Money Saving Methods

Do you know about Money Saving Methods? It's filled to the brim with, um, money saving methods and money making methods! My sister alerted me to this great blog this week. I sat down last night to check it out and I'm already almost $100 richer!

Turns out Carrie @ Money Saving Methods is actually from my area. If you haven't been over there yet, you must check it out. She has an amazing talent for deciphering all of those "free" online offers that end up costing us more than we get back. She's done the legwork for you and her site offers easy, step-by-step instructions on how to do many of these deals. Andrea @ Mommy Snacks recently blogged on a $500 gas card she was able to get by following Carrie's advice.

Wondering how I made some money? Well, I took advantage of three of the super-easy deals she has up on her site right now!

• Etrade Savings Account - Hurry this one ends today - 12/17! Open a savings account with just $1 and you'll have $25 deposited into your account in 30 days.
• Blockbuster.com - Sign up and pay with Paypal and recieve $25 in your Paypal account within 6-8 weeks. This one is so easy - their lowest plan is only $3.99 a month. You must sign up for the free trial month and remain on through one paying period.
• Sharebuilder.com - Open an account and invest $5 in a stock (there are many that are less than $1) and get $50 in your account in 4-6 weeks. This one ends 12/31. You can sign up every member of your family!

Carrie will tell you exactly what to do in order to be sure you do everything correctly to get the benefit of these deals and you don't get stuck paying for or buying more than you need to. Be sure to click on the link she indicates to ensure you'll get the incentive. These are easy and legitimate ways to make more money!

Money Saving and Making Ideas - Holiday Shopping Edition

I'm back! I took an unannounced hiatus over the last week to spend time getting things back on track. Sometimes I just take on too much!

I've tried to dedicate Mondays to offering you a way to save money or a way to make money. In honor of the holiday shopping season which officially kicked off this weekend, here are a few ways to save and even earn when shopping:

• Couponing is the number one way I have found to save while shopping. You can often get so many products incredibly cheap or even free by using coupons. Sites like Money Saving Mom and Mommy Snacks offer some of the best advice for saving money on groceries.

• Check out CVS' ExtraCare Rewards Program. Here are some details on the basics. CVS offers "Extra Bucks" on certain products every week in the form of a printed coupon on the bottom of your reciept. It's basically like cash back (to be spent at their store only) with a few stipulations. With the right combination of coupons and using Extra Bucks you can easily take a home a cart full of household items and dig for change in your purse to pay the tab. I haven't paid for toothpaste, shampoo, razors or makeup since I discovered this program!

• For those of you hitting up the Cyber Monday deals, sign up with a company like Ebates or Big Crumbs to save even more. Shopping through these sites can help you earn discounts or rewards. When you find a deal online, log into your account and find the store through the site to purchase and get more bang for your buck.

• MyPoints is another site where you can earn points by doing your online buying through their site. When you sign up with them you'll get regular emails alerting you to different sites and companies that match your interests and ways to earn points. Sometimes it's as simple as registering on their site, which you can use a separate email account for. Even if you never sign up for anything, often just clicking on the website will earn you 5 points. Those can really add up. You redeem the points for gift cards from more than 70 merchants. If you start now, you have plenty of time to score a few gift cards by next Christmas!

• Take advantage of pharmacy gift card offers. Stores like Target, CVS, Walgreens, Kmart and others often have coupons to get a gift card when you fill a new prescription at their pharmacy. If you have one to fill anyway, you might as well get a free gift card for it! Pay attention to ads or look on websites. Most CVS stores will even honor competitors' coupons.

• Finally, as I discuss in this post, reviewers are still being accepted for the Webby Awards. This is not necessarily shopping-related, but it is timely and it's a great opportunity, so I really want everyone to know about it! The first session just ended and there are two more. This is a great way to earn actual cash by reviewing websites in your spare time. Although it is temporary, it offers a nice payday when checks go out early next spring!

Making Money with the Webby Awards

For the past couple of years I've been a reviewer for the Webby Awards. This is an organization that awards honors to top websites. If you currently have your own blog or website and you're interested in entering click here. The deadline is December 19th.

This is one of those great freelance projects that I've talked about before. You sign up to review a certain amount of entries and you're paid for completing your assignment. The reviewing has just begun and there are two phases. The first part runs through December and then there is another session that runs through January. I usually get the payment sometime in early April - so this is not something you can do for quick holiday cash....well, not this year at least.

