SimpleOrganizedLiving.com shows you how to make shaker peg towel hooks for less than $5.
Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
Summer Bucket List
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Shared Oct 17, 2012
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31 Ways to Earn Cash Before Christmas: Have an Autumn Food Stand (Day 15)
31 Ways to Earn Cash Before Christmas: Have an Autumn Food Stand (Day 15)
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 Davonne of DavonneParks.com
We’ve all seen the classic lemonade stand, but something a little more unique is an Autumn Food Stand, complete with hot chocolate, cider, and freshly baked goodies. My daughters and I have had these together and we’ve learned a lot of ways to make it successful.
1. Use what you have.
There’s no need to spend money on tables, signs, and food. Just look around your house and see what you can “borrow” for the stand.
We put our for-sale items in baskets or on dinner plates, and we’ll cover our table with a party tablecloth that’s left over from a previous event. The items we sell vary depending on what we have on hand.
A brownie mix in the pantry means we’ll sell fresh baked brownies. Frozen or refrigerated cookie dough can be popped into the oven as well.
2. Keep it simple.
We’ve made our own hot chocolate mix and baked brownies from scratch for previous food stands and while our customers loved that, it didn’t increase sales, so the extra prep time involved actually cut our profit-per-hour in half.
3. Make your stand cute.
Having a colored tablecloth and a sign hanging in the front of the stand are good. Balloons or little pumpkins on or around the table are great. Coming up with a cute name for the stand is a fun touch.
4. Clearly list prices on the sign.
People in our area won’t pay more than $1 per item. Items priced at $0.50 or less sell even better.
5. Enlist your children’s help.
My daughters sell much more than I can. When they step away from the table, people drive right by even if I’m holding my daughters’ spots for them.
We attract sales when they’re at the table and ready to sell. I keep my kids in their seats by bringing coloring books and crayons outside, offering complimentary cookies when they start to look tired, and singing songs with them when the sales are slow.
If you don’t have children, borrow a friend’s child, make an afternoon of it, and share the profits!
6. Location, location… location?
We live on a quiet street, and I decided that we could easily double our profits if we had a busier location to sell. I found a spot, received permission, lugged our gear over, and…. watched the cars whiz by (in a 35mph zone).
We ended up making less per hour than we make when we set our stand up in front of our house.
7. Pay attention to the weather.
Hot chocolate and hot tea don’t sell well when it’s 85 degrees outside. Nothing sells when it’s raining.
8. Choose good hours.
On weekdays, we’ve found that we make the most money from 4 to 6 p.m. Sales on Saturdays tend to trickle in all day.
9. Be sanitary.
This probably goes without saying, but keep your kitchen and hands clean while making the food. Wrap everything in advance by placing individual items in plastic wrap or placing two goodies into each snack bag.
Keep a bottle of hand sanitizer on the food stand table, and let the customers see you wash your hands before touching food or drinks.
10. Provide large servings.
We make more sales when we sell large cups of lemonade or hot chocolate for $0.50 than we do when we sell small cups for $0.25. We also sell cookies better when we put two in a baggie for $0.50 than when we wrap them individually for a quarter.
11. Offer a “deal”.
When we offer half priced refills on drinks, most people will drink two cups. We always offer a buy-four-get-one (or two!) free deal. People generally take us up on that offer, and then leave a tip.
Additional information:
We don’t advertise for these sales. We just set up when we’re ready and let the cars stop when they see us.
I can plan on making about $10 per hour when we have a food stand. We spend about an hour of prep time, two hours actually hosting the stand, and just a few minutes putting things away when we’re finished. After we subtract supply costs, we usually end up with $30 or so in profit.
Note from Crystal: Some areas have strict laws concerning selling food. Before setting up a food stand, please check local ordinances to make sure it is allowed in your area.
Have you ever had a food stand before? If so, I’d love to hear your tips, ideas, and suggestions.
Davonne Parks is an author who is passionate about striving to make the most of her time, using her talents for good, and inspiring others to do the same. She blogs at DavonneParks.com and she just released her first eBook, 28 Days to Timeliness: Tips and Confessions from a Semi-Reformed Late Person.
Apple Peanut Butter Muffins
When I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. It sounded like a creative twist on traditional apple muffins and I mostly just wanted to experiment with it out of curiosity.
The end result? Definitely yummy. Different, but yummy. The peanut butter chips add a fun surprise and jive well with the apple flavors.
Are these the best muffins I’ve ever tasted? No, but they are good and hearty and perfect for fall!
