With summer approaching us in the next few months – we all know how important it is to keep our children reading.  Here is a great list of Summer Reading Programs available this summer  - let us know which ones you have tried in the past!

Book Adventure - Sylvan offers this FREE reading incentive program. Basically your child reads books and then takes a simple comprehension quiz to make sure they understood what they read.  The quiz is usually about 10 questions long.  They earn points based on how much they remember from reading the book.

There are hundreds of books to choose from in all reading levels.  These are common books that can be found at your local library.  Once they have earned enough points they can trade them in for some really neat prizes!

Half Price Books – They are offering kids ages 14 and under a chance to earn a $5 Gift Card for reading just 15 each day throughout the summer!

National Amusements Theaters Bookworm Wednesdays - Your child can earn a FREE movie ticket from National Amusements Theaters when they read a book and complete a book report.

PBS Kids Summer Reading Challenge – This challenge kicks off on June 6th and includes a FREE six week reading program and the chance for your kids to win daily prizes for their participation.

Barnes & Noble Imagination Destination - This summer reading program through Barnes & Noble gives your child the ability to earn a FREE book after reading 8 books and keeping track of them in a reading log.

Local Public Library - Don’t forget to check out your local libraries to find out which programs they’ll be offering this summer.  My kids have participated in several Summer reading Programs through the library and it always includes FREE books & prizes.

TD Bank Summer Reading Program – Read and keep track of 10 books this summer and your child will get $10 added to their Young Saver Account FREE!

Chuck E. Cheese – Earn 10 FREE tokens every time your child reads for 2 weeks in a row.  Just fill out the form and bring it in to claim your free token.

Scholastic Summer Challenge - Log in your reading minutes to the Scholastic site and your child will be able to participate in a World Record challenge as well as earn digital prizes!

Thanks Savings Dollars and Sense!

You make yourself a plate of Gluten-Free brownies of course

This is the first time this year that we have gotten the stomach bug – so for that I am thankful  I came down with it this past weekend, and then my 6 year old son got it last night….

I hope you have been able to stay healthy this year so far!

This topic is a fun one for me, because many people do not know that you can actually make money blogging!  I am also very excited to talk about this, because I really strive to be honest about what I do behind the scenes as a blogger that make me money.  What people also don’t know is that I have to pay money to keep this blog running, so making money is necessary to make this all work.

If you missed the first two posts on this topic, make sure you read  A Day in the Life of a Blogger and How to How to Start a Blog.

I have a Disclosure Policy that is always up on my site – you can be 100% sure that everything I post, I post on because I think it’s a great deal.  On the flip side – many of my posts do not contain any  affiliate links, and I post them just because I think they are a fabulous deal!  There are also many deals that I could post that would make me a lot of money, but I choose not to because I don’t believe in the company or the product.

The ways that I currently make money are:

• Ad Networks
• Affiliate Networks
• Coupon printing
• Sponsored Content
• Referral credits

Here I will break down some simple tips in each category:

Ad Networks:

I currently am running Ads from 2 different Ad Networks: Google Adsense and Burst Media.  You can get paid on per impression (how many times people view your page also called CPM Ads) or per click (how many times people physically click on your ad also called CPA ads).

There are so many Ad Networks that you can sign up for – but you need to find the correct fit.  I like Burst because it allows me to pick and choose which Ads I want shown on my website.  Google is also great because I can block URL’s of websites that I don’t want shown (like un-family friendly content.)

Coupon Printing:

My favorite Affiliate Network that I work with is Escalate Network – I run all my coupon links through Escalate.  Yes, printing a coupon here makes me a few pennies per click

You can also sign up for Logical Media or MySaving Media – they are similar networks.

Affiliate Networks:

Many of the retail deals that I post contain affiliate links. The way that I find out what deals I want to post is that I find the stores that I like to shop at and have great deals, then sign up for their affiliate programs.

Here are some great places to look:

• Cj.com
• Google Ad Network (GAN)
• Share A Sale
• Linkshare

Sponsored Content:

There are many times that I get requests to work with a company on a certain Campaign. These are my favorite posts to do, because these companies I am really passionate about  and I want to share what they have to offer to all of my readers.  These types of opportunities didn’t start coming in until I had been blogging for about a year – but now I love it when I get a chance to work with them and bring their company to all of you!

Referral Credits:

Another fun way that bloggers earn money is referral credits.  When posting a deal, sometimes I opt to use my personal referral link.  This could mean Groupon, Swagbucks, Vitacost deals may have my personal affiliate link inside them.

I do realize that this may be an uncomfortable topic for ‘non-bloggers’, however I do think it is an important topic to cover. I want all of you to know that I do many money blogging, but I think very carefully about what posts are posted and make sure that it is something that I myself would sign up for or purchase.

If you are a blogger – what are your tips for making money blogging?

Last year I helped organized a food drive to help my local community in need and was able to donate hundreds of dollars worth of products and food, and this year I’m excited to share with you about Couponing for Community 2012. It’s an opportunity to join with couponers nationwide to GIVE BIG and GIVE BACK. Simply use your couponing skills to give to a homeless shelter, food pantry, or a friend in need during the week of May 6-12, 2012. Then head to the Couponing for Community Facebook page to add the number of your donation items to the tally. (We love pictures too!)

The goal this year? 30,000 items donated in one week’s time! Last year, we blew away our goal, and we know that together we can do it again!

May 12 is also National Stamp out Hunger Day, so giving can be as easy as putting a bag of non-perishable food items out by your mailbox on Saturday, May 12.

In the meantime, head over and ‘like’ the Couponing for Community Facebook page to get connected with other couponers in the C4C community. Then start setting aside items to give during the week of May 6-12. I’ll be sure to post a reminder when the time gets closer! You are not going to want to miss this chance to flex our couponing muscles for GOOD!

Let me know if you plan on participating this year!  I know I am!

Since we sold out of the May 4th Money Saving seminar – we decided to open up a second seminar on May 18th at 6:30 pm!

Here are the details:

When: Friday May 18, 2012

Time: 6:30-8:30 pm

Cost: $10 below at the door

Where: The Post-Standard Building  - 1 S. Clinton Street Syracuse, NY 13202

Topics to be covered during this 2 hour seminar include:

• Budgeting for your household
• Managing and Organizing your coupon collection
• How to make coupons work for you
• Menu planning using my ‘FREE and Cheap’ system
• How to play the ‘Drug Store Game’ and shop for FREE at CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid
• Ways to make extra cash at home

Have you ever had issues printing a Bricks coupon? Let me teach you how to get Bricks coupons mailed to you. Bricks coupons look like the picture below and the url starts with bricks.coupons.com (which is why they are called Bricks coupons).  One of my computers will print Bricks coupons, and the other one will not.  There is a way to get the coupon, even if you ran out of ink, or don’t have a printer. See the screen shot below of what the bricks page looks like, and then look down to your bottom right where it says Help.

When you click on the Help – it will take you to a screen where you can fill out your mailing information and they will mail you a coupon!  They will only mail you 1 coupon (not the usual 2 coupon that you can print).

So next time you run out of ink, your printer breaks, or you just can’t get your computer to print Bricks coupon – try this method of getting Bricks Coupons mailed to you.  Not every Bricks coupon will offer this option – but just click on the Help Button to see if you can get it mailed to your home.

And don’t forget my trick of how to print coupons when you run out of printer ink.