Dimples' Divine Domain
My journey to financial empowerment.

I woke up the following headlines this morning: * DHL to cut 9500 jobs and close US service centers * Government provides record aid package to AIG ($150 billion to date and aren't these the same folks who spent $23K of that money at a spa???) * Circuit City files bankruptcy * Fannie Mae posts $29 billion loss in 3rd quarter * Wall Street falls, unable to shake economic woes Let’s keep it real. Things aren't looking too kosher in regards to the state of our economy at the moment. More and more of our tax dollars are being shelled into companies. Companies who seem unable to get their shit together long enough to get themselves out of the hole they dug themselves into. Well, I'm tired of worrying. I haven't really felt the sting from this economic crisis. Yet anyways. I have lost a few thousand dollars in my 401K account and I have had a couple of credit card companies try my patience by skyrocketing my AP...

A lot of things have been taking place Dimples' world. I am going to try and sum up some of the what's been going on in this post. Finances were looking a little fuzzy for a moment but I do believe that I see a light shining at the end of my debt tunnel. I'll go into a little more detail on the shining light on another post. I was hoping that the summer would be real chill and inexpensive but that turned out to be big fat negative. Here is what I have had to spend in the past month: -$40 for swimming lessons (went through the my city's park and rec department) -$140 for summer camp registration -$77 for before and after care registration for school starting in the fall -$100 and counting for school uniform -$50 for school supplies -$75 for summer clothing (bathing suits, shorts, tanks.....Florida is hot as hell) -$300 for items for brother's dorm TOTAL = $782 and counting And on top of all this, my electric bill is starting to rise. Jumped about $30 in one mon...

I have been on my money making grind this month. It is only the 16th and I have already brought in $182.51 ($132.51 in cash and $50 in gift cards). Breakdown: -$42.51 from Textlink Ads -$50 from Vindale Research -$40 from Revolution Money Exchange -$50 in gift cards from CVS (for new prescriptions) If you don't know about the various offers out there for free gift cards just for filling out a new prescription, get on it now. I had two prescriptions to fill out for my daughter. I remembered I had 2 coupons from CVS for a free $25 CVS gift card for filling out a new prescription. I took the coupons and prescriptions and filled them at a CVS across the street from me. Sure enough, I received my gift cards when I picked up the prescriptions. I used those two cards and purchased some household stuff (toilet paper, cleaners, laundry detergent), beauty stuff (deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, new bath sponges, etc.), and stocked up on a lot of water (they were having a nice sale)...

Edited: ENDS MAY 15!!!!! (They extended the date) Revolution Money Exchange is back again with their $25 referral bonus offer!!! Here is a quick summary of the company: "Very similar to Paypal, Revolutionary Money Exchange (RME) allows you to send, request, and receive money from RME account holders for free. Register, send money, receive money, and transfer money to your linked checking account for free. Sign up is simple, secure, and fast. For a limited time, you can get a $25 bonus by emailing me for a referral. Once registered, you can refer all your friends and family members and make up to $500. I signed up today and received my $25 instantly." The offer expires April 15th (this coming Tuesday). If you are interested in this bonus offer then click on the referral banner below : Act fast and get your hustle on! P.S. I have made $105 with them so far. If you are like me and want proof, then check here and here .

Revolution Money Exchange is back again with their $25 referral bonus offer!!! Here is a quick summary of the company: "Very similar to Paypal, Revolutionary Money Exchange (RME) allows you to send, request, and receive money from RME account holders for free. Register, send money, receive money, and transfer money to your linked checking account for free. Sign up is simple, secure, and fast. For a limited time, you can get a $25 bonus by emailing me for a referral. Once registered, you can refer all your friends and family members and make up to $500. I signed up today and received my $25 instantly." The offer expires April 15th (this coming Tuesday). If you are interested in this bonus offer then click on the referral banner below : Act fast and get your hustle on! P.S. I have made $65 with them so far. If you are like me and want proof, then check here and here .

My tax refund was deposited into my checking account on Friday. It was like Christmas all over again. For like half a second.....then my mind started going in overdrive on what I was going to do with the money. My refund totaled $2629. Here is what I have done with the money so far: - $500 to my Emergency Fund (bringing the total to $3555.81) - $699 to pay off one of my credit cards - $40 to my FCU savings - $100 on me and sweet pea - $20 on books - $40 on movies - $40 at Burlington Coat Factory That leaves me with $1290. I was going to pay off my Discover card with that but I am holding off on that until I figure out what I am going to do about my car. Single Ma gave me some good advice on a post I did last week on my car situation. I currently drive a 2006 Honda CRV and my monthly car note is $532. I know right!! I would like to trade in my car for something reliable yet less expensive. I am looking into two different options at the moment: 1. Sell my car pr...

