Hi everyone! Guess where I just came back from? Ireland! It was such an amazing trip! It took us 16 months to save enough money in our vacation account, but all that scrimping and saving was totally worth it! I’ll be sharing pictures soon…
The only downside was that we went a little over on our entertainment budget (about $300), so I’m looking for some extra ways to make money this month to pay it off. I’m sure you can relate…
If you need a little help paying off credit card debt or putting a little extra in savings, we’ve found a list of the 12 Best Ways to Make Extra Money on The Penny Hoarder. There are 12 of them, so you can either do all of them this month, or split them up throughout the year (one a month). Hope they help!
Posted by: The Penny Hoarder
- Get Paid to Get in Better Shape
Let’s face – every year we all make the same New Year’s resolution to get in better shape. Well, this year you’ll have a little extra motivation if you’re getting paid for it. We’re fans of both HealthyWage and DietBet, two sites that will allow you to place a wager and earn cash when you successfully lose weight.
And if you’re already in great shape, another great idea is to start a boot camp at your local park a couple of nights week. Start with just a few friends – these camps tend to grow pretty organically once people see a group of people working out. Most boot camps trainers can earn $100/hour or more.
- Earn Extra Money by Listening to the Radio, Reading Emails, etc.
There are a number of websites that will pay you to listen to the radio, read advertiser’s emails and take surveys. I’ve tried about a million of them, but there are only a few of them that I would recommend. Inbox Dollars is one of those companies.
It’s free to join Inbox Dollars and best of all, they give you $5 just for signing up. They’ll even pay you up to $120/year just to listen to their radio station.
Inbox Dollars just requires that you accumulate $30 in earnings before you can “cash-out” and they pay you by sending a check.
Some sample offers include one that asks you to sign up for a email newsletter from AMF Bowling. That pays 50 cents and takes about 15 seconds. Another offer asks you to sign up for a free account at Turbotax.com to earn $3.50. These are simple and there are nearly a hundred of them to choose from. If you are interested in giving Inbox dollars a try, visit the sign-up page here to get started (open to every country).
- Share Your Info with Google
There are a number of companies, including Google, that will pay you to install their app on your cell phone. And they’ll pay you for every month you keep them installed.
The apps collect data from your cell phone and help companies better understand web and mobile usage better — such as what times of day people browse, how long they stay on websites and use apps, and what types of sites and apps are popular (or not).
Here are my favorites (install all of them and earn $400/year or more):
– Smart Panel – This can be downloaded for free on any smartphone. Once you’ve qualified and downloaded the app, they will give you $5. If you keep it installed for at least two weeks, you’ll earn another $10. And then for every month that you keep the Smart App installed, you’ll get another $5.
- Nielsen Mobile Panel – If you have an iPhone, the Nielsen company will pay you $50/year to download and keep their app on your cell phone.
– Google Screenwise Panel - Google will give you $8 seven days after you sign up and you’ll get an additional $2 every week after that. The “cash” rewards come in the form of a gift card (you can pick between Walmart, Papa Johns, Barnes & Noble, and a bunch of others…) You must install this one on Chrome, Internet Explorer or Firefox. Signup for Screenwise here.
– MobileExpressions – this one can only be downloaded on iPads. After you’ve installed it for 1 week, you get to play an instant rewards game for a prize (everyone wins something). I won a $25 gift card to Amazon, but some of the other prizes include iPads & Samsung TVs.
- Open a 2nd Bank Account
The folks over at Nationwide will give you $200 just to open a checking account. You don’t have to get rid of your current account either; consider this one a useful place to save money for your emergency fund, vacation, new car, etc.
And the Nationwide checking account is pretty awesome. Their interest rate is 3x higher than what most banks will give you, plus you can use any ATM in the world for free (6x a month). Here’s the promo link.
You’ll need to deposit $50 to get started and use the offer code 03110473 (you can withdraw your fifty bucks later)
To get the $200 bonus, you’ll need to set up an automatic monthly direct deposit of at least $200 into your E-Checking account. Your monthly direct deposit of $200 must be received within 60 days of opening the account. The account must remain open for at least 90 days to receive the $200 bonus. The $200 bonus will be deposited into your new account within 2 weeks following the 90 day minimum requirement! You must open your account by June 30, 2015 in order to get the $200 bonus.
- Write a Letter to Your Member of Congress
You know how etiquette books say to never discuss politics at the dinner table? Well, if you love a good political discussion and need an outlet — or if you just want a way to earn money working from home — consider working for one of two grassroots advocacy groups that offer work-from-home opportunities.
Next Wave Advocacy, LLC, and DDC Advocacy both have “@home” operations. These advocacy groups run grassroots political campaigns on issues such as healthcare, energy, defense and taxes. They hire people (which is where you would come in) to call constituents or advocates, folks who might be interested in the issue at hand. Your job is to help those people communicate their opinions by writing letters on their behalf to Members of Congress.
Both companies like you to work 20 to 25 hours a week during a project, but some people work full-time hours. Campaigns usually last from a couple of weeks to a few months, depending on what the political issue is. The pay varies, but you should earn about $12 to $15 an hour or more.
