It's been a while since I have mentioned Ebates on the blog, but my last two checks definitely reminded me that it is time to post about it again!

My last check from Ebates was $96.31, and the one before that was $103, so I have made more than $200 from Ebates on just my last two checks. Now, this might not sound like a lot of money to some folks, but when you are vegan on a budget or just a cheap vegan, every bit helps.

Plus, all I had to do to get this cash back was click the Ebates button in my toolbar before placing an order on various shopping sites. So, I was just going about my day buying vegan food or booking hotel rooms or ordering my supplements, and I got cash back for just clicking one extra button. It really is that easy -- and so worth it!

This is from the Make Money page and better explains how easy it is to make money with Ebates while making the online purchases you would be making anyways:

What it is: Ebates is an easy way to earn cash back for purchases you make online. By shopping online through Ebates, you can enjoy special discounts using coupon codes provided on the site, while also earning cold, hard cash every time you make a purchase at a participating online retailer. There is no membership fee and no mail-in rebate forms or other hoops to jump through --– you just shop online through Ebates and earn cash back.

How to Earn: Shop online at more than 1,500 retailers and earn cash back for every purchase. For example, at the time of this writing, Sephora shoppers receive 8% cash back, Target shoppers get 6% cash back, Best Buy customers receive 1% to 3.6% cash back and Drugstore.com shoppers get 6% cash back. You simply login to the Ebates website before you do the online shopping you would be doing anyways. You can even add your favorite stores to your profile to make it faster and more convenient to find the stores you regularly shop at online.

Rewards: Money! You can choose to either receive a check in the mail or a deposit in your PayPal account for whatever you have earned during each three-month earning period. You can also opt to have the money you earn donated to a charity or sent to a family member. The minimum payout per quarter is $5.01, so if you have earned less than that, they will just roll that over into the next earning period.

My Experience: This cash back program couldn’t be simpler. You sign up with just your email address, so it’s easy to get started and see if you like the program. I don’t do anything special; I just shop online like I normally would at retailers I would normally visit. You can track your earnings as you go along, which is nice. Then, every three months, you get paid whatever cash back you have earned (if there is $5.01 or more in your Ebates account at that time). I use this program, so I can verify that it is a legitimate way to earn cash back when shopping online. It’s also great to get to stack deals by using coupon codes and earning cash back on the same purchase.

Getting Started: Head over to the Ebates website to sign up. Once you are there, you will find all the information you need to start earning cash back every time you shop online.

I shop at Vitacost a lot. This is where I order all of my vegan supplements, as well as gluten-free foods, vegan food, and almost all of my vegan, cruelty-free, organic personal care products.

Shopping on Vitacost already saves me quite a bit of money every month, since I have found the prices to always be less than retail prices for vegan and organic goods in local stores. Plus, they have sales and promo codes all the time, which helps me save even more.

Then, on top of the discount prices, promo codes and sales, I also earn cash back from Ebates every time I place an order on Vitacost. It is as easy as clicking the Ebates button in my toolbar before I place my order. Seriously, I click one button, and I get cash back with every order. In fact, Ebates even reminds me to use the available coupons on Vitacost to make sure I am saving as much money as possible.

I use Ebates when I'm shopping elsewhere online as well, but I have found the combination of Vitacost and Ebates to be a particularly good way to save money on vegan, organic and gluten-free products. So, this is one money-saving tip that I use all the time and that I totally recommend!

You can sign up for Ebates here and for Vitacost here.

This post contains affiliate links.

There are always cheap, vegan, cruelty-free beauty products, skincare products and hair care products at T.J. Maxx. I don't think I have every been there when I have not seen some great deals on vegan personal care products that were pretty hard to pass up. But I do believe this is the biggest selection I have ever found at one time -- which was pretty awesome!

For me, this was even more exciting, because I use almost all of these brands, and this was a great opportunity to try some new products at a discount.

So much Giovanni, Alba, Andalou Naturals, Reviva Labs and Avalon Organics goodness...

