Wohoo! Free Money from Telling People What You Think!

If you enjoy telling people what you think, here's a great outlet. I found a site called Associated Content where you can write an article, and they will pay you!

I just had my first one published- on what else? free activities for families. It paid $5 more dollars toward our debt snowball this month, an easy and fun way to make some extra cash.

In addition to CashCrate, which has earned me $6 so far this month. Not bad for 2 days... With CashCrate, you also get paid on your referral's surveys. Not a bad deal.



Totals for June:
CashCrate $5.75
Associated content $5
Secret Shopping $78.75
Dryer loads saved (63 cents per load) : 2

Solar Dryer Can Save on Electricity

We at Penny Pinching central are looking for drastic ways to cut the bills this month, really trying to think outside the box. So yesterday, I decided to start using the solar dryer this summer, instead of my electric dryer.

Solar Dryer? -- okay really just a fancy way to say I dried outside using a clothesline. A typical dryer uses 4.7 kWh per load, and on most days I do one load. (Some days two.) With taxes, our electric company (here in Texas, electricity isn't cheap...) charges with taxes 13.299 cents per kWh.

So for 1 load I save about 63 cents, about $18- 19 bucks a month. Probably more with the extra loads. Is it worth it? You bet! It took me about 5 minutes to hang the clothes up on hangers and another 5 to bring them in. But I saved time on folding, because most of them could be moved directly to the closet.

I don't have an officially line yet-- I just hung the hangers on my patio set. But if this works out- maybe I'll string a line inside my fence.

A lot of HOA have rule against clotheslines, so be sure to check your neighborhood first. Most though, just say you can't have laundry hanging in full view. So if you have a fence, that's easy enough to work around.

As promised, a list of Secret Shopping Companies

Secret shopping is a great way to stretch the family budget. (Rubber dollar, remember??) You won't get rich secret shopping-- but it can definitely make you feel less constrained, especially on the food/entertainment budget.

Here's a list of companies which I personally know to be reputable. Meaning, they pay, they don't sell your information and you do not need to pay them to be a shopper. Enjoy!

Service Evaluation (LOVE this company! Great stores!)
SecretShopper
Volition (okay, not an actual Secret Shopping company, but a great resource)
A Closer Look
A Top Shop
Amusement Advantage
Ardent Services
Bare Associate International

There are many, many more-- and I'll try to update this list with more of them. One thing to consider is that most tend to concentrate in one Geographical area. And the more reliable, well written results you give for one company, the more jobs they will offer.

Earning Extra Money by Secret Shopping

I’ve been doing secret shopping now for a couple of years, and I wanted to put a post in here, in case anyone else wants to try it. I can’t tell you who I’ve shopped, because each company makes you sign an agreement saying you won’t. It’s part of the deal.

I will tell you we’ve eaten a lot of great free dinners, seen free movies, and gotten free groceries. It’s not a ton of money, and it won’t replace a full-time income (darn!) but—lots of them you can bring kids in tow, which is a definite plus. And the key to the plan here is that EVERY PENNY COUNTS.

Do not pay for this.

Legitimate secret shopping companies do not charge a fee to sign up. I consider companies that charge a fee for a list of these companies to be a scam. Since the companies tend to be pretty localized on where they offer shops, it may take some digging to find the ones that work well in your area. Start by checking internet bill boards with a search for Secret shopping companies. Here’s a tip, use keywords like “best paying secret shopping company Texas” or “quickest secret shopping company Dallas” rather than just “Secret shopping”. This will bring up more bulleting board entries, and that’s where you’ll find a lot of information (good and Bad) on legitimate companies. One thing I’ve found that really helps is to get certified ($15) through MSPA. They are not a secret shopping company, but rather a professional organization for secret shoppers. After getting certified through them, I noticed the number of shops I received went up, and the dollar amount went up also.

I’ve gotten shops that pay/give free merchandise everywhere from $5 - $105 dollars. Last month, I ate free fast food 3 times, fed my family barbeque at a sit-down restaurant for free, watched 4 free movie rentals, and got $10 in free groceries at a store I shop weekly anyway. Not a bad way to stretch the budget.

Where to start?

Start at the Mystery Shopping Providers Association website. www.mspa.org Take the Silver Certification test (currently costs $15.00). Please note that this fee is NOT a “membership fee” – but a test you take to certify you have the skills to do a decent job. You will get a certificate number, which many of the legitimate shopping companies ask for on their sign up page. There is also a list of legitimate companies, offering jobs. You will need to sign up with each company separately, over the Internet.

Then you’ll want to bookmark on your computer a list of companies that are legitimate, and check their website daily. Most will send out email reminders when jobs are posted, but I find by the time the jobs are posted, most of the great assignments are gone. Check this list daily. Different companies post on different days, so if you can get the day they post (look for a pattern) then check it several times that day.

Be flexible. Many of the better jobs I’ve gotten were emergency calls, last minute fill-ins. These usually pay better, because of need.

Downsides?

Many companies (but not all) require a purchase, and reimbursement is slow. Mystery shopping is slow paying work. It’s taken some companies as long as 2 months to get me a check, even though you enter your results the same day. So don’t blow your grocery money. Many are switching to Paypal payments, and that has sped up the process. Also, once you get started, you can use your Paypal card instead of a credit card to fund shops requiring a credit card. (Some do.) I started out by taking only the jobs with no purchase requirement, or that used a membership I already had (at the time, things like movie rentals and tanning). In fact, I still keep my movie membership and use it only when I have shops that pay for the rental.

Another downside is that many of them ask you to pay cash. This was never an issue for me, as we are trying to live cash-based anyway. But it does take some planning ahead.

Have you Tried Survey Savvy?

Making a few bucks, a few minutes at a time..
I like to do some surverys on line for a little extra cash. I find that in 5 or 10 minutes a night, I can make a buck or two after the kiddos go to bed. I'm doing these for a couple of different companies, and we've gotten a $15-20 check every other week or so. Not bad for spare minutes.

So I recently started with Survey Savvy, and I've been HAPPILY surprized by how many paying surveys you get pretty quickly.

Want to check it out? Here's how...
Click on the link below to sign up:
https://www.surveysavvy.com/?id=3011326&action=join

Then..fill out the portrait's on the site so they can match you with the available surveys. New ones get posted every once in a while, so it doesn't hurt to check back. They have tiny cups of coffee to tell you how long they take (5 minutes a cup) but I found they went much faster than this. Might be slower if you are on dial up.

You can make money from referrals, too. Most of the surveys I've taken are pretty quick.

DID YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE of KROGER's cereal DEAL TODAY?
3 boxes of cereal (General Mills) and a Gallon of milk for $5. That's a serious deal if you have little people in the house. This is what Jim Cramer would call a "M'on Back"... which I did-- a second time before the deal ended, since we go through 2 gallons a week.

Rubber Dollar Starts Today

Why Rubber Dollar ?

We have to stretch them as far as possible, as if they were rubber. It's all about creative financing.

A little about me. I have two small children (still hoping for a 3rd) and.. I've got debt. This is the part I'm hoping to change. So today we started making SERIOUS changes. And, started the blog.

I will post ideas, recipies, and help I've gotten along the way- along with nifty ideas to make money without going back to work full-time.

(in interest of full disclosure I have a part-time job I call "the mall job")

We're also trying to redo and outdated house on the SUPER CHEAP. So I'll include things we've discovered along that journey, too.

Mary Kates