Here’s my rendition of the recipe (because, oh yes, you know I tweaked it! :))…
Apple Peanut Butter Muffins
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I think whole-wheat flour would work well, I was just short on time so I didn’t have a chance to grind any fresh!)
- 1 cup raw sugar
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 cups apples (peeled, cored, and finely chopped)
- 3/4 cup apple juice
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup peanut butter chips (I snuck a few mini chocolate chips into mine, too, but I think the PB chips are better.)
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon together. Stir in apples. Mix apple juice and oil together. Whisk in egg and stir well.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Spoon about 2 Tablespoons batter into greased or paper lined muffin cups. Sprinkle with peanut butter chips. Spoon more batter on top.
Bake at 400 degrees for 17-20 minutes until done.
Makes 12 muffins. Recipe adapted from The Pajama Chef
Health Food Store Shopping Trip
I stopped by the health food store earlier this week and was excited to pick up a few deals:
Health Food Store Shopping Trip
5 boxes of Organic Valley butter — marked down to $1.99 each
Lifeway Kefir marked down to $0.99
Ezekiel Tortillas — $2.89
3 loaves of bread — marked down to $0.99 per loaf
Pears priced at $0.99/lb. — $3.08 total
Raw cheese from a local farm — $6.59Total with tax: $28.40
I was SO excited about the butter deal! I was almost out and now I’m stocked up for awhile!
Shared Oct 17, 2012
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Ask the readers: How do we afford regular date nights on a budget?
Ask the readers: How do we afford regular date nights on a budget?
Today’s question is from Amanda:
My husband recently came to me and explained that he wanted us to have a weekly date night instead of our usual once-a-month date. I would love to go on a date with him every week but there is just no way financially that we can swing it every single week. (This would also include a sitter.) We were guessing that it would cost about $250 a month to have a date night each week with a sitter. That is more than we spend on groceries. If we do that we won’t have money to put in savings. Help! -Amanda
Do you have a question you’d like to ask Money Saving Mom® readers? Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
Shared Oct 16, 2012
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31 Days to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Write for Revenue-Sharing Sites (Day 14)
31 Days to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Write for Revenue-Sharing Sites (Day 14)
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
Freelance writing may sound like it’s only for the pros. However, on many writing sites that pay by revenue-sharing, anyone can share their knowledge and get paid for it. Get started now and you may have enough time to earn some cash before the holidays.
What Are Revenue Sharing Writing Sites?
Revenue-sharing sites are websites that pay freelance writers based on page views or page clicks. They are often referred to as revenue-sharing sites because the amount they pay is based on the amount of money they are earning from traffic to your articles. They pay you a portion of that money, thus, sharing their revenue with you.
What Are the Differences Between These Writing Sites Compared to Others?
The internet is full of freelance writing opportunities, but unless you are a recent journalism or English major, most of them are going to want some kind of experience — even if it is just publishing on your own blog.
Almost all regular freelance writing companies will want writing samples submitted showing where you have previously been published. For this reason, inexperienced writers will find these assignments or jobs hard to come by.
Revenue-sharing sites, for the most part, do not require prior experience. Some do not even have an application process, just sign up and start writing.
The pay is obviously another big difference between revenue-sharing sites and others. These companies can afford to take on inexperienced writers because they are not paying up front. This means they can take a chance on writers who will prove their worth by bringing in the traffic.
What Are the Advantages of Working With These Types of Sites?
- No waiting period to getting started, and no long application process. Some sites allow you to sign up and start immediately.
- Flexibility to work as much or as little as you want. No deadlines or minimum number of articles to stay on with the company.
- Earnings of an article over time have the possibility of being greater. For most sites, your article remains there indefinitely. This means that an article could continue to earn money for many years.
- Experience publishing articles on reputable websites that can then be used as writing samples to apply for freelance writing jobs that pay up front. Writing for the revenue sharing sites that offer some sort of editing process before your article is published can also be a great learning experience. Pay close attention to what changes were made and why.
- Freedom to write about the topics you are interested in. Many writing sites will assign you certain topics or titles, while most revenue sharing sites give you the freedom of creating your own topics and titles based on your knowledge and background.
- Ability to use your own affiliate links, meaning that you can earn money by linking to affiliate besides the money you are earning for the article.
What are the Disadvantages of Writing for These Sites?
- No guaranteed income; putting in time and energy without knowing what the outcome will be. Money from your articles may take a while to start coming in.
- Minimum cash out amounts that many sites have mean it may take a while to see your first check. This all depends on how quickly you can start driving traffic to your articles and how much traffic it adds up to.
