How I earned money by shopping at Walmart Grocery

1. Use shopkick app to get to walmart grocery site and earn kicks. Shopkicks is an app that you get 'kicks' aka points and exchange them for gift cards. Use my referral code BEST712211 and get 250 kicks. You get kicks for walking in stores, scanning items and receipts. Some online stores like Walmart grocery participate too. 
2. If you have never shopped Walmart Grocery pick up use this referral link for $10 off your first purchase (minimum $30 purchase).
3. If you have a chase visa, check your offers that you will need to click to activate. I had a chase visa offer for $5 cash back for shopping at Walmart grocery pick up. I just had to activate offer and use that credit card for my purchase. 
4. At pick up use Shopkick again:  open up app when at pick up to earn an additional walk in kicks.  I have gotten my kicks without walking into the store while in the parking lot waiting for my groceries.  This may or may not work for you too!

Polar Express Train Bryson City, NC

Polar Express Train Ride in Bryson City, NC: After reading many reviews and knowing we may only
do this once, we decided to splurge and book first class at the 6:30 departure. This train ride exceeded
my expectations. Both adults and kids had a blast. While the train ride is 1 1/4 hours long, they keep
the kids entertained almost the entire train ride. The staff sang songs, danced with the kids, and read
the Polar Express book to the cart. They also gave us a chocolate bar the shape of a train and a warm
cookie. We were also served hot cocoa in the most adorable mugs we got to take home. And YES
they did sing the hot chocolate song while serving! You also receive a golden Polar Express ticket
that the conductor punches holes in. Towards the middle of the train where do we arrive, the North Pole of course! Santa boards the train, greets each child and gives them a bell. This was a magical trip! Afterwards (or before) don't forget to check out the train museum!

All Aboard!

 The Hot Chocolate!

Dancing

The North Pole 

Things to Do in Bryson City:

-Explore downtown with the cute shops

-Tom Branch falls: Paved hike .6miles round trip. Great for little ones who can’t travel a long distance!

http://www.hikinginthesmokys.com/tomsbranch.htm

Places to eat:

-Everett street diner: Good lunch

-Great Smoky Mountain Winery: Excellent Restaurant. This place was my favorite. It is a house
turned into a restaurant. It has a cozy fireplace and cute atmosphere.  The wings and pizza were
really good. The wings were so tasty we ordered another round. The staff were very friendly.

-Mountain perks: This place had delicious coffee. The coffee was smooth and no bitter after taste.
We even bought some coffee to take home with us.

-Rivers end restaurant: The food was okay but really cool location. The restaurant feels almost like it
is in the river.

Place to Stay:

McKinley Edwards Inn

• free continental breakfast
• nice rooms
• cozy main inn (during Christmas they even had a couple of Christmas trees)
• nice grounds, overlooks town
• Friendly staff
• $10 off one night stay if book train tickets through them

Ways to Save Money:

- Buy matching PJs online beforehand

- Buy Polar Express book online (I got ours used on ebay for cheap!)
- Since we went at night, I had dollar store glow sticks that kept them entertained while waiting to board
the train.

Try ToucanBox for Free!

Try ToucanBox for Free! Just pay shipping $1.95. 

This was our first kids craft box mailed to us. We got this for free, we just paid $1.95 shipping. I would love to pass along this deal. Just use referral code michelle-drfx at toucanbox.com/us. It came with 3 cute crafts that were perfect to do with my oldest whom is 4 while my 2 year old took a nap. It is a subscription service so make sure to pause or cancel it if needed. You can cancel at anytime. I paused my service until I received my first to see if my child liked it.  If you have multiple kids you can actually get this same deal twice just pay shipping for both. This craft was a spider web, marble web art, nature bag and it came with a bingo game.  My son loved the marble art and nature bag. This box is great for kids ages 3-8 years old. 

This was the from the Christmas ToucanBox. How cute are these polar bear ears and mittens! You sew the mittens which was a good lesson. Our kit also came with a wreath that you put together. 

Ibotta: Cashback Grocery App

Ibotta is a smartphone application that can earn you money. To earn money with this app you need to purchase specific items (usually grocery items) from certain local stores.  The Ibotta app finds your currently location and only gives you offers to your stores in your area. I have made $200 since I have started using Ibotta. 

The following is how I use Ibotta and how I suggest first time users use Ibotta so they are not overwhelmed! I do my regular grocery trip.  While unpacking my food I look at Ibotta to see if I purchased anything they are offering cashback for currently. Next I add the offer to my cashback list. Last step is to take a picture of my receipt and then scan item barcodes. Ibotta usually has at least one item that I purchased without influence from the app. Use this code when signing up: kawqmq. 

If you are really money savvy and have the extra time look at the app before grocery trips and combine the cashback offers with coupons. To sign up for Ibotta, please use my referral link so I can get credit for the referral! 

Ibotta: Earn Money at your Local Grocery Store

Grocery Stores are usually where the most offers are found on Ibotta. What I like most about Ibotta is many of the items in the item gallery are items I already purchase. One of my recent offers was to buy a gallon of milk (any brand) at Kroger and earn $0.25 once you follow the redemption policy.

Ibotta: Earn Money at Other Places than Grocery Stores

Ibotta is not limited to grocery stores. There are offers to earn money at restaurants, movie theaters, electronics stores, babies and kids stores, home improvement stores and pet stores. Recently one of the movie theaters offers was earn a $1 on a single movie admission ticket to Anchorman 2. To receive the reward you need to keep the ticket stub to be able to take a picture of it to submit the offer on your smartphone.