Are you one of those folks that need to see it to believe it? Well if you are and you were skeptical about Revolutionary Money Exchange, here is proof that they're bonus offer is legit: I joined them on 2/3/08. I received my bonus money the same day. And after I verified my checking account, I transfered the $25. That posted to my checking account today. I also have a $10 bonus, from a referral, that I transfered to my account today (Thanks to whoever that was!!). That money should show up in my account by Friday. In other "Side Hustle" news, one of my items sold off eBay yesterday. I made $10. Not much but a whole lot better than zero. It is only 13 days into the month and I have already made $188.04. Shawty is a TEN!!!!! LMAO

A speaker system I had on Amazon just sold this afternoon. Net earnings = $71.04. This takes care of the $52.07 I needed to reach my goal for my trip to Atlanta in 3 weeks. I am so amazed by the amount of money I have been bringing in on the side. The past couple of weeks have been really good. I still have a number of items listed on Amazon and eBay. I am contemplating on what I am going to do with that money once it comes in. For the time being I will let it sit in my Misc account. I am going to the A yall!!!!!!! Anyone have suggestions of some places I should hit up?

On February 29th I will be heading out on my first trip to another state. The furthest north I have gotten is Pensacola, Florida. I have been to two islands in the Caribbean. But this will be my first time in another state. And I am sooo psyched!! My girls and I are going to Atlanta to see Steve Harvey and Monique. Even though I am extra excited about taking this trip I really don't want to spend any of my budgeted money on this trip. And if you noticed, I haven't taken this trip into account on my February budget . So I put my hustle hat on and have been working on making some extra chedda to spend on this trip. Here is the estimated cost of the trip: Tickets: $48 Gas: $45 Hotel: $52 Spending money: $80 TOTAL: $225 Here is what I have collected so far: Text-Link Ads: $11.28 Ebates: $16.65 (paying out to my paypal on the 15th) Amazon sale: $72 eBay sale: $40 Revolutionary Money Exchange: $25 American Consumer Opinions: $8 TOTAL: 172.93 Only $52.07 to go!!!! I listed a...

ING Direct Being that it is tax time and some of you fortunate folks will be receiving a tax refund in the next month or two, I have included ING Direct referral links on the top left column of my blog. Currently there are two links for opening a savings account and another two links for opening a checking account. Just click on the link of your choice, follow the steps, and open an account with at least $250. You will receive a $25 opening bonus and I will get $10 for the referral. Each link can only be used once and the ones posted on my blog expire on February 20. If you wind up selecting a used link just email me at dimplesdivine at gmail dot com and I will update my blog with new referral links. Ebates Ebates is offering a $10 sign-up bonus. With Ebates you can earn cash back on your purchase at your favorite online store just by shopping via Ebates portal. You must make a qualifying purchase between January 20 and February 14 in order to receive the bonus. This offe...

Here is my January budget: As you can see I added the three new categories I mentioned in my December Budget post : Dimples Car Maintenance Gym January will be a test month for the new budget. The way I have things set up right now is that any extra income I bring in will go towards my credit card debt. The new categories have pulled $90 away from my CC Debt Snowball budget. Depending on how much of a tax refund I receive, the new categories may stay or go. If my refund is large enough to eliminate a huge chunk of that debt then the incorporation of the new categories should not delay my CC Debt Zero Goal of October 2008. If the $90 turns out to delay my goal in any way, then the 3 new categories will be removed and I will try to find another way to address them. I am planning to start my business up this year so any income I receive from that may come into play. Christmas Goodies After Single Ma's post about the Christmas goodies she bought @ 75% off for a grand total of $11.9...

The company holiday party was off da chain! And your girl Dimples came out on top. I walked away with a $500 cash bonus and a $250 gift certificate to a bed and breakfast in St Augustine. As I said in my post , I was going to attempt to get an iPod for my brother for Xmas. Unfortunately, they only had a grey 4G iPod nano and my brother would not have liked it. So the search continues. I am real psyched about my bed and breakfast prize. I haven't had a vacation since I became a mom 5 years ago. I really need to take one before I wear myself out and straight lose it. My birthday is January 3 and I am trying to think on how I want to play the festivities out. I have two other friends whose birthdays are Dec 25 and Dec 29. We have been talking about combining our birthday festivities into one big thing, either it be a cruise or trip somewhere or just maybe a big party. We are trying to do that the weekend before New Years so I may cash in on the bed and breakfast getaway the...