I LOVE rosewater spray and every time I see one, I am tempted to buy it. I had to force myself to leave these at T.J. Maxx for someone else to enjoy, since I already have one in my bedroom, my office, my purse, my car and my travel kit. Sometimes a girl has to make tough choices!

I usually use witch hazel as a toner, but I did pick up this Elastin & Collagen Skin Toner from Reviva Labs on this trip. I've been using it for about a week now and am really enjoying it.

Okay, so now that you have seen some pics of the vegan, cruelty-free beauty products T.J. Maxx has right now...here is what I brought home with me...

I haven't had the chance to try everything yet, but I am using the toner I mentioned above, as well as the Andalou Naturals Floral Toner and Pore Minimizer. So far, I'm loving all three products and can't wait to try the others!

If you find great deals on vegan or cruelty-free personal care products, please let me know so that I can help spread the word!

Now…I know most of you probably don’t spend your afternoons lovingly crafting homemade jam and canning the abundance of leftover vegetables from your backyard garden (although that does sound like a great way to spend an afternoon!), but you don’t have to be a canner to have dozens of uses for mason jars.

Seriously, canning jars are amazingly versatile, and we can thank the likes of John L. Mason, Henry William Putnam, the Ball brothers, Alexander H. Kerr and a list of other recognizable last names for their contributions to the advancement of glass jar technology. But I know you didn’t come here for a canning jar history lesson, so let’s move right along to the purpose of this post.

Actually, I do have one more quick thing I want to say before we delve into the many uses of the common canning jar: Many of the metal lid options have a lining that contains Bisphenol A (BPA), which is an endocrine disruptor. Keep an eye out for BPA-free options, and if you do end up with lids that contain BPA, I would recommend either swapping them out with BPA-free canning jar lids or using those jars for non-food purposes. If you can’t get around it and have to use the ones with BPA, leave space between the contents and the lid, and make sure you keep the jars upright, to avoid contact.

Tattler Reusable Wide Mouth Canning Lids with rubber rings are one BPA-free option; however, they do contain POM, which has trace amounts of formaldehyde that can be released at high temperatures. While this temperature is nearly twice as hot as a home pressure canner’s maximum temperature, it is still something to consider. Alternatively, you can use all-glass jars with metal clamp closures and gaskets (like these Le Parfait French Glass Canning Jars or these Bormioli Rocco Fido Round Clear Jars). These jars are perfect for food storage and non-food uses, but not all jars of this type are suitable for canning, so check the specs.

Okay, back to the awesomeness of mason jars…

Canning and fruit jars are inexpensive, reusable, easy to clean, way better than plastic food containers and lend themselves well to a variety of uses. They come in an array of shapes and sizes, making them even more versatile, and have a nostalgic side that increases their appeal for use around the house. Basically, they rock.

To show just how much they rock and provide a bit of inspiration for creative ways to use cheap, plastic-free mason jars, here are XXXXX ways to use jars for storage, organization, craft projects, gift giving and more. Keep in mind that you don’t have to start out by purchasing a case of new jars; you can find used jars at garage sales and thrift shops, or you can start out by using the glass jars in which store-bought products like salsa, pasta sauce and jam often come.

23 Uses for Canning Jars in the Kitchen & Dining Room

1. Use for making homemade jams and canning produce.
2. Use as everyday drinking glasses.
3. Serve chilled desserts, such as vegan chocolate pudding or vegan chocolate mousse.
4. Use as travel mugs with these cool, BPA-free, to-go drinking lids for mason jars from Cuppow.
5. Store leftovers (or send some home with your quests).
6. Take soup to a sick friend.
   
