Giveaways and Challenges « Designs by Megan Turnidge

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Dave Ramsey, Budgets, & Coupons (OH MY!)

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

Any Dave Ramsey fans out there? At New Year’s I made a goal to get better control over our finances and get out of debt. I bought Dave’s The Total Money Makeover and read it… and quickly decided that he had a GOOD plan! The guy gives it to ya straight. I love it! I like to listen to his radio show online and watch his TV show on Hulu… it helps keep me motivated. For the first time since I’ve been married, we have a plan for our future and we have planned out every dollar that we earn. We’re actually BUDGETING! EEEP! If you feel like you live paycheck to paycheck… if you have ANY debt… if you want a REAL plan to get out of debt and save and build wealth… GET HIS BOOK!

And along the lines of budgeting… I purchased the You Need a Budget Software. I loooooooooooovvvveeeeee it. Seriously. I do! Before I was using an Excel spreadsheet… and it was lame. I love how YNAB helps me save for future purchases/bills without actually having to transfer that money into a special savings account. It is especially helpful for preparing for bills that come only every few months or once or twice a year (like car insurance and such).

To help us in our Total Money Makeover, I decided to start using coupons to cut down our grocery bill. What a lot of people think is that it’s just cheaper not to use coupons and buy the store brand… NOT TRUE!! Couponers combine coupons with sales and sometimes stack coupons and sales on top of store coupons… getting stuff for cheap and FREE! And you stock up on that stuff so you don’t have to run out to the store to get something you need for dinner that night and end up paying full price for it. Since I started couponing, I have saved 60-75% off every shopping trip. It’s like a rush and I thoroughly enjoy it. How dorky am I? haha! Plus it allows me to shop at Safeway instead of Walmart… and I try to avoid Walmart at all costs.

I was hesistant to do the couponing thing… I’m a busy woman and I didn’t think I’d have the time to search through ads and coupons and try and match them up. Buuuuuut I read blogs like The Krazy Coupon Lady (read their KCL 101… it helps A LOT) and they alert me to awesome coupon matchups. Annnnnd I subscribe to Coupon$ense. I especially love C$ because it allows me to login and see what’s on super sale and add it to my shopping list, then I just print it out and it gives me the list of coupons I need to clip (and where to find them) and bring with me to the store! They are based in Arizona, but people in other states can check and see if they have stores for your area too by putting in your ZIP code on the sign up page.

This was my very first couponing trip ever… I spent $15.75 and walked out with $11.50 in “catalinas” to use on my next purchase. Isn’t that the coolest?!

In another attempt to be thrifty, I signed up for Swagbucks (that is an affiliate link). Swagbucks is TOTALLY legitimate. Essentially, you earn swagbucks just for using their search engine. Then you can redeem those swagbucks for prizes in their Swag Store… and I always snag the $5 Amazon GCs. Then I stack those Amazon GCs in my Amazon account. I signed up last month and I have already earned $20 in Amazon GCs. I decided to see how many I can earn before Christmas and try and do my Christmas shopping with the GCs I earn through Swagbucks! Christmas gifts for free… I’m excited! hehe! Just search the web like you usually do, but use the SB search engine instead and you’ll randomly win SBs! (You don’t win on every search, it’s completely random) You can also earn more SBs by finding swag codes and entering them into your account. If you’re on Facebook, fan Engineer a Debt Free Life and they will alert you when a swag code is out and tell you where to find it or where to find the clue! You can also earn an additional 1-3 SBs PER DAY just by having their toolbar installed. Learn more about it here!

Anyways, I am totally lovin’ Dave Ramsey, budgeting, coupons, and Swagbucks. I just want to share the info for any others wanting it!

“If you will live like no one else, later you can LIVE like no one else!!!” -Dave

GIVEAWAY!!!

Are you interested in Dave’s plan? Leave me a comment and you’ll earn one entry into a drawing to get his book, The Total Money Makeover, FOR FREE! That’s right, I’m giving one away! Want more entries into the drawing? Earn another entry for each of the following (please leave SEPARATE comments telling me which you’ve done… it’ll be easier for me if you leave separate comments for each entry):

Blog about this giveaway and send your readers over here!
Post about this giveaway on Facebook with a link to this blog entry!

Winner will be announced on April 16th!

Posted in Couponing, Giveaways and Challenges, NSBR | 24 Comments »

Operation: Inspiration - WIN $20 GCs!

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

So, I am seriously lacking some mojo lately. I need some inspiration!! Can you help a girl out?

What’s in it for me, you say? Well, how about some $20 GCs to my shop?! Sound fun?! Alrighty!

If you’d like the opportunity to win a $20 GC to my shop, please email me at megan (at) designsbymeganturnidge (dot) com with your kit/product ideas. You may attach images for inspiration and include as many of your ideas as you like! Entries must be submitted by 3/31/10. Winner(s) will be announced here on 4/1. Well, get to it!

Posted in Giveaways and Challenges | 3 Comments »

Chance to win a free set of my 2010 calendars!

