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Okay ladies, I'm trying something new out on Friday's in place of our daily Five Minute Challenge (y'all know I love to hear what you think about these things!) This week I've had a few little extra spurts of moo-lah head my way that were totally unexpected. I received a $20 check from Shop at Home (I had completely forgotten that I even had an account), a $5 rebate check, and then realized I had 1500 in Swagbucks!
Well it got me thinking . . . what if I took those little extra bits of cash and set them in an envelope for something especially frivolous at the end of the month? My little girl has been begging me to get a “real” pedicure.  (I've only had one in my life, and she's never had one. She eyes that kiddie chair at our local nail salon every time we walk by! I guess they know how to market by putting it right in the window, hmmm?) Caroline is pretty frugal by nature, so I don't think taking her for one pedicure will spoil her forever (at least I hope not!)Â
A pedicure to me is so ridiculously frivolous that I have a really hard time even considering actually doing this, but I won't have a seven year old girlie around forever, and she's been working so hard in school this year that I'm thinking she deserves a little frivolity! (I googled it and frivolity is really a word – who knew?) In all reality we could just go get the pedicure, but there's something motivating about saving for a special treat, and I think it'll be a great lesson for both Caroline and me. (Not to mention maybe keep me a little more accountable about where our extra money goes!)
Since today is the first Friday of the month, I'm going to start an envelope towards our “Pedicure Account”, and I'll add my deposits each Friday during September. (By the time we finish it'll be October though, and sandal season will be over . . . oh well!) My plan is to save my Swagbucks towards our Christmas purchases, and add any extra grocery savings, rebate money, or extra bits of income to the Pedicure Account 🙂
Here's this week's “deposit” into my envelope:
- $5 from Sorrento Rebate
- $10 from Shop At Home (I'm pretty sure I got this due to referrals on PPP, so the other $10 will head to Mission Costa Rica!)
- 1500 in Swagbucks – that's $15 towards the Christmas account!
Will you guys join me? Do you have something frivolous that you normlly would never do but can pinch a few pennies towards this month? It can be anything . . . a date night with your hubby, a cute haircut, a fancy cleaning or cooking tool you've been dreaming about, a special Hobby Lobby purchase (I love that place!), or even something really precious – like an additional deposit in your savings account or money towards debt reduction. Here are some suggestions on ways to earn extra income:
- Rebates
- Grocery Savings This one is HUGE!
- Garage/Consignment Sales
- Surveys I'll be honest, I haven't had much luck with this one, but I know some of you love them! The only one I've tried is Inbox Dollars and I've never made it to my payout amount, so I'm not sure if it works or not! I've also heard great things about Synovate, but again, I haven't tried it myself!
- Swagbucks
- Shop At Home Go HERE to read more on Shop at Home.
Let me know what you're planning to start saving towards today, and if you have any income to stick in that envelope already I'd love to hear that too!  (Go ahead and pull that envelope and mark on it TODAY so that you don't forget!)
Leave a comment and I'll add you to that $10 Target Gift Card Giveaway (I'm going to extend the Giveaway until tonight at 6:00 PM since I know this is going up late, so don't miss your chance to enter!) Â
I'm debating doing a Mr. Linky on this one for any bloggers out there – but I've never done a linky before! If you blog about something related to this, please leave your link in the comment section, and if there's much interest I'll add it next week!
i use swagbucks and surveys for my spurlges. I do pinecone research panel. They work pretty well. The only part is you have to qualify to take the survey. So sometimes you waste time in the beginning but it’s not too bad. If you qualify and take the whole survey they deposit directly into paypal. That money and amazon giftcards i use to spurge on fun things for us.
Last year my mom paid for my 2 girls and my sisters 2 girls to go to a day spa and get a manicure and makeup. At the time the girls were 13, 12, 11 and 7 and they had an absolute blast!!! It was so fun to watch them and we took a ton of pictures.
We have been slowly saving money for a trip to Walt Disney World for a couple months now. Unfortunately we haven’t saved much but we are trying. My son’s school allows then to purchase icecream treats during lunch if they finish their lunch for $.50. So instead of my son buying once a week he’s decided to put that toward our Disney fund. I’ve tried some surveys but most of the time I get so far and I don’t qualify for it. So not much luck there.
Wonderful Idea! MySurvey.com is a wonderful site if you want to do surveys and get rewarded for it.
Just got two $3 pinecone survey checks in the mail so I will start with that. I think I will save it towards taking my son and daughter to do something fun maybe the pottery painting place.
Our saving is going towards our trip to Colombia in 2 weeks. I have not been there since I left at 4 years old. I am so excited!!!
I had just thought of this idea this morning when I realized that I got another Staples rebate in the mail. I think for now, I am going to set up an envelope for Christmas “extras”. But after the holidays, I will change it to a Disney savings envelope. Everyone in my family has been begging to go back!
Hubby just won last night at poker and gave me some extra money to spend on myself this morning. LOL! I was thinking pedicure for myself but to save it all month I might go bigger. Say shoes……………or our trip to Disney in November. Such decisions.
I really enjoyed reading this, as my 9 year old daughter have been stating we should do this. I love the envelope idea. I think I will start it today, as well. Thank you for this site. Now I am going to see how much I can save for our special treat.
We just sold our second house, so we are going to pay off 1 mortgage this month as well as the Home Equity Loan we took out a while back! woohoo! All the money I save at the moment goes toward Martha’s schooling as well as our trip to Costa Rica. My sister is getting married there and my children (her godchild) is in the wedding! all my swagbucks are going toward christmas presents. I need to start turning those in again! =) thanks for the reminder!
Your post made me laugh… I had completely forgotten filling out a survey for the professional organization that I belong to… and won a $100 American Express giftcard! I’ve been trying to decide how to spend it, and then my husband tells me we should use it for a really expensive restaurant that he adores… it’s in Orlando, so it’s got to wait!