learning to live well without spending a lot of money

On-line Earnings for May......

2008-06-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who have signed up for a few of these sites under my referral link! I would love to know how the survey sites are working for others. :)

Global Test Market.......$28.50
Inboxdollars.............$15.58
Lightspeed...............$19.25
Your2cents...............$10.00
Esearch..................$5.00
MyView...................$36.00
Surveysavvy..............$34.00
ValuedOpinions...........$4.50
OpinionPlace.............$11.50
SurveySpot...............$15.00
Mindfield................$3.00
Quizpoints...............$20.00
HCD SUrveys..............$2.00
MySurvey.................$10.00
SendEarnings.............$4.23
CashCrate................$26.37
Opinion Outpost..........$24.30
Pinecone.................$5.00
Keynote..................$10.00 (gift card)
Mypoints.................$10.00 (gift card)
Snapdollars..............$6.23

Total For May........$301.46....not to bad....:)

Just FYI....

2008-05-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

When you attempt a survey on Quizpoints or Inboxdollars or Cashcrate and it says "unfortunately there are no surveys available, please try back later"....that is just some clich in the system. You can just go back and click on the daily survey and usually you will have another survey waiting. They used to have a banner on Quizpoints explaining this but it's been gone for a long time while the problem persists. Just FYI

Forgot to add in my Opinion Outpost earnings below :)

2008-05-21T04:10:00.000-07:00

I forgot to add my Opinion Outpost earnings,so am adding it now...

Awesome month for surveys!!

2008-05-20T10:27:00.000-07:00

This has been a REALLY busy month for surveys...I really would like to make $300 per month if possible. I think I might make it this month:

Global Test Market.......$21.75
Inboxdollars.............$8.75
Lightspeed...............$16.25
Your2cents...............$9.00
Esearch..................$5.00
MyView...................$28.00
Surveysavvy..............$15.00
ValuedOpinions...........$3.00
OpinionPlace.............$5.25
SurveySpot...............$8.00
Mindfield................$1.00
Quizpoints...............$10.00
HCD SUrveys..............$1.00
MySurvey.................$10.00
SendEarnings.............$3.50
CashCrate................$26.37
Opinion Outpost..........$19.30
Total as of May 19th..............191.17

April On-line earnings so far....

2008-04-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

This has been a very busy survey month!!

$12.75......Lightspeed Surveys
$14.00......Inboxdollars ( Surveys and e-mail readings)
$10.00......Mysurvey Surveys
$7.00.......Opinion Place Surveys
$19.00......Myview Surveys
$13.25......Global Test Market Surveys
$8.00.......HCD Surveys
$24.80......Opinion Outpost (Surveys and Affiliate earnings)
$12.00......Surveyspot Surveys
$17.00......Survey Savvy (Surveys and referral earnings)
$12.34......Cashcrate Surveys (Surveys and referral earnings)
$25.00......Consumer Village sweepstakes win

Total so far, as of April 17th......$175.14 :)

Oh wow...Really??

2008-04-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

I got this e-mail today from Consumer Village:

Dear panalist,

Below is a gift card code for our sweepstakes drawing for the period of January 1st to March 31st on Consumer Village - Congratulations. Thank you for your participation. Your opinions do matter and we want to reward you for sharing. It is our pleasure to send you this $25 Amazon.com® gift card* that can be applied towards the purchase of millions of items at Amazon.com.

This is such a nice surprise! I never win ANYTHING. I was so shocked, I actually didn't even think it was real at first. I thought it was spam, but it's for real!...I won something!.....Whoohoo!!!

Inboxdollars: Slow but steady money maker.

