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Shared Oct 15, 2012 comment

This week’s menu

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This week’s menu

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Breakfasts

Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets, Cereal, Toast, Eggs, and/or Fruit

Lunches

Lunch at Subway
Snack-y lunch, Apple Peanut Butter Muffins
Mac & cheese, veggies, fruit
Cheese Quesadillas, oranges, carrot sticks
Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies, fruit, veggies
Leftovers x 2

Snacks

Fruit/Veggies
Cheese/Crackers
Apple Recipes
Hard-boiled eggs

Freezer Cooking

Apple Recipes
Healthful Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars

Dinners

Dinner with extended family
Sausage, steamed veggies, bread
Steak, baked sweet potatoes, steamed veggies, fruit
Salmon/Tilapia, mashed potatoes, steamed veggies,
Meatballs, steamed veggies, mashed potatoes
Chicken Noodle Soup, Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins, Homemade Wheat Thins, Cheese, Veggies/Fruit
Dinner out

What’s on your menu this week? Share details and/or your link to your menu plan in the comments.

Money Saving Mom
Shared Oct 15, 2012 comment

Lessons Learned From “Found” Money: Take Care of the Gifts Given To You

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Lessons Learned From “Found” Money: Take Care of the Gifts Given To You

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Guest post from Kelsie of Pink and Rick

My husband and I have modest salaries and we aren’t very financially savvy… but we knew we didn’t want to live paycheck to paycheck. So, after two years of marriage, living on one salary, and lots of sacrifice and effort, we were able to pay off all our debt except the house, fully fund our emergency fund, and buy a new-to-us car. As a reward, we took this past summer off from working toward financial goals!

As the summer ended, I started wondering, “Financially, what’s next?” Then, a thought came to me, “Pay off the house.”

It started as a whisper. I tried to ignore it. I tried to shove it away. I tried to stomp on it, but it kept coming back.

I talked to my husband about this goal, and he agreed to think about it. But immediately after we started talking about this big goal, I wanted to yell, “Wait. Nevermind. We can’t do this!”

It felt like too big of a goal. It felt impossible. Also, we’d spent the last two years living on one salary (we used the other salary to pay off debt), and I didn’t want to go back!

I felt defeated. Mentally, I gave up before we even started. I was sinking in self-doubt.

In the middle of my doubt, I decided to reorganize the house. I guess I wanted to take control of the inside of my house, even if I couldn’t conquer the mortgage. Plus, our house was a mess. Our closets were packed with stuff from our childhoods, teenage years, and college years. We couldn’t even use most of our storage!

I started in our bedroom closet and slowly combed through our house. We threw away tons of old stuff, gave away bags of clothes, and organized every cranny.

It took me two weeks, but you know what I found as I was cleaning? Gift cards from our wedding and college graduations. They were stuck in various “safe places!”

The saddest part was that I almost threw them away. I thought, “There’s nothing on them. They’re from years ago, so we must have spent them, right?”

I went online and started checking the balances. Some had a dollar or two, others had $20, and one had $100 on it! When I added up the total, we broke over $400! I was so excited!

Also, I was ashamed. Clearly, I hadn’t been taking care of the gifts we were given.

I came so close to just throwing them away. But, instead of feeling bad I decided to learn from the experience. I’m going to take better care of our resources. Plus, by taking care of what we’re given every day, we will be able to pay off our house even faster.

We decided to start living on one salary (again) in October!

I learned, once again, that God blesses. God blesses big.

Even in the middle of self-doubt or shame. I’m not perfect, but I can still be blessed. After finding these gift cards, I realize most blessings are like these gifts — hidden throughout the journey.

Kelsie is a new wife, new money manager, and a long-time MoneySavingMom.com reader. She blogs about her life, money, marriage, and crazy dogs at Pink and Rick. She’s just trying to be a little better (wife, daughter, sister, friend, employee…dog trainer) every day.

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Money Saving Mom
Shared Oct 14, 2012 comment

31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Online Surveys (Day 12)

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31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Online Surveys (Day 12)

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas

Welcome to October’s series on 31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas. In this series, I’m 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.

If you’ve found a great way to make extra cash before Christmas that doesn’t require an outlay of cash upfront, please email me your tip. I’d love to hear it and possibly share it during this series!

When my husband was in law school and money was extremely tight for us, I stumbled upon the idea of earning money by taking surveys. It sounded so simple, so I signed up with a bunch of different companies.

I had no idea what I was doing — or what to look for in a company — and I quickly found out that most of the online surveys are more work than they are worth. However, if you could use some extra cash and have extra time on your hands, you can make a nice little side stream of income by taking surveys.

