Guest Post - TakeThemAMeal

My son had just been born.  I had been up 4 times the night before and I had an awful headache.  It was dinner time, my 2 year old daughter was screaming because she was hungry, and my husband was still at work.  I was stressed and overwhelmed.  Then, my doorbell rang.  It was my friend Sarah bringing us dinner.  I knew it was going to be gluten free, I knew it was going to be good (simply because I didn’t have to make it!), and best of all, I knew more meals would be on the way in the coming days.

I knew all of this because of a wonderful service called www.TakeThemAMeal.com, a free website used to coordinate meals for those in need, often after an illness, hospitalization, loss of a loved one, birth of a new baby, etc.  I had used the site for years to both create meal schedules and receive meals before moving to the city where it is headquartered and meeting one of the owners.  I work for them now, and it’s one of the best jobs I’ve ever had because I and many of my friends have benefited from the site so much.

TakeThemAMeal.com is really easy to use. Once a meal schedule is created, you can enter in the address of the person receiving the meal, details about when to drop it off, dietary concerns, and even see what other people are bringing so that no one brings the same thing.  I used to have a calendar where I would pencil in who was bringing what on which days, spending lots of precious time trying to get all the details straight.  Now it’s done in minutes on a super easy to use website.  TakeThemAMeal.com even sends you a reminder email!  Here is a sample of what a schedule looks like- http://www.takethemameal.com/sample.php.  

TakeThemAMeal.com is also a useful tool within the body of Christ.  A few months ago, one of the members of our church had an unexpected extended hospital stay after the birth of her second child.  The meal coordinators quickly updated everyone on the families needs through their TakeThemAMeal schedule.  They even used the website to collect money for the family to buy food at the hospital.  I wanted to help out and TakeThemAMeal made it easy to serve; it listed all the foods their daughter at home enjoyed and gave instructions for the best times and the best way of delivering the meal.  As believers, we have the privilege to serve others in the church and TakeThemAMeal.com a great tool to simplify the “Meal Ministry” process.

To date, over 1.5 million meal schedules have been created to serve over 200,000 families.  So consider setting up a meal schedule at TakeThemAMeal.com the next time you hear of a friend, church member, neighbor, co-worker, or family member in need of a break.  It’s free, easy to use and a great way to show you care.  

By Maureen Witmer

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Also check out our sister site- www.PerfectPotluck.com

Earning Gift Cards By Using Swagbucks

Being a wife and homemaker I strive to help my family save money every way possible.  I still have much to learn on being frugal but every little thing is one step.  We eat freezer meals and leftovers often to help save on our grocery budget.  I try to use our oven as least as possible to save on propane and electricity - our oven is old and makes our house very warm; good for winter not so good in the summer time. :) I try to keep on only lights that are needed to save on our electricity, etc.  I try to only do full loads of laundry (at this time there's only 3 of us dirtying clothes - so laundry doesn't add up quite as quickly as many families) to save as well.  I love cloth diapers, for health reasons mainly, but also for the huge savings it brings my family!

One recent way I've learned to help our family's budget is by earning reward points using Swagbucks and then cashing them in for Amazon gift cards.  I've had a swagbuck account for about 1 1/2 years but I just recently started using Swagbucks as my main search engine and I have been trying to earn more points daily!

Swagbucks is a free search engine you can use to search the internet and earn reward points.  You can download Swagbucks toolbar and you will get 30 points today just for signing up!  You will also get rewarded 1 swagbuck a day just for using the toolbar!  I've been able to earn about 10-15 swagbucks a day buy simply:

Using the toolbar - 1
Taking the Daily Poll - 1
Daily going through the NOSO offers. - 2
Online searching - 8-10

By earning 15 points a day you could easily earn 1 $5.00 Amazon gift card a month!  If you do more of your searching with Swagbucks and spend more time at it you could probably easily get up to 2 $5.00 gift cards a month!

Many people love earning through taking Swagbucks trusted surveys but I found that they took up too much of my time and that I disqualified for almost of them.  So, it wasn't worth it for me.

Swagbuck points can be cashed in for Amazon gift cards and then used towards your orders!  As everyone knows - Amazon has many great products for great prices and often run sales! :)  I'm saving my amazon cards right now for an inside laundry drying rack; 1 less thing that won't have to come out of our monthly budget!! :)

Swagbucks also has a great referral program!  For every new person you refer you get matching swagbuck points to theirs up to 1,000!  So, if you sign up for swagbucks using any of the links in this post I will get matching swagbucks in my account for every one you earn up to 1,000! :)  I signed up under a referral link and I'm so happy to know I helped her earn points! :)

I do want to assure you that Swagbucks is a safe search engine; it's not nearly as good as www.google.com (Google will always be my favorite) but swagbucks is safe.  At first I was not so sure about it but after doing a bit of reading and research I felt comfortable trying it!  I've been very happy with the outcome and I hope you will be too if you try it!

P.S. - Today is Mega Swagbucks Friday - you'll often win more in your searches on Fridays! :-)