2008-03-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

Exciting news at Inboxdollars! They changed their referal program , so that now you can make 10% of whatever your refferal makes at Inboxdollars! (It is already paying off for me). That's awesome...It adds on nicely to what I make there on my own by doing the Daily survey and the e-mail readings. It will be interesting to see how it effects my end of the month total! :)

February On-line earnings update:

2008-03-02T05:56:00.000-08:00

$10.50 Global Test Market
$20.00 My View
$27.00 Inboxdollars
$11.00 Testspin
$2.00 Valued Opinion
$10.00 Survey Spot
$2.00 Focus Forward
$29.60 Opinion Outpost
$5.25 Opinion Place
$5.00 Reward T.V. ( Pizza hut Gift Card)
$12.50 Lightspeed
$19.50 Survey Savvy
$27.63 Cash Crate
$6.60 Consumer Village
$6.90 Adsense
$15.00 Quizpoints
$5.00 Snap Dollars
$10.00 Livewire
$3.00 Mindfield Online

Total as of February 29th..... $228.48

I will update the Feburary earnings tomorrow...

2008-03-01T18:21:00.000-08:00

Had a busy weekend....check tomorrow for the update. :)

Pinching your pennies

2008-02-25T07:08:00.000-08:00

Pinchingyourpennies.com is a great place to get up to the minute deals on everything. They have the latest Freebie listings, on-line deals, around town deals, coupons etc... My favorite is the Update on the Walgreens ads. Several people regularly post what the best deals are, which coupons you should use to get things really cheap or free. ( sometimes their is actually overage on these deals) Check it out!

February On-line Earnings......

2008-02-15T05:44:00.000-08:00

So far this month.....

$7.50 Global Test Market
$10.00 My View
$17.00 Inboxdollars
$7.00 Testspin
$1.00 Valued Opinion
$4.00 Survey Spot
$1.00 Focus Forward
$23.30 Opinion Outpost
$1.50 Opinion Place
$5.00 Reward T.V. ( Pizza hut Gift Card)
$7.75 Lightspeed
$17.00 Survey Savvy
$15.20 Cash Crate
$4.00 Consumer Village
$4.11 Adsense
$10.00 Quizpoints
$5.00 Snap Dollars

Total as of February 14th..... $140.36

$2 Fabreeze coupon...

2008-02-11T14:17:00.000-08:00

Just had to pass this one on...
http://www.newfebreze.com/coupon/coupon.html

This is becoming a favorite survey site!

2008-02-06T07:30:00.000-08:00

I signed up with Opinion Outpost about a year ago. They didn't send me very many surveys back then, but they have recently changed their site and have been sending out lots of surveys! I actually got one yesterday for $10 and one for $3. I qualified and completed the $10 one but didn't qualify for the $3 one. I' m very happy with my $10!!!! That met my goal for the day and that was early in the morning!! Yeepee! You can sign up with Opinion Outpost by clicking on the name below:

Update on January earnings.......

2008-01-29T08:48:00.000-08:00

Here is an update, I didn't make my goal of $10 a day but the month isn't over yet! So far, I am averaging $8.00 per day. Not too bad. :)

Here is what I have made so far for January,

$20.00 Global Test Market (surveys)
$14.75 Lightspeed (surveys)
$20.00 Inboxdollars ( surveys and money from referrals, Thank-you!)
$26.00 Surveyspot (surveys)
$35.10 Cashcrate ( surveys and money from referrals, Thank-you!)
$4.00 Testspin (surveys)
$5.50 Valued Opinion (surveys)
$5.50 Consumer Village ( surveys)
$20.00 Survey Savvy ( surveys and money from referrals, Thank-you!)
$8.00 Mindfield ( surveys)
$7.75 Opinion Place ( surveys)
$15.00 Snap dollars ( e-mail readings and money from referrals)
$6.00 Adsense ( ads on blog)
$10.00 Quizpoints ( surveys)
$10.00 Synovate (surveys)
$10.00 Mysurvey (surveys)
$7.00 Livewire ( survey)
$2.50 Opinion Outpost (survey)
$5.00 Pinecone (survey)

Total so far: $232.10

Whohoo!! Zyrtec goes OTC.....

