EverdayMoney Credit Card Reward-Earned my first shopping voucher.

At the beginning of the year, I finally gave in an applied for a pink Everyday Money Credit card, which is a Woolworth's product underwritten by HSBC. I admit that this was AFTER having spent nearly 3 years paying past foolish credit card debt (CCD). I basically gave in to the repeated advertising offers I saw almost daily via WDYT, Rewards Central and other similar companies. They were offering one year fee free and a $50 Woolworht's voucher, plus 6 months low rate transfer of other debts. I didn't have any of those thankfully. Also evert $1 spend earns a point for a shopping voucher sent out every  three monts. Woolworth's Select products earn bonus points as do products from their shopping partners, like Dick Smith's. I tend not to get bonus points as I have been using hte card isntead of cash then paying it back each month. In otherwords I wasn't shopping for particular products to get the extra points. If you want to know why not visit my earlier posts on the foolishness of Flybuys.

Anyway...after expenditure of nearly $9 k - that's right $9,000 AU over 3 months, and an additional 1000 bonus points plus 324 Woolworth's bonus points, I was rewarded  with a $70 gift card which expires on 14 October this year....wow....mad money indeed.  Can you hear the dry tone in my writing ?

What they are paying me for of course is a whole lot of vaulabe consumer spending patterns data. $70 for 3 months of my data. No wonder the reputable market research companies warn you doing their surveys won't make you rich.

Still as I am a reformed shopaholic and a Simple Saver, that will cover at least half a week's groceries. Some of my forum mates could make it stretch to a week's worth.

Warning there seems to be something fishy about this!

Several of us discussing making money on line in the Simple Savings forum have notices that there are many survey directory/paid email style clubs popping up offering a $25 sign up bonus. These include Grocery Clicks, Cash emails Club, Paidsurvey bank and others. What several of us have found is that if you sign up for one and recieve the bonus, when you sign up for another you do NOT seem to get the bonus. For example I signed up for Paid Survey bank, got my bonus and began earning points. This company sent me and email for Cash emails club, also offering a bonus. So I signed up there too. Suddenly my clicks for Paid survey Bank were not being listed in my earnings. On Cash emails club I was earning my clicks for emails, but my bonus was listed as Approved $0. When I added the relevant email addresses to my address book, I noticed that they all are linked to Megan at Fat Cat Rewards. I ahve repeatedlt emailed her about the problems with both clubs yet received no reply as of yet. The same thing has happened for some other members of Simple Savings. So beware- they may be wasting your time. I'd love to hear in your comments about any related experiences.

Read the fine print! (Don't spend more than you make online).

Hi my faithful followers and occasional blog browsers!

I am still searching for oppportunities to earn some cash online with a cup of tea in hand.
To this end I have been checking out Snap Dollars which is similar to online directory sites. The good news is it is legitimate in that they do not charge you and fee and do pay out at a reasonable level -$30.
I was looking at one of their offers- they pay $5 if you sign up for Vista Print's 250 free business cards deal. Sounds good...until I checked Vista Print's postage on this freebie- the lowest is $11.99! So if I actually WANTED business cards this would a good deal- cards and postage for $6.99 when the Snap Dollars payment is taken into account. I do not however want this product. So to gain $5 from Snap Dollars I'd be spending almost $7.

There are other good deals on this site- if you are interested in joining survey sites like Lightspeed research then Snap Dollars will give you a small incentive payment. If you like online gambling they will pay you $50 each for signing up with a new account to 3 different Bingo web clubs. You do need to deposit $20 for each one though and payment is via credit card. I have avoided these as I worry about my credit card security and the risk of getting addicted to gambling. If you are over 18 and are looking for online gambling you may as well get a $50 incentive for it though.

There seem to be quite a few cash bonus for signing up companies around at the moment. Snap Dollars offers a $5 sign up bonus, and pays 1c per email viewed. Another I have been considering is Cash Emails which is offering a $25 sign up bonus. Shall let you all know how I go.

My personal financial goal is $400 for this month in mad money and so far I am up to about $70 in earnings on surveys, Rewards Central and Paid Survey Bank. Hey, only $330 to go!

Selling my own used goods on ebay

ebay is an addiction for both shoppers and sellers. The problem for me lies in being both!

Buy and Resell

I have bought Tupperware at much reduced prices and then resold the items I did not want to keep. I don't think I made a profit this way but it helped pay for my Tupperware addiction. If you are a Tupperware dealer, do not do this as I believe it is against their contract rules.

Kaycee  I found to be an excellent and reputable dealer, from whom I bought many items. She also taught methe ways of the Mystery box. Hers I always found were excellent value. Have a look at her listings if you are interested in selling Tupperware. It is a real education. She uses language, colour and honest description very well to promote oehr goods.

A bad experience
Another person ripped me and others off big time. I knew it was a list of goods too good to be true, but profit and Tupperware lust got to me. $600 down the drain for a bulk buy of desirable resellable items which never arrived. I was able to get a partial refund at the time having paid via Paypal but ended up $200 out of pocket.

Tip: Before buying check to see if there are any methods of payment which include protection against fraud. Make sure you know what EXACTLY you are bidding on and how it will be delivered etc. Pay the extra for Postal insurance (registered post).

Overall

Think carefully about what you are selling and why.

Questions to ask yourself:
Would you buy it ?
At what price?
Would I buy it on ebay?

