Work At Home Mom: Earn Extra Cash With Treasure Trooper

 I often get asked how I make extra income and I am always quick to mention Treasure Trooper. At first people often look at me like I am nuts, but I'm not! I have been a member of Treasure Trooper since 2007. My son Riley was born in 2007 and I was a stay-at-home-mom and I wanted to earn a little extra cash. I began looking for survey sites and as I scoured the web I found lots of great reviews on Treasure Trooper so I gave it a shot. I earned quite a bit with it, but when I went back to work I stopped using it. I became a member again at the end of 2012 and have banked with the cash calls.

 Treasure Trooper is a survey site that pays you to complete various tasks including: cash offers, cash tasks, cash calls, surveys and many others. Treasure Trooper requires you to reach $20 to receive payment and payments are processed once a month. If you earn $20+ in May, you will receive it in the middle of June. Treasure Trooper pays via PayPal or check.

My favorite part of Treasure Trooper is the cash calls. You get paid for calling companies and inquiring about their products and services. Each call link provides you with the details including compensation, call time limits, and a little information about the company that you are calling. By doing the cash calls each month, I earn close to $70 and they are incredibly easy to do. In order to unlock the cash call feature I believe you have to earn $3 or $5 via cash offers which is not hard to do. The majority of cash offers are completely free and just take a few minutes each, I have the most luck with the offers that are studies. They credit the fastest and approve 99% of the time.

 Treasure Trooper offers a lot of fun activities as well. You get $1 for signing up and are given a lot of treasure for completing tasks. They offer a $100 treasure hunt. The site also features a chat-room and forum and the members are always helping each other out. Treasure Trooper offers "jungle slots", a slot machine game that you use your "gold coins" (you earn them by completing cash offers) to play the slots and win prizes. You can also have dragon battles and win cash on bingo night in the chat-room.

 No, you won't get rich from Treasure Trooper, but if you spend time on the internet and want to earn some extra cash you may as well give it a try. Like I said, just doing the cash calls will earn you an extra $70 a month and we can all use a little extra cash. So I suggest you head over to the Treasure Trooper page and give it a try, if you have any questions feel free to ask and I will help you out as much as I can.

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! "Best of Walden" DVD Review

If you children are like mine, then they love Wubbzy and his friends.  This DVD is packed with all of Walden's funniest and silliest episodes.  My children, ages 3 and 5, absolutely love this movie.  They watch it over and over.  Seriously, they do!

Wubbzy is one of the healthiest children's shows in my opinion.  It actually teaches children great values.  An example of this is one of the episodes Wubbzy and friends try and make Walden "cool" only to realize in the end not to change people because they are "cool" just the way they are. 


We’re thrilled to present Best of Walden!, the third wubbtastic installment of the “Best of” Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! DVD series from Anchor Bay Entertainment.  Starring the one and only Walden, Wubbzy’s good friend and Wuzzleburg’s top thinker, the action-packed new title will take fans nationwide on exciting journeys beginning April 9.

Young viewers will catch Walden’s contagious curiosity for non-stop fun, fun, fun in the stand-out collection of seven engaging episodes!  Fans are in for a sweet treat when Walden bakes a marshmallow lasagna for Wubbzy in “Perfecto Party,” plays his “hoopty horn” in “Goo Goo Grief,” and collects figgety-fig leaves with his best pals in “The Last Leaf!”  Best of Walden (SRP: $14.98) also features episodes “Mr. Cool,” “Woozy Walden,” “Walden on the Beach” – and a super special bonus episode, “Come Spy with Me!”  Cool coloring and activity sheets and dance-inducing music videos are included on the DVD, too!
Produced by Bolder Media, Inc. in association with Starz Media’s Film Roman Animation Studio, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! has been a hit with young viewers and families since its 2006 premiere on Nickelodeon^®.

The top-rated series, which airs daily on Nick Jr^®, supports preschool social skills – sharing, listening, compromising, helping and appreciating others, self-awareness and the use of humor as a coping skill.  Although their world is more fanciful and imaginative than our own, Wubbzy and his friends deal with the same social and developmental issues faced by preschoolers.  They learn how they fit into a group, how to understand their own feelings and those of others, how to get along with one another and about the value of friendship and community.

Be sure to pick up a copy of "Best of Walden" at your local retailer.  Your children will love it and learn some great values along the way!

Disclosure:

The product(s) provided for the review were sent to me free of charge from the company or the PR agency. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review. The opinions expressed are 100% my own.

