How I Make/Save Money with my Phone

Aren't cell phones amazing?! They are basically tiny little computers that fit in our skinny jeans and save us money!

I thought it might be a good idea to share a couple of my favorite apps that are super simple and have saved, even earned, me money.

My favorite money making app is Shopkick.

All you do is open the app when you walk in certain stores such as Target (where we all shop), JcPenny, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and more. When you open the app you typically get anywhere from 30 to 100 kicks (sometimes even 200). In some stores you can scan certain products to get you additional kicks. Many times these range from 10 to 100 kicks per scan. Once you have accumulated enough kicks you can cash them in for gift cards. Using Target as an example: you can cash in as few as 500 kicks for a $2 gift card or 6250 kicks for a $25 gift card.

I have earned a total of 14,500 kicks which is equal to over $50 in gift cards. I have cashed in enough of my kicks to equal $35 worth of gift cards at JcPenny and currently have 5,750 kicks I can use whenever I want. The gift cards are codes that pop up almost instantly on your phone when you redeem them. You show the cashier the code which they enter as a gift card and ta-dah, free stuff!

How cool is that?

I'll do a follow up post to discuss a couple of the other apps I use to save money. What are your favorite money saving apps? Tell me in the comments below.

Enjoy and happy Shopkicking!

Better Than a Thrift Shop Shopping

I realize it's Wednesday already so I'm not going to recap my weekend but I do want to recap some amazing bargains I got! 

First let me say, I'm not trendy, not in the slightest actually. I prefer tennis shoes and my KU hoodie to just about any clothing options out there. It's comfy and it keeps me warm in the antarctic temperatures my work environment so kindly provides me with. Plus I work in a place were you better wear tennies and hoodies because your clothes have a potential to get dirty. 

That being said I found some pretty great deals at JcPenney's on Sunday. I had two "$10 off any $10 purchase" coupons so I decided to go in to see if there was something I could use them on. 

By the time I left I had a pair of denim shorts, hot pink shorts, a blue belt, a plain pink scoop neck tee, a fitted black tank top, a dressy-er black tank top shirt (I'm sure it has a special name but I don't know what) and a light weight black scarf with blue polka dots. 

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When checking out the cashier scanned a 15% off coupon for me and took my two $10 off coupons and I spent a grand total of .25 cents! Um, yes please! That's my kind of shopping right there people. 

The Blog Life

Yesterday as I was getting ready for bed I decided I felt like I had a blogger kind of day. 

I worked my normal 8-5 job and emailed a bloggy friend, read some blogs, and perused Pinterest during downtime. 

After work, I stopped at a hardware store and picked up some paint, a gunny sack and a few pieces of bamboo. Might sound random, but it's not. 

Stopped in at Hobby Lobby to discover that even though it's 97° outside and June, that won't stop them from putting out the fall decorations. Instagramed that obviously. 

seriously??

Texted my cousin about the cute 4th of July outfit she should totally get her daughter. 

Couldn't decide what shoes...

Stumbled upon several aisles of 80% off home decor and went a little crazy. Okay, not too crazy but crazy enough that when the husband called I said, "Sure honey, you should totally buy that new golf bag!" I also managed to find the two items that I went in for in the first place. Winning. 

Swung by the Dollar Tree to pick up a couple crafting items that were needed and found a couple additional bargains. No big deal.

Made it home in time to do a little spray painting, burlapping and other crafting (that will be seen here tomorrow) before it got dark. 

Played with the puppy and watered my rapidly growing garden.

Came inside and made up a quick Pinterest chicken recipe that was super yummy. 

Watched some reality tv, Pretty Wicked Moms. Followed it up with an episode of Call the Midwife and fell asleep. 

If that's not the blog life, I don't know what is.

Marvelous Monday

How do you know the $1 garage sale DVD's are cheap knockoffs? (This isn't a joke, btw) When the combo disk includes The Passion of the Christ and Fifty First Dates. Seriously?? I totally would have bought a couple of the other movies because I thought they were legit until I stumbled across that one. Ha.

   and   = ????

Nothing like getting up at 4:15 am to stumble through peoples garages looking for bargains. Even though I may have not ended up with an awesome movie combo (which I now regret buying) I did have lots of fun since I went with one of my aunts and two of my cousins. We searched through hundreds, okay maybe not hundreds (even though there were hundreds) of sales and my cousins managed to find lots of cute stuff for their kiddos. Since I have no kiddos, now or within at least nine months, I managed to escape without much. I spent the majority of my money on breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that factoid considering my love for food. I did manage to find a box of cool canning jars that I'm pretty stoked about though. The sales were all at Ft. Leavenworth in the military housing which is actually pretty cool to see if you ever get the chance. Apparently they have one huge sale every year and it seems like almost every other house has their garage opened for potential bargain hunters. Pretty neat.

It may be Monday but I'm pretty sure today has the potential to be the highlight of the week because my iPhone has arrived!! I'm seriously so pumped that I finally got it and I can't wait for the end of work so I can go get it activated. If anyone has some awesome app suggestions I would love to hear them!

I ordered a couple cute phone cases off of Amazon today. One pink and one a light minty green. A couple of my favorite colors in case you can't tell by my current blog background. I also ordered some screen protectors and an Otterbox Armor case for my husbands phone. I guess the Armor case can be submerged in water for up to 30 minutes and it's crush proof up to 2000 pounds or something like that. Hopefully, since I dropped a small fortune on the case he will manage to keep his phone alive until it's at least paid off. Has anyone had that case before? Seth's in the construction field and is constantly around heavy machinery and water so I feel like it was probably a good investment.

Oh, and another Happy Monday for me, it's approximately 80 degrees here and I'm in love with it. Yesterday I was able to lay out on my back deck for awhile and get some sun which was fantastic but two days of gorgeousness after this awful winter is blowing my mind right now!

http://www.bing.com/search?q=fifty+first+dates&go=&qs=AS&form=QBRE&pq=fifty+fir&sc=8-9&sp=1&sk=