For example an online aquaintance was selling second hand brand name runners online, offered them at a low starting bid, and received bids of around $10 plus of coruse postage. She was disappointed having seen other similar items go for more. But ask yourself- would you buy 2nd hand shoes at all, if so at what price and why on ebay when you can see the goods at an Op shop at a low price? So she was advised to accept the price and be happy. I found this was good advice when selling on ebay. Take the offer and chalk it up to experience. Sometimes bids went wild and I was happy while at other times no bids at all or someone got a real bargain at 99c from me!

For items which you know are valuable

Is this the right market place?
Can I offer evidence that it is valuable? Eg photos of the backstamp on porcelain pieces, documents showing provenance for antiques
Can I offer it at a price which makes it a bargain relative to auction houses, antiques stores and fairs?
Am I sure I know its true market value?

For items you just want gone and will be happy to get rid of at any price

Is it worth my valuable time listing this on ebay and my sellers fees or should I just give it to chairty or freecycle?
(This is what I do with clothes as I have never had any luck selling them on line)
Is it likely to sell and hence be worth my time?
Is it going to be a pain to post and or deliver?

I have often found I was better off giving certain items away and saving my time for more profitable activities (like overtime, writing letters to Take 5 or just enjoying life). With freecycle the more you offer the more likely others are to help you out when you post a wanted.

More positive detail on PaidSurveys.com

It turns out this website is more than a directory. They also offer surveys and daily emails to earn cash. they pay out to a Paypal account on the 10th of the month as long as your balance reaches $50. Having started with a $25 start up bonus and having earned 50c I am well on the way!
In the FAQ section they emphasised that they are free and not to be confused with a site which charges called paidsurveys.com

The GOOD ONE: http://www.paidsurveys.com/ Their logo uses capital P and S and is red and blue.
Happy earning.

REMEMBER YOU NEVER HAVE TO PAY TO CONTACT MARKET RESEARCH COMPANIES.
They want YOUR opinions!

LATEST NEWS ON A FEW SURVEY SITES

Hello my faithful followers and any new visitors,

Just a quick post tonight to fill you in on my paid survey exploits and news. Your Voice Neilson has made some significant changes. A while ago I had 125 points which was worth one movie voucher- should have cashed it in then! Why? Because now for a reward the minimum is 200 points! That is the bad news. The good news is it will get you a $20 shopping voucher at Myers or similar. The other sad news is you can no longer view surveys from the website.

I have been a bit too busy with LIFE -catching up with the kid's school activities and reports- to do much regards mad money earning and so missed out on 50 Nielson points as they had enough people like me for their latest survey. Besides, I don't drink alchohol. Why not lie and pretend I do you might ask. Because besides being unethical, in the end I think that these companies can collate all your data and work out you are having them on. Soon the surveys would dry up I suspect!

Other news- http://www.paidsurveys.com/ was offering $25 into your account if you signed up with them. This was a promo through Rewards Central emails  I believe. I decided to give it a go, and they seem to be a legitimate link to other offers company. When you join they offer you chances to directly join other companies, including surveys, on line gambling sites, competition sites and the like. If you want to get into market research surveys quickly and sign up for many companies ot get started, this could be a good way to begin. They have a tab at the top of the webpage linked to a listing, by country, of offers available.

I am off to update my Nielson home scanning now- we are not far from our first reward. With electricity having gone up in cost from today we could use one.

How to maximise your points (earnings) on Rewards Central

Points maximising tips

A friend on Simple Savings was asking about how to maximise points on rewards Central so I thought I 'd answer here, allowing others to share my tips. If you have limited time and energy for doing online surveys it is a good idea to stick with one or two companies you like and do all of their activities, checking daily when possible. I have honestly found Rewards Central and My Opinions to be the most fun useful and profitable sites for me.

• Rewardscentral is linked to My Opinions and you can have the MO points transferred to RC every time they reach 100. You need to choose this option on My Opinions- look for the Transferring points tab. I find there are more surveys on MO for me that RC.

• I check in every morning to both RC and MO, and do daily survey, guessing game and any other activities offered such as longer surveys, offers etc. On rewards Central there is daily survey, web clicks and a guessing game. On My Opinions once a week there is a guessing game on MO and so far I have only hit 0 points once or twice. Twice I have won 20, usually 5 or 10 points, occassionally 20 or 50. Still aiming for the biggie- 500 LOL.

• RC offers  many emails to click on. Someitmes there will be several in a day, then none for awhile. You can  often see them on the site faster than on email . Some emails, like the What Do you think program, offer a points reward for signing up for a newsletter or purchasing porducts.

• When I have 100 or more points I ebank them.  I decided to become a gold member which cost I think $60 a year, which entitles me to the Goldbank with higher points interest. I  recently seriously considered rebanking all my points (worth $100) to earn even more. It t akes 3300 points ot earn $30 cash or 10100 to earn $100. The fee as a percentage is lower for $100 that $30 so unlike the past I am now aiming for $100 increments. If I have a small number of points I usually bank them for 1 month so that if I have earned significantly more in the following weeks, upon maturity I can combine them into a bigger deposit and do it all again.

How long did it take to be rewarded?

• Basically 5 points a day on the quick survey plus web clicks = 1825 per year, so  to end up with $100 I must have clicked on a lot of emails and done a few good surveys.
• Web clicks sometimes have Bonus clicks listed below the list of categories you can click on them. Check every time you log on.

