A lack of structure

Hello readers! I've been lazy busy these past few days and haven't made the time to get back to my blog. I wanted to do a quick little notice on Opinion Outpost which I recommended the other day. I'm unable to get into my account now, for whatever reason to verify this, but I was told that they've enforced some new policies that have to do with them sharing your information. I'm not super keen on this myself, though it's becoming a more common and unavoidable issue in our modern day society. If I'm ever able to jump back into my account, I'll check into this more firsthand, but I wanted to provide a heads up for now.

I have a post-in-the-making about dumpster diving coming up soon. I just want to get some pictures after a good dive to share first. Most people outside of my general group of friends seem to make ick faces when I mention dumpster diving. I understand. I avoided it myself for years while my friends chowed on tossed cakes and fruits and other things and never gave a sign of dying from germ overload. I've come to the conclusion that it is safe. Sort of. Common sense is required, really. I'll share all my thoughts on this later. Reserve your judgments until then.

I also wanted to steer you readers in the direction of The Penny Hoarder. This was one of the first money-related "blogs" I became a big fan of and frequented. They offer tips on where to invest your money, prize-draws and sweepstakes, oddball means of earning money (like cricket farms!) and ideas on selling things you probably had not thought of selling before! I learned about mystery shopping through them, and though I'm on "payroll" with one company, I haven't actually conducted any shops yet. It's a good sight. MacFuzzy stamp of approval!

Lastly, I leave you with a tip.

9. Cheap hobbies - this one has been a battle for me throughout my life. I grew up with video games. And basically that's all you need to know. Video games are an expensive hobby. Same goes for collecting just about anything, unless its lost pennies or belly button lint. I'm not saying forsake video games (I would be a chief hypocrite here), but learn to tone it down--rent, or borrow games when you can, for example. Or just say no to buying when something is first released. That's actually just good practice for almost anything. If you can bring free or cheaper hobbies to the forefront in your life, then more expensive hobbies are fine to entertain on occasion. And considering hobbies are a very optional experience, putting oodles of money into them (especially when it's not in your budget) is kind of crazy.

Tuesday tips

Thought I'd throw out some more tips to follow up from Sunday night's post. Comments and ideas appreciated!

6. Teach - I don't actually mean go and get a degree in college and do this, but rather pass on what you know about... whatever! People want to learn, and if you have a talent or skill that's worthwhile (I think they all are, right?), then someone somewhere will pay you to teach them. Are you good at guitar, piano, violin or whatever? Make an ad, spread it around town, tell your friends. Take up students. This is really great if you're good with kids, too, as parents always want their kids to learn to play something (usually doesn't apply to drums...no offense, really). You could do this with art, math tutoring, or anything really. Juggling? Just a thought.

7. Eat what you have before going to the grocery store - this one is our ultimate recurring challenge. Obviously you're going to need to buy more milk, or maybe some meat to go with your hefty pasta supply, or at least something. But the idea here is to just really force yourself to dig into your pantry and eat that rice or jar of peanut butter you've been saving from last Summer's camping trip. This is not appealing. But it does save you money. And it helps you put things in perspective. I can't count how many times I've stared into our pantry full of "side dish stuffs" and said, "We're out of food... I must go buy fried chicken to survive." A lot of people around the world would be overjoyed with our ignored pantries.

8. Try to fix it before you throw it out - it's ingrained into us to just toss stuff out on the curb if it stops working suddenly. I feel like this applies to electronics and clothes more than anything, but I'm sure its applicable all over. Holes in your clothes can be sewn and patched. Scratches on discs can sometimes be buffed out. Sometimes electronics that stop working only require a tube or a new cord soldered on. An example would be my dad and his lawn mower. It's stopped working three times. Each time he figured out what part went bad, spent less than $10 and got it running again, usually for another year. His neighbor threw a lawn mower out. Dad asked for it, figured out it was a spark plug (I think), and viola! He had a new lawn mower. The neighbor had gone through two more by the time my dad gave up on that one.

I guess to get to it--just try not to be wasteful with what you have. It's better for you, the environment, and your wallet.

Do you have any great tips or examples of things you've done to save money like this? Drop a comment below.

Slicethepie!

