Hewes Family Fun

Disclaimer: This article is FULL of links for affiliate programs, survey companies, and the like. Some of which I may receive a bonus or commission on if you sign up. Think of it as buying me a cup of coffee (that you don’t directly pay for). For the record, I like Iced Lattes, no sweetener.

Like so many other people, I haven’t been able to work as much over the past six months as I am used to. And this includes my side hustles, which sadly, have fallen to the side. A couple of weeks ago I decided to dive headfirst back into my side hustles and see if I couldn’t make a little bit of money. School will be starting next week (although for us it is distance-learning, so I will be teaching both kindergarten and special ed fourth grade- I don’t know if I’m up for it, but I’m gonna give it my best).

Usually, the beginning of school is the time where I get back into my side hustles and moneymaking endeavors, and I’m able to spend more time working because the kids are… Back in school.

A woman in one of my mom’s group post it on Facebook the other day asking about research studies, and that led me to realize that this post needed to be written. There are other people in similar positions as myself, and we need to make money.

The past two weeks I have spent a lot of time working my side hustles, mostly early in the morning or late at night. Or while I am sitting on the patio watching the kids splash in the kiddie pool. By the way, said kiddie pool was paid for using Amazon gift cards that I earned doing a side hustle.

Here are the side hustles I’ve been working the past two weeks and approximately how much money I’ve made.

Paid Viewpoint: I have done about 10 surveys for them over the past two weeks. Their surveys take usually less than 10 minutes to do, and you’re prequalified for them, so you’re not gonna waste a bunch of time only to be told that you’re not earning any money. They will email you when you have a survey, but you can also just log onto your account and see if you have any surveys to do.

Sometimes if they have something that is time-sensitive, they’ll email you right away and there is usually a small bonus ($.50 or less) to do the survey right away. Their payout is $15, and I cashed out this afternoon with $16.10. 

Pinecone Research: I don’t know if they are currently looking for new members, but you can always go to their website and take the survey and if they’re not looking for your demographic, they add you to the waiting list and when they need you they will email you. This is another survey company that only send you service that you were prequalified for. Most of the time it is for products that may be coming to marketplace soon and the Company has questions about packaging pricing structures and they just want opinions. Most of the time Pinecone Research surveys pay $3 each. You can either save it up and cash it out or just cash it out as you make it. I get my money via PayPal but they also have gift cards and other stuff too. I made $9 this week.

Field Agent: This is one hustle that you can’t do at home. Field Agent is a secret shopping/audit app. Right now they have a lot of “Buy and Try” for alcohol. I have only been doing Field Agent tasks when I am already going to go to a location where they have an available audit/secret shop. I’m not going out a lot of other places. Usually, you get a reimbursement for purchase plus a bounty for the survey. It’s quick, it’s easy, and you get to try new products. It’s pretty fun.  I haven’t been able to go to the gym in a while, I’ve pretty much stopped drinking. So I’m trying to avoid audits and secret shops that involve alcohol.  I’ve made $20 over the past two weeks.

Digsite: I don’t remember how I discovered DigSite (I think it was a targeted Facebook Ad). I have done surveys and research studies with them for about a year, and they generally pay between $25 and $200. over the past two weeks, I have done two research studies with them, it’s about 5 to 10 minutes each day for three or four days. They ask your opinions about a specific topic, sometimes you have to take a picture, or do a little bit of homework, but, overall it’s fun. Dig site pays in Amazon gift cards. Over the past two weeks, I have made $90 in Amazon gift cards.

Q-insights: Q-insights is a research study firm that’s based in Orange County, California. Once you get on their email list, they will send you emails when they have open studies. A lot of them are done online, but a few of them are done in person in Orange County in various locations. Cute insights surveys tend to pay in excess of $75, but, they can be a lot more work. They pay via check sent through the mail. I signed up for 2 of their upcoming studies, fingers crossed I get into them!

UpVoice: It’s a pretty passive way to earn money. As long as you’re active on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and you shop on Amazon, UpVoice is a pretty simple way to earn some spending cash. It is a chrome extension, I cashed out for $20 last week. In theory, if you are a regular social media user and have the upper voice chrome installation extension, you will be making $10 every 6 weeks or so for no extra effort.

Fetch Rewards: I use a bunch of different cashback apps in conjunction with my couponing to save money on groceries, but my favorite is Fetch Rewards. I’ve been putting receipts in like a madwoman, and I cashed out my points for $15 In Amazon Gift Cards.

Ibotta: When I got a new phone recently, I hadn’t transferred over all of my apps to my new phone. I realized this week that I needed to add Ibotta. When I did, I noticed I was almost to the $20 payout minimum, so right before I sat down to write this article, I scanned in my Food4Less receipt from earlier today, and that bumped me to $21.00! I cashed out lickity-split! (For some apps that I use to save and earn money, check out my post here).

Achievement: This is a super passive hustle, but it’s super fun. Here is the article I wrote last month with all the information about how it works. I cashed out for $10 on Monday. 

That’s a total of $201.10! I also sold a few things on Facebook Marketplace that we were getting rid of during our recent household purge. I didn’t include those above, since I can’t do that frequently (But it was $65 cash in my pocket!).

Talk Back: I would love to hear about some of your side hustles. How do you make extra cash?