#paperkarma

At PIPs Rewards, we make it our business to let no good deed go unnoticed, or unrewarded. Remember, PIPs stands for Positive Impact Points. So, for the month of January, we’re doubling the PIPs you can earn on these three awesome eco-actions.

1.    Earn 7000 PIPs signing up for Ethical Electric.  Instead of buying your energy from coal, natural gas, nuclear, or oil, you buy clean energy from renewable sources like wind and solar.

2.    Earn 1000 PIPs selling your electronics on Gazelle. Instead of tossing out your old smartphones, or Macbooks and polluting the environment, trade in your used devices and make money while you’re at it.

3.    Earn 30 PIPs downloading PaperKarma. Instead of receiving hundreds of pieces of unwanted mail every year, unsubscribe with the help of PaperKarma app to catalogs, magazines, and credit card offers and say hello to some happy trees!

Hello! Recently, I left my other blog TheDoughnutInsider, a blog about all things delicious and torus-shaped, to fend for itself while I work on something that is not frosted and covered with sprinkles.

For this go around, I want to help push artists up the trend line by re-blogging and reviewing, as well as posting some of my own work. Mainly, this will be a blog for comics, art and goodies. Goodies? Yes, the goods.

We all know the generic good apps like Twitter, Instagram, UrbanSpoon, and Yelp. But here are a few others that are little known and still great. But first I want to let you know of some good ways to use the generic apps you already now in a way that can help you in the long run. One of the best ways to use twitter is to let a company know about good and bad things you notice in there stores. This can even be used in replacement of calling a power company to let them know of a power outage. For instance you can tweet: "@GeorgiaPower outage at Broad St., Athens, Ga." It will be quicker then looking up the number to call them and going through all the prompts to let them know, as well as a lot easier too.

  Then we all know about Foursquare, most people don't like this app because it tells other people where you are. Well few people know that some businesses put promotions of there locations. Some are even better deals then they send out in the mail. All you have to do is check in at the store and it will unlock the promotion. You can even use the explore section of the app to locate these promos in town. Great way to save some money.

  Yelp you can use similar to Twitter. You can go to a company's listing and leave feedback about your experience in their store either good or bad and they will most of the time respond to your feedback. It is a great way to let them know what you think. Cause after all the customer keeps them operating.

  The first new app I want to talk about is GymPact. With this app you can make money for working out.... but you can also lose money if you don't work out. So basically the lazy pay you for working out and sticking to you pact. It is a very good motivational tool to help motivate you to get off the couch and get to the gym or go for that run. It is integratable with your RunKeeper so that you can work out anywhere. Here is a link to the site: http://bit.ly/14L7N5t

  The next is one of the best navigation apps out there by the name of Waze. This is not like you Garmin or TomTom. It is even better. This app is really a cross between navigation and social media in a way. This app allows user to alert other users of events on the road before they get there. You can notify people that there is traffic or an accident and what not ahead. The app will also auto redirect you around events ahead if they are going to slow you down significantly.

  Then we have Bump which is one of the best file transfer apps for you phone. This allows you to transfer pictures and other items between two phones and even to a computer. First you select the files you wish to transfer and then you bump. It is that simple... for transferring to a computer you simply direct the computers browser to Bu.mp then once you select the files you bump the phone with the space bar of the computer. it is so easy to use.

  The next app is Habits. Have something that you need to do every day and you want to make it a habit. This is the app you need.  It will remind you at a set time each day to do that thing. soon you will see it becoming a habit. Very good assistant.

  One of the best financial app and sites out there, that I use daily is Mint.com. They let you link all your financial accounts into one place. This allows you to take full control over your finances. You can design a budget for you to stick to each month. Track where your money is going over time. You can even design a savings plan to help you get the money to buy a car, house, or even that tech gadget you have been wanting. They also offer you options that can make your money work harder for you or low the rate of interest on your credit cards. This is my one-stop-shop for all things financial. This site alone has helped to get me investing in the stock market and making me more cautious of what I spend my hard earned cash on.

  Tripadvisor is a great app for when you are traveling. This app and site will help you plan out a trip and help you find things to do while your there. I travel a lot and every time I plan a trip I will reference this site to see what there is to do in the area. Even find the hidden local secrets of the town.

  This next app is great for making documents on your phone. It goes by the name of Genius Scan. Have a piece of paper given to you but you wish it was a PDF. Now you can make a PDF using your phones camera. Just launch this app and take a picture of the document. Do a few minor edit and there you have the PDF you wanted. Great app for businesses.

  Runkeeper is a great exercise app. This app allows you to track your run and even lets you set a goal to work towards. Works with Gympact for tracking those runs down the street.

  Ever wanted to find cheaper gas cause you feel like your spending to much on gas then you  need GasBuddy. This one app has saved me roughly $.10 to $.15 a gallon each fill up I used it, which adds up to a great deal of money over the years I have used it.

  Ever needed a great bar-code reader for all those QR codes you see around town. Now you can scan them and more with RedLaser. This app allows you to scan QR codes and load the wed site that they link to. You can even scan the bar-code for that item you want to buy and see if there is somewhere else that will have the item cheaper.

  If you are like me and you always forget when it is time to change you oil or rotate your tires then you need this next app. Gas Cubby is a great car buddy to have. Each time you fill up you log it in this app with the ODO reading and amount of gas and cost. Then when you are nearing a service mark it will notify you that you have ??? miles till you need an oil change and what not.  Now you will never miss one again, which means your car will last longer and run better. Saving you more money in the long run. It can also tell you what MPG you are actually getting. It will even display how much you spend to drive one mile. It is an all around great app.

Control your mailbox, cut paper waste, and save the Earth is the motto of one of my favorite apps, PaperKarma.

“I can’t get through my mail” is a complaint I often hear from both individual and business clients. The first step and easiest way to deal with this problem is to reduce the amount of mail entering your home. PaperKarma makes this tedious task a breeze. All you have to do is take a quick photo of the unwanted mail and PaperKarma will contact the company on your behalf.

Do you guys get stacks and stacks of catalogs that you just promptly throw into the recycling bin? I do and it drives me nuts!