Slicethepie is not about food, or pie, but rather about music. It's a music review website where you, the listener, ultimately get paid for your opinion. I actually rather enjoy this one, as it's quite different from my usual foray. It helps (and pays!) to know some music-related lingo when you write your reviews. You're only required to listen to the random track they throw at you for 90 seconds, then you can submit what you've written (assuming you've typed up your thoughts as the song plays--the best method, by far). Depending on the details you've provided and the amount you've typed up, you'll earn different amounts. I believe your rank, which goes up with more and more quality reviews, also determines your base earning rate.

Reviewers should note what they thought of the intro, the instrumentation, the overall song structure, how the vocals sounded or if they could understand the lyrics and so on. It's really not too demanding or difficult to type up a decent review in 90 seconds and hit submit. When I was on a fierce kick of doing these reviews I was, at my rank, earning .20ish a review. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but for listening to music and throwing it your opinion, it isn't too rough, especially if you do it off and on like I do.

It is unfortunate you can't select your favorite genres, and your musical tastes don't factor in at all for that matter. I get to hear lots of music that I honestly just can't find myself appreciating. That's when I tend to be a bit more harsh with my reviews. It's enjoyable still, in its own way.

I recommend checking Slicethepie out. It's different, it's actually kind of fun which is sort of rare for these review type sites, and it's worth a shot. You can transfer your earnings directly into PayPal once you meet the threshold of $5.00, which I achieved within a week of very off-and-on reviewing.

If you check it out, I would very much appreciate you using my referral link. Thanks guys. Have fun.

Lazy Sunday, just some tips...

I thought I would compile a few tips and ideas for saving and making money, as opposed to a review of a site or service like I have been doing so far.

1. Eat at home - probably the most common tip anywhere you look. It is true enough though. Eating at restaurants and fast food places adds up fast, especially when you're paying for more than just yourself. I feel like me and my wife spend between $20 and $30 total if we're not splitting something. For that much I could easily buy a week's worth of simple meals like stuff for sandwiches. Is that as fun? No. It's not. That's why we all go to restaurants anyway...

2. Grow your own veggies - yes, this can be time consuming but it is really a lot of fun (unless you just don't have a green thumb). You could argue "Oh, but I live in an apartment/have no yard/etc." Those are valid arguments, but I would suggest looking into container gardening, or even those upside-down tomato planters that you can hang from your porch. I love tomatoes, lettuce and peppers, and rather than pay for these in the store all the time, I can just go out to my garden and grab 'em for whatever meal I'm prepping. Additionally, it's nice knowing where your produce comes from, and there's a type of satisfaction that comes with being able to provide for yourself in this way.

3. Cut back on a few things - if you do eat out regularly, say a few times a week or so, then even knocking one of those days out a week will add up in the long run! I know I've often been too short-sighted to see things this way, and regret that way of thinking. This applies to other things too, like services we may subscribe to. Take Hulu Plus or Netflix for example. You could totally get caught up on everything you watch, then skip a month and come back and just make a party out of catching up on your favorite shows or whatever. And cutting back on cell phone plans or just how many channels you're getting for your satellite or cable TV. Take a month or two with these things scaled back and you'll see it all add up.

4. Have your coffee at home - this one isn't too much of a problem for me. If I even want coffee, I want a lot, and it's way more cost effective to brew a huge pot and hype myself up on the whole thing than to buy a tiny cup from wherever cafe. I know the problem here is we all want coffee early in the morning, and when commuting to work it's way easier to go get a Grande Tasty Frappe Mocha Flamingo Latte than wait around for boring old Mr. Coffee to brew. That said, if you're a habitual coffee drinker (at least once a day), then you could probably save twenty-something bucks a week (which brings you close to $100 a month) if you cut out Starbucks altogether and just prepared it at home. I might be a little biased here and easier to please though...

5. Sell unwanted stuff - organizing a yard sale is usually pretty easy, and if you've never tried it, it's a pretty worthwhile experience at least once, though not worth it if you can only find a handful of things to sell. Selling on eBay or Amazon are possibly the best routes, or even pawn shops (though I'm admittedly sketched out by most of them--I swear they're trying to swindle me!). We all have a few pieces of junk sitting in a closet or in our attic just collecting dust. Don't hoard useless things that serve no purpose to you when you can turn them around for good money! One thing that makes this easier that me and my wife have tried is to take pictures of your items you plan to part with. You can remember them this way if they're important to you, and it strangely allows you to let go.