TopCashBack

If you love Ebates check out Topcashback. It is very similar to ebates however one plus is that their is no minimum payout. If Ebates does not have the online store you want to shop and get cashback try topcashback. Be sure to use my referral link, thank you!

What is cashback? Cashback is a way for you to save money every time you shop online. A percentage of the purchase is returned to you as a cash back rebate when you complete your purchase with any one of our 4,000+ merchants. It’s just like using a coupon, except all money is earned after the purchase has been successfully tracked.

https://www.topcashback.com/ref/member1011024209846

Disney with Toddlers

We spent 3 days at Disney. We have a 21 month old and a 4 year old. We did 2 days at Magic Kingdom and 1 day at Animal Kingdom. Here are some ride and food suggestions especially for little ones! 

Good Rides for Preschoolers/Toddlers At Magic Kingdom: 
Main Street USA

Talking Mickey- Definitely worth doing! You are not rushed at all and it felt like a VIP experience.  Mickey sang hot diggity dog song for us.

Fantasyland

1. Under the Sea
2. Pete's silly slideshow  ( (no FP: When visiting, keep in mind there are 2 separate lines to meet the stars: one queue is reserved for Daisy and Minnie and the other is for Donald and Goofy.) This attraction does not open until 10am.
3. Tea cups
4. Winnie the pooh  
5. Dumbo- there is a play area while you wait
6. Peter Pans flight
7. Its a small world
8. Mickey’s philharmagic
9. Enchated tales: really cute interactive story. If your little one is scared of the beast like mine do not worry he will not be there.

Tomorrowland
1. Tomorrowland Speedway
2. Buzz Lightyear
3. Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor 

Adventureland
1. Aladdin carpet ride 
2. Swiss Family Tree house- No line or FP needed
3. Country Bear Jamboree show

Food Suggestions: Sleepy Hollow:  I recommend the spicy chicken waffle sandwich and fruit nutella waffle sandwich
Columbia Harbor House: I recommend the lobster roll. It was really yummy!

Alohe Isle- Dole Whip Swirl (I personally liked the pineapple and vanilla swirl versus just the pineapple)

Non Ride Activities: Royal Friendship Fare show at the castle.
Afternoon Parade (check Disney website for times)

Fireworks at night

ANIMAL KINGDOM

Africa:

Festival Lion King Show

Kilimanjaro Safari

Discovery Island

Meet and Greet with Mickey and Minnie in discovery island.- (we ended up skipping since already met in MK.)

Dinoland:

Nemo Show

Boneyard

Goofy & Pluto (in Paleontologist clothes) can be found by the Boneyard in Dinoland.

Triceratops ride – just like Dumbo but with a dinosaur theme

Pandora

Avatar: Get a Fast Pass. Pandora is really cool to see at night all lit up. We went at night time. Our 21 month old feel asleep and my 4 year old played with glow sticks (we purchased at dollar tree before our trip) with my parents while my husband and I got to ride Pandora.

Food Suggestions: 

Flame Tree BBQ- I suggest ordering food on mobile app to bypass the lines!

Yak & Yeti: Asian inspired cuisine. They also serve beer.

Tamu Tamu Refreshments can get dole whip
The Festival of Lights at night is also a good one to try and see!

Check out my other Disney World Post

How I paid for our Disney Vacation as a Homemaker

and

DISNEY MONEY SAVING TIPS AND OTHER HELPFUL TIPS

DISNEY MONEY SAVING TIPS AND OTHER HELPFUL TIPS

MONEY SAVING TIPS AND OTHER HELPFUL TIPS

1. Buy souvenirs and glow sticks before your trip to bring along. I went to the dollar store and bought Disney gifts as well as glow sticks. Each morning I would surprise my kids with Disney gifts before we went to the park.

2. Bring your own ponchos. It is cheaper to buy before hand than at the parks

3. Bring your own snacks and refillable water bottles. You can get free iced water at any quick service restaurants.  We ate all meals at quick service restaurants. Meals at quick service are under $14.99 per each meal. The first day I brought the kids PB&Js to eat and planned on only adults buying a meal. However my kids wanted our food so we all just bought meals from then on. My kids would split a kids meal and it was plenty for both of them. Most kids meals are around $7.

4. Make your own family t-shirts. I used some old white undershirts then used Avery iron on transfer to make our shirts. They cost less than $8!

5. Bring change for penny presses. Fun and cheap souvenir!

6. I'D tattoos for little ones. Can get on amazon

7. Photos: Ask a cast member to use your phone or camera to take a family photo. We did not do the memory maker however we did purchase 4 printed photos for $35.95 (2 5×7 and 2 4×6). You can wait until the end of your trip to pick your 4 favorite photos from your time at Disney. 

8. Buy Minnie mouse/Mickey mouse ears before trip. 

9. Make your own autograph book. We used this one from hip2save.

10. Plan on at least one hour from time take shuttle from hotel (we stayed in Disney Springs), bag check at park, then monorail into Magic Kingdom.

11. Bring a stroller for any kid under 7.

12. Use a Disney Planner they are FREE! I used Jenni with Adventure with Magic. She was fabulous and really helpful! She even snagged us Avatar fast passes which are really hard to get. Disney Planners know the inside tricks to Disney. 

13. Print out a free countdown sheet, put a protective sheet over then use a dry erase marker to keep up how many days until your trip. 

14. Create your own tag for your stroller. There are lots of stroller at Disney so make yours stand out to find it easier after rides. I created this sheet below for ours. I laminated it too so it would not ripe. 

Check out my other Disney World Post!

How I paid for our Disney Vacation as a Homemaker

and 

Disney with Toddlers