Making money and saving some

As a first-time mommy, I am always looking for cute outfits, toys, books, etc. for my little one. As a stay-at-home mommy, there is only one income coming into our home, which means we need to find ways to save money as much as possible.

We are currently using cloth wipes (see my previous post) and soon to be cloth diapering on a more regular basis. I will cover that in the future... But this does save us the expense of purchasing wipes (and soon diapers) every few weeks.

We use coupons, but I am not going to lie, we are both absolutely horrible at remembering to actually use coupons. I literally have checked out at Target, with coupons in hand, and completely forgotten to give them to the cashier. I guess that is what you get when you have your hands full, dealing with a fussy baby.

Loveable, but this girl is nonstop and always a handful when shopping alone.

I do love garage sales. They have great deals, and when you are looking for infant clothing, they are generally cheap and barely used. As mentioned before, it can be a bit difficult to shop with an infant on your own. So, I do my garage sale shopping online! I use VarageSale very often. I not only sell items that we no longer use (or never used ha ha), but I can find great deals on baby items. 

There are also various garage sale-type pages on Facebook. I just searched for garage sales in my area and found three different pages. I have bought and sold quite a few items on Facebook. Of course, I make sure to be careful when buying or selling. I never do any sales alone, and I make sure it is in a well-populated area. There are quite a few garage sale pages on Facebook that do not allow you to join unless you have other Facebook friends on the page already. This does make me feel better that they do not just allow ANYBODY to join.

I have also become quite the swapper. Alright, maybe I have only done about five or so swaps, but it is still an interesting idea. I do my swapping through Swap Mamas. We did not have any use for some cans of formula and formula coupons that we received through various companies, so I swapped them! 

Now for making some money...I do sell items on VarageSale and the pages on Facebook, but I also do surveys and product testing. I take surveys on various websites like MindField or Surveyspot. With this, I am entered into drawings and can earn points to redeem for various items, such as gift cards. One website that I particularly like is called BzzAgent. The surveys are generally pretty easy to complete, and you can be asked to test products. I joined this website about a month ago, and I am already waiting for two different products to arrive for testing. Obviously, I do not make a ton of money from this avenue; I definitely do not depend on it for income, it is just fun for me to take surveys and get some free stuff to try. Who wouldn't like free stuff??

Another website I belong to is Moms Meet. I am definitely all about green living, and this is what Moms Meet is all about. I am an ambassador on their website, which means I hold group meetings with other moms in my area, and sometimes my group will be chosen to test products. I should be hearing soon if my group has been chosen to test a few different products. 

My most favorite website of them all: Freecycle. Why? Everything is free! Hence the name mash-up of "free" and "recycle." This is also a website where you find groups in your area, and meet the people to pick up the items. So, again, I make sure to not do this alone... I posted a few days ago that I am looking for fabric or fabric scraps (so that I can make more diapers, finger puppets, etc.), and I have already gotten two responses...for free fabric! This is definitely my kind of website. :)

So, I am mostly saving money and not making as much money...but it is definitely a step in the right direction! Next step: find a legitimate job online, so that I can bring in an income and still be at home with my daughter... :)