Tree Hut: The First Step To Natural Beauty

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Tree Hut for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

 

Tree Hut Hand & Foot Care products are developed to keep hands and feet feeling smooth and healthy. Certified Organic Shea Butter and Natural oils and extracts make skin smooth and soft.

 

Why Tree Hut?  Tree Hut products are organically made.  They contain no harsh parabans.  Tree Hut does not test products on animals and Tree Hut products are made in the USA. 

Tree Hut offers a wide variety of products including:

 

Foot Cream:
• Certified Organic Shea Butter: skin repairing & moisturizing, anti-aging, promotes elasticity
• Argan Oil: natural anti-aging properties
• Rose Hip Oil: natural anti-aging properties
• Non-greasy formula
• Paraben Free and No DMDM
• Made in the USA
• Do not test on animals

Hand Cream:
• Certified Organic Shea Butter: skin repairing & moisturizing, anti-aging, promotes elasticity
• Aloe Vera: Nature’s soothing moisturizer
• Peppermint Oil: Moisturizes skin
• Paraben Free and No DMDM
• Made in the USA
• Do not test on animals

Foot Scrub:
• Certified Organic Shea Butter: skin repairing & moisturizing, anti-aging, promotes elasticity
• Real Sugar: Natural sugar exfoliates skin smooth
• Peppermint Oil: Moisturizes skin
• Paraben Free and No DMDM
• Made in the USA
• Do not test on animals

My personal fave is Tree Hut foot cream.  I love a good foot scrub after a long day of cleaning, working, and running around after my kids.  My summer style goes hand in hand with tree hut.  I have to have beautiful feet because they are showing all summer long.  I love to rock cute dresses and sandals during the summer. 

 

Be sure to follow  Tree Hut on Twitter and like Tree Hut on Facebook.  Tree Hut products can be found at Walmart stores nationwide so be sure to visit your local Walmart and indulge your hands and feet with the natural beauty of Tree Hut, you know you deserve it!

 

 

And the anxiety returns...

   
 Stress is normal for most people in their day to day lives and it's fairly common. For some, like myself, the stress at times can be unbearable.  When the stress reaches a certain point, we have panic attacks.  Sometimes we have panic attacks for no reason at all. 
     For me they typically come when my life seems to be perfectly on track.  So a lot of people that are close to me do not understand how I can become debilitated by them, when my life seems to be going great. In fact, I find myself questioning the same thing.
     At this moment, I am on a medical leave from my job.  I have been on Paxil for a little over 2 years.  Although the anxiety was under control, I was tired of the side effects.  I have gained over 25 pounds while being on this medication and I felt like I was just floating through life.  I didn't have that emotion, I felt as though I had to force myself to smile.  I started failing classes while on this medication which is not like me at all.  I wanted to feel human again.  I wanted to feel like an awesome Mom that had the energy to run around with her children.  I wanted to feel like myself again.  So in February, I began a very slow taper (my Dr. said I couldn't have done it any better). Yes, there were some side effects.  I was a little more emotional, some of the anxiety returned, but  I also started feeling human again.  I began to laugh and it was real.  I could cry and I had so much more energy.  I would come home from work and run around with my kids again and in one weeks time I turned an F into an A and passed my college course.
     I was feeling great then I get a call at work for the promotion that I applied for and they want to interview me.  For the next week, I was super anxious.  I begin having panic attacks again, but I managed to keep them under control. I go through my interview and a few days later I find out that I didn't get the job.  The office already had someone in-store in mind which makes sense because if the opportunity arose in my store, I would get it because I know our clientele.  I cried at work, yep totally cried at work.  Of course, everyone starts asking me "what's wrong?" and this is so embarrassing. 
     When my friend continues to ask, I tell her.  We have had some financial stress lately and I was hoping to get the position to ease it up a bit.  We are able to pay our bills on time, but the budget is tight.  Also my husband wants to start traveling again for work, and when we travels it is so much more on me.  I have to take the kids to daycare, pick them up from daycare and find other family members to pick them up on the days where I work late while working 40 hours a week.  I have been trying to get transferred to a location closer to home, but my manager says "You have not been here for a year so I cannot allow that, but you are qualified for a promotion so you can apply at any store in my district." Here's the catch: If I get promoted, I have to stay in that store for another year before I can move to another store and I had to find that out on my own.  My son starts kindergarten in a few months and I have to be able to take him to school or the bus-stop and still make it to work on time and the location that I currently work at makes that impossible because it is a 20 minute drive if there is no traffic.
     I have been having a hard time differentiating whether or not coming off of Paxil opened my eyes and maybe I am in a career that I just do not want to be in or if it is the anxiety speaking.  To be honest, I miss being a stay-at-home Mom.  I went back to work because I chose to.  At the time, I didn't have to.  My husband made enough money to cover us financially.  I am paid bi-weekly and half, yes half, of my income pays daycare.  I get paid bi-weekly so I basically get one paycheck a month after daycare.  I find myself wondering if that is really worth the stress of the job.  I work in banking so it's a numbers game.  Sales, sales, sales! I am good at sales, but in can be very stressful.  I have a lot of questions for myself and I don't know the answers.
     I have been to the doctor and she has put me on another medication that she says has less side effects and I am waiting for it to kick in.  I am feeling a little bit better and I can finally eat again which is good.  I just feel lost, like no one understands me and what I am going through.  I've never been a person with confidence, at all.  I look at myself with disgust all the time.  I try not to, but I do. 
     So I am on medical leave for a month while the medication kicks in.  The doctor is also running some tests to make sure that my anxiety and panic is not caused by something else.  I am not driving because I am scared to have a panic attack and I do not like driving when I first start trying new medication.  I do not want to give up on driving because I didn't drive for 8 years and began driving again 1 year ago and love the freedom of it.  That was a huge accomplishment for me.  I know that I can beat this, but I have a lot of unanswered questions regarding my career path and other stress factors in my life.  I hope that as I adjust to the new medication and have less anxiety that the answers will come to me. 