Basically you're reviewing websites based on the criteria they give you. You give the site a rating from 1 to 10 for each category and then write a brief review. These are not just technical reviews. You're talking about things that the average website viewer cares about - the content, the ease of navigation, etc. You can also choose the categories you're reviewing.

Click here to apply and for more detailed info on reviewing click here - or just ask me!

This is a great opportunity because you work at your own pace. You just log in and do a few at a time as you have time. The work just needs to be completed by the deadline - December 19th for the first session. This is an easy way to make a few hundred dollars. Happy reviewing!

Making money with crafts

My dad is really great at working with wood. He can make just about anything from a little wooden shelf to a baby cradle to a house. I've told him before that he should consider making some projects to sell and his response was, "If I did it for money, it would be a job and I wouldn't enjoy it anymore."

People who are especially crafty have a unique gift that can really be marketed. And by that I don't mean they should each lease space, open a shop and work their fingers to the bone daily to produce enough product to run a successful business. But if you have a talent for creativity, art or any craft, there are ways to turn that ability into income.

Consider selling your own items. One way to do this is by setting up an account on Etsy. Etsy is a site similar to Ebay, but it's designed for handmade items. You can list items for sale for a listing fee of .20 cents per piece. This gives you a wide exposure where anyone can find and purchase your craft, plus it's a relatively low-maintenence way to do so. This is one way to sell things that doesn't require a lot of commitment or effort.

If you want to go a more traditional route, look for craft shows in your area. November and December are a great time to do this with all the holiday shows popping up everywhere. Renting a booth at a show does require quite a bit of inventory on hand though. Depending on what you sell, you could possibly make a few items and take orders - although this is probably only a good idea for specialty items, like baby blankets, for example.

You could also do a little marketing. Consider the market for the type of craft you're producing. I know a woman who does personalized embroidery. She contacted the labor and delivery unit of some local hospitals and has one of her fliers included in the paperwork that goes home with every new mom.

Consider crafting for a company. Have you heard about people who assemble crafts at home for money? That's a legitimate business. It's called New England Crafters and they're a company that cuts down on warehousing and overhead by hiring an army of workers to work from their own homes.

Here's how it works: You check out their website here to see what craft you want to assemble. Then you print out the request form and send payment of $44.95 to receive the start-up materials. This is refunded after you complete 250 pieces and it's one of the few times I'll ever tell you it's okay to put up some money to work at home!

In a couple of weeks they'll send you the materials and the instructions. Then you'll complete the craft to their exact specifications and return it for review. Once they've accepted it, they'll continue sending you the materials to make new crafts. They even reimburse you for the shipping of the items you ship. You're paid by the piece (usually $1-$2 per piece).

If you enjoy doing crafts, then this is a good way for you to make some money doing something you enjoy. You're paid for the work you do and you can do as much or as little as you like. A word of caution: There are no "crafting experience" requirements for this type of work, but I only recommend this for people who are quite detail-oriented and who are already pretty crafty.

I consider myself reasonably crafty and I tried this out when I first started working from home, thinking it would be a good way to earn a couple hundred dollars extra each month. Well, it was $45 wasted for me. It drove me crazy! I couldn't get the glue just right and I couldn't tie the little tie around the puppy's neck just right either. I didn't even send it in to be reviewed! And I should also mention that sometimes it takes a couple of reviews to have it approved.

I don't want to discourage anyone, however. I said "reasonably crafty," not "very crafty." If you're very crafty, I'm sure you'll do fine. The bottom line is that contrary to what my dad said, using crafting to make money doesn't have to feel like work. As with anything, if it's something you're able to do on your own time table without specific requirements, it can be a fun way to make some money!

Making Money with Basic Writing

Writing articles is a nice little way to make some extra cash. If you like to write, you can be paid for your articles or your opinion. A basic way to do this is by joining a pay-to-write site such as Associated Content, Constant Content or My Lot. You can choose a topic and write about it. Then you can submit the article for payment approval.

Different sites work differently. Some sites will pay based on the value of the topic you choose or article length. Some sites have content available to be purchased by others and you're paid when your articles are purchased. This type of writing gig varies greatly in requirement and pay. You can make as little as $3-$5 for a simple article to $20 or more. It's not high paying, but it's a great way to get your foot in the door.

If you're a little more experienced in your writing, you could consider writing an ebook to market and sell. Ebooks are great because you can avoid the cost of not only creating and publishing the book, but shipping costs are also nonexistent because you're sending it via email or download. One simple way to market an ebook is to find blogs that are compatible with your subject matter and see if the blog owner might be interested in being an affiliate to promote your book for a percentage of the profits.

