making money

2016 New Year’s Resolution: #1 Make More Money!

Abby H.3 Comments

file000267804564Throughout December, I’m going to be posting about New Year’s Resolutions. Each post will have tips and tricks to help you navigate through your resolutions to become more successful at all of your frugal endeavors!

For a lot of us, one of our New Year’s Resolutions is to make more money.  And unless you plan on winning the lottery, that can be hard.

Here are a few ways that you can make some extra money in 2016.  I have done all of these and they have worked for me to one extent or another, however, YMMV.

  • Why wait until spring to clear out the clutter?  Have a Garage Sale and earn some extra money!  Whatever doesn’t sell, consider donating it to a charity and taking the tax deduction.
  • Sell items on your local Craigslist. Always remember to meet in a public place!
  • Check out resale groups on Facebook. Just go to Facebook and search Your city + resale.  There are a ton in San Diego!
  • If you have unwanted silver, gold, or platinum most malls have kiosks or stores that will buy the metal from you on the spot and give you cash. Some jewelers also buy metal and jewelry.
  • Have a skill? Can you babysit, mow a lawn, bake a cake?  Are you handy with a sewing machine? Let your friends and neighbors know. Make up a flyer or post on your Facebook.
  • Before you head out to go shopping, check to see if anything you are going to buy has a rebate.  Doing rebates is easy!  To learn more about how rebating works, check out the article I wrote here. It also includes a link to my favorite rebate website!  I get about $250 back each year just through rebates. Most of the time you can use coupon on an item that you are submitting a rebate for- talk about win-win!
  • Want to get paid for your opinions?  Why not try a focus group or a research study?  Learn more about them here. I participate in about once per month and earn approximately extra $50-$100 in cash each time.
  • Mogl– This site is a little different.  Sign up and register your credit/debit cards.  When you eat out at participating restaurants, you’ll receive 10% cash back!  You can use this in addition to any other cash back offers your credit or debit card offers.  I’ve earned $25 in the past year and we don’t eat out very often! I also like at Mogl donates money to local food based charities every time you use one of your registered cards.
  • I’m a HUGE fan of Small Business Knowledge Center.   Do you get lots of junk mail?  Is your inbox full of spam? Insurance, credit card offers, banking, credit cards, investing, telecom, mortgage or other loan type junk mail and spam?The Small Business Knowledge Center (SBKC) studies marketing techniques and practices.  They securely dispose of your junk mail after they are done with it- no need to worry! You can also put stickies on paperwork that you would like back and they will return it to you! SBKC mails you postage paid envelopes, you stuff your junk mail into it and drop it into the mail.  You will receive points for your junk mail, and once you receive 2000 points, you will receive a $20 Visa Gift Card. You can also forward emails to them as well.  They occasionally have special projects where they are looking for special items like welcome packets for credit cards.  Special projects offer additional/bonus points.I’ve done SBKC for 4 years and I consistently earn one  $20.00 gift card per quarter, that’s $80.00 in gift cards per year! That’s free money that I did no work for.  Just forward some emails before I hit “delete” and toss my junk mail into an envelope as it comes into the house and mail an envelope once a week.Unlike many other programs, you can sign everyone in your home who is over the age of 18!If you are interested in signing up, here is the link. In the box next to: How did you here about the SBKC Consumer Panel? Please type my name: Abby Hewes. I get points for each referral and that brings me closer to my next reward!

If you are looking to make money online, here are a few of my favorites:

  • Earn Cash with 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 to earn $15.00. I earned about $60.00 in 2013.
  • Earn Gift cards with Mypoints. I take surveys, click links in emails, and do all of my online shopping through Mypoints. I’ve earned $80 in gift cards in 2013!
  • I also use Swagbucks. I use their search engine toolbar, take a daily poll, watch a video and click a few links each day! In 2013 I earned about $120 worth of Swagbucks rewards. Swagbucks has tons of rewards, you can receive cash via paypal too!

And updated for 2017: Here are a few more ways to earn money- My Hustle: How I make Part Time Income as a SAHM

Whether you want to earn extra money for a vacation, holiday gifts, or just to have some extra play money, with a few minutes each day, you can earn some serious money.

This page contains affiliate links.  Please see my Affiliate Disclosure here.

Scam alert and how to really make money at home…

Abby H.1 Comment

MONEY CASE 8
One of the things I get emails and messages about frequently is, “Have you heard about (Fill in name of scam program here) program? I got an email about it and it says I can make tons of money for only $50!” Or something that sounds equally as fishy.

With the economy being so depressed for an extended period of time, the rise in work at home and get rich quick scams is shocking.  Those who have a hard time finding a new job are perfect pickings for scammers.

I know that this is a savings blog, but I want to share with you some tips, hints, and information about what to look for if you want to work at home and make money online.  I don’t want to see any of you get scammed.

  • One of the most popular scams is the Nigerian Scam.  Basically an important person in an African country is in jail, if you send them money via wire transfer to help them, once they are out of jail, they will reimburse you plus a handsome fee.  Anytime you are emailed by someone who is asking for help and money, run run run.  Especially if they ask you to wire them your hard earned money (it can’t be tracked) or if they send you a check, ask you to cash it and either wire them the money or send them a money order.  That is a SCAM.
  • Work at home scams: If a company asks you to pay them for a list of work at home companies or secret shopper programs, that is most likely a scam. Google the name of the company and the word scam to double check.
  • For that matter, if a company promises an insane amount of money in a short amount of time, It’s a scam.
  •  If a “legit looking” work at home company requests a credit card number or any money at all, It’s a scam.

If you are looking to get rich quick, it’s damn near impossible!

I earn money online doing surveys, clicking links in emails and doing tasks.  If you are looking to make money online, here are a few of my favorites:

  • Earn Cash with 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 to earn $15.00. So far in 2015, I’ve earned about $60.00.
  • 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 $30.00.
  • 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 do surveys with Pinecone Research. They aren’t always looking for new participants, but check out their website and see if you fit their open demographics. I make about $20/Month doing short surveys (10 minutes or less).

With all of these survey companies, these are surveys I am pre-qualified for. No spending 10-30 minutes only to learn that you aren’t getting paid and they don’t want your opinions (that’s the #1 reason I do not do Swagbucks surveys and I don’t recommend you waste your time doing them either).

I work on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to make extra money that I transfer to my Amazon.com account.  I am trying to earn enough to pay for holiday gifts. 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.

Volition has a great list of mystery shopper programs that are free. I do a few of these programs, and I have earned money!

I will by no means become a millionaire, but the extra money each month helps out and allows me to save for holiday gifts, and take the Kiddo to do fun stuff that we normally couldn’t afford.

Screen Shot 2015-05-29 at 3.38.26 PMHere are a few insights that can help you determine if somethings a scam:

  • Does it seem too good to be true?
  • Is there no phone number or address to contact the company?
  • Does the website look “off” or give you a weird feeling (trust your spidery senses)?
  • Google the company name- What comes up?  If it’s not good, run run run!!
  • If a website has photos like the one below- it’s probably a SCAM!