2008-01-21T10:11:00.000-08:00

This is a great deal on Zyrtec at Walgreens:

Combine with $3 coupon in Walgreens January Monthly Savers Book- PAGE 19 (available at Walgreens stores) for $7 TOTAL off OTC Zyrtec. Walgreens coupon expires 1/26.

Walgreens Book says item to be available on 1/22.

Here is the link for the on-line $4 coupon. It will print more than one if you use the back button and reprint.

http://www.zyrtecotc.com/econsumer/zyrtec/page.view?body=/zyrtec/pages/coupon.html

January on-line earnings so far....

2008-01-15T11:23:00.001-08:00

Here is what I have made so far for January,

$15.00 Global Test Market (surveys)
$10.75 Lightspeed (surveys)
$10.00 Inboxdollars ( surveys and money from referrals, Thank-you!)
$10.00 Surveyspot (surveys)
$29.56 Cashcrate ( surveys and money from referrals, Thank-you!)
$4.00 Testspin (surveys)
$3.50 Valued Opinion (surveys)
$4.00 Consumer Village ( surveys)
$12.00 Survey Savvy ( surveys and money from referrals, Thank-you!)
$4.00 Mindfield ( surveys)
$4.50 Opinion Place ( surveys)
$9.00 Snap dollars ( e-mail readings and money from referrals)
$3.00 Adsense ( ads on blog)
$10.00 Quizpoints ( surveys)

Total so far as of January 15th
$129.31

Interesting survey site!

2008-01-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

I had signed up on this survey site and then ignored every e-mail I got from them for about the last 6 months. I had been to the site, but didn't really get IT at first. Well, last month I went to the site to check it out again. I took a couple of surveys that were waiting for me and made $4 in Amazon gift card credit. I just got the e-mail with my gift card, so since I know it is a legit company I am posting it here so others can check it out. It is called Consumer Village, copy and paste the link below:

http://village.gongos.com/invitation.aspx?namesource=GP

Updated my on-line earnings below...

2007-12-31T09:36:00.000-08:00

I found a couple of new survey sites that I really like, Opinion Place and Valued Opinion. My best money makers for the year though were: Survey Spot, Cash Crate and Inboxdollars. I started this year with the decision to make survey taking a "part time job". I spend about an hour everyday taking surveys. Originally I set a goal of $5 a day. In the beginning that was a little difficult. Now, with all the survey sites I use and especially the ones that allow me to take a DAILY survey on their sites, I have increased my goal to $10 per day. (The months of November and December excluded because I took a bit of time off for Holiday activities.) I am actually thinking $10 a day for 2008 will be fairly easy....stay with me and see. :)

Tomorrow...

2007-12-30T11:27:00.000-08:00

I will update my December earnings tomorrow. It has been a pretty good month even though I took time off around Christmas. I am trying a new look for my blog...not sure if I like it. I will probably change it around a bit over the next few days. New year...New look!

On-line earnings for the month of December.......

2007-12-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

Here is what I have made on-line for December:

$28.50 Inboxdollars (daily surveys, reading e-mails, focus group)
$12 MyView
$17 Surveyspot (Surveys and 1 on-line focus group)
$10.75 Global Test Market
$13.75 Lightspeed
$5 Esearch
$11 Surveysavvy ( survey and income from referrals, Thank-you!)
$25 Quizpoints (surveys and income from referrals, Thank-you!)
$31 Cashcrate ( surveys and income from referrals, Thank-you!)
$20 Mysurvey ( surveys and income from referrals, Thank-you!)
$9 Testspin
$10 Synovate
$3 Valued opinions
$15 Pinecone
$2 Your2cents
$1 Focusforward
$11 Opinion Outpost
$6.75 Opinion Place
$5 Renasonce Research
$4 Mindfield On-line

Total for December .....$240.75

Save on your heating bill....

2007-12-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

Covering all electrical outlets on your outer walls will help cut down on cold drafts coming into your home. I noticed one day, that I could actually feel cold air coming in through the outlets. So I bought some cheap electrical outlet child safty covers, and put them in all of my homes outer wall outlets. Just another way to cut down on heating!