You won’t get rich taking surveys and you’re probably not going to make anymore than $10 per hour, if that. But if you’re patient, persistent, and thorough, you will definitely earn some money — especially if you sign up with companies that are legitimate and have a good reputation in the online survey world.

Do Set Up a Separate Email Address For Surveys

When applying to survey companies, do not use your primary address — unless you don’t mind getting some extra emails in your inbox every day. When I was regularly taking surveys, I found that it was easier to set up a separate email address for all my survey companies. I could just log into this once per day and read through the emails/take the surveys versus having the survey opportunities continuously filling up my regular inbox.

Don’t Take Surveys That Only Enter You Into Sweepstakes

Unless you just love taking surveys, I highly discourage you from taking surveys that your only reward is being entered into a sweepstakes. You’d have a much higher chance of winning blog giveaways than a survey sweepstakes.

Don’t Get Discouraged If It’s Slow-Going At First

It takes a little while to learn what types of surveys you enjoy most and which ones are worth the effort. Don’t get discouraged if you end up spinning your wheels and not making a lot of progress in the beginning. Stick with it and you’ll get a much better grasp on where the best return on your investment of time is when it comes to surveys.

If you’re looking for legitimate survey companies to sign up with, here are some I recommend:

Pinecone Research: My personal favorite survey site. They pay $3 promptly for every survey completed.

Swagbucks: The best part of this site is how easy it is to cash out. Save up your points if you want, or redeem for a $1, $3 or $5 Amazon Gift Card right away! Get paid $0.50 to $50 per survey, depending on how long it takes you, plus a $3 bonus for signing up. Swagbucks will also pay you to watch videos, try products, shop online, and even search the web. Go here to sign up.

MySurvey.com: This is a survey company that many of my readers have used and recommended.

MyPoints: This is a site that rewards you points for online activity such as reading emails, taking surveys and signing up for offers. When I was participating in this, I mostly just read the emails and clicked on the links and slowly accumulated points. You won’t get rich quickly doing this, but you can earn enough points by reading emails to get free gift cards each year. We paid for our few and far between law school date nights mostly with gift cards I earned through MyPoints. Go here to sign up.

SurveySpot: This company pays up to $5 per survey and you can request payout when you have earned $5. So therefore, it’s not hard at all to earn enough to get a check. Go here to sign up.

CashCrate: Once you sign up, you can go to their “Daily Survey” tab and earn around $0.50 per survey you take. They usually offer 1-2 daily surveys. Go here to sign up.

iPoll: Pays in point rewards for every completed survey. You can cash these in for instant win opportunities, sweepstakes, or cash. There are also opportunities to do free product testing. Go here to sign up.

Toluna: When you sign up for Toluna, you will receive 500 points to welcome you to the site. When you have earned at least 60,000 points, you may redeem your points for a cash reward. Go here to sign up with Tulona.

Have you tried earning money by taking online surveys? Tell us about your experiences and any tips and tricks you’ve learned for maximizing the return on your investment of time.

(Note: The links in this post are my referral links. Read my disclosure policy here.)

Money Saving Mom
Shared Oct 13, 2012 comment

Why We Let Our Teenager Manage Our Budget

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Why We Let Our Teenager Manage Our Budget

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Guest post from Hope

My husband and I have been using (and sticking to) a written budget for our entire married life (24 years!) We have experienced the peace that comes from living debt-free — including our home — for many years.

We recently decided it was time to make finances and budgeting “real” for our 16-year-old son. So, we put him in charge of our family finances! That’s right. He took it over “lock, stock, and barrel!” and I think it’s been an experience that he will never forget.

If you’d like to get your teens more involved and aware of real-life finances, here are a few tips that helped us.

Give Them Credit

I admit, this has a dual meaning. We homeschool. So, it was natural for us to offer our son high school credit for his foray into the world of finances. But, I also mean, that I think we need to give our children credit for being mature enough to learn real world, life-long lessons by taking an in-depth look at our family’s money.

I did feel a bit sad that, somehow, I had taken away some of my son’s innocence by letting him know just how hard it can be to “make it” on one income. I wanted to be sure that he retained his feeling of security. We don’t want our children to worry that “Mom and Dad won’t have enough money”.

However, to my surprise, the opposite has occurred. He has seen, even more than before, the depth of our praise at seeing God meet our needs in amazing ways.

For instance, the budget for household items is essentially depleted for the year. Then, this week Kohl’s sent a $10 off voucher in the mail, allowing us to purchase four pillows on sale (with an additional 20% off coupon) for just over $2 out of pocket — for all four pillows! I think James was as excited as we were!

Give Them Tools

We began this process by enrolling our son in a free, six-week Biblical money course, which we attended with him. This gave him a lot of Biblically-based knowledge about money principles in a logical and sequential manner.

