Squidoo

For those of you who have never heard of Squidoo let me tell you a little about it.  Squidoo is a website for writers, bloggers, or other people interested in making extra income while having fun at the same time.  They have a pretty good deal going because they realize that without all of us who are using the site to write or do our thing, whatever that may be, they would not have a site at all and would make no money themselves.  So they have a deal set up so that people who create lenses on Squidoo will earn a good sized percentage of all the income generated off that specific page through various ads and modules we put on our lens.  Squidoo also puts advertising on our lenses and we earn from those as well.

My lenses that I have been working on so far are listed on the sidebar but I wanted to list them here and give a brief overview of what each one is about.

By far my longest and most involved lens is one I have done on movie musicals.  I've probably gone way overboard on this one but I do love movie musicals a lot and it was very hard to not include all my favorites.  Probably I will end up adding more to this one as I think of any I might have forgotten to include. 

The next lens I have been doing the most work on is about my new adventure into extreme couponing.  I've been learning how to take advantage of the "money" that we all throw away every week or every month in the way of coupons. I'm not exactly going to the huge extremes that have become so talked about, but I have realized that coupons are another form of money and that if I can get products for free, or for whatever amount (even double or triple the amount of the coupon) it saves that much in my shopping budget.  This lens is all about my trip into learning just how to make the most of the coupons I get.


When I got Jonah  for Christmas from my daughter, I decided I needed to find a way to make some extra money to help take care of him.  So I created a lens all about him.  He's my cute little Shih Tsu if you haven't already seen pictures of him here in the blog or on my Facebook profile.  Jonah's lens is for information about Shih Tsu dogs and other house pets as well as specifically about Jonah himself.  He's such a little cutie.  He's a rescue dog and has had a lot of medical expenses so far, all of which my daughter has been taking care of.  I'd like to be able to start contributing back to her and I'm hoping that this lens will soon take off and start making enough to do that.


How To Care For Cast Iron Skillets, I've Lost My Marbles, A Puzzling Situation--Jigsaw Puzzles That Is, and Indoor Grilling   are the other lenses I have created so far.  They have not received all the attention that the first ones listed have yet, but they are ready for anyone to check out.   So if any of these topics are of interest to you, I would love to have you visit any or all of my Squidoo lenses and see what it is all about.  Remember, if any of the products listed on the lenses are of interest to you and you might want to purchase something, it helps if you can do so there on the page rather than going elsewhere.  There are Amazon, eBay, Esty, and maybe some other locations available.  There are also polls and discussion modules that you can participate in.


One special lens I would like to mention here is one I have been working on for many months.  It is part of a place I volunteer my time to online called Scams of the Heart.  This is an information sister site to the Scams of the Heart Chat Room.  This organization was created to help people who have in one way or another become involved in a relationship online that turns out to be false.  Usually Ghanan or Nigerian, and part of the 419 email scams, romance scams have become big business over the past 5-10 years and the results can have a devastating effect on the victims. Most of the victims are hit up at online dating websites, all of which have scammers listed as members.  Among the many real people who are members, these scammers create fake profiles using stolen photographs and sometimes stolen identities as well as created fake identities to lead unsuspecting singles into emotional relationships that these singles believe is with someone real.  Many thousands of people have suffered financial loss and loss of trust because of these scammers.  Scams of the Heart is there to provide a listening ear, a shoulder to lean on, and friendship that is real to help victims of romance scams heal.  The Squidoo lens was created not only to put educational information out there to help prevent further scams, but also as a means to raise a little money to help defray the costs of keeping the chat room in operation.


There you have it.  These are just some of the things keeping me occupied this past fall into this winter.  Squidoo lenses are fun to make, and might make me a little extra income to help out with my budget that is just a bit too tight.  It is a slow process since promotion of the lenses to gain traffic is up to the lens creators.  But then, that is how it works for any website anyone creates.  If we want it seen, we have to promote it.  I hope you enjoy my lenses.  I've enjoyed working on them.

Coupons, Coupons, and More Coupons!

My daughter and daughter-in-law are both becoming avid coupon users.  My daughter-in-law has gotten so many free items that it amazes me.  Now they have gotten me so excited about it that I am having monthly coupon parties at my house so we can get together with our friends to share coupons and tips with each other, along with yummy snacks and recipes.  I am printing coupons off the internet almost daily and getting the weekly coupon sections of the newspaper.  I have a pile to be gone through and clipped as I write this.  

I've now gotten to the point where making my grocery list depends on what coupons I have, and the coupons I use depend on what is on my grocery list.  I know I can become too much of a perfectionist about this whole thing and let it hamper my doing well.  I tend to over-complicate things.

A few years ago I created a really cool grocery list spreadsheet.  I thought how simple it would be to just highlight and color in the items I want on that list and print it out.  The only thing that came up as a problem was that often I would want something not on the spreadsheet and I didn't have room to add it.  Now here I am wanting to figure out how to make it even easier because making a simple grocery list while keeping track of all my coupons is not easy for me.  So my response to this is to come up with yet a new spreadsheet grocery list that has a way of listing the coupons I will use next to the item.  I am not sure this will work.  


In the meantime, this pile of coupons is not getting any closer to getting clipped and my grocery list needs finished before Thursday.  I do know that the first monthly coupon party was fun and I am looking forward to this month's get together.  We meet in the mornings while kids are in school for convenience of those who have kids, and have a bring-a-dish-to-share brunch.  This is a great time to try out new recipes and brunch recipes are just a lot of fun to try.


When I see my daughter-in-law bringing home bundles of free items she got with coupons it just shows me what I can do on my limited budget if I learn how to do this.  My daughter-in-law is raising seven children and anything she can do with coupons helps her and my son greatly.  For myself, I have to learn not to be using coupons just to use them, but to stick to things I will actually use in my home once I purchase them.  Otherwise I have wasted money.  Now if I get free items, even if I don't use them myself, I can use them to donate to food pantries and other places that help the homeless or other low-income people like myself.


I will keep you posted, hopefully, about how this couponing works out for me.