31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Jingit (Day 1)
Welcome to October’s series on 31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas. In this series, I’ll be highlighting simple and legitimate ways you can earn extra cash in the next three months for those of you who could use a little extra cash to help you pay for Christmas — or just for your living expenses if you’re in a tight spot right now.
Many of these will be things we’ve discussed here at one time or another, but I thought it would be good to have them all in one complete series. Plus, even if you’ve been reading here for a few years, it’s easy to forget posts that were published months ago!
Idea #1: Earn Money By Watching Videos on Jingit
Jingit is a newer income-earning program that pays you to watch ads online. You can also earn money for downloading the mobile app, scanning items at Walmart, and answering a couple of questions.
How Do You Sign Up?
To sign up, just go here and click on “sign up now.” You’ll need to create an account, input your phone number, and type in the verification number they text to you.
How Do You Earn Cash?
Once you’re signed up, you can begin watching videos or doing store check-ins. You should be offered at least a few videos you can watch right away. It looks like they add a few new videos each week.
Plus, if you have a smartphone, you can download the Jingit app and get paid to scan grocery UPC codes while you’re in store.
How Do You Get Paid?
To get paid, you just register for a Jingit Visa Debit Card (costs $3 from your Jingit balance to request it) and then add cash for your online Jingit balance to the Visa card.
How Much Can You Make?
There is an earning limit of $15 per week. When you initially join, you’ll have a lower earning limit but this can be raised to $15 by inviting friends to join.
It looks like most people are only making $3-$5 per week with it, but that’s only by spending a few minutes of time each day — or less. So it’s not a bad hourly wage!
Candi commented on my post about Jingit last week and said:
I have tried it and found that it is really very easy to make a couple of bucks. They videos you watch are super short, so it really doesn’t take too much time. I have also done the “check in” feature which has you scan in items Walmart and answer a couple of questions and you get money instantly! Fairly simple, but I have had it not scan a couple of items. I will only scan items in store if I need to be at Walmart anyway, you are only going to make a buck or two at a time so it is in no way worth the trip to the store for that. -Candi
(Note: The link in this post is my referral link. Read my disclosure policy here.)
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71 Comments
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Sommer says:
We use an app called Viggle. It rewards you with points for watching tv shows that you can redeem for gift cards.
I also take advantage of the many consignment sales that my area has. I consign things my kids no longer wear or play with. I can use my credit to shop or get a check at the end of that particular sale. Recently I bought my daughter 2 Hanna Andersson dresses that still had tags on them for $4.00 each! They are now in my Christmas gift bin. It’s very surprising the amount of new things people consign it really helps the Christmas budget.
Another great way to save is by jumping on the deals Saveology offers on gift cards. My kids, my husband and I all have email address so I was able to take advantage of the great deal they had on gift cards last month – iTunes $25 for $12.50 and build a bear fir the same. Each child will have a gift card in their stocking for half the cost! -
Ashli says:
Thank you so much for this series!! This is a real blessing to me, trying to save save save and surprise my husband with a big gift this year! Enjoying it already!
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Brandy Wassmer says:
When you put on your mobile number and they send you a pin; are they going to start charging something to your phone monthly? Just asking cause that is the case most times when they ask for your number to send a pin.
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Ilyssa says:
Thanks so much for this series! I’m excited to get into it! I joined Jingit tonight and earned 50 cents! If I do that once a week until Christmas, I’ll have an extra $5 to spend from this avenue alone! That takes care of a Secret Santa gift or stocking stuffer for someone! Every little bit helps!
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Mike says:
I actually signed up for Jingit last week and got to watch 3 videos or something and made 38 cents. I just checked it again just now and I still have no more videos. How the heck are peopel getting anywhere near $10/week? I’m getting like $0.50/week… heh heh.
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Jingit and Walmart just ended a big campaign. There are reports that a new earning campaign will be starting soon. Just keep an eye on it…
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A Peculiar Treasure says:
Yes, the big campaign that just ended was with Boxtops and I earned most of my $50 that way and I earned well over 100 boxtops for our homeschool group!
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Same here Mike I think i made 51 cents the day that i got it and no new videos ; (
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You can do some of the videos twice. For example, right now you can still do the Elmer’s video once a day (.12) and the Honey Maid Video twice per day (.20 each). I save the links and use them again each day until they are no longer active.
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I’m excited to follow this series! Are you linking up your 31 days with all the people over at “Nesting Place”?
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Suzy says:
I love Jingit! I was able to score one of their $50 check in’s that the sponsored recently – and I’ve been earning between $2-6 a week just by watching videos from my phone and scanning items at Wal-Mart. It takes some time – but I’ve earned about $75 since signing up in June. Definitely worth the time!!
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chantel says:
I consign all my kids old clothing, toys, etc. at a huge local consignment sale. It is held 2X per year. My husband and I garage sale all summer, buying mostly baby furniture such as pack and plays, bouncers, jumperoos, bumbos, etc and then take them all to the sale. We usually make enough profit to pay for all our Christmas gifts and little extras throughout the year. We laugh that Saturdays mornings are our “date nights” ’cause we both love hitting the sales. We also sell a bunch of stuff on Craigslist throughout the year.