If you can’t find a seminar near you, check out Crown.org. You’ll find a lot of wonderful budgeting advice there along with charts, articles, and interactive tools.

I showed our son that if he began saving just $300 a month, at 5% interest, he could purchase a $120,000 home for cash at the end of 15 years. Then, we used the tools to see what a mortgage would cost on the same home at 5 percent interest for 15 years.

Give Them the Reins

Let them do it! After that six-week class, I opened up our finance books to our son. He can’t sign the checks, but when a bill comes in, he can tell me how to fill in the check (or make the transaction on-line) and enter the amount in the proper part of the ledger.

He enters all of our expenses into the ledger, keeps track of each category, makes a spread sheet at the end of each month showing what we spent in each category and what we have averaged thus far this year. He also makes recommendations on what changes we need to make in each category – if any.

Give Them a Goal

Our son’s final goal is to look at this year’s totals in each category and set up the family budget for next year. So we set January 1st as an end date.

A sense of completion is important and the end of the year always seems like a time to take a deep breath and say “thank you” to God for helping us and blessing us. So, January 1st, he’ll get his 1/2 a credit in “Consumer Economics”.

Then, he will make up our “end-of-the-year” log which displays our net worth, savings this year, what percentage of our income went to each category, a list of our current short, medium, and long-term goals, and write next year’s budget!

When we began this project, I knew I wanted our son to take the finance course for at least six months so he could see seasonal fluctuations  I also was fairly confident that something unexpected would happen within that time frame — so he would get to see the emergency fund at work.

It did! He accidentally hit the garage door while I was teaching him to park in the driveway. 🙂

He is now so aware of how much money it takes to make it from one month to the next – and he is very proactive in helping us stay on target. He is also genuinely grateful any time we are able to give him something extra — not a needed item — but just something to bless him because he is our son and we love him.

He now knows first-hand where that money came from and how hard it is to stretch. Money has become a reality to him!

Hope is the stay-at-home, homeschooling mother of four wonderful boys and wife to Larry for 24 years. She resides in Central Illinois where she enjoys leading worship at church, teaching history for her homeschool co-op, writing in her spare time, and speaking for local groups.

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31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas
Shared Oct 12, 2012 comment

31 Days to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Fiverr (Day 11)

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31 Days to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Fiverr (Day 11)

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas

Welcome to October’s series on 31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas. In this series, I’m 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.

If you’ve found a great way to make extra cash before Christmas that doesn’t require an outlay of cash upfront, please email me your tip. I’d love to hear it and possibly share it during this series!

Guest post from Lisa of The Frugal Batavian

Back in March, I found myself working at a job that I was not happy doing. I barely made enough income to cover my monthly bills.

What I really wanted to do was to go to college and receive an Associate’s Degree with the idea of achieving two goals: 1) to finally have a college degree and 2) to find a decent-paying job once I had my degree.

So I quit my job and decided I’d do everything in my power to reach my two goals. I knew it was a big risk to quit my job without an immediate replacement, but I was determined and believed that I could somehow find a way to make extra income online so I could go to college full-time.

Since I am a Veteran, I knew I could make a little amount of money each month from my Post 9/11 G.I. Bill (as a full-time student), but I still needed a job that could cover my expenses until I started college in May, as well as a way I could continue to make extra money part-time while in school.

Then suddenly, I remembered watching a news report about how people have been making a decent part-time or full-time income using a website called Fiverr. The basic idea behind Fiverr is that buyers pay $5 for services that a seller is providing.

Services can be anything from writing short blog posts for 300 words, posting a video review, or even drawing a picture. The possibilities on what services you can offer are endless. I figured it was the best place to start.

After about a week of experimenting with a few services to offer, I had made my first $100!

What is Fiverr?

Fiverr is a place for people to share things they’re willing to do for $5. Want to pay $5 to have a video recorded of a puppet singing “Happy Birthday” on your child’s birthday? They have that and more!

How does Fiverr work?

Fiverr is very easy to use. After signing up for an account with Fiverr, you will have the option to “create a gig” on what you’ll do to make $5. You can include instructions to the buyer, as well as a maximum number of days they should expect you to be completed with their work.

What’s great is that you have your own seller dashboard where you can review your revenues, sales, and view your due dates for gigs. And if at anytime you feel that you need a break, you can pause your gig so that you don’t receive any more orders until you activate it again. This helps give you time to catch up on your orders when you need to.

How much can you make from Fiverr?

How much you can make with Fiverr really depends on what your are offering, as well as how much time you put into it. It is totally possible to earn an extra $500 or more a month, and I say this from personal experience. Sellers earn a flat $4 commission when a buyer purchases their services, and payments are made through Paypal with a minimum payout of $4.

