Happy December!

Hello! I hope you all had as wonderful of a Thanksgiving as I did. I ate fried turkey (this is the only way to eat turkey), more pie than was good for me, and my absolute favorite Thanksgiving concoction: mashed potatoes with cranberry sauce mixed in. Hey, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it! My brother-in-law’s family was visiting for the week and it was so fun to see our kids playing together.

I had hoped to start posting more regularly, but it just wasn’t going to happen between chasing my toddler around and being extremely pregnant (less than two weeks to go!) and tired. So I wanted to say farewell for now and that I will see you all in the new year!

If you want to see previous posts about Christmas, you can navigate to the Christmas category, and that will pull up my previous suggestions for Christmassy reads or gift ideas.

I also wanted to mention I’ve added another button to the website. I don’t want advertising to clog up anyone’s viewing experience, but on the other hand, there are some costs associated with running Lector’s Books. I have a link to my CafePress store, and I also have a button for Chinaberry and the newest addition is for Ebates. All of these companies are ones I use myself (is it cheating if I buy my own designs to give as Christmas presents off CafePress?). Ebates is especially appropriate to mention on Cyber Monday, since it is an online shopping cash back website.

I’ve been a member since 2009, and have earned $264 so far by using them. This isn’t a ton of money, but it’s better than nothing, especially if you do a lot of online shopping. They also occasionally have coupons you can’t get elsewhere. The way it works is that you visit their website before shopping elsewhere, and click on one of their affiliate links. They share a percentage of the advertising revenue they get with you, so the bottom line for you is cash back on your online purchase, which they distribute via quarterly check (getting a paper check from them is the only quibble I have with the system, but this probably says more about my banking institution than Ebates).

For me, it’s definitely been worth the three seconds it takes to go to their website before transferring out to another site, but it depends on  how much online shopping you do and what stores you mainly shop at. Today, I got 7% back at Carter’s, for example, while picking up a few things for the new baby, which is pretty cool, but Amazon on the other hand only pays cash back for certain categories, which is a shame because otherwise I’d be rich – or at least richer. Barnes and Noble generally runs around 1-2% cash back, which isn’t a lot, but again, better than nothing.

I am an obsessive budgeter, tracking every penny that comes in and goes out, so one of the things I like about Ebates is that it generates a little “mad money” that I don’t feel like I have to be quite so responsible with. Right now it’s getting stashed in our travel fund.

So that’s the new button on the website. I hope you all have a wonderful December, and that Santa brings you some great books! I can’t promise when I’ll be back, because I (hazily) remember life with a newborn last time around, and this time there will be a toddler to keep up with as well!

Best wishes, Janie