6 Healthy Crockpot Freezer Meals in Under 45 Minutes! and more...

Here's What's New 6 Healthy Crockpot Freezer Meals in Under 45 Minutes! Free Printable Christmas Thank You Cards 4 Ways to Market Your Business for Free + enter to win a Girl Boss Gift Set (4 winners!) What We Learned Being TV-Free Sign up for the free Peak Work Performance Summit in January 2016! Reminder: Share your YNAB budgeting success story for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card! Reader Tip: How I Save Even More with Online Shopping :: 6 Healthy Crockpot Freezer Meals in Under 45 Minutes! Kelly from New Leaf Wellness has put together a great list of 6 healthy crockpot freezer meals that can be made in under 45 minutes. Her free download includes grocery lists and recipes for all of the meals. :: Free Printable Christmas Thank You Cards Download a set of free printable Christmas thank you cards. :: 4 Ways to Market Your Business for Free + enter to win a Girl Boss Gift Set (4 winners!) Guest post and giveaway from Beth Anne Schwamberger of The Brilliant Business Moms podcast In Crystal's book, Money-Making Mom, she gives incredible advice on how to find a great business idea and how to grow that business wisely. I agree with Crystal's advice: You shouldn't have to go into debt to start a business. There are so many opportunities to market your products or services, and grow your income without taking a hit to your bank account. While these methods will require hard work and an investment of time, the benefit is that once you know how to use them effectively, you can train a dependable team member to perform these tasks while you continue to grow. Catch Crystal's Periscope replay on how to find and manage great help right here. Below are four ways my sister and I have marketed our business for free. 1.) Pinterest. Pinterest isn't just a great place for bloggers. Product-based businesses can do well here, too. Our current storefront is getting over 50% of its traffic from Pinterest. And did you know that pins that originated on Etsy make up some of the most re-pinned content on the entire site? Quick Tips for Pinterest Marketing: Create and curate boards that reflect the ideal lifestyle of your customers. For example, if you sell baby products, pins about parenting, activities you can do with your baby, and nursery inspiration will all help to draw in your ideal customer. Pin original content. Since the majority of pins on Pinterest are re-pins (meaning they were found right on the platform), pinning items direct from a website can make them stand out - particularly if you pin newly published content. Use killer keywords. Many people use the search bar on Pinterest to find content. If you use the right keywords in your pin descriptions and in your board titles, categories, and descriptions, your content can be found over and over again. 2.) Instagram. Instagram combines the visual appeal of Pinterest with relationship-building. Once we reached about 700 followers on the platform, we were able to make consistent sales. We've sold our products with flash sales, a Black Friday deal, lifestyle shots of our products, and photos and quotes from happy customers. Quick Tips for Instagram Marketing: Use a consistent photo editing style so that your feed feels cohesive. For example, you may choose to slightly over-expose your photos and add cool tones to them. Or you may choose to sharpen your photos and add warm tones. Whatever editing style you choose, pick a recipe and stick with it. Use hashtags that will attract your ideal customer with each post. You can put up to 30 hashtags in the first comment of your photo. How do you find these hashtags? Use the search bar. As you discover posts with great hashtags, inevitably, they'll lead you to other great hashtags you can try. Like, comment, and interact on the posts of users who fit your target market. Build relationships, and you will build followers and brand enthusiasts in the process. 3.) Email Marketing. One of the best things you can do for your business is to build an email list. Despite all of the work we do on social media and the sales we earn there, email performs even better. You can build a relationship with your potential customers over time, and as you provide value in the form of great content and helpful information, they decide to make a purchase. Many email service providers are free until your first 2,000 subscribers. Crystal shared tons of practical tips on building your email list on Periscope. You can catch her replay here. Quick Tips for Email Marketing: Create a great freebie to encourage people to join your list. Simply stating "sign up to receive the latest posts" is not going to get you far. Your freebie could be a checklist, printable, coupon to your shop, e-book, free video training, access to a private Facebook group, or any number of other items. Make sure your freebie attracts the right audience. If you sell knitted items, for example, you want to entice people who enjoy buying high-end, handmade items, not other knitters. Consider a style guide for winter knits, for example, instead of a free knitting pattern. Set up an auto-responder sequence for new subscribers. This will make the process of building a relationship much easier. Introduce them to you, your business, and your best content. Provide helpful tips, then pitch your products or services after you've provided a lot of value. We just recently set up an auto-responder sequence, and it has been wonderful for our business! It's not nearly as complicated as you might think. In MailChimp, for example, simply click Automation at the top, and the process is straightforward from there. 4.) Guest Posting. One of the most effective ways to reach a new audience, establish authority, and build relationships with influencers in your niche is to guest post. Quick Tips for Guest Posting: Read the Guest Post Guidelines on the site first. Every blogger will have different preferences and requirements, and you need to follow these exactly to make a great impression. Get to know the blog's content well. Pitch a topic that relates closely to content on the site but also fills a gap. Link to other posts on the blog to give their content a boost. And on that note: don't link to your own content unless you're given explicit permission to do so. Offer a great freebie to the blogger's audience so that you can continue to build a relationship with them. I wouldn't be following my own advice if I didn't offer you something fun for reading this post! Go here to grab a free download of guest post planners and Pinterest marketing sheets. These sheets are also included in our Brilliant Business Planner. If you decide to visit our shop, use the coupon code MONEYMAKINGMOM at checkout to get an exclusive $5 off all orders of $10 or more for the month of December! Would you like to win a Girl Boss Gift Sets today? Each gift set is valued at $65 and includes the Brilliant Business Planner, the Be Brilliant Mug, and the book Time Management Mama - all pictured above. Enter below for your chance to be 1 of 4 winners! This