble that does not have any chicken on it in his bowl..What a waste of kibble. The only good thing is the kibble was free from Amazon with a gift card. I guess I will have to cook for him and start to add doggie vitamins to his food.. There are recipes for making homemade dog food but he stopped eating the rice and green beans and just picks out the chicken.. He will no longer eat cooked ground beef with rice.. He is only in to chicken. He will eat the occasional scrambled egg with rice but not that often. gggrrr.. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I received some money back as a refund which made things better for my grocery buying. I did say I would use only slush fund money or survey money to buy fresh dairy and fresh veggies, however I did not anticipate getting such a big refund. I bought a bit more than planned on but at the same time nice to have..I bought apples, mini carrots (for Teddi), lettuce, cucumbers etc and some cottage cheese. Also treated myself to some half and half for my coffee. I picked up a rotisserie chicken ($6.00) but it will only cost me $3.00 since I earned $3.00 from a survey. Not bad.

Went across the river to buy gas..$ 2.65 on the Missouri side and $ 2.86 on the IL side of the river. It is only a half mile across the bridge to buy gas when I am in town.. Otherwise where I live not worth the trip. I try to plan things for when I am low on gas so that I can combine the trip in to town with buying gas.

I picked all of the meat off of the chicken when I came home. It is easier to get the meat and skin off of the bones while still hot/warm. I will freeze the bones and skin to make broth. I had a nice lunch of fresh hot chicken and potato salad.. Will package the meat in various portions for quick meals for the rest of the week.

I went to Save-a-Lot and bought some fresh chicken leg quarters for Teddi to make his dog food. I will look up some recipes on line to try to make his food more healthy.

Although I did spend money on food items they were bought with slush fund/survey money so technically did not buy any groceries this month otherwise using up what I have in the house.

The weather is so nice I have the doors and windows open and turned the A/C off..

I hydrated some dried strawberries the other day. I saved the soaking water and now drinking it. I add a little bit of stevia.. Makes for a nice cold refreshing drink. Some people just drain the water down the sink drain. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
BevMoore
Posts: 1012
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:04 pm

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by BevMoore »

Janet, what survey sites do you use? Right now I just use My Survey although I may start taking the AARP quizzes more often. I just cashed in some points from My Survey (which took a long time to accumulate since I have not done this too often) and bought two $20 Facebook gift cards. I then used those to buy game dollars for my Criminal Case game. I love playing this. Since it's hot, school is out what better way to have a little fun and keep cool under a fan. Since I do not get kicked off of surveys here as much as I have other sites I am going to put more effort into this.

Speaking of chicken, while I eat mostly plant based I still need to pick up things for DS. This Monday the store he works at is having a sale on fried or roasted chicken, four drumsticks and four thighs in a pack for $5.00 limit of four packs. The thighs especially have a lot of meat. I debone all of thise and then freeze the meat. I try to boil the bones at that time since I find the broth tastes better if this is done and then the broth frozen. I se the meat in stir frys, casseroles, etc. I am trying to keep DS away from fast foods.

Bev
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

BevMoore wrote: Sat Jul 07, 2018 6:08 pm Janet, what survey sites do you use? Right now I just use My Survey although I may start taking the AARP quizzes more often. I just cashed in some points from My Survey (which took a long time to accumulate since I have not done this too often) and bought two $20 Facebook gift cards. I then used those to buy game dollars for my Criminal Case game. I love playing this. Since it's hot, school is out what better way to have a little fun and keep cool under a fan. Since I do not get kicked off of surveys here as much as I have other sites I am going to put more effort into this.

Speaking of chicken, while I eat mostly plant based I still need to pick up things for DS. This Monday the store he works at is having a sale on fried or roasted chicken, four drumsticks and four thighs in a pack for $5.00 limit of four packs. The thighs especially have a lot of meat. I debone all of thise and then freeze the meat. I try to boil the bones at that time since I find the broth tastes better if this is done and then the broth frozen. I se the meat in stir frys, casseroles, etc. I am trying to keep DS away from fast foods.

Bev
I am frequently chosen by Pine Cone research. I have been with them for a while and someone told me they do not always respond to an application or have limited time when they have enrollment. Not sure how it works with them since I have been with them maybe a couple of years. They are the ones that give me $3.00 per survey. I think I have only been turned down a couple of times in the last few years. They now do what they call pre-screening so that if you do not qualify you have not done a lot of work and then find out you are being dropped. They say they have a rotation basis for picking people so it is by invitation. The nice thing is they do seem to send me a couple of invites a month. They also have had me do some in home testing of foods and products.. One food product I priced at $10.00 at Walmart and they sent another similar product to compare and taste test. Both were delivered by UPS in a refrigerated carrier. I noticed the last time that they are wanting to know why I made a certain decision so if you check something off they want to know in writing your thoughts as to why you checked it off..which is fine with me.

I do a lot of searches on My Points. That is where I get most of my points from them. I just recently decided to bite the bullet and start to do their survey's..99.9 % of the time I do not qualify but they do give you up to 25 points a day for trying so I do do them now. I have limited gigabytes where I live due to using a satellite and cannot do their videos. I am nosy by nature so every time I get an idea in my head I look it up through My Points. It might just be a recipe or what the weather is forecast for the day.. It all adds up.

I bought a lot of stuff recently on Amazon using gift cards from BING. Do you know about BING? Just type it in on Google. When you go there you can get points towards Amazon gift cards 5.00 each.. There are several ways they have a daily offering where you can take little quizzes, the daily poll, and other things.. If you do searches through them you get points and they have a new screen picture every day with news items across the bottom. When you click on the news items and read them you get points. Also if you sign in and do their little required polls and quizzes every day they keep a running total and every some many days of being consistent they will give you sometimes 50 to 100 or 150 extra points. If you have any questions about going through the ropes there let me know. I go through My Points to go to BING. I just click on searches on My Points and then type in BING and it goes to their site. It is not much money but it sure does help with little bits here and there.

I like chicken! I use to be a vegetation and my neurologist told me I needed to eat meat due to my ALS.. I will sometimes buy other meat but the rotisserie chickens taste so good and are so juicy, and with the cost being free sometimes or half price with survey money, you cannot find a better deal.

Good luck with the surveys.. If you need more info let me know.. Always happy to help out a fellow frugalite .

Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
BevMoore
Posts: 1012
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:04 pm

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by BevMoore »

Thank you Janet, you have been so helpful! I am off work for another 5 weeks so I am looking for little things to make some extra cash during this hot weather. Even when school starts again I am probably going to have to limit my yard duty gigs. I am just finding it so hard on me to be outdoors when it is so hot. I do enjoy working part time. Besides the extra money it gets me out and about and around people of all ages. It keeps one healthy.

I used to get e-mails from My Points but I don't anymore. I guess I should go into their website and find out why.

Bev
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