Lazy week this week!

So i haven't been furiously trying to get much done online this week, but I was still able to order a few things anyway!

I was ready to order Battlestar Galactica (The Board Game.) It has great reviews everywhere and I have wanted it for quite a while. However my wife has been set on getting a Booster Seat for Ian as he is outgrowing the Bumbo we've had him in for the past little while.

With my MTurk balance and my leftover Clover Earnings, I decided I would downsize on the game this week and got a much cheaper but highly desired game called: Bohnanza

I have heard nothing but awesome reviews about it, from /r/boardgames and figure it will fit in perfectly with the family on all sides!

I also decided to help my wife out and bought a Regalo Right Height Booster Seat, Watermelon for Ian to try out.

Also because I don't already have enough books I decided to throw in the first book of an epic fantasy series: Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Vol. 1) because, well, I still have at least five other books to finish before I can start on another 10,000+ page series! It sounds excellent and maybe in about a year when I get around to reading it, I'll let you know what I think!

Note: Anyone who is using MTurk please be aware there is a new Subreddit up by Justin (HITSworthTurkingfor) that basically helps finding the good Paying Turks even easier. Check it out at /r/hitsworthturkingfor

Free Game #2

So it's awesome when you order a  game with Prime shipping and it shows up the next day!

Click to ZOOM

I came home from a day long trek with my uncle trying to break in his new Ranger 800, to find this package sitting on my doorstep. I was headed out the door to my in-law's house so I took it along with me.

We decided to test it out after Ian went to bed, and even though we spent 1 hour trying to read the rules and get through the first phase of the game, we had a blast! It was hilarious to see my in-laws trying to figure out how to built a spaceship from a bunch of random junk. There were also some seriously tense moments when we were waiting to see how much damage our ship was about to take from a meteor shower.

Needless to say I highly recommend Galaxy Trucker to anybody who is looking for a hilariously fun game. After the first round that took almost an hour, we flew through the second and third round in less that 20 minutes each.

Had I stayed up at the in-law's house it would have gotten a lot more play time, it really was a great time, made all the better because it cost me nothing!

**Interested in earning money for games or whatever? Check out Clover and  Mechanical Turk. So far I've averaged 1 game a week!

Dang Amazon...

This week I have some good news as well as bad news.

I was able to get over my goal with Clover Thanks to: Jason Frehner; Michael Otte & Kirk Matthews!

Click to ZOOM

 That actually put me over where I wanted to be! So I excitedly logged onto Amazon last night and saw that Cosmic Encounter showed : "Only 2 left in stock - Hurry and order"

Long story short, I got all the way through checkout and suddenly was greeted with: "This Item became unavailable after you added it to your cart!" What kind of irks me about it is that if I do a search for Cosmic Encounter It shows up with: 2 left in stock- Order soon.

After growing frustration I saw that  King of Tokyo was available again. (When I was looking last week I saw that it was out of stock everywhere.) So I decided I would give it a try. Of course when I got through checkout ans saw that shipping time was 18-26 days, I was disgusted and decided to re-evaluate my purchase.

That being the case I am excited with my final decision: Galaxy Trucker. It's a game I've wanted to get now for a while but it tends to slide from the top spot just because I get swept up in something else. It really does seem like a great game though that will fit in perfectly with my regular group. Best part is, it was eligible for Prime shipping so I should have it on Friday!

I sincerely hope that Cosmic Encounter isn't out of print as that usually inflates the price drastically!

Anyway I guess I'll have to hit MTurk harder this week so I'll be ready for a game next week as well!.

Also I'd like to give a Shout-out to Mursz. who posted a good guide to using App-Trailer's to make money in your free time. Go check it out!

Elder Sign is pretty good!

So I decided to break out Elder Sign for it inaugural game today! It was a lazy Sunday after two great football games, and since my wife and child are out of town for the weekend, I called up my sister and my cousin and we decided to take on likes of Cthulhu! I can understand where it feels lacking for more hardcore gamers, but I think it scratches the itch that games like Pandemic or Forbidden Island are lacking in depth.

It was a lot of fun and very presentable to non gamers. I enjoyed it, and I enjoy some of the 6-8 hours games out there but rarely get the chance to play them anymore. It was all the more enjoyable because it didn't cost me anything out of pocket!

I am however, excited for Cosmic Encounter this week as I have never played but desired it for a long time. As It stands I have enough between my MTurk Balance and my Clover referrals to purchase it outright, but I  would like to see if I can get enough referrals by Wednesday to purchase it exclusively from my Clover invites.

Currently my Clover balance is $41, so I  hope I can pull it off.


I want to thank the following for using my invites and hope they are earning as well as I have been:

Lindy Jones; Joshua Tanase; Brad McHargue; Jeremy Mayeres; Andrew DeVries; Patrick Liu & Michael

So the breakdown so far is: $6 for signing up and $35 from my invites! Another 4 invites and I'll be set! So if you are looking to help out and score some free cash yourself, Please click here and invite yourself!