Shopping online

• I also shop through RC and receive points that way. I tend to shop when they have a bonus points promotion- Mothers Day, Easter, Valentines Day, and Christmas. Often double or triple points are offered for featured stores. I basically always look to see if a company I am going to use anyway is linked to them. So I if I am going to send the MIL (mother in law) flowers I do it through their interflora link. Perfume? efragrance. Cheap movie tickets- Always on Sale.

•  I did get some good shopping points recently- Todae (eco product company that sells eco cockroach baits), Always on Sale (gold pass movie tickets for a friend's wedding gift) and efragrance (because I am a perfume addict and they had an excellent free gift with offer AND had discounted my sister in lawss fave perfume).

• I don't shop weekly with them as I could end up shopping for points which misses the point and doesn't save! I tend to check out promotions which might be useful when looking for gifts. However they do offer prizes for the person with the most points earned through shopping every so often.

Hope all that helps!

Buying at auctions & op shops then reselling at the markets

TIPS

 

• Many people visit the markets as an EXPERIENCE so what can you do to add pleasure to that social outing?
• Everyone shopping at a market wants a bargain. So.....Consider having $1 and 50c boxes of small items. Everyone loves a bargain and kids love to search through them. These boxes can include odd quality crockery like Royal Doulton saucers, small toys from Kinder surprise, pretty single glasses, craft scraps and the like If you are selling off stuff you no longer want, be prepared to haggle. Better to receive a small amount of money and not have to take it home and store it. 
 

• If you know the item is valuable or can't part with it UNLESS you reach a certain price, then do the research. A market may not be the best way to sell it. Consider specialty auctions, online auctions, the Trading Post or advertising in an appropriate collectors journal.

 

• Keep an eye out for good ideas you could replicate or create a new version of. Most craft products are not under copyright or patent, but check before investing in materials and equipment.

 

• Consider whether you would buy this item at this price. For instance, I saw old cds painted with glass paints to be coasters sold at $20 a set. Problem: Not everyone uses coasters, the designs were easy to produce at home oneself, and glass paints tend to come off the sruface went heated- for example when washing or spilling coffee on them! 

• Offer a variety of items, including some small change sellers. Sometimes those $5 or less items pay for your stall costs AND make a profit.

• Persist and try to have your stall in the same area each week. Regular market goers may be short of cash one week, but think about an item during the week and come back.

• Be friendly but not pushy.

 

 Our 2 year adventure in selling used goods at Glebe markets on a Saturday started with the generous donation of 4 huge bags of stuff from my Mum, bless her. It included a great number of decorative unicorns, some musical, some soft toy type, some gift box or picture stlye. In addition there were books, clothes, jewelry, crockery, some Wedgewood blue and white ware. A veritable treasure stripey shopping bags chest worth. When we began Glebe markets were very popular and we could only get in on the less fashionable Saturday. We did well in our first foray, as dealers and market regulars always like to check out a new stall, especially one that is clearly the result of a clear out of goodies. We still had plenty left, and this was the start of our Saturday work for 2 years or so. As Mum's stuff sold fairly fast, we added more out our own declutterings. I was very chuffed to sell a framed photo I had shot of the University of Sydney Quadrangle, left over from an exhibition I had held in a local cafe.

 

Gradually we didn't have too much stock and started to look around for more. I was into glass painting at the time, and started selling my creations. I had a couple of designs on wine and champagne glasses which were popular. The glasses were cheap from Vinnies, but the paint is fairly costly if you want a good range of colours, so we expanded into candle bowls. Basically those 70s prawn cocktail dishes, painted with bright designs and a tea light candle inside. These did really well as $5 a pop gifts. One Christmas we made $1000 and much of it came from our candle bowls. We actually sold out within 2 hours and could have sold many more had I been able to make them in time.

 

Another 'hit' item was handpainted lightglobes. We found simple polychrome designs sold well. Looking out for ways to increase sales we offered both bayonet base (most commonly used in Australia ) and Edison screw base. Commissions were accepted for unsual size or shape bulbs. A customer told us they were sensitive to the chemicals which could evaporate whent he light globe was in sue, so we offered one on a free trial basis, and then went in search of low chemical paint. My husband found a manufacturer of the plastic like paint guarranteed not to have the offending chemicals. This had the added advantage of us being able to buy paint in bulk, and to genuinely advertise our products and low allergy.

 

We used to haunt the Newtown St Vinnies, and both being into early 20 century porcelain, did snap up a few bargains, like the Carltonware tea pot for $10 which we sold for $50- a bargain both for us and the buyer. we made friends with Lesley and Andrew, two specialists in old items, and old hands at the markets game. I bought quite a few very useful photographic tools from Andrew and Lesley was always good for a chat and full of excellent advice. They encouraged us to go to the local Auction houses.

 

 

We found on certain days there were auctions of all manner of stuff. Porcelain was one of our interests, which often meant spending money to addto our collection rather than making money! But we also found interesting mixed lots with items we could resell such as interesting books, figurines, one off items of porcelain like interesting dinner plates, a apile of theatre magazines from the 1950s. One of the problems with these lots was security. As each lot (a group of items being sold in one go as one item) was laid out on long trestle tables, some delaers would surreptiously take an item from one lot and move it into the lot they were bidding on. You would win the bid on a lot only to find when it came time to collect, that the item you wanted the lot for had been stolen! The other danger is "bidding fever"- it feels like a competition so as opthers outbid you, you become determined to "win", forgetting that you are committing to pay the final bid. This may end up being far more than you have budgetted for.