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

EDIT: The giveaway is now closed and the winner has been announced. Thanks!!!

My calendars are featured over on the MyPicTales Blog… and one lucky reader will get the 2010 8.5×11″ Toppers for FREE! You’ve gotta hurry on over there and leave a comment for a chance to win! There’s also a coupon there for 30% off both my sets of calendars.

Posted in Giveaways and Challenges | No Comments »

NEW Shutterfly books! {review}

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

I was lucky to get the opportunity to try out some new photo books from Shutterfly this month! They have added some softcover books and have some cute sizes, perfect for mini albums and gifts. You can check out all their books here.

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I decided to print some brag books in their 5×7″ and 7×9″ softcover books. I haven’t made a brag book in like 9 months, so it was definitely time for me to get new pictures in my purse so I could show off my lil’ cutie pie! Zoe Pearn has this really cuuuuute brag book, Chasing Rainbows Brag Book, and I used those QPs to speed along the book creation process. I also used the Chasing Rainbows kit since I needed to fill 20 pages and made a coordinating cover. I don’t use QPs often, but do love to use them for little projects like this! They can be a real time saver!

I did have to make a few adjustments for margins… make sure you check out Shutterfly’s specs for their books so you don’t lose any text or chop off anything important! You’ll find their templates for the covers there too!

As far as putting the book together, Shutterfly’s online software is really easy to use. Upload your .JPEGs to an album in your account and then when you view your album, select “Select ALL” in the right corner of the album, then go to EDIT>Apply Effect on the left. THIS PART IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! Shutterfly automatically applies their VividPics effect to all your photos. This can cause your colors to come out weird on some pages because it color corrects pages it thinks need correcting. You don’t want it messing with the colors on your scrapbook pages… so on the right make sure you click “DON’T APPLY AUTOMATIC CORRECTIONS TO THIS PICTURE” and then select “APPLY THIS EFFECT TO SELECTED PICTURES” just above that. This will turn off VividPics. This is my one complaint about the book making process at SF. I almost always forget to do this, in fact the first time I ordered these books I forgot to turn of VP and had to cancel my order and go back and fix it. If you need help figuring out how to put your book together with Shutterfly, check out this link here.

I created my 5×7″ book first and then I had the option at the end to create the 7×9″ from that book. Generally, you risk losing a litte quality when you print larger than your files were intended… my pages were 5×7″ but I did not notice a difference in quality between the printed 5×7″ and the 7×9″ book.

Shutterfly’s production time is pretty fast compared to other companies I’ve tried. This is nice when you’ve got a deadline or a last minute gift to put together. I chose the slowest shipping though, so mine did take over a week and a half to get to me (from the date I ordered) so if you’ve got a deadline, make sure you select a faster shipping method.

When I got my soft cover books, I was happy to see that the book wasn’t stapled together. I’ve seen small soft cover albums where they just folded the pages and stapled through them. These books have a nice, clean binding. I was very pleased with it.

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Print quality: The colors look fairly good. I like the thick pages Shutterfly prints on. It’s a thick, slightly glossy cardstock (but not too glossy). I am suuuuuper picky about my prints, and I much prefer getting my pages photo processed because press printed pages tend to be slightly lower quality. A lot of people don’t notice the difference… I just examine my prints really closely. My pictures never come out quite as I expected (not quite as crisp as when I get them printed through a photo lab), but this is due to the print process. I always feel that press printed pages look grainy… and these books were no exception. If you like printing photo books and are used to press printed pages, I’ll bet you’ll be happy with Shutterfly’s printing! I personally just prefer real photographic prints.

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So, if you’re looking for gift ideas this holiday season, check out Shutterfly’s new mini books. The 5×7″ is the perfect size for a brag book… grandparents LOVE those so they can show off their grandkids. I’m going to keep the 5×7″ in my purse and I’m letting my daughter have the 7×9″ (she looooooves looking at pictures).

Alright, and they gave me extra books to give away!! I’ve got one 8×8″ soft cover book and one 8×11″ soft cover book (20 pages each). So, if you’d like a shot at winning a free book, leave a comment on this post…. tell me about your favorite part of fall! I’ll come back and randomly choose 2 winners on 10/7. Make sure you check back to see if you won!

Posted in Giveaways and Challenges, Printing books and pages | 56 Comments »

Thanks for all the inspiration!!

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Alrighty. I’ve chosen the “winners” of those $20 GCs to my shop for inspiring me to create some new fun goodies! Are you ready…..

1. Graduation kit… seems like a lot of you need this. Note that I will be doing one aimed more at high school/college grads instead of pre-school.

2. Summer Picnic… love this one!

3. Rodeo/Cowboy/cowgirl kit… this could be REALLY fun and CUUUUTE!! I love the idea of releasing one for boys and one for girls.

4. Pink and brown baby girl kit…. this is sooooo my style.

So, would the following please contact me for their prize? Please email me at mturnidge (at) hotmail (dot) com
1. Chantel… you were first to ask for a grad kit
2. Alicia (Roland & Alicia)
3. Tanya
4. The Heizzys