Thanks again for everybody's interest and I 'll work on some new guides this next week!

Update: Thanks to Ricky Sosa for putting me up to $46 just a few minutes ago! 3 left by Wednesday, hope i can make it!

Update 2: Thanks to Ian Ferguson for accepting an invite earlier today! (2 more to go by Wednesday)

Next week's goal: Buy a board game from my Clover referrals.

So I have to admit that I have been slacking on Mechanical Turk this week. I have only been visiting Hit's worth turking for and getting a few easy hits a day. I have kind of been swept up in this Clover phenomenon and have been trying to push to see how fast I can make my $85.

So Far I have made $26 ($6 from signing up and $20 from 4 referrals!) I have my sister sold on it, but her current phone is Android 2.1 and it won't let her install it :(...

However, 3 of those referrals were from people reading this Blog, so I feel fairly confident that I can hit my desired budget early next week! I still have $30ish Dollars in my MTurk account that I can use to supplement my needed funding though.

I have decided that this week I am saving up to buy Cosmic Encounter I have wanted this game for a while so I figured if I can get it for free, why not give it a shot? So I need $60. I'm almost there but it won't hurt if anyone want's to sign up for Clover and score me another $5. (with $6 for yourself!)

I do want to take a minute and that everybody that is viewing this Blog! It's gotten way bigger so much faster than I ever could have expected. Looking at my Stats I can wholeheartedly say that Reddit is the biggest community to thank.

I would like to spread a little bit of love back to my favorite Sub Reddit's and so here are some links I ask that everybody check out to meet some great people and learn about what interests you!

/r/boargames If you have any interest in Board Games whatsoever, this is basically the say-all-end-all of Board Game communities. Much easier that BGG and I have loved every suggestion I've gotten so far!

/r/Frugal This blog really came about because my wife and I decided it's past time to stay on top of our finances. I cannot explain how much just the simple suggestions and new ideas this group offers has already impacted my families financial stability.

/r/beermoney  Basically the Sub Reddit that feeds this blog. Please check it out if you would like to see what others are trying to do to earn money. Basically all I try to do is take all of the great info from this group and compile it into a "dummies guide."

Thanks everybody for still coming to visit! I'll keep everybody posted as I move closer to next weeks goal!

Clover = Ridiculously Easy Money

So Attempt #2 that I happened upon this week is a new App for the I-phone/Android Phones called Clover.

What it is: Clover is a service designed so that people with smart phones can send money back and forth. To explain it very simply: watch this video..


Why it's Awesome: To promote their service they will give you $6 just for signing up. (Think viral marketing) The person who invited you get's $5. If you opt to put in a credit card (which will not be charged anything!) then you become a "gold member" and are awarded 17 invites. You get $5 for everyone that signs up. They also get $5 for signing up and their own invites. If you are leery of putting in a Credit/Debit Card, you can wait around for a Green Membership to become available and then you are awarded 2 invites worth $5 each. Green Memberships can take up to a week to go through whereas you can sign up for a Gold any time you get sick of waiting.

So Basically in the 3 minutes it took me to sign myself up and send it to my wife and have her sign up, I made $11. You can either cash out $5 as an amazon Gift Card (Which is a Code they email you that you use when you checkout on Amazon.com)  Or leave the money in the Clover App and Later transfer it to a bank account or whatever. Within 5 minutes of signing up I had 2 emails with $5 "Gift Codes" I then took a minute and sent out some text to the people I thought would sign up and sure enough I got a bite. When I have a chance to talk to some people tomorrow and show them how it works, I will have made about $30 for 10 minutes worth of work.

Anyway it really is awesome, sign up make your money , cash out, and then you can cancel/uninstall if you want too. Seems like it might be a nice way to lend money between friends though, because it keeps a record of your transactions. (I forgot I loaned $10 to Mark...Dude! Where is my money?!) Any way have a look and get in while the getting is hot. If you get all 17 people to sign up you just made: $85! plus the six you got for signing up. And it can happen in a day.

If you know people with smart phones that are willing to spend a few minutes and make some money, this is a great way to get it done.

For Anyone wanting to sign up now, scan this code on your phone and Viola! you just made $6!

 Alternatively you cant just Click HERE to have an invite sent to your phone. Thanks, and enjoy your Money!

Scan it in on your phone, make money, retire...

 Amazon Gift Codes take less than 5 minutes to receive. If, however,  you want to transfer it to a bank account then people are claiming it can take up to a week, but so far no issues!

EDIT: 10 minutes after posting this I had another person sign up from this post!
Thanks : Joshua Tanase! & now Brad McHargue & Jeremy Mayeres!

Just Rewards!

Success! So when I went down to the mailbox today this is what I was greeted with. Ten Days worth of MTurk may have actually been worth it! Hope this motivates some people to have a go at it.

Now I just have to find people to play with me! :(