 

Some items do not seem to sell well- clothes interestingly do not tend to fetch a high price, unless they are new, unique designs or speical antique items. All the old hands at Glebe Markets found business reduced for everyone when the market became flooded with second hand clothes for sale.

 

Food sells well, but make sure you have the relevant permissions and licences, not to mention insurance.

 

Overall evaluation- what did we get out of this?

 

We found that we put many more hours of labour in than we aearned back in cash. However it did give us a cash flow at a time when other work was scarce. It was also very empowering- it felt great to make things for sale, knowing I was generating my own income rather than depending on government handouts. We made great friends there and learnt a lot from other stall holders who were generous with help and ideas. At auctions we found some great bargains which added to our Noritake Porcelain collection, and others like the Austrian enamel coffee cups, from which me made a significant profit. Business skills and the motivation to study basic bookkeeping for my dear husband were other side benefits.

 

Definitely worth doing. Decide if it is a one of garage style sale or an on going project. This will affect your choice of market and strategies for selling.

Increase your chances to earn from surveys

I was cleaning up my email tonight and realised, having been living my life rather than breathlessly awaiting a new survey, that I had missed a heap of points earning opportunities with Opinions paid and Lightspeed research. So I hit the From sort on the email and began opening all my survey invitations. What I noticed was that Opinions paid is pretty generous with the points if you are screened out. Quite often 50 is the minimum you will earn for at least attempting the survey. So even though due to my lack of vigilance meaning the surveys were closed or just being screened out, I missed out on about $20 worth of points (arrgh) I still  gained something for my time. Lightspeed had sent me many reminders I had somehow missed, but hey I got a few points there too.

The Mad Money moral is- respond to surveys fast before they fill the quota for your type of person and check in regularly. I find I am offered more surveys if I visit the site often. Even if the due date is over click on the email link anyway as you may get lucky and score some points just for trying.


Lightspeed research also has quick polls and Matches worth doing. You do not earn points but it helps them to select surveys to suit your profile. Just log in to the members page. What Do You Think recently ran a promo offering 70 of their points for joining Opinions paid- kind of crossbreeding surveys. If you log on often to WDYT you can often catch banners worth 10 points each when you click on them. They send me plenty of emails for which I earn points by clicking and a fair few mini polls worth 10 points. Occasionally there are sign up deals worth more, or longer surveys.

My Secret Life as an Easter bunny

Photographs are by Andrew Gould who is a very good photographer by the way.

I am just too shy to include any with my face in them.

They were taken in my first year as the Avatar of Christmas, when I mysteriously turned into a living human tree...

Many years ago when I was young, less skilled but willing to turn my hand to anything, a friend was making $25 an hour spruiking. Doing what? you ask. Basically standing outside a shop in the city, microphone in hand, talking the talk about the products on offer at a shop, the type of which we would now call a $2 shop. Selling cosmetics, pseudo designer perfumes, handbags, costume jewelry and the like. As an amateur actress, I was intrigued. As a financially challenged student I was very interested. I joined the agency ( had an interview) and was sent on several jobs. One was being a piece of fruit at a promotion being held at a race course, handing out reciepes. One spectacularly hot day in the Easter period, I was a huge pink bunny promenading in Cronulla, giving out little Easter eggs. This was really fun, interacting with young kids, taking photos with tourists, and enjoying the local shoppers enjoyment...until I was bunny mugged. I am not joking - some nasty young persons ran into me bodily and grabbed handfuls of eggs. They could have just asked! I say 'persons' as with a huge pink head on and rivulets of sweat in my eyes establishing gender was not an option. Those costume heads are hot and heavy.

I had two or three jobs in total I think. I suspect I was a pretty average performer and there is plenty of competition for anything remotely like an acting job.

I was also interviewed for Gorilla grams but had to miss out on that one as I did not have a car. Pity... I think I would have enjoyed that.

If you like this kind of work there seem to be opportunities at theme parks like Wet and Wild, Movie World and the like. Possibly Luna Park too. Fairies, Clowns and Magicians seem to abound in the pages of Sydney's Child magazine offering to make your child's birthday party a hit.

Please post your comments especially if you have had similar jobs...belly dance a gram, costume work, or handing out flyers.

My costume work is now limited to the annual Christmas Season, when I dress up as the Spirit of Christmas for the pleasure of students and staff, sometimes collecting money for charities like TEAR Australia.

Shopping to make money Homescan and CC points

Just scanned in the groceries which made me realise at Woolies they forgot to give us a receipt. Most annoying because I like to check what I have spent, make sure there were no overrpicings especially as I am a great fan of specials and twofers- as in 2 for the price of 1 or a discount for bulk buys. It meant I had to estimate some of the prices so I hope I don't end up getting nothing for my efforts due to errors.



My Dear Daughter and Son are still enjoying the numbers practice when entering data but I am sure this will soon be another boring job for Mummy.



This is definitely a time consuming activity- firstly you have to select primary shooper and any who came with you, then the shop, then scan each item, then enter number bought, then price, then if on promotion. If it is fresh food there is a second bar code from the shopper guide. At the end you have to enter the total.



I do not think this is worth my while or yours, unless you are a) desperate for some shopping vouchers and b) you do not have any other odd job money earning opportunities c) you do one big shop a month so this is a once amonth job.

