These past two months, I have had some fun opportunities to earn some cash and some gift cards for free. What I had to do was simple, although sometimes time consuming. Here’s some of what I did and how you can do it, too.

First, I realized that I desperately needed “office hours”.

In other words, specific time that I would be on the computer that I was not to be disturbed. My office hours were usually after the youngest was down for a nap and the older kids had books to read or other projects that they wanted to work on.   After my office hours were set and kids occupied, I found the sites.

Then I signed up with MyPoints.

That was easy enough. What you need to do is fill out some quick info and you earn points. At around 1250 to 1500 points, you can redeem them for a $10 gift card. You can earn cards to places such as Walmart, Target, CVS, Applebee’s, and Bath & Body Works. It took me about 30 days to earn my first $10 card to CVS, and it arrived around 15 days after I ordered it.  Earning the points was easy. Each day, you can expect around 3-8 emails that you read through. If you click on the website or link, you will get 5 points just for going to the website. If you actually “respond” to the email, or order the items, you can earn up to 35,000 points. I only checked the air travel info, and just clicked on the link the rest of the time. You can also earn points by printing coupons and by referring others. Fairly simple and easy.

Next, I used CashCrate.com.

This was either cash or points as well. What you do is fill out surveys, getting paid a set amount per survey. They range from $.25 to $1.00, and take about 2-3 minutes each to complete. What I would suggest is getting a new free email address from either yahoo. com or gmail.com and using that one in your surveys. You will need to confirm from your email address, and some of them can send you a bunch of “offers” (read:junk mail!) that can clutter up your regular box. I earned about $20 within 2 days of starting this. It took me about 2 hours to complete that many offers, although not all at the same time. You have options of having the regular surveys, the daily cash, and daily point surveys. Each time you earn cash, you also earn points to trade in for gift cards. You need a minimum of 200 points, and after almost 3 weeks, I only have 14.  The cash is easy enough to earn. Easy, but you will need to be able to spend 1/2 hour to an hour on a regular basis in order for this to pay off.

Ebates is a place to earn cash back on each of your purchases.

You get up to 25% Cash Back rewards when you shop online with them. You can also earn up to $5 for a referral who makes the qualifying purchase. If you are looking to just make money, this isn’t the best way to go. But, if you are an online shopper anyway, and you like to save money and don’t mind waiting for the cash back, this is definitely the way to go. I bought something and got the 8% back credited to my account in 3 days. But, since it only pays out every 3 months, be sure that you don’t mind waiting for your cash.

If you like blogging, then try Social Spark or PayPerPost

Both sites give you the opportunity to earn money, just by blogging about things you want to. The posts are simple, and the guidelines are clearly stated. You can choose what you want to write about and payment is usually done within 30 days of approval. If you don’t have a larger readership, the opportunities are a little bit harder to come by, but they are still there. The secret is to be able to check daily and to write your post immediately. Again, “office hours” are a good thing here. I have made about $30 so far, and it was fairly easy. I had to count the words in each posting, but I thought it was worth my time.

These are just some of the ways that I have earned a little cash on the side. I don’t have a million dollars yet, but I have gotten enough rewards and cash so far to make it worth my time. I used the $10 gift card to pay for laundry soap and other necessary items at CVS, and the cash has gone into our savings account.

What ideas do you have for earning money at home? I would love to hear what others have done, and to be able to pass the information on in upcoming articles.

Heather is a stay at home mother with 3 blessings to take everywhere with her. Teaching women to shop and save and get the most for your dollar are a vision that has been a long time in the making. She enjoys sharing her trials and triumphs at the local stores, as well as some good (and some not so good) recipes to help make those dollars stretch. Her column is a must read for the thrifty homeschool mom. Visit her blog at Titus 2 Woman.