Money Saving Mom®

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 Anna of Real Ways to Earn Money Online

If you are interested in earning some extra cash from home, you might consider getting involved with website usability testing. This type of work typically involves the use of a microphone and/or a webcam depending on the company you do it for.

Companies are willing to pay good money to have their websites tested by people like you and me to better understand what improvements could be made.

The wonderful thing about usability testing, besides the fact you can do it remotely from home, is that the pay is usually very generous for the time spent. Most usability tests take no more than 15 to 20 minutes to complete and you will typically be paid anywhere from $8 to $14 per test. The rate of course will vary depending on the company. Most usability testing sites pay within a few days or sooner after each test is completed.

Can you depend on usability testing to pay all of your bills? The short answer is no. Most of the tests will come to you via email and are on a first come, first serve basis — so you have to be quick to grab the tests before someone else does. This is why testing websites is usually no more than extra money for most people.

If testing websites sounds intriguing to you, here is a list of several companies that are often recruiting for testers:

TryMyUI – This company pays $10 per test completed with each test taking around 10 minutes to do.

User Testing – You can earn $10 per test at User Testing, paid via Paypal.

Userlytics – Userlytics will pay you $10 per test. For this site you will need both a webcam and microphone.

What Users Do – This company pays $8 per test, but they are are open worldwide (many of these companies are only open to the US).

YouEye – YouEye pays $12 per test paid via Paypal. You’ll need both a webcam and a microphone to complete the tests.

Even though the work is on a first come, first serve basis, your chances of continually earning extra money through website testing will increase if you are registered with more than one company.

The more companies you’re involved with, the more invitations you should receive!

Anna researches various online money-earning opportunities and work at home jobs. Her findings are published via her website, Real Ways to Earn Money Online.

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 two 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 by Debby from Nutrition Concepts

A while back, I realized that many pet owners wanted at-home care for their pets instead of boarding them when they were on vacation or just gone at work all day long. And since I’m a huge animal lover, I started a pet sitting business in my community about 3 years ago — and it turned into a great way to make extra money!

I’m a dog owner and lover, so I mostly focused on catering to dog owners, but I also have a few cat owners as clients now. I give my clients the option of bringing their pet(s) to me or having me come into their home one to three times per day.

3 Things To Consider Before Setting Up a Pet-Sitting Business

1. Setting Rates

• In deciding how I would set my rates, I surveyed what local boarding facilities were charging. (I looked at Petsmart, Petshotel, and a few other local kennels/boarding facilities).
• Based on their rates, I decided on the following: $25 a day for one dog and $35 a day for two dogs (3 visits a day), $10 for a single visit and $15 a day for cats (single visit).

2. Creating Business Materials

• I made my own Pet Sitting Business Cards using Avery business card stock. It cost me about $10 to buy the business card stock but you could also make up your own using regular 8 ½ x 11″ paper or card stock and cut them up to business card size.
• I created a Pet Sitting Information Sheet to keep track of all of the information I need while caring for my clients’ pet. This makes it easy to know exactly how the client wants their pet fed, walked, etc.

3. Advertising

• We have a community/HOA website that I advertised on at first, but all of my clients now come from word-of-mouth referrals.
• I also keep business cards in my purse or pocket to hand out to people I meet when I’m out and about and also when I’m out walking my dog in the morning and evening.

Prospective Client Playdate

When I have a new/prospective client who wants their dog to stay at my house, I have them come over for a play date and complete the Pet Information Sheet. I’ve learned to ask good questions during the play date visit to find out what the animal’s behaviors and habits are really like. As with all relationships, communication and being clear about expectations will make it a good experience for both parties.

Keys to Success

The key to success in this business (and many other businesses) is great customer service – I regularly stay in contact with my clients to let them know how their pet is doing, and I send notes to new clients to thank them for their business.

Another key is to find clients as close to your home as possible so you don’t have to spend a lot of gas money driving to home visits.

Pet sitting is a great way to make a nice extra income. Plus, if you’re an animal lover, it’s also a lot of fun!

Debby is an ex-corporate executive turned small business owner and nutrition educator who has a passion for life and helping others. She writes about raising healthy children and eating healthfully on a budget at her site, Nutrition Concepts. You can also find her at her Facebook Page, Nutrition Concepts, Inc.

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 Lindsey of Faithful Homemaking

When I was trying to earn money to buy a DSLR camera, I came up with the idea of hosting a “home preschool” once a week so my friends could get a break from their kids. I feel that most of the moms I know are over-worked and under-paid and could use a morning off!

This option has a dual-purpose of earning some extra cash and blessing your friends at the same time. An added bonus is that you don’t have to leave your kids or your own home to do it!

I chose Friday mornings as the mornings I’d offer Mom’s Morning Out to other moms. This is what worked best for the friends I was marketing my services to. I just committed to do it for four weeks, since I was only aiming to earn enough for a short-term goal of buying a DSLR camera.

Fridays may work for you, or, with the holidays coming, there are other times that would be prime options for a kid’s group. Such as offering to:

• Watch children on Black Friday so their moms can shop?
• Watch children the day or two before Thanksgiving Day while many moms are cooking up a storm?
• Host a Christmas-ornament-making party for kids on a Saturday in December so parents can wrap gifts at home?
• Offer to care for several kids every other Friday night so all your friends can go out for Date Night with their spouse?

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in trying, here are some things you’ll want to decide upfront:

How many children will you accept?