I updated my November on-line earnings below:

2007-12-02T06:04:00.000-08:00

This wasn't my best on-line earning month but it still turned out pretty good. I had taken about 5 days off (from doing surveys), because of Thanksgiving. That brought my numbers down a bit. December is looking pretty good so far.....

Snap Dollars is working out well for me...

2007-11-28T08:36:00.000-08:00

I have been reading e-mails from 3 different websites. ( TikTikcash, Inboxdollars and Snapdollars). This is just one of many "little on-line income sources" I have been using. I am calling them "little", because it is not a huge money maker, but all these "little" amounts really add up! I am about to cash out $25.00 from Snapdollars: It seems to pay more per e-mail than the other two and will send approx 2 e-mails per day. If you want to check it out,click on the banner below.

They will put $5.00 in your account as a bonus for signing up. :)

Update: Surveys have picked up!! Looks like a pretty good month after all!!

2007-11-13T17:14:00.000-08:00

Here is what I have made so far for November:

$51 Inboxdollars (daily surveys, reading e-mails, focus group)
$12 MyView
$50 Surveyspot (Surveys and 1 on-line focus group)
$23 Global Test Market
$10 Reward TV
$13.50 Lightspeed
$2 Esearch
$7 ACOP
$8 Surveysavvy ( survey and income from referrals, Thank-you!)
$20 Quizpoints (surveys and income from referrals, Thank-you!)
$35.03 Cashcrate ( surveys and income from referrals, Thank-you!)
$18 Mysurvey ( surveys and income from referrals, Thank-you!)
$8 Testspin
$10 Synovate
$3 Valued opinions
Thats: $260.53 as of November 30th

Trying to learn more about internet marketing...

2007-11-11T17:39:00.000-08:00

I have spent quite a bit of time learning about internet marketing over the last few weeks. ( I have so much more to learn!) My plan for the new year is to start a few more more websites, mainly geared towards: frugal, pennypinching, thrifty, want to work from home people, like myself. I have used my blog as kind of a testing ground for some of what I've learned. For example, I added Google Adsense, so there is a bit of advertisement (relevant to my blog). It is super easy to add to a website or blog. Google Adsense walks you through the steps! When someone visits your site and clicks on one of your ads, money is put into an account. When you reach $100, you get paid. I hesitated about posting about this because, most people already know about Google Adsense, but I figured there are a few, like me, that are just getting started with their blogs and my not of heard about it or thought it would be to complicated.

Participate in on-line Focus groups....

2007-11-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

I have participated in several on-line focus groups in the last 6 months. I did one Tuesday night from 8pm till 9:30. It was about cell phone service. For my time, I was paid $40.00! It was actually pretty interesting and the time went very fast (all in the comfort of my own home). One of the survey sites I use, mysurvey (see banner ad at the bottom of this page) invited me to this lastest focus group. I've also received invites from Lightspeed Surveys and Surveyspot. They don't all pay the same. The average seems to be about $25 for an hour an half. :)

Easy way to get things for free at Walgreens and Target...

2007-10-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

I often "find" things I can get for free, or next to nothing at Target and Walgreens. Thats because both of these stores allow you to combine their own store coupons with the manufacturers coupons you find in your sunday paper. For example: Target had Hersheys bag candy (I bought the KitKat bags) on sale for $1.60 each.

Hershey's Candy $1.60 each. I bought two.... so that's $3.20.
-$1.00 Target coupon
-$2.00 Hersheys coupon
-----------
equals .20 for two bags of candy!
You can find the Target coupons on-line at Taget.com. Walgreens coupons are in their weekly flyer and Easysaver booklet.

Here is a blog that everyone should check out!!

2007-10-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

Here is the link: http://www.mydebtfreegoal.com/

This is an awesome blog, for people who are really trying to make money from on-line sources. This girl is amazing! I have learned so much from reading her blog. You've got to check it out.

