Making Money From Home!

This isn't a scam, either! Legitimately make money!

Recently, I've decided to become a SAHW (stay at home wife?). I've never not worked, so this is crazy! Poor grammar? I've always worked! I like working. I like being busy, productive, and the money never hurts!

I've been researching different ways of working from home. Mostly to stay busy, but also to make a little play money for date nights, vacations, etc. Having a good savings is always a good idea, too!

Here are a few tried and true methods:

1. Amazon Mechanical Turk: I've done this for about a year. It's a website where companies post various projects for you to do for them. Transcribing is a huge one. I highly recommend it!  In the beginning, it's a bit tedious. You have to build up a "resume" per se. For example, they start you with little projects and you gradually work your way up to projects that pay $3 or $5 rather than pennies. Literally, some pay you a penny. But they're super simple! Some can take less than a minute to complete, depending. If you're a computer whiz, then this is the perfect hobby for you. Transcribing, orienting pictures, and other random projects are mindlessly easy. So worth it!

Here's a really good guide for the ins and outs of mturk: MTurk Guide

2. Etsy: Although I haven't done a ton with Etsy yet, I highly recommend it as well. I just opened a shop. I'll have to come back and update once I get some sales! A lot of friends of mine have shops and love the community and extra income! I'm really excited about selling my creations on Etsy! Eeek! Stay tuned! :)

3. Surveys. This could be really boring, or really fun. The only thing about surveys is that oftentimes, it's a lot of work with little return. I did surveys back in the day. They're a bit time consuming. Also, some don't pay you cash, but gift cards instead. While this is still technically money, it limits what you can do with it. I don't love that part. Here are some websites to try out!

Here's a blog where she details her favorite survey sites: http://www.clarkscondensed.com/thrifty-living/my-favorite-survey-sites/#_a5y_p=2221774

Sign up through these websites to get started!

• https://www.mysurvey.com/
• https://www.surveysavvy.com/
• http://www.harrispollonline.com/
• http://www.buzzback.com/

4. Coupons! Honestly, this one is my favorite! I love saving money! Who doesn't?! I love seeing the "You saved $#.## today!" at the bottom of my receipts. Store sales, clipped coupons, emailed coupons, and phone coupons are the best! The other day, I googled "Old Navy coupon" at the last second at checkout. We saved 20% for no reason! I'm glad I thought about it at the last second! A penny saved is a penny earned! :)

Downfall of coupons: They getcha! And by getcha, I mean they have you spend money you probably wouldn't have spent in the first place. They want you to try their product, so they give you the coupon. While this marketing technique is clever, it can end up costing you more! I'm guilty of falling for that trap. Using coupons on items you will already buy is great! But don't get too caught up in the gimmick of it all.

5. Walmart Savings Catcher: THIS IS THE BOMB DOT COM! Honestly, I loathe price matching. Every time I'd try to price match at Walmart, they'd make some excuse and never give it to me. We'd just get frustrated and go to the store with the real sale and support them! With this new app, you scan your receipt. Within 48 hours, they give you the difference in the prices of local competitors! Price matching without ever having to price match! FREE MONEY!

Here's a little preview:

P.S. I scan all of my family's receipts, too. I'm not spending that much at Walmart so often! Haha!

It's not much, but it's still money! :)

It comes back in the form of an e-gift card. I haven't cashed in yet, but you can generate a barcode to scan at the register, print the gift card, or use it at walmart.com. Once I have a bit saved up, I'll totally cash in! Free groceries! Woo hoo!

6. Signing up for free samples: Recently, I signed up for a ton of free samples! Different companies want you to buy their products, so they risk sending you a little bit here and there to get you hooked! I love free stuff! Some things I've gotten recently I won't be using for awhile (diapers, wipes, baby safety latches, etc.), but some I will! A lot of times major companies, such as Proctor and Gamble, will send you free samples. Some ask for a review in exchange, but that's easy!

7. Become a product tester/reviewer: I haven't done this personally, but I totally want to try it out! I don't have a lot of details, but this is an awesome site that gives great information:
 http://www.productreviewmom.com/2013/06/how-can-i-get-paid-to-test-products.html

8.  Consumer Reporting: My husband and I, immediately after going shopping, scan each item and input the price of the item. It's a little tedious, but it's free money! They give you points that accumulate into Amazon rewards and other various credits. Totally worth it, too! It only takes a few minutes to scan everything. Again, free money!

Stay tuned for part two!

Milestones!

First of all, eeeeeep!

Okay, I'm done :)

8 Cheese Manicotti!

And by Manicotti, I mean stuffed shells! (Manicotti pasta is waaaaayyyy too high maintenance for me!)

A few days ago, I had a hankering for some cheese manicotti! I moseyed my way over to allrecipes.com because, let's be honest, it is the BEST! They even let you save recipes to a recipe box! It's like a classy Pinterest slash original recipe goddess.