After some trial and error, here are a few of my tips to get started selling services on Fiverr:

Find Out What’s Selling or Offer Something Unique

One of the first things you should look at when considering to sell your services on Fiverr is to find out what services are selling and what is popular.

When I first looked started into using Fiverr, I noticed that writing articles was a popular trend that buyers were looking for. That is where I made most of my money at first.

If you also have a service you feel is unique and valuable, you can offer this as a service, too!

Make It Simple

You have to remember that you are paid less than $4 once Paypal takes their fee. With this in mind, you want to provide a service that does not take much of your time.

When I first offered my article-writing services, I decided to stand a part by offering article writing for 500 words since no one else was offering that service. I later realized I should have used a lower word count, since 500 words can take a while to write depending on the topic.

You want to realistically spend as little time on a task so you can take on more orders.

Give a Little More

If you’re offering a service that allows you to give them something extra, do it! This will create repeat customers, and a positive review.

Offer More Services

At a certain point, you can unlock more options on Fiverr where you can offer customers added “Extras” which help make you more money. So if you are offering to write a 300-word article for $5, an extra option you can choose to include is to have an article written up to 600 words an extra $5.

Connect with Clients Offline

After working with regular clients, they started contacting me to write for them off of Fiverr. For a seller, this means you make more money since Fiverr takes a commission.

Note: As a seller, you are not allowed to offer your offline information to the client.

Currently, I am in my second college semester aiming towards a degree in Polysomnographic Technology. I don’t need to use Fiverr to make money as much as I used to since it has helped me find clients to work with regularly offline. But I definitely recommend it as a great place to earn additional income when you need it.

Lisa is a 27-year-old Army Veteran turned freelance writer, blogger, and full-time college student. She writes about living frugally, budgeting, and more over at The Frugal Batavian.

Money Saving Mom
Shared Oct 12, 2012 comment

Frugal Photo Friday: Food and Fun

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Frugal Photo Friday: Food and Fun

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.


Welcome to Frugal Photo Friday! This month,  I am partnering with Rebekah from SimplyRebekah.com. Each Friday we are sharing pictures of simple ways that we save money. This week’s themes are food and fun.

It’s no secret that I love Aldi. Their produce prices are often the best around. And buying staple ingredients there on weeks when I don’t want to mess with coupons helps to keep my grocery budget low.

You know what I like best about Aldi? The store is so small and straight-forward. There aren’t two dozen choices of Italian salad dressing to choose from. There’s just one.

It simplifies shopping and saves me time and brain power. Plus, I love that I can run in and run out with my groceries — well, unless there’s a long line. But the checkers are typically very, very fast so a long line usually moves quickly.

Psst! They also have fantastic prices on floral bouquets.

Now is the time to buy pumpkins to cook and puree for winter baking. It’s usually much cheaper than buying pumpkin in a can. Plus, it’s a lot fresher — especially since pumpkins are on sale right now.

If baking a pumpkin seems like a lot of work, you might try the method I discovered last year to bake pumpkins whole in the oven. It was so simple and didn’t require a lot of elbow grease to cut the thing open before cooking, unlike every other method I’ve tried.

Or, if baking pumpkins whole scares you, here’s how to bake pumpkins in the crockpot.

Looking for some delicious pumpkin ideas? Check out all the pumpkin recipes I’ve posted recently. Or, check out this extensive list of over 30 pumpkin ideas on Keeper of the Home.

We don’t spend a lot of money on fun at our house. We make up our own fun.

Sure, it might be a little messy… like when Silas had a blast painting my nails this week. 🙂

I try to remind myself that messiness is the result of lots of creativity. And creativity is a good thing to encourage in kids, right? Therefore messes are good. Or at least that’s what I try to remind myself when I see things strewn around the house in the name of the latest idea the kids have come up with. 🙂

{Photos are of are experiment making Homemade Flubber.}

Head over to SimplyRebekah to see the savings that Rebekah is sharing today.

Now it is your turn to share the simple ways that you save. Share your link below or on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #FrugalPhotoFriday. All of the link-up details and themes for each week can be found here.



Money Saving Mom
Shared Oct 12, 2012 comment

How to Instill a Strong Work Ethic in Children From a Young Age

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How to Instill a Strong Work Ethic in Children From a Young Age

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I’m over on Keeper Of the Home this week talking about How to Instill a Strong Work Ethic in Children From a Young Age. Here’s a snippet from my post:

My parents wanted their children to leave home with three things: a deep love for God, integrity, and a strong work ethic. They were so motivated to teach us the value of hard work that they set a goal to move out to the country by the time we were in our early teens.