First, decide how many kids you can handle without going crazy. My limit was 8.

If you want to partner with another mom or two and invite more kids, go for it! I typed up a flier explaining to my friends what I would be doing and said that only the first 8 kids to sign up for each session could come.

Some kids were able to come to all 4 playgroups and some were only able to come to 1 or 2.

How long will each session last?

Decide on a time limit that works for your schedule. I recommend between 2 and 4 hours for a Mom’s Morning Out.

If you are doing a special event, like watching a bunch of kids on Black Friday, it could be an all-day thing; just don’t wear yourself out!

What ages will you accept?

You can choose to offer your services to kids of all ages but it won’t be as successful if you have babies in the mix. If the kids are similar ages it will be easier to get them interested in the games and activities you have planned.

I catered my playgroup sessions towards preschoolers.

What will you do?

I chose four themes, one for each Friday, to make up a month’s worth of Mom’s Mornings Out. Some theme ideas that are always a big hit with the kids are: dinosaurs, baking, race cars, princesses, nature, books/reading, the solar system, cowboys and cowgirls, helping the needy, etc.

If you are doing one in the pre-Christmas season you may want to do a different Christmas craft with the kids each time. During one play session, I had the kids help me package hats and gloves for a shelter and make Christmas cards for the homeless.

Once you have your theme idea, begin to build on it. Choose a healthy and inexpensive snack that fits your theme. Find books at the library on the topic. Find a Bible lesson or character lesson that would go well with your theme. Plan a game or two.

It’s very important to plan ahead so you have lots of fun things to occupy the little ones. In addition, give the kids plenty of free-play time as well where they can play with blocks, legos, dress-ups, dolls, cars and one another.

What will you charge?

First of all, it’s probably best to go with a suggested donation instead of a fee, due to different laws regarding daycare regulations and childcare licensing. Bartering is a great way to go, too!

Do your friends have a skill that you need? Maybe one friend could take your Christmas photos for you, one could cut your hair, one could crochet some hats for you to give as gifts, or one could bake you some holiday goodies which you can share with your neighbors.

If you’d prefer getting money, ask around to see what the local daycares and preschools are charging per child per hour. Adjust your suggested donation for doing playgroups depending on what the parents can afford. Remember to add in the cost of craft supplies and snacks, too.

I did my Mom’s Morning Out playgroup for just one month (four Fridays total) and was able to earn around $150 towards my camera for about 15 hours of work (charging a fairly low rate to bless my friends). My kids and their friends had a lot of fun and my friends got a little time to themselves!

If one of my friends offered this service to me, I would definitely sign up at least one of my children for this!

Lindsey blogs at Faithful Homemaking. She loves planning theme birthday parties for her two girls and two boys that have included: ballerinas, tea parties, teddy bear picnics, cowboys, cowgirls, a wet n’ wild water party, monster trucks, motorcycles, and ponies.

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 two 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 Carrie of CarrieWillard.com

For the past five years, I’ve been earning part-time money doing focus groups and testing and giving my opinions on products for market research firms.

These are not the same as doing online surveys. They usually involve traveling to a location in your area to participate. Sometimes, the study takes place over the phone.

Participating in market research is a fun way to earn some extra cash — especially for a stay at home mom, student, or a retired person with a flexible schedule. Other than gas to drive to the research facility, there is no cost to be a respondent.

What Are Market Research and Focus Groups?

When a company wants to change an existing product or launch a new one, they need people to test and try that product to get an idea of how it will perform in the marketplace.

These companies hire market research firms to gather groups of people in various demographics so they can compile this information from their target market.

How Do You Find Legitimate Market Research Companies?

The company I’ve done the most work for is Delve. They have offices in several states.

You can search for other similar companies in your area with a Google search. I found the two companies I work with by searching “market research respondent database”. GreenBook.org has quite a few recommend companies to choose from.

Remember to use good common sense when searching for a research company to work with. The number one rule is: don’t pay any money to join a database. Legitimate Market Research companies will never ask you to pay them any money to join. In addition, don’t give private information such as your social security number out to anyone.

What Is the Process For Getting Jobs With Market Research Companies?

To start working for a market research firm, you’ll first need to fill out an online profile. Then, if you’re accepted, a screener will call you when a study becomes available that fits your demographics. The screener will ask you questions to determine whether you’re a good fit for the project.

Please note: Companies typically don’t want you to do more than one study for the same type of product in a 3-6 month period. Before accepting you for a particular job, a screener will ask you questions that may disqualify you for a particular study.

How Much Can You Earn?

The amount of money you can earn depends on how many companies you sign up with. Compensation is given to you immediately when the study is completed, and it is in the form of a check or a prepaid debit card.

The studies are fun and pay quite well for the time involved. For instance, once I got paid $35 just to taste and give my opinions on a bakery product. It took all of five minutes!

I have listened to music and shared my thoughts on radio stations. I’ve been given free baby diapers and personal care products in addition to compensation for my time.

My sons were even selected to do a study once and each of them earned $150 in about 1 ½ hours! They were thrilled about that, of course. 🙂

In addition to the in-house focus groups that you can do with other people, you will sometimes take home product and try it out over a period of days. A couple of times I’ve earned $100-$150 for a few minutes of paperwork each day. This doesn’t include the value of the product — things like beauty products or baby necessities or food.

Carrie is a writer, wife and homeschooling mom of 7 and lover of good food and great books. Visit her online at CarrieWillard.com.