I am having trouble navigating my own blog and just lost a load of text. The gist is that I am up to $40 approximately worth of Shopping voucher points on my Woolworths Everyday Money card. I have managed to pay the balance in full every month so this is actually a bonus rather than an expensive exercise. The interest rate is very high- hence my desire to pay in full each month.
My tip is that most Rewards type cards have very high interest rates, so do read the fine print before applying. This one had a promotion including a "free" $50 voucher for signing up within a certain time and one year fee free. After that I'll need to earn around $50 in vouchers per year to break even. Vouchers are sent out quarterly, but points do not expire. I have various expenses which I am happy to go on a CC as I then have a record of them, and compnaies are usually pretty good about sorting out any suspicious charges as long as you catch them soon enough. So far so good.

Must admit though it is still easy to overspend with a credit card, so I am in two minds about the value of more shopping vouchers.

I recently paid for part of the shopping ($20 worth) with a Wish gift card from Valued Opinions research. I sometimes wonder if it doesn't just encourage me to spend more though.

An excellent site for avoiding rip off work from home deals

I was browsing the net and just came across this site full of excellent advice for avoiding rip and scam deals on making money from home and other fraudsters favorite lurks.

http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/general.htm

It is an American site but the advice I think is sound regardless. I shall add any similarly useful links to the post- so read again in a few days. Could save you time and money.

Odd jobs at uni

Universities are wonderful places to grow up, discover who you are and where you want to go in life, and while you are at it, earn a living doing many weird and wonderful things. There are a surprising number of seasonal and on going casual jobs available to students and most unis have their own student job centre. Waiting tables at Uni function centres is common, lugging for bands, cleaning, dishwashing, bar work. Think about the skills you have and go have a look at the job boards. Join clubs and societies you are itnerested and learn saleable skills that way too. The better known you are to university staff the more chance of work coming your way.



My odd jobs included:



Manning a polling booth for Union elections About $15 an hour 20 odd years ago

Putting up theatre posters $50 for a couple of hours wrok

Submitting articles and photos for the student magazines- I used to earn $5-10 a submission

Photographing drama club productions-varying amounts. More fun and experience than anything else.

Free gifts with purchase

I first got addicted to Free gifts with purchase, I think, when I started browsing http://www.efragrance.com/ via http://www.rewardscentral.com.au/ They offer excellent designer perfumes at reasonable prices, with excellent discounts in the sales section. I love good perfume- Opium and Rive Gauche by Yves St Laurent, Tea Rose by the Perfumer's Workshop are my 3 absolute loves, but a good rose perfume of ant description will soon turn my nostrils (as opposed to my head). I could walk out the door nude but so shoes and perfume and not feel naked. Adding the option to earn points at Rewards central and I admit I am hooked, but what has always pushed me over the shopping edge is their free gifts with purchase. When DVDS were still pricey they would often offer the latest release as a gift for spending $50 or more. They also always give you at least one or two little samples of the latest perfumes, and some more scent card samples. I would justify the purchases to myself thinking I'd watch the DVD once and then on sell it. Other Free gifts have included branded tote bags and clutch purses full of extra samples, tennis balls, cocktail shakers, small versions of good quality perfumes, jewelry, lotions etc.

Well you know what? Never did on sell a DVD but I have kept some and given away others. I did actually sell a couple of unopened perfume samples on ebay for about $2 though. Some of the free gifts with purchase like perfumes and bags I have given as gifts.

The stupidity factor : Thinking I can make money by spending it on luxury consumer goods. I have ebayed some of my regretted purchases during "oh my god the bills are coming!" times, and generally made a loss.

The pleasure/value factor:
What Rewards central is offering is effectively a discount- and sometimes a quite good one. efragrance is, in my opinion, a good site which sells genuine designer perfumes at reduced prices, has good sales, and does constantly offer discounts, promotional gifts and samples. They also deliver very fast in my experience. So now I use them regularly for the Xmas and other gift shopping, waiting till the Sister in laws favorite is on sale, taking advantage of an % percent off sale or a free dvd promotion when I am planning to purchase anyway. And I always go via Rewards central to get that little extra discount.


Another good site for freebies is http://www.onlyozgroceries.com.au/ They specialise in Australian manufactured groceries and deliver via Australia post. Recnetly they got through my shopper defences by offering a freebie apron pack for Carman's excellent muesli bars and museli ( buy four products get an apron, magnetic shopping note pad, Aldi type shopping trolley token, plastic bag clip, shopping bag and pencil) as well as a 7.5 litre saucepan for pasta if I bought 10 San remo products.

Sounds reasonable doesn't it, as these are prodcuts we would use anyway?

Foolishness factor
But.... we do not actually need all of the stuff all at once. We can get these items at a local supermarket and not pay delivery...there may be items I need more urgently.

Pleasure/Value factor
I get to try new products for free. I wouldn't normally buy energy drinks, and now I have tasted Wicked, I still won't as the taste is not for me. Great bottle design though.
I like being able to easily buy All Australian Products. Oz Only Groceries has a coding system so you can see exactly to what extent the product is made here.
They use recycleable packaging. They seem to be a decent bunch of people trying to run an ethical business. I'd rather pay a bit more at times to them than always be feeding the two major mega company supermarket chains.
Convenience- I don't want to spend all weekend in the shopping mall.