With much prayer and effort, their goal was realized. And boy did we learn how to work! I have fond and not-so-fond memories of lots of back-breaking work: gardening for hours on end, dragging hoses all over the acreage to water the new trees we had planted, and spending much of the day on Friday taking care of the seven acres of the land that were planted in grass.

Truth be told, I wasn’t always so thrilled at all the work they expected us to do. Sweating in the heat and developing sore muscles on a regular basis weren’t necessarily what I’d consider fun. But looking back, I’m so thankful for the character I developed through all those hours of laboring in the hot Kansas sun.

The lessons in diligence and perseverance have been invaluable to me as a wife, mom, and business owner today. Truly, I believe one of the greatest gifts my parents gave me was instilling in me a strong work ethic from an early age.

Read the full post.

By the way, in case you wonder what Silas is doing in the picture above: he’s helping me grind wheat in our grain mill. 🙂

Money Saving Mom
Shared Oct 11, 2012 comment

31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Become an Online Tutor (Day 10)

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31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Become an Online Tutor (Day 10)

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas

Welcome to October’s series on 31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas. In this series, I’m 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.

If you’ve found a great way to make extra cash before Christmas that doesn’t require an outlay of cash upfront, please email me your tip. I’d love to hear it and possibly share it during this series!

Guest post from Alaina of Telecommuting Mommies

Working as an online tutor is a great way to make extra cash in your free time, and it doesn’t take much to get started. Check out the different options available and you may be able to start earning in time for the holidays.

What Is an Online Tutor?

Local tutoring centers have been around for many years, offering a place for children of all ages to be tutored in a variety of subjects either after school or in the evening. Many families are now turning to a more flexible alternative for their children by using online tutors.

This has opened up another telecommuting option, especially for those with a background in education or tutoring. The position can include everything from helping a child with their homework to tutoring college-level subjects.

What Equipment and Experience is Required to Be an Online Tutor?

All of the online tutoring companies require you to own your own computer and have high-speed internet. A select few may have more specific computer requirements, including how much computer memory you must have available.

Experience required for the job varies greatly from company to company depending on what subjects and grades you will be tutoring. Companies may be looking for anything from having “strong knowledge” in a subject, all the way up to holding a PhD.

Most companies do require a college degree but it does not have to be in any specific subject. Some companies ask for prior teaching or tutoring experience.

I Have No Teaching Experience, Where Should I Start?

If tutoring online sounds interesting to you but you have no prior teaching or tutoring experience, evaluate what your experience is. Do you have a bachelor’s degree or even just a few years of college? That alone can make you eligible for some of the positions. For instance, for most subjects, Tutor.com requires that you have surpassed your second year in a college education, while other subjects it requires a college degree.

Do you have a special talent or an area that you excel in? For example, Kaplan hires tutors for all the major standardized tests like SAT, ACT, GRE, etc. They do not require a teaching degree or any teaching experience but you must have scored in the 90th percentile for the test that you would be applying to tutor for.

If you are fluent in another language, there are companies like Open English, eTeacher, or Verbal Planet that will hire you as an online language instructor. Some companies, like Limu, even hire tutors for different hobbies.

Teaching “practical” adult classes at Nimblemind is another way to tutor a subject you feel qualified in. Once you have tutoring experience at some of these companies then it will be easier for you to get hired with the others that do require tutoring experience.

How Many Hours a Week Do You Have to Work?

Some of these companies will hire you as an employee, but most consider you an independent contractor. Once you are hired, you would specify what hours you are available and how many hours a week you can work. Then, specific tutoring jobs would be assigned to you.

Other companies will simply verify your credentials and certify you before posting your contact information on their website in order to connect you with those looking for a tutor. In this case, you are technically running your own online tutoring business. Those in need of a tutor will contact you and it’s up to you to set up times and decide how many clients to take on at once.

You would essentially be self-employed, the website would just be more of a way to facilitate tutors and students finding one another. In the long run, this option probably has the potential to make more money but may also include more prep work as far as finding clients and marketing yourself.

How Much Will You Get Paid Per Hour?

Pay varies based on the level and subject you are tutoring. College-level classes are going to pay more than elementary level. Contractors with a PhD will make more than those with a bachelor’s degree.

Pay can range from $9 for an hour up to $30. Some sites let you set your own price and that may determine how many people contact you..

What Companies Are Hiring Online Tutors Right Now?

Revolution Prep is currently hiring tutors for SAT/ACT prep so if you scored really high on either of those tests you may qualify.

Connections Academy is hiring an elementary online tutor, requirements are a bachelors degree.

HomeworkHelp.com is hiring tutors and only requires a two year or four year college degree.

Eduwizards is hiring K-12 Math, Science and Reading Tutors. Bachelors degree required.