I have been truly blessed this past couple of weeks. With my Xmas gift budget impeding on my debt snowball plan I decided to kick my side hustle game up a notch. I must admit I am extremely impressed with myself. :-D *I purchased two Altec Lansing M604 Powered Audio System for Zune from Woot last week for $39.99 a piece and $5 shipping. I then resold both items on Amazon for $99.99 each. I made $110 in profit. That $$$ is sitting in my new Wachovia checking account. *I received an offer in the mail from Nissan a month ago. I would get a $50 AmEx gift card for test driving a 2008 Nissan Rogue. Well I did the test drive and sent in my completed certificate and I received my $50 gift card in the mail a couple of days ago. I am planning on using that during my birthday festivities the weekend before New Years. *I just received 3 checks ($4 a piece) from American Consumer Opinion for a few surveys a did a couple of weeks ago. I deposited that moola into my Wachovia checking ac...

It's been real busy in Dimples' world. I have a couple of things in the works. I'll do separate post on those later. I am doing good on my budget. I realize that I need to a lot more money in the miscellaneous department. I may actually need to break that up into smaller, more specific categories. I spent $65 bucks for maintenance on my car. Of course I did not have that expense accounted for in my budget. I also had to take my daughter to get her yearly physical and flu shot. The copay was $15. Budgeted?? Nope. I was hoping that the amount I allotted to my miscellaneous category would take care of this stuff but it is not. So I need to work out a way to direct more money towards that category without touching the money I set aside for my debt repayment. Touching this would throw my snowball calculation off track and most likely add a month or two to my payoff due date. So I am in big time hustlette mode. Cash Duck is back in business. They are working with a...

I have some extra money coming my way in the next few days. My laptop rebate from Office Depot was mailed on the 27th and should be here by Friday. That is $150. I get my last cash out from Cash Duck this Friday and that is for $82. That is $232 bucks. I will most likely put the money in my spending account and use it for groceries and gas for the next month or so. If I continue to do the $30/week for groceries and miscellaneous stuff and if I do $30 a week for gas (this is the most extreme....I drive 130 miles to and from work) the money will last me a month. During this time I will look for other avenues to make extra money and continue to use it like I am now. That way I can use all my remaining balance of my paycheck, after bills are paid, to apply towards my credit card debt. I still have American Express coming but I gotta wait until the credit my points to my account. Since I am not going to do the house right now I am not sure what reward I will cash out. Well we wil...

I applied and got approved for an American Express Business Gold Card on Saturday. I applied for the card through Cash Duck , who pays you $80 once you get approved for the card and make your first purchase. I also received American Express' current promo. In a nutshell, you get 25,000 reward points after your first purchase that can be redeemed for a $250 gift card to any of the stores that are on the list or a round-trip ticket to anywhere in the US. I know I said before that I wouldn't apply for anymore cards but I couldn't pass this one up. And after doing some research I found that because it is a business account it will not show up on your credit report. That was the icing on top of the $330 cake ($80 from Cask Duck and $250 from American Express). This is what I have planned. Once I receive my 25,000 bonus points I will redeem them for one of the following: 1. $200 Dell gift certificate and $50 American Express Gift Card 2. $250 Linens N' Things ...

Just made $101 dollars on Cash Duck tonight. I will try to make another $100 in tomorrow night. Remember to withdraw your total balance by the end of tomorrow night. That way you can receive your money on 6/15/07. If you don't do it before 11:59 on the last day of the month you will have to wait a month and a half to receive your payment. I really want to do the whole NSA (Notary Signing Agent) thing but work has gotten extremely busy and I wouldn't have any spare time to work signing appointments in. So I'll have to put becoming an NSA on hold for now until work lightens up. I received my $4 check from American Consumer Opinion. I haven't received any other surveys form them yet. Oh well. Its not like I can get rich of that anyways. I wish AGLOCO would get their act together and launch this viewbar. It seems like a good way to make some nice money. I need to put my Hustlette hat on and find new money making avenues.

Just received my cash duck payment. $160 right in my paypal and a couple of days earlier than I thought. So needless to say Cash Duck has been confirmed as a legit thing. I plan to make about $150 plus from it a month. :-D Two down and one to go.

I received my $250 Rewards check from Chase today. I am so psyched. I took a pic to prove it. Kee kee. One down 2 to go (Cash Duck and ACOP). :-D

I've decided to reach my financial empowerment goals via another route. I have tried to do the whole frugal biznass but that mess aint working for me. I want to live and have fun. I am too young to be knit-picking every single purchasing decision I make. Obviously, my current salary alone will not allow me to pay bills, work on eliminating my debt, and enjoy life and it's perks. So if what you working with ain't getting you what you want.....then upgrade. What's my plan? I intend on finding different ways to bring in some extra moola each month. The following is a list of avenues that are currently working for me: Cash Duck: CashDuck has many different offers (surveys, trials, etc). Some are free and some are not. You get paid various amounts for each offer you complete. I made $160 in the span 2 weeks Pinecone Research : get paid to do surveys ($5/survey) the only way to sign up with them is via a banner that they might have on a random site. I found an ad b...