Hot Off the Press!

I found this amazing, $1.00 report this morning which you can then turn around and sell it for $1.00 as many times as you would like. You won't get rich off this idea, but you will learn lots of other easy, inexpensive ways to make money online in the process. Enjoy the fatter PayPal account!

Brring! Get Paid Every Time Your Phone Rings!

A while back I signed up for Brring. It's a free ringback service. What that basically means is that it's free to sign up. Brring provides you with a new phone number that redirects to your current home or cell phone number. Callers hear a 10 second advertisement from companies from record labels and movie studios to travel services and popular consumer brands. Brring also partners with humanitarian and charitable organizations to run public service announcements.

Every time someone calls you on your Brring number, your account gets credited up to $0.05. You can also earn by creating a profile, notifying your friends, family, or business contacts of your new phone number, and referring others to this free service.

One thing I like about it is that it keeps my phone number private. I use my Brring number on internet forms and on my promotional materials.

I've made $12.65 so far. Not bad for doing something you already do every day: receive phone calls. The minimum to get paid is $10.

Breastfeeding and Co-sleeping resources

Thankfully my baby girl and I have taken to breastfeeding like a duck to water. We were blessed to have LOTS of support while we were in the hospital. All of the nurses on staff in the maternity department are trained in lactation. Plus, we had lactation consultants come by and give us tips for success too.

Our pediatrician also has a lactation consultant on staff who we met with prior to our little one's first check up. The pointers she gave us were very eye opening and nursing feels a lot more natural to us now, whereas before it was more of a wrestling match. Yes, it went relatively well, but that's because I didn't know any better. I just assumed it was a wrestling match for all mommies and babies because babies are uncoordinated at first. She recommended and loaned us her copy of Breastfeeding Made Simple: Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers.

One of the things she recommended during our visit was a minimum of two hours a day of skin to skin contact with our baby, be it with me and her or her daddy and her. This also brought up the controversial topic of co-sleeping. She also recommended and loaned us a copy of Sleeping with Your Baby: A Parent's Guide to Cosleeping.

This book helped us sort out the difference between the term "co-sleeping," which many people use when what they really mean is "bedsharing." Since bedsharing is not really an option for us because we cannot do it safely (we are both overweight and I tend to sleep quite deeply, two major no-nos for safe bedsharing), we feel much better knowing that just having her sleep in our room is considered "co-sleeping," and she will benefit from it in the long run.

I know this blog is mainly about my efforts to Just Say No to Daycare, but since that also implies an audience of mommies, I thought these resources would be helpful!

Beware of Scams

In today's economy, many people are looking for ways to pinch pennies here and there, and also make a few extra dollars on the side. After all, we all need to make ends meet somehow.

Unfortunately, with the increased interest in stretching our dollars, there are those out there who are interested in not only capitalizing on this desire, but exploiting it.

I'm sure by now you've seen the Cash4Gold advertisements, promising to pay top dollar for jewelry you no longer wear, broken watches, etc. These commercials have made me a little sick to my stomach since the first time I saw it. Something about it just didn't "feel" right to me. Don't get me wrong, I am all for capitalism and understand that of course, they are not going to pay "top dollar." Of course they are going to pay less than market value so that they can make some profit.

On the flip side, I recently discovered a couple of websites that look at the darker side of this program. Check them out here: Expose #1, Expose #2. I would love to hear your comments!

Right or wrong, I think the lesson here is to do your due diligence before forking over anything of value, be it money for a home based business or your valuable jewelry.