Money for Nothing

...and your "checks" for free!  http://www.vistaprint.com/gallery/IP0AAAABAAAAAAA=/free-checks.aspx?xnav=LeftItem&xnid=LeftNav241_233_232

Don't you love getting money for doing practically nothing?  When you shop online you can go to Box Tops for Education and earn Box Tops for Whitney.  Right now there is a special on the site offering double Box Tops for online purchases:
http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/marketplace/Default.aspx?WT.ac=Feature_DoubleeBTCollection

If you go through the link at the top you can even get checks for free!

• Go to www.boxtops4education.com
• Choose "Earn" from the menu at the top 
• You will then see a drop down menu and will want to choose "Shop Marketplace" 
• From there, select "See All Stores" and you can find the"Vistaprint" shop in the list (it's alphabetical)  

By buying products through these shops, you are entitled to special discounts through Box Tops For Education while also contributing to Whitney's Box Tops collection.  You buy products you would normally buy and by doing one thing slightly differently the school earns money back.

If you have started thinking (worrying and grinding your teeth at night is more like it) about the cost of your children's college education (or even if YOU want to go back to school!), you can add money to an Idaho Saves 529 account through Upromise.com simply by shopping.  Register your debit/credit and grocery cards on Upromise to get started. When you shop online using the Upromise portals you will earn a percentage back.  This money goes into a holding place where it rolls into your your designated 529 account on a quarterly basis.  You can even establish a percentage for how much each recipient ought to receive.

Even if you do not participate in regular contributions or have established a 529 account, Upromise can get still begin collecting funds while you shop.  They will simply hold onto those until you set up that 529 account.

Example:

• Is there a Groupon you want to buy?  Fantastic!  Upromise can give your blossoming 529 account 4-6% of your Groupon purchase.

• The Upromise Old Navy link will give you Free Shipping and 5% back.
• I recently bought shoes from Kohls.com and got $4.32 back from that purchase.  The money is then divided into my two 529 accounts and $2.16 will go to each account.  I paid the same amount that anybody else on the internet would have paid (okay, I grabbed a coupon from RetailMeNot first) but instead of just getting shoes, I got a little extra to go towards college for the kids.  That $2.16 will eventually wind up in their 529 accounts this year and begin earning interest.  Thus, money for nothing.

• Christmas is just around the corner, and Target, Barnes and Noble and Toys r' Us all give you between 1-3%.  Check back with Upromise OFTEN because the site frequently offers better savings, deals, coupons and extras for shopping through them.

Still not finding what you're looking for between the Box Tops for Education and Upromise stores?  Try the Amazon.com link to the right of this Blog post.  Whitney Elementary school gets a percentage of purchases through the Amazon link on this site.

Magic?  No, it's just monetizing a website.  Products and consumer websites pay smaller websites to advertise for them.  Coupons.com will not work if the product user does not know about them.  So, coupons.com pays Blogs and websites like ours for every coupon printed from the site.  All we do on our end is contact companies like Amazon or Coupons.com and request membership in their affiliate program.  We then insert the html code they give us on our Blog and people are given the option to click through to the site or ignore it.

If it's not free to the affiliate (that's us) then it's usually a scam and we run the other way.  Upromise membership is completely free.  Buying through the stores on Box Tops for Education is also free/there is no charge to use their site to connect to the stores they have listed.  Again, if you find a program like this that charges you money to buy things through a website it is probably a scam you should avoid.

While all this may not amount to quick sums of big money, it is money for doing things we do every day or simply, money for nothing.

And yes, until I was in my 30's I thought the song went "Money for nothing and your checks for free."  My husband also thought it was hysterical that I thought Bruce Springsteen sang "Bridge in Disguise" rather than Brilliant Disguise.  To my credit, even though I KNOW what the lyrics are it still SOUNDS like that's what they're singing.

Nikki "she who loves Mark Knopfler even though she can't understand him" Rutledge
-Whitney Parent