Some companies will also pay you to post on messageboards. One company that does this frequently is Paid Posting Tools. You choose the subjects on which you'll create posts or add to conversations and you're paid a few cents per post. Typically a certain number of posts are required per week and they can start to add up to a decent amount of income.

There are much more lucrative ways to earn money writing, but these are just a few to get you started. Writing is another great work-at-home activity that can easily be done on your own time, without a set schedule or a need to get into the office. It does require quiet, non-kid time, but it's definitely something that allows you to start small and grow bigger as you want to.

Could you make $1500 in one day?

It's funny that I just had a thought about this and then Dawn posted it today on her Work at Home blog.

There are so many little things here and there that our family has going on that we need some extra cash to get accomplished outside of our regular budget. The little things can add up quick. Thinking about that made me just wonder about other things we could do to earn some extra money. You know aside from the 100 ways I already know of!

For those who have taken Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, you will understand this: Dave talks about building an emergency fund and uses the hypothetical sick child example. If your child became gravely ill and you needed $10,000 for medical treatment to save his life, could you come up with it? We would find a way, wouldn't we?

So if you needed to make $1,500, to use Dawn's example, in the next 24 hours, what would you do? Would you sell things? Take on extra work? Side jobs? We would have to do a combination of things. It would have to go beyond the regular jobs that my husband and I do now. We would definitely be selling some things. My husband is extremely handy and would probably be doing work around the house for every neighbor we have. If I had the time to think about it, I'll bet we could be pretty creative.

What are your ideas? If it were you, how could you earn that kind of money in such a short period of time?

Making Money - What I've Been Doing

I decided it might be helpful to post the things that I actually do to make money. I've been giving ideas on ways for you to make extra money doing side jobs and different projects. I want to tell you what I did to earn some money last week.

• Market Research - I did a research study for P&G Consumer Village this week which paid $35. It was about laundry booster. They paid me to go in, look at the product, fill out a short questionnaire and answer 3 questions. It was less than 10 minutes! Check out more information and opportunities to participate in market research here.
  
• Transcription - I did almost 4 audio hours of work this week, which translates to about $250 to $275. (I haven't calculated it exactly yet.) Learn more about how to get started with transcription here.
  
• Grocery Shopping - While I technically did earn a little money on the things I purchased this week, I made a ton in grocery savings. I saved about $200 by using coupons and shopping based on sales this week at Kroger, Meijer and CVS.
• Side Project - My husband and I helped one of his family members do a project that involved putting about 30 large stickers on a poster - we did 100 of them. It took about 8 hours for both of us to complete and paid $200. If you're on the lookout, odd jobs like this may show up from time to time and while they seem a little tedious (this was not a fun way to spend the evening) you can earn a nice chunk of change.
  

Making Money with In-Store Merchandising

Do you ever wonder how those blinky machines and tearpads magically appear on shelves in your local grocery or drug store? In-store merchandisers put them there!

Marketing is serious business and if you think about it, it's everywhere! It comes in the form of coupons, floor and shelf signage, video and audio commercials and even the shelf placement of products. Those companies need people to go in the stores on a weekly basis and place these merchandising tools to maximize sales for the companies.

This is a great part-time job with flexible hours. The job consists of doing things such as affixing signage, putting up coupon machines, store displays and other marketing adventures :). Typically you're given a diagram or some type of instructions, along with a set of stores within a certain area that you're responsible for. Typically the pay is by the hour and (depending on your market) is somewhere around $7 to $10 an hour. Be aware that the job is very physical. It often involves lifting packages of 15 to 20 pounds, not to mention the tremendous amount of time you spend on your feet.

One company that I have personal experience with is News America Marketing. They do, among other things, the Smart Source advertising and coupon machines you often see in stores. In my area they do Kroger, Meijer, CVS, Walgreens and Biggs, to name a few stores. I really enjoyed working with them. You can look at Volition.com for a comprehensive list of companies on that offer this type of work and explore your options here.

When I worked as an in-store merchandiser, one of the appeals for me was I could set my own hours. As long as the work was finished in the parameters of the dates required, they didn't mind when I did the work. Often I would get up really early in the morning before my husband went to work. I could also do it in the evenings, late at night or on weekends. It makes the childcare issue less of an burden. If your children are school age, this job can easily be done during the school day!

Another perk is the coupons! Do you know what they do with all the coupons in that blinky machine when the campaign is over (and they don't expire for more than a month)? They throw them away! Depending on the company, you can often keep the coupons yourself.

