To start 2010 off on a great financial foot my husband and I have instituted a two-week moratorium on spending. That’s right, starting this Saturday and going through January 30 we won’t be spending a dime. At least that’s the plan. I’m excited to embark on this test we’re calling the No-Spending Challenge. This Friday we’ll fill our cars up with gas, pay our online bills and give our wallets a 14 day break. I wrote a little more about this challenge at OutofDebtChristian.com. I’ll be posting an update or two there along the way. Feel free to join me… or pray for me!

Posted under Home, News

I wish I was a September baby after reading about BorninSeptember.org. Last year, 800 people born in September gave up their birthday gifts raising $950,000 for Ethiopia. One of those was 32-year-old Scott Harrison, founder of Charity: Water. Over 96,000 people in 240 villages got clean water. This year they want to do even more. Watch this video:

The September Campaign Trailer – 2008 from charity: water on Vimeo.

Posted under Charitable Giving, Church

Starting today you can list five items on eBay for free every 30 days. You will pay no Insertion Fees on your first 5 qualifying Auction-style listings when you use the eBay Sell Your Item or Simple listing form. The best part about this is that it’s not a short-term promotion. This is a permanent change to eBay pricing. You won’t pay anything if your item doesn’t sell. If it does sell, then eBay takes its cut which is 8.75% of the sales price, or $20, whichever is lower. I just sold a dress I wore in a wedding last summer for $40. I’m glad I didn’t just sell it at our yard sale!

Posted under Extra Income, Freebies, Good Deals

I’ve heard it said many times that it is almost unimaginable what the church could accomplish if everyone tithed 10 percent like the Bible commands. I know giving is down at our church, which is why  this story is even more powerful! Late last month a church of 22000 people collected $19 million over a span of four weekly services! That equals out to nearly $900 a person!

What’s even more amazing is where this church is. No– it’s not
an American mega-church. It’s a church in Singapore! New Creation Church holds services in the Rock Auditorium in Suntec City Mall and will now build a new church in the city’s Buona Vista area. Now, what can God do in your church?

photo credit: gnondpomme

Posted under Charitable Giving, Church

Although I’ve never tracked how much money I’ve saved with an Entertainment Book, I’m pretty sure it’s quite a bit. They usually have a fair amount of useful coupons for saving on dry cleaning, meals at restaurants and even movie tickets. But being frugal minded, it is a little tough to spend money in order to save money. Thankfully, I found out how to get a free entertainment book.

The key to your free Entertainment Book is with the site CashBaq.com. It’s pretty similar to Ebates.com. You get cash back from shopping at popular sites. Typically you earn a percentage of whatever you purchase. When you sign up for a CashBaq.com account you automatically get a $5 sign-on bonus. Right now, if you buy an Entertainment Book through CashBaq.com, you earn another $10 into your account. Plus, Entertainment Books are $10 off right now through CashBaq.com. That $10 coupon made the Entertainment Book for our area $15, the same amount I will be getting back from CashBaq.com, which makes my Entertainment Book free.

For those of you that are visual learners, here’s the math explained:

• Regular price of entertainment book:                $25

• Coupon from CashBaq.com:                           -$10

• Additional Cash received for purchasing book:   -$10

• Sign on bonus from CashBaq.com:                   -$5

• Total cost of Entertainment Book:      FREE!!!

CashBaq.com pays through check or via PayPal. You must accrue a minimum of $10 to get paid. If you don’t have enough that money carries over from month to month until you do. But with this Entertainment Book deal you will have enough to get your money right away. The site sends out payments around the 20th of every month. Now start saving!

Posted under Freebies, Good Deals

Are you on Twitter? Perhaps pretty much all day? Try putting your Tweets to work for you with a company called Magpie. Here’s how it works: You create an account (it’s a painless process that takes less than two minutes.) You determine the frequency that ads will be automatically distributed through your Twitter account. You can have an ad displayed every time you send out a Tweet of your own, or after every 50 Tweets. But the more ads you allow to be distributed through your account the more money you will make. You must make at least 50 Euros (about $75) before they’ll give you a payment through Paypal.

You can also try getting advertisers to sign up through the Magpie referral program. For instance, if an advertiser clicked on this ad and signed up for an account, I would then earn 30% of commission fees for the whole first year of the advertisers’ account.

