No, I haven't gotten to the penny jar yet - but I AM trying to call in old debts with the help of PayPal's automatic email service! Doesn't help to TRY.  We DID get $100 back from a debtor/friend last week!

Also wrote a new article for associatedcontent on my latest freebie hunts and fixed another frugal article.  I am there under www.associatedcontent.com/pamelamunro -  The $ from there is going into my new PayPal MasterCard debit card - I am keeping track of the total(s) on the back with a sticky. Check my articles out, ok? Somehow it makes me feel like a little girl with my old cash register bank!

I also cashed in my MyPoints points for a GAS card! Every little bit helps.  And I am even trying to get the minimum $30 from inboxsavings! That will take a while.

I am entering everything at Lucky Contests, too.  Elle and Allure have a LOT of contests/prizes. Also got a Smashbox blush for being on the Allure readers panel.  And I joined the Elle insider panel, too. 

I do like the elle.com website - but I dont' know how they can continue to sell magazines! I did subscribe to Allure when it went down to $5/year! But for the rest, I am getting the free ones!  Just got an issue of Interview and of Southern Accents.  Now the problem will be finding a home for the mags I have read. (FYI both mommysavesbig.com and freestufftimes.com have sections for free magazines/catalogs.)

I always have gone after the free stuff when I felt broke! 

Thanks for the comments.  As one reader said, it's nice to know that you are not out there in a vacuum, just talking to yourself!  So keep that feedback coming. 

Also let me remind you that I am at twitter.com/pamphyila with posts on blog updates and even twtr tips!

Let's hold on to each other, if only in the cyberworld - things are getting bumpy!   But WE know HOW to GET THRU!!

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Check out the Frugal Carnival - a whole slew of frugal blogs, hosted this time here http://www.studentscrooge.com/2008/07/29/festival-of-frugality-136-summer-school-edition/#comment-318  Lots of info!

www.studentscrooge.com looks interesting & you can get an RSS feed - By the way - anyone have any success with ours/mine? (I also annouce new posts at www.twitter.com/pamphyila - that's how hi-tech I am - i.e., in comparison to the frugal carnival lot - not very - but enuf, I guess....)

Hey - I realized that our "vacation" was probably a "STAYcation" - because we stayed close to home ? - but as I commented on studentscrooge, almost ALL of my vacations have been like that - so I thought a "Staycation" was staying AT HOME!  Guess I just am accustomed to thinking frugally - anything else is a splurge - and you know, it makes that all the more FUN.

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The funniest way I heard to literally "pick up" extra $ was to look for dropped coins near the drive ins of fast food outlets,as everyone always drops change! I still do stoop to pick up pennies, myself.  As far as I am concerned, pennies are STILL $ - and I have no compulsion about ever paying with CHANGE.  Having worked in retail, I know lots of shopkeepers LOVE to get extra change, as they are always running OUT! And those pennies are great for paying those tiny extra bits of sales tax that always make the totals uneven.

But the fact that I have been doing this longer than most came to me when a friend was trying to get rid of a junker car.  He and my husband were trying to GIVE it away - without success, and I immediately said, sell it to a junk car dealer. 

They will actually tow it away FREE andeven GIVE you some $ for it! (And the car goes to car parts heaven, a good place for it, so everyone is happy.) They would have passed up the $100 the car fetched, even in non-running condition.  Not me the veteran penny-pincher!  All those little (?) hundreds of dollars add  up in one's budget & are fairly invisible, if you know what I mean....

Then I spent the afternoon experimenting with Amazon's Mechanical Turk - at www.mturk.com - to see how picking up little bits of $ for assorted cybertasks goes.  This - besides being a call center - is supposed to be one of the few legit ways of making $ at home. 

I went for the re-writes, because due to vast experience, I can do that rather quickly.  But the payments were still small - $.80 - $1.00 for 30-60 min. work.  And you wonder about the minimum wage! But it's cyber piecework, like when women took home shirts to sew, etc.

It wasn't bad - altho I ran into some technical issues, I couldn't straighten out - and I did make some $ - which I understand can only be redeemed at the Amazon store.  But I buy books & music, so that's ok.  But the return for the time spent even for ME, who writes & types fast, is low.  But it's the sort of thing that if you were stuck at the airport with your laptop - or if you have a cyber addicted teen who wants to make some pin money - it might be a good idea!

I can make more $ writing little online article at www.associatedcontent.com, which goes directly to my Paypal account - but even that is funny money - as the amounts are so small.

But next time, just remember to count your pennies, stoop to pick them up and don't hesitate to explore ways new to you to pick up a little more!

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Go here at Revolution Money Exchange before 5/12 & they will put $25 in your acct.!

https://www.revolutionmoneyexchange.com/ReferAFriend/...

They say it's like Paypal w/o the fees....hey the $ things work - I just got $10 from another $ gambit....

& Mention ME at pamphyila@yahoo.com & I get referral $, too - (which you can also do with your friends.)  Not bad, huh?

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Have been bidding for some good wooden recorders on eBay & learning my lessons about that.  Watching the prices carefully and getting updates often.  I also did my research on the brands & am bidding on lesser known but reputable makers. (The internet makes research so much easier.)

But I can see how addictive the process can be & so easy to go over your budgeted amount.  I think I will come out to the good - as a new recorder of that quality would be $70 - but - also watch shipping, etc.  (I stumbled onto an Australian site & saw the shipping in Aussie dollars - the U.S. shopping was twice as much...) Also beware getting international goods - I feel better about things in the U.S.

It may hot be so good for other things - but if you know what you are looking for it seems good for hard-to-find items like used intsruments. (And there's a good guide on eBay for those buying used musical instruments.)  My advise is DO YOUR RESEARCH.

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Thought we were running out of candy for the trick or treaters - so I broke out the piggy bank - Didn't need to use it & in putting it away counted $5-6 since I started putting in small change a month or so ago - Not bad  - I have also opened a savings account (again) and joined the Bank of America program "Save the Change" which rounds out to the dollar when you use your ATM card & puts the balance in your savings account. (And they match the first $ up to something like $250!) - It used to be so easy to put $ in my little account when I was 10 or 12 - What happened?  If nothing else, the change is almost invisible. But how so I get it into the bank?  Coin star machines? I saw one in a bank back east.  Now that would be easy.  They are all in supermarkets here....

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I don't know how to post this elsewhere - but personally - with very few exceptions, I don't think Wal Mart is particularly inexpensive!!! The clothes you see there can be gotten elsewhere cheaper.  I have only shopped there when I used to be working there doing demonstrations & I would hunt down sales and markdowns to stave off boredom.  YOu can do a lot better by shopping at discount stores & other outlets & probably save time from wandering around those huge places, too.  I would never make a special trip to go to WalMart - unless they had advertised something I wanted at a good price....Are your shopping choices really that limited where you are? 

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