Tutor.com is hiring tutors who “Possess strong content knowledge in English, math, science, or social studies at the level you wish to tutor”

Aim4A and Brainfuse are also currently accepting applications for online tutors.

What Other Educational Based Work-At-Home Jobs Are Out There?

Besides tutoring online, there are other teaching jobs that can be done online. Several companies and colleges out there will hire online teachers for college-level classes if qualified. And did you know there are companies like Connections Academy, a virtual K-12 public school, that hire teachers for every subject (including P.E.) to work from home?

Also, remember all those standardized tests you had to take throughout school? The majority of the test gets graded by a computer but any written portions, such as the essays, have to be graded by a person… and that person can be you. Companies like Pearson and ETS Scoring hire people to score these online.

For several of the tests you need only a bachelor’s degree in any subject to qualify, for others you need a teaching degree. The scoring is done seasonally after the tests are given so it is not year-round work but it is a great flexible job that usually pays pretty well, usually between $15-$20 an hour.

Have you worked as an online tutor before? If so, tell us about your experiences!

Alaina shares her twelve years of work-from-home experience at her blog Telecommuting Mommies. She also opens up her personal life as a homeschooling, blogging, work at home Mom of four at The Maestro Mom. 

Money Saving Mom
Shared Oct 11, 2012 comment

How to earn up to $0.62 from Jingit per day

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How to earn up to $0.62 from Jingit per day

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Have you signed up for Jingit yet? If not, you definitely want to do so, especially if your budget is really tight.

It’s a simple way to earn a little money every day. And while it might not seem like much, every little bit adds up, right?

Did you know that you can re-watch videos on Jingit and get more credit for them? A commentor posted about this and I investigated it and, sure enough, it works.

Once you’ve signed up for Jingit and watched all the videos in your account, you can then come back every day and copy and paste the following links into your browser to earn $0.62 every day.

Earn $0.25 from JELL-O Mix Ins (can be watched once per day)

Earn $0.25 from JELL-O 4 Packs (can be watched once per day)

https://www.jingit.com/hosted/widget?partnerId=11&displayAdId=1stday_300x250_Ggt4&parentWindowUri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2FCheerios-Toasted-Whole-Grain-Oat-Cereal-18-oz%2F10311410# (can be watched once per day)

Yes, $0.62 isn’t much. But these little bits of income add up to a nice side stream of income and gift cards over time. And this small stream of income can be a huge help to a tight budget!

Read all about Jingit and how it works here.

(Note: The link in this post is my referral link. Read my disclosure policy here.)

OVER-SPENDING EVERY SINGLE MONTH?Grab these FREE Budgeting Sheets!

Click here to download!
Money Saving Mom
Shared Oct 10, 2012 comment

31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Make Money Selling Your Used Books (Day 9)

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31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Make Money Selling Your Used Books (Day 9)

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas

Welcome to October’s series on 31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas. In this series, I’m 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.

If you’ve found a great way to make extra cash before Christmas that doesn’t require an outlay of cash upfront, please email me your tip. I’d love to hear it and possibly share it during this series!

I wrote about making money with Amazon’s Trade-In Program earlier. That’s a great way to earn Amazon credit for used books, DVDs, CDs, and electronics. However, if you have lots of used books you’d like to sell, I’d recommend taking the time to check out how much you’d get from a few different sites.

Often, the price you can get for your books will vary between the different sites. So it’s worth it to spend a little time checking out multiple sites to see which one will pay you the most for your books!

Here are four recommended sites to check into if you have used books to sell:

1. Cash4Books

Type in the ISBN number of your books on Cash4Books.net and you’ll instantly be given a quote for how much they’ll pay you for your books. If you chose to accept their offer, you’ll be able to print out a postage-paid label. Then, just ship your books to them.

Once they receive your books, you’ll receive payment via Paypal or check. Payment is processed within three business days of your books being received and processed by Cash4Books.

2. MyBookBuyer

MyBookBuyer is very similar to Cash4Books. However, they specialize in buying back textbooks and you’ll often get a higher rate for textbooks from them than you’d get from Cash4Books.net.

Again, just type in the ISBN number, accept the quote (if you like it!), and print the pre-paid shipping label. Once they receive the books, they’ll pay you via check or Paypal within three business days of receiving your books.

Here’s what Krista said:

I saw the Cash4books site on your extra earning page and decided to check them out. I didn’t have much luck, so I decided to see if there were other places out there.

I found MyBookBuyer and started checking books with them. I am getting ready to send in 17 books which, if all are accepted, will net me $68. On the other site, I was only going to make $21. So, if you’re considering selling books, it pays to check multiple sites! -Krista

3. Amazon’s Trade-In Program

I wrote more extensively about this here. The gist of it is to search for your product on the Amazon Trade-In Store to see how much Amazon will pay you for a Trade In. If the price seems fair, click through to verify the condition, title, and price.