Some of my favorite sites that have saved me money!!

2007-10-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

Good coupon sites:
boodle.com
smartsource.com
bettycrocker.com

Good sites to find deals and freebies:
slickdeals.com
pinchingyourpennies.com
dealcatcher.com

Doing test products....

2007-10-10T06:45:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of doing so many surveys, is that I qualify for a good amount of test products. These are products that companies send me to test and then do a follow up survey. Usually they are food or beauty products. Some companies even compensate you cash for testing the product! I receive about 3-4 test products a month. It's a cool way to try out new products for free and sometimes make a little extra money!

I'm back...

2007-10-05T09:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days....I have had some family issues to take care of and they may keep me very busy over the next couple of weeks. So, I won't be able to post as often until things settle down. Also, I have been working on setting up another website. I will use that one to generate money through advertisements placed on the site. It will be my "experiment website", if that goes well, I will make more websites. I'm trying different things to see what works...

Check your receipts

2007-09-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

Last summer I was checking my Walmart receipt for an item that I had a rebate for and noticed that, that particular item had been scanned twice, although I had only purchased one. I called Walmart and asked what I could do about this. The guy said to just bring the receipt in and they would credit me. So, I did take it in and they did credit me without any problems. The thing is, after that, I started really checking my receipts and have found the same mistake (scanning one item,twice) about 30% of the time. I asked the manager why it keeps happening and he said their scanners are really sensitve, so it does happen alot. It pays to go back over your receipts!!!

2007-09-11T07:26:00.000-07:00

Well my article writing kinda bit the dust. I had written 3 articals for Associated Content and so far 2 have been rejected. I am still waiting on the third. I guess it's not my thing. Actually, I have received quite a bit of postive feed back about the site (Associated Content). Most people like it and have had some success with it. I know of several people who make several hundred dollars every month writing articles for AC. I may try again later, but right now I need to stay focused on what is working for me.

Whoohoo, I love my cashback credit card!

2007-09-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

I switched to one of those cash back credit cards a month and a half ago. My plan was to pay for everything I could via this card and then pay the whole thing off at the end of each month. So far so good. I check the balance every couple of days to know exactly how much is on it. Then pay in full at the end of the month. The first month I made $20.00 cash back and the second month I made $32.00! I am so excited! More "found" money, for the goal!

Whats for lunch?

2007-09-06T08:47:00.000-07:00

And how much are you spending per day on it? That's what I'm looking at now. I was thinking that I could still eat healthy, without eating expensively. My husband agreed and he has been taking his lunch everyday now instead of picking up something. Huge savings!! I never eat lunch out, but I usually fix something at home that is not exactly, cheap. I tend to eat lots of soy style burgers and microwavable foods, i.e. expensive foods. I decided, since our garden is bursting with tomatos, I could eat an old fashioned tomato sandwich for lunch. Wow, practically free! Or, maybe peanut butter and jelly sandwich's. Not free, but really really cheap. With a banana on the side and water, not the expensive, flavored kind, just plain ole water. I could eat for practicaly nothing! I actually feel better and figure I'm saving about $10.00 per week with these changes.

Saving money on AC/ Heating

2007-09-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

My friend told me that she tries to save on heating and cooling not just by adjusting the temp in her home but also, making sure all rooms that are not regularly used, are closed off. For us, that means our spare bedroom. So three days ago I closed the vents in the spare bedroom and closed the door. I took it a step further and had a talk with the kids and hubby about making sure all closet doors are closed when not being used. So far so good. We have a large walkin closet and my kids have fairly large closets also, so I hope that helps to keep them closed. Less space to heat and cool equals more money saved for us!!

Writing Articles.....

2007-09-02T06:03:00.000-07:00

I have just found out about a site that pays you to write articles. It is called Associated Content. I am checking into it over the weekend and hope to be actually using the site and writing articles by next week. I believe it pays about $4 per article. That could really add to my on-line income! Anyone have any experience with this site? I will post info on it next week after I get enough info.