This is a real part-time out-of-the-home job. Normally when you apply for the company, they'll contact you and you will interview, train and go through the paperwork process with them. Now that you know about it, you might even notice them the next time you're in the store! Give it a try if you're looking for something very flexible that still gets you out of the house.

Money Making Monday - Mystery Shopping

Want to earn some free meals, merchandise or a little cash? Be a mystery shopper! Mystery shoppers are paid (in cash or product) for evaluating service or products for different companies. The compensation is not huge - this is definitely not something you can make a living with - but it is a fun way to get some freebies.

One of my favorite companies is National Shopping Service. I've done lots of Papa Johns mystery shops for them. Basically, I order the pizza they specify (usually several choices), then I get online and fill out a survey about the order process, take some pictures of the pizza when it arrives, and tell them about the delivery driver (appearance, friendliness, etc.) They send me a check for the total cost of the pizza (including tip and delivery) at the end of the month.

Companies all over the country use mystery shoppers! If you have a favorite restaurant, for example, ask the manager about this the next time you're in. Some others I've worked with include Nationwide Service Group and Bestmark.

Do you shop for a different company? Care to share the info? Leave a comment and help others who are looking for opportunities like this!

Making Money with Market Research Studies

One great way I've discovered to make a little cash on the side is by participating in market research studies. Basically you are entered into a company's database and they call you when they have studies that fit your profile. If you qualify, they invite you to participate in the study. It consists of anything from an hour long discussion to taking a product home and trying it. Typically the pay is somewhere between $50-$100. I'll take $50 to sit in a room and tell you what I like about the diaper brand I use!

It's difficult to qualify for the studies on a regular basis. They like to keep their panelist pools fresh, so they normally won't accept someone who has participated in one of their studies in the last 3-4 months. I have signed up with several different companies in order to spread this out a little bit.

This week is quite a money maker for me. I'm participating in studies with MarketVision Research for laundry detergent, Evenflo for baby carriers and AIM Marketing for liquid dish soap. I once was involved in a Procter and Gamble study on dishwashing detergent that ended up meeting one hour once a month and paid $60 each time. Now that's a nice little money making plan!

If you're in my area (Ohio), there are several options available, including Qfact (which offers childcare!), Procter and Gamble - Consumer Village and Discovery Center and MarketVision Research. There are others throughout the country, so if you know of any, please comment and let others know!

Miles of Marketing

In my quest to look for different streams of income - which is key to really making a sustainable income when doing part-time work at home - I found Miles of Marketing, about a year ago. I've done a few campaigns for them and they're a really great company!




I've asked the owner of Miles of Marketing, Liza Lowenberg, to give you an idea of what exactly a Miles of Marketing Representative does:

Earn cash while you drive, run errands, host play dates or even enjoy lunch with friends. At last, you can get paid for being a Mom.

All stay-at-home and work-at-home moms are eligible to be a part of this new mom-based business.

The company's goal is to employ stay-at-home and work-at-home moms to advertise to the same demographic. We come in contact with different people through playgroups, classes, restaurants, schools and businesses. Our exposure is vast.

Because we are so consumed with our children and their activities and pop culture, it is hard for us moms to be "in the know." M.O.M.'s goal is to change that.

Every typical campaign runs for 2 weeks and pays $100.

Responsibilities include:
1. Driving around with a 14x14 magnet on your car advertising the product
2. Handing out marketing materials that a client provides
3. Spreading the word about the product to moms, playgroups, etc.
4. Posting chatter on 2-5 online message boards
5. Sending a final report, at least 2 pictures of your car with the magnet on it and actual copies of the online posting.

Upon signing up, you will be entered into our database. The client chooses which markets they’d like to use and how many reps they like to market the product. We strive to have all mom reps working all the time, but this is not a full time position.

Please go to www.milesofmarketing.com for more information. If you’d like to sign up, please follow the instructions on the "make me a mom rep" page.

This is 100% legitimate. We've had current press releases in Brand Week magazine and The Hollywood Reporter and you can see an interview with owner Liza Lowenberg that was on ABC News on the home page of www.MilesOfMarketing.com.

As I mentioned, I've done a few campaigns for Miles of Marketing. (Above is one of my photos from a campaign a few months ago.) It's truly an ingenious way to market products! Who better than moms to know what other moms like and get the word out? We talk to so many people in an average day! Why not make money while you do the things you do anyway?

If you have additional questions about them, please feel free to ask. Thanks again to Liza from Miles of Marketing!