7. Make and store vegan vanilla sugar.
8. Make DIY vegan vanilla extract.
9. Keep ground coffee fresh after grinding a few days’ worth of beans.
10. Store dry goods, such as flours, spices, dried herbs, beans, rice, lentils, grains and nutritional yeast.
11. Store other bulk food items, such as pasta, popcorn, cookies, granola, nuts, cereals, dried foods and all the other goodness you can find in the bulk food section.
12. Store your sourdough starter.
13. Store homemade almond, rice or soy milk.
14. Use as a cookie jar for vegan treats.
15. Organize and hold cooking utensils.
16. Use as a spoon rest while cooking.
17. Store homemade salad dressings, gravies and sauces.
18. Use as a sugar bowl.
19. Create a simple centerpiece using canning jars and wild flowers, lemons, pine cones, rocks or other natural elements.
20. Use a large mason jar to make sun tea.
21. Avoid plastic containers by using small glass jars for packing lunches. (I use small jars to send oatmeal, cookies, applesauce and more in my partner’s lunch.)
22. Use larger glass jars to take a salad to work. (Check out this Healthy.Happy.Life. blog post for inspiration and great pictures.)
23. Store time-saving homemade mixes, such as pancake mix, bread mix, bean soup mix or brownie mix.

5 Uses for Canning Jars in the Office, Workshop or Garage

1. Use small mason jars as snack containers to keep in your desk drawer at work or in your home office.
2. Attach the lids to the bottom of shelves in your garage or office (so that you can screw on the jar for under-shelf storage) and use them to store screws, nuts, bolts or office supplies.
3. Use a canning jar as a pen and pencil holder on your desk.
4. Grab some small glass jars to organize paperclips, binder clips and other small office supplies.
5. Use a short, wide-mouth jar as a business card holder.

8 Uses for Canning Jars in the Craft Room and for Gift Giving

1. Make a canning jar lamp with these instructions.
2. Use them for kids craft projects, such as snow globes or sand art.
3. Use them for DIY projects, like candles, potpourri or holiday decorations.
4. Decorate them as gift containers for bath salts, recipe kits or other gift ideas.
   
5. Create a home spa gift basket with DIY pampering products stored in mason jars.
6. Make awesome hostess gifts, like a vegan recipe with all of the ingredients layered inside a canning jar.
   
7. Use them to store jewelry findings or sewing notions, such as buttons, beads and thread.
8. Use a jar for cleaning or storing paint brushes.

This is an excerpt from an article I wrote for another website. Since they own the rights to the article, I'm just posting part of it here and giving you a link to the full article.

As the cost of food (and gas, as well as other essentials) continues to rise, many families are being forced to stretch their budgets to meet their basic needs. As families struggle to combat the rising price of groceries, there are many simple things we can do to cut down on our food costs without subsisting on ramen and crackers. If you are reading this, it's likely that you are already aware of clipping coupons and checking the newspaper for grocery store ads to see what is on sale that week. So, I'm hoping that this article will give you some additional ideas for lowering food costs while maintaining, or improving, your family's health.

Five Tips to Combat the Rising Cost of Food:

1. Buy in bulk.
2. Make affordable, healthy brown rice a staple in your diet.
3. Switch to dry beans.
4. Give up a bit of convenience.
5. Avoid bottled water (all of which is seriously overpriced -- not to mention the wasteful packaging).

Read the full article to learn more about each of these tips.

Back in 2008, I wrote an article for Yahoo! about easy ways to save money and increase the balance in your savings account when living paycheck to paycheck. At the time of that writing, I certainly was hoping that we would have seen far more significant economic improvement by now; however, that is largely not the case.

Folks are still losing their homes to foreclosure, people are still struggling to find full-time employment, and way too many people still can't afford things as basic and important as health insurance.

Since I normally blog about ways to save money using coupons, making DIY personal care or cleaning products, buying in bulk and using point programs for gift cards to your favorite stores, I figured this might be a good time to revisit these 15 tips that are not directly tied to grocery shopping or giving up your favorite deep conditioner.

Click the link below to read the full article:

How to Increase Savings when Living Paycheck to Paycheck:  Fifteen Ways to Increase Your Savings Account Balance when You're Broke

What do you do to increase the balance in your savings account while sticking to your budget?

If you've got a money-saving tip to share, consider leaving a comment to help others save!

(You can also tweet this post or like it on Facebook to share these tips with your friends and followers.)