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Jessica says:
But what about the others who are garage sale shopping and need that stuff for their own use, then cannot find it? That was me this summer. I needed to replace our worn out stroller with a new to us one for our soon to arrive baby, but all the gear would be gone even by the first 5 minutes of the sale 🙁
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Erin says:
Or earlier! Our yard sale started at 8, and people were coming at 7! And wanting “deals”–are you kidding me? Early birds get marked up 50 percent! 🙂 Sorry you had no luck.
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Yikes! I even went to some big consignment sales and got there at the start of the sale, only to have hordes of people nearly trample me down in their attempts to grab all the gear. I ended up creating a single item registry at BRU to get a $10 giftcard and 15% off coupon that I used to buy a new stroller. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but my 2yo couldn’t fit in our old one, which wore out and had holes in the canvas fabric and I didn’t feel safe putting him into it. And we’ll need one for the new baby anyhow.
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Jessica says:
Odd, I tried to sell 2 strollers at a yard sale this year and no one even bought them.. or the peg pergo high chair.
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Liz says:
This requires a mobile phone. I know we may be the last people who don’t have one, but it can’t seem to verify I am a real person without it. It won’t even let me finish registering.
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Wendy says:
That was my question—I don’t have a cell phone because I can’t afford one. Looks like we can’t benefit from this 🙁
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Andrea says:
Thanks for sharing this. I have a very basic prepaid cellphone that’s only for emergencies. I don’t want to give out my number, plus it can’t scan things anyway.
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You don’t have to scan things…thats just an extra way to earn money. My Mom also has the very basic prepaid phone. I helped her join over a month ago. They only sent her the verification text to join and she hasn’t gotten anymore. Just in case you are wanting to try it out. She has about $10 on her card without doing scans.
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Vickie says:
In October I start cleaning out my kids rooms and getting rid of toys and clothes that no longer fit and aren’t played with and start selling the ones in good condition on ebay and craigslist.
I also use Swagbucks and redeem them for Amazon gift cards.
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Hmm, you might try again. I just tried and the links are working correctly for me.
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Just read through all their info as I was excited about it. 2 big differences from the information that was posted to what is on their website. 1. It is a $3 charge to get the VISA card so you can’t get the card until you have $3 in your acct. and 2. There is an earning limit of only $5/week. To increase that, you must get friends to join. Each friend earns you a .25 increase so it will take 40 friends to increase your earning limit to $15. Decided not to join.
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Hmm, they must have just changed how much the card cost as it was only $2. Thanks for letting me know so I can update the info.
And I didn’t ask any friends to join and I had a $10 earning limit, with the opportunity to increase that to $15 if I invited friends to join. So that’s what I was basing my info off of. Did it show you that you could only earn $5 on your tab at the top?
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Rae says:
I just signed up a couple of weeks ago and I can earn up to $10/ week even though their FAQ say $5. I also got my card for $2, and that is consistent with their FAQs.
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I’ve been a member since January and it used to be a $5 limit – they recently changed it and revamped a lot of things. They probably just haven’t changed it on their FAQ page yet. A great way to know about new ads is to follow them on Facebook!
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Katie says:
I signed up, but so far it’s not working. Every time I log in, it brings up a huge black square in the middle of the screen. Either something is supposed to appear there, or I’m doing something wrong.
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Mindy Acosta says:
is anyone else having problems with the phone app. I downloaded it fine but it won’t let me log in. Like it’s frozen or something.
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Dawn Levian says:
BUT they charge you $10 to get a visa gift card to get paid! BIG Negative!!!
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Hmm, where did you read that? I think it’s only a one-time fee of $3 to get the card shipped to you. After that, you just load the money onto the card.
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Do you have a link for that? I’ve searched high and low and am not seeing anything about $10 — and everyone I’ve heard from has only paid $2 or $3 for the card (I heard they just raised the rate to $3). Let me know where you’re seeing that, because it certainly wouldn’t be as good of a deal — and I want to make sure I’m not promoting something incorrectly.
Thanks so much!
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Christy says:
I signed up back in May. The fee to get the card was very recently raised from $2 to 3. The earning per week starts at $10, and then referrals can get you up to $15. There are no other fee associated with the card unless you lose it and it needs replaced, or you want to cancel the card and have a paper check sent to you. I have had no issues with it since I started, and have earned about $40. I found that I didn’t have any videos to watch for months, but then I started checking their Facebook page and was able to access direct links to videos. The last promotion that just ended was wonderful, earning $$ for myself along with BoxTops for my kiddos school!
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Shannon says:
I can’t get an actual link as it comes up under adobe flash player but if you click on “Learn More” under “Get a Jingit Visa Debit Card”, at the top it will have a tab that says “Advantages and Fees” and that’s where the Fee Schedule is located. They seem to be tied into US Bank?
