Comments on: Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom: Starting with Small Things (Part 2)

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:41:00 +0000

I also enjoy working with Pinceone Research. I always send those $3 checks to our emergency fund. I think over the past 2 years I’ve made $70 or $80 bucks with them, and the surveys are always brief. Every little bit helps!

By: Debbie

Debbie — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:07:37 +0000

Okay, I have a quick question. I’ve been doing surveys thru Quick Rewards and Sunshine Rewards, but you are right when you say that surveys take a long time to do and don’t pay that much.

However, my question is this–when you do surveys thru reward sites, they only pay about $1/each (at the most normally). If you sign up with reward companies, do they pay more and do you make more if you can qualify for them?

By: Lora

Lora — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:46:33 +0000

Courtney, On the half.com site that Crystal refers to above for selling books you can also sell CDs, DVDs, and video games. I’ve had good luck selling books and CDs there. With CDs being very light in weight you usually make a bit of profit from the postage allowance. On the other hand, the postage allowance sometimes doesn’t cover all of the postage expense for heavy textbooks, and you should to consider that when you set the price. Postage varies depending on how far away the buyer is, but there is a set postage allowance per book or CD sold that you will receive from half.com.

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:40:26 +0000

Thank you so much for doing this! You are a warrior for stay at home moms. – Heather

By: Misty

Misty — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:07:42 +0000

Courtney: Another site where you can sell Cds, DVDs and video games is http://www.secondspin.com I have sold things to them before and I have never had any issues at all receiving payments. For books, you can also try using http://bookscouter.com/ as a reference. It searches several different sites at once and tells you which sites are accepting your book. It also includes user reviews for the different sites.

By: Roxanne

Roxanne — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:24:20 +0000

To the poster who asked if you must pay taxes on money earned from surveys, etc, the answer is yes!!

Any earned income must be reported on your annual tax return.

I’ve honestly been secretly hoping Crystal would make mention of integrity and honesty in one of her posts in this series. Too many people who work from home do not report their income to the IRS (or other government agencies like WIC).

By: Marie

Marie — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:19:37 +0000

You’re amazing. Do you know how many people would have signed up for loans so they could continue with a comfortable lifestyle, thinking “oh we’ll have a lawyer income. We’ll be fine” only to be drowning in debt later on.

By: BrownThumbMama

BrownThumbMama — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:22:59 +0000

Thank you for this series! I'm trapped in a cubicle for the time being but hope to escape soon. Your example is an inspiration to me! I've had great success with MySurvey (also called National Family Opinion): http://bit.ly/30SkIJ

By: Maryanne (MyPennyPile.com)

Maryanne (MyPennyPile.com) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:17:24 +0000

I have not had any luck with Cash 4 books yet. They don’t accept most titles I enter. I one title it took was for 4.00. I can sell it for 15.00 on Amazon. Though they do take a small percentage out and I have to get a buyer…

When I have time to go book shopping, we make about $100 profit a month on Amazon. If I had a cellphone with internet access to look up ISBN numbers at garage sales, I’d be rich (:

We were hooked after buying our first book for $1 and selling it for over $200. It was such a fluke (:

I’ve been thinking about doing a post about Amazon soon…

I just LOVE the story of how your blog started. We can so relate as my husband is in school too and I we have kids!

By: Janeen

Janeen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:42:25 +0000

Thank you so much for this post. I have failed miserably so many times at “money making” ventures from home. I have a degree in Engineering and it can be so difficult to stay home, especially when we find out my husband’s car may need a $600 repair (new car time) and it just feels like we can never get ahead of “just making it.” It brought tears to my eyes and a prayer of thanks to God to read that you felt the same way. We are by no means poor, so it was good for me to remember how blessed I am and that God will always take care of us.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:39:54 +0000

I love this series and am eager to read more! I have a 5 month old and am working full time… hoping to quit as soon as possible! We are working hard to learn ways to save money and your site is my #1 Resource! Thank you for all the guidance you give! I can’t wait until Part Three!

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:17:11 +0000

In response to Courtney's question about trading in, I've had good luck with: http://www.amazon.com/Video-Games-Trade-In/b?ie=UTF8&node=979418011 You can trade in video games for Amazon credit. They also have a DVD/Blueray trade in http://www.amazon.com/Movies-Tv-Trade-In/b?ie=UTF8&node=1265183011 http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/scg00387 You can trade in video games for SB credit http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-tradein

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:08:05 +0000

Thanks for the great post!
I tried cash for books today and see I can make about $7… and since it only took me the time to read your post and click a few things… I will easily take the $7 for 15 minutes of work!
I also love Mypoints, and have been doing it for over 6 years… I have managed to get a lot of gift cards, which come in handy for the holidays and teacher gifts!
You do an awesome job!

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:54:25 +0000

Hi Crystal! I’m so curious – how did you pay for the prenatal care and the hospital stay when your baby was born? My husband and I are both graduate students and we are looking forward to having children. But without health insurance, it seems financially impossible.
Thanks!

******************
Money Saving Mom here: I actually used a free-standing birth center and our student insurance covered the bulk of the costs. We ended up paying less than $800 out of pocket and God provided for that through a generous and unexpected gift from someone.

By: Tonya Eberly

Tonya Eberly — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:52:15 +0000

Love your post. You mentioned reading a lot of books on different money making ideas. Are there any in particular that you recommend reading?

By: Annie Korzen

Annie Korzen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:24:20 +0000

We are in show biz, which means we’re often out of work. My husband has a thriving business selling fine books on the Internet that he picks up at yard sales and thrift stores. He lists them on Exlibris and Abebooks. He does best with obscure non-fiction. I myself sell vintage and contemporary fashion on Ebay and to resale shops. I, too, find these treasures at garage sales and thrift stores.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:10:55 +0000

Thanks so much for the info on Cash4Books! I just rounded up some books that we would be willing to part with and found out they are worth $30. Cool!

Does anyone know of any reliable sites that buy used CD’s, DVD’s or video games?

Also wanted to mention that three survey companies I’ve had good luck with are Lightspeed Panel, Ipsos I-say and HCD Research.

By: Becky

Becky — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:02:50 +0000

Thank you so much for posting this. I love your blog and am so thankful to you for it. By the way did you husband go to Washburn Law School? My husband was a student there from 02-05…

By: Carrie@MoneySavingMethods.com

Carrie@MoneySavingMethods.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:49:59 +0000

Crystal,

Thank you so much for the mention. One of the others I recently have been working with has been Surveys.com.

I just received an $11 payment from them this week for two surveys I took. So, the payout was quite good. And, they send screeners quite often. I get them at least every day or every other.

I have been very impressed with this company, especially since I had been taking surveys for years but had never used them before. It might be a fun one for newbies to start with when learning the survey ropes.

By: Patty

Patty — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:25:07 +0000

Great post and so encouraging. Thanks. Also brings back the days where I was pregnant and sick as a dog at work. I wasn’t telling anyone I was pregnant for a while, but everyone knew since I was in the bathroom so much – oh how I would have loved my couch those 15 weeks, but was saving up time for an extended maternity leave. Wish I knew more about earning income like this a few years ago!