Follow the steps to print the postage-paid shipping label. You can choose to go with free UPS shipping (you’ll need to drop your package off at the nearest UPS location) or shipping via the U.S. Postal Service (you can give your package to your mail carrier or drop it off at the nearest post office).

Ship out the item in a timely manner. Once it has been received by Amazon, they will check it to verify that it is eligible and in the condition you promised. Items considered to be not acceptable will be returned. Return shipping is free, but you will not receive any Amazon.com Gift Card amount for the returned items.

After your item has been received and approved by Amazon.com, they will issue your Amazon credit. You can use this credit to purchase anything on Amazon.com.

4. Half.com

Half.com offers an Instant Sale option which is similar to Cash4Books and MyBookBuyer in that you type in the ISBN number, get a quote, accept the quote, print a label, ship your books, and get paid within a few days. However, you’ll likely make more money if you list your books individually and wait for a buyer to purchase them.

I’ve done this successfully many times and made good money — especially when Jesse was in law school and we’d sell his textbooks after he was finished with them! The downside to selling this way is that you have to hang onto your books and wait for someone to purchase them at the price you are asking.

It could take weeks or even months for a buyer to come along. And when they do, you have to package up the book, pay for shipping, ship the book within 72 hours, and wait to be paid. It’s not as convenient as the Instant Sale option is, but you will likely make quite a bit more money if you’re willing to have more patience and go to the effort of shipping a book every time an order is placed.

 Have you sold used books before? If so, I’d love to hear about your experiences — and any tips or suggestions you have for the rest of us!

Money Saving Mom
Shared Oct 10, 2012 comment

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Silas and Kathrynne helped me make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies tonight. We had a blast making them together — and enjoying taste-testing the batter before baking the cookies.

These cookies were very easy to make. I substituted raw sugar for both the brown and regular sugar. And I subbed melted butter for the oil.

Oh and I didn’t see that I was supposed to mix the baking soda in the milk in time. I’d already mixed the baking soda into the dry ingredients, so I just went with that and left the milk out. I’m assuming the purpose of mixing it in is to prevent it from clumping and making a nice bitter bite in a cookie? But truly, that’s just a guess. Anyone know a better reason?

The final result was pretty good. I wouldn’t say they were fantastic. And they were not anywhere near as good as our family’s favorite Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies.

But they weren’t bad. Just different… I think most of that was because the pumpkin makes them more cake-y and softer than a typical cookie.

Money Saving Mom
Shared Oct 10, 2012 comment

Reader tip: I’ve earned over $60 this week through MTurk.com

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Reader tip: I’ve earned over $60 this week through MTurk.com

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Here’s a great tip from reader, Nancy:

Hi–I read your blog and have an idea for one of your 31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash for Christmas series. I do work on mturk.com (are you familiar with it? It’s run by Amazon.com).

There are lots of surveys on there and most of them tell you upfront if you qualify. I’ve earned over $60 this week doing surveys on there. You can spend the money you earn right on Amazon.com, or have it transferred to a bank account.

I wrote more about how it works and some tips I’ve learned on my blog post here. -Nancy

Money Saving Mom
Shared Oct 10, 2012 comment

Addicted to Adrenaline

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Addicted to Adrenaline

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I’m honored to be guest posting today on a site I love — (in)courage. If you’ve not subscribed to that site, I highly recommend it! It’s one of my favorite sites on the internet.

Anyway, I’m over there sharing candidly about being Addicted to Adrenaline. Here’s a snippet of my post:

This past summer, we went to Arkansas for our annual vacation at the lake with all of my extended family. As is customary, the guys went and rented jet skis one afternoon.

Being the generous-hearted person I am (read: the person who would rather read a book in the cool cabin than risk life and limb doing water sports. Ahem.), I offered to stay back at the cabin with our children while my husband went out to have fun on the jet ski.

About two hours later, my sister knocked on the cabin door and said that my mom was going to watch our children so I could go down and enjoy the jet ski with my husband. While I would certainly have rather stayed put, I knew my husband would love for me to go careening around on the jet ski with him. So I took our children over to my parent’s cabin to spend time with Grandma and I headed down to the boat dock where I was told I was supposed to meet up with my husband.

There weren’t any jet skis in sight, but I figured they’d be back soon. So I sat down on the dock and waited. And waited. And waited.

Read the full post over on (in)courage.

31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas
Shared Oct 9, 2012 comment

31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Become a Mystery Shopper (Day 8)

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31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Become a Mystery Shopper (Day 8)

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas

Welcome to October’s series on 31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas. In this series, I’m 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.