And I do love receiving boxes through the post. Childish but true!

Watch out though- my first ever free gift with purchase 20 odd years ago was a digital watch with film processing. When I picked it up I discovered the processing cost was much inflated to cover the cost of the gift!

Nielson Homescan

I kept on receiving offers via several different survey companies to join Nielson Homescan program. Some of these offers included incentive points if I joined- Like X number of points WDYT if i signed up. But whenever I tried to fill in the lenghthy application (I mean names, date of birth, height weight you name it of all family members plus shopping habits) the program would go Phutt at some point. So I gave up. Eventually they msut have got the gremlins out and fool that I am, applied. This was followed sometime alter by an email saying someone would be in touch. They were, by mobile, while I was juggling a ciggie, my work bag and trying to help dear hubby get the kids into the car while they were trying to share their school day. Anyway long conversation with many requests for repetition later, I was "Signed on" so to speak with a commitment of 6 months, and the probability that it would take that long to earn a reward- like a $20 Myer voucher or similar. About 2 weeks later my scanner package arrived. I ignored it for a while with other things to do but eventually set it up.

Of course the kids love it because it has a yellow button and a red light for scanning. Scanning requires a fair bit of input- primary shopper, additional persons on the shop, which shop, scanning , number of items and price. That isn't too bad, but what irks me is trying to add the total, as I do not always have a receipt handy. I won 100 points for using it within the first two weeks of arrival, and with 2 birthdays in June,(50 points each) 50 points per month for all shopping being scanned, we may actually earn a voucher within 3 months. There are various competitions but frankly I prefer better incentives. 110 points gets you a Nielson branded manicure set- well no thanks I can pay $5 for one at the $2 shop. i'll stick with it as it is early days yet.

The Good: Reliable company, bonus points, kids are enjoying scanning and this can be used to increase their numeracy. They are not asking you to buy anything and provide all equipment.
The Bad: A bit finnicky, time intensive and not really high incentives relative to effort.

Overall: If you have plenty of time on your hands & enjoy gadgets then I'd go for it.

Update: Still hanging in there and had fun with my daughter scanning the other evening. I am now up to 1/3 of a $20 voucher.

How to spot the good ones- Online Market Research companies

On line Market research- filling in surveys or testing products- won't make you rich fast. So why do it?



Because...

• It's fun. I teach research report writing and part of this is how to compose a good questionnaire. Having read literally hundreds of them and thought about how they select and reject candidates via the initial questions has enhanced my teaching. Sometimes the poorly constructed surveys crack me up.
• The legitimate companies do reward you for your time. Over a period of several years Iegitimate I have "earned" around $1000 in shopping vouchers, cash and movie tickets or other "prizes" I have found useful.
• Influence product development and advertising. If you are sick of pointless products on the shelves, or condescending ads, this is one way to let companies know

How can I tell a compnay is worth my time and effort?

Firstly good companies like Lightspeed research make it quite clear there is no point joining if you are looking to get rich quick. They want people who really do like honestly sharing their opinions. They are upfront in their emails about the predicted time and the compensation offered. They offer at least some points and a competition entry to win a fair stash of cash or another valuable prize if you are screened out. Valued Opinions is particularly good at screening you fairly quickly so you don't waste too much time if you aren't suitable. They also offer quick polls or other mini questionaires to see if they can match you to any more suitable surveys.

Secondly they will NEVER ask you to buy something or sign up for so many gold, silver and bronze offers. They do not ask for banking or Credit card details nor do they on sell your private contact details.

Thirdly they will often offer multiple opportunities to earn points like Rewardscentral
Here you can play games, read emails, do mini surveys, longer surveys, bid on unique lowest bid auctions, write articles for their e-magazine and so quite quickly earn points. I stay with them because they are fun. They also give points for e shopping via their site, which equates to a 2- 5% discount most times. Points bonuses for referring friends as well. They offer cash, vouchers and other rewards.

Finally they usually offer some decent "prizes" or cash out option for a reasonable level of points. For example AC Neilson offers movie vouchers from 125 points, which is achievable sometime in one or two surveys. 2000-2500 points is a typical level for a $20 gift voucher. Lightspeedresearch offers paypal payments of $5 from 575 points which equates to 2 -3 surveys.

My personal favorites and what I have earned:

Opinions paid. probably $60 in shopping vouchers over several years.

Rewards Central and My Opinions (linked- same company two different sites) about $300 cash /cheques over many years (more than 5 I think)

Lightspeed research -about $80 over 2 years. Cash paid via Paypal.

Valued Opinions- about $60 in shopping vouchers over 18 months

AC Nielsen- a 2 packets of pencils, movie tickets, shopping vouchers, some other items over many, many years (around 10?)



Legitimate companies but not my personal "faves"

Global test market

Ciao- perfectly legitimate but I seem to keep being screened out after actually giving a lot of time and useful info about products. Not reasonable in my book.

Market view- Haven't done any in a while. No complaints.
Zoom- used to be pretty good but I ended up signed on to so many sites I stopped reading all my surveys,


Ones I find a bit suss because they require purchases and or do not pay out till quite high amounts are earned.

Fatcat- mostly the "surveys' are for products I have no wish to buy. Eg teeth whitening systems, screens to attach to tvs, etc

Ashopfor- I have earned around $30 but can't claim it till it reaches $50. I did shop via them recently but mysteriously my points never arrived... rather disappointed.