- Lack of editing process means not having a second pair of eyes on an article — however, most sites do allow you to edit your own articles if you spot an error after hitting that publish button. Brush up on your grammar using sites like Grammar Girl before getting started.
- Quantity of articles that you need to write to start earning a decent income. Depending on expectations for income, you’ll need to write a lot! Those who make a lot of money from revenue sharing sites often make that money from the sheer volume of articles they write.
- Marketing yourself and your articles by learning how to write with SEO and keywords in mind, as well as promoting them on social networks is part of the process that some consider a disadvantage, but this will help immensely in getting traffic.
What are the Best Revenue Sharing Sites to Get Started With?
- Squidoo — Sign up and start writing immediately. Write about any topic, and you can include affiliate links.
- Hubpages — No application process but you need to sign up for your own Google Adsense ID and set it up. Affiliate links allowed.
- Helium — No experience required. Some articles include a small upfront payment. Participation is required in rating the other articles on the site in order to continue earning on your own articles.
- Yahoo! Contributor’s Network — Offers small upfront payments and performance payments.
- ExpertsColumn — Sign up and get started, low minimum payout of $5.
- Firehow — How-to website, no experience required.
- Suite101 — Includes a proofreading process, but they are currently in the middle of a relaunch, so check back soon. Previously they did require an application process, not sure what the new process will be.
Have you worked for revenue sharing sites 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.
Do-It-Yourself: How to Texturize Your Walls
Guest post from Jenny of Suscipio
When our family moved into our current home almost eight years ago, it was in excellent condition, just very outdated. The house was built in 1984 when brown was apparently very popular. It had brown carpet, brown paneling, brown built-in book shelves… you get the picture.
One of the last rooms to be updated in our home was the dining room. Although it is one of the most used rooms in our home and one of the central rooms, it was one of the last I got around to. Why? Because I hate to remove wallpaper and it had wallpaper.
I did not want to remove the old wallpaper and then smooth the walls and make the necessary repairs to cover any and all blemishes. One day while visiting my neighbor, I asked about her textured walls in her kitchen and dinning room. She explained how simple it easy it was to create beautifully texturized walls.
Materials you will need:
- bucket of joint compound
- putty knife to apply the compound
- paint (if you’re removing wallpaper)
- glaze
- rag or old t-shirt
I started by removing the old wallpaper using some solution I bought at the home improvement store. After the walls dried, I painted them a khaki color.
Next, I started applying the compound. Depending on how you want your walls to look — prominently raised edges of compound or more of a smeared on look — depends on how much and with what pressure you apply the compound. I started on a wall that would be behind an armoire to practice.
Scoop out some compound using your putty knife and scrape it on the wall. You may want large semi circle motions or just swipes here and there. I chose swipes with some pressure, but not too much. The more pressure you apply, the deeper the compound grooves will be.
Per my experience, I would not make a very raised and grooved wall in a place where people spend some down time, like by a telephone or the bathroom toilet. The raised ridges of compound will be picked off by bored fingers.
I let the compound dry overnight, and the next day, I mixed together a 2- to-1 ratio of glaze. For our dinning room I used 2 parts Mocha to 1 part clear.
Using a balled-up old t-shirt, I dipped it in the glaze, wiped off the excess and rubbed it over the wall, paying special attention to areas I wanted to look a little darker. The glaze gets darker in the ridges and swipe grooves than on the rest of the wall.
I did this same technique in a laundry room bathroom that had pretty rough looking wall after wallpaper removal. I painted on a can of grayish taupe I found on the ‘oops!’ shelf at my home improvement store, applied the compound and used a metallic like glaze.
Both projects were pretty quick, very easy, and turned out great.
Jenny seriously likes ice water, Lawrence Welk, marching bands, and Nutella on a spoon. She saves her loves for God, her husband of 20 years, and their 7 children — whom she homeschools. She blogs at Suscipio.
Shared Oct 16, 2012
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Sign up to be an affiliate for my ebook on self-discipline (launching next Tuesday!)
Sign up to be an affiliate for my ebook on self-discipline (launching next Tuesday!)
After a long hiatus from offering ebooks, I’m excited to be jumping back on the bandwagon, with the help of my fantastic team! We have a number of new ebooks in the works and we’re launching a brand-new ebook next week on October 23, 2012.
21 Days to a More Disciplined Life is based upon my hugely popular blog series with that same name. We took the blog series, rewrote it, added a lot of new material, created some helpful printables to it, and packaged it all up into a beautiful ebook that will be releasing next Tuesday.
I’ll have more details on how you can purchase the ebook next Tuesday — along with a three-day $0.99 sale that you won’t want to miss!