If you’ve found a great way to make extra cash before Christmas that doesn’t require an outlay of cash upfront, please email me your tip. I’d love to hear it and possibly share it during this series!

You’ve probably seen the signs or ads promise you can make hundreds of dollars every month by shopping and going out to eat. And you’ve probably though it was too good to be true.

Well, those advertisements are likely a little over-the-top and just designed to get you to sign up for some overpriced list which you can find yourself with a little searching online. But mystery shopping is a very legitimate source of income and in many areas, the jobs are plentiful and the pay is decent.

Reader DB Landes says:

I do mystery shopping to get free groceries/take out and earn a bit of extra cash. You won’t get rich quick but by doing shopping I already do I get around $10-$25 extra every month by working for Market Force, plus I get reimbursed for what I eat/buy. -DB

What Skills Do You Need to Have to Become a Mystery Shopper?

A good mystery shopper is someone who is attentive to detail and thorough in everything they do. In addition, it is very important that you keep accurate records and follow instructions carefully. Many shops will require you to look for very specific things, keep track of the time, and ask specific questions — all without seeming suspicious or giving yourself away as a mystery shopper.

How Do You Get Started Working as a Mystery Shopper?

When I first began mystery shopping, I signed up for all of the mystery shopping companies I could find. I opened up a separate email account which was dedicated to mystery shopping emails and used that when I signed up. It took me hours to sign up with all of the companies and it was quite time-consuming, but the effort paid off as I ended up landing dozens of great mystery shopping jobs over the next two years.

Reader Cassie emailed in and suggested:

If your readers are interested in mystery shopping, they should check out the MSPA’s website (Mystery Shopper Provider’s Association) which acts as sort of a BBB for mystery shopping. The MSPA has a list of legitimate mystery shopping companies here that require no money out of pocket to shop for them.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You should never pay to sign up with a mystery shopping company. They may ask for a fairly extensive application process to make sure that you are thorough, detailed, and qualified. They will ask for your social security number and other personal information (always make sure the site is secure and the company is legit before giving out personal information).

But a legitimate mystery shopping company should never ask for money upfront. If they do, run far, far away and don’t turn back. They are a scam company and you do not want to get mixed up with the likes of them!

Erin emailed me about her experiences with mystery shopping:

I heard about the idea of “mystery shopping” a few years ago, when my husband was in between coming home from a tour in Afghanistan, finding a temporary job, and returning to Active Duty Military. We needed a little extra cash, and this seemed to work well with my schedule.

At that time, I only had my son, but I’ve continued to do these shops with my second child. There are some very simple shops that pay $5 and $10, all the way up to more complex shops that pay out up to $200!

I also have taken on jobs that have compensated me for meals that my family and I have eaten. I get paid very quickly and I have never had any problems with any of the sites I’ve used. A few of them are:

Mystery Shoppers Provider Association
ICCDS
Beyond Hello
Kern Scheduling
National Shopping Service
Trend Source

Again, these are all real businesses. I have done jobs for every single one of these companies and have been paid for all of my work. -Erin

How Do You Find Out About Job Opportunities?

If you’ll thoroughly fill out all the applications and have patience, you’ll likely begin to see quite a number of job opportunities sent to you. Many times, these jobs are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so you’ll want to check your email for job openings a few times each day and be quick to respond to any which you are interested in. Some companies also have online job listings that you can apply for.

It typically takes a few months to build up a rapport with the companies. Don’t be discouraged if you get passed over for some of the better job opportunities in the beginning.

If you are patient and prove yourself, you’ll likely start to be offered better jobs. In fact, sometimes the company will start offering the job directly to you versus opening it up to others since they know you have done a great job in the past!

What Types of Jobs Are Available?

When I was mystery shopping, I did fast food shops, casual dining, high-end restaurants, gas stations, beauty supply stores, pet stores, and even a bowling alley, to name a few.

I found restaurant shops to be my favorite as they usually not only reimbursed for a meal for myself and my husband, but they also usually paid at least an extra $10 for the work involved. It was very worth it to me to get a nice free dinner date with my husband plus some cash, all for about 30 minutes of extra work!

How Much Will You Get Paid?

Most mystery shopping jobs pay between $7-$15 and include some sort of reimbursement as well. This is usually for an average of an hour’s worth of work, give or take. Once you’ve established yourself with a company, you may be offered jobs that pay $20 to $25 per hour, or more. These jobs are typically not offered to newbies.

Mystery shopping is a lot of work — especially in the beginning when you are first learning the ropes! If you stick with it, though, it can be a fun and rewarding experience that can also help supplement your income — or pay for some of your Christmas expenses!

Have you been a mystery shopper before? If so, I’d love to hear your tips and advice for someone who is considering dipping their toes into the world of mystery shopping.