Those receive a $500 shopping voucher if you sign up for 3 gold offers, 2 silver, 1 bronze or some such arrangement. The only good thing about this was I took up a children's book deal with Scholastic (Dora the Explorer) and was vert happy with the free books and the products in general. Most of the other products were for services I didn't want, like weight loss, gambling sites, text message services that cost an arm and a leg etc and I found I couldn't fulfill the conditions for the voucher. I'd love to know if anyone ever did.

MENTAL HEALTH WARNING
One night I realised 3 times I had growled at my young son to let me finish some lengthy group of surveys, believing I was earning needed cash. This was when he was coming in and asking me to come and play. I finally realised I was losing the plot and missing the point- wasting time doing surveys instead of interacting with him. I still reget that night but I am glad I got a life and now spend more time with him and only do surveys when he is in bed or during school hours. It ain't never going to make me rich, but I admit there were times when the extra $20 shopping voucher came in very handy.

Legitimate work which pays poorly

Summary: a review of several legitimate but perhaps not worth your time and effort jobs I have tried or heard of.

1. Collecting for charity in exchange for a % of what you collect
2. Distributing catalogues in mail boxes
3. Door to Door surveys- eg Morgan Gallup poll
4. Selling roses in restaurants
5. Cold call sales from a call centre.

Many, many years ago pre-children, I answered an ad in the papers for collecting door to door for the house with No Steps, a legitimate Aussie charity for thsoe who are dependent on wheel chairs. As I was a student at the time with not much work experience this was the kind of job I could easily actually get. Basically it was all day Saturday, walking the streets I had been allocated, knocking on doors and asking for donations, in exchange for 30% of what I collected. From 3 Saturdays the most I earned was $10 and the least was very little. I gave it a miss then.

Many people thought we were scammign despite ID as there had been a spate of such scams of late. When I am fairly aggressively asked in the street to donate by Credit Card to legitimate charities I wonder if those collectors are paid a commission.

I would rather do this for free for the Salvos, for example on their door knock day, than for payment. The exercise was good though.

Now distributing catalogues I must say I have considered but not done. My lovely friends at Simple savings on the forum have done it and it sounds like a great deal of work for the return. I believe the walking is good, and can be done with kids quite often as long as there aren't too many hills. It is the preparation of slotting the catalogues inside one another which is very time consuming. Delivering the local paper I suspect would be a little easier on the neck and back.

Still in my uni days, I did apply to do Morgan Gallup polling. I liked the idea as you are collecting data not selling things. Until I saw the HUGE manual and the complex instructions...I must say I was broke at the time but decided against it. As a young woman too I was a bit wary of going door to door mainly in the evenings.

I attended an interview for selling roses in restaurants once. Thought it could be a lark. Well I kid you not, a rose sold for $10 paid the seller $1...not a job for the thin skinned or faint hearted, especially as customers are often annyed at having a meal interrupted by unsolicited offers. I was much kinder to rose sellers after that!

Once again interviewed for a pleasant enough company but when I read the application and saw the room full of laminate temporary tables and phones, with young people passionately selling Australiana soft toys I decided that it was not for me. Especially as the badly photocopied application asked about my Hobbies and Sporting interests. Yes, I know they need to know you are outgoing,resilient and well spoken but come on! My personal interests are my own...was I really going to admit to being Vampire story reading fantatic with a penchant for Agatha Christie novels, and a passion for arguing? Not very sporty of me. I think most of the wage if not all was on a commission basis. I like to be paid for my time not used.

All these experiences motivated me to keep on studying and to reflect on what skills I did have and use them, so really I am grateful to all those I met. Job interview experience of any type is also very valuable as it familiarises you with typical questions and develops your confidence.

Stupid Strategy - entering data for illicit purposes

Summary: poorly paid and of dubious legality.



You may have seen ads on line for "data entry" jobs which say they'll pay you well. No experience needed etc. Some of these are actually asking you to participate in a process designed to hack into other websites. The idea is that you, a human being, can read the deliberately distorted picture codes used to keep online shoppers data secure. Imagine you are trying to set up a blog here. You get to a certain point, and you are asked to type in a code which is represented as a picture- it may be the words chocolate frog but they are twisted, and clearly a graphic rather than normal typing. This is done because a computer unlike a human being, cannot "read" this picture as text. Those who wish to get into secure or confidential areas of sites without permission want human beings to interpret these codes and send the data back to them. Then they can use a comptuer program to raid information from many of these sites very, very quickly.



There are websites dedicated to selling this data to others- I found this out when following the suggestion of a friend about doing the data entry for payment. She had thought it was a low paid but legitimate job, because that is how it is worded. They offer something like $2 per 50-100 "translated" which is a very low rate indeed, especially for helping someone else to behave nefariously. I signed up for one of these websites only to find they were offering to sell me translated codes. After talking to the highly computer literate beloved pet husband, I soon realised this was NOT something I wanted to be part of. He did point out that for sight impaired users of the 'Net, there are always voice recording versions attached to the legitimate websites secure areas, so these users can enter the code and go about their business. In other words, they hear and then type the code word. So there really is no legitimate reason I can see for doing this kind of "data entry".

What's this blog all about ?

• Welcome gentle reader, to my first ever blog.
  