Best of all, I have an affiliate program for those of you who’d like to promote the ebook and sale and earn a 50% commission for doing so! If you are interested in becoming an affiliate and sharing about this special 3-day sale next week, here’s how to sign up:
::Go to my brand-new site and read about 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life to see if the ebook would be a good fit for you to promote to your blog readers or on your site or email list.
::If so, go to JvZoo and sign up as an affiliate.
::Log into your JvZoo account and go to my affiliate page and click on the green button that says “Request Affiliate Approval”. That’s it! You’re good to go for our launch week next week! I’ll be in touch with some affiliate graphics and more details to help you successfully promote the ebook.
::Plan your blog posts and emails to go out early on my launch date next Tuesday (October 23, 2012)! Make sure to insert your unique affiliate link (click on the green “Get Links” button) into your posts so that you get credit for each sale.
Thanks for joining me on this new adventure! I think you’ll really be blessed and inspired by the ebook — and I can’t wait to send lots of affiliate payments out to you all!
Educational Freebie: Fall-Themed Playdough Activities
Living Montessori Now has a number of Fall-Themed Playdough Activity ideas well worth checking out. You might consider making this homemade Pumpkin Pie Playdough to go along with these activities!
10 goals for this week
After completely bombing my week the week before, I was excited to have a really focused and productive week this past week — maybe getting more sleep had something to do with that?! 🙂 I think this may be the first time ever (and probably the only time!) where I get to check off pretty much every single goal on my list — yay!
Last week’s goals:
Family/Marriage/Mothering Goals
1. Read 3 chapters of The Stolen Necklace aloud to Kathrynne. Read 3 chapters of Still More Stories From Grandma’s Attic aloud to Kaitlynn. Read 10 picture books to Silas. Read at least 3 chapters of A Way Through the Sea aloud to the kids.
2. Write a love note to Jesse.Personal Goals
3. Finish reading Whose Voice the Waters Heard,
Greater, Fully Alive, The Promise of a Mother’s Prayers, and Now, Discover Your Strengths.
4. Finish listening to Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.
5. Exercise at least five times. Start Couch to 10 K.
6. Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night(Well, in all honesty, I averaged 7 hours — some nights it was a little less, some nights more!)Homemaking Goals
7. Finish 25 more rows of the scarf I’m working on knitting.
8. Make at least two new recipes.
9. Host a baby shower.(Over 60 people came and I’m so thankful for all the women from church who pitched in and helped with set-up, decorating, and food. It certainly was a team effort!)Business Goals
10. Write three posts for other sites.
Family/Marriage/Mothering Goals
1. Read 3 chapters of The Stolen Necklace aloud to Kathrynne. Finish Still More Stories From Grandma’s Attic aloud to Kaitlynn. Read 10 picture books to Silas. Read at least 3 chapters of A Way Through the Sea aloud to the kids.
2. Write a love note to Jesse.
Personal Goals
3. Finish reading Whose Voice the Waters Heard, Desperate, Anything, and Reunion.
4. Start listening to Made to Stick.
5. Do 5 days’ worth of the Couch to 10 K program.
6. Run in a 5K race on Saturday — finally! 🙂
7. Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night (I figured out some of my tiredness is a result of just plain not getting enough sleep — so I’m aiming to do what I can to resolve that issue this week!)
Homemaking Goals
8. Finish 25 more rows of the scarf I’m working on knitting.
9. Make at least two new recipes.
Business Goals
10. Finish tweaking the workshop & powerpoint for our joint session at Allume next week.
How did you do on last week’s goals? What are your goals for this week? I’d love to have you share your progress on last week’s goals and your goals for this coming week in the comments. Of, if you’ve blogged about it, leave your direct link below. Let’s cheer each other on to live purposeful and productive lives!
You can download a free customizable weekly goal-planning sheet here.
OVER-SPENDING EVERY SINGLE MONTH?Grab these FREE Budgeting Sheets!
Click here to download!
This week’s menu
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 2Snacks
Fruit/Veggies
Cheese/Crackers
Apple Recipes
Hard-boiled eggsFreezer Cooking
Apple Recipes
Healthful Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin BarsDinners
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.
Shared Oct 15, 2012
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Lessons Learned From “Found” Money: Take Care of the Gifts Given To You
Lessons Learned From “Found” Money: Take Care of the Gifts Given To You
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.
11 Handmade Gift Ideas for Kids
Shared Oct 14, 2012
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31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Online Surveys (Day 12)
31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas: Online Surveys (Day 12)
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.)
Why We Let Our Teenager Manage Our Budget
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.