I love staying home with my kids; it is want I have always wanted. However, shortly after becoming a stay-at-home mom I found myself missing work. I wanted to do something to make extra money. After reading The Total Money Makeover * by Dave Ramsey, my hubs and I agreed to a “get-out-of-debt-fast” plan. We wanted to be debt-free so bad I swear we could taste it.
I knew my student loans were not going to pay-off themselves. I knew we had to throw any extra money at them. At the time, my blog was super tiny and earning nothing. It took me two years to monetize my blog and to increase my pageviews. Therefore, in the meantime, I had to find something that would earn extra money without sacrificing my time with my boys.
Two of these of the sites listed below are ones that I use all the time. They help us not only pay off debt but allow us to have extra fun money. They also help with stretching our Christmas budget.
Swagbucks
This is by far my favorite site to earn extra money. In fact, it paid for my hubs’ Christmas this year! We have even used our saved up Swagbucks * as a creative way to pay off debt. Earning Swagbucks is super easy. Most of the time, I will earn my Swagbucks while my boys are either napping or watching a movie. If I need to make an online purchase, I check to see if Swagbucks is offering any promotions for that site so I can earn extra bucks. I usually cash out my Swagbucks to PayPal in order to have the cash. That way I can decide where the money should go.
InboxDollars
This is another favorite site of mine to earn extra money without a lot of effort. You earn money just for reading emails, taking surveys, and participating in any of the offers you feel are relevant to you. The money earned from InboxDollars * actually helped us stay afloat one month when money was tight after my hubs had fell from a two-story home (talk about unexpected expense!).
TaskRabbit
I have not personally used this site but many other bloggers and virtual assistants that I know do. Essentially, TaskRabbit hooks you up with people in your area that can hire you for whatever job it is that you are advertising. If you have any administrative experience and want to try becoming a virtual assistant, this site may be a great place to start gaining experience.
Field Agent
This is another site that I have not personally used but I have seen it around several other sites, such as CNET, Forbes, and even The New York Times. You will have to have an iPhone in order to work with them but they have several large companies in their network such as Coca-Cola, Walgreens, and Kimberly-Clarke, just to name a few. Field Agent will pay you via PayPal.
I will caution you to avoid sites that will pay you per click or per keystroke. You will be working for pennies and personally, I do not believe it to be worth your time. I know I tried a couple of those sites and after hours of typing I made less than five dollars. Make sure the site you decide to use to earn extra money will pay you enough to justify your time spent.
What sites would you add to this list?
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Hi Jessi! I would totally add Zazzle to this list. I am actually working on a post to publish first of the year that talks about the revenue it brings it for my family. It’s fun to use, doesn’t take a lot of time and actually pays pretty decent. I have made $23 from it this past weekend alone and have hardly spent anytime on there. Thanks for mentioning TaskRabbit, I had never heard of it before, although how I have yet to figure out how people actually make money on InboxDollars. So, the fact that it helped ya’ll so much during a hard time is huge to me.
I can vouch for Field Agent. It’s awesome! I have already earned over $130 in only a few months. I have even received some free product to test.
I tell my 3 year-old that we are doing a “Field Agent Investigation” and then go off to the store to snap a few pictures. She enjoys it. 🙂
That’s awesome Emily! Thank you for vouching for Field Agent! 🙂
This list is great. I keep seeing Swagbucks and Task Rabbit pop up in ways of making extra money. I guess it’s time I finally check them out. Thanks for sharing. Visiting from #SITS sharefest.
Swagbucks is definitely my fav!
Another HUGE fan of Swagbucks here. So easy to do and it does add up. Another site I would like to mention is writing reviews of everyday items for ViewPoints. I usually wait until they are offering bonus points for certain types of reviews (this weekend is Kenmore appliances) to maximize what I earn. Points can be exchanged for gift cards to places such as Amazon.
Thank you Lucy! I’ve never heard of ViewPoints before!
I am stopping in from the Frugal Friday Link Up. I am going to check out task rabbit. I love cleaning other peoples houses……I know I am strange. But hey…. lol.
Hahhahhaa! I don’t mind cleaning other people’s houses as much as I mind cleaning my own – probably because it never feels like I’m a 100% finished cleaning mine. 🙂
I’ve never heard of any of these.
I signed up for Inbox and within 10 minutes I started to receive SPAM phone calls. I just have a cell phone that is my personal phone but I also use for work and this IS NOT GOOD. Did you not have this?
Hi Jen! I have never received a phone call from InboxDollars. Have you contacted them to let them know? Their customer service has been very helpful to me in the past and maybe they figure out why you’re getting those calls. :-/