Save for the Holidays (and Beyond!)- My top tips!

file0001508044668Christmas is 64 days away, and while some of us have been saving our pennies and dollars, some of us haven’t. This article is for those of you who are looking to earn some extra money. For the holidays, or heck, even beyond that!

Now these are all methods that I have used, and continue to use, so there is no baloney coming from me.

  • I do Surveys. Here is a post with links to my top survey companies, including how much each one has earned me!
  • One of my favorite survey companies is Paid View Point.  Surveys are short (less than 5 minutes).  Earn cash with each Survey.  You get $1.00 when you sign up! The pay out is $15.00, and it takes about a month-6 weeks to earn $15.00. So far in 2015, I’ve earned about $78.00.
  • I send my junk mail to Small Business Knowledge Center. Here is a post about it with details. I just got another $20 GC from them earlier this month!
  • I take our bottles and cans to the recycling center. It’s not a ton of money, but I paid the deposit on those bottles, I want it back! I take Lil’ Man with me and we get about $4-$5/month between the milk jugs and misc. bottles and cans. We don’t drink a lot of soda or juice. My parents save their recyclables for us too!
  • I do simple tasks with Field Agent. Field Agent is an app for smartphones that allows you to do simple tasks like photographing displays in stores or scanning items in stores. They even have secret shopping tasks.  Tasks vary in pay, however most pay between $3-$10. I’ve been using Field Agent for 2 months and I’ve earned over $100. Payment is done via Paypal!
  • I also do simple tasks with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. I transfer the earnings to my Amazon.com account. You sign up and do tasks for small amounts of money, but the money adds up fast.  The tasks are quick and simple (transcription, surveys, flagging inappropriate photos).  I’ve earned over $50 since February.  If you want cold hard cash instead of Amazon.com credit there is an option to have money transferred to a bank account.  Mechanical Turk does ask for your SSN when you sign up- you will receive a 1099- MISC at the end of the year., regardless of which option you select.
  • Earn Gift cards with Mypoints. I take surveys, click links in emails, and do all of my online shopping through Mypoints. So far in 2015, I’ve earned about $45.00.
  • I also use Swagbucks. I use their search engine toolbar, take a daily poll, watch a video and click a few links each day! So far in 2015, I’ve earned about $60.00. Swagbucks has tons of rewards, you can receive cash via paypal too!
  • I use my smartphone to save money too. There are tons of apps that have help you save money in the store (coupons), and get your money back afterwards (rebates). Here is a list of my favs. I’m loving Ibotta right now- I’ve saved over $100 this year alone, just buying my normal groceries!

All of these things are easy to do, realistic, and even a busy person can take 10 minutes out of their day to do one of the things I’ve listed.

Where have I been?

I swear, I haven’t gone off the deep end! This is a super busy time of year for me! With Halloween in 11 days, I’m up to my eyeballs making costumes, planning treats for our play group Halloween party (gotta make sure they are free of everyone’s allergies), and getting ready for the WOW Summit that’s coming up this week (New business cards arrived Friday!!).

In the next few weeks, I’ll have some reviews of cool products my family has tried recently, tips for saving money for the holidays (nothing crazy I promise you!), cute giftable crafts (Pinterest Fail Free, I promise!!), and some yummy new recipes.

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 12.17.16 PMI’ve been working on holiday gifts for the family. Here is one of the photo collages that is going on one of those photos gifts (I told you guys, I’m all about photos for gifts- I mean it!).  It’s Lil’ Man and Bitty Bird. Mr. H is the headless adult in the photo.