For companies looking for affordable viral marketing, it seems like a neat tool. You set the cost by defining daily and total budgets for the campaigns. Your ad is matched up with a Twitterer that is using keywords you’ve determined. Pretty cool, huh? I’d love to hear from anyone who is using this service as an advertiser or as Twitter user. How do you like it?

Posted under Extra Income, Uncategorized

Since Christmas is approaching and presents are likely taking a big portion of your pay check, free entertainment is a welcomed gift. With the holiday season in full swing, communities all over the country are offering free events. The trick is knowing how to find them and how to take advantage of them. Here are three ways to find free events and entertainment.
Check out MyCommunityTIckets.com

Once you’re on the site’s homepage, click on “More Event Types” along the left side. This will bring up a long list of event categories including my favorite one: “Yeah, it’s free.” (It’s at the very bottom of the list.) Click on that and you’ll see over 1300 options for free entertainment including free concerts in New York City and line dancing lessons at the Cactus Moon Cafe in Tucsan Arizona.

Look Over Your Community’s Website

Check out your city’s website and look over the calendar of events. I found several free events by searching my city’s web page. Turns out there’s a free Christmas parade down Main Street this weekend and now I’m planning to go.

Visit A Museum Thanks to B of A

Bank of America has a special perk for cardholders (debit and credit). It’s called “Museums on Us” and your card gets you free admission into dozens of museums during the first weekend of the month. Eighteen different states have participating museums. Just visit the Bank of America website for details.
photo credit: yoohoojuju

Posted under Freebies, Good Deals

WYFF4 Report

Weeks ago WYFF4 reporter Tim Waller showed up in my dining room and interviewed me about how to make money online. Last night the story aired and I think it turned out pretty well. Take a few minutes to watch it online. Here are the four ways Tim delves in to:

1. Starting your own blog

2. Writing for websites and blogs (this is my segment)

3. Selling arts and crafts online

4. Selling items on EBay

You can also read Tim’s story at WYFF4.com.

Posted under Extra Income

Photographer John Hendon and Me

A TV crew just left my home. They were here interviewing me about how to make extra money by contributing to websites. I left my job as a TV news reporter to focus on freelance writing. Granted, I have a journalism background, but there are plenty of sites out there looking for writers where that is not a requirement. Here are a few places to check out:

www.FreelanceWritingGigs.com– This is my personal favorite. When I’m in need of new jobs I visit this regularly. There are a wide range of job listings and most pay pretty well.

www.AboutFreelanceWriting.com– This is another great source with lots of listings.

www.DemandStudios.com– When I was first starting I wrote for this site. They pay $15 per story and they are written in a very simple “how-to” format. It does’t take much time.

Craigslist.com– I like to check out this site every once in a while to look for local writing jobs.

Freelance writing has turned into a great career for me. But it could be a great way to earn extra money for just about anyone.

Posted under Extra Income

Let me tell you a little story about my life after college. I had dreams of being a big city news reporter, but I knew that it would take a lot of work to get there. I started my career in my hometown of Sioux City, Iowa. There were no full-time jobs available so I took a part-time job at KTIV, the number one station in town. I was thrilled. I would be reporting some days and anchoring the weather other days. Even though I was living at home with my parents a part-time news salary does not go very far so I got a job at a bagel shop working early mornings. I actually made more money at the bagel shop.

I finally got promoted to a full-time position, but the money still wasn’t good. I remember getting the courage together to ask for a raise. A couple of days later my boss called me into her office with the good news. “I talked to the higher-ups and I am proud to say I got you a seven cent raise!” she announced excitedly. “Seven percent?” I said with a small smile. That didn’t seem like much, but it was better t han nothing. “No, seven CENTS,” she clarified. Wow. Now I could finally buy that candy bar I had my eye on.

ABC anchor Charles Gibson and I at the Billy Graham Library dedication

As I moved up into another, larger television market the pay got better, but the bills got bigger. I was living out on my own and money was tight. All of these years of struggling to get by taught me to be creative with my money.  I have sacrificed in some ways in order to achieve goals, experience adventure and live out my dreams. All of these years of living this way have taught me how to Do More with My Money. And now I want to share that knowledge with you.  So welcome to DoMoreWithYourMoney.com where the goal is to Spend Less, Do More and Give Abundantly.

Posted under Uncategorized