6. Leave Google.
If you spend a lot of time searching online, you might want to leave Google and make Bing your search engine of choice.
Why? Bing wants to pay you for your searches.
You can each credits through Bing Rewards every time you make a search — credits you can cash in for gift cards to a variety of stores like Amazon, Toys ‘R Us, and Starbucks.
7. Write an Article for One of These Blogs
Did you know that there are blogs that will pay you up to $100 to write an article for them?
And you don’t need to be an established writer to do this. As long as you have some knowledge of the topic and you can string a sentence together, the only thing you’ll need is a bit of creative thinking to come up with outstanding blog post ideas that you can pitch to these paying blogs.
Put your thinking hat on and see what blog post ideas you come up with that you can pitch to one of these blogs:
- Krazy Coupon Lady – This site was founded by Heather Wheeler and Joanie Demer, who have both featured on TLC’s Extreme Couponing. They accept articles on a broad range of topics including style/fashion, couponing, family/parenting, and personal finance. The ladies guarantee that you’ll hear back from them within 7 days and will receive $50 via Paypal if they choose to publish your article. You can read all the details here.
- Listverse publishes nothing but lists. Their posts are all long lists (usually beyond 1,500 words long) containing at least 10 items, with an explanation of why each item deserves its place on the list. They’ll pay you $100 for your article. Read more details here.
- Babble is Disney’s parenting website. They’re interested in stories that discuss parenting from an unusual angle or offer fresh advice on a parenting topic. Read more details here.
- Check Your Wallet for Strange $1 Dollar Bills
Specifically, dollar bills with strange serial numbers — ones that aren’t easy to come by. The collectors at CoolSerialNumbers.com have created a list of their most-wanted serial numbers, and you might have a bill with one of these sequences on it in your wallet.
Depending on the rarity of your bill’s serial number, it could be worth a crazy amount of money — CoolSerialNumbers.com is currently selling one dollar bills for anywhere from $100 to $2,500+.Check out the full list to see if you’ve got any of these rare bills, but here’s a rundown of the sort of serial numbers these collectors are looking for:
- 7 repeating digits in a row on $1 Federal Reserve Notes (i.e. 09999999, 77777776)
- 7 of a kind on $1 Federal Reserve Notes (i.e. 00010000, 99999099)
- Super repeaters on $1 Federal Reserve Notes (i.e. 67676767)
- Double quads on $1 Federal Reserve Notes (i.e. 00009999)
- and more!
9. Answer Some Trivia Questions
If you’ve got a favorite TV show, there’s a site called “RewardTV” that will pay you to answer trivia questions about the last episode you saw.
Do you know who they killed off in Game of Thrones last week? Tell them about it and they’ll pay you.
Did you know which contestant got kicked off “The Voice” this week? They’ll pay you.
You’re not going to get rich doing this, but it’s a fun way to make an extra $15-$20/month. Pretty cool, right?
- Sell some of Your Old Stuff
We’ve all got way too much extra junk just sitting around. Get rid of some of it and use the extra money for your Christmas shopping.
You could of course have a garage sale or sale some stuff on Craigslist, but one of my favorite ways to get rid of stuff is to use the Bookscouter app.
You scan your book’s barcode with your smartphone and Bookscouter will let you compare the payout of 20+ different buyback companies. Cool, right?
Once you’ve found the buyback company offering the most cash, you just fill out a little information about where you want your payment sent and prepare the books to be shipped. Most of the buyback companies offer prepaid shipping labels too, so there aren’t any costs associated with this.
- Take Pictures of Your Friends
If you have an iPhone and a photographic eye, making money may have just gotten a lot easier. Oh yeah – you’ll also need access to marketable scenery.
There’s a new app called Foap that allows you to turn your iPhone photos into cash.
Here’s how it works. You download the free app. You sign up for an account. You take a quality photo. You upload photo to Foap’s marketplace. Someone buys the license to your photo for $10. You make $5.
If your photo sells twenty times, you make $5 each time and end up with $100 in your pocket, all for about 5 minutes of work.
Sounds too good to be true? It’s not, but there are some limitations.
For one, your photo must be accepted by the Foap developers. If it’s too small, too grainy, or too boring (aka not marketable), it won’t make it to the marketplace. And those cute Instagram shots? They don’t accept those either.
Here’s the full run-down.
- Scan Your Own Groceries
You’ve head of Nielsen, right? Yep, the same company that tracks TV ratings. They’ve got a new app that will pay you to scan the groceries in your fridge.
Once you sign your family up the Nielsen Consumer Panel, the company will send you a free scanner or you can use your smartphone. Every time you go shopping, you simply scan the barcodes on the back of each product and send your data off to NCP.
If you want to give it a try, you can fill out the application here: Nielsen Consumer Panel Application
As an active participant, you earn gift points which you can redeem for different types of merchandise. You can choose electronics, jewelry, household items, and even toys for the kids. The longer you stay on the panel, the more opportunity you have to earn points towards prizes. You also receive entries for the panel’s many sweepstakes. Prizes include money, vacations, and brand new vehicles.
Nothing on this page is going to get you rich, but sometimes it’s just about making a few extra hundred dollars each month, right?
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