Frugal Hacks » make money

SAHM Jobs

Emily @ A Fine Collection of Lint and Fuzz — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:29:42 +0000

Although I love staying at home with my kids, I am not opposed to making extra money. The Proverbs 31 woman did it, and so do I. When my husband and I were first married, I worked as a grocery store cashier until my pregnancy became too much and I quit. When my son was a few months old, I started looking for ways to add onto my husband's income. I've tried a lot of things from an at-home business to paid surveys and here are the ones I loved.

Medical Transportation Volunteer

This is technically not a job, but reimbursed volunteer work. I drove people to their doctors appointments and was reimbursed for mileage. I always made about twice the actual cost of gas. I was able to bring Daniel with me, as he was my only child at the time. This works well if you have a small car and don't have a car full of kids. You need to be able to fit the person you are driving. If you have a van or SUV, you may not earn as much above the cost of gas. It was fun and a neat way to meet different people.

Different organizations run volunteer driving programs in each region of the country. If I wanted to do this again, I would check Volunteer Match.

Mystery Shopping

Most of the hard work with mystery shopping is up front. You have to sign up for a ton of companies and then see if they have jobs in your area. I have manually signed up for almost 200 companies. But, since then, I found a shortcut. Archondev and Sassie are two website programs that many mystery shopping companies use. By filling out one (free) form, you can sign up for every company that the Archondev program services. There is also a list of all of the Sassie companies, which have a near identical and simple form to fill out. I used Roboform (the free version) and it filled these form out for me in seconds. That is 117 companies total. This is the Sassie link, and this is theArchondev link. I have worked quite happily with companies using both programs. The Mystery Shopping Providers Associationand Walletboosters have free lists of even more companies.

In mystery shopping, you are assigned a certain location, and you have to go there within a time frame. You have to evaluate certain aspects of the store, like cleanliness and service, and then come home and write a report online. Sometimes it is a basic yes/no report and sometimes you write several essays. Sometimes you must purchase, other times you purchase and return and sometime you don't buy anything. I do at least one shop a week so we can go out to eat. I can bring my kids to most shops and my husband comes to some shops. (Husbands like this because they get to pretend to be a spy.) Your income potential is based on how many shops are available in your area, how far you're willing to travel, and how much of yourself you want to put into it.

Freelance Writing

You can make money with freelance writing by submitting articles to a site that will pay you for them or through a blog. With paid articles, you are working in someone else's infrastructure and going by someone else's rules. That means if you do what they ask, you get paid however much they want to pay you. When I looked into doing this, the field was a little crowded, but with anything, you can still succeed with hard work and perseverance. There's a list of companies to get started on Walletboosters. Also Associated Content has been recommended to me for this.

With a blog, there is more freedom for either success or failure. You can write about whatever you want and monetize however you want and it may or may not make an income. You can make an income from blogging, but it is not a guaranteed income, as with the other jobs. If you treat it like a business and have a growth plan, you can do well.

What kind of Mommy jobs have you tried?

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Find unclaimed money

kimc — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:37:23 +0000

I've never paid much attention to the idea that I could have unclaimed money out there in the wide world, but when Jim at Bargaineering posted links to search all 50 states for free it was just too easy to take a quick look.

After checking both states where hubby and I have lived as adults, I actually did find a small forgotten savings account!

It wasn't much money, but I was encouraged and amused so I checked on behalf of my parents. I found a few dollars an old employer owed my dad, too. And my uncle has some money from a check he never cashed - I don't know how much. And my late grandmother has nearly $100 that her heirs can claim. Apparently a lot of people do!

Take a few moments to search the states where you and your spouse have lived as adults. Remember to check maiden names as well. Did you find anything?

Quick! I need frugal/money related quotes I'm working on a fun little bit of script inspired...

The Frugal Forum is here! $125 in cash prizes!

kimc — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:20:12 +0000

The new Frugal Forum is up and running, and ready for you to jump in. You can get to it by clicking on the Forum tab at the top of the page. I would love to hear from you over there, and to make it more fun, I'm going to have a drawing for a fabulous prize of $100 cash!

I will draw among the first 50 people who post at least 25 entries on the forum. There are just a few commonsense rules.