giveaway ends Friday, December 18, at 11:59 pm, CST. Beth Anne Schwamberger is the younger, quirkier half of the Brilliant Business Moms Podcast which she co-hosts with her sister Sarah. They're passionate about providing the encouragement, support, and resources moms need to grow businesses on the side while also spending time with their families. :: What We Learned Being TV-Free Guest post from Valerie of Our Healthy Foodie Life Six months ago, my husband and I sold our only TV! Being glued to the TV night after night became a regular occurrence in our household. At some level, it was comforting to get cozy on the couch after work and forget about all of the day's problems. But at the same time, the anxiety caused by the constant realization that we were missing out on more fulfilling activities was too much to handle. So finally we cut off the source of our unsettled feelings: we sold our TV and our gaming system. Some (actually, most) people thought that selling our TV was crazy. I'll be the first person to agree that, yes, this was a radical move for the norms of our culture. But after having long conversations about the subject, my husband and I found it even more crazy to spend evening after evening immersed in electronics rather than enjoying life. We spent part of this spring, the entire summer, and a portion of the fall without our own TV. If we wanted to watch our favorite shows, we had to watch them on our computer, or watch someone else's TV. The emptiness created from having no TV was scary at first, but ultimately became freeing. Here are three things we learned during our six months with no TV: 1. TV is (mostly) a waste of  time After giving up our TV, my husband and I had an incredible amount of free time for activities other than watching TV. And do you know what we did? A lot! We read books outside on our porch, spent time with friends, went on bike rides, volunteered, read extra Bible devotionals, walked our dogs, started a garden, etc. I think you get the idea by now: eliminating TV gave us so much in return. 2. Intentional TV watching is a wonderful gift I wrote point #1 with a focus on unintentional TV watching. What does that mean? We've all been there before: turning the TV on as background entertainment, binge watching the latest show we discovered, or re-watching episodes of a favorite show. During our six months without an actual TV, we did get to watch our favorite shows on our computer. However, watching TV on a computer is less enjoyable and is far less convenient. When we wanted to watch TV, it was something we truly wanted to watch. Being intentional about our TV consumption allowed us to enjoy shows and movies, but it didn't drain our free time. 3. There's so much more to do in life than sit inside The main lesson that we learned from this experience is that there is so much more to do in life than watch TV. This statement also applies to excess time spent on gaming, social media, tablets, and similar digital activities. When we stay in the house glued to our digital devices, we lose out big time on the other wonderful activities in which we could participate. We also lose out on real, face-to-face conversations with one another. If you take away one thing from our experience, this point is probably the most important: get outside, learn that hobby you've always wanted to learn, invite friends over for a night outside to catch up with each other face-to-face, volunteer, or start on that exercise goal you've thought about for months. Step away from your TV and your other digital devices, and enjoy the life that is happening right in front of you. In doing so, you'll give yourself the opportunity to feel more relaxed, fulfilled, and build new, healthy habits. We love the healthier perspective we have on using technology in moderation, and we are incredibly thankful for having completed our "no TV" experiment. Valerie lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband and two dogs. She is the creator and writer of the blog Our Healthy Foodie Life. top photo source :: Sign up for the free Peak Work Performance Summit in January 2016! Do you struggle with productivity, efficiency, or motivation? If so, I recommend signing up for the free Peak Work Performance Summit! This will be an online weeklong event from January 5 through January 12, 2016. I'm super excited about many of the authors and speakers in the line-up! They are some of the smartest thinkers in the worlds of psychology, business, wellness, and productivity. See the entire line-up of speakers here. The summit will cover the following topics: How to write the perfect To Do list How to eat like a mental athlete How to think like a creative genius How to build smarter habits How to get more sleep How to deal with toxic colleagues How to eliminate distractions How to beat procrastination How to say "No" to anyone, including your boss How to multiply your time Sign up here to get access to the entire online summit for free! :: Reminder: Share your YNAB budgeting success story for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card! Have you ever used You Need A Budget? Do you have a budgeting success story to share with us? If so, we are currently accepting your story submissions in exchange for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. We will be reviewing the stories, and the top 3 entries will each win a $100 gift card! The entry form will be closing this Friday, December 18, 2015. Go here to read the submission guidelines and to share your story with us. :: Reader Tip: How I Save Even More with Online Shopping Lisa emailed in the following tip: I'm really lazy when it comes to couponing, but I'm always looking for ways to save money when I can. One way I've learned to easily save money is by purchasing discounted gift cards from Raise.com, using cash back websites for purchases, and using the "store pickup" feature. The idea is really simple. When I know what store I'd like to shop at, I head over to Raise.com to see what gift cards I can purchase with the highest discount.  When I checkout, I then choose to have the gift card e-mailed to me vs having it sent by mail. That way, I receive my gift card in minutes and can use it instantly online or print it off to use at the store. After I receive the e-mail, I then head over to Ebates.com to see if the store I'm shopping at offers cashback for purchases made online.  After finding my store through Ebates, I then go about adding the items to my shopping cart and I make sure to choose the "store pickup" option. When I'm shopping, I also try to find items that are already on sale or already discounted so I save even more money. If the store I'm shopping at also has a rewards program, then it makes this even better because I'm able to accumulate cash back rewards for future purchases. photo source You received this email because you are registered on www.moneysavingmom.com with the email address panatllc1.kate@blogger.com. If you believe this has been sent to you in error, you can easily unsubscribe here. 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