I doubled this recipe from the original recipe for lots of leftovers throughout the week! The original recipe had manicotti noodles (shocker right? hahaha), but I prefer those large pasta shells!

I found this awesome recipe. Also, I am too much of a free spirit to follow a recipe exactly how it's listed. Cooking is an art. Do what you think would be most delicious!

The original Manicotti recipe is here. Even though it didn't have thousands of reviews, it had a high enough rating that I decided to risk it. We were not disappointed!

8 Cheese Manicotti (Shells)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Ingredients:

1 box (12 oz box) large pasta shells

2 16 oz jars of spaghetti sauce

1 30 oz part skim ricotta cheese

8 oz Italian cheese blend (This I didn't double. 2 cups was plenty)

1.5 cups grated parmesan cheese

4 eggs

Parsley, salt, and pepper to taste
2 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and cook shells for 5 or 6 minutes. (You want them fairly firm so they won't get soggy after cooking. The box suggest 10-12 minutes. This is overkill.)

2. Drain shells and shock with very cold water. Let cool.

3. In a large bowl, mix together ricotta cheese, Italian cheese blend, parmesan, eggs, parsley, salt, and pepper. 

4. Pour 1 jar of pasta sauce into the bottom of the pan. (I used a large Pyrex glass dish)

5. Spoon cheese mixture (generously!) into shells. Place shells face up in pan.
6. Pour second jar of pasta sauce on top of shells.
7. Top with shredded jack cheese.
8. Cook uncovered in oven for 30 minutes or until cheese and sauce bubbles.

Overall, we will definitely have this dish over and over again! The flavors are amazing, it makes a ton for leftovers (which are better, in my opinion), and is super cheap! I spent about $15 on all ingredients. That's not too bad for a huge pan of multiple meals!

Regrets: The pasta sauce I bought had SO much sugar in it. Of all things in pasta sauce! It had about 6 grams of sugar per half cup. Yuck! I'm definintely paying attention to that next time. I've even tempted to start making my own sauce! I'm going to try this recipe.

Also, I didn't follow the "Most Helpful Positive Review" that I read that suggested adding extra spices to the cheese mixture. Definitely going to try that next time!

Anyway, this is a super simple and delicious meal I think everyone will enjoy!

Here are some unnecessary but fun pictures of the process! :)

Enjoy!




Also, here are some fun tips for allrecipes.com! :)

Because I wanted Manicotti in particular, I typed that in the search. Now, don't just go off of the first recipe you see. I typically choose a recipe by the rating and how many reviews it has. This is key. Just because something looks fantastic doesn't mean it's going to be awesome. (Sometimes I look at the top recipes of all time. Always a fun inspiration!)

HINT: Always browse over the recipe reviews just under the recipe directions.

At the top of the website, there's a handy dandy little search bar! It's so nice because you can search by a particular ingredient or just browse the top recipes. You can also do a super specific search which is super nice!

Thanks for reading! :)

Strawberry and Custard Stuffed Shortcake

Lots of friends have requested this recipe so I wanted to share it with my blogging world!

This cake is so simple. Construction took 15 or 20 minutes tops because of how easy it is!

Ingredients:
1 pound cake, baked (Can be two round pans, but could even be done in a glass or rectangular pan!)
1-2 containers of Cool Whip/Whipping Cream
1 large box of vanilla pudding (Jell-o is my favorite brand!) + Milk (For custard preparation, only add half the milk the box calls for. About 1.5 cups of milk)
1 pound frozen or fresh strawberries chopped and sprinkled with about 4 Tbsp of Sugar

The "shortcake" was actually just a simple pound cake recipe similar to this one: Aunt Johnnie's Pound Cake

To be honest, using a simple white cake or yellow cake will be just perfect for this cake! With all the yummy stuff on it, you won't care too much about the cake part! ;)

Instructions:
1. Make the cake as directed. Let it cool for a few hours or overnight
2. If you made two round pans, put the cake on the plate, slather with all of pudding, 1/2 strawberries, and a layer of cool whip or whipped cream.
3. Place second cake layer on top and cover with cool whip and strawberries.

And you're done! It really is that simple.

Just a few tips: If you bake a cake in a Pyrex or rectangular pan, just layer all toppings on top! I would suggest poking the cake with a straw, pouring the pudding (immediately after mixing with 1/2 the milk  the pudding calls for) onto the cake to soak in and make it extra moist! Don't wait too long because it will custard-ize really quickly! Then layer the cool whip generously, then the strawberries!

Also, if you use fresh strawberries, you can make this a day before you serve it. If you use strawberries, construct the cake just before serving to avoid the strawberries turning purple and funky!

I drizzled the leftover strawberry juice (that the sugar pulled out) on top of the cake! I also cut a heart out of a cross section of the strawberry! (Just cut it vertically!)

I made this for a baby shower! 

Unfortunately, because it was so "stuffed" it slid in transit. 