Well, hope you've enjoyed this tips. I'll compile some more for next time. If you have any tips, please comment below! Thanks.

Opinion Outpost and E-Rewards!

Opinion Outpost and E-Rewards are the sites that I started on, years and years ago.  They're both survey sites with a good bit in common.  I've done them both off and on and have actually earned from both. E-Rewards only deals in gift cards for a few places or points for most major airline companies in America.  It might be a bit more worth it to you if you do some flying then.  Opinion Outpost on the other hand will reward you in straight up cash via PayPal.  Now, years back, I redeemed many many surveys worth of points for a $25 Game Stop gift card through E-Rewards, which I was grateful for very much, but with less time (and a lot more persistence), I've earned over $20 real dollars through Opinion Outpost.  I suppose it depends on your preference then.

E-Rewards seems to only offer a few surveys at a time, but you're nearly guaranteed to be eligible to do them.  This is the greatest difference between the two sites.  Opinion Outpost offers limitless survey options, but they're a lot more strict with eligibility.  You will be denied.  And denied.  And denied again.  Persistence is key here.  The pay off is good if you stick with it and don't mind clicking box after box.

If you're knowledgeable on a wide variety of subjects--rather, consumer products and services--then you're set.  Surveys seem to cover the topics of what kind of insurance you have, medical conditions, different tech and gadgets like smart phones, fast food, beverages and so on.  If you feel limited here, then chances are you'll rarely find a survey you can finish (and thus won't get points).

There's a lot of potential here with these two sites if you don't tire of the idea and are persistent enough.  I think they're worth a try, especially if you've never had the joy of doing an on-line survey.


Edit: Forgot to provide some links!
E-Rewards
Opinion Outpost

Postloop!

So I heard about Postloop back in June or so when I was growing a little bored of my usual surveys. The premise is this: Forum owners pay a bit of money to these folks in order to attract potential posters to said forums. You, the poster, jump through a few hoops (very minor stuff like making sure you have an avatar for their forum, etc), and begin posting on their forum and are reimbursed in points that points some form of cash that you can withdraw into PayPal (a $5 threshold must be met, I believe).

You're essentially "baiting" the forum, encouraging and creating topics and conversations for others. I'm assuming from the forum owner's perspective that they wait till traffic is pretty substantial and cut off the cash flow eventually when they feel like the forum can stand on its own two legs.

All of this is a breath of fresh air for someone like me who is burnt out on taking monotonous consumer surveys. There is huge variety of forums catering to different niche topics (some very specific, which may be why they lack in traffic), so you shouldn't have any trouble in latching onto a forum or two to become a regular at. The idea of posting on forums (about stuff you're actually interested in), and getting paid for it is awesome to me. It definitely adds up over time, and it's one of those things where you could net a decent bit of money if you're very persistent with it.

If you love stating your thoughts and opinions on different matters and already do that on-line (c'mon, this singles out.. uh, everyone), then you might as well earn a few bucks for it. Make new friends. Whatever. It's cool. Try it out.

And if you took the time to read my article and wanna give it a shot, I would totally appreciate you using my nifty spifty referral link for Postloop! That's a fancy way of saying I get a small, tiny something out of recommending it to you, which I would be most grateful for. Remember this, every little bit counts. It all adds up.

Thanks! And if you have any suggestions, input or comments of any sort, go right ahead and fire away!

The road goes ever on and on...

   
     Hi all! My name is Seth, and I've created this blog to document and share my tips, tricks and attempts at earning alternative income, no matter how small. I'm employed full time right now working with different folks with special needs and have been doing this for almost two years now. My wife and I are leaving for a year this October to work in New Zealand, which we're thrilled beyond reason for. It's August, and it's crunch time for our budget. I've been doing little side things all Summer to try and earn a few dollars here and there, and now I'm doubling my efforts. I'm happy to answer questions as well as to receive advice! I look forward to sharing with you all soon!