Money Making ideas that You do?

MissLauraPants · September 2014

Daycare is killing us slowly. . .so I have been trying make extra cash. Is there anything you do already that maybe I am not taking advantage of?

I already use ebates, retailmenot, cash rewards on my CC, freemyapps, I am a mystery shopper, I just made an Amazon mechanical turk account, I'm putting stuff on craigslist/fb yard sales...I have a real second job as a contract therapist where I pick up 6-8 hours a week.

My best friend and I thought about opening an Etsy store but we found out over the weekend we are not crafty enough to sell anything lol

What is your secret??

Oh and I am planning on asking for a raise since I have been here full time for almost 4 years, just waiting for the perfect time..

mancila60 · September 2014

Not sure how you have taxes set up with your paycheck but I just realized that since H was contract labor I had my job filing as married with dependant and we changed it which gave me an extra $30 a paycheck. I have also been selling stuff on FB yard sales. I try to use coupons as much as possible at the grocery store and always on diapers and wipes.

We buy lots of things in bulk because it will save us throughout the year. If anything has a rebate we make sure to send that stuff in and I give H any small cash we get so he can use it on his small extras.

megs1409 · September 2014

I've always done consulting on the side (aka in addition to my normal full-time job) for legal/accounting stuff. I do have to pay self-employment taxes as well as carry my own professional liability insurance, but in the end I end up making enough that I completely put aside into a rainy day fund. It makes me feel better having that savings account when we decide to go out to eat every day for a week cause we're both too tired to even THINK about dinner.

catycate · September 2014

What do you do for a living? Would it be something a family or a small business would pay to have you do? Like teachers can tutor on weekends. I'm in special ed and I do therapy in home to round out my paycheck. I have friends that do accounting during busy times for small companies to pick up money. Could you wait tables or bartender on the weekends?

MissLauraPants · September 2014

mancila60 said:

Not sure how you have taxes set up with your paycheck but I just realized that since H was contract labor I had my job filing as married with dependant and we changed it which gave me an extra $30 a paycheck. I have also been selling stuff on FB yard sales. I try to use coupons as much as possible at the grocery store and always on diapers and wipes. We buy lots of things in bulk because it will save us throughout the year. If anything has a rebate we make sure to send that stuff in and I give H any small cash we get so he can use it on his small extras.

Yes, i've been trying my hand at couponing lately too. www.allthingstarget.com is fun to peruse and try to get some deals.

MissLauraPants · September 2014

catycate said:

What do you do for a living? Would it be something a family or a small business would pay to have you do? Like teachers can tutor on weekends. I'm in special ed and I do therapy in home to round out my paycheck. I have friends that do accounting during busy times for small companies to pick up money. Could you wait tables or bartender on the weekends?

I'm a family therapist (LMFT) and counselor (LPC). I am not sure about providing therapy without having a business on my own but possibly to look into that. I work contract doing it after my full time therapy job to bring in some extra cash contract. I've never bartender or waited tables...maybe..? All good ideas

hartsl01 · September 2014

Have you thought about doing any kind of direct sales companies? You'd really have to look into them because I know a lot of them require minimum amount of sales and may not be worth it for the time you would have to put in. I know there are several O13 moms who sell things like Jamberry, Thirty One, Origami Owl, and I sell Usborne books. You would have to look into start-up costs as well. I started just for fun because I loved the books and didn't realize how much money I could make as well. But something like that might be an option?

Also, there are FB pages set up for my area for people looking for evening and weekend babysitters... ever thought about doing something like that? Then your LO could get some social time too

NatesCupcake47 · September 2014

hartsl01 said:

Have you thought about doing any kind of direct sales companies? You'd really have to look into them because I know a lot of them require minimum amount of sales and may not be worth it for the time you would have to put in. I know there are several O13 moms who sell things like Jamberry, Thirty One, Origami Owl, and I sell Usborne books. You would have to look into start-up costs as well. I started just for fun because I loved the books and didn't realize how much money I could make as well. But something like that might be an option?

Also, there are FB pages set up for my area for people looking for evening and weekend babysitters... ever thought about doing something like that? Then your LO could get some social time too

Do check out the direct sales route, I started selling Norwex last month to make some extra money for a girls trip and it's been really helpful (plus I LOVE the products). Changing my deductions on my w-2 got me an extra $40/paycheck. I recently called our cell phone provider as well and that lowered my bill by $30 month and we also recently switched internet providers which saved us a rate increase and lowered our bill by another $10/month. I think you're on the right track trying to negotiate a raise at work as well!

Our part time daycare costs increased from $325/month to $500/month last month so there's been a lot of creativity finding that extra $ in our budget. Hoping to take advantage of DH's daycare savings account through work starting in January and that should save us an extra $100/month or maybe even more :-)

Lee81 · September 2014

Lia1303 said:
Following this thread as I am in the same boat, especially with Christmas coming. How did you become a mystery shopper?