Oops! It was delicious though!

It ain't pretty, but it was scrumptious!

Christmas Candies Part Three: Peppermint Oreo White Chocolate Truffles

Friends,

I stumbled upon a recipe that called for Oreos and cream cheese. I decided to put my own twist on it and add peppermint to it! (I had some leftover from my peppermint bark).

I didn't follow the recipe AT ALL. I just threw in some cream cheese and Oreos and went to town on it. Big mistake.

To begin with, I used two reams of Oreos and two packages of cream cheese. I ended up using a third ream of Oreo's (although it could have used a fourth for texture!) and still had a sticky paste of a mixture. It looked more like icing than anything. Here's proof!

I added another package of blended Oreos. I attempted to add a bit of powdered sugar to it to thicken it up. No luck. On the bright side, it tasted like Thin Mints!

I ended up chilling the "icing" in the freezer for about an hour. I pulled it out and rolled it into small balls and froze them again. It was quite messy!

I pulled the balls out (I froze them overnight but they were still very mushy, but still worked!) and rolled them around in some white chocolate almond bark.

I popped them in the freezer again and they are DIVINE! My husband and father in law keep sneaking some!

The white chocolate was an afterthought, but it was the only way the balls would be even CLOSE to edible at room temperature.

Here's the "recipe" if you want to try them out!

Peppermint Oreo White Chocolate Truffles

1 8 ounce package of cream cheese (room temperature)
2 reams (about 30 cookies) of Oreos
1/2 cup Peppermint (candy canes) blended into a powder (optional)
1/2 cup powdered sugar (added for texture and thickness, also optional)
White chocolate almond bark

1. In a blender, crush and mix cookies into a powder.
2. In a bowl, mix Oreo powder with peppermint powder and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar if necessary.
3. Chill for 30 minutes to an hour.
4. Roll into small balls.
5. Chill for 1 hour.
6. Melt white chocolate almond bark gradually in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds.
7. With two spoons, roll truffles around in white chocolate.
8. Lay on wax paper and chill.

Christmas Candies Part Two: Peppermint Bark

I have an entire LIST my mom and I created of all the yummy sweets and naughty treats we can make this Christmas! This is going to be a short (haha...not) series of sweets and recipes I will post! There's just something about Christmas and candies that makes me squeal with excitement!

Peppermint Bark! 

There are two versions of this bark made with white and dark chocolates. This is definitely the simplest candy recipe I have! Two ingredients can't be beat!

I used chocolate chips for the dark and almond bark (baker's chocolate) for the white. Any harder chocolate will work with this recipe.

All you need is chocolate and candy canes!

You'll notice there aren't any measurements for this recipe, but I'll give you a rough estimate of what I used:

12 candy canes

4-6 blocks of chocolate

Depending on how you like your bark, the ratio of peppermint to chocolate doesn't really matter. You can't mess this recipe up!

1. Blend up unwrapped candy canes to a fine powder. (I just used my blender!)

2. Melt chocolate gradually in microwave and stirring every 30 seconds.

3. Roll out wax paper.

4. Mix together peppermint powder and chocolate.

5. Spread mixture over wax paper and let cool.

6. Once solid, break into uneven pieces.

While it was cooling, I sprinkled the peppermint powder on top of the chocolate. It adds an extra garnish to the chocolate!

Christmas Candies Part One: Peanut Butter Buckeyes

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year! Not only is it a time of family, and reflection, and thanksgiving, but also time for...

SWEETS!

I'll show you the step by step guide to Buckeyes!

Recipes yields approximately 50 balls.

1 ½ cups creamy peanut butter

½ cup butter (room temperature)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups crisp rice cereal [optional]

2 ½ cups sifted* powdered sugar

6 ounces chocolate chips

Toothpicks (for assembly, not to eat! ;) )

*I doubled this recipe. After sifting half of the powdered sugar, I gave up! They turned out fine, so don't worry about sifting! Also, some use 4 cups of sugar, but I used about 2-2.5. I would recommend starting with 2 and adding more to get the crumbling texture you'd like!

Directions:

1. Crush crisp rice cereal into a powder.

2. Beat together butter, peanut butter, and vanilla.

3. Mix in powdered sugar and rice cereal a little at a time. (You may have to use your hands at this point. It gets rather thick!)
4. Mix until a fine crumble starts to form.
5. Roll up into bite size balls. Balls should be firm. If not, chill for 30 minutes.
6. Melt chocolate in microwave. I used chocolate chips. Melt 30 seconds at a time and stir so you don't burn or overheat the chocolate.
7. Roll out wax paper.
8. Poke the ball with a toothpick and roll in chocolate halfway, like in the pictures.
9. Chill and enjoy!

These bad boys are always a hit! For prepping, chilling them may be necessary, but I think they taste better at room temperature. I serve them in little paper wrappers.

Enjoy!