Remodeling my home with Floor and Decor!

     My husband and I bought our home in early 2008.  I loved the house, but I could not stand the awful white tile.  We spent most of our savings on the down payment and closing costs so we knew it would be a little while before we would be able to start remodeling.
     Fast forward to 2012.  Yay!, we have some cash and the first thing we have decided to do is re-tile the house.  I have an open floor plan so I already know that I want matching tile for the entire living area, kitchen, and hallways. 
     I, being the frugal mother of two that I am, start browsing advertisements and the scouring the web to find the best deals that I can.  I come across Floor and Decor and get excited.  I browse their website and find that they have great prices and endless options and styles.  The only downside is that the nearest store is 1.5 hours away, but the money we will save shopping there is more than worth it...or so I thought.
     We pick a weekend and hit the road to Floor and Decor.  The staff was great, we browsed for a good hour before we made our decision.  The sales associate lets us know that we can either load the tile up ourselves or Floor and Decor will wrap it up for us free of charge.  Of course we agree to let Floor and Decor load the tile for us.  They are the pros, right?
     We get in a checkout line and $700 later we are out the door.  We pull around back, show our receipt and the company loads the tile up for it.  It is wrapped, looks as good as can be.  We pull out of the parking lot and on our first turn, the top half of the tile slides off of the bottom half.  We immediately pull over.  My husband climbs into the back of the truck only to realize that although  the entire pallet of tile appeared wrapped, they were not wrapped together.  The top half was wrapped separately from the bottom half and then they were stacked on top of each other.  We immediately turn around and go inside Floor and Decor and explain that there must have been an error with the packaging associates.  We are still calm and collected at this point. Then the cashier tells us "we will give you a 50% credit for the packages of tile that are damaged." My heart sinks into my stomach, I look at her and show her my receipt and say "Mam, we just left your store, this is not our fault." She states that it is policy.  "Once you leave, you are responsible for the tile." I leave, very upset and tell my husband "maybe only a few tiles chipped."
     We arrive home to find that a good majority of the tiles are cracked, chipped, or in pieces.  I call the store and ask to speak to a manager, again I get the same response.  So I email the company and I get no response at all.  I email them again and again and again and never get a response.
     We tiled the house, but were not able to tile the kitchen because of all the tile that had broken.  We paid $700 for tile and we unable to complete the job because of all the broken tile. My husbands best friend owns a tile installation company and he said he has never seen so much broken tile from a load in his career. 
      We are a family on a budget, we have two small children and were so excited to finally begin turning our home into our dream home and it was ruined.  Floor and Decor is a reputable company, but there customer service failed us and majorly.  Not one employee would give us the time of day and upteen emails I sent went unanswered.  No apology, no response.  Customer service is huge in all business transactions and Floor and Decor failed epically.
     So I post this so that when you are looking to remodel or tile your home, you consider going with a company that will provide you the excellent customer service that you deserve.