I used to mystery shop. Personally, I found that the amount of effort I was putting into it was often not worth the couple bucks it paid, but I'm sure there are people who work smarter and make it worth their while.

I started by going to mysteryshopper.com (or maybe it was mysteryshop.com- I forget exactly) because they had a list of companies that weren't scams. You have to sign up with each company individually but once you do, you can access a list of shops available in your area. They would give you the details and tell you the pay and if you thought it was worth it you could usually assign it to yourself or request to be scheduled.

jennlin · September 2014

Swagbucks is slow and small amounts, but it's super easy. I get about 10/month from it. www.swagbucks.com/refer/jennlin

I used to do market research studies. The companies are Seattle specific, so you'll have to google local ones for you, but they pay $75-300/hr depending on the study. Basically you help companies develop advertisements for a target audience (you). Or, my husband helped Dairy Queen develop new flavored for blizzards with taste tests...and he also helped some company figure out which mix of chocolates to go in an "assorted" box. They are pretty fun. I helped Microsoft pick out the color scheme for bing maps. I used to do one a month or so. I've only done one since having two kids, though.

catycate · September 2014

If you form your own LLC you can do the in home therapy.

ksimo6 · September 2014

I sell 31 bags. Once I established my customer base (about 6 months). ... It pretty much sells itself. I make 200-500 dollars a month.

ksimo6 · September 2014

Oh yes and I call my cable , tv , internet and cellphone people every three months and talk to their retention people... They always lower my bill.

MissLauraPants · September 2014

Lia1303 said:

Following this thread as I am in the same boat, especially with Christmas coming. How did you become a mystery shopper?

I signed up for shops at www.mysteryshoppersmanual.com. They have a lot of companies on there and then they will send shops to your email. I usually do fun ones like restaurants and entertainment places. Or oil changes because I'd rather get paid for an oil change.

huntjul · September 2014

I used to answer questions on JustAnswer and made ~300/month on it for a while. I take surveys for veterinary professionals that get emailed to me at $10-30 each.

Asking for a raise is a good idea. And if you haven't had a raise in 4 years, you need to get on that stat.

Do you have a monthly budget and stick to it? Although the easiest way to balance household finances is to make more money, spending less money has the same net effect without the extra work hours. Some of the responses here (cable, phone, internet bills) are along those lines.

Do you take your lunch to work or buy? Can you cook more food on weekends to avoid the weekday dinner takeout? Can you go for a camping vacation instead of hitting up hotels? If you fly or stay at hotels at all, look up how to churn credit cards as long as your credit is decent (flyertalk is a great forum--those guys are geniuses--and million miles is good too). Is your car insurance competitive? If you have multiple cars or houses insured, can you get a discount for multiple policies? Is there a way to pay less for your health insurance by considering a higher deductible plan if appropriate for you? Can you open a FSA to use pretax dollars to pay out-of-pocket medical expenses?

Those are just a few of the ways to trim a budget. I think there's a personal finance board on the nest where people have posted their budgets to get advice, and the advice I've seen on there looked pretty legit and looked through the budgets line by line.

Bunkster2008 · September 2014

Another vote for direct sales. I signef up to sell Jamberry last month and have already made over $300. Thats from 1 in home party and then some work on FB. I sah so I love making some money on my own.

MissLauraPants · September 2014

Thanks for the ideas ladies, I'll check out some direct sales stuff too

Phalaenopsis · September 2014

I know a few people who make extra cash with Rodan+Fields.

Jalee85 · September 2014

I am a secret shopper/ auditor. I haven't done it since I've had D though. Most shops I can't do with her, but you can make big bucks if you get the right gigs. The problem is you are always competing for the best jobs and there is a lot of paperwork and junk. I love to do Movie Audits though $150 for a weekends worth of work. You just need to be there for the 1st 15 minutes of each showing and count patrons. At the end of the night you check their paperwork to make sure they didn't have anyone sneaking in. In between I would do homework or go bumming at the mall.

ashleymarie512 · September 2014

@Snowboarderbritt‌ we've been considering cutting cable completely, but being the spoiled brat that I am, I'm scared to so it! Now that it's football season, I like having the espn channels for games and then it moves right into basketball, so same thing. Ugh, such a dilemma! Tell me it'll be ok if we so it.....

@MissLauraPants‌ I have a friend who sold Premier jewelry and did really well. She made half of what was earned at a party and always did really well.

I'm a LMHC and looked into doing a part time private practice and while the money was great (estimated to bring in my full time salary in 20hrs per week), it was too many hours to be gone from home. I'd definitely love to do that one day though. I work part time at the county jail doing mental health work--suicide assessments, psych evals, following up with mentally ill inmates and it pays really well for only working about 20hrs per month.

ashleymarie512 · September 2014

Yeah there is a cyclones.tv thing we can subscribe to online and then plug computer into tv, maybe...it's like $80/yr, so waaaay cheaper than cable.

Lol how sad...I get anxiety over cutting the cord...

#firstworldproblems

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