Rebates

2007-08-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

I have been doing the Walgreens rebates for a couple of years now. It's such a great deal. For those of you who don't know about this, here is how it works:
Every month Walgreens puts out a Easysaver catalog. You will find it right when you walk in the store. This catalog lists special deals that Walgreens is offering. The best part is the FREE AFTER REBATE items. Each month they have different items that you can get for free. Usually things like Hair care products, toothpaste, tooth brushes, vitamins, etc... Some months are better than others. I remember several times I came out with $40-$50 worth of free stuff. Lots of times you can use coupons on these items and so you actually make a little money! If you haven't done this before, you really should check it out!

More tweaking!!

2007-08-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

O.K. maybe I'm slow, but I finally did it. I am now paying all our bills on-line. I actually had to switch banks to one that lets me do this for free. It's not much, but I fiqure it will save me almost $7.00 per month in stamps! Again, not much, but as I have said before, every little bit will help. I feel a bit ridiculous that I hadn't done this sooner. It's so easy! I am going to continue to look at everything that we spend money on and hopefully "find" more money!

2007-08-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

I am tweaking all spending in my household.Trying to think of every way possible to build my on-line income and at the same time spend less money. I have looked at every aspect of my spending and am now trying to find ways to cut back. So, thats where my "little gas experiment" comes from. I decided to see how far I could stretch a tank of gas if I just changed my driving habits. Well I am happy to say after changing a few things about the way I drive, I was able to drive on a tank of gas for 6 days longer than usual!!!! Here is what I did,

1. As soon as I see a light up ahead turn red, I take my foot off the gas and coast up to it. (as long as nobody behind me looks to be in a big hurry to get to the red light!)

2. Going down any, I mean ANY hill or even slopes, if nobody is behind me, I coast down the hill. Might sound crazy but I was amazed how many hills around me I used to be pushing on the gas even though the car will move pretty darn fast down the hill without the added gas!

3) Planning my trips! I really made an effort to consolidate the days I run errands so I am not going back and forth several days in a row.

4) Also, decided to make an effort not to push so hard on the gas pedal when starting up from a stop sign/light. Easing into it instead.

5) Not running my air conditioner as much, but we had a very bad heat wave here, so I did use it more than I would have liked. (And I am told that if you are going faster than 40 mph, you may as weel use it rather than rolling windows down, which causes drag on the vehicle and thus uses more gas.

Every little bit counts!!

2007-08-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

I have been saving alot of money shopping at SuperWalmart lately. I found out that I could take all the flyers from my local stores and price match anything at Walmart. I make a list of the food items that are on sale and get all the deals at one place!! I love that. You can even price match "store brand" items with Walmart store brands. One stop shopping saves me time and gas money that I used to spend driving from store to store looking for the best deal!

I

2007-08-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

Did you know that you can save on your electric bill just by unplugging things when your not using them? Even if something is tuned *off*, it still uses 40% of its energy if it's plugged in! I read a report about this recently and checked with my electrician friend. He verified that this is true! So I have unplugged everything I could....lamps that we don't really use, cell phone charger, coffee pot, etc... hope to see some improvement in my electric bill next month. Every little bit will help get to my goal!!

Being Cheap...

2007-08-13T12:30:00.001-07:00

Hi! My name is daisy and I have created this blog in hopes of showing other people ways to really stretch their dollar, and make some extra cash in ways that they may have not thought of. I decided several years ago that full time work was not for me. Of course we needed the money! But I just couldn't bring myself to leave my kids with a sitter or daycare. I HAD to find a way to stay home and still be able to eat and have a home. I have, over the last three years found lots of ways to save money. I also have found lots of ways to make money on-line. I want to incorporate those tips and ideas into this blog. ( People are always telling me I need to write a book on this subject, because frankly, it's my favorite subject). Maybe someone can use the info!!