Find a Baby or Pet Sitter through SitterCity.com

Having trouble finding someone to watch your kids? Planning a trip and need someone to watch Fido? SitterCity offers a resources for families to find full-time childcare or the occasional sitter. It provides help for other needs including pet sitting, senior care, housekeeping and tutoring.  SitterCity provides a directory where you can search profiles of sitters and helpers to learn their experience, expertise, and references. Some sitters have their profiles marked with “background check”.

The database is fairly extensive; there were several sitters listed from my tiny, rural area. You can do a search and see a list of sitters for free, but to get their details you’ll need to join. The service offers a free 7 day trial and then a monthly or yearly membership option.

Find great sitters in your area on Sittercity.com. Try Sittercity for free today!

Organize Receipts with Shoeboxed.com

If you run a small business, keeping your receipts organized and accessible helps make tax time easier. If you run a business or freelance in which you need to pay estimated tax payments four times a year, you may want to check out Shoeboxed.com, where you can mail-in or upload your receipts to organize them and get rid of clutter. The information can then be transferred to programs such as Excel, Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Evernote, Quicken, and CSV formats. If you scan and upload your receipts yourself, the service is free. Or you can mail your receipts and Shoeboxed will scan them for you. You can even scan and upload using your phone. Fees for expanded services depend on how many receipts a month you upload. There is even an option to upload business cards.

To learn more or get started for free, visit ShoeBoxed.com. Also check out ShoeBoxed’s blog for great articles on personal finance, taxes and more.

Free Online Games

I tend to relax with a good book, but my son and husband enjoy computer games. The problem is that getting new games or participating in online games can get expensive. But over at Game House you can get a new free game everyday! Or if you want to buy a game, its only $5.99.

To get the free game, visit Game House and check the link in the top right corner. Check out all the other fun games as well.

Want to Know Who’s Calling You?

Caller Id and the Do Not Call List have a been a big help in avoiding unwanted calls. But sometimes Caller ID isn’t clear and not all organizations follow the DNCL rules.

When I’d get a weird number on my Caller ID, I used to type the number in my search engine to see what came up. But now there is a better option to figure out who’s calling you. The Number Investigator will not only provide reverse phone number look up, but you can see if there are any complaints about the caller, and you can file a complaint as well. Further, if there are enough complaints about a caller, the Number Investigator will file a report with the proper authorities.

To use the service:

1. Enter Phone Number Information into the box on the home page. Or choose “Reverse Look Up” from the navigation bar at the top of the page.

2. Click the “Search Now” Button.

3. Get your results that include a map of the location, information about the organization, and complaints filed.

I tested the service on two numbers I received in the mail as part of a fake check scam. The letter with the scam listed a New York address but the Fax number was in Houston and the phone number was in Calgary (Canada).

To learn more, visit http://www.numberinvestigator.com.

Results of Phone Number Search of Scam Received in Mail

Too busy to research? Try CEO Express

Sometimes the hardest part of research is figuring out where to look. Patricia Pmerleau created CEO Express

…to be the executive’s interface to the Internet. The site’s peer editor recognizes that executives have precious little time to obtain all the information they require to conduct business. At the same time, much of the information that executives need is available on the Internet. CEOExpress takes all that information, and by employing expert human editors and “mind ergonomics,” pares it down to the 20% that is most critical and useful.

At CEO Express you can get up-to-date information from top news organizations, business and government organizations, and more. You get information on current events, statistics, health news, travel and weather updates, business tools, leisure information and more. Its like the Readers Digest of Internet information.

CEO Express offers a default (free) and membership services. The default offers only limited services such as Daily Polls, search capabilities, and daily editor notes. The upgraded services ($29/yr) offers extensive customization, RSS feeds and mobile access.

Visit CEO Express to learn more.