ENTER TO WIN $100 CASH:

You must register to post or start a new topic. Anyone can read, but you must be logged in to post. It's easy. This prevents spam, and it allows me to see how many times you've entered.
Your entries must have some substance. They don't all have to be brilliant and innovative, but they must have some meaning and be related to frugal living. You can't just say, "Me too," or "Good point" twenty-five times.
You must have 25 published entries. I reserve the right to delete any post or topic at any time. If you know me, I use this right very sparingly. I'm really just covering the bases here.
The final decision is mine. If several people cross the 25-entries line at the same time, I might end up with 53 people in the drawing instead of just the first 50. If less than 50 people qualify, the drawing will be cancelled. You have to promise not to complain, mkay?

So get hoppin'! Go register (it's easy) and start gabbing. Share your wisdom, or pose your question. Let's help each other learn how to live on less!

BONUS GIVEAWAY: $25

Just post on your blog about the Frugal Forum and the $100 giveaway. Link to this post and the forum, and leave a comment here to let me know. I'll draw for the winner of this giveaway when I draw for the $100 winner.

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Need Some Extra Cash?

kimc — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:29:29 +0000

a guest post by Shelly at The Happy Toddler

Need Some Extra Cash?

Who doesn’t? I recently decided to organize my living room entertainment center and wondered “Why do I still have all these CD’s?” We are in the age of the iPod and do you really still listen to those CD’s you’ve had since high school?
If you decide, like I did, that you can get by without those nostalgic reminders of your younger years, you can sell your CD’s and get some cash for your holiday shopping – not to mention some much needed storage space.
First, you need to figure out where to sell the CD’s. A few years ago I would have just headed to the nearest Wherehouse or other CD store, but look around and you won’t see any of those stores anymore. There are, however, many places to sell used CD’s online. Some of the websites offer more money20than others – the ones where you can get the most money for your CD’s will give you credit or trade. One of them you can even use the credit for an iPod. This would be great if anyone on your holiday list would like a DVD or iPod. Many of the websites also offer to pay for shipping if you reach a certain threshold dollar amount.
I chose to go through SecondSpin.com because I wanted cash and they were in California where I live, so the shipping is less. They pay a set media mail rate for shipping for different quantities of CD’s. I found that the shipping rate they paid covered about 75% of the shipping cost from my address. Knowing that you have to cover some of the shipping charges should be incentive to do some research to find the closest location to your house.
After you find the place you want to sell your CD’s, the rest is easy – just follow directions on the website, send them in, and wait for your check. You will find that some of the CD’s aren’t worth more than $1 or may have broken covers – these you can save for your next yard sale. Here are some websites, I’m sure there are many more out there.

Now I need to work on those DVD’s that we never watch… I’m Shelly from The Happy Toddler, where I blog about frugal ideas for your entertaining your little ones

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Are online surveys worth the time?

guest — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:31:50 +0000

a guest post by The Frugal HusbandWould you like to submit an article for publication here? Learn how.

I began doing online surveys about one year ago. So far I have made over $125 and I am always joining new sites. The average online survey pays anywhere between $3 to $5 dollars and takes about 20 minutes to complete. This comes out to $9 to $15 an hour. Although doing online surveys is not going to allow you to quit your day job, it can be a source of $20 to $30 a month. So are online surveys worth the time, here are my thoughts.

How much is 20 minutes worth to you? For me, time is very valuable. The way you spend your time will show what is really important in your life. Since I can do online surveys whenever I want, it makes it easy for me to find 20 minutes here or there where I can complete one. My main requirement is that if doing a survey ever steals time away from what is truly important in our lives (God and family), then they are not worth our time. Doing online surveys is definitely not a priority, just something to do when I can spare a few minutes.

How frugal can you be with $20 extra a month? With my frugal wife, we are pretty good at stretching $20. That's twenty CVS trips for us, since she is starting to perfect the Extra Care Bucks method (You will have to ask her about that but I am always amazed when she comes home paying less than $1 for a bag of items. Her last receipt was for only 0.22 cents!) If you are frugal, I think you will agree that you can stretch $20 pretty far.

A little at a time adds up to a lot. My Dad taught me this principle when I was younger. He used to save change from his pocket in a coffee can. On my birthday, he would give me the can and I would count the change and take it to the bank. He usually had at least $150-$200 in change saved every year. For my Dad it was a handful of coins a day, for me it's a $3 check from a survey company. Over the time span of a year, it can add up to a lot.

Conclusion

I think online surveys are worth the time and I want to help you find the best survey sites to use. This weekend I am going to post reviews of all the online survey companies that I belong to with all the information you need to decide if you want to join.

If you would like to read reviews of all the online survey sites that I belong to, click here.

Roger is the Frugal Husband who authors Ourfrugallife. He and his wife explore the art of spending money wisely for the glory of God.

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