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Ah, I just figured out what you were talking about — that’s if you are enrolling in the US Bank thing so that you could actually withdraw cash (as far as I’m reading it). You don’t need to do that, though. It’s just $3 to apply for the debit card and then that’s the only fee you’ll ever have deducted as you can just load your money onto your card for free from then on.
I hope that helps!
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Great! I always get nervous when I see a “fee schedule” listed like that. Thank you so much for the follow-up Crystal I really appreciate it!
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Actually, if your account is inactive for 90 days then the 91st day a $2 fee will be deducted then and each month afterwards that there is no activity. (This is found under the Fee schedule.) I thought I was going to love Jingit but now I’m not so certain. Still trying to decide what I think.
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Karla says:
I just signed up I got a $10 a limit per week. And I just earned .22. pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.
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J Dowty says:
Thank you so much, my family and I are getting ready to move and have used all our $ so far for a home that will have more yard for the children and our animals. So Christmas will be minimal to say the least. So I appreciate any help I can get. Look forward to all the information. God Bless.
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Rebecca says:
Thanks Crystal! How do you get your own referral link — I see where you can pin, tweet or facebook it — but I want to copy and paste a link to some friends? Thanks!
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Lynn says:
I have heard there is a fee – around $4 – if you do not use the debit card for a certain period of time – I heard 90 days. So $4 fee for 90 day inactivity period on the debit card, does anyone know if this is correct? I certainly could use whatever was on the card, but that would stop being able to “save” it up for say one big event like a birthday or Christmas, so I was just curious.
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Kim says:
I signed up about a month ago and received the card for $2 and a $10 limit per week. I earned $5 right away and sent off for the Visa Card. Then it slowed down to nothing. That’s when I emailed them and asked, “What’s up?!” This is the response I got:
Thank you for sending in your email. Jingit is currently in beta. Beta is a time of development that Jingit and companies like us publicly test our products. Jingit is not able to test for every user setup, computer, and mobile device. We are still adding new, and testing the current features. There will be times that are slower and times that you max out your earnings for the week.While we are in in this time, you will see a limited amount of ads, and in most cases, not be able to reach your weekly earn limit. You can currently earn more than one way with Jingit. We have videos you can watch online or through the mobile application on Jingit.com. There are also videos and surveys on Walmart.com as well. If you have a supported mobile device, we offer in store check in’s that you can earn from by scanning a bar code of the product.
I have pasted some links to the Walmart.com ads at the bottom. You will have to use a computer in most cases to access the earn opportunities on Walmart.com because of the browser requirements.
We are hard at work bringing the new features and brands to you. Things will be different when we are out of beta. Thank you for your patience as we continue to grow.
The quickest way to earn is with a smart phone and I don’t have one. However, I did follow the links and in a very short time received .53. I was able to watch Smores twice. I will stick with it because I never expected to earn very much per week but even at $5 per week that is a tank of gas a month I did not have to pay for!! Thank you for this series, I anxiously await new ideas.
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Thanks for posting the response from Jingit and the links. Both worked and I was again able to earn from them. I was in Wal-mart yesterday and completely forgot to check in.
On the debate of 2 vs. 3 to get the card. The morning this issue of 31 days came out it was $2 to get the card. The next day I signed up and when I returned on day 3 it was updated to $3. So there was an increase. Still a win in my book.
Thanks again!
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This is really cool! Thanks for sharing this. My husband and I are trying to earn more money, to get gift cards and such for Christmas, this is a great way to do that!
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Christie says:
I just signed up for this and was reading the fine print afterwards. Be aware that to get your visa card you must provide your social security number and you are essentially signing up for an account with US Bank. Also there is a $2 inactivity fee if there is no activity for 90 days (deposits count as activity though).
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Ashley says:
I just had a question….with all of these ways to make extra cash. Is the cash that you make reported to the IRS for tax purposes? I know that with an app that I have on my phone for checking into places you must provide your social and what not for the IRS.
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Christina Palmer says:
The smore’s ad seems to reset about every 2 hrs…if it tells you to check back clear your cache and usually if it has been 2 hrs you can view it again:)The Elmer’s one resets daily and some people have gotten the the Funny or Die video (the $1.00 one) to reset but personally it hasn’t worked for me. I have been able to max out my account at $10.25 for the last 3 weeks. Also I do not have a smart phone just viewing ads on my computer. My boyfriend has been able to at $10 for the last 2 weeks. (We tested it with out with my account first. I love it…free $$$. It is def worth it and works!!!! Thanks:)
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Kelly says:
I don’t have a cell phone, I guess I can’t apply, don’t know if I would anyhow, they charge you to get their texts.
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There are now 2 new Jello ads each paying $.20 cents each on the regular site. Jingit.com 🙂
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Julie says:
Bummer that it requires text messaging. We don’t use that service. So many good deals require smart phones or texting to get them these days.
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Claudia says:
I just tried to register for Jingit and got a message saying they are no longer taking new people. Maybe they will again soon.
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