  I have been enjoying being part of the Simple Savings community for a few years now, discussing all manner of ways to save money, make money, stretch a dollar, make a meal out of a bare cupboard and generally enjoy the fruits of frugality modern style. While chatting on the forum about my search for odd ways to make some extra cash in addition to the day job without leaving home, my online mates suggested I blog about this process rather than just add to our thread as part of the members only section of Simple Savings.
  
  What do I define as "Strange ways to earn cash?" Well not the truly bizarre just yet, though i'd love to hear any weird,wacky and wonderful work you may have done. Rather, I have always been fascinated by the making money from home opportunities which are so often advertised in community newspapers, online and in magazines. Most, I have always assumed, are too good to be true. If it were really easy to make 2000 a week with no education and a few hours a day, why would anyone share this secret? But still, curiosity, the longing to clear debt, the inner shopholic who just wants to be able to spend when she feels like it, drives me to investigate these extreme claims, to seek, ever hopefully, the leprachaun's gold at the end of the rainbow, the million to one shot that might make me some cash without tooo much effort. This blog is going to describe honestly what I have found out, through my own experience, about the various offers and opportunities to earn cash online via market research companies, competitions, data entry of the illicit kind and any other experiences I have had with odd jobs both on and off line. All the opinions will be just that: my personal experiences and views of various organisations. All earnings figures I may mention will be literally what I have earned OR not earned, and I will try to estimate how long it took accurately.
  
  Why did I get interested in earning an extra pittance when I already work full time ?
  
  I was on maternity leave with my first child, at half pay, and very anxious about money. Partly because that's me- like my father, I express affection in part through money and providing materially for my family. Love is power, money is power, so share both with those you love most deeply. I started by reading Simple Savings newsletters, hunting down bargains, or sending off barcodes of Huggies nappies to exchange for freebies such as baby tents or cuddly toys. I began to ebay outgrown baby's clothes and other items- making plenty of mistakes like under estimating postage, undervaluing or overvaluing goods and worst of all- cruising the site and BUYING MORE STUFF.
  
  While I gradually learnt how to bulk buy, only buy on special, to cook from scratch more, we still found being parents was a very expensive process as well as exhausitng when work for both of us was combined with it. Add in buying our first car and moving house after my daughter was born and soon there was debt to be managed. I became proficient at tracking cc debt on excel and finally realised if we continued as we were were would end up bankrupt in a few years. This is when I got serious and started to reiview the stupidity of some of the "make money/ get something for nothing strategies" I had been using.
  
  Stupid Strategy No 1. The Pursuit of Fly Buys bonus points and credit card rewards..
  
  Summary:
  
  Each point is worth about 1/100 of a cent (AU) if you are lucky. They expire eventually. It takes 2500 points to earn a $20 voucher. This equals $5 per 2 points or $6250 in ordinary spending. Less if you happen to buy lots of bonus points probably overpriced goods, true... A discount if you like of 0.00032 %.
  And they take ages to credit the bonus points....
  
  What I have "earned" from them:

• One small BBQ after around 5 years.
  Several petrol discount vouchers- from memory 10c a litre off, at a time when petrol had just risen to $1- took at least a year during my obsessive flash the flybuys card phase
• One or possibly 2 Coles $20 vouchers- several years
• I think a cordless phone which I gave to my mum...unless that was some other promotion

What it cost me:

Many many thousands of $$ in Interest paid on the Credit card as well as orginal expenditure, some of which yes, I would have spent anyway as we used to use Coles as our main grocery shop before I discovered Aldi. Much of this expenditure could have been avoided though- easter eggs we didn't need, branded products I would not normally buy, excess purchases.

When I first signed up for flybuys I was sensible. I was only going to earn points on groceries we would buy anyway. After several years, literally, and due to a Flybuys promotion, we ended up with a small Webber BBQ, which I think we still possess, some 20 years hence. As my fiscal anxiety grew, my longing for the improbable freebie began to delude the mathematical part of my brain and soon points lust took over. I began to regularly read the Bonus points section fothe flybus website and look for ways to modify my shopping to suit. Now I have never been a brand snob- if it is cheap and it works, I am happy. If i discover it is killing seals, poisoning rivers or discouraging breastfeeding, I'll give it up but still seek a cheap alternative.

So what was I thinking when I started bulk buys of Colgate products and Napisan, getting really annoyed when I would realise I had misunderstood a promotion and missed out on bonus points for buying more cleaning products than I would use in a lifetime ? I do not clean! Ask the Dear Husband, whose dishwashing skills redefine sexual pleasure...I am not a woman who sank into his arms and ended up with my arms in the sink...rather a role reversal there I am afraid.

I ended up deeply in debt, at first on a National Bank credit card, which was linked to Flybuys, thusencoruaging me to use it and not cash. Later after the Gold Card fiasco, in which someone charged $6K of gold jewelry to a card which I had never received, I switched to Westpac's Altitudes rewards card. This too led me to overspend, while fantasising about the wonderful free gifts I would "earn". I have paid in interest and annual card fees, many thousands of $ more than these "free gifts" were worth. Near the end of this insanity, I was saving points on the Westpac card to try to earn my son an upmarket looking pedal car, only to find that the redemption offer ended just before I had earned enough points at last. I spent on crap I did not need, while not buying a video camera with which to film my babies, because I thought it was "too expensive"....That was another item I kept dreaming of redeeming my points for...

Feel free to add your stories of points lust and its outcomes. I know some people manage their cards more successfully than I ever did.